U.S.
Military Seeks Broad Exemptions from Environmental Laws
(Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service, April 25, 2002)
Defense department officials argued that the U.S. military
needs blanket exemptions from environmental laws for almost
all military activities in order to protect national security.
Conservation groups lashed back in a press conference this
afternoon, calling the proposal "unacceptable" and
warning that the military is asking for carte blanche to pollute.
. . . The DoD is seeking exemptions from some of the
nation's most important environmental statutes, including
the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Superfund
law, among others. . . . "We firmly believe no
government should be above the law including the laws that
protect the air and water in and around our military facilities,
the health of the people who live on bases and nearby, and
America's wildlife and public lands," . . . The amendments
offered by the DoD could prevent the enforcement of most environmental
statutes on military bases. . . . In addition, the military
would not be required to clean up contamination on a base,
or stop its migration, until someone documented that the pollution
had moved beyond the boundaries of a military site. That could
allow extensive pollution of underground drinking water .
. . Environmental experts at today's press conference noted
that there has never been a case where the Clean Air Act,
the Superfund law, or any of a myriad of other environmental
statutes have kept the military from training
Quietly
Florida Admits 2000 Election Fraud
(The Associated Press, April 26, 2002)
A federal judge has approved a settlement between Leon County
and civil rights groups that sued over widespread voting problems
in the 2000 presidential election in Florida. . . . The state
and six other counties remain in the case brought by the NAACP
and four other groups who sued in a dispute that grew out
of the long-uncertain results of Florida's vote for president.
. . . "There was nothing they were seeking that was impossible
to achieve," Ion Sancho, Leon County supervisor of elections,
said Friday. "I've been a proponent of settlement from
the moment the lawsuit was filed." . . . The groups that
sued agreed that the settlement "achieves some if not
all of the relief" they could have obtained at trial,
according to the court order dropping Leon from the lawsuit
last week. . . . The county agreed to address disputes
over voting, voter registration and voting lists and will
meet with community groups to boost registration, with special
efforts targeting minorities and college students.
. . . Statewide, the largest numbers of voting problems were
found in precincts with high proportions of black and elderly
voters. . . . Under the settlement, both sides will work to
restore voters who were wrongly removed from voters lists
in the 2000 election. Many law-abiding voters across the state
said their names were dropped because they were mistakenly
pegged as ex-cons, who generally aren't allowed to vote in
Florida.
Bush
Seeking to Squeeze School Loan Program
(Philip Shenon, t r u t h o u t, April 28, 2002)
The Bush administration is seeking to ease its budget shortfalls
by squeezing $1.3 billion from a federal student loan program,
administration and Congressional officials said today. The
proposal would prevent millions of college students and graduates
from consolidating their education loans to lock in low interest
rates. . . . Democratic Congressional leaders are expected
to fiercely oppose the move, which is projected to save an
estimated $1.3 billion for the government this year, as unfair
to the millions of Americans who depend on federal student
loans. . . . The president and his budget director are
finally being honest about their misguided priorities - more
tax cuts for Enron paid for by effectively raising taxes on
middle-class students and their families,"
Policy
Divide Thwarts Powell in Mideast Effort - Defense Dept.'s
Influence Frustrates State Dept.
(Alan Sipress, t r u t h o u t, April 26, 2002)
State Department officials say Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell has been repeatedly undercut by other senior policymakers
in his effort to break the Middle East deadlock, warning this
has left U.S. diplomacy paralyzed at an especially volatile
moment. . . . They partly fault what they said was the administration's
unwillingness to stand behind Powell, especially in pressuring
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw his forces
from West Bank cities and hold accelerated talks with the
Palestinians. . . . Many in the State Department cite
resistance to their diplomatic efforts coming from Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has more of a voice in shaping
Middle East policy than his predecessors. . . . The
opinions of Rumsfeld and his key lieutenants, notably Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of
Defense Douglas J. Feith, figure prominently because the Pentagon
has been given a seat at interagency discussions over the
Middle East conflict. In recent years, the peace process was
largely the purview of the State Department and the White
House. . . . The rift in President Bush's inner circle,
some State Department officials said, has left the administration's
policy "dead in the water." These officials
use words like "despondent" and "disheartened"
to describe the mood in Foggy Bottom, saying they cannot remember
a time in recent years when they have felt so badly beaten
up. . . . With Powell back from the region, Bush has yet to
resolve what a former State Department official called the
"battle royal" between Defense and State, delaying
the adoption of a plan on how to proceed.
Posted April 28, 2002
The
Case for Bush Administration Advance Knowledge of 9-11 Attacks
(Michael C. Ruppert, April 22, 2002)
A dispassionate examination of existing reliable, open-source
evidence on advance warnings of the Sept. 11 attacks provides
strong and sustainable grounds to conclude the Bush Administration
was in possession of sufficient advance intelligence to have
prevented the attacks, had it wished to do so. . . . the
German intelligence service, the BND, warned both the CIA
and Israel that Middle Eastern terrorists were "planning
to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack
important symbols of American and Israeli culture."
