Flyby News
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US Gone Mad * Kucinich 2004 * Chem Plant *Big Brother
17 January 2003
1) "The United States of America has gone mad"
2) Draft Kucinich for President 2004
3) "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
4) 'Big Brother' Is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in Report
Editor's Notes:Flyby News begins with item 1 and a clear enough statement: "The United States of America has gone mad." Following the article by John le Carré, are various links adding more to the lunacy; including an updated on Israel changing its policy to include killing opponents in the US and other Allied nations; also, a link on a commentary on Bush threatening Iraq with nukes, on information of Bush signing for a new nuclear space rocket to Mars, and on the UN predicting 500,000 Iraqi casualties. Last May Flyby News began its updated issue on Kucinich for President – We are please to be adding a link to an excellent new Web Site
"DRAFT KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT 2004"
Link to = = = =>
http://www.draftkucinich.com/Also, Item 2 contains an article from Cleveland, Ohio speculating on a Kucinich Presidential run. Kucinich at the helm could certainly turn around the madness to a renaissance of peace and prosperity, and new domestic and foreign policies. Item 3 came via surfing for a transcript on last night's Ted Koppel program, which included an interview with Dennis Kucinich. I couldn't find a transcript, but the article by Thomas Flocco, was a find: "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida," Item 4 does not wander too far from our door, as a new ACLU report suggests. This is another good reason for the people to unite and fight against the military-industrial-academic-criminal complex from controlling the USA. The only declared candidate against the insanity of attacking Iraq, or authorizing President Bush to make the attack, is Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont. For Dean and Kucinich, and the rest of us against this war, we have to find a way to unite with a single voice, and not let the forces succeed in dividing and conquering. We need change for 2004, and sooner. Bush will try to gain control of Iraq with the threat of mass destruction, which breeds destruction and terrorism to continue. Now is the time for new choices, to learn from our mistakes, and reclaim a democracy, to free ourselves from the madness.
"Either we do away with war or war will do away with us." Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Purportedly from the interview 16 January 2004
Nightline with Ted Koppel (ABC News)
1) "The United States of America has gone mad"Times Online / Opinion
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-543296,00.htmlJanuary 15, 2003
"The United States of America has gone mad"
by John le Carré
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press.
The imminent war was planned years before bin Laden struck, but it was he who made it possible. Without bin Laden, the Bush junta would still be trying to explain such tricky matters as how it came to be elected in the first place; Enron; its shameless favouring of the already-too-rich; its reckless disregard for the world's poor, the ecology and a raft of unilaterally abrogated international treaties. They might also have to be telling us why they support Israel in its continuing disregard for UN resolutions.
But bin Laden conveniently swept all that under the carpet. The Bushies are riding high. Now 88 per cent of Americans want the war, we are told. The US defence budget has been raised by another $60 billion to around $360 billion. A splendid new generation of nuclear weapons is in the pipeline, so we can all breathe easy. Quite what war 88 per cent of Americans think they are supporting is a lot less clear. A war for how long, please? At what cost in American lives? At what cost to the American taxpayer's pocket? At what cost — because most of those 88 per cent are thoroughly decent and humane people — in Iraqi lives?
How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election.
Those who are not with Mr Bush are against him. Worse, they are with the enemy. Which is odd, because I'm dead against Bush, but I would love to see Saddam's downfall — just not on Bush's terms and not by his methods. And not under the banner of such outrageous hypocrisy.
The religious cant that will send American troops into battle is perhaps the most sickening aspect of this surreal war-to-be. Bush has an arm-lock on God. And God has very particular political opinions. God appointed America to save the world in any way that suits America. God appointed Israel to be the nexus of America's Middle Eastern policy, and anyone who wants to mess with that idea is a) anti-Semitic, b) anti-American, c) with the enemy, and d) a terrorist.
God also has pretty scary connections. In America, where all men are equal in His sight, if not in one another's, the Bush family numbers one President, one ex-President, one ex-head of the CIA, the Governor of Florida and the ex-Governor of Texas.
