December 1, 2003
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December 22, 2003
December 29, 2003
A distinguished general offers a chilling warning that the biggest victim of another terrorist attack could be the Constitution.
Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion of Iraq, has warned that another massive terrorist attack on the West or the United States could lead to the scrapping of the Constitution and a military government.
"The worst thing that could happen" is a terrorist attack using biological, chemical or nuclear weapons that inflicts heavy casualties on the United States or other Western nations, Franks told the men's lifestyle magazine, Cigar Aficionado, in its Dec. 2003 issue.
"The Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most and that is the freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment we call democracy," Franks said.
"In a practical sense," Franks said, the people will demand that the Constitution be abandoned in favor of a military government for protection.
Another terrorist attack "causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass-casualty-producing event," Franks said.
This "begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution," Franks said. "Two steps - very, very important."
Franks, who holds three Purple Hearts and three Bronze Stars, is the first high-ranking military officer to speculate that another terrorist attack could make the Constitution a casualty.
Critics of the Patriot Act, passed quickly and unread by most
lawmakers in response to the 9-11 attacks, argue that new powers
granted federal agencies do violence to the Constitution. The
critics represent the political spectrum from left to right.
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Rumsfeld's plan to develop so-called "mini" nuclear weapons has many people across the globe fearing the very worst.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is backing the creation of a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons - dubbed "mini-nukes." The weapons would be used to attack al Qaeda bases in mountainous regions of Afghanistan, where conventional penetration bombs have so far failed to destroy the organization's underground camps.
Details are contained in a top-secret Pentagon document, Future Strategic Strike Force. It has been produced by the Defense Science Board (DSB). It has a pentagon brief to "transform the nation's armed forces to meet the demands placed on them by a changing world order." The weapons could be tested as early as next year.
Last September, in a barely reported decision, the Senate eased restrictions on nuclear testing at the army's test range in Nevada. No new test has taken place there since 1992. The DSB report was produced by a group of scientists employed at Los Alamos and by Pentagon strategists.
They have concluded that in the war against terrorism, it is "essential to revamp our nuclear arsenal. We envisage a completely new arsenal of small-scale missiles whose explosive impact would be easier to control and which could be targeted against terror groups and small aggressive states."
Though North Korea and Iran are not named, Pentagon sources say that the "mini-nukes would be ideal for targeting them." A copy of the report has already been sent to Israel - and its defense chiefs have expressed "a strong interest" in ordering the mini-nukes. Rumsfeld has himself told senior Defense Department officials that the need for a "bolder approach" in dealing with America's enemies is "now long overdue."
A senior Pentagon analyst said that Rumsfeld told the officials that there is an "urgent need to discard our old Cold War thinking about nuclear weapons only being weapons of mass destruction with widespread fallout. The fact is that America's nuclear capability in a hangover from those days when we had to match the Soviets. What we need now are nuclear weapons that fit into our new security needs. Mini-nuke fallout would be limited to the target area."
Curing President Bush's visit to London, senior Department of Defense officials, who were traveling with the president, met with their counterparts in Britain's Ministry of Defense to discuss the role Britain can play in having mini-nukes replace the larger nuclear weapons stockpiled from the time of the Cold War. Among the topics on the London agenda were an enhanced min-neutron bomb and a specifically designed "bunker buster, capable of destroying terrorist cells deep underground."
But already the prospect of mini-nukes has aroused fear and anger among others. During Rumsfeld's visit to Japan and South Korea, he received a cool reception for his plans to launch mini-nukes.
"Such weapons would, in the case of North Korea, produce a massive retaliation from their own nuclear arsenal," said Yoshio Takamara, a Tokyo-based defense analyst. "It would not only be against South Korea and U.S. forces there, but also against Japan. The use of mini-nukes in this region would probably trigger World War III."
The mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, told American Free Press: "Any policy of the United States to add to the world's nuclear arsenal is to be deplored. Any attack will surely not stop at one mini-nuke. A dozen of them could cause as much damage as the original atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. We are still the only city that has suffered such unique devastation. And we are still living with the results."
Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "Developing new weapons will only encourage other countries to violate the nuclear nonproliferation treaty."
But all the signs are that Rumsfeld is prepared to have the
mini-nukes in place as soon as possible.
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When republicans get into power, they lose their principles. Federalizing crimes is a Republican taboo, because it encroaches on the rights of states, clogs federal courts and conflicts with the court's traditional functions. And it can result in double jeopardy and duplicate punishments.
These sound arguments are now being abandoned, as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) joins with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-mass) to expand the federal government's power to prosecute "hate crimes."
"Hate-crimes" are defined as violent acts motivated by prejudice based on race, gender, disability or sexual orientation. A senate staffer told The Washington Times that one purpose of the bill was to place the weight of the federal government on the side of the Homosexual lifestyle.
There is nothing new in politicians pandering to special interests. However, "hate-crimes" bills pander in ways that violate the 14th Amendment by creating unequal standing in law.
Hatch's bill assumes that women need protection from men's hatred, blacks need protections from the hatred of whites, the disabled require protection from being hated by the able-bodied and homosexuals need protection from heterosexuals.
The effect of Hatch's bill is to divide the population into a victim class and a perpetrator class: White, heterosexual, able-bodied males (WHAMs) are the perpetrators, and everyone else their victims.
If a homosexual is assaulted, robbed or murdered by a heterosexual, a hate-crime will have been committed in addition to the crime of assault. Similarly, if a black is assaulted, robbed or murdered, a hate-crime charge will be added if the assailant is white. Rape itself can become a hate crime.
Hate does play a role in some murders, but usually it is hatred of a person, not of a race or gender or sexual orientation. Most cases of assault result from the workings of alcohol or from anger. Robbery results from a desire for money, and rape is driven by lust and power.
Once the new law is on the books, there will be demands that it be enforced. In the majority of cases, prosecutors will have no basis but resumption for the Hate-crime charge. If the victim is in a "protected category" (Blacks, females, disabled, homosexuals) and the perpetrator is a WHAM, a hate-crime can be presumed.
This pattern is already established. Prosecutors did not presume a hate-crime when two black males raped and sodomized two white couples, afterward shooting each in the head. Neither were two homosexuals charged with a hate crime when they sodomized and killed a 13-year-old boy, not were the black gangs that , acting out rap lyrics to "beat a white boy into the ground,' attacked and brutalized white University of Virginia students.
However, Lonnie Rae, a WHAM, was charged with a hate-crime in Idaho when his temper got the best of him and he used the "N" word when confronting the black male who assaulted his wife. White Michigan housewife Janice Barton was jailed when a deputy sheriff overheard her using the word "spic" in a private conversation with her mother.
The Hatch-Kennedy bill will set the double standard in federal concrete.
