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2002/12/29
 Venezuela Black December, Sand in the Wheels (n°158), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 25/12/02
The new coup against the government of Venezuela by the oil industry was to be foreseen by September of this year. This was the continuation of the failed coup d'état in April of this year. Therefore there was not any need of the snipers, which got involved on any opportunity, nor of the mass media controlled by the leading groups of the economic powers. ATTAC Venezuela; Solidarity Action, Sand in the Wheels (n°158), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 25/12/02 ATTAC Venezuela calls your attention to the role played by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) during this year regarding the situation in Venezuela. According to ATTAC Venezuela, the IACHR, has favored the interests of the wealthiest and reactionary sectors of the economy and media which are responsible for destabilizing democracy in Venezuela and the legal Government, elected in fair and legitimate elections. 2002/12/23
2002/12/20
Mark Weisbrot; U.S. Intervening Against Democracy in Venezuela, AlterNet 18.12.2002
For two weeks during this country's business-led strike, the privately owned stations that dominate Venezuelan television have been running opposition "infomercials" instead of advertisements, in addition to what is often non-stop coverage of opposition protests. "I am sure there is money from abroad," asserts Moncada. It's a good guess: Prior to the coup on April 11, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy stepped up its funding to opposition groups, including money funneled through the International Republican Institute. The latter's funding multiplied more than sixfold, to $340,000 in 2001. But if history is any guide, overt funding from Washington will turn out to be the tip of the iceberg. This was the case in Haiti, Nicaragua, Chile and other countries where Washington has sought "regime change" because our leaders didn't agree with the voters' choice at the polls. (In fact, Washington is currently aiding efforts to oust President Aristide in Haiti - for the second time). In these episodes, which extended into the 1990s, our government concealed amounts up to the hundreds of millions of dollars that paid for such things as death squads, strikes, economic destabilization, electoral campaigns and media. 2002/12/19
Thanks to Magnus the Great Trainspotter for this link:
Stan Goff; Military Matters #1 - The Left and the Military: Leaping the Chasm, Freedom Road Socialist Organization 12.11.2002 The majority who remain in the military remain there for these reasons. It never occurs to them that what they like about the military is socialist. They frequently hate the deployments, the occasional violence, the bureaucratic backbiting, and the ubiquitous incompetence. They put up with all these negatives because they and their families enjoy some modicum of security and well-being. Soldiers know some of the concrete possibilities of socialism better than the rest of us. They've lived them. When we refuse to take up the issue of women or gays in the military —masking contradictions by saying we are "against" the military anyway—we are missing the point that this is an issue of gender equality in federal employment. Queer people are isolated altogether, and women are legally excluded from the majority of positions (not specialties, that is different), and from those career tracks within which advancement is the fastest. Little understood outside the military is the negrophobia of the Special Operations subset within the otherwise thoroughly integrated armed forces. Here too is a wedge, a teachable moment for Black soldiers when we might begin to organize. Every successful revolution requires either the neutralization or active participation of military people. It's time we factor that into our thinking. It's time we thought about organizing within the military. We need them, and they need us. The whole Military Matters index. 2002/12/18
An interesting report when regarding the enlargement of the European Union, also the FTAA/ALCA raises similar issues as the neo-liberal colonisation of the east european countries.
Zip Locking North America, The Council of Canadians 2002 To fully comprehend the current nature of our relationship with the United States, we need to go back to the 1930s and the post-war period. Our size, our small population, the powerful north-south tug of the growing colossus on our border, all demanded of our political leadership a "sharing" model of nation-building. The United States, with a radically different political culture, chose the route of competition and the marketplace. Recently, Canada has moved from a co-operative model to an emphasis on the global economy, much more in line with the U.S. approach. There are five areas in which this paradigm shift in public policy - the abandonment of the post-war consensus in favour of a free market approach - have profoundly changed Canada, and continue to change it.
Bill Vann; Venezuela: Is the CIA preparing another coup?, World Socialist Web Site 11 December 2002
With a“strike” organized by Venezuela’s employers now entering its second week, there is every indication that the South American country is being subjected to a classic destabilization campaign organized in collaboration with US intelligence. Having failed to topple Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a US-backed coup last April, Venezuela’s ruling circles, working in conjunction with Washington, are attempting to force him to resign or provoke a new military seizure of power. The threat that Washington will intervene directly in Venezuela—a strategic source of imported petroleum for the American market—cannot be ruled out. Earlier postings: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 ]
Winters Negbenebor; Globalisation , Independent Media and Development in Africa, Nigeria Independent Media Center 17.12.2002
I think it would be wise for us to first look into the following words that will today dominate this entire presentation - globalization, development and independent media. It is not necessary go into a dictionary definition of what these words mean because we are all familiar with their literary meaning. What should interest us at this stage of global conflict is what they mean to our brothers in Africa, who have only recently been trying to understand what these words means to them. To have a better presentation for the purpose of this paper, I will be using Nigeria as a case study, but with some few references to other parts of Africa. Globalization to an average African is simply neo-colonialism-a system that completely took effect with no consultation with Africa people, a second kind of colonialism that completely neglects people's welfare and promotes corporate business and profit alone. Tahir Hashim; Globalisation and Nigerian workers , Nigeria Independent Media Center 08.12.2002 In developing countries, after the war, there was already colonial rule in almost all of them including Nigeria, so there was no freedom of whatever type including availability of employment. Salaried employment was only found in public service as there were no industries then to employ people. Privatisation lies crumble, Nigeria Independent Media Center 08.12.2002 It is not always that our members of parliament act in tandem with the people they represent. But this Parliament seems to be a unique one - one which is striving to be on the side of the people. This Parliament has demonstrated on a number of key issues to be sensitive to, and respectful of, the feelings of the Zambian people. Funmi Komolafe; Labour: Let's create wealth, not manage poverty, Nigeria Independent Media Center 08.12.2002 A couple of weeks ago, the office of the Vice- President organised a talk on poverty reduction strategy programme. The trade unions and the civil society participated actively. Organised labour speaking through the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), presented a paper on "Main Factors in Deterioration of Poverty Situation in Nigeria and Effective exist Strategies".
Pentagon to target allies with covert propaganda, The Independent 17.12.2002
Pentagon is considering a plan to establish covert propaganda operations in countries it considers its allies in order to improve America's image and discredit hostile factions. The plan, revealed yesterday by The New York Times, involves efforts to undermine the influence of mosques and religious schools, perhaps by establishing moderate Islamic schools with US funding. Other suggestions being considered include paying journalists to write stories favourable to the United States and hiring contractors without obvious ties to the Pentagon to organise rallies and demonstrations in support of US policies. Pentagon Debates Propaganda Push in Allied Nations, The New York Times 15.12.2002 The Defense Department is considering issuing a secret directive to the American military to conduct covert operations aimed at influencing public opinion and policy makers in friendly and neutral countries, senior Pentagon and administration officials say. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has not yet decided on the proposal, which has ignited a fierce battle throughout the Bush administration over whether the military should carry out secret propaganda missions in friendly nations like Germany, where many of the Sept. 11 hijackers congregated, or Pakistan, still considered a haven for Al Qaeda's militants. 2002/12/17
Scientists criticise academic boycott, The Guardian 17.12.2002
Four leading scientists have voiced their opposition to the academic boycott of Israel, saying it could only be justified in "extreme circumstances" and as part of wider international "diplomatic, economic, cultural and sporting sanctions". In a letter to the Guardian, published today, Oxford professors Colin Blakemore, Richard Dawkins, Denis Noble and Michael Yudkin, who have formed a study group to discuss when, if ever, an academic boycott might be a reasonable response to a country's actions, said while they opposed an academic boycott of Israel, "it is possible to imagine" circumstances so extreme that the principles against a boycott should be dropped. But the threshold for this would have to be "extremely high".