Care for a few pointers? George W. Bush, 1978-84: senior executive, Arbusto Energy/Bush Exploration, an oil company; 1986-90: senior executive of the Harken oil company. Dick Cheney, 1995-2000: chief executive of the Halliburton oil company. Condoleezza Rice, 1991-2000: senior executive with the Chevron oil company, which named an oil tanker after her. And so on. But none of these trifling associations affects the integrity of God's work.
In 1993, while ex-President George Bush was visiting the ever-democratic Kingdom of Kuwait to receive thanks for liberating them, somebody tried to kill him. The CIA believes that "somebody" was Saddam. Hence Bush Jr's cry: "That man tried to kill my Daddy." But it's still not personal, this war. It's still necessary. It's still God's work. It's still about bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed Iraqi people.
To be a member of the team you must also believe in Absolute Good and Absolute Evil, and Bush, with a lot of help from his friends, family and God, is there to tell us which is which. What Bush won't tell us is the truth about why we're going to war. What is at stake is not an Axis of Evil — but oil, money and people's lives. Saddam's misfortune is to sit on the second biggest oilfield in the world. Bush wants it, and who helps him get it will receive a piece of the cake. And who doesn't, won't.
If Saddam didn't have the oil, he could torture his citizens to his heart's content. Other leaders do it every day — think Saudi Arabia, think Pakistan, think Turkey, think Syria, think Egypt.
Baghdad represents no clear and present danger to its neighbours, and none to the US or Britain. Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, if he's still got them, will be peanuts by comparison with the stuff Israel or America could hurl at him at five minutes' notice. What is at stake is not an imminent military or terrorist threat, but the economic imperative of US growth. What is at stake is America's need to demonstrate its military power to all of us — to Europe and Russia and China, and poor mad little North Korea, as well as the Middle East; to show who rules America at home, and who is to be ruled by America abroad.
The most charitable interpretation of Tony Blair's part in all this is that he believed that, by riding the tiger, he could steer it. He can't. Instead, he gave it a phoney legitimacy, and a smooth voice. Now I fear, the same tiger has him penned into a corner, and he can't get out.
It is utterly laughable that, at a time when Blair has talked himself against the ropes, neither of Britain's opposition leaders can lay a glove on him. But that's Britain's tragedy, as it is America's: as our Governments spin, lie and lose their credibility, the electorate simply shrugs and looks the other way. Blair's best chance of personal survival must be that, at the eleventh hour, world protest and an improbably emboldened UN will force Bush to put his gun back in his holster unfired. But what happens when the world's greatest cowboy rides back into town without a tyrant's head to wave at the boys?
Blair's worst chance is that, with or without the UN, he will drag us into a war that, if the will to negotiate energetically had ever been there, could have been avoided; a war that has been no more democratically debated in Britain than it has in America or at the UN. By doing so, Blair will have set back our relations with Europe and the Middle East for decades to come. He will have helped to provoke unforeseeable retaliation, great domestic unrest, and regional chaos in the Middle East. Welcome to the party of the ethical foreign policy.
There is a middle way, but it's a tough one: Bush dives in without UN approval and Blair stays on the bank. Goodbye to the special relationship.
I cringe when I hear my Prime Minister lend his head prefect's sophistries to this colonialist adventure. His very real anxieties about terror are shared by all sane men. What he can't explain is how he reconciles a global assault on al-Qaeda with a territorial assault on Iraq. We are in this war, if it takes place, to secure the fig leaf of our special relationship, to grab our share of the oil pot, and because, after all the public hand-holding in Washington and Camp David, Blair has to show up at the altar.
"But will we win, Daddy?"
"Of course, child. It will all be over while you're still in bed."
"Why?"
"Because otherwise Mr Bush's voters will get terribly impatient and may decide not to vote for him."
"But will people be killed, Daddy?"
"Nobody you know, darling. Just foreign people."
"Can I watch it on television?"
"Only if Mr Bush says you can."
"And afterwards, will everything be normal again? Nobody will do anything horrid any more?"
"Hush child, and go to sleep."
