Saturday, 31 January 2004
2 Democrats Criticize Scalia's Refusal to Quit Cheney Case Switzerland Investigates Trading Companies That Profited from Saddam Hussein's OilFriday, 30 January 2004
John W. Dean: The Leak of CIA Agent Valerie Plame Wilson's Identity: Why Competing Congressional and Special Counsel Investigations Will Inevitably Cause Problems Panel of Experts Finds That Anti-Pollution Laws Are Outdated McCain Wants WMD Inquiry How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age... (Commondreams.org, 30 January 2004) Censored at the Super BowlYou won't see MoveOn.org's ad during Sunday's big game. But you will see it everywhere else
Thursday, 29 January 2004
French expert sees imminent space warfareUS scientists create new form of matter Bush Scaling Back Dollars for Third World The shadow of Iraq: The Hutton saga is a sideshow. The real issue is who will pay the price for war and occupation The Privileged Act Worried WMD: Now It is Bush's Turn to Face Uncomfortable Truths Rumsfeld Bumps Up US Forces by 30,000: Emergency increase, a change of course, stuns House committee UK: Demands Grow for Inquiry into the Case for War as Hutton is Accused of a 'Whitewash' CBS: The Censor Broadcast System Jay Bookman: No Mystery to Untangling WMD Puzzler"Up until now, space has been militarized in the sense that military operations have made a lot of use of satellites ... either for communications, for navigation, for eavesdropping or for surveillance," Therese Delpech, the director for strategic affairs at the Atomic Energy Commission in Paris, told AFP in Stockholm.
"What is completely new," she added, "is what I call the weaponization of space, which is much more serious, and concerns the possibility in the (near) future of having weapons in space, or developing weapons that can destroy satellites in space. This would add another dimension to warfare."
Wednesday, 28 January 2004
Gay men lose challenge to Florida gay adoption ban Editorials Question Bush's Role in 'Cooking' Up a War Pentagon Plans Afghan Spring Offensive Global Chilling BBC AT WAR: M'LORD HUTTON BLESSES BLAIR'S ATTACK ON BBC'S INVESTIGATION OF IRAQ WAR CLAIMSHutton: The verdict Europeans Are Not Cowards. It's That We Know War Skepticism Over Bush Pledge to Slash Deficit Bush Backs Away From His Claims About Iraq Arms Cattle Feed is Often a Sum of Animal Parts BBC Chairman Resigns After Hutton Criticism 9/11 Commission Says It Needs More Time to Complete Inquiry 9/11 Commission Says It Needs More Time Business Group Calls for More Global Poverty Aid Michael Moore Prepares Provocative 9-11 Project Editorials Question Bush's Role In "Cooking" Up a War US Plans Spring Offensive in Pakistan U.S. plans Al Qaeda offensive: Sources say military is mapping operation to strike inside PakistanHe did not say, "hello," or even his name, just left a one-word message: "Whitewash."
It came from an embattled journalist whispering from inside the bowels of a television and radio station under siege, on a small island off the coast of Ireland: from BBC London.
And another call, from a colleague at the Guardian: "The future of British journalism is very bleak."
However, the future for fake and farcical war propaganda is quite bright indeed. Today, Lord Hutton issued his report that followed an inquiry revealing the Blair government's manipulation of intelligence to claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass murder threatening imminent attack on London.
Tuesday, 27 January 2004
War Issues Cloud Cheney Trip: Questions on Intelligence Persist; Role in U.N. Process Criticized Ritter Was Right; Kay Was Wrong: My Exchange with CNN's Aaron Brown You Say Deserter, I Say More Dessert... by Michael Moore Norman Solomon: The State of the Media Union Judge Calls Schwarzenegger's $4 Million Campaign Loans Illegal Glaciers and Sea Ice Endangered by Rising Temperatures Cartoonist calls Condi Rice 'murderer' -- again: This time 'Boondocks' creator levels charge on national TVMonday, 26 January 2004
Kay Testimony Impeaches Bush US must quit Iraq before vote, say Sunnis U.N. to Decide on Iraq; Three U.S. Soldiers Missing Federal Judge Rules Part of Patriot Act Unconstitutional Congressional Budget Office Projects $477 Billion Deficit Cheney Defends Iraq War, Skirts Arms Issue Too late to use rights to justify Iraq war-group Human Rights Watch Decries Iraq WarNew Global Survey Analyzes War and Human RightsLONDON -- The war in Iraq cannot be justified as an intervention in defence of human rights even though it ended a brutal regime, Human Rights Watch said Monday, dismissing one of the U.S. administration's main arguments for the invasion.
(London, January 26, 2004) -- The invasion of Iraq ended the reign of a brutal government, but coalition leaders are wrong to characterize it as a humanitarian intervention, Human Rights Watch said in the keynote essay of its annual global survey released today.
The 407-page World Report 2004: Human Rights and Armed Conflict includes 15 essays on a variety of subjects related to war and human rights, from Africa to Afghanistan, from sexual violence as a method to warfare to the new trends in post-conflict international justice.
"Waging war is no excuse for ignoring human rights," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "In 2003, we saw too many governments invoke the demands of warfare to excuse their own misdeeds."
[...]
"The Bush administration cannot justify the war in Iraq as a humanitarian intervention, and neither can Tony Blair," said Roth. "Saddam Hussein's atrocities should certainly be punished, and his worst atrocities, such as the 1988 genocide against the Kurds, would have justified humanitarian intervention then. But such interventions should be reserved for stopping an imminent or ongoing slaughter. They shouldn't be used belatedly to address atrocities that were ignored in the past."
- Above the Law: Executive Power after September 11 in the United States
- Cluster Munitions: Toward a Global Solution
- Weapons and War Crimes: The Complicity of Arms Suppliers
- Engine of War: Resources, Greed, and the Predatory State
Politics & Science in the Bush Administration
- Politics & Science in the Bush Administration
- Politics & Science in the Bush Administration (full PDF report)
- Scientists: Bush Distorts Science (Wired, 18 Feb 2004)
- Leading Scientists Accuse Government of Distorting Science for Political Ends (Baltimore Sun, 26 January 2004)
- Bush Economics 101
- Climate change
- Globalization
- Neo-conservatism
Sunday, 25 January 2004
Noam Chomsky: What a Fair Trial for Saddam Would EntailDoing Business With The EnemyIn a (virtually unimaginable) fair trial for Saddam, a defense attorney could quite rightly call to the stand Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush I and other high officials who provided significant support for the dictator, even through his worst atrocities.
A fair trial would at least accept the elementary moral principle of universality: The accusers and the accused must be subject to the same standards.
[...]
The Bush administration has openly declared its intention to dismantle what remained of the system of world order and to rule the world by force, with Iraq as a demonstration project.
That intention has elicited fear and often hatred throughout the world, and despair among those who are concerned about the likely consequences of choosing to remain complicit with the current policies of U.S. aggression at will. That is, of course, a choice very largely in the hands of the American people.
Political activist and author Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Iraq's Path Hinges on Words of Enigmatic Cleric Powell Voices Doubts About Iraqi Weapons(CBS) Did it ever occur to you that when President Bush says, "Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations," he's talking about your money -- and every other American's money?
One day after David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, said he believes Hussein had not stockpiled unconventional weapons for years, Powell told reporters that his prominent Feb. 5 argument was based on "what our intelligence community believed was credible."
"What is the open question is how many stocks they had, if any, and if they had any, where did they go? And if they didn't have any, then why wasn't that known beforehand?" Powell told reporters aboard his plane en route to Sunday's presidential inauguration of Mikheil Saakashvili.
[...]
"We were not only saying we thought they had them," Powell said, "but we had questions that needed to be answered. What was it: 500 tons, 100 tons or zero tons? Was it so many liters of anthrax, 10 times that amount, or nothing? What we demanded of Iraq was that they account for all of this and they prove the negative of our hypothesis."
In response, Powell said, "all they did was make statements without proving it to our satisfaction. This is a regime that never lost its intention to have such programs and have such weapons."
[...]
Months of investigation in Iraq have failed to support what Powell described Saturday as his "good, solid, comprehensive presentation" of the intelligence community's conclusions.
[...]
President Bush, too, has backed away from his assertions about Iraq's weapons programs, referring in Tuesday's State of the Union address to materials hidden from the U.N. inspector and "weapons-of-mass-destruction-related program activities."
On Wednesday, Vice President Cheney told National Public Radio that the administration has not given up looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "It's going to take some additional considerable period of time in order to look in all the cubbyholes and ammo dumps and all the places in Iraq where you'd expect to find something like that," he said.
A senior administration official told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday that the "jury is still out" on the accuracy of intelligence reports that said Hussein possessed such weapons. "We won't know until we've gotten through . . . interviewing all of the people who were involved in those programs."
The Nuclear Market: An Array of Vendors: 'America Losing World's Trust' 'It's Just Wrong What We're Doing': In an exclusive interview, repentant Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara breaks his silence on Iraq: The United States, he says, is making the same mistakes all over again Female GIs Report Rapes in Iraq War: 37 seek aid after alleging sex assaults by U.S. soldiersChaos Under Heaven, and More to Come What a Fair Trial for Saddam Would EntailThe Pentagon did not respond to repeated requests for information about the number of sexual assault reports during the conflict.
Saturday, 24 January 2004
'It's just wrong what we're doing'German trial hears how Iranian agent warned US of impending al-Qaida attackIn an exclusive interview, repentant Vietnam War architect Robert McNamara breaks his silence on Iraq: The United States, he says, is making the same mistakes all over again
Guantanamo: Jihad's TerminusThe United States was warned of impending September 11 terrorist attacks by an Iranian spy, but ignored him, German secret service agents testified yesterday in the trial of an alleged al-Qaida terrorist.