The bill means that WHAMs will have to suffer abuse, verbal or otherwise, from "protected categories." A WHAM who stands up for himself or his wife risks being charged with a hate-crime. WHAMs who cannot accept the double standard will end up in jail.
Before senators legislate into law the liberal myth that white men are the source of hatred in society, they might visit the Violently Racist Music web site and ponder these black rap lyrics:
"Kill d'white people; we gonna make them hurt."
"Niggas in the church say: kill whitey all night long."
"Cracker in my way; slit his throat; watch his body shake."
"These devils make me sick; I love to fill them full of holes."
"We need you participation in the Caucasian assassination."
Black rap has a number of white apologists, but any white who sang about "killing niggas" would be arrested, along with the recording studio.
In defense of his bill, Hatch say, "Nobody should be discriminated against." Trouble is, his bill discriminates against white Americans.
To his credit, Hatch tried to limit somewhat the scope of federalized crimes and to raise the bar of proof that a crime was motivated by hate. Hatch, however, is smart enough to know that his efforts are pointless. Prosecutors compete to find more expansive ways to interpret any law, regardless of what the statute says.
Just as the application of asset freezes has expanded far beyond the Mafia and asset forfeiture has expanded far beyond drug dealers, the brand new Patriot Act is already being used to prosecute crimes that have nothing to do with terrorism. Likewise, the Hatch-Kennedy bill will be used to find hate wherever prosecutors want if to be.
White Americans have become second-class citizens in their
own country and are set up for persecution under hate-crime laws.
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Tactics employed recently by the U.S. military in its brutal
"show of force" against Iraqi guerrilla fighters have
many people concerned that the United States is behaving more
and more like Israel. "The decision to destroy at least a
dozen homes belonging to family members of guerrilla suspects
in and around Tikrit was ‘within the rules of war' and was
approved by the commander of the 4th Infantry Division and probably
by the overall commander for U.S. forces in Iraq,' a spokesman
for the Army told Knight-Ridder. "How can a great state like
the U.S. be so shallow?" said Hamed Nmode, a member of the
U.S.-appointed Tikrit governing council. "We are wondering
why they stooped to this level. It is winter, and they are putting
innocent women and children in the street."
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Despite the high-tech world we live in, access to clean, drinkable water is one of the most pressing issues facing America - and the rest of the world.
While most of the world is covered with water, only 2.5 percent of it is not salty. Two-thirds of that is locked in icecaps and glaciers. About 20 percent of what is left is in remote areas, and much of the rest arrives at the wrong time and place, as monsoons and floods. Humans have less than 0.08 percent of all the Earth's water available to them. As a result, a shortage of clean water is considered by experts as one of the two most worrying problems for the new millennium (the other is global warming).
One person in five across the world has no access to safe drinking water, and one in two lacks safe sanitation. The problem is expected to worsen over the next two decades as our water use is estimated to increase by about 40 percent.
Around the world, we have already reached near crisis stage in several locations. International studies have identified 12 areas in the world as having the most serious water problems.
* Ogallala Awuifer, U.S.A. - This is North America's largest aquifer, stretching from Texas to South Dakota. Unfortunately it is nostly "fossil" water with little renewal. Farmers are pumping the groundwater faster than it can be replenished. Currently the Ogallala is being depleted at the rate of 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year. It is estimated that the underground system has lost 325 bcm, a volume equal to 18 Colorado Rivers.
* Mexico city Aquifer, Mexico - The Aztecs first built Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) on an island in Lake Toxcoco. By now all the lakes in the Falley of Mexico have been drained, and Mexico City is sinking because of the amount of water being pumped out from beneath its foundations. The swampy land has no adequate drainage, and sewage is mixing with rainwater, polluting the irrigation systems for the entire valley. An estimated 40 percent of the city's water is lost through the leaky pipes of the City's century-old water system. As sewage and pollution leak in and out, Mexico's largest city is rapidly running out of clean water.
* The Catalonian Aquifer, Spain-Chronic water shortages are plaguing the 4.5 million inhabitants of Catalonia (including Barcelona) and are increasingly common in eastern Spain. The region has drained most of its aquifers and is now having to import water. Calalonia is building a pipeline to the Rhone in France, and a project to divert water from the Elbo River in Basque territory has been authorized.
* The Niger & Volta rivers, West Africa - West African countries of Mali, Nigeria and Ghana are dependent on these rivers for power and transport. Unfortunately the rivers, which start immediately south of the Sahara, have erratic flows and are frequently quite low. Also, the rivers are becoming so polluted that half the population has no access to clean water.
* The Zambezi River, Southern Africa - The Zambezi River is one of the most overused fiver systems on Earth. Five countries - Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and MMozambique - share the river and are building dams. During droughts, down river countries like Mozambique don't get enough water. During wet years, like the last two years, upstream countries open their dams, intensifying the flooding downstream.
* The Nile River, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia - Sudan and Ethiopia are making increasing demands on the river, creating international tension. Egypt warned both countries 10 years ago that it would use force if necessary to maintain a steady flow.
* The Tigris and Euphrates, Middle East - Turkey is constructing a series of hydroelectric dams across both the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Both Syria and Iraq, who depend on these rivers, accuse Turkey of denying them much needed water.
*The Jordan River, Middle East - Competition for the waters of the River Jordan was a major cause of the 1976 war. Since then, populations have grown, available water has decreased and religious animosity has remained just as bloody.
* The Aral Sea, Central Asia - Russia's communist regime devised massive irrigation systems that diverted water from the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers that feed the Aral Sea. Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan use the irrigation systems for farming. The sea is drying up, dropping 16 yards between 1962 to 1994. The salts and pollution of the old seabed have created a toxic desert, and the surrounding area has some of the highest infant mortality, anemia and cancer rates in the world.
* The Ganges, India and Bangladesh - Almost everywhere in India, the water table is falling between one and three yards annually. The situation is particularly severe in the Ganges, which is becoming so depleted that Bangladesh at the mouth of the river is experiencing shortages. The source of the river, the Gangotri glacier, is receding hundreds of feet every year. India is planning to build more than 50 dams to regulate the river flow, supply water and generate power. Dhaka is concerned because it fears the dams will divert water to Calcutta, cutting off the supply to Bangladesh.
* The Yellow River, China - Between 1991 and 1996, the water table beneath the north China plain fell an average of 1.5 meters a year. The Yellow River, the major river in north China, has been running dry each year, for as long as 226 days in 1997. All three rivers feeding the Yellow are severely polluted, damaging health and limiting irrigation. Since northern China has two-thirds of the nation's farmland and only one-fifth of its water, the situation is extremely severe.