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket with a sticker on his car saying: "Peace is also Patriotic". It was gone by the time he'd finished shopping.
The author has also contributed to an openDemocracy debate on Iraq at www.openDemocracy.net
Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.
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For a related article:
As Bush threatens Iraq with nukes,
US ramps up its own biowarfare research
By Kéllia Ramares, Online Journal Contributing Editor, see:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/Ramares010903/ramares010903.html = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
January 17, 2003
NASA Sets Its Sights on Nuclear Space Rocket
The White House has signed off on the project, which could make human travel to Mars feasible and boost Southland industry.
By Peter Pae
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Hoping to pave the way for human exploration of Mars within the next decade, NASA is expected to announce that developing a nuclear-powered rocket is its top research priority.
For more on this article and what to do, contact:
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 90083
Gainesville, FL. 32607
(352) 337-9274
Email: globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another related, and recent update:
"Israel to kill people in US, allied nations, under new policy"
Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the so-called 'war on terror' that will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials have said. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forbidden the practice until now, these sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Israeli statements were confirmed by more than a half dozen US foreign policy and intelligence officials in interviews.
For the complete story in UPI [US], 15 January 2003, see:
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030115-035849-6156r= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
UN predicts 500,000 Iraqi casualties in any war
Wednesday, January 8, 2003. Posted: 11:11:53 (AEDT)
United Nations officials say as many as 500,000 Iraqis could require medical treatment as a result of serious injuries suffered in the early stages of a war on Iraq.
..UN officials have confirmed the authenticity of the document, which assumes that unlike the 1991 Gulf War, a new war in Iraq would develop beyond an initial aerial bombardment into a large scale and protracted ground offensive.
"The resultant devastation would undoubtedly be great," the UN planners said.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s759359.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Date for Iraq war slips back to March
As US troops and armor continue to pour into the Persian Gulf, the target date for a possible US attack against Iraq seems to be slipping to late February or early March, US officials and analysts say. As recently as a few weeks ago, senior Bush administration officials were suggesting that a US invasion to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might begin soon after a pivotal report from United Nations' weapons inspectors on Jan. 27. But in the latest sign of a possible delay, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reportedly leaning against a plan to begin a war in Iraq with bombing before all necessary US ground forces are assembled in the Persian Gulf region. Those forces are not expected to be in place before mid-February.
For the complete article in the Miami Herald [US], 15 January 2003, see:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/4948520.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Please consider making this simple call.
The Bush White House has an "opinion" line for you to call. So, whether you oppose or approve of the proposed war in Iraq, give a call. The line only accepts calls from 9-5 EST., Monday thru Friday.
Call the White House at 202-456-1111.
A machine will detain you for only about a minute and then a live operator will thank you for saying: "I oppose" or "I approve" regarding the attack on Iraq. It will only take minutes.
The president has said that he wants to know what the American people are thinking. Let him know. Time is running out. Then please forward this e-mail to at least five people right away.
Tell them what you think: ONE PHONE CALL EQUALS 10-20 PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T CALL, PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO FRIENDS.
[A strong telephone presence to follow-up D.C. Protest - - Recommended - -
Please Call beginning Monday
202-456-1111
2) Draft Kucinich for President 2004Representative Kucinich is a man of strength and conviction who understands that for every action there is a consequence in national policy. Whether that be a war on Iraq resulting in even more terrorism against the United States, or lessening regulations on corporate America resulting in high crimes against the people, or cutting health funding to communities which results in more people going without needed medical services.
For me, this is an opportunity to reach out to the masses and ask those who share the ideals of Dennis Kucinich to join me in urging him to consider a run for the presidency in 2004. Congressman Kucinich, in simply being a candidate, will place on the table issues that must be discussed. We have had enough of Democrats seeking the presidency who "run to the center" and fail to ignite the people because they fail -- to be Democrats! It is time for a Kucinich candidacy to speak the truth, to relate to the everyday problems and concerns of Americans, to throw out the political-speak of those who reach out to Corporate America for their support and speak directly to the people and allow them to hear, in plain, clear terminology the truth about the blatant assault on their rights, the failure of their government to lead on the domestic problems facing the average working person, the war hungry insiders who want to fight first and talk later (while enriching defense contractors).
