Iraq's Sunni accuse Shia of selling out Islam
In west Baghdad's Omar al-Khattab mosque, a Sunni preacher assails his Shia compatriots for failing to come to the aid of the besieged city of Falluja.
“Those of the black turbans” Iraq's Shia clergy “are but traitors and agents of America. It is they who have provoked the Amer-icans to attack the Sunni, whom they call extremists and terrorists,” Sheikh Ahmed al-Kubaisi told his congregation last Friday.
Mr Kubaisi's sermon is typical of many Sunni mosques across the country, where preachers are delivering fiery attacks on the Shia clergy who, they say, have “sold out” Islam. In the aftermath of the Falluja battle, the insurgency has never been more divided along sectarian lines: guerrilla groups are overwhelming made up of Sunni Arabs, thought to make up about 20 per cent of the population, while most of the majority Shia and the minority Kurds support the interim government.
Both Sunni and Shia militants had put aside differences and found common cause back in April, when radical Shia preacher Moqtada al-Sadr took up arms against the US during the first siege of Falluja, which ended with insurgents in control of the town. During that campaign Shia mosques launched relief drives to aid Falluja and delegations from each sect visited the other's mosques with messages of solidarity.
However, Mr Sadr's followers have since laid down their weapons, and while he and several other Shia clerics have harshly condemned the Falluja offensive, more establishment clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani have remained silent on the assault; some have even supported it. The Sunni clerical establishment is particularly incensed by an appearance by Shia cleric Iyad Jamal al-Din on al-Arabiya satellite television, in which he praised the assault on the “dens of terrorists and Saddam's supporters who know only violence in Falluja”.
Full Article: news.ft.com
rootsie on 11.24.04 @ 09:43 PM CST [
link]
White House Criticizes High Court Appeal
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court not to rush a decision in an extraordinary appeal about the government's plans for military trials for foreign terror suspects.
The government also criticized the appeal, filed this week by lawyers for a man facing a military trial, Salim Ahmed Hamdan. The Yemeni was a driver for Osama bin Laden, but has denied supporting terrorism.
The high court had been asked to decide by next week whether to hear Hamdan's case, which raises questions about government power to prosecute wartime prisoners.
The government's top Supreme Court lawyer, Paul Clement, said in a court filing that Hamdan's appeal is ``wholly unjustified'' and that the court should not speed up consideration of it.
A federal judge had sided with Hamdan, who is being held at a military prison in Cuba with hundreds of other foreign detainees.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is taking up the government's appeal. Hamdan's lawyers, however, want the Supreme Court to review the case before the appeals court rules.
Such appeals are unusual, and Clement said it is premature and unnecessary for the Supreme Court to step in now.
The case is Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 04-702.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.24.04 @ 08:49 PM CST [
link]
Ukraine in crisis as opposition leader declares himself president
Tens of thousands of opposition supporters surrounded Ukraine's presidential offices after their pro-Western leader declared himself president, defying the government after a weekend election they believe was rigged in favour of the Russia-backed candidate.
With the political crisis threatening to spiral out of control, hundreds of riot police cordoned off the building in the capital Kiev, pushing back demonstrators who shouted slogans and called on security personnel to join the protest, as the government met in emergency session.
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko had earlier declared himself president during an emergency parliament session attended only by his supporters and which lacked a quorom.
Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma warned that the act could have unforeseeable consequences but he promised his government would not be the first to use force against the uprising, sparked by accusations of irregularities during the weekend presidential vote.
As criticism of the poll gathered momentum in the West, two members of Ukraine's central electoral commission were reported to have urged their 13 colleagues not to approve the results because of major ballot violations.
Yushchenko called on Ukrainian civil servants and police to cross over and join the mass protests that have gripped the nation since the vote.
Full Article: news.yahoo.comThe exit polls don't match the outcome? The people hit the streets. Another people, voting with their feet, against fear. The great purveyor of democracy seems the most unfree country in the world.
rootsie on 11.24.04 @ 08:55 AM CST [
link]
Monday, November 22nd
Where the People Voted Against Fear
In this winter of American discontent, it is good to know that there is a place in America where, on November 2nd, the people voted against fear. A beautiful essay.
Rootsieby Eduardo Galeano
A few days before the election of the President of the planet in North America, in South America elections and a plebiscite were held in a little-known, almost secret country called Uruguay. In these elections, for the first time in the country's history, the left won. And in the plebiscite, for the first time in world history, the privatization of water was rejected by popular vote, asserting that water is the right of all people.
* * *
The movement headed by President-elect Tabare Vazquez ended the monopoly of the two traditional parties--the Blanco and the Colorado parties--which governed Uruguay since the creation of the universe.
And after each election you would hear this exclamation: 'I thought that we Blancos won but it turns out we Colorados did"--or the other way around. Out of opportunism, yes, but also because after so many years of ruling together, the two parties had fused into one, disguised as two.
Tired of being cheated, this time the people made use of that little-used instrument, common sense. The people asked, Why do they promise change yet ask us to chose between the same and the same? Why didn't they make any of these changes in the eternity they have been in power?
Never had the abyss between the real country and electioneering rhetoric been so evident. In the real country, badly wounded, where the only growth is in the number of emigrants and beggars, the majority chose to cover their ears to block out the oratory of these Martians competing for the government of Jupiter with highfalutin words imported from the moon.
* * *
About thirty or so years ago, the Broad Front (Frente Amplio) sprouted on these southern plains. 'Brother, don't leave,' the new movement implored. 'There is hope.' But crisis moved faster than hope, and the hemorrhaging of the country's youth accelerated. The dream of a Switzerland of the Americas ended, and the nightmare of violence and poverty began, culminating in a military dictatorship that converted Uruguay into a vast torture chamber.
Afterward, when democracy was restored, the dominant politicians destroyed the little that remained of the system of production and converted Uruguay into a giant bank. And as is often the case when it is assaulted by bankers, the bank went bust and Uruguay found itself emptied of people and filled with debt.
In all these years of disaster after disaster, we lost a multitude. And as if in a bad joke, not content to just force its youth from the country, this sclerotic system also prohibits them from voting-one of a small number of countries that do so. It seems inexplicable, but there is an explanation: Who would these emigrants vote for? The owners of the country suspect the worst, and with good reason.
In the final act of his campaign, the vice presidential candidate for the Colorado Party announced that if the left won the elections, all Uruguayans would have to dress identically, like the Chinese under Mao.
He was one of the many involuntary publicity agents of the victorious left. Not even the most tireless electoral workers did as much for this victory as the tribunes of the homeland who alerted the population to the imminent danger if democracy were to fall to the tyrannical enemies of freedom and the terrorists, kidnappers, and assassins who oppose democracy. Their attacks were extremely efficient: The more they denounced the devils, the more people voted for hell.
Largely thanks to these heralds of the apocalypse, the left won by an absolute majority, without a runoff. The people voted against fear.
* * *
The plebiscite on water was also a victory against fear. Uruguayans were bombarded with extortion, threats, and lies: A vote against privatizing water will condemn you to a future of sewage-filled wells and putrid ponds.
As in the elections, in the plebiscite common sense triumphed. In their vote, the people asserted that water, a scarce and finite natural resource, must be a right of all people and not a privilege for those who can pay for it. The people also showed they know that sooner rather than later, in a thirsty world, the reserves of fresh water will be as, or more, coveted than oil reserves. Countries that are poor but rich in water must learn to defend themselves. More than five centuries have passed since Columbus. How long can we go on trading gold for glass beads?
Wouldn't it be worthwhile for other countries to put the issue of water to a popular vote? In a democracy, a true democracy, who should decide? The World Bank, or the citizens of each country? Do democratic rights exist for real, or are they just the icing on a poisoned cake?
In 1992, Uruguay was the only country in the world to put the privatization of public companies to a popular vote: 72 percent opposed. Wouldn't it be democratic to do the same in every country?
* * *
For centuries, Latin Americans have been trained in impotence. A pedagogy passed down from the colonial times, taught by violent soldiers, timorous teachers, and frail fatalists, has rooted in our souls the belief that reality is untouchable and that all we can do is swallow in silence the woes each day brings.
The Uruguay of other days was the exception. That Uruguay instituted free public education before England, women's suffrage before France, the eight-hour workday before the United States, and divorce before Spain-seventy years before Spain, to be exact.
Now we are trying to revive this creative energy and would do well to recall that the Uruguay of that sunny period was the child of audacity, and not fear.
* * *
It will not be easy. Implacable reality will promptly remind us of the inevitable distance between the desired and the possible. The left is coming to power in a shattered country, which, in the distant past, was at the vanguard of universal progress but today is one of the furthest behind, in debt up to its ears and subjected to the international financial dictatorship, which doesn't vote but simply vetoes.
Today, we have very little maneuvering room. But what is usually difficult, even impossible, can be imagined and even achieved if we join together with neighboring countries, just as we have joined together with our neighbors.
* * *
In the Broad Front's very first demonstration, which flooded the streets with people, someone shouted, half-joyous, half-scared, 'Let's dare to win.'
Thirty or so years later, it came true.
The country is unrecognizable. Uruguayans, so unbelieving that even nihilism was beyond them, have started to believe, and with fervor. And today this melancholic and subdued people, who at first glance might be Argentineans on valium, are dancing on air.
