Bill Gertz is a right-wing national security reporter for the Rev. Sun Yung Moon’s neo-fascist newspaper, The Washington Times. He’s also a spigot from which flows much classified information illegally leaked by like-minded “patriots” seeking to advance their hawkish agenda in the military-industrial-congressional complex. And, frankly speaking, that’s the only reason I pay any attention to him.

So I was hardly surprised when, on September 16, 2005, Gertz reported on the Bush administration’s “computer slide presentation.” which was aimed at persuading whoever would listen that Iran is working feverishly to build nuclear weapons.

According to Gertz, the report claims: “Iran’s nuclear program is well-scaled for a weapons capability, as a comparison to [Pakistan’s] nuclear weapons infrastructure shows…When one also considers Iran’s concealment and deception activities, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.”

The report also states that “Iran’s uranium ore resources are insufficient for Tehran to produce enough fuel for civilian electrical power generating reactors. ‘However, Iran’s uranium resources are more than sufficient to support a nuclear weapons capability.'” [U.S. Report Says Iran Seeks To Acquire Nuclear Weapons,” Washington Times, 16 September 2005]

Unlike the Washington Post’s article on the subject two days earlier, Gertz predictably failed to mention that the slide show “dismisses ambiguities in the evidence…and omits alternative explanations under debate among intelligence analysts.” He also failed to mention that several diplomats “said the slide show reminded them of the flawed presentation on Iraq’s weapons programs made by then-secretary of state Colin L. Powell to the UN Security Council in February 2003” [“US Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against Iran,” Washington Post, 14 September 2005]

Moreover, in order to serve as water boy for the Bush administration, Gertz had to ignore (or discount) the recent report from Britain’s prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies, which concluded that Iran “was at least five years away from producing sufficient material for ‘a single nuclear weapon,'” Instead, Gertz obediently and dutifully noted that the Bush administration “is pressing the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] to refer the issue… to the United Nations Security Council,” which “could then impose economic sanctions against Iran or possibly a future authorization for the use of force.” [Ibid.] Ah yes, “authorization for the use of force”—the source of many a neocon and chickenhawk wet dream.

But much more disconcerting than Gertz’s piece was one written by Claude Salhani on 22 September 2005 for the same loony “Moonie” scandal sheet. Salhani shamelessly reintroduced the tactics, which proved so successful in inflaming a frightened American public about the threat posed by Iraq. He invoked the words of an Iranian dissident (today’s Ahmad Chalabi), as well as former U.S. government officials (seeking to “empower resistance” inside Iran), to make the claim the Iran is, in fact, “gearing for war” with the United States.
informationclearinghouse.info

Spanish border police armed with riot gear and rubber bullets faced hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans prepared to risk their lives yesterday to get across the razorwire-topped perimeter fence around a Spanish enclave in north Africa in an attempt to claim immigrant status.

Two would-be immigrants died on the Spanish side of Ceuta’s frontier and the bodies of three more were found on the Moroccan side after they tried to storm over the border shortly before dawn.

One bled to death after his neck was caught on the razorwire and another was trampled and suffocated during the stampede, Spanish media reports said.

According to unconfirmed reports, Moroccan police fired into a crowd of 500 people trying to scale the double, three-metre (10ft) high fence using scaling ladders made from branches and string. One of the three victims on the Moroccan side was reportedly a baby.
guardian.co.uk

Nothing reveals the true colors of a ‘leftist’ European regime than confronting the legacy of its colonial past. Why is there a ‘Spanish enclave’ in Ceuta?
Ceuta

NEW YORK, Sept. 29 — A federal judge ordered the release Thursday of dozens more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting government arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said that terrorists “do not need pretexts for their barbarism” and that suppressing the pictures would amount to submitting to blackmail.

“Our nation does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command. Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed,” he said.
washingtonpost.com

Oh brother.

ALEXANDRIA, Va – A Pentagon analyst charged with providing classified information to an Israeli official and members of a pro-Israeli lobbying group will plead guilty, according to the U.S. District Court clerk’s office.

Lawrence A. Franklin, 58, of Kearneysville, W.Va., was indicted in June on charges of leaking classified materials — including information about potential attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq — to two members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and an Israeli official.
msnbc.msn.com

Jewish Groups Press for Iran Sanctions

In the last days, Gaza was awakened from its dreams with horrible explosions which have shattered our skies, shaken our buildings, broken our windows, and installed feelings of panic.