Sadruddin Aga Khan; Earth on the market, Le Monde diplomatique December 2002
Despite all the hype, the UN-sponsored world summit on sustainable development in South Africa in August could not introduce any real constraints because they would have meant re-examining globalisation. So could sustainable development just be a pretext for maintaining a growth that must be, by nature, destructive to the environment?
Ignacio Ramonet; A less free press, Le Monde diplomatique December 2002
The digital revolution and the arrival of the internet have been traumatic for the world's media (1). News and information are now attracting the attention of industrial giants better known for involvement in electricity, computing, arms manufacture, construction, telecommunications and water. Eager for power and easy profits, they are in a hurry to buy into the action. Massive empires have been built in a very short time. And in the process fundamental human values are being destroyed. 2002/12/16
Christmas is approaching, so here is some news in that occasion: Bishop attacks 'sentimental' Christmas portrayals, Ananova 16.12.2002
A Church of England bishop has delivered a provocative Christmas message by claiming the Three Wise Men were part of an assassination plot. The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Keith Sutton also pours scorn on the "sentimental" and "false" images in nativity plays and Christmas cards. He criticises the portrayal of the shepherds, who were on "the fringes of society", as loveable characters, according to the Daily Telegraph. 2002/12/10
 Edward Herman; Answering The Cruise MIssile Left On Iraq, ZNet 09.12.2002
It is pretty depressing to see how frequently liberals and some leftists have been unable to maintain a principled opposition to the U.S. policies toward Iraq, which, following more than a decade of "sanctions of mass destruction" are now rushing us toward a war of outright aggression. There is significant opposition, manifested in the growing and numerous protest marches and teach-ins, where people of quite varied political beliefs have expressed opposition to the prospective war. But this widespread and deepening dissent has had only a modest impact on the mass media, which are still serving mainly as conduits and press agents of the war party, and the liberals and "leftists" who make it there commonly accept premises of the war party and serve its interests, which is of course why they make it into the media. More from ZNet's Iraq Debates collection of articles. 2002/12/06
Do you know Osama bin Kissinger?!
Kissinger and bin Laden: Takes One To Know One, AlterNet 03.12.2002 President Bush believes Henry Kissinger is the best choice to head up an investigation into the adequacy of our defenses against al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. He may be right. As the schoolyard taunt goes, "It takes one to know one." There is a remarkable symmetry between the conduct of Kissinger and bin Laden. Both believe the ends justify the means. Both believe that innocent civilians are pawns on a global chessboard and sometimes must be sacrificed to a higher geopolitical cause. Exit Henry Kissinger, The New York Times 14.12.2002 Henry Kissinger's decision yesterday to step aside as chairman of the Sept. 11 investigative commission clears the way for a fresh start for this critically important endeavor. The nation needs an unflinching review of the government failures that preceded the terror attacks. The only way to conduct such an inquiry is if all the commission members are free of business interests that could influence their work. President Bush, who selects the chairman of the 10-member panel, must now find someone of unquestioned independence and boldness. 2002/12/05
 Fair pay for the fire service. Support the Firefighters!
Update:
Firefighters - Their Fight Is Our Fight, The Socialist Weekly Newspaper 22.11.2002 Firefighters have won widespread support in their struggle for higher pay. Workers understand that Tony Blair has taken on the firefighters to try and 'teach a lesson' to others in the public sector who are suffering low pay and privatisation. Blair wants public services on the cheap - where the fat cats profit and workers are kept on poverty pay. That's why he says he can't pay firefighters the wage that they deserve. And that's why the firefighters should be supported by all those who work in or use public services. Seumas Milne; Blair gives modernity a bad name, The Guardian 05.12.2002  The government needs to settle the fire strikes as much as the FBU.
The trouble is that after five years in power, new Labour is in danger of giving modernity a bad name. What started as a catch-all mantra to justify the party's acceptance of the main social and economic changes driven through in the Tory years has now become a codeword in public services for privatisation, closures, job cuts, longer working hours and flexibility on the employer's terms. The only sense in which any of this is modern is that it apes the most backward-looking practices that have again become the norm in the private sector in the past two decades. 2002/12/04
Peter Beaumont; Why we are losing the war, The Observer 01.12.2002
When the dust has settled and the blood and tears have dried, we will be able to say one thing with certainty about last week's terrorist attack in Kenya. Anyone who tells you the war against terrorism is being won is lying. It is the great heresy of free societies, so speak it softly, but the accumulating evidence of the past four years is that terrorism can - and does - work. And it is working on a global scale. It is a simple fact that is more terrifying than any of attacks themselves - 11 September included. That a tiny group of extremists, for the most part using the most basic of technologies, could effect such a startling paradigm shift that has transformed the world we live in. But to what end? The answer is more surprising than our political classes appear yet to have grasped. 2002/11/28
Inspeactors denied access to USAF Fairford, Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors 31.10.2002
In support of the "Don't Attack Iraq" national day of action, as called for by Tony Benn and Stop The War coalition, Gloucestershire Weapons Inspectors visited USAF Fairford and requested access to search for weapons of mass destruction. Conn Hallinan; Keep up the nuclear firewall, San Fransisco Examiner 02.12.2002 When 200 people showed up at the gates of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory last month demanding the right to "inspect" the sprawling complex for "weapons of mass destruction," the press either ignored it or dismissed it as clever political theater. But people had better start paying attention to what Livermore, and its sister labs at Los Alamos and Sandia, are up, which includes:
Paul Foot; The fat cat at the Mail, The Guardian 27.11.2002
The Mail on Sunday called Andy Gilchrist, the fire union leader, a "fat cat" for his £82,000 salary. The Mail on Sunday's editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, receives a basic yearly salary of £690,000. Who's fat? 2002/11/21
 Free José Bové!!
More porridge for Bové, The Guardian 20.11.2002 This time he risks losing rather more than a couple of stone of excess tummy. José Bové, France's unlikely folk hero and anti-globalisation crusader, is going back to jail - for 14 months - for vandalising a field of genetically modified crops. The once-portly pipe-smoking sheep-farmer spent six weeks in prison this summer for wrecking a McDonald's restaurant in 1999, drinking just water and orange juice and losing 24lb in the process. His latest sentence looks like being considerably less productive. Anti-Globalization Activist Jose Bove Is At It Again, Common Dreams News Center 30.01.2001 Jose Bove, the anti-globalisation activist who has been given an ultimatium to leave Brazil, revels in controversy. Already under threat of a prison sentence for his part in ransacking a McDonald's fast food outlet in his native France, Bove is a determined campaigner who refuses to compromise his firmly-held principles. This time he is in hot water for leading an invasion by 1,300 Brazilian farmers of plantations run by US biotechnology firm Monsanto. They uprooted genetically-modified corn and soya bean plants, burned seeds and destroyed documents in the company's offices 2002/11/20
- Global goofs: U.S. youth can't find Iraq, CNN 20.11.2002
- Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday. The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent -- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. I bet George Bush jr. can't figure it out either....