* The Snowy River Project, Australia - the ambitious engineering project to reverse the flow of the Showy Tiver has not performed as expected. It threatens to deprive Adelaide of water and is flooding the water tables near Australia's two longest rivers. This has bushed salts to the surface, destroying some of Australia's most productive farmland. The Murray Darling Basin embraces three-quarters of the nation's irrigated farmland. If the current situation is not fixed, the land may be unusable for agriculture in 20 years.
These situations share major characteristics:
Increased demands on a finite source of water. An over reliance on underground water, which is slow to renew. Several nations or tribes sharing river basins, but unable to agree on a central usage plan. Poorly designed irrigation projects that distort water tables, allowing salt and silt to destroy farmland. Poor upkeep of existing water and irrigations systems, which causes water to be lost, wasted or polluted.
The weather has become highly variable, and what were potential crises have become out-and-out emergencies. Over usage and poor usage of water in international water systems during the more stable weather of the 1970s, 1980s and the early 1990s have created problems.
Conditions were bad in stable weather. Now, in the third year of massive drought, the situation has become deadly.
Evelyn Browning Garris is the publisher of Browning Newsletter.
This report appeared in a recent issue of Browning Newsletter.
For subscription information, write: P.O. Box 494, Burlington,
Vt. 05402, or contact Fraser Management at (802) 658-0322
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GOOD GUN LAW. The tiny town of Geuda Springs, Kan., has passed
an ordinance requiring most households to have a gun and ammunition.
People who are mentally or physically disabled, or have a conscientious
objection to guns, are exempt. The ordinance allows "each
individual householder to provide for his or her protection,"
said councilman John Brewer. The fine for failure to comply is
$10. In 1982, Kennesaw, Ga., enacted a similar law. And even though
the Atlanta suburb's population has increased by over 275 percent,
Kennesaw's crime rate has still dropped to about half the national
average.
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Attorney General John Ashcroft was "indicted" for doing violence to the Constitution by a group launching a national campaign calling for his ouster.
Attorney General John Ashcroft is under a seven-count "indictment" for constitutional abuses under the misnamed "Patriot Act" by a group that is conducting a national campaign calling for his ouster.
"Our goal is to spark a groundswell of grassroots protest demanding the removal of John Ashcroft from office as attorney general," Ron Daniels, head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told a Washington news conference Nov. 17.
Following the press conference, sponsors delivered the "indictment" to the Justice Department.
The campaign is supported by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Walter Fauntry (D), a former delegate to Congress from Washington, D.C., said: the reactionary and frightening policies of this regime must be challenged at every opportunity."
The center hopes to collect thousands of signatures to its online petition at peoplevashcroft.org.
The "indictments" charge Ashcroft with using the Patriot Act to violate constitutional rights of privacy, freedom of speech, rights to legal representation and a speedy and public trial, unnecessarily imposing secrecy on government operations, discrimination against Americans on the basis of religion and ethnicity and attacking the independence of the judiciary system.
It cited the now-familiar reasons: access by federal agents
to personal records, monitoring individuals' actions and words,
holding prisoners without charge or access to counsel, refusing
to account for prisoners held at secret locations and targeting
Arabs and Muslims, all without probable cause. The center also
accused the government of "protecting foreign officials and
multinational corporations that violate human rights despite,
a federal law, passed by our very first Congress in 1789, directing
our courts to provide justice to the victims of international
human rights violations."
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Growing numbers of "failure to convict" cases have the government worried that the federal income tax system could eventually crumble.
Businessman Richard Simkanin, 59, of Bed ford, Texas, recently won a victory against Big Brother. Jurors could not reach a verdict on a 27-count indictment accusing him of failure to withhold taxes from the wages of his employees and of filing fraudulent claims for tax refunds. Jurors said they were deadlocked after eight hours of deliberations.
Simkanin is one of a number of employers who contend that there is no law requiring an employer to withhold from his employees' wages, although the employees are registered in the Social Security system.
While that argument (known in the "tax honesty movement" as the "861 argument") has turned out to be problematic, Simkanin's defense in the case (number 4-03CR-188-A, USA v. Richard M. Simkanin) is that he relied upon the advice of "experts" in good faith. Jurors said they could not reach a verdict in the case.
However, Simkanin remained in federal custody after U.S. District Judge John McBryde in the Northern District of Texas in Dallas declared a mistrial.
Simkanin made the strategic mistake of openly declaring his contempt for the government, in ways that could possibly be construed as threats (although it appears he was really only warning them of the hellfire that would await them in the afterlife). As a result, the judge has treated Simkanin as a dangerous desperado who must be kept in jail until a decision is made what to do with him.
Simkanin once wrote to the Treasury secretary that he had repatriated himself from the United States to the "Republic of Texas," angering federal employees who consider that any citizen of a state of the union is automatically a citizen of the United States of America and that any argument to the contrary is frivolous.
Simkanin was charged with failing to collect and pay $175,000 in taxes on his employees' wages from January 2000 through December 2002 and filing fraudulent claims for tax refunds totaling $234,515 for the years 1997 through 1999.
Simkanin testified that he followed the advice of a certified public accountant who told him it was legal to stop withholding taxes from his employees' paychecks.
Ignorance of federal tax law is a legal defense if a taxpayer unintentionally violates the law after accepting wrong advice in good faith.
He also said his tax views are based on his Christian faith. "I was robbing [the employees] of their opportunity if I withheld the fruits of their labor," Simkanin told the court.
Had the case been heard by a judge only and not a jury, many people have speculated that Simkanin would most likely have been found guilty.
It is interesting to note that a jury has the right of nullification, which means they can vote "not guilty" simply because they feel the income tax law is unjust, or for any other reason—which could spell doom for the much-hated federal income tax system.
The great Lysander Spooner once wrote: "It is not to be
supposed that juries would enforce a tax upon an individual which
he had never agreed to pay."
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Washington officials are determined to increase surveillance and data collection on airline passengers and this is leading to a confrontation with the European Union that could ground airplanes.
President Bush and the European Union are on a head-on collision course over Washington's plan to introduce the largest surveillance system ever used on civilian populations. The American Civil Liberties Union has called it "a surveillance monster that will ot make anyone safer."
It could have a serious effect on tourism to America. It could see airlines that cooperate with the system facing huge penalties from the European Union. But those airlines that refuse to bow to Washington's demands will be denied landing rights at all U.S. airports.
As President bush flew to and from Baghdad on Air force One in a slick publicity stunt for footage to enhance his coming election video, he broke some of the very laws he now wants to enforce.
Air Force One did not identify itself as it sneaked out of Andrews Air Force Base. The president did not say he was on board. Or where he was going.
In doing so, he broke the spirit - if not the proposed law - of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-SScreening System, CAPPS-II.
This is the updated version of a system introduced in 1996 after TWA Flight 800 went down south of Long Island, killing 230.