The winners have a tremendous burden of responsibility. This rebirth of faith and revival of happiness must be watched over carefully. We should recall every day how right Carlos Quijano was when he said that sins against hope are the only sins beyond forgiveness and redemption.
zmag.org
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 08:41 PM CST [
link]
50,000 Say "No to the Dictatorship of the Market"Why They Hate Bush in Chile
By Roger Burbach
Fifty thousand demonstrators greeted George Bush on his arrival in Santiago Chile for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting of twenty-one Pacific Rim nations. The largest and most militant demonstration since the dictatorship of General August Pinochet, the protestors called for an end to neo-liberal free trade agreements like those advanced by the APEC leaders. The demonstrators carried banners proclaiming "No to the dictatorship of the market" and asserted that trade accords drive workers and peasants into a "race to the bottom."
The ire of many protestors centered on Bush and the war in Iraq. Chants of "Terrorist Bush," and " Bush, Fascist, Thief, Murder!" rang through the air. While the demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful, groups of anarchists, punks and others broke away from the main march to vandalize a McDonald's restaurant and corporate stores. About 200 people were arrested and over 25 injured.
Bush, on his first trip outside the United States since the elections, found another unwanted answer to the question he posed in the aftermath of 9/11: "Why do they hate us?" It is certainly not for "our freedoms" as Bush inanely asserts. Aside from the war in Iraq, many protestors in Chile are deeply hostile because the United States backed a military coup on September 11, 1973 that took away their freedoms. It deposed the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and marked the beginning of a seventeen year dictatorship. One banner stated: "US Terrorist State: The First September 11." A common refrain of demonstrators who want no further US meddling in their affairs proclaimed: "Bush, listen, Chile is not for sale."
More than three thousand people perished in the aftermath of the coup, another 35,000 were imprisoned and tortured. With the acquiescence of the CIA and the cooperation of military regimes in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, the Pinochet dictatorship set up an international terrorist network, Operation Condor, that targeted opponents throughout the world. Prior to the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the most sensational terrorist act in Washington D.C. took place in 1976 when Orlando Letelier, a leading Chilean opponent of the Pinochet regime, died when a bomb was detonated in his car just blocks from the White House. A young assistant, Ronnie Moffit, was killed along with him.
Full Article: counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 08:01 PM CST [
link]
On to IranWon't Get Fooled Again?
by Paul Craig Roberts
It is not yet Bush's second term. All available US troops are tied down in Iraq by a few thousand lightly armed insurgents. Go-it-alone Bush has isolated America from her allies. And the neocons want to spread their war to Iran.
The Bush administration is recycling the lies that it used to invade Iraq: Iran is acquiring nuclear weapons that will be given to terrorists. In a display of loyalty to a ruthless neocon administration calculated to win him appointments to corporate boards, outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters that Iran was working on nuclear missiles.
The source for this effort to spread hysteria? One "walk-in" source with unverified documents. Most likely, the source is a member of an Iranian exile group given the assignment by neocons Richard Perle and John Bolton.
One might think that Powell would be suffering shame enough for lying to the UN about Iraq. Apparently not, as his last act against world peace is to spread neocon propaganda that Iran is going nuke.
The US media, now a tamed propaganda organ for the White House, dutifully repeated Powell's unverified claims, thus providing "reports" for Bush to cite as evidence that Iran was rushing ahead with the development of nuclear weapons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency conducts regular inspections in Iran. The IAEA recently issued a report stating that it has found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program in Iran.
Real evidence, however, is no match for neocon propaganda.
And the propaganda is pouring out of the well-oiled neocon machine. French, German and British agreements that confine Iran to the peaceful use of nuclear energy are in the way of the neoconservatives' intention to spread the war to Iran and must be discredited.
On November 20, Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post hysterically accused Europe of defending "Iran's ability to attain the wherewithal to destroy the Jewish state." Glick "exposes" France's efforts to prevent the outbreak of wider war in the Middle East as a trick: "France wishes only to box in the US to the point that the Americans will not be able to continue to fight the war against terrorism."
The neoconservative Heritage Foundation promptly broadcast Glick's hysterical rants into the Republican noise machine, reviving talk radio calls for nuking France, "America's oldest enemy."
Three years ago Ann Coulter was fired by National Review, a neocon publication, when she declared: "We should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Today such violent words are common parlance.
There is no evidence whatsoever in behalf of the claims the Bush administration is making about Iranian nukes. The purpose of these false claims is to create fear that will breech the public's opposition to a draft. The neocons are desperate for troops for their Middle Eastern War.
For a decade or longer, the neocons who control the Bush administration's foreign and military policies have been writing papers advocating a US-Israeli conquest of the Middle East. A moronic president has given them their chance.
Full Article: counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 07:56 PM CST [
link]
N.Irish 'Bloody Sunday' Probe Enters Final Phase
LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - The longest-running and costliest public inquiry in British legal history -- into Northern Ireland's so-called ``Bloody Sunday'' -- entered its final phase on Monday.
The tribunal investigating the 1972 killing of 13 civilians by paratroopers began hearing closing speeches as some families of the dead expressed hope their loved ones would be declared innocent.
Bloody Sunday was one of the most traumatic events in the province's 30-year ``Troubles,'' fueling suspicion of the authorities among the Catholic minority and prompting dozens to join the IRA's violent campaign against British rule.
``What happened on that day was, and has remained, controversial in almost every respect,'' said Counsel to the Inquiry Christopher Clarke as he began a closing speech scheduled to last two days.
``It is as well ... to stand back for a moment ... in order to focus on the central question which is: why and how did 13 people come to be killed and 14 to be wounded within something like 10 minutes on January 30, 1972 in this city?''
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry was set up by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998 after an original 1972 investigation exonerated the paratroopers who shot marchers at a civil rights demonstration in the province's second city Londonderry.
Thirteen people, all unarmed Catholics, were killed when the soldiers opened fire in the staunchly nationalist Bogside area of the city. A 14th victim later died from wounds. The troops said they shot at people armed with guns or nail bombs.
Full Article: nytimes.comIt's important to remember that Ireland, wholly or in part, has been an unhappy colony of Britain for over 800 years. Before the Brits 'discovered' Africa, it was the Irish who were considered subhuman savages. The thing is, resistance never ends until liberation.
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 07:48 PM CST [
link]
Arafat's Nephew Says Cause of Death Inconclusive
PARIS (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat's nephew said on Monday that medical records released by France showed no trace of known poisons in the late Palestinian leader but the cause of death remained a mystery.
Nasser al-Kidwa, Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, said the 558-page medical report gave ``no clear diagnosis'' of what caused his uncle's death in a French military hospital on Nov. 11 and he refused to rule out foul play.
The question of what killed Arafat at age 75 is likely to keep the rumor mill churning and to fuel conspiracy theories for years to come. Strict privacy laws prevent French doctors from releasing details.
``Toxicology tests were made, and no poison known to the doctors was found,'' al-Kidwa said, basing his comments at a news conference on the medical dossier released to him by the French military.
``Because of the lack of clear diagnosis, a question mark remains there (about why Arafat died). Personally I believe it will remain there for some time to come,'' he added.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 07:41 PM CST [
link]
Jet Crashes Before Picking Up Elder Bush
HOUSTON (AP) - A private jet that was en route to Houston to pick up former President Bush clipped a light pole and crashed Monday as it approached Hobby Airport in thick fog, killing all three people aboard.
The Gulfstream G-1159A jet, coming into Houston, went down about 6:15 a.m. in an undeveloped area 1 miles south of the airport, officials said. The former president had been scheduled to travel to Ecuador for a conference.
``I was deeply saddened to learn of the plane crash this morning,'' Bush said through spokesman Tom Frechette. ``I'd flown with this group before and know them well. I join in sending heartfelt condolences to each and every member of their families.''
...Eduardo Maruri, president of the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce, said that Bush suspended his visit until next month.
Full Article:guardian.co.ukGood decision, I'd say.
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 07:36 PM CST [
link]
Malnutrition Rising Among Iraq's Children
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Malnutrition among Iraq's youngest children has nearly doubled since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq despite U.N. efforts to deliver food to the war-ravaged country, a Norwegian research group said Monday.
Since the March 2003 invasion, malnutrition among children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old has grown from 4 percent to 7.7 percent, said Jon Pedersen, deputy managing director of the Oslo, Norway-based Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science, which conducted the survey.
The U.N. Development Program and Iraq's Central office for Statistics and Information Technology also took part in the survey.
``It's in the level of some African countries,'' Pedersen told The Associated Press. ``Of course, no child should be malnourished, but when we're getting to levels of 7 to 8 percent, it's a clear sign of concern.''
Figures from different countries are hard to compare, said Caroline Hurford, a U.N. World Food Program spokeswoman in Rome, noting that surveys may be out of date or apply different sampling methods.
A UNICEF survey of Middle Eastern and North African states in 2003 found 7 million children suffering from malnutrition.
Before the invasion, the level of malnutrition among children in Iraq was about 4 percent.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.22.04 @ 07:30 PM CST [
link]
Sunday, November 21st
SWAPO Declared Winner in Namibia Election
WINDHOEK (Reuters) - A former comrade-in-arms hand-picked by former guerrilla leader Sam Nujoma won election on Sunday to succeed him as Namibian president.
Hifikepunye Pohamba, who won 76.4 percent of the vote, is widely expected to remain in the shadow of Nujoma, who will retain the leadership of his SWAPO party after stepping down as president in March.
Pohamba, 69, who spent three decades in exile as Nujoma's confidant before Namibia won independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990, has made redistribution of land from white farmers to blacks a key plank of his campaign.
While he promises to cut poverty, critics say the election of another liberation veteran will do little to show that SWAPO is moving on from that struggle, or change the picture for foreigners who have been slow to invest in Namibia.
SWAPO, which turned from guerrilla movement to political party after independence, also won 55 out of 72 parliamentary seats, according to official results released on Sunday. The election ended on Tuesday.
``I'm gratified and humbled by the five-year mandate entrusted to me to continue the social-economic struggle for our country and its people,'' the Soviet-educated Pohamba said at an official ceremony announcing the result.