The story specifically referred to an electronic eavesdropping
system known as Echelon, wherein a number of countries tap
cell phone and electronic communications in partner countries
and then pool the information. The BND warnings were also
passed to the United Kingdom. . . . Russian President Vladimir
Putin stated that he had ordered Russian intelligence to warn
the USG "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent
assaults on airports and government buildings before the attacks
on Sept. 11. . . . Rather than viewing each of the four listed
areas as a separate piece of evidence, they should be considered
as a body, in the exact same way exhibits presented to a jury
in a criminal trial are viewed as a body. By viewing the evidence
in this manner, an unavoidable conclusion is reached -- the
USG knew 25 suicide hijackers during the week of Sept. 9 were
going to use United and American airlines commercial planes,
some of them likely originating in Boston, to attack the WTC
and the Pentagon.
Posted April 26, 2002
On
Stopping Open-ended, Permanent War on Terrorism
(Congressman Dennis Kucinich)
Congress authorized a police action to apprehend the conspirators
behind the September 11 attack. Congress did not declare
war because the President did not ask Congress to declare
war. Yet, the Administration is conducting itself as if it
were engaged in a declared war, sending military special
operations forces to many new countries and ramping up defense
spending. . . . This war footing will ultimately make the
world a more dangerous place. . . . The USA Patriot Act, which
65 of my colleagues and I opposed, allows widespread wiretapping
and internet surveillance without judicial supervision. It
also allows secret searches without a warrant and
gives the Attorney General the power to determine what is
and isn't a domestic terrorist group. The law allows the U.S.
government to imprison suspected terrorists for an indefinite
period of time without due process or access to family members
or lawyers. Last November, the President announced his intention
to establish military tribunals as well.
Posted April 25, 2002
The
End Of America's Prestige
(Charley Reese, PalestineChronicle.com, April 24 2002)
We are living in the ruins of a once-great republic. Now
an empire utterly devoid of moral authority, the United States
has nothing left but its military power and its capacity to
consume on credit. . . . Where the world's great leaders
will come from in the future, I don't know, but they will
not be Americans. . . . Mediocrity in full bloom. Weak men
with ambition but no principles. They are devious men, skilled
at concealing their personal ambition in patriotic or compassionate
rhetoric, depending on which constituency they are trying
to bamboozle at the moment. . . . Powell has disgraced
himself. . . . He has not uttered a single word of
public criticism of Israel, while Amnesty International, the
United Nations Human Rights Commission and even Israeli human-rights
groups have leveled blistering criticism at Israel's beastly
policy and actions. . . . Robert Fisk, the great correspondent
of The Independent in London, wrote recently: "Mr.
Powell's weakness, his failure of nerve, his cowardice are
now likely to set off an Israeli-Palestinian war even more
terrible than what we have witnessed so far. ... Thanks
to Mr. Powell, President Bush and Mr. Sharon, America's credibility
has been shattered. Israel, it turns out, does indeed run
U.S. policy in the region. The Secretary of State sings
from the Israeli songbook." . . . The repercussions
of this will be unpleasant for the American people. . . .
We had a president once who vowed to make the world safe for
democracy. We now have one who is busily making the
world unsafe for Americans and who doesn't have a
clue as to how ridiculous he now appears in the eyes of the
world.
Posted April 24, 2002
CIVIL
LIBERTIES - The New War on Freedom by Gore Vidal
(Gore Vidal, San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2002)
[Six years ago last week] Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act, "antiterrorism"
legislation which not only gives the attorney general the
power to use the armed services against the civilian population,
neatly nullifying the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 (which prohibited
the use of federal troops for civilian law enforcement), but
also selectively suspends habeas corpus, the heart of Anglo-American
liberty. As he signed it into law, Clinton attacked critics
of the bill as "unpatriotic": "There is nothing
patriotic about pretending that you can love your country
but despise your government." This is breathtaking since
it includes, at one time or another, most of us. Put
another way, was a German in 1939 who said that he detested
the Nazi dictatorship unpatriotic? . . . The Federation
of American Scientists has catalogued nearly 200 such military
incursions since 1945 initiated by the United States. . .
. The Anti- Terrorist Act of 1996 and the recent USA PATRIOT
Act (still being written after it was passed, and thus unread
by the Congress which passed it), which among other things
grants additional special powers to wiretap without judicial
order and to deport lawful permanent residents, visitors and
undocumented immigrants without due process. Even before signing
the Anti- Terrorist Act, President Clinton revealed his disregard
for the Bill of Rights: "We can't be so fixated on our
desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans."
. . . Once alienated, an "unalienable right" is
apt to be forever lost, in which case we are no longer
even remotely the last best hope of Earth but merely a seedy
imperial state whose citizens are kept in line by SWAT teams
and whose way of death, not life, is universally imitated.
Drowning
Children, Palestinians, and American Responsibility
(Todd May, Media Monitors Network, April 24, 2002)
Two facts are clear: that Israelis have needlessly killed
many Palestinians civilians in their recent incursion into
the West Bank and that the United States has greatly assisted
in those killings. . . . The question is: what is the responsibility
of American citizens in all of this? I'm not talking about
the U.S. government, which is clearly culpable, but regular
citizens, folks who just go to work, raise their families,
and, of course, pay taxes. . . . Recall also that our
tax dollars and our military equipment are contributing to
the killing of innocent civilians, not marginally but centrally.