Felix Kolb; Regime Change Begins at Home - Make it Happen, Sand in the Wheels (n°153), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 20/11/02
On Saturday, October 26th the United States witnessed its largest peace demonstrations since the Vietnam war: more than 150,000 people assembled in Washington, DC, 45,000 in San Francisco and ten of thousands more in other American cities. This is more than remarkable for a whole series of reasons.
Capitalism must put its house in order, The Observer 24.11.2002
The Prestige disaster is yet another example of how unregulated business practices can have a calamitous effect. The Prestige was not just a garbage ship. It has exposed the international framework of maritime regulation and attitudes of many shipping companies as garbage as well. This was a vessel chartered by the Swiss-based subsidiary of a Russian conglomerate registered in the Bahamas, owned by a Greek through Liberia and given a certificate of seaworthiness by the Americans. When it refuelled, it stood off the port of Gibraltar to avoid the chance of inspection. Every aspect of its operations was calcu lated to avoid tax, ownership obligations and regulatory scrutiny. This is the more visible aspect of the business dysfunctionality that globalisation helps foster - and why those who argue the anti-globalisation movement is waning could hardly be more wrong.  Timebomb under the ocean, The Guardian 20.11.2002
The crippled, ageing oil tanker Prestige finally sank 130 miles off the north-west coast of Spain yesterday, taking 70,000 tonnes of highly destructive fuel oil to the ocean floor and threatening Europe's biggest ecological disaster in decades. Spain and Portugal had refused repeated requests for the Prestige to be taken to a harbour where the fuel could be transferred to another vessel. The Dutch salvage company Smit International had said it would tow the vessel to Africa if necessary.  Got a sticky problem? Don't worry, you can always dump it on Africa, The Guardian 19.11.2002
Leaking oil tanker towed south after Europe says 'not in my back yard' . Europe's biggest environmental headache for a decade appeared to have been solved yesterday by the simple, if cynical, ruse of towing the stricken oil tanker Prestige from Spain to Africa. As European countries demanded that the ageing tanker, described by environmentalists as "a chemical time-bomb", be taken away from their coasts before it sank and released its deadly cargo of 70,000 tonnes of fuel oil, the Dutch salvage company in charge of the rescue operation began towing it south.  As the Prestige headed towards Africa, experts recalled that, although spills in Europe and the US got most publicity, many of the worst tanker disasters had occurred off Africa. Those included the world's second biggest spill, when the Summer tanker went down with 260,000 tonnes of oil off Angola in 1991, and the 190,000 tonnes spilt by the Castillo de Belver off South Africa in 1983. 2002/11/15
Ignacio Ramonet; The social wars, Le Monde diplomatique November 2002
Hardly a week seems to pass without bloodshed in the world - Israel, Bali, Karachi, Moscow, Yemen, Palestine. It feels as if a hurricane of conflict of a new kind is sweeping the planet, and as if we face the prospect of a war against terrorism even more cruel than the wars that preceded it - a war in which the American invasion of Iraq will be merely one episode. This impression is false. In fact, political violence has never been at such a low ebb. Politically motivated insurrections, wars and conflicts have rarely been so few. Surprising though it may seem, and contrary to the media impression, the world is actually a calm and largely pacified place. Look at the present geopolitical landscape and compare it with 25 or 30 years ago. Almost all the radical protest groups engaged in armed struggle then have disappeared. And most of the high- and low-intensity conflicts that each year caused tens of thousands of deaths across the world have now passed into history. Almost all the troubled zones fired by the Marxist project for creating a better world have either been, or are on the way to being, extinguished.
Matthew Brubacher; Israel: walled in, but never secure, Le Monde diplomatique November 2002
Israeli government funding for settlements in the occupied territories has long been condemned by the United Nations. Now it has provoked resignations from the government resulting in new elections in Israel. But the real tragedy of what is happening there can be seen in the security barrier that Israel is building around the West Bank and Jerusalem, which is twice as long and three times as high as the Berlin Wall. 2002/11/12
Anita Roddick; Florida Redux ... in Africa, AlterNet November 11, 2002
Ballot problems. Biased party operatives running the elections process. Large swaths of minority voters disenfranchised by the corruption and incompetence of the government. No, this is not Florida; it's Nigeria. 2002/11/07
Philip S. Golub; Westward the course of Empire, Le Monde diplomatique September 2002
The aftermath of the terrorist attacks has revived imperialist ideology in the United States, rather than caused it to query its world role. Writers do not hesitate to draw parallels between their nation and ancient Rome, which they hold to be a model for world domination in the 21st century.
IHT: NATO plans radically new strategy, International Herald Tribune 06.11.2002
 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization appears set to embrace a radically new military posture and strategy that would profoundly alter the shape and mission of the alliance, according to NATO officials here and government officials in a half-dozen European capitals.
Most dramatically, the NATO heads of government could announce creation of a multinational rapid deployment force of about 21,000 troops that would allow NATO to operate quickly against new enemies far from Europe, the area NATO was formed to protect against the Soviet Union 53 years ago. NATO members may also announce commitments to acquire new aircraft and equipment that would make this an effective force and allow it to deploy on a week's notice. ''We're deconstructing the old NATO to build a new one to meet the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction,'' said Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance. Burns is one of a group of NATO officials pressing for changes they believe will preserve its importance. That means being willing and able to confront threats to the security of NATO members wherever they arise - very likely far from Europe. 2002/11/06
Corrupt, crass and moribund, The Guardian 05.11.2002
Ignore its British cheerleaders, the US political system isn't working. [...] Finally, we are left with the most telling indictment of all: George Bush. Forget for a moment the trickery, ratified by the supreme court, that got him elected. Britain has also had governments that came second in the popular vote (Churchill, 1951; Wilson, 1974). But the parliamentary system forced them to govern consensually. Bush has been able to use executive authority to operate the most rightwing government since the 1920s. To Vote or Not to Vote?, Independent Media Center 05.11.2002 Despite predicted sparse voter turn-out and, until this past week, scant election media coverage, the 2002 midterm elections will be held across the U.S. Tuesday. Among progressive and radical Americans, a debate has been quietly percolating between those who believe voting won't make any difference in the political landscape and those who feel that strategic voting can help push the pendulum away from its magnetic north pole½the Republican and corporate right. Still, control of both the House and the Senate remains at stake. The question remains, however, with the absence of real opposition parties and the suppression of dissident voices, what is at stake for ordinary Americans?  Well, too late, the control is lost the Bush jr....
Clean sweep for Republicans in mid-term polls, The Guardian 06.11.2002 The US president, George Bush scored a remarkable victory last night, as the Republicans took control of Congress, winning the Senate from the Democrats and solidifying their grip on the House of Representatives. With three Senate races yet to be settled, Republicans had 50 seats, enough to guarantee control on the basis of vice president Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote. When the new Congress is sworn in in January, it will be the first time in 50 years that Republicans take outright control of the White House, Senate and House. Leader: Drones of death, The Guardian 06.11.2002 Bush takes the law into his own hands. Zap! Pow! The bad guys are dead. And they never knew what hit them. Living his presidency like Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, George Bush etched another notch in his gun butt this week, blowing away six "terrorists" in Yemen's desert. Their car was incinerated by a Hellfire missile, fired by a CIA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone. Dealing out death via remote-controlled flying robots could be the spooks' salvation after the September 11 and Afghan intelligence flops. It makes the agency look useful. It is quick and bodybag-free. It is new wave hi-tech, a 21st century equivalent of James Bond's Aston Martin. And the hit had full authority, right from the top, judging by Mr Bush's comments. The president is keen on hunting down America's foes, on the ugly old premise that the only good Injun is a dead Injun. For redskin, read al-Qaida. It is part, he says, of his anti-terrorist war-without-end. All the world's a battlefield for Mr Bush. The United States of America, 001: licensed to kill. 2002/11/05
Andrew Osborn; Norway's dark secret, The Guardian 01.11.2002
It gives more money to the developing world than any other country and its standard of living is officially recognised as the best that money can buy but Norway has a dark secret: it has become home to Europe's most successful far-right movement. The far-right Progress party is not in power yet (although the country's minority government relies on it to pass legislation) but that could change and pressure is growing for it to be given a seat at the top table.  On popular demand...