[...]
The testimony at the Hamburg trial could heap more embarrassment on the US state department and secret services, which have denied allegations that they were forewarned of the attacks.
The White House and US intelligence agencies have been plagued by accusations of a catastrophic failure since the four planes were hijacked to such devastating effect in 2001.
Computer reportedly seized from Frist's office: Democrats say their computers were infiltrated by GOP staffersIn effect, a detail that escapes us here in Europe, America is at war. And reacts that way, faithful to the Old Testament precept dear to the Mayflower ancestors: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." The Bible and the gun. Crew-cut and clear-eyed, Pastor Daniel Odean, prison chaplain in civilian life and a pillar of the Protestant Assembly of God, is charged with the salvation of the troops' souls and morale. He summarizes the majority opinion at Guantanamo with faith and conviction:
- America was attacked. George W. Bush is right: we defend American citizens first of all, but also freedom in the world.
Every guard adheres to this credo. And everything is done so that they don't forget it, beginning with Guantanamo's motto: "Defending freedom is our honor." In the internet room, posters along the lines of "Never Again" evoke September 11 and notices remind users to respect "Opsec" (security operations), because "you never know who's listening during wartime." In the television room, the walls are papered with children's drawings sent by Mrs. Rowland- a patriotic Hoosier teacher's -class. The Star - Spangled Banner is omnipresent and the unequivocal messages: "Thanks for defending our country." In fact, not one of the minders we interviewed (in the presence of the vigilant Kolarik, it is true) feels any compassion for the prisoners. "It's not our job to ask questions. We don't know their past. For us, they're just numbers," confides Sergeant Smith, while his colleagues approve.
These so-called "numbers" are imprisoned at Camp Delta. Several walls, wire fences, barbed wire, watch towers, spotlights: that's the décor. Inside, prisoners are divided into two groups: The "naughty" and the "nice". The "naughty" are in the so-called "maximum security" camps 1, 2 or 3. Imagine a high-tech kennel and there you are. Blocks of 48 cells, 24 on each side of a corridor, one man per cell, an improved 2.5 x 2 meter cage, equipped with a cot shelf, a sink, and a Turkish toilet.
[...]
But nothing says that other presumed terrorists won't come and take their places: to judge by the international news, jihad has some fine days ahead of it, alas. To such an extent that one wonders whether Guantanamo isn't some sort of experimental laboratory, a military-judicial prototype intended for this novel confrontation, the war against terrorism. Fifteen days ago, The Independent of London evoked Camp Justice, situated in the Indian Ocean on the island of Diego Garcia. Like Guantanamo, Diego Garcia, officially under British sovereignty, is rented to the United States, which has installed a base there. And, as at Guantanamo, Al-Qaeda suspects would be imprisoned there. Perhaps a future market for the Kellog, Brown & Root company, a Halliburton (Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney's former company) subsidiary that constructed the Guantanamo penitentiary. Not for free, of course. Disaster is always good for something.
WASHINGTON - Federal investigators reportedly have seized a staff computer in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office in a probe to find Republican aides who improperly accessed Democrats' memos on opposing judicial nominees.
Friday, 23 January 2004
FAIR ACTION ALERT: Cheney's Iraq Deceptions Leave NPR Speechless In new pool of jobs, pay has taken a diveWe May Have Dean to Kick Around: Nixon showed how to successfully rebound from a disastrous speech.Anybody happen to see a $5,374 paycheck lying around? Florida seems to have lost it.
The Sunshine State is one of 48 states to see jobs shifting in the past few years from higher-paying industries to lower-paying ones. On average, Florida jobs in growing industries pay $29,979, or $5,374 less than jobs that paid $35,353 in contracting industries.
What had been a relatively innocuous, if slightly goofy, speech has metamorphosed into a real threat to his prospects, as late-night comedians drill home the image of a deranged Dean. Perhaps the propensity toward hysteria and overheated rhetoric belongs to the media, not to Dean.
Thursday, 22 January 2004
Harvey Wasserman: The states of Iowa and the union agree: Bush can be beaten Infiltration of files seen as extensive: Senate panel's GOP staff pried on DemocratsEx-C.I.A. Aides Ask for Leak Inquiry by CongressWASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.
Senate GOP staff spied on Democrats' memos: Monitoring allegedly went on for a yearThe 10 former intelligence officers who signed the letter include respected intelligence analysts and retired case officers, including at least two, John McCavitt and William Wagner, who were C.I.A. station chiefs overseas. The former analysts include Larry C. Johnson, a former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department's intelligence branch, and Ray Close and Ray McGovern, former C.I.A. analysts in the agency's Near East division.
"The disclosure of Ms. Plame's name was an unprecedented and shameful event in American history and, in our professional judgment, has damaged U.S. national security, specifically the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence-gathering using human sources," the group wrote in the two-page letter.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Johnson, who described himself as a registered Republican who voted for President Bush, said he and other former intelligence officers had been discussing the idea of a letter for months and decided to go forward with it because of a lack of evidence of progress in the Justice Department investigation.
"For this administration to run on a security platform and allow people in the administration to compromise the security of intelligence assets, I think is unconscionable," Mr. Johnson said.
Soul Survivor: Locked Up for Half His Life for a Crime He Didn't Commit, Michael Austin Worked to Free First His Spirit and Then HimselfWASHINGTON -- Republican staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Boston Globe.
Managing the PresidentIt's late on a Saturday night at the Blues Bistro in Eldersburg, Md., and Michael Austin is midway through his set. Cradling the microphone, his hands are big and expressive and deep-lined, like they've been cut with the sins of the world.
Former Delaware Governor announces publication of book entitled "Patriots, Stand Up!"This is how Card described his job in an interview with Neal Boortz of Atlanta's WSB-AM750 (Boortz is a nationally-syndicated libertarian):
"My day starts very early. I get to the office between 5:30 and quarter of six in the morning, I greet the president when he shows up in the Oval Office, I say 'Good morning, Mr. President, can I have your homework?' And I kind of correct it. Or he corrects mine."
Card also said that one of the hardest parts of his job is scheduling.
"There are only 24 hours in a day. The president has to have time to eat, sleep and be merry, or he'll make angry, grumpy decisions. So I have to make sure he has time to eat, sleep and be merry. But I also have to make sure he has the right time to do the right thing for the country, and that he gets the right information in time, rather than too late."
Former Delaware Governor Russ Peterson has announced the publication of a new book. The following is posted on his website:
Our cherished American way of life is under attack by the far right-wing Republicans who are now running the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. This is the product of a conspiracy that has been growing over the past few decades through the use of evil tactics and strategies, lies and deceptions to transform America.
Deception is now the hallmark of the Bush administration. Read of the frightening chicanery in furthering an imperial strategy, nurturing the military-industrial complex, waging war on the environment, plunging the nation into debt, demeaning the needy, antagonizing the world and using terrorism to frighten and exploit.
His website also lists the following bio:
Russ Peterson, scientist, citizen activist, former executive with the DuPont Co., Republican governor of Delaware, assistant to Republican Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York, head of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality under Presidents Nixon and Ford, head of the Office of Technology Assessment, reporting to six Republican and six Democratic members of Congress, president of the National Audubon Society, internationally acclaimed environmental leader, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and faculty member at Dartmouth College, Carleton College and the University of Wisconsin Madison. His numerous national and international awards include 15 honorary doctorates.
In 1996 he became a Democrat.
Eight leading international lawyers and professors from four countries will present a report to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Report arguing the illegality of the invasion of Iraq. The report will focus on cluster bombs and the targeting of the media by way of attacks on the offices of Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV, and on the Palestine Hotel.
Wednesday, 21 January 2004
The Color of Bush's SkyCIA officers warn of Iraq civil war, contradicting Bush's optimism U.S. Expert Unconvinced N. Korea Can Make Nuclear Bomb 3-star general says Army is too small to do its job: 10,000 more soldiers would not be enough modernization, chief saysIt took a little less than a half hour for George W. Bush to taint the 215th State of the Union address with a bald-faced lie about Iraq. It was, in the end, merely an accent in the symphony.
The nonsense began in this order: The economy is growing stronger. The tax cuts are working. Public schools are flourishing. The Patriot Act is excellent. Everything is rosy in Afghanistan. The people of Iraq are free. Throughout the vacuous peroration were more shooting-fish-in-a-barrel applause lines than has ever been heard in any major speech in American history. "I love God! I love soldiers! I love America! I love freedom!" went the drumbeat. Once upon a time, we had standards.
Let's take a few of these in order.
Arianna Huffington: The State Of The Union: Bush Leaves No Bride Behind Surcharge Not Too Taxing for WealthyWASHINGTON - A senior Army general, breaking with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his service's own leadership, said the Army is too small to meet its global commitments and must be substantially increased.
Lt. Gen. John M. Riggs, a decorated Vietnam veteran who is in charge of building an Army for the future, said the force of 480,000 must grow even beyond the 10,000-soldier increase that was endorsed by the Senate last year but failed to win full congressional approval.
The Democratic Candidates React to Bush's Speech Jonathan Cohn: Sick JokeSo what would you say if I told you there's a way to wipe out the entire state budget deficit, and it wouldn't cost one red cent for the vast majority of Californians?
[...]