. . . The moral lesson is clear. We Americans, primarily through
our tax dollars and military equipment but also through some
of our private corporations, have contributed to the killing
of innocent Palestinians, many of them children. We might
not be able to stop the killings, at least immediately, but
since it is our resources that are being used, we are
responsible to try to stop it at least to the extent of contacting
those who supply those resources and urging them to cease
doing so. . . . Otherwise, the blood is on our hands too.
Posted April 23, 2002
Israeli
Spy Operation in the U.S. Exposed
(John F Sugg, Weekly Planet (Tampa), March 20, 2002)
A major international espionage saga is unfolding across the
United States. It's been pretty hush-hush so far, largely
because the implications could be a major embarrassment for
the government. . . . The basis of the spy allegations is
a 60-page document -- a compilation of field reports by Drug
Enforcement Administration agents and other U.S. law enforcement
officials. . . . The larger report has not been produced
because of the volatile nature of suggesting that Israel spies
on America's deepest secrets. . . . in the United
States, the media ignored the original Fox broadcast, and
only a handful of publications have aggressively pursued the
story in recent weeks. . . . Jane's Information Group, on
March 13 chided: "It is rather strange that the U.S.
media with one notable exception seem to be ignoring what
may well prove to be the most explosive story since the 11
September attack, the alleged breakup of a major Israeli espionage
operation in the United States which aimed to infiltrate both
the Justice and Defense departments . . . Much of the Israeli
activity, according to the report, centered on Florida. In
addition to attempting to gain access to government installations,
the document states that the Israelis approached many intelligence
agents, prosecutors and federal marshals at their homes .
. . Israel in the past has belligerently denied wrongdoing
until long after the truth was obvious. Israel claimed Jonathan
Pollard -- a super spy who did horrendous, deadly damage to
the United States until arrested in 1985 -- wasn't an agent.
And, Israel has stubbornly contended its 1967 attack
on the USS Liberty, in which 35 American sailors were slaughtered,
was an accident -- a lie exposed in recent reports
including one last fall on the History Channel. A recent authoritative
book, Body of Secrets, by James Bamford, concludes that National
Security Agency officials "were virtually unanimous in
their belief that the attack was deliberate."
US
Congress Considers Increasing Military Aid to Israel
(Barbara Ferguson, Palestine Chronicle, April 23 2002)
Congressional supporters of Israel are considering this week
to go over President Bush's head and give Israel additional
military aid. These Congressmen are currently deliberating
on how they can get funds from the president's $27.1 billion
emergency appropriations request for homeland security,
economic recovery and the global war on terrorism. . . . Israel
has certainly grown fat on US aid. The 2002 foreign aid program
that Bush signed into law in January provides Israel with
$2.04 billion in military aid and $730 million in financial
assistance, nearly one-fifth of total US aid to the
world. . . . "The amount of aid given to Israel
is $3 billion in direct aid, and $3 billion in indirect aid,
which equals a $14,630 sum annually to each Israeli
citizen." . . . the question of more funding,
"didn't come up over night, this has been going back
and forth between the US and Israel for several months."
Posted April 22, 2002
Alice's
New Adventures In Medialand - Venezuelan Coups and Brooklyn
Jews
(Norman Solomon, Znet.org, April 22, 2002)
It was a Friday (April 12) when the military in Venezuela
pushed out the president. On Saturday, a New York Times front-page
headline said "Venezuela's Chief Forced to Resign,"
and the first of more than 30 paragraphs referred to "a
sudden end to the turbulent three-year reign of a mercurial
strongman." The entire article used the word "coup"
only once -- reporting that "Cuba called the change-over
a coup." . . . In a Tuesday editorial, the Times
indicated that three days earlier it had suffered from temporary
amnesia, forgetting the transcendent virtues of democracy.
. . . in contrast to the highly publicized case of John Walker
Lindh, what about other Americans who also have been
moved by religious fervor to go abroad and take up arms for
a foreign government? Relocating from homes in such
areas as Brooklyn, N.Y., quite a few Americans went to Israel
and now serve that country's military. . . . some of them
have been part of the Israeli offensive in the West Bank.
It is curious indeed that the same U.S. news outlets
fascinated with the "American Taliban" are so uninterested
in scrutinizing those Americans, who strengthen the ranks
of the Israeli armed forces as they participate in the killing
of Palestinian men and women and children.
Posted April 21, 2002
"Stupid"
Stays at #1 on NY Times List, 4 Weeks in a Row - News from
Michael Moore
(Michael Moore, April 15, 2002) Stupid
White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the
Nation is now in its 19th printing. Also, it remains
#1 in Canada, and it has gone to #1 this week in Britain and
Ireland, according to the Sunday Times of London. . . . All
this has occurred in spite of a virtual press blackout on
the book. Or maybe because of it. The more the book is ignored
by the media, the better it does. . . . the convention of
Florida's Democrats on Saturday in Orlando . . . About 2,500
Floridians were in attendance. . . . But in Tampa, on that
same night, I was looking out from the stage at the Sun Dome
at a crowd of nearly 7,000 people who had come to the "Democracy
Rising" rally organized by Ralph Nader. . . . it
NO LONGER MATTERS that most of the media ignores the real
news. It no longer matters because much of the media has chosen
to make itself irrelevant through its lazy reporting, sleazy
presentation, its obedience to the corporate agenda, and all
the blowhard pundits who scream out their useless opinions.