[...] PS Just so there are no misunderstandings, many of us in the States find this to be a highly encouraging report. We are enthusiastic believers in free speech, open debate, and disagreement, however, thus we censor nothing and hide nothing. If you disagree with our position, we will link to you nevertheless. But we would be most interested in reading some opinion from Norwegians, and if you could find the time to make a few comments, we would be grateful, no matter what your opinion might be. I will be visiting your sites over the next several days and will include a link to your site at our site if you would be kind enough to type a few thoughts. Thanks, MK Friends of Israel re-group in Parliament, Aftenposten 18.04.2002 A group of Norwegian politicians with unwavering support for Israel was set to gather once again on Thursday. So far, 23 Members of Parliament have accepted invitations to participate in the re-constituted Association of Israel's Friends. Christian magazine Magazinet reported it knew of 18 members including the head of the right-wing Progress Party Carl I Hagen. Hagen said his own relationship to Israel "is built upon a very long-term consideration of Israel's right to exist." He added that his view doesn't change with "the various governments that come and go in Israel." The Progress Party: Is there an end to the crisis?, Monitor 02.04.2001 Just when it seemed that Progress Party (FrP) boss Carl I. Hagen had won his war against factional opponents, the party has been rocked by a young woman’s statement to the annual meeting of the party’s Hordaland county branch. 2002/11/01
Democrats see hopes of revenge in Florida dwindle, The Independent 31.10.2002
This is where the Democrats' revenge is supposed to start. Here in the never-never land of Florida's Gold Coast, epicentre of the shambles that was the 2000 presidential election in the state. Two years ago, Palm Beach county, which has a large black community and one of the highest concentrations of normally Democratic Jewish voters in America, gave the ultra- conservative populist Pat Buchanan, the Reform party's candidate, one of his best results anywhere in the country. The same Buchanan called Congress "Israeli-occupied territory" and warns that white America is drowning in a sea of blacks and Hispanics. Albanian and Russian observers sent to monitor American elections, The Independent 31.10.2002 The joke, during the endless presidential election recounts in Florida two years ago, was that Russia and Albania would send poll monitors to help the United States with its unexpected bump on the road to democracy. Now, the joke has become reality. Earlier postings regarding the Banana Republic aka. Florida.
Gore Vidal with frontal attack on the Bush junta:
Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11, The Observer 27.10.2002 America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of Al-Qaeda's plans. Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it is fairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not only to much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheney junta.' 2002/10/30
Michel Chossudovsky; "The Nobel War Prize" , Centre for Research on Globalisation (CA) 25.10.2002
The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former President Jimmy Carter for:
These "human rights" and "peace" buzzwords serve to distort the history of US foreign policy. Here again, the US media has failed to mention a crucial "missing link" -- a factual piece of information on Carter’s presidency which has a direct bearing on our understanding of the ongoing post-9/11 crisis. Earlier related posting on this issue. 2002/10/29
2002/10/25
Brazilian Countdown, Narco News 21.10.2002
Less than a week remains for Lula, the most-voted-for presidential candidate in this country's history, to triumph.... Not even his enemies doubt it: Lula da Silva will govern and that, kind readers, will raise the hopes for life, sovereignty and democracy throughout our America..... 2002/10/22
Allan Little; Behind the Cuban missile crisis, The Guardian 22.10.2002
Forty years ago, Russian nuclear missiles in Cuba were poised to be launched at mainland America while 250,000 US troops prepared for action. World war three was only averted by eleventh-hour negotiations - and a bit of luck. Allan Little tracks down the men who took part in one of the most terrifying events of the 20th century.
John Pilger; State terrorism in Indonesia, Hidden Agendas/pilger.carlton.com 17.10.2002
The Australian military is, in effect, an extension of the Pentagon. Australian ships operate with the American fleet in the Gulf, enforcing an embargo against Iraq which, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, has led to the unnecessary deaths of more than 600,000 Iraqi children. In Indonesia, Australians, together with their American counterparts, have secretly resumed training the Indonesian military, which, in the world cup of terrorism, is the undisputed champion. Al-Qaeda has been fingered in Washington for the Bali outrage. The script is unchanged. To Bush, Blair and Howard, the Bali bombing will be simply further justification for attacking Iraq. How truly bizarre the American enterprise of world conquest has become. First, there was the bombing of Afghanistan, the equivalent of bombing Sicily in order to eradicate the Mafia. "Terrorism" is the enemy; or as Python's Terry Jones remarked, "They're bombing an abstract noun!" What is clear is that the more bellicose Bush and Blair and Howard become, the more they place the citizens of their own countries at risk. 2002/10/17
Andy Oram; Why Human Rights Requires Free Software, O'Reilly Network 11.10.2002
Human rights is the global currency of modern politics. Whenever the United States attacks a country, diplomatically or physically, it cites human rights claims. And by a not-so-surprising irony, the critics of the United States and its allies complain of human rights violations as well. So human rights workers should be universally feted and supported. Instead, however, they are chronically underfunded, goaded to justify every detail of their work, and threatened with dire harm. For these reasons, human rights work requires free software. 2002/10/16
U.S.-British warplanes escalate bombings in Iraq, The Militant - October 21, 2002
U.S. planes launched a bombing attack on missile launchers in northern Iraq October 9. Officials in Washington did not bother to claim, as they often do after such raids by U.S. and British warplanes, that the pilots had reacted to a threatened attack. According to an Associated Press dispatch from Turkey, Pentagon officials said that although Iraqis did not fire on the U.S. planes, "their presence in the zone was a threat" to the invading pilots. The escalating air attacks are now mainly targeting Iraq’s antiaircraft defenses, with the purpose of establishing "air corridors" for bombing runs into Baghdad and other cities when an invasion and air assault are unleashed on the country. At least one raid has also dropped bombs on Iraqi anti-ship cruise missile sites. 2002/10/15
 Global Columbus Day 2002 - Thousands Rise Up Against New Era of Corporate Colonialism, SF Indymedia 10.10.2002
This Saturday, October 12th, dozens of demonstrations will be held all over the US, Mexico and Central America to protest the 510th anniversary of Columbus day. Thousands of indigenous activists and supporters from Canada to Panama, will block borders, close highways and conduct various direct actions to demand basic human rights for all native peoples. 2002/10/11
Norwegian Nobel Committee sends a strong signal to the Bush administration; it should tread cautiously in its bid to attack Iraq.
 The Nobel Peace Prize 2002, The Norwegian Nobel Committee 11.10.2002
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter, for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development. Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize, Aftenposten 11.10.2002 Norway's Nobel Committee awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize to former US President Jimmy Carter. Carter was cited for his "decades of untiring efforts" as a peace broker around the world. Carter, now age 78, has been a candidate for years, and many thought he should have won in 1978, for his involvement in bringing about the Camp David accords that brought hopes for peace in the Middle East. (Nobel Committee Chairman) Berge also confirmed that the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision sends a signal to the current US administration, headed by Republican President George W Bush, that it should tread cautiously in its bid to attack Iraq.