Pohamba, who lacks Nujoma's charisma, is not believed to have sought the presidency until Nujoma tapped him to become vice president of SWAPO in 2002.
He said he wanted to encourage foreign investment -- very limited before 1990, when South Africa was subject to sanctions because of apartheid, and now concentrated in large mines.
He has served as lands minister, leading a campaign to distribute land from minority whites to poor blacks, and said this would be among his top priorities as president, along with crime, corruption and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Land reform is a hot topic across southern Africa, where centuries of white domination have left much of the productive land in the hands of white minorities.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.21.04 @ 09:59 PM CST [
link]
Latin Americans Back Cuba, Venezuela on Terror
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Used to hearing U.S. calls for support against Middle Eastern terrorism, Latin American leaders on Saturday added their own warning by condemning lesser-known terrorist acts against anti-American governments in the region.
Cuba and Venezuela won the backing of their neighbors, many of whom have swung to the left in recent years, to censure terrorism in all its forms, not just attacks aimed at the United States.
It was a rare diplomatic victory for Cuba, which persuaded an Ibero-American summit in Costa Rica to denounce the pardon of four dissidents who tried to assassinate President Fidel Castro in 2000.
Panama's outgoing President Mireya Moscoso released the four, jailed for their involvement in a failed bomb plot at a summit in Panama, just before leaving office in August.
Havana broke diplomatic relations with Panama in anger at the pardon and accused the United States of double standards in its war against terror for allowing three of the plotters to fly to Miami.
``We observe with deep concern the recent freeing of four known terrorists of Cuban origin,'' the leaders from Latin American countries plus Spain and Portugal said in a statement.
Panama's new President Martin Torrijos has criticized the pardon, and Cuba and Panama restored consular relations at the summit on Friday, in a step toward renewing full ties.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque represented his country at the gathering instead of Castro, who has rarely traveled to summits in recent years.
VENEZUELA CAR BOMB
The leaders also condemned Thursday's killing of Venezuelan prosecutor Danilo Anderson, who was probing a 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez.
Anderson was killed by a car bomb, and Venezuela blamed radical opponents it said were training in the United States.
``The heads of state and government expressed a radical condemnation of the terrorist attack suffered by the special prosecutor in Venezuela,'' Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told journalists.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.21.04 @ 09:52 PM CST [
link]
Chávez Foes Condemn Killing of Aide Investigating Them
CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 19 - A day after a prosecutor investigating adversaries of President Hugo Chávez was killed in a car bombing, leaders of the country's opposition movement on Friday condemned the attack even as it raised the specter of violence by militant elements among the president's foes.
The prosecutor, Danilo Anderson, 38, was killed Thursday at about 11 p.m. when a remote-controlled bomb hidden in his jeep was detonated as he drove in a middle-class Caracas neighborhood, the police said.
Andrés Izarra, the government's communications and information minister, called the killing a "political assassination" and said the motive was to sideline Mr. Anderson's investigations of 400 opposition figures accused of taking part in a coup that briefly toppled Mr. Chávez in 2002.
"This attack against Danilo represents the barbarity of those who want to spread fear in Venezuela," Mr. Izarra told reporters on Friday. "We will not let them frighten us, and we will not let them overturn the climate of peace that we now have in Venezuela."
The bombing stunned the government, prompting top officials like Vice President José Vicente Rangel and Interior and Justice Minister Jesse Chacon to rush to the scene of the blast.
Some officials in the government and allies of the president suggested that the country's demoralized opposition had begun resorting to violence after failing to oust Mr. Chávez in a recall referendum in August.
"We cannot allow minority groups that do not accept the legitimacy of the government to impose a violent agenda on the citizens of this country," Juan Barreto, the mayor of Caracas and a close ally of the Mr. Chávez, told reporters.
Still, the streets of Caracas were calm on Friday, and the usually supercharged rhetoric of both the opposition and the government was toned down. Several officials called for composure and patience as the government began its investigation.
Leaders in the country's wide but disjointed opposition movement repudiated the attack. They also denied that anyone in their ranks could have been involved and called on the government to refrain from seeking scapegoats among its adversaries.
"This is a criminal and terrorist act with no justification at all, and the government must investigate the incident thoroughly to find the responsible parties," Andrés Velásquez, an antigovernment legislator, said Friday in an interview. "The worst thing that can happen is for the government to seek political gain."
Full Article: nytimes.comPlease.
rootsie on 11.21.04 @ 09:47 PM CST [
link]
Somali Leader, in Kenya Exile, Asks U.N. to Help Disarm Militias
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 19 - The newly installed president of Somalia, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, used a rare appearance before the United Nations Security Council here on Friday to request an international peacekeeping force to help secure the country.
Reiterating a plea he made to the African Union recently, Mr. Yusuf said he needed outside financial support - and as many as 20,000 foreign troops - to disarm the gunmen who have ruled over the country since the last real government fell in 1991. Mr. Yusuf, who is in exile in Kenya, said he would supplement that outside force with an even larger contingent of newly recruited Somalis acting as police officers and soldiers.
"Restoration of peace and security is one of the first challenges of the new Somali government," Mr. Yusuf said.
But Council members, some of them hesitant to put Mr. Yusuf on the agenda at all, rebuffed the request for outside troops and called on the Somali leader to work to unite the country first. They did back the idea of an African observer mission to assess the situation on the ground.
"The Security Council stresses that it is the responsibility of all Somali parties to work together to consolidate the gains made so far and to achieve further progress," John C. Danforth, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement approved by the rest of the Council.
The British ambassador, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, was more blunt. Addressing the possibility of a peacekeeping force, he asked: "What peace are we going to keep?" As for a stabilizing force, he said: "To stabilize what?"
Full Article: nytimes.comApparently Somalia doesn't have anything anybody wants.
rootsie on 11.21.04 @ 09:42 PM CST [
link]
France Is Cast as the Villain in Ivory Coast
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Nov. 15 - When the chanting mob descended on the strip mall that Jean Bobue Nguessam is paid to guard, he stood his ground, though not out of courage.
"If the French all leave, I will have no job," Mr. Nguessam said as he stood a lonely watch over the pillaged remains last week, in the wake of riots that followed an airstrike on French peacekeepers and brought this country to the brink of war.
Nightstick in hand, he had tried to reason with the crowd, but he was easily outnumbered. The mob made its way down the row of shops, stripping the shelves of a liquor store, then a video rental shop, a cellphone store and finally a hair salon.
"People can shout about the French," said Mr. Nguessam, 29, who works for the French owner of the strip mall. "But many people are unemployed, and it will only be worse when they go."
For decades, Ivory Coast was a sturdy patch on the fraying postcolonial quilt of West Africa, its peace and prosperity woven by the laissez-faire economic and immigration policies of its longtime dictator, Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Those policies attracted heavy investment from France, its former colonizer, with whom Ivory Coast maintained a friendly relationship, and millions of migrants from nearby countries to fill menial jobs unwanted by prosperous, educated Ivoirians.
But in the past two years, the ties that bound have frayed as the country's fortunes have faded. Many Ivoirians have turned on the French businessmen, immigrant workers and one another.
The latest violence began Nov. 5, after the government broke a cease-fire with the rebels. Government aircraft attacked a French camp, killing nine peacekeepers and an American aid worker, and the French retaliated by destroying much of the tiny Ivoirian Air Force.
The events seemed destined to deepen a crisis that had already pitted Muslim against Christian, northerner against southerner, and Ivoirians with deep roots here against those whose parents and grandparents came here seeking work. But France is being made into the bogeyman.
Full Article: nytimes.com"Bogeyman" yeah right. Europeans and Americans are in such deep denial about their imperialism. They expect subject peoples to be grateful and are shocked when they're not.
rootsie on 11.21.04 @ 09:34 PM CST [
link]
Saturday, November 20th
Tension rises as China scours the globe for energy
China's insatiable demand for energy is prompting fears of financial and diplomatic collisions around the globe as it seeks reliable supplies of oil from as far away as Brazil and Sudan.
An intrusion into Japanese territorial waters by a Chinese nuclear submarine last week and a trade deal with Brazil are the latest apparently unconnected consequences of China's soaring economic growth.
Increased car usage in China is creating a high demand for petrol
The connection, however, lies in an order issued last year by President Hu Jintao to seek secure oil supplies abroad – preferably ones which could not be stopped by America in case of conflict over Taiwan.
The submarine incident was put down to a "technical error" by the Chinese government, which apologised to Japan.
But even before the incident the People's Daily, the government mouthpiece, had commented that competition over the East China Sea between the two countries was "only a prelude of the game between China and Japan in the arena of international energy".
The Brazil trade deal included funding for a joint oil-drilling and pipeline programme at a cost that experts said would add up to three times the cost of simply buying oil on the market.
The West, however, has paid little attention to these developments. For the United States and Europe are far more concerned with the even more sensitive issues of China's relations with "pariah states".
In September, China threatened to veto any move to impose sanctions on Sudan over the atrocities in Darfur. It has invested $3 billion in the African country's oil industry, which supplies it with seven per cent of its needs.
Then, this month, it said that it opposed moves to refer Iran's nuclear stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency to the United Nations Security Council.
A week before, China's second biggest state oil firm had signed a $70 billion deal for oilfield and natural gas development with Iran, which already supplies 13 per cent of China's needs.
Full Article: news.telegraph.uk
rootsie on 11.20.04 @ 01:48 PM CST [
link]
'Holy Warriors' Flock to Join Zarqawi in Iraq
AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) - The family of Sheikh Omar Jummah had no idea he was in Iraq until a midnight caller told them he had died fighting alongside al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Omar, 35, a Jordanian like Zarqawi, fought for a year with other Islamic militants battling to expel U.S.-led forces from Iraq. But he kept his family in the dark.