A political shift has occurred in the country and
the media has completely missed it. . . . The majority of
Americans now call themselves pro-environment, pro-choice,
pro-labor, and anti-Big Business. 154 million out of
the 200 million voters in this country did NOT cast a vote
for George W. Bush. That is the America in which we
now live. Liberal, progressive, and sick of the stupid white
men who run the country. . . . The Democrats have spent their
time trying to act like Republicans, thinking that's how they
will win back the House this November. Note to Democrats:
You will not win the House by being your usual weak, lame-o
selves. The Greens will deny you the chance you have had to
take charge. Until you get a clue, the Greens will thrive
and grow. You want to avoid a repeat of 2000? Fight for the
working people of this country! You want to stop the
Greens? Act like a real Democrat! Stand up for something!
Do the math: A couple of thousand in Orlando come
to see the stars of the Democratic Party, while, at the same
exact moment, nearly three times that number is in Tampa to
cheer on a progressive agenda - which is greater? If the Democrats
can't add 2+2, then they are doomed.
[Editor's Note: The following came
to us in an email that has been making its way around the
Net.]
Social Security and the Congressional Rip-off
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election
years. Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social
Security and, of course, they do not collect from it. Social
Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare
elevation in society.
They felt they should have a special plan for themselves.
Many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more
recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change
it. After all, it is a great plan.
For all practical purposes their plan works like this: When
they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they
die, except it may increase from time to time for cost of
living adjustments.
For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and
their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven
Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand), with their wives drawing
$275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is
calculated on an average life span for each.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00. Nada. Zilch.
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them.
You and I pick up the tab for this plan.
The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from
the General Funds--our tax dollars at work!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or
have paid) into--every payday until we retire (which amount
is matched by our employer)--we can expect to get an average
$1,000 per month after retirement. Or, in other words, we
would have to collect our average of $1,000. monthly benefits
for 68 years and one (l) month AFTER RETIRING in ordrer to
equal Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change
were made. And that change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece
Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put
them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us and
then watch how fast they would fix it.
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness
will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
Victory
for the Arctic - U.S. Senate rejects rape of Artic Wildlife
Refuge
(Genevieve Roja, Alternet.org, April 19, 2002)
The United States Senate voted 54-46 against opening the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling . . . "The
Senate's overwhelming rejection of oil drilling in the Arctic
Refuge sends a strong message to President Bush that Americans
want clean energy and a clean environment," .
. . "When faced with a choice between protecting our
natural resources for the public good and giving in to the
White House's call to exploit them for private gain, the Senate
chose the public good." . . . Republicans were decidedly
bitter . . . "The solution is not in the Arctic,"
said Kerry, who said more Republicans should have supported
the fuel efficiency measure to avoid the push for drilling.
Demonstrators
Rally to Palestinian Cause - Arab Americans, Supporters
Drown Out Other Issues
(Manny Fernandez, Washington Post, April 21, 2002)
Tens of thousands converged on downtown Washington yesterday
to demonstrate for a variety of causes, but it was the numbers
and passion of busloads of Arab Americans and their supporters
that dominated the streets. . . . Arab and Muslim families
marched and chanted for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel,
overwhelming the messages of those with other causes in a
peaceful day of downtown rallies and marches. . . . "The
message here is we must support the Palestinian people against
a military occupation and an apartheid state," . . .
District police officials said the crowds were larger than
they had anticipated and put the number at about 75,000. .
. . Organizers of the Palestinian-rights rally at the
Ellipse said the gathering was the largest demonstration for
Palestine in U.S. history. . . . Organizers at the
march privately urged participants to strike swastikas from
their posters, but few complied. It was a running debate among
many participants, though several swastikas appeared on signs
in reference to Sharon by the end of the day. . . . The effect
of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators became evident when their
smaller march joined anti-globalization forces outside the
World Bank and IMF.
Posted April 17, 2002
McKinney
Mouths Off - calls for an investigation of 9-11
(Gabrielle Banks, Alternet.org, April 15, 2002)
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney seems to have triggered a raw
nerve among lawmakers with her recent suggestion on a Berkeley
radio station that Congress should investigate whether the
Bush Administration had prior knowledge of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. . . . "Instead of congress investigating
what went wrong, President Bush placed a phone call to Majority
leader Tom Daschle asking him not to investigate the events
of Sept. 11. And hot on the heels of the president's
phone call was another phone call from the vice president
asking that Tom Daschle not investigate," McKinney told
Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein. "My question
is what do they have to hide?" . . . McKinney's
statement has struck a welcome chord with the man on the street,
or some of them anyway. While lawmakers pushed their way to
the podium to submit indictments of the congresswoman, aides
at McKinney's office said they've entertained a barrage of
calls from enthusiastic constituents. . . . Why then
does the Administration remain steadfast in its opposition
to an investigation into the biggest terrorism attack upon
our nation?" . . . In the aftermath of the Trade
Center tragedy, any criticism of the Bush Administration is
frowned upon. You're for the war or you're un-American. You
support racial profiling or you support the terrorists. .
. . There's no harm in questioning our leaders. After all,
we elected them. Didn't we?