Micah Maidenberg; Brazil's Workers Party Tries 'Participatory Budgeting', Sand in the Wheels (n°148), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 09/10/02
Brazil will soon vote for a new president. If the Workers Party (or PT, for Partido dos Trabahadores) wins, South America's largest country will be governed by a party that was created by the labor movement and dedicated to building movements of workers and the poor. Laura Bure and Magüi Moreno Torres; Empowerment Tools and Practices - Participatory Budgeting, The World Bank 29.08.20002 Participatory budgeting is a process in which a wide range of stakeholders debate, analyze, prioritize, and monitor decisions about public expenditures and investments. Stakeholders can include the general public, poor and vulnerable groups including women, organized civil society, the private sector, representative assemblies or parliaments, and donors. 2002/10/09
 Georgian villagers caught up in the war on terror, The Guardian 07.10.2002
Mekha Hangushvili is petrified that the Russian bombers will return. Her parents live in Duisi, the village at the heart of the Pankisi gorge, a mountainous region on the border between Georgia and the war-torn Russian republic of Chechnya. Russia has bombed and threatened to invade the area in pursuit of the Chechen rebels, which it says take refuge there. It has derided Georgian attempts to clear out the rebels. But Ms Hangushvili, 35, who has left Duisi to live in Tbilisi, insists that the Chechen fighters have left the gorge. The Guardian's Special report: Chechnya. 2002/10/08
 Deir Yassin, Palestine, 9th April 1948
Deir Yassin Remembered Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover. In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.  Israel Shamir; April is the Cruelest of Months, Fontenelles Palestine Archive 02.04.2002
But there is yet another reason why this event was historically significant. Deir Yassin demonstrated the full scope of Zionist tactics. After the mass murder became known, the Jewish leadership blamed . the Arabs. David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, announced that the Arab rogue gangs perpetrated it. When this version collapsed, the Jewish leaders began the damage control procedures. They sent an apology to Emir Abdallah. Ben Gurion publicly distanced himself and his government from the bloody massacre, saying it stained the name of every honest Jew and that it was the work of dissident terrorists. His public relations techniques remain a source of pride for the good-hearted pro-Zionist 'liberals' abroad. "What a horrible, dreadful story", a humanist Jew told me when I drove him by the remaining houses of Deir Yassin, then he added "But Ben Gurion condemned the terrorists, and they were duly punished". "Yes", I responded, "they were duly punished and promoted to the highest government posts". Just three days after the murder, the gangs were incorporated into the emerging Israeli army, the commanders received high positions, and a general amnesty forgave their crimes. The same pattern, an initial denial, followed by apologies, and a final act of clemency and promotion, was applied after the first historically verifiable atrocity committed by Prime Minister Sharon. Anne Karpf; Remember the pain, heal the wounds, The Guardian 26.03.2002 Menachem Begin, in his 1952 memoirs, said that without Deir Yassin there wouldn't have been an Israel, and that after it the Zionist forces could "advance like a hot knife through butter". Under advice, he removed these words from subsequent editions. Within a year, the village was repopulated with orthodox Jewish immigrants from Poland, Romania and Slovakia, its cemetery bull-dozed, and its name wiped off the map. Israeli mythology holds that in 1948, the Palestinians simply ran away. Deir Yassin shows why: Israeli revisionist historian Benny Morris has said that it was the single event that did most to precipitate their flight. Ironically, on a clear day, you can see Deir Yassin from Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and this year Deir Yassin Day falls on Yom ha'Shoah (Holocaust Memorial Day). Deir Yassin creates enormous anxiety in many Jews, who feel as if remembering it could diminish the magnitude of their own tragedy and somehow displace commemoration of the Holocaust. They say: "I'll go and commemorate Deir Yassin when Palestinians go and commemorate Auschwitz." But there is no equivalence: while Israelis were responsible for Deir Yassin, Palestinians weren't responsible for Auschwitz. 2002/10/07
Venezuela: From coup to insurrection: "Chavism" at a crossroads, Frontline 8, 2002
Overnight, a military coup overthrew president Chávez, whom Business Week called "the hurricane of the Caribbean". And also overnight, a military counter coup with massive support of the population returned him to power. All this in a matter of hours. It seemed like a bad joke. Such political catastrophe is unheard of for a capitalist class as strong as that of Venezuela. 2002/10/04
 US employers "face international union response" in docks dispute, ITF 02.10.2002
The International Transport Workers' Federation has reacted strongly to the news that US employers in the ongoing West Coast ports dispute brought armed guards to a negotiating meeting yesterday."The decision by the employers to use armed guards during peace negotiations has seriously escalated the West Coast docks dispute. Not only has it forced the ILWU to walk out of the talks organised yesterday by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, it will also provoke an immediate and wide ranging international response", said ITF General Secretary David Cockroft. ILWU walks out of talks, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal 01.10.2002 Representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union stormed out of a meeting Tuesday morning with the Pacific Maritime Association after objecting to PMA bodyguards in the meeting room. "There were two gentlemen here with guns," ILWU President James Spinoza told reporters in the lobby of the Oakland building where the meeting was to be held. 2002/10/02
Ran HaCohen; Looking Behind Ha'aretz's Liberal Image, Letter from Israel, antiwar.com
Haaretzdaily.com is not Ha'aretz. Is this a mistake? An exception? No it is not. Ha'aretzdaily.com is not a full translation of the Hebrew paper; it's a selection. It often omits certain items, certain columns, that Ha'aretz does not find "suitable" for foreign eyes, like the report I just mentioned. Another way to achieve the same hidden bias is by "nationalistically correct" translations. For example, when Hebrew Ha'aretz read (2.7.02): "Recent reports about Egyptian intentions to develop nuclear weaponry WERE APPARENTLY THE RESULT OF ISRAELI PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE AND do not match intelligence information in Jerusalem, according to a senior Israeli official", the English translation simply omitted the words I've capitalised.
Rachel Neumann; Cuba After Castro?, AlterNet 09.09.2002
In front of the most popular ice cream shop in Havana there is an oft-photographed billboard -- a photo of Castro, looking old and grizzly but still fierce. He is caught mid-speech, mouth open and soft, finger raised in the air to illustrate his point. Below the photo, in big letters, are the words: Contra el Terrorismo y Contra la Guerra. Against Terrorism and Against War. It sounds sane and rational. For those of us in the States who have had difficulty stating a similar position without being branded traitors or terrorist-sympathizers, it's inspiring to see the message displayed so openly. But while it continues to provide a measure of inspiration to the solidarity brigades that come from all over the world, increased tourism and continuing shortages and restrictions mean that Cuba is having a harder time inspiring hopefulness and energy in its own people. It is possible that Cuba after Castro's death will find itself saddled with a government that mouths the rhetoric of the revolution, but destroys the institutions that make Cuba so remarkable.