"He told us he was leaving for Saudi Arabia to take up a teaching job," said his 64-year-old father Youssef Jummah.
Jummah recalled that his son was deeply religious and had memorized the Koran by the age of 13. But no one in his family expected that his piety would drive him to militancy.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for the beheading of foreign hostages and some of the bloodiest suicide attacks in postwar Iraq.
His followers are believed to form a hard core within a wider insurgency by Iraqi nationalists and Sunni Muslim fighters loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
With their religious fervor and ideological commitment, the U.S. military says Arab volunteers like Omar are behind some of the most audacious and lethal attacks.
Like the other Jordanian militants who kept their "jihad" plans secret, kick-boxing champion Bahaa Yahya, 23, told his family he was going to a tournament in Beirut.
When he arrived in Iraq, Yahya phoned his family to disclose where he had hidden a letter to be read after he died.
"I am in need of the prayers of my mother and brothers and to tell them the world is fighting our religion," Yahya said in the letter which his family opened after his death in September.
...They say that for the new jihadists the appeal of Iraq has surpassed Afghanistan, a magnet for a generation of Islamic militants seeking to fight the Soviet communists in the 1980s.
"Iraq is an open battleground for jihadists to confront America directly. In the space of a few hours, volunteers can leave their countries and find themselves in the heat of battle (in Iraq)," said a top security official.
Iraq has given Islamic extremists the opportunity to secure a "ticket to heaven" through martyrdom. Easily accessible and with the enemy all around, it has overtaken the Palestinian territories and Chechnya as the battleground of choice.
"The Americans gave the militant extremists a chance they had long dreamt of ... now their enemy has come to them," said a Jordanian ex-intelligence officer.
..."It has turned many gentle clerics and young men with strong religious convictions, but who (previously) could not stomach the sight of blood, into eager suicide bombers and executioners," said Sheikh Yusef Abu Kutaiba, a Muslim cleric.
Full Article: netscape.cnn.com
rootsie on 11.20.04 @ 01:40 PM CST [
link]
Friday, November 19th
Protests greet Bush at Asia-Pacific summit
President George Bush flew into a stormy reception last night on his first foreign trip since re-election, as tens of thousands of protesters sought to disrupt a summit of leaders from Asia and the Americas.
Police used tear gas and water cannon as dozens of masked youths broke off from a rally of up to 50,000 people to throw rocks, tear up park benches and hurl molotov cocktails in the Chilean capital, Santiago. Several officers and protesters were injured, with at least 130 arrests.
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested throughout Chile over the past week, and thousands of additional police are on duty in Santiago for the largest security operation since the papal visit in 1987.
Organisers estimated more than 50,000 people marched through the city centre, hours before leaders from the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group arrived for a weekend of meetings focusing on free trade and security.
Full Article: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.19.04 @ 11:41 PM CST [
link]
Greenspan does down the dollar
Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman, yesterday gave the dollar a further push lower as he said the huge US current account deficit threatened to scare off foreign investors.
His comments followed remarks from the US treasury secretary, John Snow, this week that poured cold water on the idea of intervention to support the greenback.
Mr Greenspan sent jitters through the currency markets as traders awaited the outcome of a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialised and developing countries this weekend in Berlin.
His remarks lent weight to a growing conviction that the American authorities are happy to see the dollar slide, making exports cheaper and imports dearer and thereby helping to correct the current account deficit.
In European markets the euro rose to $1.3068, just shy of the all-time high that it hit earlier in the week, while the dollar fell to a new four-year low against the Japanese yen of below Ą103.
"Given the size of the US current account deficit, a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point," Mr Greenspan told a banking conference in Frankfurt.
"International investors will eventually adjust their accumulation of dollar assets or, alternatively, seek higher dollar returns to offset concentration risk, elevating the cost of financing the US current account deficit and rendering it increasingly less tenable."
The deficit has ballooned to more than 5% of gross domestic product, or $166bn (Ł90bn) in the second quarter of the year, driven by Americans' appetite for imports and flows of money into US financial assets, particularly bonds.
The dollar has been sliding against other major currencies for a couple of years but its fall has accelerated since the re-election of President Bush this month as markets refocused on the current account and budget deficits. The large tax cuts of Mr Bush's first term have driven the government's budget deficit to record levels.
The US deficit is mainly being financed by a huge surplus in China, which artificially pegs its currency at a low rate against the dollar to boost its exports. The Chinese authorities use their export earnings to buy dollar assets, but there are reports that they are losing their appetite for US holdings, which may be what Mr Greenspan was referring to.
Full Article:guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.19.04 @ 11:38 PM CST [
link]
EU Officials Implore New Immigrants to 'Learn European Values'
European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Friday that new immigrants to the 25-nation bloc should be required to learn local languages, and to adhere to general "European values" that will guide them toward better integration.
Dutch immigration minister Rita Verdonk, who chaired the meeting, said all countries agreed to make integrating newcomers a priority, considering the growing ethnic tensions as EU nations struggle to absorb a steady stream of poor, mostly Muslim immigrants.
Just this month in the Netherlands, the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Muslim radical unleashed a wave of attacks against mosques, churches and religious schools in a country once famed for its tolerance.
Tensions also rose in Belgium, where authorities arrested a suspect Friday accused of sending death threats to a senator of Moroccan heritage who criticized radical Muslims.
"It's not like we are against immigration," Verdonk said. "If you want to live in the Netherlands, you have to adhere to our rules ... and learn our language."
Highlighting a European-wide problem, Verdonk said that some 500,000 Turkish and Moroccan immigrants in the Netherlands don't speak Dutch.
For now, integration policies across the continent vary greatly. Public concerns over immigration have fueled electoral successes for far-right parties in several European countries, including Austria and Italy, where they have joined the national government.
Full Article: sfgate.comPopular Dutch Lawmaker Urges Halt to Non-Western ImmigrantsFull Article:sfgate.comImmigration surge fuels racism in Spain Full Article: guardian.co.ukDid French 'colonists' learn Algerian values? Did Dutch Afrikaaners learn Xhosa and Zulu values? Did Belgians learn Congolese values? Did Spaniards learn indigenous American values?
And then there is the fascinating question of which 'values' non-Western immigrants should learn. Maybe not the ones so prominently on display for the past few centuries, anyway.
rootsie on 11.19.04 @ 09:57 PM CST [
link]
UN staff to vote on no-confidence motion against Annan
UN staff are expected to make an unprecedented vote of no confidence in Secretary-General Kofi Annan, union sources say, after a series of scandals tainted his term in charge of the world body.
The UN staff union, in what officials said was the first vote of its kind in the almost 60-year history of the United Nations, was set to approve a resolution withdrawing support for Annan and senior UN management.
Annan has been in the line of fire over a series of scandals including controversy about a UN aid program that investigators say allowed deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars.
Staffers said the trigger for the no-confidence measure was an announcement this week that Annan had pardoned the UN's top oversight official, who was facing allegations of favouritism and sexual harassment.
The union had requested a formal probe into the official, Dileep Nair, after employees accused him of harassing staff and violating UN rules on the hiring and promotion of workers.
Full Article:news.yahoo.comAnnan got Watergated. I didn't figure his comments about Iraq would be tolerated for long.
rootsie on 11.19.04 @ 09:26 PM CST [
link]
Thursday, November 18th
U.S. Detainee Abuse Cases Fall Through the Cracks
npr.orgContinued from yesterday.
rootsie on 11.18.04 @ 10:45 PM CST [
link]
Bush, the Neocons and Evangelical Christian Fiction
by Hugh Urban
"Is [Jesus] gonna kill a bunch of people here, like He is over there?"
"I'm afraid He is. If they're working for the Antichrist, they're in serious trouble."
-- Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Glorious Appearing: End of Days
I see things this way: The people who did this act on America are evil people. As a nation of good folk, we're going to hunt them down and we will bring them to justice.
-- George W. Bush, September 25, 2001
As a professor of comparative religion and cultural studies, I have long been fascinated by the strange intersections between religion, politics and popular culture. One of the most striking such intersections occurred to me this summer as I sat down to read the twelfth and last volume of the wildly popular Left Behind series by evangelical preacher Tim LaHaye and novelist Jerry Jenkins. For those who haven't yet had a chance to read any of LaHaye and Jenkin's series, the story is basically an evangelical interpretation of the Book of Revelation set in the context of contemporary global politics: the Rapture has taken place, the Antichrist has taken control of the U.N. and created a single global economy, while a small group of American-led believers battles the forces of evil in a showdown in Jerusalem.
At the same time that I was immersed in this entertaining mixture of Stephen King-esque thrills and fundamentalist rhetoric, I had also been reading much of the recent literature on the Neoconservative movement and its powerful role in the Bush administration. As Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke have persuasively argued in their recent study, America Alone, the election of George W. Bush and the confusion following 9/11 allowed a small but radical group of intellectuals to seize the reins of U.S. foreign policy. Led by figures like Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the members of the Project for a New American Century, the Neocons have been able to put into effect a long-held plan for asserting a U.S. global hegemony, in large part by dominating the Middle East and its oil resources.
The two narratives that I was reading here -- the Neocon's aggressive foreign policy, centered around the Middle East, and the Christian evangelical story of the immanent return of Christ in the Holy Land-- struck me as weirdly similar and disturbingly parallel. The former openly advocates a "New American Century" and a "benevolent hegemony" of the globe by U.S. power, inaugurated by the invasion of Iraq, while the latter predicts a New Millennium of divine rule ushered in by apocalyptic war, first in Babylon and then in Jerusalem.
