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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. |