Fear
and learning in America - A first-hand report by Robert Fisk
(Robert Fisk, The Indepentent, April 17, 2002)
[Editor's Note: As an outspoken critic of US policy in the
Middle East, Fisk expected a hostile reception when he paid
his first visit to the American Midwest since 11 September.
He couldn't have been more mistaken.]
And for the first time in more than a decade of lecturing
in the United States, I was shocked. Not by the passivity
of Americans - the all-accepting, patriotic notion that the
President knows best - nor by the dangerous self-absorption
of the United States since 11 September and the constant,
all-consuming fear of criticising Israel. What shocked
me was the extraordinary new American refusal to go along
with the official line, the growing, angry awareness among
Americans that they were being lied to and deceived.
. . . For the first time, it wasn't my lectures they objected
to, but the lectures they received from their President and
the lectures they read in their press about Israel's "war
on terror" and the need always, uncritically, to support
everything that America's little Middle Eastern ally says
and does. . . . Never before have I been asked by Americans:
"How can we make our press report the Middle East fairly?"
or - much more disturbingly - "How can we make our government
reflect our views?" . . . the fact that these questions
could be asked - usually by middle-aged Americans with no
family origins in the Middle East - suggested a profound change
in a hitherto docile population. . . . Maybe California
is organically different from the rest of the United States,
but its journalists as well as its students seemed a tad smarter
than the Midwest of America. . . . A rabbi was the first to
tell me afterwards that the Palestinians were victims, that
they should be given a real state.
Posted April 16, 2002
Bush
Administration May Have Preferred Chavez Ouster - Oil at Issue
(REUTERS, April 15, 2002)
The United States, which had become increasingly annoyed by
Chavez's anti-American rhetoric and ties to its enemies, did
not denounce his initial removal and instead blamed him for
the violence that led to his removal by the military top brass.
. . . In a dramatic reversal, Chavez returned to the presidency
on Sunday after street protests and troop mutinies against
their generals forced interim President Pedro Carmona, brought
to power by a military coup, to resign. . . . The U.S.
failure to condemn the ouster of an elected leader in Venezuela
will hurt Washington's credibility as a defender of democracy
in Latin America . . . It did not even acknowledge
that this was an irregular series of events,"
Posted April 13, 2002
Democrat
Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot to Benefit Carlyle and
Others
Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is calling for an investigation into
whether President Bush and other government officials had
advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing
to prevent them. She added that "persons close to this
administration are poised to make huge profits off America's
new war." . . . "We know there were numerous warnings
of the events to come on September 11th. . . . What did this
administration know and when did it know it, about the events
of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn
the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?
. . . What do they have to hide?" . . . In 2000, she
charged, Bush forces "stole from America our most precious
right of all, the right to free and fair elections."
With the September attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, McKinney said, "an
administration of questionable legitimacy has been given unprecedented
power." . . . She suggested that the administration
was serving the interests of a Washington-based investment
firm, the Carlyle
Group . . . the war on terrorism has enriched
Carlyle Group investors by enhancing the value of a military
contractor partly owned by the firm. . . . "What is undeniable
is that corporations close to the administration have directly
benefited from the increased defense spending arising from
the aftermath of September 11th,"
Posted April 11, 2002
Sharon
rallies Congress against Bush - CNN acts as Israel's propaganda
arm
(Ahmed Amr, Media Monitors Network, April 13, 2002)
On MSNBC and FOX interviews, [Netenyahu] had the audacity
to suggest that America should ignore Europe and pretty much
the rest of the world, in favor of his self-serving counsel.
. . . Netenyahu assured his listeners that Bush would be back
on track after a few Israeli lectures on the 'Bush Doctrine'.
On Hardball, Chris Mathews made it clear that he had canceled
another guest because Netanyahu decided to drop in to market
Sharon's war crimes. . . . American journalists advocating
on behalf of war crimes on prime time. Is this good family
entertainment? . . . Ask CNN's Rudy Bakhtiar why she
is so enthusiastic about the Israeli 'incursion,' which CNN
makes sound like a necessary trip to the dentist. On one of
the most intense days of shedding Palestinian blood, the CNN
cameras went out to explore Tel Aviv night life. . . . Their
ought to be a law against journalists who advocate the slaughter
of innocents or consistently lie to improve the image of a
repressive military occupation. If we had a law like
that, I am certain CNN would have to go off shore to Tel Aviv.
. . . The Yiddish supremacists are so arrogant about their
political power that they deemed Powell's trip a failure before
he landed in Jerusalem. . . . the central campaign by these
Sharon worshiping thugs centers on equating America's battles
in Afghanistan with Israel's war against the Palestinians.
. . . Netenyahu constantly equates the Palestinians with the
Taliban. In America, we did not even equate the Afghans to
the Taliban. . . . Powell and Bush appear to be stumped by
this 'Palestine is our Afghanistan' argument. The ditzy anchors
who let Netenyahu roll over them with this nonsense appear
to buy into it. Some are stupid, others are complicit and
still others, a bit of both. . . . And now, Bush is
doing his number for the campaign season, while another Palestinian
catastrophe comes to a fast boil. . . . Did it occur
to the Bush administration to ask the networks to stop subverting
American foriegn policy by cutting Netenyahu's air time? Is
Netenyahu dictating American policy on behalf of the Sharon
government?