I was tempted to dismiss the similarity as an amusing but insignificant coincidence. Yet the more I began to examine the Neocon's strategies and the ties between George W. Bush and the Christian Right, the less this link seemed to be either coincidental or unimportant. I am not, of course, suggesting that there is some kind of conspiratorial plot at work between Neocon strategists and evangelical writers like LaHaye, or that the two are somehow working secretly together behind the scenes.
Full Article:counterpunch.orgWhy not?
rootsie on 11.18.04 @ 10:27 PM CST [
link]
Palestinian inquiry into Arafat's death
The Palestinian leadership is to send a delegation to Paris in an attempt to establish the cause of Yasser Arafat's death last week amid a growing belief among Palestinians that he was poisoned by Israel.
The dispatch follows France's refusal to permit Palestinian officials to see Arafat's medical records on the grounds of confidentiality. The hospital says it will only give them to Arafat's widow, Suha, who has refused to reveal their contents.
French authorities have said Arafat, 75, was not poisoned but they have not explained his death. "The conditions surrounding the death of President Yasser Arafat raise questions," said the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia.
Rumours that Arafat was poisoned took hold during the two weeks he was in France, with conflicting accounts emerging about the state of his health.
They gained ground again after Arafat's personal physician, Ashraf Kurdi, told the Arab press he believed tests on the Palestinian leader's blood raised the possibility he was poisoned.
Yesterday Le Monde quoted doctors as saying Arafat had suffered from an unusual blood disease and a liver problem.
guardian.co.ukWell convenient that he died Thursday and they buried him Friday.
rootsie on 11.18.04 @ 10:16 PM CST [
link]
Russia develops nuclear system to evade defence
Vladimir Putin announced yesterday that Russia was developing a nuclear missile system that he claimed was unrivalled in the world.
The president said Russia was "testing the most up-to-date nuclear missile systems" which would be put into service "in the next few years".
"What is more, they will be developments of the kind that other nuclear powers do not and will not have," Mr Putin added in televised remarks to high-ranking military officers.
His brief statement was seen as both an attempt to boost military morale and a hint that Russia's nuclear deterrent would not be rendered obsolete by the US launch of a missile defence shield.
Washington reacted cautiously to Russia's nuclear designs last night, viewing them as consistent with bilateral treaties. "We do not perceive Russia's nuclear sustainment and modernisation activities as threatening," said the state department spokesman Adam Ereli.
Mr Putin, who meets George Bush this weekend in Chile, appeared to refer to a new nuclear warhead delivery system that a senior Russian military official said in February had been successfully tested.
It is claimed the warhead can detach from the main missile during the final stages of its descent, and then continue to fly like a cruise missile, evading any missile defence shield.
Full Article:guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.18.04 @ 10:12 PM CST [
link]
Wednesday, November 17th
To the conspiracy theory born
by Arnaud de Borchgrave
The mullah nullah continues to grow wider with each act of terrorism in the Middle East. No sooner had the Sinai bombings in Taba killed 35 Israeli tourists and injured 124 than Arab voices began accusing Israel of murdering its own.
The Middle East Media Research Institute reminds us the price of America's benign neglect of the peace process is a grotesque caricature of the U.S. and its Israeli protege. Israel bombed Sinai, said Egypt's Al Ahram Research Center expert Dhia Rashwan, "to convince the world Egypt is not a stable country, thus opening the door for external involvement, specifically Israel and America, for the so-called preservation of security and eradication of terrorism in the region [which gives] Sharon a green light to strike Palestinians in the occupied territories under the pretext of fighting terrorism."
It takes roughly one news cycle for preposterous theories to become received ideas before they become incontrovertible facts in the Middle East corridors of power. Palestinian Security Chief Jibril Rajoub said matter-of-factly, "Bush is facing elections and I believe he needs operations like this to justify his aggression in Iraq and to justify his defense of the Israeli aggression in Palestine." Next, an Egyptian spokesman took up the refrain on national TV.
The only reference to the Middle East by either John Kerry or President Bush in the presidential debates was to mention Israel -- and the imperative need to protect and enhance its security.
John Edwards piled on with a new justification for the Iraq war. Stretching credulity, he said removing Saddam Hussein from power had reduced terror attacks against Israel. This played right into the hands of those who argue the U.S. is incapable of being an honest broker between Palestinians and Israelis.
Growing anger in Arab American and Muslim American ranks -- several million votes -- appears not to bother the candidates. The possible loss of Jewish votes haunts both political parties.
Those mullahs and imams who had not yet caught up with the new conventional wisdom that Israel killed its own said it was payback time. "What happened in Taba was 0.0001 of what Israel deserves," said a Lebanese imam in his Friday sermon. "What happened there is a result of American and Israeli actions and a partial and very small result of what Israel and the U.S. are doing in the region."
In the West Bank, Ma'ariv reported, Israeli settlers are not worried about the Arab demographic threat as they nurture the vision of a "mega-occupation," or expanding the Kingdom of Israel to the borders promised in the covenant with Arbaham.
The Committee of Rabbis in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, writes, "Everyone who has faith in his heart ... will not countenance betrayal of the divine promise of the Jewish people."
Professor Hillel Weiss, said Ma'ariv, spelled out what this meant: "The purpose of the armed struggle is to establish a Jewish state in all the territory that will be captured, from the River Euphrates [in Iraq] to the Egyptian River [Nile]."
For good measure, Rabbi Haim Steinitz, writing on behalf of the rabbis of the Beit El settlement, explained, "In general, the Euphrates and the Nile are the main points of reference, as well as the Mediterranean and the Red Sea." That takes care of the western border. There is some dispute about the eastern border. Most West Bank rabbis say the Kingdom of Israel "should rest on the upper Syrian stretch of the Euphrates. Others, wrote Ma'ariv, "take a broader view with a border that runs down to the mouth of the Persian Gulf."
One rabbi calls for the military conquest of all Arab countries. Even this was not enough for Rabbi Zelman Melamed, who wrote: "It is not impossible that the Jewish people will have the ability to threaten and put pressure on the entire world to accept our way. But even if we acquire the power to seize control of the world, that is not the way to realize the vision of complete redemption."
Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg says he knows in the near future the Land of Israel is about to expand. "It is our duty to force all mankind to accept the seven Noahide laws, and if not -- they will be killed."
Imams do not have exclusive rights on loony tunes. Palestinian state anyone?
washingtontimes.comEvery once in a while, the Moonies' Washintgton Times communicates real news, albeit cloaked in their dismissive tone.
'Greater Israel' is on many minds these days, and the alternative theory of the Sinai bombing unfortunately does not sound 'preposterous' at all.
rootsie on 11.17.04 @ 10:48 PM CST [
link]
Immigrant Detainees Tell of Attack Dogs and Abuse
Since Congress revamped the nation's immigration laws in the 1990s, the government has rounded up tens of thousands of immigrants each year who've committed a crime -- from murder to offenses such as overstaying their visas -- even if the offenders had already been punished.
These immigrants have been jailed for months or years while Homeland Security officials obtained a court order to deport them. Some have allegedly experienced brutal and violent conditions while in detention.
... In the spring of 2002, Mohabir returned to Guyana to visit his mother, who was ill. On his way back to New York that April, an immigration agent at Kennedy International Airport noticed Mohabir had a criminal record: Six years earlier, he'd been convicted of possessing about $5 worth of drugs. The judge fined him $250 for a misdemeanor and let him go.
Because of that past conviction, Mohabir was deported to Guyana and banned from ever coming back to the United States. But before returning to his native country, Mohabir was detained for almost two years at New Jersey's Passaic County Jail, where he alleges that guards taunted and beat detainees and terrorized them with dogs. One detainee was attacked by a dog earlier this year and sent to the hospital. Evidence obtained by NPR during the course of a five-month-long investigation suggests Mohabir's tale of abuse, corroborated by other detainees, is true.
Full Report:npr.org
rootsie on 11.17.04 @ 10:31 PM CST [
link]
House GOP Changes Rules to Protect DeLay
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans demonstrated their loyalty to Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Wednesday, changing a party rule that would have cost him his leadership post if he were indicted by a Texas grand jury that has charged three of his associates.
DeLay watched from the back of the room but did not speak as GOP lawmakers struggled in closed session before ending a requirement that leaders indicted on felony charges relinquish their positions. Republicans will now decide a House leader's fate in a case-by-case review.
The change received overwhelming but not unanimous approval in a voice vote that showed Republicans' eagerness to protect the leader who raised countless campaign dollars for them. He also engineered a redistricting plan in Texas that caused five Democratic losses through retirement or election defeats.
Full Article:guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.17.04 @ 10:26 PM CST [
link]
Russia Developing New Nuclear Missile
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia is developing a new nuclear missile system unlike any weapon held by other countries, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, a move that could serve as a signal to the United States as Washington pushes forward with a missile defense system.
Putin gave no details about the system or why Russia was pursuing it, and it was unclear whether the Kremlin's cash-strapped armed forces could even afford an expensive new weapon.
But in remarks that could also be aimed at a domestic audience, he told a meeting of the top leadership of the armed forces that the system could be deployed soon, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
"We are not only conducting research and successful tests on state-of-the-art nuclear missile systems, but I am convinced that these systems will appear in the near future," Putin said. "Moreover, they will be systems, weapons that not a single other nuclear power has, or will have, in the near future."
ITAR-Tass indicated the new system could be a mobile version of the Topol-M ballistic missile, which have been deployed in silos since 1998. But Alexander Pikayev, a senior military analyst with Moscow's Institute for Global Economy and International Relations, said Putin seemed to be referring to the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, a solid fuel missile that had its first test in September.