Stephen Zunes; The Case Against War, Sand in the Wheels (n°146), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 25/09/02
A US invasion of Iraq would likely lead to an outbreak of widespread anti-American protests throughout the Middle East, perhaps even attacks against American interests. Some pro-Western regimes could become vulnerable to internal radical forces. Passions are particularly high in light of strong US support for the policies of Israel's rightist government and its ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The anger over US double standards regarding Israeli and Iraqi violations of UN Security Council resolutions and possession of weapons of mass destruction could reach a boiling point. Recognizing that the United States cannot be defeated on the battlefield, more and more Arabs and Muslims resentful of American hegemony in their heartland may be prone to attack by unconventional means, as was so tragically demonstrated last September 11. 2002/09/20
No comment. Click on the picture for further information! Next week slaskrad will not be updated, due to the editor's "holiday". 2002/09/18
Robert Harris; We don't win wars when we fire the first shot, The Mirror 18.09.2002
Tony Blair addressed the Trades Union Congress on the day before September 11. George Bush spoke at the United Nations on the day afterwards. Both speeches were explicit appeals for action against Saddam Hussein. Both started with references to the terrorist atrocities of last year. With the wounds of last autumn freshly reopened in our minds, we were, like Winston Smith, invited to indulge in an officially sponsored hate. But a careful study of the words of both leaders suggests that, despite all the efforts of Western intelligence - and Western journalism - there is still no direct evidence linking Iraq to the horrors of September 11. The best President Bush could come up with was two scraps - first, that Baghdad had defended the al-Qaeda attack (although so did several Guardian columnists without, as far as one knows, courting an American invasion of their Farringdon Road HQ) and, secondly, that "al-Qaeda terrorists escaped from Afghanistan and are known to be in Iraq". This glosses over the fact that the vast majority escaped to Pakistan, apparently with the connivance of some elements of the Pakistani military, and are still there. Mr Bush and Mr Blair are obviously determined to shake us out of our peace-loving complacency.
AlterNet's collection of articles regarding the rush to war on Iraq:
War on Iraq, AlterNet 2002 This page offers our readers the best analysis, activism resources, and timely information they need to resist this precipitous rush to war. The rightwing hawks within the Bush administration continue to press for an attack on Iraq, even as prominent members of their own party call for greater debate and restraint. A significant percent of Americans and all our allies agree -- a unilateral strike against Baghdad is both unwarranted and potentially disastrous. But if the likes of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney get their way, we will be exactly where we started a year ago -- attacking another nation under the aegis of the global war on terror. 2002/09/17
Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President, Sunday Herald 15.09.2002
A secret blueprint for US global domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure 'regime change' even before he took power in January 2001. The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says: 'The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.' And here's the so-called secret report, from the Project for the New American Century (PNAC); Rebuilding America's Defenses - Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century, PNAC September 2000.
America plan PR blitz on Saddam, Times Online 17.09.2002
The White House is aware that it lacks substantial new intelligence on Saddam’s nuclear programme or evidence directly linking Baghdad to the September 11 attacks. But it will build on the contents of President’s Bush’s speech made to the UN General Assembly last week, in which he listed Saddam’s violations of UN resolutions. The campaign, which will initially receive over $200 million (£130 million), will be overseen by the Office of Global Communications, whose existence will not be formally announced until next month. 2002/09/13
 No war with Iraq - Since the second world war the United States Government has bombed 21 countries, New Internationalist, Autumn 2002
We are told there is no option but to wage war on Iraq. But the options are clear. We bomb innocent people and hope that this will result in a change of leader. Or we allow UN weapons inspectors to do their job, we work for a change in regime rather than leader, we allow medicines and food into Iraq and we avoid a humanitarian disaster. There is no legal justification for any invasion or associated bombing of Iraq. There is no hard evidence that Iraq possesses any weapons of mass destruction and there is no substantiated connection between the Government of Iraq, September 11th, and the al Qaeda network. Iraq's neighbours; the ones most at risk from Iraq's weapons, are against this war, as are top military professionals in Britain and the US, many international organizations and countries around the world, and a great majority of people in the US.
2002/09/12
 Voting problems in Florida again. Is this the Bush brothers' Banana Republic? Story found at The Rittenhouse Review weblog. Mixed bag greets voters at polls in Broward County, Sun Sentinel 10.09.2002 While some voting places did not open on time because of equipment problems, no equipment or voting rolls at all, or not enough workers to staff the polls, others opened on time and and ran all day like the well-oiled machines that elections officials had hoped for. But the confusion, problems and shortages at some sites in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade and several other counties forced Gov. Jeb Bush to extend poll hours two hours longer statewide later in the day. Polls in South Florida will now be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday. “It’s a fiasco,” said polling deputy Marian Hynes at Precinct 22x. “We didn’t have the equipment to open up. She (pointing to an assistant clerk)called the office (of the supervisor of elections). They put her on hold. They had her on hold so long they wore out the batteries of her cell phone.” Continued: Two days later, still no clear winner in gubernatorial primary, Sun Sentinel 11.09.2002 But by late in the day the campaign had hired a Tallahassee attorney and staffers were beginning to gather affidavits from voters who were unable to cast a ballot on Tuesday because the polls were late in opening or closed early despite Gov. Jeb Bush’s order they remain open late. Jones said he also received complaints from a handful of voters who said their party registration had been changed — from Democrat to Republican — without their knowledge and they were unable to vote in the primary. “There’s no question that hundreds and probably thousands of people were turned away that we know of,” said Joe Geller, the head of Miami-Dade’s Democratic Party and a key Reno supporter. 2002/09/11
Robert Fisk; One year on: A view from the Middle East, The Independent 11.09.2002
September 11 did not change the world. Indeed, for months afterwards, no one was allowed even to question the motives of the mass murderers. To point out that they were all Arabs and Muslims was fair enough. But any attempt to connect these facts to the region they came from – the Middle East – was treated as a form of subversion; because, of course, to look too closely at the Middle East would raise disturbing questions about the region, about our Western policies in those tragic lands, and about America's relationship with Israel. Yet now, at last, President Bush's increasingly manic administration has spotted the connection – and is drawing all the wrong conclusions.
John Pilger; Remembering 9/11, ZNet daily commentaries 06.09.2002
Remembering 11 September merely as gruesome spectacle is an insult to the victims of that epic crime. However, remembering is important in order to make sense of it, and especially of what happened next. Making sense of 11 September is urgent. Another crime is imminent. In 1998, the Pentagon warned Bill Clinton that the "collateral damage" of an all-out invasion of Iraq could be as high as 10,000 civilians. How often, routinely, does humanity have to suffer this? That is the question many now ask. When the correspondent of the Washington Post, a famous liberal news-paper, can say on the BBC that the British are speaking out against the war party because they are jealous of America having "the sun around which the rest of the world revolves" (words to that effect) then you appreciate how the elite of great power thinks. The Romans and the imperial British would have thought like this. But the 21st century has arrived and the respectability that Nazism finally stripped from imperialism ought not to be allowed to return.  History of the Chilean Military Coup of September 11 1973, CNN.com
Find documents and analyses of the military overthrow of the Allende regime led by Augusto Pinochet. Testimony: Detainee remembers Chile 1973, BBC News 23.10.1998 I lived in a small flat in Eyzaguirre Street, very close to the centre of the city. Trapped at work by the military curfew on the day of the coup, I was rescued by the cleaners who hid me in their home in a nearby shanty town while troops fired machine-guns at random from helicopters hovering overhead.  Flashback: Caravan of Death, BBC News 25.07.2000
For a few days in October 1973, a self-styled military "delegation" toured provincial cities in northern and southern Chile, killing dozens of political opponents of General Augusto Pinochet's September coup. Many of the victims of what became known as the "Caravan of Death" had voluntarily turned themselves into the military authorities. Prisoners were taken from their cells and summarily executed, often without the knowledge or consent of the local military authorities. Tito Tricot; Remembering September 11 1973, The Guardian 16.09.2002 Were the lives of those killed at the World Trade Centre more valuable than the innocents murdered in Chile's US-backed coup? [..] The truth is that no US president ever shed a tear for our dead; no US politician ever sent a flower to our widows. The US government and media use different standards to measure suffering. It is precisely this hypocrisy and these double standards that make us sick, especially when on such a symbolic day for Chileans, the president of Chile, Ricardo Lagos, attended a memorial service at the United States embassy where the ambassador, William Brownfield, stated that "people who hate the United States must be controlled, arrested or eliminated". 2002/09/10
Drain the swamp and there will be no more mosquitoes, The Guardian 09.09.2002
September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the US government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That's all to the good. The president is not the first to ask: "Why do they hate us?" In a staff discussion 44 years ago, President Eisenhower described "the campaign of hatred against us [in the Arab world], not by the governments but by the people". His National Security Council outlined the basic reasons: the US supports corrupt and oppressive governments and is "opposing political or economic progress" because of its interest in controlling the oil resources of the region.