"When we heard Arnold Schwarzenegger say the only way to do this was with a $15-billion bond measure, we wanted to come up with an alternative that wouldn't substantially change the lifestyle of any Californian," says Paul O'Lague, who teaches molecular biology at UCLA.
O'Lague and his pal John Bachar, who teaches statistics and probability at Cal State Long Beach, have been studying income taxes and wealth distribution for years, and hosting salons to hash out their ideas.
They came up with a proposal that puts a surcharge on California residents with an income above $200,000, including a joint filing in which husband and wife make that much combined.
The surcharge would start at 0.5% for light heavyweights making $200,000, and climb to 7% for bombers hauling in $5 million a year or more. All told, this $200k-plus group accounts for just 3.1% of all tax returns, but has 35.9% of total personal income in the state.
The surcharge would generate a fat $13 billion a year, because California has more millionaires per capita than any state. (And Golden State billionaires, who account for more than one-fifth of the nation's billionaires, have a net worth of $102.9 billion.)
"How much money can you spend on yourself?" asked Bachar. He echoed his colleague's point that for the state's aristocracy, the hardship of a surcharge could mean having to settle for a $9.5-million mansion instead of a $10-million estate.
As some readers said, people making $200,000 aren't exactly rich in this day and age, and they're right.
But in 2000, Bachar said, 6,455 Californians made $5 million or more, and the average in that group was $15.6 million. We lost some of those millionaires after the dot-com crash, but we've gained some recently.
[...]
First of all, for the super rich, a good chunk of their income doesn't come from working up a sweat. It comes from capital gains, dividends, stock options and other non-aerobic activities.
These folks have got shelters and deferrals and all sorts of tricks the average Joe doesn't have. Because of it, they control more of the nation's wealth than ever, but their share of taxes has been dwindling for roughly 20 years.
If you don't believe me, I refer you to a former colleague, David Cay Johnston, who has a new book on the subject. The title, not exactly subtle, is:
"Perfectly Legal, the Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else."
Johnston saw my reference to O'Lague and Bachar and called to say that in 2000, the 27,000 richest Americans had as much income as the bottom 96 million combined. And the gap is growing.
"The rich really are getting richer and the poor poorer," said Johnston, who writes about taxes for the New York Times. His book is filled with examples of the tax burden being shifted from the famously rich to average blokes.
[...]"The richest 1% are taxed more lightly than the middle class" when you add up all their tax and investment advantages, Johnston writes. "The same data show that the poor are taxed almost as heavily as the rich are ? and even more heavily than the super rich."
A Reactive Tone Shows His Ears Have Been Burning Exit polls: IowaSuddenly sensitive to the fact that 44 million Americans have no health insurance while millions more fear losing it because of skyrocketing premiums, the White House has spent the last few days promising that this year's State of the Union address would include a new plan to make health insurance more affordable.
But there was nothing "new" about the "plan" President Bush unveiled last night. It was a hodgepodge of ideas he first touted as a presidential candidate in April 2000, and that he has deployed strategically whenever the polls show health insurance affordability is an issue. More important, it's unlikely these ideas will make health insurance "more affordable"--at least, not for the people who most need the help.
Do you approve or disapprove of the United States' decision to go to war with Iraq last year? Strongly disapprove: 50%
Tuesday, 20 January 2004
Nuclear Reaction: Iraqi scientist refutes U.S. weapon claims, recalls studying at 'U' (The State News, 20 January 2004)Khadduri studied physics at MSU in the 1960s before embarking on a 30-year career as an Iraqi nuclear scientist. Last year, he wrote "Iraq's Nuclear Mirage," a book about his experiences.
- Imad Khadduri: Mobile lies
- Imad Khadduri: The nuclear bomb hoax
- Imad Khadduri: The demise of the nuclear bomb hoax
- As UN Weapons Inspections Begin, a Former Iraqi Nuclear Scientist Says Iraq's Nation's Atomic Program No Longer Exists: Imad Khadduri Also Explains How the Eisenhower Administration Helped Start Iraq's Atomic Program (Democracy Now!, 27 November 2002)
An Extreme Inspiration: A Team of Israeli and Palestinian Peace Campaigners Have Achieved Their Goal of Scaling a Previously Unclimbed Antarctic Mountain Corporations Need Treatment, Documentary ArguesMUMBAI, India - The path of economic globalization must be changed in order to avoid undermining social security. Otherwise it will continue to exacerbate poverty, and therefore violence, warned World Social Forum panelists here Monday, including Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in economics.
"The essence of economic globalization is that it should bring job security. If there were such a commitment, developing countries could have opened markets by explicitly tying market access to job opportunities," said the U.S. expert who served as the World Bank's chief economist from 1997 to 2000.
US Stalls U.N. Plan to Fight Obesity Iraqis Want Saddam's Old US Friends on Trial George W. Bush a Divider After All International Criminal Court to Get Evidence of 'Illegality' of Iraq WarTORONTO - Corporations are not only the most powerful institutions in the world, they are also psychopathic, a new Canadian documentary on globalization elegantly argues.
While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of "a legal person", its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions. Moreover, the film explains, a corporation's directors are legally required to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created.
What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath, answers the documentary, which is now playing in four Canadian theatres.
George W Bush and the Real State of the Union Resistance to Patriot Act Gaining GroundThe prosecutor will have to study the professors' report and can take it to the ICC to demand a full inquiry if he finds merit in it. A full inquiry could mean that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior ministers could be called to face charges.
[...]
The eight law experts gathered evidence from a wide range of sources, and also spoke directly to witnesses over two days in London in November. Evidence was gathered from witnesses on the ground such as Spanish medical teams, and from weapons experts.
The experts' report focused particularly on cluster bombs used by the British. The Ministry of Defence in London has admitted to dropping 70 cluster bombs from the air, each of them containing 147 'bomblets'. In addition, British artillery fired more than 2,000 shells, each containing about 40 smaller bombs.
The report, a full version of which is due to be released about two weeks from now, also takes a close look at the targeting of media by way of attacks on the offices of Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV, and on Palestine Hotel in Baghdad.
"We want to make it clear that we are not levelling accusations," Shiner said. "We are pointing to questions that need answers, and we are demanding an investigation into these."
The Peacerights group did not have access to all the information that would be needed in order to make a charge against the government, Shiner said. "We would need to know what the military objectives were, who took the decision to risk civilian casualties, what the targeting data was before those who took the decisions and other such information. We do not have that information but the prosecutor could ask for it."
Monday, 19 January 2004
Ray McGovern: Will Speech Lack Hyperbole That 'Justified' War? Bush Popularity Rate Dips to 50 Percent, US Electorate Split Global Activists Gather to Change the World Bush Opposes Extension of 9/11 Probe Hezbollah Missile Hits Israeli Bulldozer at Lebanon BorderSunday, 18 January 2004
Gore Vidal: The war against lies: A growing number of Americans see the election as a chance to reclaim the truth 'No blister agent' in Iraq shellsSaturday, 17 January 2004
The $500 billion fire sale John Laughland: I believe in conspiraciesBelieving in conspiracy theories is rather like having been to a grammar school: both are rather socially awkward to admit. Although I once sat next to a sister-in-law of the Duke of Norfolk who agreed that you can't believe everything you read in the newspapers, conspiracy theories are generally considered a rather repellent form of intellectual low-life, and their theorists rightfully the object of scorn and snobbery. Writing in the Daily Mail last week, the columnist Melanie Phillips even attacked conspiracy theories as the consequence of a special pathology, of the collapse in religious belief, and of a 'descent into the irrational'. The implication is that those who oppose 'the West', or who think that governments are secretive and dishonest, might need psychiatric treatment.
In fact, it is the other way round. British and American foreign policy is itself based on a series of highly improbable conspiracy theories, the biggest of which is that an evil Saudi millionaire genius in a cave in the Hindu Kush controls a secret worldwide network of 'tens of thousands of terrorists' 'in more than 60 countries' (George Bush). News reports frequently tell us that terrorist organisations, such as those which have attacked Bali or Istanbul, have 'links' to al-Qa'eda, but we never learn quite what those 'links' are. According to two terrorism experts in California, Adam Dolnik and Kimberly McCloud, this is because they do not exist. 'In the quest to define the enemy, the US and its allies have helped to blow al-Qa'eda out of proportion,' they write. They argue that the name 'al-Qa'eda' was invented in the West to designate what is, in reality, a highly disparate collection of otherwise independent groups with no central command structure and not even a logo. They claim that some terrorist organisations say they are affiliated to bin Laden simply to gain kudos and name-recognition for their entirely local grievances.
By the same token, the US-led invasion of Iraq was based on a fantasy that Saddam Hussein was in, or might one day enter into, a conspiracy with Osama bin Laden. This is as verifiable as the claim that MI6 used mind control to make Henri Paul crash Princess Diana's car into the 13th pillar of the tunnel under the Place de l'Alma. With similar mystic gnosis, Donald Rumsfeld has alleged that the failure to find 'weapons of mass distraction', as Tony Blair likes to call them, shows that they once existed but were destroyed. Indeed, London and Washington have shamelessly exploited people's fear of the unknown to get public opinion to believe their claim that Iraq had masses of anthrax and botulism. This played on a deep and ancient seam of fear about poison conspiracies which, in the Middle Ages, led to pogroms against Jews. And yet it is the anti-war people who continue to be branded paranoid, even though the British Prime Minister himself, his eyes staring wildly, said in September 2002, 'Saddam has got all these weapons ...and they're pointing at us!'