We suddenly felt helpless, under the control of the Israelis and at their mercy. The new method of exploding sound bombs in our skies is now available to the Israeli army who would not use it before the disengagement because they were careful not to alarm or hurt the Israeli settlers who were in Gaza. This new method was used by the Israeli army since Friday day and night. Usually between 2-4 in the morning, between 6:30 and 8 in the morning school going time, and in the afternoon or early evening. The explosions are heard and felt all over the Gaza Strip with the same intensity. These explosions were used alongside the usual routine of bombing and killing which the Israelis forces are familiar with.
counterpunch.org

…Senator Obama’s “town meeting” (a well-controlled PR exercise) was an apparent triumph. An editor of the right-wing local newspaper, The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, wrote, “It was a virtual love-in Thursday at the Illinois Terminal in Champaign when Democratic U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stopped by to answer questions at a town meeting. Even the anti-war protestors, who criticized Obama for not arranging the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq after a mere eight months in office, were deferential.”

The student newspaper, The Daily Illini, described AWARE’s activities: “Anti-war protesters met Obama in the Illinois Terminal parking lot with posters critical of the senator’s reluctance to endorse an immediate pullout. After a short exchange of words with Obama, the protesters followed him all the way to the fourth floor ballroom of the terminal. As Obama delivered his opening statement from the podium, a member of the Anti-War/Anti-Racism Effort walked the aisles passing out the group’s literature. Obama attempted to align himself with the protesters’ sentiments while defending his cautiousness toward a pullout.”

In fact, the senator took just one (gentle) question on the war, and never mentioned torture, Iran, the Downing Street minutes, Israel, impeachment, imprisonment without trial by the US government, etc. (Asked about that by a member of AWARE after the rally, Obama replied, “Other people have the right to ask questions, too.”) What he did say about the war was even more disturbing — that he hoped US troops “could begin to leave Iraq next year, [but] removing the troops now would result in a massive bloodbath for both countries.”

That is, of course, almost identical with the administration’s position, and it ignores the fact that a majority of the Iraqis want the U.S. out now, understandably enough, because the “massive bloodbath” is already occurring. It contrasts sharply with the view expressed so clearly this summer by Cindy Sheehan, who points out that one is either for the ending of the war and the withdrawal of the U.S. from Iraq, or for its continuance.

But to a largely sympathetic audience in August, Obama pled his poor power to add or detract from the blood-letting: he was, after all, only “99th in seniority” in the Senate. “I am not the president — yet,” he said — “prompting loud cheers,” according to the student newspaper.

There was a vein of smug self-satisfaction in Obama’s casual talk, as there was in his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. When asked about John Rogers’ nomination to the Supreme Court, he replied with a smile, “Well, I know he went to a good law school.” (Obama and Rogers were both at Harvard Law.) In an article for Time magazine about another Illinois politician, he had earned some condign ridicule by writing, “In Lincoln’s rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat — in all this, he reminded me not just of my own struggles.”

But it’s Obama’s role as a liberal enabler of the war that most disquieted members of AWARE. He is cooperating in the critical support that the Democratic party has given to the war and to U.S. government policy in the Greater Middle East — a policy that has killed tens of thousands of people during this administration and may yet have even more catastrophic results. Leading Democrats are now to the right of the Bush administration in calling for an expansion of the U.S. military.
counterpunch.org

NEW YORK – As its hurricane relief donations near the $1 billion mark, more than double all other charities combined, the American Red Cross is encountering sharp criticism of its efforts and mounting pressure to share funds with smaller groups.

The complaints — that Red Cross operations were chaotic in some places, inequitable in others — have stung deeply within an organization that is proud of its overall response to Hurricane Katrina, by far the most devastating natural disaster it has confronted on U.S. soil.

“It’s frustrating to our thousands of volunteers out there every day, away from their families, helping people,” said spokeswoman Devorah Goldburg. “We never said we were perfect — we’re trying to do our best under extraordinary circumstances.”

The frustration stems partly from the fact that the Red Cross has worked to avoid a recurrence of the humbling fundraising controversy that flared after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Back then, the Red Cross raised about $1.1 billion — its record so far for a single disaster — but the organization was assailed when donors belatedly learned that $200 million of their gifts were being earmarked to prepare for future crises rather than to help victims. Red Cross president Bernadine Healy resigned, the money was shifted back to the Sept. 11 Liberty Fund, and the organization promised greater accountability in future fundraising campaigns.
news.yahoo.com

Scotland Yard and the FBI have been asked to help stem a surge in violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

Patrick Manning, the Caribbean nation’s prime minister and finance minister, announced that he had asked for assistance from overseas while delivering his annual budget presentation yesterday.

He said he had asked the Metropolitan police to supply equipment and expertise to a special police unit in Trinidad, the largest of the 23 islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago.

The prime minister has been under intense pressure to tackle the rising crime level. There have been 275 murders so far this year and police say that this is more than the number of murders in the whole of 2004.
Last week, import-export businessman Dr Eddie Koury, a nephew of a government minister, was abducted and beheaded by a criminal gang.