Drain the swamp and there will be no more mosquitoes, The Guardian 09.09.2002
September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the US government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That's all to the good. The president is not the first to ask: "Why do they hate us?" In a staff discussion 44 years ago, President Eisenhower described "the campaign of hatred against us [in the Arab world], not by the governments but by the people". His National Security Council outlined the basic reasons: the US supports corrupt and oppressive governments and is "opposing political or economic progress" because of its interest in controlling the oil resources of the region. 2002/09/06
Jonathan Marcus; Analysis: Air attack on Iraq, BBC News 06.09.2002
The latest attack by US and British warplanes against a command and control centre in southern Iraq has inevitably raised speculation that it may be a preliminary to a much broader air campaign. Allied aircraft attack Iraqi air base, CNN 06.09.2002 Coalition aircraft attacked targets on an Iraqi air base Thursday southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. Central Command said. The coalition response came after Iraqi forces fired anti-aircraft artillery at coalition jets patrolling the southern no-fly zone of that country, a Pentagon official said. 2002/09/05
Medea Benjamin; The anniversary of 9/11, Sand in the Wheels (n°143), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 04/09/02
The first anniversary of 9/11 is a critical time for people around the country to reflect on the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the Bush administration's response, and ask ourselves if the Bush strategy of fighting violence with violence has made us any safer. I would say no, that the world is even more dangerous today than it was one year ago. With the US government anxious to launch an invasion of Iraq that could lead to the death of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and unleash a new wave of anti-American sentiment in the Arab world, this is no time to be complacent. It's a urgent time to dedicate ourselves to building a strong peace movement here in the United States that can move us towards a world free of violence and war. Let's take a look at the past year.
Chris Kutalik; September 11: One Year Later, Sand in the Wheels (n°143), ATTAC Weekly newsletter - Wednesday 04/09/02
By September 12, 2001, commentators were already telling Americans that "nothing will ever be the same again." In the year since then, workers have found that some things have changed a lot, and others not at all-but that they now have a new rationale, the war on terrorism. Increasingly, national security is invoked to cover the anti-labor agenda of the Bush Administration and the employers.
Marcela Sanchez; Mixed Message on Human Rights, Again, The Washington Post/ Special to washingtonpost.com 30.08.2002
The Bush administration has been crisscrossing the globe asking countries to sign bilateral agreements that would exempt U.S. citizens from prosecution for human rights abuses by the new International Criminal Court. At the same time, it continues to proclaim, as the United States has for a quarter-century, that human rights is a pillar of U.S. foreign policy, and that full respect for human rights is a precondition for its military aid. The problem with this message is obvious: It's mixed. Once again. 2002/09/04
 On a Balkan War's Last Day, Trouble From the Sky, The New York Times 02.09.2002
In the early morning hours, the scientists come to work on a small tongue of land with one of the loveliest views along the Mediterranean. Behind them is the stunning bay of Kotor and its crown of steep mountains, ahead is the shimmer of the open sea, a few hours' sail from Italy. The scientists from Montenegro are searching for war debris, specifically bullets coated with slightly radioactive depleted uranium. American warplanes fired some 480 rounds at the cape on the final day of NATO's 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia, according to NATO records. 
Serbia was hit by some 3,500 rounds of depleted uranium and its cleanup has only just begun. But Montenegrins feel wronged, Ms. Misurovitc explained, because they made it clear they were neutral in the war. She has tried to enlist the help of the United Nations and other international bodies with the uranium. Her message for NATO: "Come and take back your radioactive waste and pay for decontamination."
Bruce Schneier; "Body of Secrets" by James Bamford, Salon April 25, 2001
"Body of Secrets" is one fascinating book. It's a secret history of U.S. foreign policy from the perspective of signals intelligence, beginning with the Cold War and continuing through the year 2000. And it's chock-full of juicy stuff: secret Cold War missions over the Soviet Union, government coverups of military debacles, eavesdropping on our friends and enemies. Stuff you have trouble imagining a civilian being able to research and publish. Bamford has two weapons: the tenacity needed to exploit the Freedom of Information Act and the patience to wade through mounds of public papers in archives around the country. They have both served him well. Among the more shocking things Bamford learned is that in 1962, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff approved something called Operation Northwoods. Fortunately never implemented, it involved committing random acts of terror on Americans in the United States and then blaming them on Cuba. Most of the documents detailing this Bamford found in the National Archives, among the thousands of papers the Joint Chiefs of Staff released about the Cuban missile crisis. In 1967, the Israeli military attacked and destroyed the USS Liberty, a spy ship that had eavesdropped on an Israeli massacre of surrendered Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai. The ship's intercepts were destroyed, but the NSA also had spy planes eavesdropping. The details, including President Johnson's coverup to save the Jewish vote in the next election, were in a box in the back of the NSA Museum. They were in a public place, but no one had bothered to look at them before.
Don Hazen; Seizing The Populist Moment, AlterNet 03.09.2002
The big chance to organize for change has arrived. Large numbers of Americans are being screwed by deregulation, corporate corruption and political bribery. As the economy has tanked workers are burdened with increasing unemployment (at 6 percent, the highest in six years) stagnant wages and skyrocketing health care costs. This is not a union battle, or a worker vs. management struggle. This is a struggle to create a society that values fairness and justice, that protects its people and preserves a healthy environment with clean air and water. AlterNet intends to provide you with ongoing coverage and opportunities to participate in making change during this important time. We hope you will unite with us in this endeavor. 2002/09/03
Gilbert Achcar; The Clash of Barbarisms, Monthly Review, Volume 54, Number 4, September 2002
Every attempt to explain the descent into terrorism that culminated in the suicide attacks of September 11, 2001, as a consequence of the deplorable state of the world we live in has run up against a barrage of vicious polemical artillery. In a climate of intellectual intimidation bearing a certain resemblance to the dark hours of the Cold War, the intimidation relied on two deliberate amalgams. The prevalent code of ethics is more flexible than ever since Western warmongers began to lay claim to “humanitarian” concerns. According to this twisted morality it is thus highly immoral to try to put the crime of September 11 in proportion by referring to the long list of crimes committed by the U.S. government and cited in part by those who planned the attacks. Yet by contrast it is supposed to be a moral imperative, according to the same code of ethics, to put the criminal bombing of Afghanistan in proportion by incessantly referring to the crime that it is supposedly a response to. A double standard is at work here. This is the never-ending iniquity of every form of egocentrism, whether ethnic or social.