Posted April 10, 2002
Nevada
Governor Vetoes Nuclear Waste Dump Site
(Tom Gorman, Los Angeles Times, April 9 2002)
Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn on Monday vetoed the use of Yucca
Mountain as the nation's underground repository of highly
radioactive nuclear waste, declaring that the $60-billion
proposal is "based on bad science, bad law and bad public
policy." . . . "Let me make one thing clear, crystal
clear in fact. Yucca Mountain is not inevitable," Guinn
told supporters Monday at the University of Nevada. "We
will expose the Department of Energy's dirty little secrets
about Yucca Mountain," Guinn said, charging that the
government had not studied the dangers of transporting the
waste across the country. . . . Government scientists initially
believed that the geology of Yucca Mountain was sufficient
to contain radioactivity. They have now concluded that
it will provide little more than a web of underground storage
tunnels and that protection from radiation will depend on
the millenniums-long durability of man-made containers to
protect the material from, among other things, corrosive moisture
and the possibility of earthquakes. . . . senators
may wince at the notion of trains and trucks transporting
nuclear waste across their states, where it could be vulnerable
to accident or attack.
Arctic
Drilling in Trouble in Senate
(Associated Press, April 9, 2002)
Senate Republicans are having trouble getting a majority to
support drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge, although the
administration hopes Saddam Hussein's call for an oil embargo
may rally lawmakers to the pro-drilling side. . . . If support
doesn't pick up, some Republican senators have considered
abandoning a Senate vote on drilling in the refuge . . . The
House energy legislation, approved last summer, already includes
opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska to oil companies. . . . Senate opponents
to drilling argue that oil would not flow from ANWR for a
decade and even then do little to curb oil imports that are
expected to continue to grow in the years ahead. A recent
Energy Department study concluded imports would decline only
slightly over what they would otherwise be if the refuge's
oil were made available. . . . At least six Republicans have
gone on record opposing drilling in the refuge and so far
only four Democrats have publicly said they favor oil and
gas development there.
Admiral Thomas Moorer says Israel
is Running the U.S. Government
"I've never seen a president --I don't care who he is--
stand up to them [the
Israelis]. It just boggles your mind. They always get what
they want. The
Israelis know what's going on all the time. I got to the point
where I wasn't
writing anything down. If the American people understood
what grip those people
have on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our
citizens don't have any
idea what goes on." —Admiral Thomas Moorer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
.
(See Washington Report 12/1999, p.124 quoting from Andrew
Hurley's book, One Nation Under Israel)
Posted April 9, 2002
Federal
Regulators Say Ohio Nuclear Plant Hole Should Have Been Found
Earlier
(John Seewer, Associated Press, Apr 5, 2002)
An acid leak that ate through a steel cap over a nuclear plant's
reactor vessel should have been spotted as long as four years
ago, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report released
Friday. . . . The NRC said it was the most extensive corrosion
ever found on top of a U.S. nuclear plant reactor. Inspectors
spotted a second cavity - 1 3/4 inch deep - two weeks later.
. . . Significant corrosion began at least four years ago,
according to preliminary findings of an NRC inspection. Inspectors
said it was caused by cracked control rod nozzles. . . . FirstEnergy
Corp., which operates the plant, said it was not surprised
by the findings and that its own investigators came to the
same conclusion . . . corrosion was overlooked because
plant staff and management for years did not realize the significance
of boric acid deposits on top of the vessel head .
. . The damage to the reactor's steel cap will keep the plant
shut down until at least June. . . . The plant is along Lake
Erie and about 25 miles east of Toledo.
Posted April 8, 2002
America's
War Incorporated: Weapons and Wars 'R' US
(John Stanton and Wayne Madsen, Counterpunch, April 1, 2002)
Eisenhower's seminal speech in which he uncannily predicted
the threat the "US military industrial complex"
would pose to America and the world. . . . "[Eisenhower]
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper
meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense
with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and
liberty may prosper together..." . . . It took just forty-two
years for the War Corporation to eliminate the dividing line
between the U.S. military and U.S. industry . . . The
War Corporation has its tentacles in every element of the
American political, military, economic and cultural milieu,
and it affects the lives of every citizen in every country
on the planet. . . . From 1961 to 2002, the War Corporation
has fueled the fires of death and destruction in every corner
of the globe in order to make the world safe-for-profit, using
the clever ruses of freedom and democracy.
How many wars will a society tolerate until it says no more?
. . . the American citizenry refuses to heed Eisenhower's
warning and has taken its liberty "for granted,"
placing its trust in U.S. officials who see "evil"
and threats in every corner. . . . the American people have
now brought upon themselves the militarization of American
society that Eisenhower so feared . . . Just a fraction of
what is spent on defense might--probably would--eliminate
many of the conditions that breed terrorists in today's world.
. . . The U.S. Department of State is completely militarized
under the regime of Colin Powell _ who helped whitewash the
My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, , his deputy [is] Richard Armitage
-- a former U.S. Special Forces and CIA dirty tricks operator
in Southeast Asia . . . These so-called "diplomats"
are the major U.S. players ostensibly responsible for bringing
"peace" to the [Middle East].