It is time to stand up for sanity. To realize that America and indeed, the world, is at a crossroads like never before. That the capability to destroy all of mankind is within reach of not just superpowers with their mired missiles, but with those who would terrorize and provoke a reaction that could lead to unpredictable consequences. Dennis Kucinich represents the voice for that sanity..
# # # #
For more on the above information on the campaign to
"DRAFT KUCINICH FOR PRESIDENT 2004"
Link to = = = => http://www.draftkucinich.com/By Telephone:
Toll-Free 1-877-638-5811
By Electronic Mail: information@draftkucinich.com
Web Site:
http://www.draftkucinich.com/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
President Dennis? Who Knows?Published on Sunday, January 12, 2003 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
President Dennis? Who Knows?
by Tom Diemer
WASHINGTON -- His name doesn't show up on the growing "short list" of Democratic hopefuls, but political allies of Rep. Dennis Kucinich think he is seriously considering a bid
for his party's 2004 presidential nomination.
The Cleveland Democrat, elected in November to his fourth term in the U.S. House, remains coy about his prospects.
"The issues that I have been debating in Congress, which are the major issues that I talk about in Cleveland, are resonating with people across the country," he said last week. "As a result, I am hearing from thousands of people from East Coast to West Coast, talking to me about running. I am listening.
"It is a great honor . . . to even be considered."
An announcement of a Kucinich candidacy is not imminent but could come this winter or in the early spring. In the meantime, the field for what some call an "invisible primary" is expanding almost weekly. The challenge of merely lifting off is daunting for anyone, much less a U.S. House member who is not widely known nationally outside the "progressive" - read "liberal" - wing of politics.
Kucinich has yet to demonstrate he can raise enough money to sustain a coast-to-coast campaign, or expand his base beyond the peace activists, environmentalists and free-trade critics he addresses in national speaking appearances.
So, what makes Dennis Kucinich run?
He has traveled to dozens of American cities, preaching - one speech was titled a "Prayer for America" - against war in Iraq and criticizing Republican economic policies.
Ohio State University political scientist Paul Beck said long shots often enter campaigns under the guise of using a national platform to draw attention to their issues. For Kucinich, that would include a fight against tax cuts and free-trade deals.
"In many ways it serves the candidate more than the issues," Beck said. "It is a way for the candidate to become known over time, to build name recognition and visibility for a subsequent campaign. It also helps them have influence in their own party."
However, Beck said that, in the end, when such a candidacy collapses, he doubts much has been accomplished in the way of "educating voters." Voters in presidential campaigns, he said, are "usually looking for capable leaders," not causes.
Support from labor
But Steve Rosenthal, political director of the AFL-CIO, said Kucinich could force other Democrats to respond to issues important to the labor movement - workers' rights and jobs lost to free trade, for instance.
"He is a guy who is not afraid to speak up and fight for what he believes in. He wins just by putting his issues - our issues - front and center," Rosenthal said. "In terms of winnability, it is a steep, steep uphill fight."
Ralph Nader, who appeals to economic populists in much the same way as Kucinich, thinks the former Cleveland mayor should jump into the race.
"There needs to be a clearly progressive candidate in the primaries," Nader said recently when asked about Kucinich. "I hope he does."
Nader stopped short of endorsing Kucinich, since he is uncertain about his own plans. He ran for president as the candidate of the Green Party in 2000.
But Nader is a Kucinich fan - part of Kucinich's circle of famous friends, which includes columnist Arianna Huffington and Warren Beatty, the actor who thought about running for president himself in 2000.
An Internet site, www.draftkucinich.com, is promoting him, calling attention in a Wednesday posting to a mention of his possible candidacy on ABC's political Web site, The Note, and in a Washington Post online column.
"Kucinich must be urged to run," proclaims the Draft Kucinich site, which is operated by a man who dabbles in politics but has said he has no ties to Kucinich. "Democrats, Independents, Greens, people are writing to voice their support."