Full Article:apnews.myway.com
rootsie on 11.17.04 @ 10:22 PM CST [
link]
Tuesday, November 16th
The Coming Currency Shock
by Paul Craig Roberts
China's currency peg to the US dollar prevents correction of the US trade imbalace and imperils the US dollar's role as reserve currency.
In the post World War II period, the dollar took over the reserve currency role from the British pound, because the supremacy of US manufacturing guaranteed US trade surpluses. The British pound lost its role due to debts of two world wars, loss of empire, a run down industrial base, and socialist attack on UK business.
The reserve currency conveys unique advantages on the favored country. As the reserve currency, the US dollar is guaranteed a high level of demand. Foreign central banks hold their reserves in dollars, and countries are billed in dollars for their oil imports, which requires other countries to buy dollars with their currencies.
As a reserve currency fulfills world needs in addition to the functions of a domestic currency, the favored country can hemorrhage debt for a protracted period on a scale that would promptly wreck any other country's currency.
This advantage is a two-edged sword, because it permits the reserve country to behave irresponsibly by running large trade and budget deficits. When the tide turns against the reserve currency, its exchange value collapses.
The reason for the collapse is the huge stock of reserve currency held by foreigners. When other countries conclude that their hoards of dollars represent claims that the US cannot meet, dollar dumping begins. Financing for US debt dries up; interest rates rise; imported goods become unaffordable and living standards fall.
Flight from the dollar is already underway. During the past two years, the US dollar has declined 52% against the new European currency, the Euro. This decline is striking in view of the sluggish European economy and the fact that many analysts regard the Euro as merely a political currency.
Indeed, the dollar is declining against all currencies that have any international standing: the British pound, the Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar, and even against the Japanese yen despite Tokyo's intervention to support the dollar.
Overcome by hubris and superpower delusion, US policymakers are unaware of America's peril. Economists and pundits are equally in the dark.
Economists believe that decline in the dollar's exchange value will correct the US trade deficit by reducing imports and increasing exports. Once upon a time a case could be argued for this logic. But that was a time before US corporations took to outsourcing jobs and locating production for US markets offshore.
US imports of goods and services rise each time a US factory moves offshore or a US job is outsourced. Goods and services produced offshore by US corporations for US customers count as imports and worsen the trade deficit. The US cannot reduce its trade deficit by increasing sales to China of goods made by US firms in China. As Charles McMillion, president of MBG Information Services, concisely summarizes: "Outsourcing is export substitution."
It is amazing that US policymakers and economists do not understand that dollar devaluation is meaningless as long as China keeps its currency pegged to the dollar.
America's greatest trade imbalance is with China. In 2000 the US merchandise trade deficit with China became larger than the chronic US trade deficit with Japan. By 2003 the US trade deficit with China was almost twice as large as the US deficit with Japan: $124 billion versus $66 billion. This year the US trade deficit with China is expected to be $160, a 29% increase from last year.
This imbalance cannot be corrected as long as China maintains the peg. As the dollar falls against the Euro and other currencies, the Chinese currency falls with it, thus maintaining China's advantage over US goods in world markets.
Both the Clinton and Bush administrations are guilty of permitting China to maintain a grossly undervalued currency that sucks productive capacity out of the US. The combination of cheap Chinese labor and an undervalued currency are destroying US middle class living standards.
As America's industrial base erodes, so does its competitiveness and ability to close its trade deficit through exports.
Currency markets cannot correct the undervalued Chinese currency, because China does not permit its currency to be traded and there are insufficient stocks of Chinese currency in foreign hands with which to form a currency market.
Sooner or later the peg will come to an end--perhaps when China fulfills its WTO obligation to let its currency float. When the peg ends, it will deliver a severe shock to US living standards. Suddenly, Chinese manufactured goods--including advanced technology products--on which the US is now dependent will cost much more. Overnight, shopping at Wal-Mart will be like shopping in high-end department stores.
China accounts for a quarter of the US trade deficit and for one-third of the US deficit in manufactured goods, is the second largest source of US imports after Canada, and is America's third largest trading partner as conventionally measured. Despite these facts, the US government does not publish full current account data for China, instead lumping China in with "Other Countries in Asia and Africa." This keeps the magnitude of the problem out of sight.
Canada and Mexico rank as the US's two largest "trading partners" because of double counting in the measure of imports and exports. For example, the full value of auto bodies shipped across the borders to Canada and Mexico for assembly operations are counted as "exports" when they leave the US and as "imports" when they return.
In contrast US "trade" with China involves almost no double counting of component parts.
Recently, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company declared its intention to close all US plants and to manufacture offshore for US markets. Each time the US loses an industry, America's export potential declines and America's imports rise. This scenario guarantees a rising trade deficit and the end of the dollar's reserve currency role.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during 1981-82.
counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.16.04 @ 11:05 PM CST [
link]
Monday, November 15th
US bombs rebels in Falluja: Amnesty fears on human rights
...Large areas of Falluja lie in ruins, devastated by the ferocity of the US onslaught. The attacks were designed to clear insurgents out of what had been their biggest stronghold ahead of January's elections. An embedded BBC reporter said the fighting had become more frantic as the insurgents made a last stand.
A Reuters correspondent saw bloated and decomposing bodies in the streets, smashed homes, ruined mosques and power and telephone lines hanging uselessly.
Overnight, US warplanes made 20-30 bombing sorties over the city and surrounding areas, where there has been an upsurge in violence since the Falluja offensive started last Monday.
At least nine people died today in fierce battles in Baquba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad. There was also fighting today in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. There has been violence for five days in Mosul, with insurgents storming two police stations in the northern city yesterday and killing at least six Iraqi troops.
And tonight there were reports of two heavy explosions from the heavily fortified green zone compound in Baghdad where the Iraqi and coalition headquarters are. There was no immediate explanation for the blasts.
Amnesty International said it was "deeply concerned" that rules of war protecting civilians and combatants had been violated by the US forces and the insurgents in Falluja.
Amnesty cited an incident shown on Channel Four news last week when a marine fired at an apparently wounded insurgent who was off screen then said "he's gone". Amnesty said: "Under international humanitarian law the US forces have an obligation to protect fighters hors de combat [disabled fighters]."
Full Article: guardian.co.ukOn ABC News this evening was footage of Marines going into a Mosque and shooting to death a wounded Iraqi lying there, a wounded Iraqi LEFT lying there by Marines a few days before. That is what the US makes of 'international humanitarian law' and protecting fighters 'hors de combat.'
rootsie on 11.15.04 @ 08:29 PM CST [
link]
Chirac vows to prevent 'anarchy' in Ivory Coast
The French president, Jacques Chirac, vowed yesterday to keep his troops in Ivory Coast to prevent the former colony from sliding into anarchy or fascism, and condemned the "questionable regime" of the country's president.
His pledge came shortly before African leaders attending a summit on the crisis in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, last night agreed to back a draft UN security council resolution calling for an arms embargo, a travel ban and asset freezes against anyone blocking peace in Ivory Coast.
...Mr Chirac told a student forum in Marseille: "We do not want to let a system develop that could lead to anarchy or a regime of a fascist nature," according to Associated Press.
He said he would not consider a pullout of French troops "when we have an international mandate supported by all Africans".
Full Article:guardian.co.uk"We do not want to let..." That says it all.
rootsie on 11.15.04 @ 08:16 PM CST [
link]
Sunday, November 14th
Cote D’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea
Same old story, same old song and danceby Rootsie
100 years ago, Britain and France were the great imperialist powers on the globe. They controlled most of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, in addition to the Caribbean and South Pacific.
Even though it granted independence to Cote D’Ivoire in 1960, and to its other colonies around the same time, so-called ‘Francophone’ countries in Africa remained tied to France economically and politically, which is a nice way of saying that France in effect has the last word in those places, realizes enormous profit from their resources, and intervenes whenever it feels like it ‘to protect French interests.’ (
Imperialist France Destroys an African Air Force)
This week shows once again that France has always been a unilateral imperialist. Did it check with the UN before invading Cote D’Ivoire?
Did France not actually obstruct UN forces trying to intervene in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, carried out by the Hutu government it had installed? Did it not carry on atmospheric nuclear testing in French Polynesia, ignoring the fact that the people there were having fallout rained on them, blowing up the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior when it went to investigate? Did it not collaborate with the US to destabilize the Aristide government in Haiti and forcefully remove Aristide from the country?
The laughable idea that France was nobly opposed to the US invasion of Iraq only has play with people who are woefully naďve and ignorant of history: the US peace movement for example. France is always watching out for its own interests, and the prospect of “full spectrum dominance” by the US could not go unopposed, not as long as France couldn’t get a piece of the action. As Haiti and the Balkans demonstrate, France has no problem working side-by-side with the United States for motives far from moral. France has been a rogue state for 200 years now.
And now we hear from Jack Straw that Britain knew of the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea weeks before the attempt was carried out. (
guardian.co.uk) Poor EG finds itself with the third largest oil reserve in Africa, and can look forward to years of instability. Of course Britain’s knowledge of the plan, orchestrated in part by Sir Mark Thatcher, raises the question as to its involvement. Spain made a stab at a coup there a few months ago too. Imperialist is as imperialist does. Whether a European government is liberal, conservative, or leftist, all factions are united in what they see as the defense of Western Civilization, which translates on the ground to illegal invasions and interventions wherever they perceive economic and political interest, which is practically everywhere dark-skinned people live. Noblesse oblige, you know.