Before it was learned that the tragedy had nothing to do with terrorism, the Clinton administration had rushed through CAPPS-I.
It was supposed to single out potential terrorist by vetting them before they boarded flights. Fliers who bought one-way tickets, checked in without tickets or paid in cash were flagged as "potential threats."
But now, prompted by Bush, Homeland Security wants to introduce after the New Year CAPPS-II, which foes far beyond the original scheme.
Each airline bringing a passenger to the United States must supply Homeland Security with the name, address, date of birth, home and office telephone numbers and occupation of each traveler.
There will be no exceptions. Even babies must be logged. Details of a child's school must be provided.
The information will be fed into computers at Homeland Security's transportation division.
Each detail will be checked with data-mining software to cross-reference that information with computerized records already stored. These would contain details of previous flights a passenger has made - along with where and how long he or she stayed in the United States. Any change in marital status will be noted.
The data will then be processed by more computers to determine "the level of security risk to the United states" any passenger poses.
This information will be supplemented by a passenger's onboard food preference, with whom he traveled in the past and with whom hi is currently flying. Details of how, where and when a ticket was purchased, by credit card or cash, will be stored for years.
"For this to work, a huge amount of private information will be needed on each person. But of the 39 separate items of information that the U.S. government wants on each traveler, only 19 are permitted to be disclosed under European Union privacy laws," said Paris-based airline industry analyst Peter Densor.
Colin Wallace, a former British intelligence surveillance operative, said CAPPS-II is a "further step to what the state does in the name of protecting the individual. There is something sinister in what Homeland Security is proposing. The results of such surveillance can reshape, reform, or at least control, the thinking and behavior of any individual. Such surveillance is liberated from any legal or moral obligations."
"The fact is that the U.S. government has nothing like the data-protection legislation which exists in Europe, and it is very likely that intimate information on private citizens would be sold from company to company," predicted Peter Somer, adviser to Britain's Trade and industry Department.
Kevin Warwick, professor of Cybernetic at England's University of Reading, says, "What CAPPS-II will fo is to further ensure that surveillance will eventually totally control us. There are already far too many government bodies that are privy to our secrets. They are the watchers. We are the watched."
A major problem with CAPPS-II - which will trigger confrontation with Washington - is that the European Community wants it to have, "as a minimum," an independent appeals procedure.
A spokesman for the EU said: "If the systems indicate you are a high-risk passenger due to faulty information held on computer, or the checks didn't source enough information on you, then you could end upon a no-fly list forever."
Supporters of CAPPS-II say that civil liberties have to be traded for security.
But Richard Tomlinson, a former M16 officer said, "that argument is knocked on the head by identity theft. For a few hundred dollars, a false ID can be obtained. It is relatively easy for a determined terrorist to create a safe passenger profile with easily available documents, credit cards and driving licenses. And the Internet is flooded with the essentials of any identity: name, date of birth, address and telephone number."
Washington is determined, however, to have CAPPS-II up and
running for the start of nest season's tourist influx. But how
many visitors would want to have their privacy stolen by his latest
whim?
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California has already undone one piece of mischief by former
Gov. Gray Davis (D). In a desperate effort to keep his job, Davis
courted the illegal votes of criminal aliens by allowing them
to obtain drivers licenses - a crucial form of identification
helpful in obtaining welfare. At the urging of new Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, the California Assembly voted 64 to 9 to deny
licenses to illegal aliens. The State Senate had passed the measure
earlier.
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Bucking the FDA ban on importing inexpensive pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, state and city officials are allowing the purchase of cheap medications from abroad in violation of federal regulations.
Several states and cities are considering defying the federal government and purchasing American-made drugs in Canada, where they are, on average, 67 percent cheaper. The federal government says this is against the law; the localities say they don't care.
Illinois and Michigan are considering the move, as are New York City, Burlington, Ver., and Boston, Cambridge, Salem and Somerville in Massachusetts.
It is the first time since the 1950s, when southern states introduced the doctrine of "interposition" between states and the federal government to block school desegregation, that "states rights" have been so widely asserted.
Springfield, Mass., has been purchasing drugs from Canada via the Internet since July and expects to save $8 million over the last six months of 2003.
Lawrence, Mass., Mayor Michael Sullivan said his city will import Canadian drugs if they are determined to be safe. He expects to lop $3.5 million off the city's $14 million health budget.
Salem, Mass., Mayor Stanley Usovicz said he will allow his city to import drugs "whether Congress passes a law making it illegal or not."
Reps. Martin Meehan (D-Mass.) and John Tierney (D-Mass.) urged more rebellions during a legislative forum at Lawrence.
"Cities like Lawrence and Methuen should look at what Springfield has done," Meehan said. "They are saving taxpayers millions of dollars."
Meehan and Tierney accused President Bush of collaborating with the pharmaceuticals industry to block pending legislation to allow drug imports They said the industry gets $4 billion from taxpayers each year for drug research and development and 26 firms get a total of $10.1 billion in tax breaks. Both benefits should stop until drug prices are lowered, they said.
"President Bush could make importing drugs legal as a regulation or he could order the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to do it," Meehan said. "But the president and FDA have joined the pharmaceuticals industry in their efforts to prevent cheaper drugs for Americans. It's inexcusable."
At present, the FDA could allow imports if it determines they are "safe." It has yet to be explained how pills made in the United States are shipped to Canada but then are returned to the United States "unsafe." Still, the FDA refuses to lift the ban.
Legislation pending in Congress, supported by Sen. John Kerrey
(D-Mass.), a presidential candidate, would allow re-imports from
Canada.
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The occupations for Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to get very "messy" as U.S. forces apply tactics - such as assassination squads - learned from the Israelis.
The recent killing of 15 Afghan children is likely to be a harbinger of things to come as U.S. occupation forces put into practice Israeli-taught tactics of assassination guerrilla leaders and resistance fighters.
None children were killed while playing in their yard when a U.S. "Warthog" aircraft tried to assassinate a single Afghan guerrilla; six other children were killed when a night-time assassination raid conducted by U.S. special forces resulted in the demolition of the building in which they lived.
A high number of Palestinian civilian casualties have resulted from similar Israeli assassination squad attacks in the occupied West Band and Gaza Strip. As U.S. forces employ these same tactics - many of which have been learned from thee Israeli military - it is likely that many innocent Iraqi and Afghan civilians will also be killed.
Israeli advisers are currently training U.S. Special Forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, Julian Borger, Washington correspondent for The Guardian (UK), reported on Dec. 9.
"The Israeli Defense Force (IDF), has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the home of U.S. special forces," Borger wrote, "and according to two sources, Israeli military ‘consultants' have also visited Iraq.""They [U.S. special Forces] are being trained by Israelis in Fort Bragg," a well-informed intelligence source in Washington told Borger.