Mr Manning said the task of coping with the crime wave – including an upsurge in murders and kidnappings – was compounded by criminal deportees sent home from the UK, US and Canada.

“These add significantly to the challenge of law enforcement by bringing to our country the sophistication and expertise of the most advanced criminal networks,” Reuters reported Mr Manning as saying.

He said the illegal drugs trade had created an international “criminal elite”.

Mr Manning told BBC News that money from drug trafficking was being used to buy weapons and ammunition that were then being used by feuding gangs, pushing up the murder rate in the country, which has a population of 1.3 million.

Yesterday the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA), which represents some 400 businesses, took out adverts in newspapers accusing Mr Manning of failing to tackle crime.

“Regardless of colour, creed, race or economic standing, we all live in constant fear of being robbed, kidnapped or killed. We no longer have a peaceful way of life,” the TTMA said.

A poll this week in the Trinidad and Tobago Express following the killing of Dr Koury depicted a population living in fear.

In his speech yesterday, Mr Manning said “high-level meetings” had taken place between authorities in the UK and US. The FBI had been asked to help reorganise the country’s police force, he said.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said: “We are happy to help in whatever way we can. It is normal for officers from overseas to visit us and for our officers to visit various countries.”

Trinidad and Tobago is the most southern island in the Caribbean and lies just of the coast of Venezuela. It obtained its independence from the British empire in 1962 and became a republic in 1976.
guardian.co.uk

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Sept. 27 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the poorest nation in the Americas today to urge Haitians to vote in the first elections since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted last year and spirited into exile on an American military jet.

In a visit to the presidential palace and then a voter-registration office just a block outside its walls, Ms. Rice directly addressed the Haitian people, telling them that “this is a time when Haiti can have a new start.” But she also warned the current interim government that in a country with a long history of voter fraud, intimidation and authoritarian rule, Haiti’s leader must move far more aggressively to guarantee the integrity of the presidential and parliamentary election on Nov. 20, and a peaceful transfer of power on Feb. 7.

“These elections must be open and inclusive and fair,” she said, standing next to Haiti’s interim prime minister, Gérard Latortue.

Ms. Rice’s visit here was her first as secretary of state, and her six hours on the ground here considerably more peaceful than the visit by her predecessor, Colin L. Powell, last December. As he met Haitian leaders in the same palace, gunfire erupted outside, and ensuing gun battles between gangs and peacekeepers, most of whom are from Brazil, left three Haitians dead and at least nine injured.

American officials traveling with Ms. Rice and a delegation of five members of Congress said they were encouraged that violence had tapered off a bit in recent weeks. But American officials took extraordinary precautions, helicoptering Ms. Rice the few miles from the airport to the presidential palace rather than risk driving her downtown, on roads where kidnappings and shootings are still a frequent occurrence. Here guards openly brandished automatic weapons from the moment she landed.

More than 2.6 million people have registered to vote, and Ms. Rice talked to a few of them today as they obtained national identity cards and used computer systems put in place by the Organization of American States to verify their identities by scanning their fingerprints and creating digital images of their signatures.

But the registration center, in a health clinic, was an island of quiet in a city coping with collapsed housing, deep poverty, periodic gunfire and suspicions of the United States, which once supported Mr. Aristide and then encouraged him to go when he was forced from office in February, 2004.
nytimes.com

Now there’s some revisionist history for you.

US troops returning from Iraq are for the first time to be offered state-of-the-art radiation testing to check for contamination from depleted uranium – a controversial substance linked by some to cancer and birth defects.

Campaigners say the Pentagon refuses to take seriously the issue of poisoning from depleted uranium (DU) and offers only the most basic checks, and only when it is specifically asked for. But state legislators across the US are pushing ahead with laws that will provide their National Guard troops access to the most sophisticated tests.

Connecticut and Louisiana have already passed such legislation and another 18 are said to be considering similar steps. Connecticut’s new law – pioneered by state legislator Pat Dillon – comes into effect on Saturday.

“What this does is establish a standard,” said Mrs Dillon, a Yale-trained epidemiologist. “It means that our Guardsmen will have access to highly sensitive testing that can differentiate between background levels of radiation.” DU – a heavy metal waste-product of nuclear power plants – has been used by the US military since the 1991 Gulf War. It is used to tip tank shells and missiles because of its ability to penetrate armour. On impact DU burns at an extremely high temperature and is widely dispersed in micro particles.

The science surrounding DU remains hotly contested though the majority of studies have concluded there is no genuine risk from battlefield contamination. One 2001 study by the Royal Society, concluded: “Except in extreme circumstances any extra risks of developing fatal cancers as a result of radiation from internal exposure to DU arising from battlefield conditions are likely to be so small that they would not be detectable above the general risk of dying from cancer over a normal lifetime.”
commondreams.org