The EU announced that it is seeking normalized relations with Cuba. (
nytimes.com) I wonder if this is a symbolic gesture of its intentions to throw monkey-wrenches into US machinations wherever it can. No doubt the old-world imperialists’ sense of decorum is insulted by the United States’ savage displays of brawn in Iraq. But really, it’s a question of style over substance. In the end, the effects of either US or European imperialism will be the same for the victims.
rootsie on 11.14.04 @ 12:58 PM CST [
link]
Friday, November 12th
Paraphrase of a statement by William Sloane Coffin
Americans, in order not to feel bad about certain things, make a deal with themselves not to feel
too good about anything. And they call this emotional mediocrity 'the good life.'
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:42 PM CST [
link]
God Has Granted America a Reprieve
By Rev. Bob Jones, III
Ed. Note: Rev. Jones sent this greeting to Bush on November 3. It is now posted on his website.
Dear Mr. President:
The media tells us that you have received the largest number of popular votes of any president in America's history. Congratulations!
In your re-election, God has graciously granted America-though she doesn't deserve it-a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
Don't equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ. Honor the Lord, and He will honor you.
Had your opponent won, I would have still given thanks, because the Bible says I must (I Thessalonians 5:18). It would have been hard, but because the Lord lifts up whom He will and pulls down whom He will, I would have done it. It is easy to rejoice today, because Christ has allowed you to be His servant in this nation for another presidential term. Undoubtedly, you will have opportunity to appoint many conservative judges and exercise forceful leadership with the Congress in passing legislation that is defined by biblical norm regarding the family, sexuality, sanctity of life, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and limited government. You have four years-a brief time only-to leave an imprint for righteousness upon this nation that brings with it the blessings of Almighty God.
Christ said, "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my father honour" (John 12:26).
The student body, faculty, and staff at Bob Jones University commit ourselves to pray for you-that you would do right and honor the Savior. Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right.
Best wishes.
Sincerely your friend,
Bob Jones III
President
Bob Jones University
PS: A few moments ago I read this letter to the students in Chapel. They applauded loudly their approval.
When I told them that Tom Daschle was no longer the minority leader of the Senate, they cheered again.
On occasion, Christians have not agreed with things you said during your first term. Nonetheless, we could not be more thankful that God has given you four more years to serve Him in the White House, never taking off your Christian faith and laying it aside as a man takes off a jacket, but living, speaking, and making decisions as one who knows the Bible to be eternally true.
counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:33 PM CST [
link]
Letter from a Haitian Jail
By Father Gerard Jean-Juste
Greetings and Gratitude! Courage and Persistence!
I can't stop thinking of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as I am sending you this short letter. Quoting by heart and in substance Dr. King, allow me to remind you of this:
"It is not, if I help my brothers and sisters, what's going to happen to me? Rather, if I don't help them, what's gong to happen to them?"
Hooded men, intimidation, masked gunmen, massacre, masked men attacking the churches, forced entries in our rectories, arbitrary arrests, defamation, character assasination, prison, threats of death - SHOULD NOT STOP ANY HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST OR INSTITUTIONS advocating for the enjoyment of basic human needs for all, especially the poor ones.
I think of all of you who advocate for my release, all who demand the release of all political prisoners, under the "de facto", illegal, unconstitutional Latortue-Alexandre government imposed facistically by the administration of Presidents G.W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, and Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Freedom and democracy shall prevail in Haiti.
Visiting Haiti in 1983, Pope John Paul II called for real change: "Things must change." LET IT BE!
The represssion on all levels is so heavy. I call for: an immediate return to constitutional order; the release of all political prisoners; the respect of the vote and the will of the people; the rejection of kidnappings, coup d'etats from whoever the authors.
Let the word of God win our souls! Let love of God and humanity prevail! Let us start our heaven on earth as God wants it!
Gratitude, Peace, and Love to you all!
Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste (Nsera Njeri Jan-Jis) 509-405-3244
[This letter was sent out of the Omega-Carrefour Jail by Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste via Bill Quigley, Loyola University School of Law New Orleans, one of Fr. Jean-Juste's lawyers. Fr. Jean-Juste is represented by Mario Joseph and others with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Fr. Jean-Juste is scheduled to appear before a Haitian judge for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday November 10, 2004.
counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:28 PM CST [
link]
Meet Your New Attorney General...***Alberto Torquemada
by Mike Whitney
The Gonzales memos claimed that Bush had "the right to wave anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war."
Associated Press
Bush intends to put an advocate of torture at the head the Justice Dept. Is this how he rewards the "moral values" crowd who shoehorned him into the Oval Office?
Alberto Gonzales, name never should have been submitted as a candidate for Attorney General. His involvement in the Abu Ghraib scandal is widely known and should have immediately disqualified him from consideration. The memos he produced that dismissed the Geneva Conventions as "obsolete" were critical in developing the rationale for using abusive techniques to extract information from prisoners. Once his role in facilitating the torture was exposed, he should have been swiftly disbarred and unceremoniously deposited in the White House dumpster.
That,s not how it works in the Bush Administration though, where the incidents of crime serve as Brownie-points for promotion. Instead, Gonzales will be trotted up to Capital Hill and get the requisite "nod" from the rubber stamp Congress so he can move into his new digs at the DOJ. Only the signage on the door of the Attorney General will change to accommodate the transition: "Alberto Torquemada; America,s Grand Inquisitor".
There,s no doubt about Gonzales complicity in the torture at Abu Ghraib. His controversial memos show that he was establishing the pretext for discarding Geneva as a "quaint" institution that obstructed the supreme powers of the presidency. His efforts were designed to deny prisoners of even the "minimal standards" of humane treatment and to legitimize the (well documented) brutality that followed. He is every bit as guilty of the unlawful abuse as if he had affixed the wires to the genitalia of detainees himself.
Full Article:counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:24 PM CST [
link]
Assemblyman Condemns Palestinian Art Show
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - A Jewish assemblyman said Friday that an exhibit of Palestinian art and crafts, scheduled for display in a public building, should be canceled because it is anti-Israel and ``promotes terrorism and violence.''
Items to be shown include an Arab headdress trapped in a Star of David made of barbed wire, and a piece paying homage to ``Palestinian martyrs in the anti-Israel uprising that began in 2000.''
The curator of the exhibit said that while some of the art deals with Israel's military presence in the Palestinian territories and ``the apartheid-type life that Palestinians are forced to live under ... what comes through is the desire for a peaceful life.''
Full Article: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:19 PM CST [
link]
CBS Axes Producer for Arafat Cut-In
CBS News has axed a news producer who cut into prime-time programming Wednesday night to report the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The staffer, a female senior producer for CBS’s overnight newscast Up to the Minute, broke in to CSI: N.Y. shortly before 11 p.m. with the report, outraging viewers who missed the end of the crime drama.
CBS apologized for the interruption Thursday, saying an “overly aggressive” staffer “jumped the gun on a report that should have been offered to local stations for their late news.”
As for the producer’s dismissal, a CBS spokesperson said Friday, “We do not comment on personnel issues.” CBS planned to repeat the CSI: N.Y. episode Friday night to placate viewers.
An executive at a rival broadcast network said the whole situation left them puzzled. “I think people here were scratching their heads over the decision to break in, and then scratching it even harder over the apology for breaking in,” the exec says. “And now we’re wondering what kind of process they have in place to take the network to a special report.”
Full Article: broadcastingcable.comPeople with US bombs raining down on their heads or US bulldozers razing their houses or US helicopters blasting their children don't have the luxury of tuning the world ouit.
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:16 PM CST [
link]
FORMER HEAD OF CIA'S OSAMA BIN LADEN UNIT SAYS THE QAEDA LEADER HAS SECURED RELIGIOUS APPROVAL TO USE A NUCLEAR BOMB AGAINST AMERICANS
Osama bin Laden now has religious approval to use a nuclear device against Americans, says the former head of the CIA unit charged with tracking down the Saudi terrorist. The former agent, Michael Scheuer, speaks to Steve Kroft in his first television interview without disguise to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Nov. 14 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Scheuer was until recently known as the "anonymous" author of two books critical of the West's response to bin Laden and al Qaeda, the most recent of which is titled Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. No one in the West knows more about the Qaeda leader than Scheuer, who has tracked him since the mid-1980s. The CIA allowed him to write the books provided he remain anonymous, but now is allowing him to reveal himself for the first time on Sunday's broadcast; he formally leaves the Agency today (12).
Even if bin Laden had a nuclear weapon, he probably wouldn't have used it for a lack of proper religious authority - authority he has now. "[Bin Laden] secured from a Saudi sheik...a rather long treatise on the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the Americans," says Scheuer. "[The treatise] found that he was perfectly within his rights to use them. Muslims argue that the United States is responsible for millions of dead Muslims around the world, so reciprocity would mean you could kill millions of Americans," Scheuer tells Kroft.
Full Article: drudgereport.com
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:10 PM CST [
link]
Ashcroft says judges threaten national security by questioning Bush decisions
WASHINGTON - Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.
In his first remarks since his resignation was announced Tuesday, Ashcroft forcefully denounced what he called "a profoundly disturbing trend" among some judges to interfere in the president's constitutional authority to make decisions during war.
"The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in these critical areas can put at risk the very security of our nation in a time of war," Ashcroft said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers' group.
Full Article:tucsoncitizen.comYeah, shame on those judges for doing their duty as upholders of the Constitution of the United States.
rootsie on 11.12.04 @ 11:06 PM CST [
link]
Thursday, November 11th
Arafat's personal doctor calls for autopsy
CAIRO, Nov 11 (AFP) - The personal physician of Yasser Arafat called for an inquiry into the cause of the veteran Palestinian leader's death on Thursday.
"I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy ... so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death" of their leader, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi said on Al-Jazeera television only hours before Arafat was due to be buried.