The U.S. Defense Department has also adopted the Israeli logic that a "terrorist" is anyone who resists the occupation. Asked about the use of assassination squads in Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman told American Free Press: "The members of our military are engaged in seeking ut and killing all former regime loyalists and terrorists."
While the spokesman said not all "terrorists" were former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party, he added: "We view any former regime loyalist as a terrorist."
When AFP asked if the Pentagon then viewed all former Ba'ath Party members as "terrorists," the spokesman said it meant "one who is attacking our forces."
Regarding the report that Israelis are training U.S. Special forces, a Pentagon spokesman would only say that "the U.S. maintains military-to-military relationships with a number of countries, including Israel"
WISHFUL THINKING
"The secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher," Borger wrote, "in the hope of suppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November's presidential elections." there is, however, no evidence to suggest that these Israeli methods will result in suppressing the resistance to the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Israeli assassination squads, which have been active for years, have not succeeded in suppressing Palestinian resistance in an area that is far smaller and less populous than either Iraq or Afghanistan. On the contrary, Israeli assassinations of guerrilla leaders exacerbate the violence by causing retaliation attacks on Israelis by the Palestinian resistance group affected.
Seymour M. Hersh recently quoted "an American who has advised the civilian authority in Baghdad" as having said: "The only way we can win is to go unconventional. We're gong to have to play their game. Guerrilla versus guerrilla. Terrorism versus terrorism. We've got to scare the Iraqis into submission." Hersh's article, "Moving Targets," is in the Dec. 15 issue of The New Yorker.
"Israeli commandos and intelligence units have been working closely with their American counterparts at the Special Forces training base at Fort Bragg, N.S., and in Israel to help them prepare for operations in Iraq," Hersh wrote. "The American-Israeli liaison on Iraq amounts to a tutorial on how to dismantle an insurgency.
A former Israeli military-intelligence officer summarized to Hersh the core lesson this way: "How to do targeted killing, which is very relevant to the success of the war, and what the United States is going to have to do."
"A new Special Forces group, designated Task Force 121, has been assembled from Army Delta Force members, Navy Seals, and CIA paramilitary operatives," Hersh wrote. "Its highest priority is the neutralization of the Ba'athis insurgents, by capture or assassination."
The Numbers of Special Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are not generally included in troop totals, Hersh wrote, which allows the bush administration to increase the force strength without it being reported. "You need more people," a former adviser, a retired admiral, told Hersh. "But you can't add them, because Rummy's taken a position. So you invent a force that won't be counted."
The emphasis on Ba'ath Party members ignores other potent elements of the Iraqi resistance. An American military analyst told Hersh that the emphasis on regime loyalists from the Ba'ath "overlooks the nationalist and tribal angle." The anti-coalition forces in Falluja, a major center of opposition, he said, are "driven primarily by the sheikhs and mosques, Islam, clerics and nationalism.
The region, he said, contains "tens of thousands of unemployed former military officers and enlistees who hang around the coffee shops and restaurants of their relatives; they plot, plan and give and receive instructions; at night they go out on their missions."
"U.S. Special Forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border," Borger wrote in The Guardian.
"This is basically an assassination program. That is what is being conceptualized here. This is a hunter killer team," a former senior U.S. intelligence official said, adding that he feared the new tactics and enhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation in the Middle East.
"It is bonkers, insane," he said. "Here we are - we're already being compared to [Israelii leader] Sharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis and setting up assassination teams."
The Pentagon refused to confirm or deny that U.S. forces are
operating in Syria. "We don't discuss current and ongoing
operations," was all a spokesman would say about the report
that U.S. Special Forces are "behind the lines inside Syria."
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The so-called "strong-dollar" policy is nothing more than an empty political slogan. Its recent slide against other currencies proves that.
Those who follow financial markets may be familiar with the term "strong-dollar policy," which is used by Bush administration officials and federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan himself. One might assume that such a policy entailed a course of action designed to strengthen the value of the U.S. dollar. However, if we judge Fed policy by Br. Greenspan's actions rather than his words, it appears we have a weak-dollar policy, a policy that erodes the value of your personal savings.
The inescapable truth is that the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen over 30 percent in the past year. There are several reasons for this decline, but the single biggest factor has been Mr. Greenspan's relentless increase of the money supply. There are roughly 16 trillion dollars in worldwide use today, five trillion more than when Greenspan became Fed chair. The Law of supply is immutable: When dollars are abundant they are also cheap.
For much of our history a gold standard imposed discipline on U.S. dollar policy, since every dollar printed theoretically was redeemable in gold. Since the last links between the dollar and gold were severed in 1971, the collar essentially has operated as an article of faith. Christopher Mayer, writing for the Ludwig von Mises Institute, states: "Faith that paper money itself was of any lasting value would have struck our forebears as patently absurd.
The problem is that faith can be shaken, and the precipitous drop in the dollar shows how investors around the globe are very concerned about American deficits and debt. When government policies in a fiat system are the sole measure of a currency's worth, the currency markets act as a reliable barometer of how those policies are viewed around the world.
Politicians often manage to fool voters and the media, but they rarely fool the financial markets over time. When Investors lack faith in the U.S. dollar, they really lack faith in the economic policies of the U.S. government. The Medicare prescription drug bill passed two weeks ago provides an example of this phenomenon - the day after the bill passed, the dollaar dropped once again. Investors understand that the new entitlement will cost trillions over coming decades, trillions that will come from Treasury printing presses and further devalue existing dollars.
Ultra-cautious investor Warren Buffett is trading heavily in foreign currencies for the first time, demonstrating his lack of faith in the dollars, and cannot afford to sit by and watch the value of those dollars drop another 30 percent. By taking a position against the U.S. dollar, his actions speak volumes.
Unlike Buffett, most Americans are struck with their U.S. dollars. Average people, particularly those who depend on savings or fixed incomes to find their retirement years, cannot abide the continued devaluation of our currency.
A true strong-dollar policy would require constriction of the money supply and higher interest rates, both of which would cause some short-term pain for the American economy. In the long run, however, such a correction is the only alternative to the continued erosion of our dollar.
Rep. Ron Paul, M.D., [R} represents Texas's 14th District
in Congress.
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President Bush is using ever "weapon" he can find to frustrate the investigation into the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
The commission investigating the 9-11 terrorist attacks will be unable to make a report if White House officials succeed in their stalling tactics. Commission members say privately they will be unable to report by the May 27 deadline because of the delay in providing vital documents. Washington bureaucrats would have to approve any extension.
White House officials would have to be embarrassed into approving an extension because they have opposed establishing the panel at the outset. Top federal officials, who may be held partly to blame for intelligence failures, favored a "sweetheart" investigation by the Republican-controlled Congress.
When the independent commission was forced on Washington by pragmatic politics after more than a year fo stalling, officials began the delaying game in hopes that the deadline would be missed and no report made.