In contrast to such imaginings, it is perfectly reasonable to raise questions about the power of the secret services and armed forces of the world's most powerful states, especially those of the USA. These are not 'theories' at all; they are based on fact. The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other US secret services spend more than $30,000,000,000 a year on espionage and covert operations. Do opponents of conspiracy theories think that this money is given to the Langley, Virginia Cats' Home? It would also be churlish to deny that the American military industry plays a very major role in the economics and politics of the US. Every day at 5 p.m., the Pentagon announces hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to arms manufacturers all over America -- click on the Department of Defense's website for details -- who in turn peddle influence through donations to politicians and opinion-formers.
It is also odd that opponents of conspiracy theories often allow that conspiracies have occurred in the past, but refuse to contemplate their existence in the present. For some reason, you are bordering on the bonkers if you wonder about the truth behind events like 9/11, when it is established as fact that in 1962 the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lyman L. Lemnitzer, tried to convince President Kennedy to authorise an attack on John Glenn's rocket, or on a US navy vessel, to provide a pretext for invading Cuba. Two years later, a similar strategy was deployed in the faked Gulf of Tonkin incident, when US engagement in Vietnam was justified in the light of the false allegation that the North Vietnamese had launched an unprovoked attack on a US destroyer. Are such tactics confined to history? Paul O'Neill, George Bush's former Treasury Secretary, has just revealed that the White House decided to get rid of Saddam eight months before 9/11.
Indeed, one ought to speak of a 'conspiracy of silence' about the role of secret services in politics. This is especially true of the events in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It is the height of irresponsibility to discuss the post-communist transition without extensive reference to the role of the spooks, yet our media stick doggedly to the myth that their role is irrelevant. During the overthrow of the Georgian president, Eduard Shevardnadze, on 22 November 2003, the world's news outlets peddled a wonderful fairy-tale about a spontaneous uprising -- 'the revolution of roses', CNN shlockily dubbed it -- even though all the key actors have subsequently bragged that they were covertly funded and organised by the US.
Similarly, it is a matter of public record that the Americans pumped at least $100 million into Serbia in order to get rid of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, and huge sums in the years before. (An election in Britain, whose population is eight times bigger than Yugoslavia's, costs about two thirds of this.) This money was used to fund and equip the Kosovo Liberation Army; to stuff international observer missions in Kosovo with hundreds of military intelligence officers; to pay off the opposition and the so-called 'independent' media; and to buy heavily-armed Mafia gangsters to come and smash up central Belgrade, so that the world's cameras could show a 'people's revolution'.
At every stage, the covert aid and organisation provided by the US and British intelligence agencies were decisive, as they had been on many occasions before and since, all over the world. Yet for some reason, it is acceptable to say, 'The CIA organised the overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadeq in Iran in 1953', but not that it did it again in Belgrade in 2000 or Tbilisi in 2003. And in spite of the well-known subterfuge and deception practised, for instance, in the Iran-Contra scandal in the mid-1980s, people experience an enormous psychological reluctance to accept that the British and American governments knowingly lied us into war in 2002 and 2003. To be sure, some conspiracy theories may be outlandish or wrong. But it seems to me that anyone who refuses to make simple empirical deductions ought to have his head examined.
Trina Magi: "We want to nurture a love of inquiry in others, not squelch it or make people afraid to ask questions." Read more in Mother Jones.
Friday, 16 January 2004
Lie-detector glasses offer peek at future of security Mexico Awaits Hague Ruling on Citizens on U.S. Death Row In pictures: Unauthorised Saddam photos Judge: State's legislative district map is unconstitutional John Dean: The U.S. Supreme Court and The Imperial Presidency: How President Bush Is Testing the Limits of His Presidential PowersRead other articles by John Dean Industry Hopes Soar With Space Plan: Energy and Aerospace Firms Have Long Lobbied NASACan the President of the United States arrest any American he suspects of being a terrorist and toss him in a military brig, deny him a lawyer, omit to bring any charges against him -- yet indefinitely keep him imprisoned nonetheless?
Can the President kidnap foreigners charged with violating federal law, and bring them to the United States to stand trial? How about Osama bin Laden, for starters?
These are only a few of the issues raised by cases now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court that will examine the limits of presidential powers. As David Savage, the legal writer for the Los Angeles Times, has noted, this is a remarkable collection of cases.
"[T]he justices have voted to take up five cases that test the president's power to act alone and without interference from Congress or the courts," Savage explains. The description of these cases, as Savage has ably summarized them, is startling: "They involve imprisoning foreign fighters at overseas bases, holding American citizens without charges in military brigs, preserving the secrecy of White House meetings, enforcing free-trade treaties despite environmental concerns, and abducting foreigners charged with U.S. crimes."
What the Supreme Court has placed on its agenda, in short, is the Imperial Presidency -- that is, the Presidency in which the Executive largely acts alone, pushing the Constitution to the limits and beyond. And how the Justices deal with this overwhelmingly important topic could affect the reelection prospects of the Bush presidency, for, as David Savage notes, at least four of the five rulings are anticipated to be handed down during the summer of 2004 -- right in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Pentagon Asks For Probe of KBR Oil Deal The leak that went awryFor years, they [U.S. aerospace and energy industries] have labored to persuade NASA to pursue interplanetary voyages more aggressively, with companies standing to reap billions of dollars from the contracts and spinoff technologies that would result.
Industry officials said yesterday that they see a huge boon to business in Bush's "renewed spirit of discovery," which set a mission to Mars as a long-range goal after astronauts build a science base on the moon. Among the companies that could profit from the plan are Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and Halliburton Co., which Vice President Cheney headed before he joined Bush's ticket.
Chris Floyd: Global Eye -- Organ GrindersWASHINGTON -- The making of a coverup, like the making of a sausage, is not always pleasant to watch. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who rarely recuses himself from anything, has suddenly decided to get out from under the investigation of who leaked the identity of a CIA covert officer. And Mr. Ashcroft, who rarely misses his turn on camera, left it to Deputy Attorney General James Comey to make the announcement - and also to disqualify himself.
President pays tribute to King: Bush visits Atlanta for ceremony, fund-raiser"Murder, though it hath no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ."
-- Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
It's all out in the open now. The fact that the president of the United States and his top advisers deliberately concocted a false case for an illegal and unnecessary war -- in plain terms, that they committed cold-blooded, premeditated mass murder -- was confirmed last week by the most impeccable mainstream sources: George W. Bush's own Cabinet officials, speaking for the record in America's major media.
Paul Krugman: Who Gets It?Bush met briefly with Coretta Scott King before laying the wreath of red, white and blue flowers against the white marble crypt.
As Bush made the gesture, hundreds of protesters beat drums and chanted "Bush go home." The president was not formally invited to attend Thursday's commemorative events, and critics accused the president of using the appearance to gain support from black voters.
Women in Iraq Decry Decision To Curb Rights: Council Backs Islamic Law on Families Redistricting: up to ScaliaEarlier this week, Wesley Clark had some strong words about the state of the nation. "I think we're at risk with our democracy," he said. "I think we're dealing with the most closed, imperialistic, nastiest administration in living memory. They even put Richard Nixon to shame."
In other words, the general gets it: he understands that America is facing what Kevin Phillips, in his remarkable new book, "American Dynasty," calls a "Machiavellian moment." Among other things, this tells us that General Clark and Howard Dean, whatever they may say in the heat of the nomination fight, are on the same side of the great Democratic divide.
Pilot fined $18,870 for obscene gestureOn Jan. 9, plaintiffs' attorneys in the federal lawsuit over congressional redistricting, following a pro forma rejection from the federal district court, filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay or an injunction of the new plan, upheld in district court Jan. 6. The plaintiff's appellate brief argues that the 2-1 lower court decision erred in failing to overrule the map as a middecade "extreme partisan gerrymander"; that it misread legal precedent concerning the Voting Rights Act and therefore allowed the dismantling of protected minority influence districts; that it mistakenly considered only "intentional" discrimination as a potential violation of the VRA; and that it allowed an impermissible "racial gerrymander" in the creation of new "Hispanic opportunity" District 25, stretching from Northeast Austin 300 miles to McAllen and the Mexican border.
U.S. Joins Iraqis to Seek U.N. Role in Interim RuleAn American Airlines pilot was arrested at Sao Paulo International Airport after making an obscene gesture while being photographed by Brazilian immigration officers.
The pilot, Dale Robin Hirsch, raised his middle finger at police while undergoing the security measures that require United States citizens to be fingerprinted and photographed upon entering Brazil.
Relations between the two countries have been soured by Brazil's decision to implement its security measures from January 1, apparently in retaliation for a similar US programme to fingerprint and photograph visitors.
Iraq's Shia Muslims march to demand early elections Turkish PM: 'If Disintegration in Iraq Takes Place, We Intervene'WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 -- The Bush administration, trying to rescue its troubled plan to restore sovereignty to Iraq, is joining Iraqi leaders to press the United Nations to play a role in choosing an interim government in Baghdad, administration officials said Thursday.
Ankara, Bagdat (Baghdad), TURKEY,IRAQ, January 15, 2004 - Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said yesterday that in the event of Iraq's disintegration, Turkey will intervene. Erdogan stated that Iraqi Kurds are trying to take the oil regions under their control and "this should not be allowed. Kurds should be prevented from playing with the fire," warned Erdogan.
Thursday, 15 January 2004
Naomi Klein: The Year of the Fake Two murders and a lie: An investigation of the US Army's firing at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003- Download the report
- Will the Pentagon Target Journalists in Iraq? An Interview with Veteran BBC War Correspondent Kate Adie
- International Attorneys Announce Plans to Investigate War Crimes in Iraq: Alleged Crimes By Both U.S. and Iraq Would Be Examined
- US blamed for journalists' deaths
- U.S. Accused of Lying About Its Troops Killing Journalists in Iraq
Study: TV network newscasts harder on DeanDemocratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said Thursday it was up to Congress to determine whether President Bush's march to war in Iraq amounted to a criminal offense.