Posted April 4, 2002
[Editor's Note: This commentary was
written before 9-11 yet reads as if it was written yesterday.] The
Truth About Israel - Average Americans Hate It
(Bill White, 3/20/01)
A poll today that claims that Americans overwhelmingly support
Israel. Well, I hate to burst the bubble, but none of this
is true. . . . The pro-Israel demonstration was muted, and
several of the mostly-young people I saw in its periphery
looked like they were about to cry. . . . People driving by
were honking their horns and giving thumbs up to the Palestinians,
many of whose leftist supporters looked uncomfortable as the
same passer-bys shouted anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish epithets
at the pro-Sharon contingent. . . . Since this weird, anti-Constitutional
segment of the Jewish community seems to dominate almost every
[Jewish] newspaper, radio and television station in the large
cities, it is easy to keep the Jewish population isolated
from mainstream America.
Posted April 3, 2002
March on Washington,
D.C. April 20th, 2002 The
"War on Terrorism" Breeds More Terror
The White House promises a war
without end. Under the pretext of strengthening security,
our democratic rights are being further eroded, hundreds of
people have been "disappeared" into jails and prisons,
and corporate interests are shamelessly trying to use this
crisis to their advantage. It is clear: unless we, the people
of this country, rise up and come together now, the future
for us and for people around the world is very bleak. But
united, as we have done in the past, WE CAN MAKE CHANGE! There
is an alternative!
Join us on April 20th to
demand:
A U.S. foreign policy based upon social and economic justice,
not military and corporate oppression.
An end to racial profiling and military recruitment targeting
youth of color and working class youth.
Government funding for programs to benefit the economic
victims of the 9-11 attacks and the recession.
An end to the degrading and secret imprisonment of immigrants.
Increased funding for non-military-based financial aid
for education
Full disclosure of military contracts with universities.
[Read more]
Posted April 2, 2002
What
Has the Supreme Court Been Smoking?
(Arianna Huffington, April 1, 2002)
Chew on that for a second. The highest judicial body in the
land has said -- unanimously -- that it's OK to toss people
who the court acknowledges are innocent out of their houses
for crimes they didn't commit and didn't even know about.
. . . "One Strike and You're Out" calling it "reasonable,"
"unambiguous" and "not absurd." . . .
But try to tell Pearlie Rucker that the law's not absurd.
She was the named defendant in the case the court ruled on,
a 63-year old great-grandmother who found herself and everyone
living with her facing eviction when her mentally disabled
daughter was caught possessing cocaine -- three blocks away
from Rucker's apartment. . . . Surely even the most brutal
and utilitarian calculus would at least balance the cost of
punishing so many blameless victims against whatever perceived
good is achieved. . . . In adopting such one-sided reasoning
and hyperbolic "Reefer Madness" rhetoric the Supreme
Court is following in the fear-mongering footsteps of the
administration, whose latest whack-o anti-drug ad campaign
tried to draw a link between teenage drug use and violent
acts of terrorism. . . . In reality, two of the four plaintiffs
in the case before the court were elderly women whose grandchildren
were caught smoking pot in a housing project parking lot.
I have a feeling the grandkids were far more interested in
the munchies than in murder and mayhem. . . . "A tenant
who cannot control drug crime," wrote Justice Rehnquist
in the majority opinion, "is a threat to other residents
and the project." I wonder if the Chief Justice would
apply the same condemnatory logic to Gov. Jeb Bush, who also
lives in public housing and was also unable to control his
troubled daughter.
A
Less Democratic Nation
(Ruth Rosen, San Francisco Chronicle, March 21, 2002)
Nothing is normal. Beneath the routine sounds and sights of
daily life lurks the stark, unsettling fact that our society
is not as democratic as it was last summer. . . . nothing
-- absolutely nothing -- justifies the secrecy that has shrouded
the Bush presidency, its gratuitous violation of civil liberties,
or its corrosive constraints on our most cherished democratic
practices. . . . Bush has repeatedly invoked executive privilege
and refused congressional requests for information. He created
a shadow government without informing congressional leaders.
He overturned the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and gave
himself the right to seal past presidential papers since 1980.
He deposited his own gubernatorial papers in his father's
presidential library where they are inaccessible to the public.
. . . The president has extended the war on terrorism to Yemen,
Georgia and the Philippines without a declaration of war or
congressional approval. He even declared a new unilateralist
Bush Doctrine: The United States reserves the right to enter
any nation to pursue terrorists or destroy weapons of mass
destruction, whether or not it is invited by a head of state
and without seeking approval from the U.N. Security Council.
. . . Congress must do more to restore its check on an increasingly
imperious presidency. The Bush administration is using the
threat of terrorism to curtail civil liberties, bully legislators,
scatter troops across the world and intimidate Russia, China,
Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and Syria with the threat of
pre-emptive tactical nuclear strikes. . . . George W. Bush
should remember that he lost the popular vote and never received
a mandate from the American people for these policies.
His current approval ratings, according to many political
analysts, rest more on fear than on a national consensus.
. . . He should tread carefully.
Repeal
the USA Patriot Act
(Jennifer Van Bergen, t r u t h o u t | April 1, 2002)
This Act, passed in response to the September 11th, 2001 terrorist
attacks on our country, was passed hastily and in a time of
fear. It affects all of us in some very basic and important
ways. . . . Part I of this series states briefly why we should
demand the immediate repeal or amendment of the USA Patriot
Act. . . . The USA Patriot Act is an insult to Americans.