It took a threat by the commission chairman, Thomas Kean, to issue subpoenas to get the White House to turn loose a few documents. Kean is a former Republican governor of New Jersey.
The Family Steering Committee, an influential group of relatives of 9-11 victims, issued a statement urging that the deadline be extended: "Unfortunately, the production of a timely report no longer seems possible, in large part because of the delays caused by the administration and the agencies that report to it."
Commissioner Timothy Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said the investigation might be running out of time.
"I think it's going to be extremely difficult, given the obstacles we've had on access issues with the White House, to make the deadline," Roemer said. "We're having to compress the schedule to the back end. It might be in the interest of the commission to be on record requesting an extension."
"We want a thorough report," Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband Ronald was killed at the World Trade Center, told a Washington newspaper. "If the report is going to be lacking in information because they run out of time, that's ridiculous."
The may 27 deadline was imposed partly to get the report out
of the way before the presidential election campaign shifts into
high gear. An extension could make the "nonpartisan"
report a major political issue.
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The following is excerpted from an open letter to president George W. Bush form Illen M. Mariani, whose husband was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
This "Open letter" is coming from my heart. I want you to know that I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat and that this is not an attempt to "bash the government."
You, Mr. Bush, should be held responsible and liable for any and all acts that were committed to aid in any "cover up" of the tragic events of Sept, 11, 2001.
In the months leading up to the attacks you were repeatedly advised of a possible attack on American soil. During your daily intelligence briefings you were given information that had been uncovered that the very real possibility existed that certain undesirable elements would use commercial aircraft to destroy certain "target" building. You never warned the American people of this possible threat. Who were you protecting?
When you took no responsibility for protecting the general public from the possibility of attack, you were certainly not upholding the oath you spoke upon taking office. In that oath you pledged to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America.
On the morning of the attack, you and members of your staff were fully aware of the unfolding events yet you chose to continue on to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School for a scheduled event and "photo op." while our nation was under attack you did not appear to blink an eye or shed a tear. You continued on as if everything was "business as usual."
In the days following the attacks all air traffic was grounded and Americans, including myself, were stranded wherever they had been when the flight ban was imposed. I was stranded at midway Airport in Chicago, unable to continue on to California for my daughter's wedding.
Imagine my surprise when I later found out that during this "no fly" period a number of people were flown out of the country on a 747 with Arabic lettering on the fuselage. None of these people were interviewed or questioned by any local, state or federal agencies.
Why were they allowed to leave, and who exactly was on that flight? We know for a fact that some of the people on the flight were members of (or related to) the royal family of Saudi Arabia and members of the bin Laden family. Were these people allowed to leave because of the long-standing relationships that your family has with both families?
It is my belief that you intentionally allowed Sept. 11 to happen to gather public support for a "war on terrorism." These wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not accomplished what you stated were your goals. Why have you not captured Osama bin Laden? Where are Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? All that has happened is a bill that was passed before Congress for $87 billion to rebuild what you had ordered blown to bits.
As an American who lost a loved one in the "war on terror," I pray for and support our troops who were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq by you. These troops have and will continue to die for your lies. As an American I can make this statement as it appears the associates of your family may stand to prosper from the rebuilding of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The time has come for you to stop your control over us. Stop blocking the release of certain evidence and documents that were discovered by the 9-11 Investigation Commission.
Your reason for not releasing this material is that it is a matter of "national security." I believe that it is your personal credibility and security with which you are concerned.
After 9-11 the Patriot Act and homeland Security Act were passed. Both of these allow the government to tap our telephones, search our homes and seize what ever they feel they need to do on a whim. They can do this without a judge's review or a warrant. I feel that this is in direct conflict with our rights as stated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We, the families of 9-11 victims, need to have answers to the following questions:
Why were 29 pages of the 9-11 committee report personally censored at your request? Where are the "Black boxes" from Flight 11 and Flight 175? Where are the "voice recorders" from Flight 11 and Flight 175? Why can't we gain access to the complete air traffic control records for Flight 11 and Flight 175? Where are the airport surveillance tapes that show the passengers boarding the doomed flights? When will complete passenger lists for all of the flights be released? Why did your brother Jeb (the governor of Florida) go to the offices of the Hoffman Aviation School and order that flight records and files be removed? These files were then on a C-130 government cargo plane and flown out of the country. Where were they taken, and who ordered it done?
It has been over two years and hundreds of our lost loved ones' remains have yet to be identified. They were placed in a landfill at Fresh Kills [on Staten Island, N.Y.]. We want our heroes brought back and given a public and proud resting place where we all can pay our respects and honor them.
These innocent people never had a chance as they were taken
from us on that sad September day.
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Ellen M. Mariani - whose husband, Louis Neil, was killed in
the World Trade Towers on sept. 11, 2001 - filed a lawsuit in
late September against top White House officials. The complaint
charges Vice President Dick Cheney, National security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and president George
W. Bush with, among other things, refusing to cooperate with the
official probe into how and why the Sept.11 attacks occurred.
The lawsuit (case No. 03-5273) was entered into the United States
District Court Estern District of Pennsylvania. Mariani has asked
for a jury trial. The complete text of the complaint can be found
on the web site, www.911timeline.net/marianivsbush.htm.
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Outrage over high prices spurs states to assert constitutional rights
In a heartening display of citizenship, representatives of a dozen states met in Atlanta Dec. 11 to explore ways to obtain drugs from Canada at an average price reduction of 67 percent, although importing the medicines is currently illegal under federal law, thanks to the drug lobby.
The states' rights rebellion began in Springfield, Mass. (American Free Press, Dec. 22, 2003). Springfield has been buying drugs from Canada via the Internet since July and is expected to save $3.5 million in 2003. In Atlanta, state officials met with five Canadian drug companies to discuss how to obtain the medicines for their citizens.
The meeting came two days after Boston and New Hampshire announced their intentions to purchase drugs from Canada. Other states known to be considering obtaining drugs from Canada include Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Vermont, Ohio, Delaware and Louisiana.
"Drugs are cheaper in Canada — how do we bring these drugs into the states?" asked Tom Susman, acting administration secretary for West Virginia. "If they work better and the cost is cheaper, I think it's legitimate."
Under federal law, the Food and Drug Administration must approve before Americans can import cheaper drugs from Canada or elsewhere — the price is significantly lower virtually all over the world because of national price limits.
The FDA, which is heavily entangled with the pharmaceutical industry, has refused to permit imports on "safety" grounds. It has not explained how importing pills — many of which are even made in the United States — from Canada is dangerous.
The drug industry argues that Americans must pay much higher prices because of the costs of developing and testing new drugs. But it overlooks the fact that taxpayers pay $4 billion annually for such research, and the pharmaceuticals industry enjoys $10.1 billion in tax breaks.