Asked if misleading the nation in going to war would be criminal, Clark told reporters, "I think that's a question Congress needs to ask. I think this Congress needs to investigate precisely" how the United States wound up in a war "that wasn't connected to the threat of al-Qaida."
President, greeted by protesters, lays wreath at King tombLOS ANGELES - Howard Dean received significantly more negative criticism on network newscasts than the other Democratic presidential contenders, according to a study released Thursday.
Maureen Dowd: The Doctor Is OutThe president has left Atlanta after a Thursday visit to lay a wreath at the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. and to attend a campaign fund-raiser.
Hundreds of protesters greeted President Bush in Atlanta shortly before 4 p.m. as he placed a wreath on the grave of Martin Luther King Jr. on what would have been the slain civil rights leader's 75th birthday.
Mahablog: Down With DowdIn worn jeans and old sneakers, the shy and retiring Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean looked like a crunchy Vermont hippie, blithely uncoiffed, unadorned, unstyled and unconcerned about not being at her husband's side -- the anti-Laura. You could easily imagine the din of Rush Limbaugh and Co. demonizing her as a counterculture fem-lib role model for the blue states.
While Elizabeth Edwards gazes up at John from the front row of his events here, while Jane Gephardt cheerfully endures her husband's "Dick and Jane" jokes, while Teresa Heinz Kerry jets around for "conversations" with caucusgoers -- yesterday she was at the Moo Moo Cafe in Keokuk at the southernmost tip of the state -- Judith Steinberg has shunned the role of helpmeet.
Note for readers wishing to respond to Dowd's comments: click here for information on how to send a letter to the editor to the New York Times.
Jailed Immigrants to Register for Draft 2 on 9/11 Panel Are Questioned on Earlier Security RolesNew Report: The State of the Dream: Black-White Gaps Still Wide -- Some Even Widening -- Since Dr. King's DeathWASHINGTON, Jan. 14 -- The executive director of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has become a witness in the inquiry and has been interviewed by his own staff about his involvement in shaping the Bush administration's early counterterrorism strategy, officials said on Wednesday.
In addition, one of the 10 commissioners on the panel, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, was also interviewed this week. The unusual dual roles of the director, Philip D. Zelikow, and the commissioner, Jamie S. Gorelick, have raised fresh questions about potential conflicts of interest in the commission, which has been dogged by concerns about its independence since it was created in 2002.
Crowds protest Bush visit to MLK tomb: In South, Bush pushes funding for religious groupsRacial inequities in unemployment, family income, imprisonment, average wealth and infant mortality are actually worse than when Dr. King was killed, according to United for a Fair Economy's new report, "The State of the Dream: Enduring Disparities in Black and White," by Dedrick Muhammad, Attieno Davis, Meizhu Lui and Betsy Leondar-Wright. The report, posted on the web with embargo at http://www.faireconomy.org/0115, contrasts the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with the reality of the continued racial divide.
Kathy Nicholas had planned to pay quiet tribute Thursday at the tomb of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. So had President Bush. The combination was anything but quiet.
Nicholas was among about 700 people who booed, chanted and beat drums near the typically placid grave site, angry that Bush was there on what would have been the slain civil rights leader's 75th birthday.
"When I heard Bush was coming here I couldn't believe it. I was outraged and disgusted, and I just think it's a photo op. It's so transparent," said Nicholas, a flight attendant who brought a sign that read: "Mr. Bush, May Dr. King's spirit rise up n welcome you, touch you n speak to you."
Wednesday, 14 January 2004
The Effects of Big Budget Deficits on Family FinancesLabor, Environment, Civil Rights, Business and Political Leaders Unite Behind Ambitious Energy Independence and Jobs Program: New Study Finds Strategic Investments in Clean Energy and Efficiency Would Create 3.3 Million High-Wage Jobs and Pay for ItselfTo put the deficits in perspective, five years from now the average family's share of the national debt will be more than $84,000, compared to a projected $500 per family when Bush took office.
Study Shows National Health Insurance Could Save $286 Billion on Health Care Paperwork: Authors Say Medicare Drug Bill Will Increase Bureaucratic Costs, Reward Insurers and the AARPWashington, D.C. -- An unusual alliance of labor, environmental, civil rights, business, and political leaders today laid out a vision for a "New Apollo Project" to create 3.3 million new jobs and achieve energy independence in ten years. Named after President Kennedy's moon program, which inspired a major national commitment to the aerospace industry, the Apollo Alliance aims to unify the country behind a ten-year program of strategic investment for clean energy technology and new infrastructure.
Report: US considering armed intervention in Syria (Jerusalem Post, 14 January 2004)A study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen to be published in Friday's International Journal of Health Services finds that health care bureaucracy last year cost the United States $399.4 billion. The study estimates that national health insurance (NHI) could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.
Michael Moore: I'll Be Voting For Wesley Clark / Good-Bye Mr. Bush Spain's PM Says Bush Acts Like an Emperor Election Year 2004: Why is the U.S. Refusing Iraqi Demands For Immediate Direct Elections? Juan Cole: Informed Consent US offer for Russian base exit Kennedy: Iraq war based on politics Gaza Bomber and Mother Wanted to 'Become Shrapnel' Female bomber kills four Israelis at entrance to Gaza Strip British peace activist shot by IDF dies in London hospital Muslim Groups' IRS Files Sought: Hill Panel Probing Alleged Terror TiesUS Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the civilian echelons of the Pentagon have proposed that President George Bush instigate military actions against Syria due to its continued support for Hizbullah and enabling terrorists to enter Iraq from its border.
Reports received by the Night Rider news group in Washington, operations will not include large-scale military intervention, in spite of several Pentagon officials' belief that Syria should be the next to go after Iraq. The Defense Department is considering punitive aerial attacks and Special Forces incursions.
Legality of Changing Iraq Is QuestionedThe Senate Finance Committee has asked the Internal Revenue Service to turn over confidential tax and financial records, including donor lists, on dozens of Muslim charities and foundations as part of a widening congressional investigation into alleged ties between tax-exempt organizations and terrorist groups, according to documents and officials.
Oil - Rich City Will Be Major Test for IraqWASHINGTON (AP) -- The old Iraq wasn't particularly hospitable to foreign investors, but L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator in the new Iraq, is making it clear that times have changed -- and a new era for outside entrepreneurs is at hand.
``This Order replaces all existing foreign investment law,'' Bremer said in a directive issued last September as part of the Coalition Provisional Authority's ongoing makeover of the nation Saddam Hussein once ruled.
Other U.S.-initiated decrees for Iraq include a free market economy, a 15 percent tax ceiling and a new banking code.
But questions are being raised about whether these and other moves are consistent with international law, particularly the Geneva conventions of 1949 and the Hague Resolutions of 1907, both ratified by the United States.
Hussein Warned Iraqis to Beware Outside Fighters, Document SaysKIRKUK, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's long-suppressed Kurds have converged on oil-rich Kirkuk to claim it as their own, setting the stage for a struggle that will profoundly affect this country once the Americans hand over power to a new Iraqi leadership.
Racial Disparities Played Down: At Request of Top Officials, Report on Health Care Differs From DraftWASHINGTON, Jan. 13 -- Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.
The document appears to be a directive, written after he lost power, from Mr. Hussein to leaders of the Iraqi resistance, counseling caution against getting too close to Islamic jihadists and other foreign Arabs coming into occupied Iraq, according to American officials.
It provides a second piece of evidence challenging the Bush administration contention of close cooperation between Mr. Hussein's government and terrorists from Al Qaeda. C.I.A. interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Mr. Hussein.
Administration Alters Rules on Ethics Waivers: Only White House Can Approve Key Officials' Job Talks With FirmsA federal report on racial disparities in health care was revised at the behest of top administration officials -- and a comparison with an earlier draft shows that the version released in December played down the imbalances and was less critical of the lack of equality.
Government officials acknowledged and defended the changes yesterday, even as critics charged that the Department of Health and Human Services rewrote what was to be a scientific road map for change to put a positive spin on a public health crisis: Minorities receive less care, and less high-quality care, than whites, across a broad range of diseases.
U.S. Wins Trade - Zone Agreement at SummitThe White House has ordered all federal agencies to stop issuing ethics waivers that allow key officials to negotiate jobs with private companies while they are shaping federal policies important to the potential employers.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. issued a memo last week saying that, effective immediately, only the White House can approve such waivers. The administration portrayed the directive as part of an overall effort to strengthen government ethics.
But congressional sources and outside advocacy groups said the Jan. 6 memo appeared related to the recent job change of a top presidential adviser involved in last year's overhaul of Medicare. The official, Thomas A. Scully, took jobs last month with a law firm and an investment company that deal with health care. Scully was contacted by several companies while he was negotiating the complicated Medicare legislation approved by Congress in November.
The Challenge Ahead: What Bush Needs to Duplicate the Success of Apollo U.S. Plans Mission to Mars Bush Seeks $1B for Moon, Mars Missions Feeney: U.S. Has Moral Authority to Control Space From Scarborough Country transcript, 09 January 2004Canada and Mexico won the biggest prizes from the United States. President Bush told Canada it will be eligible for a second round of U.S.-financed reconstruction contracts in Iraq valued by the administration at about $4.5 billion.