An article describing the norwegian oil policy untill now, these days state controlled companies are partly privatized and the EU will control more of the norwegian oil and gas resources...
Oiling the desire for identity, Sunday Herald 01.09.2002 In contrast with the UK's 'hands-off' policy, Norway had always been clear that its seabed resources were the property of its citizens . Norway's parliament, the Storting, ruled that the state takes 50% participation in all production licences given to oil firms. By the 1980s the benefits of this approach were obvious. While the Thatcher government took a hacksaw to Scottish industry and the welfare state, Norway ploughed its oil revenue into native industries and a vast public welfare system. In two decades, Norway -- like Scotland, a numerically small north-European periphery -- seemed to be transformed from a pauper among nations to one of the most prosperous societies in the world. Despite international integration loosening public controls over industries and welfare, the Nordic states ensure income distribution remains markedly even. In the UK, which historically has valued entre preneurial self-help and assistance only to those deemed in dire need, the gap between rich and poor is dramatically wider. Scotland's reluctance for a radical fiscal overhaul, which would bring us in line with Scandinavia, illustrates the extent to which we remain wedded to a traditional British aversion to footing the bill for those who just need to 'pull themselves together'. Thanks to Alister and his weblog perspective for this article. 2002/08/27
Promising words from Britains de facto leader of the Jewish community. The Israeli right, and in special Sharon and his men needs verbal smashes like this.
Israel set on tragic path, says chief rabbi, The Guardian 27.08.2002 Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, today delivers an unprecedentedly strong warning to Israel, arguing that the country is adopting a stance "incompatible" with the deepest ideals of Judaism, and that the current conflict with the Palestinians is "corrupting" Israeli culture. In a move that will send shockwaves through Israel and the world Jewish community, Professor Sacks departs from his usual policy of offering only public endorsement of Israel, and broad support for moves toward peace, by giving an explicit verdict on the effect that 35 years of military occupation and decades of conflict are having on Israel and the Jewish people. Some reactions the day after: Hardliners condemn Sacks over Israel stance, The Guardian 28.08.2002 A hardline Israeli rabbi said Dr Sacks had become "irrelevant" in the world Jewish community because of his comments. But other Jewish leaders applauded the chief rabbi for speaking out and claimed his words would find sympathy with many Jews. Israel's state radio, the Voice of Israel, carried reports on the chief rabbi's interview throughout yesterday. The early reports focused on his comments about the incompatibility of Israel's stance in the occupied territories with Judaism's deepest ideals, but later the story's emphasis was switched so as to highlight his meeting with an Iranian ayatollah and his comment that they quickly "established a common language". "Perhaps it was an effort to discredit him", said Rabbi Arik Aschermann, the head of Rabbis for Human Rights, a Jerusalem-based group. "What he says is very much in line with what we think, and what many others believe who are hesitant to say so out loud". Michael Harris (Orthodox rabbi);Sacks is right: all violence corrupts, The Guardian 28.08.2002 In the Book of Chronicles, God tells David that he may not build the Temple because of the blood that he has spilled. Maimonides argued that David's wars were morally justified; nevertheless, he explains, the very fact that David took human life itself invalidates him for the task of constructing the House of God. Even the justified, coerced imposition of suffering on others is morally corrosive. The chief rabbi is right to warn that, in the long term, Israel has no authentically Jewish alternative but to find another way. 2002/08/26
Perry Anderson; Internationalism: A Breviary, New Left Review 14, March-April 2002
The metamorphoses of nationalism and internationalism, from the time of Kant to the 'revolution in military affairs'. Social bases, ideological forms, geopolitical locations. Few political notions are at once so normative and so equivocal as internationalism. Today, the official discourse of the West resounds with appeals to a term that was long a trademark of the Left. Whatever sense is given it, the meaning of internationalism logically depends on some prior conception of nationalism, since it only has currency as a back-construction referring to its opposite. Yet while nationalism is of all modern political phenomena the most value-contested-judgements of its record standardly varying across a 180-degree span, from admiration to anathema-no such schizophrenia of connotation affects internationalism: its implication is virtually always positive. But the price of approval is indeterminacy. If no-one doubts the fact of nationalism, but few agree as to its worth, at the entry to the millennium the status of internationalism would appear to be more or less the reverse. It is claimed on all sides as a value, but who can identify it without challenge as a force? 2002/08/23
Why Earth Summit must fail to succeed, The Daily Yomiuri 21.08.2002
The issues are not right, there is no political will, and the world is not ready for yet another summit on sustainable development right now. So let it fail, and let it fail miserably. Why? So that it can eventually succeed.
Palestinians thrash out tactics, The Guardian 23.08.2002
Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, met again in Gaza City last night to agree a common strategy in their fight against Israel. The main split is between militants wanting Palestinian attacks to be confined to Israel soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and those wanting to continue attacks in Israel.
Britain tightens arms exports to Israel, The Guardian 23.08.2002
The British government is tightening the controls on arms exports to Israel, according to a leaked Department of Trade and Industry document. Though both the British and Israeli governments publicly deny that an embargo is in place, it is clear that a partial one is being applied informally and is being expanded. 2002/08/21
The Death Convoy of Afghanistan, Newsweek August 26 issue, 2002
Trudging over the moonscape of Dasht-e Leili, a desolate expanse of low rolling hills in northern Afghanistan, Bill Haglund spotted clues half-buried in the gray-beige sand. Strings of prayer beads. A woolen skullcap. A few shoes. Those remnants, along with track marks and blade scrapes left by a bulldozer, suggested that Haglund had found what he was looking for. Then he came across a human tibia, three sets of pelvic bones and some ribs. Michelle Goldberg; When does a massacre matter?, Salon 20.08.2002 Evidence that American allies in Afghanistan slaughtered captured Taliban soldiers first surfaced last spring. Will a Newsweek cover story force an investigation? So far, the U.S. and U.N. say no. 2002/08/20
We're Dying a Slow And Silent Death, allAfrica.com 18.08.2002
She last had a decent meal nearly two years ago. Her 20kg ration of maize ran out two weeks ago. She now survives on wild berries, plants and leaves, which she says are not enough to maintain her frail 70-year-old frame. Villagers like her have to compete with wild animals that normally feed on the plants. "We are dying in silence and helplessness here," she says in a hoarse voice. "It is a slow but painful death. Even if we survive, the future does not look too promising. We do not know what will happen to us."
Phyllis Bennis; All the Facts About Iraq, AlterNet 15.08.2002
Nelson Mandela was right when he said that attacking Iraq would be "a disaster." A U.S. invasion of Iraq would risk the lives of U.S. military personnel and inevitably kill thousands of Iraqi civilians; it is not surprising that many U.S. military officers, including some within the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are publicly opposed to a new war against Iraq. Such an attack would violate international law and the UN Charter, and isolate us from our friends and allies around the world. An invasion would prevent the future return of UN arms inspectors, and cost billions of dollars urgently needed at home. And at the end of the day, an invasion will not insure stability, let alone democracy, in Iraq or the rest of the volatile Middle East region, and will put American civilians at greater risk of hatred and perhaps terrorist attacks than they are today. 2002/08/14
The President's Economic Forum Waco, Texas August 13, 2002 The White House takes pleasure in announcing the schedule for the historic President’s Economic Forum, to be held in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday, August 13, 2002. Not since the convening of secret Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force has such a rich and diverse array of economists, CEO’s, and government officials convened at any one time! Click here for the program |