Advocates of importation point out that drug makers are earning profits elsewhere in the world or they would not be selling abroad.
If Congress passed legislation — under the Constitution's interstate commerce clause — prohibiting charging more at home than abroad, other nations would lift their limits rather than lose access to the drugs.
The states' revolt is having an impact in Washington. Rather
than force drug makers to lower prices here at home, House Speaker
Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has urged U.S. action to bring about changes
in Canada's price-control policies, which he said are unfair to
Americans.
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‘Annexation by appropriation' ruins world's holiest cities for everyone
The Israeli "separation barrier" is the culmination of Ariel Sharon's long-planned settlement scheme to appropriate vast amounts of Palestinian land and water resources and impoverish the non-Jewish population to the point of expulsion.
Bethlehem this Christmas, like most other Palestinian towns and villages, under "closure" of the harsh Israeli military occupation, has become a Christian ghetto – separated from its hinterland and Jerusalem. Bethlehem has become an open-air prison, like the Gaza Strip, surrounded by an Israeli-built electrified wall – an atrocity paid for by the U.S. taxpayers and supported by the U.S. government.
The tall and ugly electrified wall being built around the town of Bethlehem and its famous Church of the Nativity is but a small part of the more than 400-mile-long fortified wall designed to separate the population of the Holy Land into two ghettoes – one Israeli, the other Palestinian. The meek protests of the Bush administration do nothing to hide the fact that the Israeli barrier is being built with funds and political cover provided by the U.S. government.
Depicted by the mass media as a self-defense measure required to foil Palestinian terror attacks, the wall is actually the beginning of the final phase of a long-planned appropriation of Palestinian land and water resources begun decades ago by the current Israeli prime minister.
The real objective of the wall is the de facto annexation of Palestinian land to Israel and the eventual expulsion of the native population from their homes and land, according to Stop the Wall, a Palestinian "anti-apartheid" organization.
Maps of the barrier's projected route through the West Bank and around East Jerusalem reveal how Sharon's wall will carve up the occupied territory, annexing Palestinian land and water resources to Israel, leaving the native population in ghetto-like enclaves – isolated from their fields and largely without water.
The completed first stage of the wall has effectively separated the major Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem from the greatly expanded Jerusalem, and annexed vital water resources from the Western Aquifer under the northern section of the West Bank.
The day after occupying the West Bank in 1967, the Israeli military issued Order No. 92, prohibiting all water development, drilling and infrastructure building in the West Bank, unless a permit was obtained from the military's "water officer." Not a single permit has been issued since, according to the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG), for agriculture or domestic use, in any of the Palestinian areas above the Western Aquifer, the largest source of groundwater in the Palestine/Israel area. This demonstrates "Israel's iron grip over Palestinian water resources," the group says.
While the occupied territories have the region's most abundant groundwater resources, Palestinians have the least access to water in the region. Israel uses more than 57 percent of the total available water, while Palestinians have access to only 8 percent. Palestinians use about 50 liters per day, half of what the World Health Organization considers necessary to meet basic human needs.
"Israel is creating facts on the ground in order to include all-important water zones within the wall's boundaries," according to an impact study done by the PHG. "Furthermore, Israel will further reduce the water quantities available to the Palestinian use and further its land confiscation policy," the study said.
"The wall emerges as a massive attack on precious water resources and the communities and lands that depend on them," the study said. The first phase of the wall separated at least 50 wells from the communities that depend on them. The wall has also effectively confiscated some of the most fertile lands in the West Bank.
In this fertile area in the region of Qalqilya, the Israeli wall has separated 72 percent of the land of Jayous, a village of 3,000, from its owners. The wells have also been separated causing at least 300 families in the village to have lost their only source of income as a result.
The city of Qalqilya, like Bethlehem, is nearly completely surrounded by the wall. Nearly 10 percent of its 42,000 population has been forced to leave their homes in search of employment elsewhere.
In the area of Tulkarem, Israeli closures and the wall prevent Palestinians from getting to work. The unemployment rate, which was 18 percent in 2000, rose to 78 percent in the spring of 2003 as a result.
If the wall is completed according to plans laid out by the Israeli army, some 54 percent of the West Bank will be on the Jewish side of the barrier–and effectively annexed by Israel. Many Palestinian villagers find themselves living in Israeli-annexed areas or between two walls, as Israel is building layers of walls in several areas. Ultimately the Palestinian population will find itself living on about 12 percent of historic Palestine. The wall is expected to be finished in 2005.
Nearly all of the illegal Israeli settlements built in the occupied territory will be included in the annexed areas of the West Bank, and 98 percent of the settler population will be on the Israeli side of the wall, according to Stop the Wall. Settlements which affect the population of an occupied territory are violations of international law.
Israel's wall is the culmination of the settlement plan, and Sharon has been the driving force since the 1970s. It is no accident that Sharon, the architect of Israel's illegal settlement policy, actually provoked the Palestinian uprising with his armed invasion of Jerusalem's main Muslim holy site, known as the Dome of the Rock compound, more than three years ago.
The predictable violence that followed, known as the Al Aqsa
intifada, is largely the result of Israeli occupation practices
such as "closure" and "targeted killing" of
Palestinian leaders, which Sharon has engineered.
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Another Christmas season is upon us, but sadly prospects for peace in the Holy Land during the New Year are bleak. People on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute have become frustrated with the endless impasse and government peace agreements that produce no results.
On thing is certain: U.S. involvement in the deadly conflict has led nowhere. The federal government has spent tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars in the region, and a succession of presidents have held peace summits with Middle Eastern leaders, all to no avail. The endless supply of American money, however will intentioned, gives the leaders of both sides a perverse incentive to remain engaged in the process indefinitely.
The "Geneva Accord," a document released earlier this month, represents an attempt to craft an alternative peace plan for the intractable dispute. The accord is unique in that it was conceived and written by representatives of both sides of the conflict, but wholly without the involvement of governments or politicians. Governments, politicians, ans special interests often promote conflict at the expense of ordinary people, so the promise of the Geneva Accord is that it more closely represents the interest of those most affected by the ongoing violence.
Predictably, the Geneva Accord has been greeted with hostility by those who have a stake in maintaining the status quo. Palestinian leader Arafat has shown little enthusiasm for the plan; extremist Arab terrorist organizations of course oppose it altogether. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon has rejected it out of hand. But the victims in Israel and Palestine, the ordinary people who must live with the violence and danger, are starting to demand peace. Popular support for the Geneva Accord is growing among both the Israeli and Palestinian populations. People are beginning to understand that peace is to important to be left up to government officials, most of whom are safely insulated from the daily violence.