Dean Defeats Sharpton In D.C. Protest PrimaryFEENEY: Somebody is going to dominate space. When they do, just like when the British dominated the naval part of our globe, established their empire, just like the United States has dominated the air superiority, ultimately, whoever is able to dominate space will be able to control the destiny of the entire Earth. And I think America is the only country with the moral capability and authority to establish what I consider a Monroe Doctrine in space, guarantee all free nations can use space, but no hostile nation will use it to take us over.
Bush Readies His Call for a Return to Space Exploration Bush's vision for Nasa raises budget fearsFormer Vermont governor Howard Dean beat Al Sharpton in yesterday's nonbinding D.C. primary, an election that for many participants was more about protesting the city's lack of congressional representation than electing the next president.
[...]
"We're going to build a rainbow coalition to take over this country for the people who own it," Dean told his supporters.
The neoconservative agenda
Only weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon unit to create the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation to war.
Tuesday, 13 January 2004
Bogdanoff certified as 12-vote winnerCan PM Appease Bush?Ellyn Bogdanoff's 12-vote victory margin over Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Mayor Oliver Parker ultimately held up in the House District 91 race, but controversy swirled after 137 voters in parts of Boca Raton and coastal Broward County went to the polls but didn't cast a vote for any candidate.
State Rep. Joe Negron doesn't think that many people would go to the polls without voting.
The result raises suspicions about the accuracy of the electronic equipment. But the absence of a paper trail means there's nothing that can be done to verify the results shown by the electronic devices.
UN Aims to Study Link Between Environment, Wars Bush Disputes Ex-Official's Claim That Iraq War Was Early GoalSome refer to George W. Bush as another Hitler. This is a gross exaggeration. He has constructed no death camps and only one concentration camp -- at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
While it does seem, in Nuremberg terms, that Bush could be called a war criminal (invading other countries on the flimsiest of pretexts), he has not engaged in genocide. Nor, unlike Volkswagen supporter Hitler, does he promote the production of small, cheap cars.
True, both came to power constitutionally (although under dubious circumstances and with the support of only a minority of voters). True, both masterfully used traumatic events at home (the 1933 Reichstag fire for Hitler; 9/11 for Bush) to make a frightened and resentful populace accept restrictions on civil liberties.
True, also, that the U.S. leader shares Hitler's taste for military costumes -- although to be fair to the German dictator, he did serve on active duty in wartime.
But overall, the comparison is far from exact, lending credence to Karl Marx's famous comment that when history repeats itself, the first time is tragedy, the second, farce.
Still, for Canada and novice Prime Minister Paul Martin -- currently trying to engage Bush in Monterrey, Mexico -- there are certain similarities. Like central European nations of the 1930s, Canada finds itself next door to a powerful nation led by an unusually aggressive and perhaps slightly unhinged man. What to do?
Latin Americans Blame US for Hellish Problems Bush Admits He Targeted Saddam from the Start: Comments could boost criticism of president's case for war against Iraq Bush Told U.S.-Imposed Policies Are 'Perverse' Natural Aesthetes: Forget about Usefulness, Beauty Alone is Reason Enough to Justify Conservation Famed Iowa space expert opposes Bush space plan"And in the initial stages of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with desert badger or fly-overs and fly-betweens and looks, and so we were fashioning policy along those lines," Mr. Bush continued, apparently referring to confrontations with Iraq over the no-flight zones. "And then all of a sudden September the 11th hit."
Bush admits he wanted regime change before 11 September House of horrorsDES MOINES -- An Iowa physicist considered to be one of the founding fathers of space exploration opposes Bush administration plans for a space station on the moon and a manned mission to Mars.
James Van Allen, the namesake for the Van Allen Belts of intense radiation that encircle the earth, said Monday that such manned space missions have become too expensive and better results can be gained by robotic spacecraft.
"I'm quite unimpressed by any arguments for it," Van Allen, 89, said in an interview from his office at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
China, US sign deal on nuclear non-proliferation Sino-US statement on nuclear energy conducive to cooperation: FM China, Russia hopeful on North Korea crisis, as Americans brief Japan Ex-pitcher decries war in IraqYesterday, millions of Britons woke up to the news that our daily personal hygiene routines could be making us ill. A study at the University of Reading linked chemicals called parabens in underarm deodorants with a possible breast-cancer risk, after discovering traces of parabens - preservatives thought to mimic oestrogens - in human breast tumour samples.
Rumsfeld aide rapped A Confident Prescription for Foiling the Terrorists G.I.'s Fire on Family in Car, Killing 2, Witnesses Say U.S. Helicopter Shot Down West of Baghdad; Crew Survives US military 'brutalised' journalists"The CIA's now going through its archives to find out if there was any bit of intelligence there that could have helped them make a better decision on Iraq when all they had to do was look at some American Web sites," Bouton said in an interview.
Responding to a fan who asked him in October 2002 if he favored a U.S. invasion of Iraq, Bouton wrote on his Web site: "No. For the simple reason that we lack the cross-cultural expertise -- wide fluency in middle eastern languages would be a minimum -- to manage the aftermath of such a war. Of course, if we had that expertise, we might not have to fight in the first place. Our weapons scientists are way ahead of our social scientists. We are cowboys with lasers. Monkeys at the control of a rocket ship."
Israel goes ahead with plans for border changes Bush's Press Problem Jim Lobe: Neo-conservatism, hardcoreAlthough Reuters has not commented publicly, it is understood that the journalists were "brutalised and intimidated" by US soldiers, who put bags over their heads, told them they would be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and whispered: "Let's have sex."
At one point during the interrogation, according to the family of one of the staff members, a US soldier shoved a shoe into the mouth one of the Iraqis.
The US troops, from the 82nd Airborne Division, based in Falluja, also made the blindfolded journalists stand for hours with their arms raised and their palms pressed against the cell wall.
[...]
On January 2 Reuters' Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi, Falluja stringer Ahmed Mohammed Hussein al-Badrani and driver Sattar Jabar al-Badrani turned up at the crash site where a US Kiowa Warrior helicopter had just been shot down, killing one soldier.
The journalists were all wearing bulletproof jackets clearly marked "press". They drove off after US soldiers who were securing the scene opened fire on their Mercedes, but were arrested shortly afterwards.
[...]
Last night the nephew of veteran Reuters driver and latterly cameraman Mr Ureibi said that US troops had forced his uncle to strip naked and had ordered him to put his shoe in his mouth.
"He protested that he was a journalist but they stuck a shoe in his mouth anyway. They also hurt his leg. One of the soldiers told him: 'If you don't shut up we'll fuck you.'"
[...]
Last August a US soldier shot dead another Reuters cameraman, Mazen Dana, after mistaking his camera for a rocket launcher while he filmed outside a Baghdad prison.
An internal US investigation later cleared him of wrongdoing. During the war last April another of the agency's cameramen, Ukrainian Taras Protswuk, was killed after a US tank fired a shell directly into his room in the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, from where he had been filming.
Democracy Now! debate between Richard Perle and Paul Krugman Justices Allow Policy of Silence on 9/11 DetaineesWASHINGTON - If hardcore neo-conservatives Richard Perle and David Frum had their way, the Bush administration would be issuing ultimatums on virtually a daily basis.
O'Neill Says He Did Not Believe Documents Under Scrutiny Were Secret Dixie Trap for Democrats in Presidential Race Bush says he inherited policy of "regime change" from Clinton Tuition fees, Iraq and Kelly row could end it all for BlairKate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said in an interview Monday that the issues in the case remained important despite the release of most of those who had been arrested. Ms. Martin said the appeals court had given its blessing to "a secrecy regime in which arrests are off the public docket, people are held in secret, deported in secret, and two and a half years later, we still don't know the names."
Monday, 12 January 2004
No safety net for programmers O'Neill says Cheney told him, `Deficits don't matter'Justices to Weigh Presidential Powers Gay marriage inevitable: State has no grounds to discriminate Gov't Seeks Probe Amid O'Neill InterviewO'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits posed a threat to the economy.
Cheney cut him off, O'Neill said. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms [congressional elections]. This is our due."
Asked about that claim, Bush responded Monday: ``Like the previous administration, we were for regime change. And in the initial stage of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with Desert Badger or flyovers and fly-betweens and looks. And so we were fashioning policy along those lines. And then, all of a sudden, September the 11th hit.''
- President Bush, President Fox Meet with Reporters in Mexico: Remarks by President Bush and President Fox of Mexico in Press Availability
- Transcript of the meeting between President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox in Monterrey, Mexico, on Monday as transcribed by eMediaMillWorks Inc.
U.S. Soldiers Kill 2 Iraqis After Bomb Explodes Near Convoy Late Review Justices Refuse to Review Case on Secrecy and 9/11 Detentions Amnesty International USA: Secret Detentions Provide a Tempting Environment in Which Additional Human Rights Abuses Likely to Occur War College Study Calls Iraq a 'Detour': Institute's report warns anti-terror campaign may launch 'open-ended and gratuitous conflict.' Latin America Squares up to US: Anti-Bush Sentiments Surface at Regional Summit Poll: Alternative News Gaining InfluenceNumber of days between Novak column outing Valerie Plame and announcement of investigation: 74 days.
Number of days between O'Neill 60 Minutes interview and announcement of investigation: 1 day.