The name, itself, is insulting, given what the Act contains
and what it will someday be known for: its complete abdication
of democratic law and principles. It should be called the
Constitution Shredding Act. . . . This law is dangerous. It's
a travesty. . . . If you think this law applies only to the
bad guys who attacked our nation, think again. Many provisions
in this law apply to and will affect Americans, in many, bad
ways. . . . There is no way that the USA Patriot Act came
into existence solely in response to September 11th. In fact,
it is clear from prior legislative and case history that law
enforcement and intelligence have been trying for many years
to obtain these powers. It is only the unreasoning "bunker
mentality" that followed September 11th that allowed
its planners to pass it. . . . One must wonder whether congress-
persons were in their right minds. If they were not, this
law cannot be valid. . . . they do much to undermine the Constitution
and violate the rights of both immigrants and American citizens
alike. . . . As the ACLU analysis of this section states,
this simple little clause is being used "as an end-run
around the Fourth Amendment." It is a "power grab
[that] will sweep in Americans" as well as aliens.
World
Backlash Builds Against Bush - "Blood In The Water"
Part 1 of a two-part series
by William Thomas
For every precipitous action there is an equal, opposing reaction.
Whether Taliban fanatics blowing up the world's oldest Buddhas
and executing women for the "crime" of being feminine
- or a quick-draw Texan ripping up his country's Constitution
and threatening to blast everything in sight - the Koran and
the Bible sternly warn, "You will reap whatever whirlwind
you sew." These are laws of physics and karma. There
are no exceptions. . . . Like father, like son. With G. W.
Bush, there are no subtleties of state craft. Suddenly this
shoot-first, think-later president is in everyone's face.
. . . In late June 2001, the US and Russia reached a decision
to invade Afghanistan. ["US 'Planned Attack on the Taleban'"
BBC Sept. 18, 2001] . . . Two months before the events of
Sept. 11 provided a pretext for seizing access to the world's
last major oil, natural gas and heroin supplies, Naik learned
that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan,
where American advisers were already in place. . . . French
insiders are charging that the present administration, "just
shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations
of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a
deal with the Taliban on oil - an oil pipeline across Afghanistan."
. . . It turns out that President Bush knew of the World Trade
Center air strike before departing for the Booker School on
that fateful morning. . . . An outraged Judicial Watch chair
and general counsel Larry Klayman told the press, "The
idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing
business with a company under investigation by the FBI in
the terror attacks of Sept. 11 is horrible. President Bush
should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the
Carlyle Group." . . . Soon after the anthrax scare began,
Michigan's Bioport Corp. landed an exclusive $29 million contract
with the Department of Defense to "manufacture, test,
bottle and store the anthrax vaccine." Founded by Fuad
El-Hibri, a Saudi financier and close personal friend of the
bin Laden family - and run by a former US Navy Admiral who
had supplied anthrax to Saddam Hussein - Bioport was on Fort
Detrick's distribution chain for Ames Iowa anthrax. . . .
In Nov., the White House ordered to the FBI to drop its investigations
of US firms known to be working with anthrax. . . . The New
York Times confirmed that the FBI "held back its own
agents last Aug. from opening a criminal investigations of
a man who investigators now suspect was meant to be the 20th
hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks."
Posted April 1, 2002
Putting
Israel First - Bush ignores US national interest, kowtows
to Israel
(Justin Raimondo, Media Monitors Network, April 1, 2002)
As the IDF's idea of Easter programming attests, the Israeli
offensive projects the essential character of the degraded
Israeli "democracy" - a lust for domination. . .
. After all, why does a robber, having already looted the
till and gone halfway out the door, turn and shoot his victim?
Because he can. For one moment, he is a god, his power to
inflict death, at will, is orgasmic proof of his omnipotence.
However, for a certain type of killer there is no such thing
as a clean kill: he must torture his victim until the last
moment, extracting every ounce of perverted pleasure out of
the experience. This sadistic impulse is what drives the IDF
and the Sharon government forward - and gives their American
amen corner a really cheap thrill. . . . PALESTINIAN KRISTALLNACHT
. . . Germany, too, was a democracy prior to World War II:
Hitler was elected Chancellor, and was recognized as such
by all the other powers. Did his "democratic" mandate
ameliorate the crimes of Kristallnacht? . . . Lacking any
coherence, American policy in the region is effectively placed
in the service of Israel's present government. As American-bought
tanks roll over the Palestinians, and Bush demands that Arafat
- on the verge of being taken into custody or killed - "stop
the violence," Sharon's strategic goal has been effectively
accomplished. It is now the US and Israel versus the entire
Arab-Muslim world. What began as a war against an extremist
fringe sect of Islam has turned into a religious and civilizational
conflict. . . . Our "war on terrorism" - marketed,
at first, as a war on Osama bin Laden and the perpetrators
of 9/11 - has now become a war on a billion-plus Arabs and
Muslims worldwide. It is a war in which the US will have few
dependable allies: perhaps only Israel can be counted on.
And that's just the way the Israeli lobby likes it. . . .
It's a disgrace, really, how American interests are being
ignored and derailed in the Middle East, while our policy
benefits only the interests of a belligerent little settler
colony based on religious obscurantism and an outdated paranoia.