TO THEIR CREDIT
President Bush and Secretary of State Powell, to their credit,
have praised the Geneva Accord. The president termed the accord
"productive," while the secretary stated he "has
an obligation to listen to individuals who have interesting ideas."
This is encouraging. Still, the impulse that demands American
engagement is strong. One congressional leader scoffed at what
he termed a "a freelance peace plan," but his sarcasm
ignores the utter failure of "official" peace efforts.
He also fails to understand that America cannot impose its will
upon every conflict around the globe. Lasting, effective peace
agreements can be crafted only by those who will live under them.
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The Israeli government has been accused by the UN Commission on human Rights of being responsible for the brain damage of thousands of Palestinian children.
Jean Ziegler, special reporter of the UN Commission's Office on the Right to Food, reported on a tour he made last July of Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory along the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ziegler said 9 percent of Palestinian children under the age of five suffer from some form of brain damage because of chronic malnutrition caused by the Israeli occupation.
Ziegler's briefing at the UN in New York came at the same time that news arrived that the Israeli occupation army had started building a new part of the separation wall near Ramallah, and in the process annexed 250,000 acres of Palestinian lands. The Israeli military at the time was expelling more from the west Bank to Gaza.
LIMITING ACCESS TO FOOD
Ziegler said that closures, curfews and hindrance of movement of prople and merchandise within the occupied territories limit access to food for many Palestinians. He emphasized that too many Palestinians are cut off from the land they need for their livelihoods, due to the establishment of Israeli military zones, the construction of the "security fence" and what he described as a "Bantustan-style policy of separating communities."
There were news reports in the Palestinian territories that the Israelis had started to build a new part of the wall to the south of Almanah settlement, to the west of Ramallah, where three bulldozers, escorted by Israeli army had demolished a house and damaged six others during an incursion into Khan Younis, to the south of Gaza City. One Israeli army unit, backed by helicopters and tanks, cordoned off a house and asked inhabitants by loudspeaker to evacuate it.
Palestinian security forces also reported that Israeli forces moved with 40 jeeps and armored vehicles into the village of Tukarem and neighboring refugee camps.
It is this sort of illegal aggression that worsens the already
serious shortage of food reaching the Palestinians, Zeigler said.
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A delegation of U.S. military families and veterans took its peace pleas to Baghdad, meeting with top officials of the U.S. government, the temporary Iraqi government, soldiers and the people.
People in Iraq are glad that the decade-long sanctions and the war are over, but they wish the American occupation troops were gone, they told a peace delegation of military families and veterans.
The delegation arrived in Iraq on Dec.1 and reported their findings in Washington on Dec.10. While there, the delegates met with representatives of the Iraqi Governing Council, Paul Bremer, administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, human rights groups and women's organizations.
Mike Lopercio of Phoenix, whose son is stationed in Fallujah, says in the report:
"If you can somehow imagine yourself on the streets of Baghdad, with streets lined by concrete barriers and barbwire waiting in a five-hour gas line, and watching black helicopters circling overhead, and a soldier eyeing you through his gun barrel from a nearby tank turret, you may start to get a glimpse of the humiliation and growing anger of the Iraqi citizens."
"We found a country with millions of people out of work and with no means to support their families," the report said. "Electricity remains intermittent; telephone exchanges destroyed during the war had still not been fixed; the water is not safe to drink; many hospitals lack basic equipment and medicines such as antibiotics; schools have no heat, lights or books; garbage is piled up in the streets; and in a country floating on oil, mile-long gas lines involving five- to seven-hour waits snake through the cities."
Iraqis say they are bing occupied by the richest country on Earth, yet the promises to improve the conditions of their lives have not been met and, in fact, conditions have actually become worse, the report said.
After gulf War I in 1991, Iraqis said electricity and telephone exhanges that had been destroyed were quickly repaired and gasoline distribution normal within 60 days. Now, electricity is unreliable, phone lines are still down and gasoline hard to obtain.
"They hear that U.S. companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton are getting billion-dollar contract to rebuild Iraq, but they don't see the results," the report said. Halliburton, once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney - who still holds a significant financial interest in the company despite his disclaimers - is accused of overcharging taxpayers $60 million in gas purchases. Bechtel is the company headed by George Shulz, who, as secretary of state, represented President Ronald Reagan at secret Bilderberg meetings.
"Iraqis want to rebuild their own country with funds provided
by their oil and much-needed aid from the international community,"
the report said. "Money for rebuilding should not go to foreign
companies like Halliburton and Bechtel but to the appropriate
Iraqi ministries to then contract out to Iraqi companies."
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The endless trial of Slobodan Milosevic - former head of what was once Yugoslavia - for "war crimes" is heading for a new phase when he will, effectively, put the United States in the dock
The trial at The Hague is in a Christmas recess until Jan.13, when the prosecution will have 15 days to complete its case, Then there will be a three-month break for the defense to prepare its case.
Milosevic is acting as his own attorney and can take two years to make his case, using the same amount of time as the prosecution. He has been accused of involvement in massacres of towns and villages in the brutal wars that swept the Balkan region and of orchestration the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs from the former Yugoslavia.
Court-watchers say Milosevic is already making his case while cross-examining 300 prosecution witnesses - the latest being U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark. The two make an odd couple: Clark is running for president and Milosevic is running for a seat in Serbia's parliament.
Clark testified for two days behind closed doors. In a shocking act, the court is allowing the United States to review Clark's testimony before it is made public. This country can ask for any parts of the testimony to be kept secret if it is deemed "detrimental" to the United States.
"Detrimental" parts, court watchers say, will include Milosevic's questioning of Clark on U.S. "War crimes." Clark led the 78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia which moved President Bill Clinton's sex scandals off page one in 1999.
Yugoslavia, a sovereign nation then, posed no threat to the United States. The first shot ever fired in anger by NATO was in support of the invasion- not defending Europe, as it had been mandated.
Milosevic is believed to have questioned Clark about the killing of many thousands of civilians, including women and children. Schools, hospitals, homes, bridges, trains, restaurants ans other public facilities were bombed.
Americans turn against wars when their sons get killed. There were no U.S. casualties in Yugoslavia because the planes bombed from high altitudes - out of range of anti-aircraft fire. But this also meant that there was difficulty pinpointing targets, causing heavy civilian deaths and damage to hundred-year-old, holy Christian sites.
This widespread destruction of human life is the "war
crime" Slobodan Milosevic is attributing to the United States,
though most Americans will never read about it.
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Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has suggested legalizing
the 8 to 10 million illegal aliens now in the United States. "Mr.
Ridge ought to read the laws he is charged with trying to enforce,"
said Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.) "We have laws on the books
that call for him to find and deport these people, and if he is
unwilling to do so, he should resign." President Bush later
rejected "blanket amnesty" but would try to match "immigrant
workers" with jogs, or something...
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