The Decline And Fall Of The American Job: VIEW FROM THE LEFT Culture of indifference leaves America open to BSE Clark Says O'Neill Book Vindicates Him 9/11 panelists eye Bush, Bill Supreme Court OKs Secrecy for Post-9/11 Arrests Bush Visits Neighbors No Longer So Friendly Rage of a Relic: Paul O'Neill is angry that the world has passed him by.WASHINGTON (AP) -- People are shifting from traditional news sources such as newspapers and nightly network news for information about the presidential campaign, a poll found.
At the first meeting of the president's cabinet, Mr. O'Neill passed out copies of a speech he gave in 1998 in which he said that there were two issues that transcend all others: "One is nuclear holocaust. . . . The second is environmental: specifically, the issue of global climate change and the potential of global warming."
Sunday, 11 January 2004
In a Logistical Ballet, U.S. Is Bringing In Fresh Forces to IraqIn the Center of Baghdad, an Escape to AmericaKUWAIT, Jan. 5 -- In long neat rows, as far as one can see, hundreds of American armored personnel carriers, artillery pieces, trucks and other machines of war are parked at this sprawling port, ready to load onto transport ships for the trip home from the conflict in Iraq.
W & aides broadcast media hateBAGHDAD, Iraq -- Behind tall concrete barriers and rolls of razor wire, the United States Army has converted a former Iraqi Republican Guard officers' club here in the heart of Baghdad into a little American oasis for war-weary soldiers.
The Barreling Bushes: Four generations of the dynasty have chased profits through cozy ties with Mideast leaders, spinning webs of conflicts of interest 5 Journalists Won't Name Sources: Wen Ho Lee Is Suing U.S. Over Leaks From Spy Probe New Army war college report blasts Bush on war on terrorism Baker Backed Loans That Added to Iraq DebtYet George W. Bush tells New Yorker writer Ken Auletta: "No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Now assigned the task of reducing Iraq's debt, presidential envoy James A. Baker III once gave crucial support for continuing a billion-dollar loan program to Saddam Hussein's government that accounts for most of the money Iraq still owes the United States.
Saturday, 10 January 2004
U.S. Negotiating to Release Many Held at GuantánamoNo to Bio-Political TattooingWASHINGTON, Jan. 9 -- A senior State Department official said the administration was negotiating the release of many of the prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay naval base to the custody of their home governments over the next several months, according to a transcript released Friday.
Confessions of a White House Insider: A book about Treasury's Paul O'Neill paints a presidency where ideology and politics rule the day Despite report, Cheney says war was justified Francis Boyle: America's Endemic Cycle of Warfare: The Deep Scars of WarThe newspapers leave no doubt: from now on whoever wants to go to the United States with a visa will be put on file and will have to leave their fingerprints when they enter the country. Personally, I have no intention of submitting myself to such procedures and that's why I didn't wait to cancel the course I was supposed to teach at New York University in March.
Sorrows of empire: Dr. King's Speech on war and peaceAccording to my father, immediately prior to the invasions of Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa, his Captain issued direct orders to his Company not to take Japanese prisoners of war on the grounds of reciprocity: "The Japs don't take prisoners of our men, so I don't want to see any Nip soldiers cluttering up our rear lines!" Notwithstanding, my father took surrendering Japanese soldiers as prisoners of war, escorted them to the rear of the line, and then returned to battle. When the odds are overwhelming that you will meet your Maker in any instant, you want to do so with a clear conscience. I tell this story to my law students when they object that it is unrealistic to expect soldiers to obey the laws of war during the heat of combat.
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I do not believe it was my father's intention, but as a result of hearing over many years his stories about the terrors and horrors of combat in the Pacific, he turned me against war and violence as a solution to human problems. War is always the ultimate defeat for the human spirit. War is an abomination on the face of God's Creation. There had to be a better way. Law is that better way. I had the same reaction while reading through Rick Anderson's powerful new book, Home Front.
We Americans cannot keep sending our young men and now women off to fight and to die, or to survive with terrible physical and mental injuries, scarred for the rest of their lives by the horrors of warfare as my father was. Every American who has a child contemplating joining the military for any reason should buy him or her a copy of this book to read. I have three sons, and I will be sure to give a copy of this book to each of them.
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Rick Anderson's Home Front should be required reading in every American high school in order to counteract the outright pro-war propaganda, militarization, and military solicitation currently being inflicted upon our children by the Pentagon and the news media. It should also be required reading for beginning college courses in political science, history, and the other social sciences. Finally, Home Front is a very powerful tool for those of us in the American Peace Movement to use in order to stop the Bush Jr. Administration's attempt to create an American hydrocarbon empire abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia and elsewhere by means of exploiting and manipulating the members of U.S. armed forces as pawns in their geopolitical Game of Chess for oil, natural gas, profits, and amassing personal family fortunes in the process. We need as many loyal, patriotic, humanitarian, and principled American citizens as possible to read this book, contemplate its lessons, and then act upon them: Stop these wars!
January 10, 2004--Thirty-six years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a speech that changed my life. I was a student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1967, during the peak of the Vietnam war. Almost by accident a friend invited me across the street to hear Dr. King deliver a comprehensive anti-war address at Riverside Church.
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I left Riverside Church inspired by the intensity of the event. The following day, King's patriotic address caused an outcry in the Media. TIME magazine called it "demagogic slander, a script for Radio Hanoi."
Friday, 09 January 2004
Cheney Target of Criminal Investigation Rice: No Evidence Iraq Moved WMD to Syria Survival of the fittest- Peace? No chance
- A new exodus for the Middle East?
- Radical Israeli in u-turn on Palestinians
- Palestine and population transfer
- A betrayal of history
- Was Barak telling the truth?
- Moshe Carmel
- Arafat didn't negotiate - he just kept saying no
Secret photo of a cowering dictator "I killed people. I did it for my country"The independent environment advocacy group, Worldwatch Institute, has released the 20th issue of its annual report, State of the World 2004, which this year focuses on the serious consequences resulting from growing rates of consumption of goods and services around the world. The study says current rates of consumption harm the environment and are unsustainable.
Thursday, 08 January 2004
Is the US military torturing Iraqis with electricity?More youths locked up, study finds The domination effectIt is documented by both the hospital and Iraqi Red Crescent in Tikrit (who took the photos of Mr. Abrahim), that the Americans dropped the comatose man off with the aforementioned information.
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The doctors at the hospital in Tikrit, after performing diagnostic tests, informed the family that Mr. Abrahim had suffered massive head trauma, electrocution, and other bruises on his arms. An EKG proved that his heart was functioning perfectly. The family was told that he was in an unrecoverable state and would be in a coma for the rest of his life from the obvious trauma suffered.
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How do you explain the massive head trauma, the burns on the bottoms of his feet caused by electrocution and bruises on his arms, if he had only suffered a heart attack as the medical report provided by the Americans states?
"Information dominance" came of age during the conflict in Iraq. It is a little discussed but highly significant part of the US government strategy of "full spectrum dominance", integrating propaganda and news media into the military command structure more fundamentally than ever before.
In the past, propaganda involved managing the media. Information dominance, by contrast, sees little distinction between command and control systems, propaganda and journalism. They are all types of "weaponized information" to be deployed. As strategic expert Colonel Kenneth Allard noted, the 2003 attack on Iraq "will be remembered as a conflict in which information fully took its place as a weapon of war".
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Achieving information dominance according to American military experts, involves two components: first, "building up and protecting friendly information; and degrading information received by your adversary". Seen in this context, embedding journalists in Iraq was a clear means of building up "friendly" information. An MoD-commissioned commercial analysis of the print output produced by embeds shows that 90% of their reporting was either "positive or neutral".
The second component is "the ability to deny, degrade, destroy and/or effectively blind enemy capabilities". "Unfriendly" information must be targeted. This is perhaps best illustrated by the attack on al-Jazeera's office in Kabul in 2001, which the Pentagon justified by claiming al-Qaida activity in the al-Jazeera office. As it turned out, this referred to broadcast interviews with Taliban officials. The various attacks on al-Jazeera in Kabul, Basra and Baghdad should also be seen in this context.
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The new TV service for Iraq was paid for by the Pentagon. In keeping with the philosophy of information dominance it was supplied, not by an independent news organisation, but by a defence contractor, Scientific Applications International Corporation (Saic). Its expertise in the area - according to its website - is in "information operations" and "information dominance".
- David Miller homepage
- The
perils of trying to legitimise torture
The deportation of terrorist suspects to countries where torture is common or to places where their basic human rights are suspended - such as Guantánamo Bay - and the argument that torture can be 'justified' in certain extreme circumstances, are policies fraught with danger, writes former Beirut hostage Terry Waite. "Torture is wrong because once it becomes an instrument of the state then the state begins to descend down the road to lawlessness."
- Playing
piano in the war whorehouse
CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour says the US media allowed themselves to be 'intimidated' into following the US official line in Iraq. Veteran journalist Nicholas von Hoffman takes a tougher view... 'Simply put,' he argues, 'the American mass media put itself at the service of the state'.
- A
perspective on injustice
The hatred that some of the world feels for America is perhaps easier for its black citizens to understand than its white, argues Walter Mosely.
- Talking
dirty to the American people
An estimated 22 per cent of Americans get their daily news from Talk Radio - bizarre, bigoted and often startlingly misinformed diatribes from radio show hosts hired for their ability to shock first and foremost. TV journalist Sheila MacVicar visited a few and was appropriately shocked.
- Reading
between the enemy lines
How can Iraqi reporters balance their articles when the way to getting 'the other side of the story' is blocked by a tank? Rohan Jayasekera comments from Baghdad.