While Kucinich contemplates a step that could bring him fame or make him look foolish, others are jumping in.
Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean have formed "exploratory" committees signaling their intentions to run. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut is expected to join the fray on Monday, and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York has said he will get in later this month. Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart, who ran in 1984 and 1988, are said to be considering bids.
Timing important
While this incipient campaign holds little interest for many voters, the would-be candidates already are jousting for campaign money and signing up seasoned political operatives. He who hesitates loses out on veteran staff and financial commitments.
Kucinich, who has run outside his Cleveland base only once - a failed bid for Ohio secretary of state in a Democratic primary - raised $508,712 for his 2002 re-election, including more than $195,000 from labor unions. He had $48,697 in his campaign treasury going into the new year.
To run a viable presidential race, a candidate has "to raise a million bucks a week," estimated Cleveland Heights lawyer Glenn Billington, who worked in past campaigns for Hart and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.
Billington, who admires Kucinich for his work in Congress, questions whether the lawmaker has the organizing skills or money-raising ability for such a mammoth effort.
"We are in the year that counts. You saw what happened with Tom Daschle," he said, referring to the Senate leader who last week decided to bypass the presidential contest. "You have to be out there. It is full time."
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©2003 cleveland.com
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1042381805299731.xml # # #
For Flyby News' Updated Dennis J. Kucinich for US President in 2004!, see:
http://www.flybynews.com/cgi-local/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1021307488,43210,m
3) "Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
NERVES OF STEAL / PROFITS OF WAR ( Part II )
"Bush Concealed Iraqi Chemical Weapons Plant in Florida"
A U.S. Congressman says 1.2 million chemical-biological combat protection suits are "missing" -- 250,000 of which are defective -- while reports cite high gas mask failure rates and the Pentagon now admits to 7,000 dead Gulf War I soldiers.
This, as Congress has voted to permit George W. Bush to deploy ground troops against biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction illegally transferred to Iraq just before the war -- while the president acted as a key advisor during his father's Administration.
For the complete article, see:
http://www.tomflocco.com/nerves_of_steal.htm Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH):
"The Pentagon's inability to pass an independent audit has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars in wasted spending, and now recent evidence shows that Defense Department accounting problems are putting our troops at risk."
. . . According to Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), "the Pentagon's accounting systems are so bad that several military units actually thought they had an excess of [protective] suits; so they resold suits costing $200 for $3 a piece on the Internet." But even worse, Kucinich said "some of the suits were purchased by individuals now under investigation by the U.S. terrorism task force."
. . . Kucinich added that "The Pentagon's inability to pass an independent audit has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars in wasted spending, and now recent evidence shows that Defense Department accounting problems are putting our troops at risk."
For the complete article, see:
http://www.tomflocco.com/nerves_of_steal.htm = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Thomas Flocco is an independent investigative journalist, featured in such publications as Scoop.co.nz, WorldNetDaily.com, From the Wilderness Publications (copvcia.com), NewsMax.com, NarcoNews.com, JudicialWatch.org, which are all archived at:
http://www.tomflocco.com/
4) 'Big Brother' Is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in Report U.S. Newswire
15 Jan 12:35
'Big Brother' is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in New Report
To: National Desk
Contact: Jay Stanley of the ACLU, 202-715-0818, or the
ACLU Press Office, 212-549-2666
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The United States has now reached the point where a total "surveillance society" has become a realistic possibility, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned in a report being released today.
"Many people still do not grasp that Big Brother surveillance is no longer the stuff of books and movies," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program and a co-author of the report.
"Given the capabilities of today's technology, the only thing protecting us from a full-fledged surveillance society are the legal and political institutions we have inherited as Americans," he added. "Unfortunately, the September 11 attacks have led some to embrace the fallacy that weakening the Constitution will strengthen America."
For the complete release, see:
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/qtr1_2003/0115-123.htmlThe complete report, by Steinhardt and Jay Stanley, Public Education Coordinator with the Technology and Liberty Program, is online at
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11573&c=39.
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