- Gives with
one hand, takes away with the other
Iraq's all-powerful civilian chief L. Paul Bremer III will not tolerate 'hate speech' from Iraq's newly freed media. To prove it he has assigned himself absolute power over the Iraqi press. Freedom of expression is in his gift and only the 'responsible' may enjoy it. Rohan Jayasekera comments.
- A
limit to the demands of military security
Index on Censorship Associate Editor Rohan Jayasekera in Baghdad urges supporters of independent regulation of the new Iraqi media to stand firm against any desire of the US authorities to control the press in the name of security.
No proof links Iraq, al-Qaida, Powell says Powell Refutes Think-Tank Report on Iraq: Analysis Claims Hussein Did Not Pose an Imminent ThreatWASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Thursday that he saw no "smoking gun, concrete evidence" of ties between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda terror network, but insisted that Iraq had dangerous weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.
Powell Refutes Think-Tank Report on IraqSecretary of State Colin L. Powell today rejected a Washington think tank's assertion that Iraq posed no imminent threat to the United States last year, and he defended the case he made to the United Nations to justify going to war.
'US exaggerated Iraqi threat'WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Thursday that he had seen no "smoking gun, concrete evidence" of ties between Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terror network, but insisted that Iraq had had dangerous weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.
Carnegie group says Bush made wrong claims on WMDWashington - An influential think tank said on Thursday that President George W Bush's administration "systematically" misrepresented and exaggerated the threats presented by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Warming May Threaten 37% of Species by 2050The Bush administration will today be accused of "systematically misrepresenting" the threat posed by "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" in a comprehensive report on post-war findings.
Painting depicts Bush holding bin Laden's head U.S. Withdraws a Team of Weapons Hunters From IraqIn the first study of its kind, researchers in a range of habitats including northern Britain, the wet tropics of northeastern Australia and the Mexican desert said yesterday that global warming at currently predicted rates will drive 15 to 37 percent of living species toward extinction by mid-century.
Wednesday, 07 January 2004
The battle has only just begun: New book lays out a bold program to defend America -- and win the war on terror US Wounded Totals Remain High In Iraq: Defense Figures Illustrate The Ongoing Dangers Democrats' Attacks on Dean Enhance Bush's Re-election Prospects Ted Rall: Pipe DreamsCase Yields Chilling Signs of Domestic Terror Plot: Arms cache in Texas leads to convictions but few answers. Critics fault focus on foreign threats.It's not the sort of thing the U.S. media cares to report, but there has in fact been movement on the proposed Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (TAP). The Asian Development Bank, which hopes to finance a consortium of oil companies to finance the $3.5 billion (originally $2 billion) project, has already spent millions of dollars on feasibility studies and surveys along the proposed route from Herat, a city near Afghanistan's northwest border with Turkmenistan, to Kandahar, the former Taliban spiritual capital close to the southeastern frontier with Pakistan. The U.S.-led occupation coalition has promised to make paving the future TAP service highway the nation's top rebuilding priority. The ADB has hosted meetings between officials of Afghanistan and the two nations on each end of the thousand-mile-long conduit: Turkmenistan, which would ship Kazakh crude oil and its own natural gas from its Daultebad refineries, and Pakistan, which hopes to export the energy resources to deep-sea tankers via its Multan port on the Arabian Sea.
Turkmen prime minister Yolly Gurganmuradov, Afghan minister of mines and industry Mehfooz Nedai and Pakistani petroleum minister Nouraiz Shakoor held their seventh TAP meeting in Islamabad on December 10, 2003, where they decided on a 2010 target date for completion. Official groundbreaking for TAP, predicted to occur last year during a rash of post-Mullah Omar optimism, now awaits ADB verification that Pakistan can handle the anticipated volume of Turkmen gas. That study won't be completed until at least September 2004.
Iraq's Arsenal Was Only on Paper: Since Gulf War, Nonconventional Weapons Never Got Past the Planning StageHOUSTON -- One evening two winters ago, a man in Staten Island, N.Y., absent-mindedly flipped through his mail. Inside one envelope was a stack of fake documents, including United Nations and Defense Department identification cards, and a note: "We would hate to have this fall into the wrong hands."
Presidential candidates on the issues: Fuel efficiency Monsanto accused of price-fixingBAGHDAD -- Of all Iraq's rocket scientists, none drew warier scrutiny abroad than Modher Sadeq-Saba Tamimi.
An engineering PhD known for outsized energy and gifts, Tamimi, 47, designed and built a new short-range missile during Iraq's four-year hiatus from United Nations arms inspections. Inspectors who returned in late 2002, enforcing Security Council limits, ruled that the Al Samoud missile's range was not quite short enough. The U.N. team crushed the missiles, bulldozed them into a pit and entombed the wreckage in concrete. In one of three interviews last month, Tamimi said "it was as if they were killing my sons."
N.J. leads states in disparity of blacks in prison Argentine president blasts Bush administrationMonsanto, the corporate driving force behind the development of genetically modified food, held frequent meetings with its chief competitors and persuaded them to raise the price of GM seeds, it was reported yesterday.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentine President Nestor Kirchner tossed diplomacy out the window Wednesday, saying his nation does not take orders from Washington and predicting Argentina will "win by a knockout" in a hastily arranged meeting with President Bush in Mexico next week.
Tuesday, 06 January 2004
A Fistful of Kryptonite Against SuperGeorge...Eric Schlosser: USDA is too dominated by cattle industryFor George to remain SuperGeorge throughout his term of office, and thus to pull the country behind him for an FDR-sized transformation of the nation on behalf of his corporate masters, George needs a war every bit as huge as FDR's WWII. And that requires Osama to be as big as Hitler in the minds of Americans. Thus, Richard Perle writes in his breathless and hyperbolic new book An End To Evil: "There is no middle way for Americans: It is victory or holocaust."
Dave Lindorff: RNC Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads George Monbiot: On the edge of lunacyAlisa Harrison has worked tirelessly the last couple of weeks to spread the message that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, is not a risk to American consumers.
James Carroll: But George McGovern was right Senator Urges White House on Leak ProbeAid has always been an instrument of foreign policy. During the cold war, it was used to buy the loyalties of states that might otherwise have crossed to the other side. Even today, the countries that receive the most money tend to be those that are of greatest strategic use to the donor nation, which is why the US gives more to Israel than it does to sub-Saharan Africa.
But foreign policy is also driven by commerce, and in particular by the needs of domestic exporters. Aid goes to countries that can buy our manufacturers' products. Sometimes it doesn't go to countries at all, but straight to the manufacturers. A US government website boasts that "the principal beneficiary of America's foreign assistance programs has always been the United States. Close to 80% of the US Agency for International Development's contracts and grants go directly to American firms."
A doctor working in Gondar hospital in Ethiopia wrote to me recently to spell out what this means. The hospital has none of the basic textbooks on tropical diseases it needs. But it does have 21 copies of an 800-page volume called Aesthetic Facial Surgery and 24 volumes of a book called Opthalmic Pathology. There is no opthalmic pathologist in training in Ethiopia. The poorest nation on Earth, unsurprisingly, has no aesthetic plastic surgeons. The US had spent $2m on medical textbooks that American publishers hadn't been able to sell at home, called them aid and dumped them in Ethiopia.
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So there are rich pickings for organisations like the Adam Smith Institute. It is being hired by DfID as a consultancy, telling countries like South Africa how to flog off the family silver. It is hard to see how this helps the poor. The South African government's preparations for privatisation, according to a study by the Municipal Services Project, led to almost 10 million people having their water cut off, 10 million people having their electricity cut off, and over 2 million people being evicted from their homes for non-payment of bills.
What we see here, in other words, is a revival of an ancient British charitable tradition. During the Irish potato famine, the British government made famine relief available to the starving, but only if they agreed to lose their tenancies on the land. The 1847 Poor Law Extension Act cleared Ireland for the landlords. Today, the British government is helping the corporations to seize not only the land from the poor, but also the water, the utilities, the mines, the schools, the health services and anything else they might find profitable. And you and I are paying for it.
All this was pioneered by the sainted Clare Short. Short's trick was to retain her radical credentials by publicly criticising the work of other departments, while retaining her job by pursuing in her own department policies that were far more vicious and destructive than those she attacked. Blair's trick was to keep her there, to assure old Labour voters that they still had a voice in government, while ensuring that Short did precisely what his corporate backers wanted.
Why Did Attorney General Ashcroft Remove Himself From The Valerie Plame Wilson Leak Investigation? Signs that a Key Witness May Have Come Forward 3 Top Enforcement Officials Say They Will Leave E.P.A.WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Democratic senator called on the White House Tuesday to require staffers to cancel reporter confidentiality agreements so the journalists might tell investigators whether a Bush administration official leaked a CIA operative's name.
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In a letter sent to White House chief of staff Andrew Card, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., argued that the White House staff has only ``partially cooperated'' with Justice Department investigators by turning over phone and e-mail records.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 -- Three top enforcement officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have resigned or retired in the last two weeks, including two lawyers who were architects of the agency's litigation strategy against coal-burning power plants.
The timing of the departures and comments by at least one of the officials who is leaving suggest that some have left out of frustration with the Bush administration's policy toward enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
Monday, 05 January 2004
How Will Bush Deal With the Deficits? Connecting the Dots to Iraq Iraq Police Chief Says U.S. Army Gunned Down Family US Begins Fingerprinting, Photographing Foreign Visitors Iraqi 'died after beating by British' Bob Herbert: Getting Away With . . .Sunday, 04 January 2004
Turkmenbashi Everywhere Quarantining Dissent: How the Secret Service Protects Bush from Free SpeechWhen Presiden