He said his suspicions were aroused by the absence of any information about Arafat's health since he was admitted to hospital in Paris on October 29 and that Arafat was conscious when he left his Ramallah compound.
Amid the doubt, rumours have surfaced that Arafat was poisoned but doctors in Paris and Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath rejected that speculation.
Kurdi, who was Arafat's personal physician for more than 20 years, said he had been surprised by the actions of some members of the veteran leader's office.
He said they took too long to contact him even though Arafat's health was in rapid decline.
Kurdi, who did not travel to Paris his patient, said he could not draw any conclusions about the death despite his suspicions.
turkishpress.com
rootsie on 11.11.04 @ 09:56 PM CST [
link]
Former US President Jimmy Carter calls Arafat a "powerful human symbol"
MIAMI (AFP) - Former US President Jimmy Carter called Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) "a powerful human symbol and forceful advocate" who united Palestinians in their pursuit of a homeland.
"Yasser Arafat's death marks the end of an era and will no doubt be painfully felt by Palestinians throughout the Middle East and elsewhere in the world," Carter said.
"He was the father of the modern Palestinian nationalist movement. A powerful human symbol and forceful advocate, Palestinians united behind him in their pursuit of a homeland," he said in a statement distributed by his Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center.
He said that while Arafat provided "indispensable leadership to a revolutionary movement" and played a key role in forging a peace agreement with Israel in 1993, he was excluded from negotiations in recent years.
"My hope is that an emerging Palestinian leadership can benefit from Arafat's experiences, be welcomed to the peace process by (Israeli) Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon and (US) President (George W.) Bush, and be successful in helping to forge a Palestinian state living in harmony with their Israeli neighbors," Carter said.
Both Carter and Arafat are Nobel peace prize laureates.
Arafat, who died at a Paris hospital early Thursday, was to be buried at his West Bank headquarters after a military funeral ceremony in Cairo Friday.
news.yahoo.comWell at least someone gets it.
rootsie on 11.11.04 @ 09:52 PM CST [
link]
CBS Apologizes for Interrupting CSI; Will Rebroadcast Episode
CBS NEWS interrupted the final minutes of Wednesday night's episode of CSI: NEW YORK in order to air a special report about the death of Yasser Arafat. CBS has apologized and says it will rebroadcast the episode, in its entirety FRIDAY at 9PM CENTRAL TIME.
"An overly aggressive CBS News producer jumped the gun with a report that should have been offered to local stations for their late news. We sincerely regret the error. The episode of CSI: NEW YORK will be rebroadcast Friday, Nov. 12."
ksla.com
rootsie on 11.11.04 @ 09:46 PM CST [
link]
Israeli police: Nuclear whistleblower arrested
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Seven months after he was released from prison after an 18-year sentence for treason and espionage, Israeli police arrested nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu Thursday morning in Jerusalem on suspicion of passing on confidential information to unauthorized individuals, police said.
Vanunu spent 18 years in an Israeli jail for leaking details of Israel's nuclear program in 1986, court officials said.
He is restricted from leaving the country and from talking to the international media. Israeli officials fear Vanunu might reveal additional Israeli secrets.
Israelis view Vanunu as either a traitor or a hero after he exposed Israel's nuclear secrets to London's The Sunday Times 18 years ago, leading analysts to conclude Israel had made as many as 200 nuclear bombs.
Israel does not comment on whether it has nuclear weapons.
Full Article: cnn.comIsrael is allowed 'no comment' about its nuclear weapons while the Isrealis threaten to attack Iran over their potential ones. It is hypocrisies such as this that threaten the safety of the US and others. Israel is allowed total impunity, Arafat's legacy is distorted by the press, Fallujah is being ripped to shreds, the car bombs are going off in Baghdad, and Bush has the gall to say that Arafat's death raises new 'hope for peace.' Peace, or 'democracy,' are the last things these villains are hoping for.
rootsie on 11.11.04 @ 11:02 AM CST [
link]
History will judge Arafat harshly: Howard
Prime Minister John Howard says Yasser Arafat will be remembered as a leader who failed to grasp an opportunity for peace in the Middle East.
..."I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barack, which involved the Israelis agreeing to 90 per cent of what the Palestinians had wanted," he said.
abc.net.auWhose history? The history that claims the 2000 deal represents "90% of what the Palestinians had wanted?" Any fair history, which is quaintly referred to as 'revisionist' these days, will judge most harshly the aggression of Bush and his buddies, Howard included.
rootsie on 11.11.04 @ 10:47 AM CST [
link]
For Dutch, anger battles with tolerance
by Craig S. Smith
Anger toward the Netherlands' Muslim community percolated among the crowd that gathered outside the funeral for the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was killed by an Islamic extremist a week ago.
The public debate over how conservative Islam fits into Europe's most tolerant, liberal society had already become a no-holds-barred affair before the killing of van Gogh, who had publicly and repeatedly used epithets against Muslims. But his killing has now polarized the country, giving the rest of Europe a disturbing glimpse of what may be in store if relations with the continent's growing immigrant communities are not managed more adeptly.
The anger is such that for the second time in two days an Islamic elementary school was attacked Tuesday, this time in Uden, part of what Dutch authorities fear are reprisals after van Gogh's killing. The authorities said that Muslim sites had been the targets of a half-dozen attacks in the past week.
In apparent retaliation, arsonists attempted to burn down Protestant churches in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amersfoort, the police said.
The attacks have scratched the patina of tolerance on which the Dutch have long prided themselves, particularly here in their principal city, where the scent of hashish trails in the air, prostitutes beckon from storefront brothels and Hell's Angels live side by side with Hare Krishnas. But many Dutch now say that for years that tradition of tolerance suppressed an open debate about the challenges of integrating conservative Muslims.
Full Article:iht.comSo interesting the useful fictions Europeans indulge in. What about Royal Dutch Shell despoiling West Africa? Or the nasty legacy of the Dutch Afrikaaners? Progressive and tolerant societies for white Europeans, yes. I am not defending Islamic fundamentalists, but it is not possible to separate the realities of Europe today with its history. These 'liberal' states of Europe were built off the backs of millions of black Africans. In that light, 'enlightened immigration policies' just do not cut it.
rootsie on 11.11.04 @ 10:36 AM CST [
link]
Tuesday, November 9th
Powell: U.S. Will Pursue Aggressive Foreign Policy
LONDON - President Bush has a fresh mandate to pursue an "aggressive" foreign policy, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday.
In an interview with Britain's Financial Times newspaper, Powell said Bush had no intention of pulling back and insisted the newly re-elected president had a mandate to pursue American national interests in international affairs.
"The president is not going to trim his sails or pull back," Powell told the newspaper. "It's a continuation of his principles, his policies, his beliefs."
Powell made no mention of any specific country or region, but said U.S. foreign policy had been "aggressive in terms of going after challenges, issues" and Bush was "going to keep moving in this direction.
Full Article:commondreams.orgWell I'm sure the world will be surprised by this announcement. Aggressive/Aggression...what's the dif?
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 10:23 PM CST [
link]
Guantanamo Trial Is Ruled Unlawful
WASHINGTON — The first military commission trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was halted Monday after a federal judge here ruled the proceedings invalid under U.S. and international law — dealing a blow to the legal process set up by the Bush administration to handle accused terrorists.
The case against Salim Ahmed Hamdan was suspended after U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the Yemeni man had been denied due process.
The ruling affects all of the nearly 500 detainees from Afghanistan at Guantanamo.
"The practical outcome of this is that the government is not going to be able to maintain this system," said Eric M. Freedman, a Hofstra University law school professor who has challenged the military commissions in court on behalf of two detainees.
Robertson ruled that the Bush administration had not followed a lawful procedure in declaring Hamdan an "enemy combatant" who was not entitled to protections and privileges under the Geneva Convention. The "combatant status review tribunals" — used by the Pentagon to decide whether to hold detainees — are not a "competent" court to make such a determination, Robertson said. And the military commission process, which prosecutes detainees using secret evidence and unnamed witnesses, "could not be countenanced in any American court," the judge ruled.
"The government has asserted a position starkly different from the positions and behavior of the United States in previous conflicts, one that can only weaken the United States' own ability to demand application of the Geneva Conventions to Americans captured during armed conflicts abroad," wrote Robertson, who served as a lieutenant in the Navy between 1959 and 1964 and was appointed a judge in 1994 by President Clinton.
To correct the system, Robertson said, the government must recognize the detainees as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention until it has a legally valid way to declare they are not.
Full Article
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 10:15 PM CST [
link]
Voters fail to back Bush priorities
by Gary Younge
American voters' priorities differ substantially from those set out by President Bush in the immediate aftermath of his victory, polls suggest.
An Associated Press poll showed voters support, by a huge majority, cutting the country's enormous deficit rather than slashing taxes.
By a narrow margin, voters also back the nomination of a supreme court judge who will preserve abortion rights.
More than 25% of the respondents, who were questioned in the three days after the election, listed Iraq as the top priority for Mr Bush's second term, ahead of terrorism, the economy and healthcare in that order. Seven out of 10, including a majority of Democrats, said they would prefer US troops to stay in Iraq until the country is stable.
Only 2% named taxes as the top priority and when asked specifically whether they would prefer the president to balance the budget or cut taxes further they favoured balancing the budget by two to one.
Following his victory President Bush said: "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it."
Yet few of his priorities, namely the privatisation of social security, tax laws and medical malpractice surfaced as being a big concern for voters.
Most were relieved that the election had been concluded quickly compared with 2000.
Full Article:guardian.co.ukWell the big debate is whether the American people are hopelessly out of it or the election was stolen. I choose both.
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 10:09 PM CST [
link]
House by house, Falluja falls
US troops pushed into the centre of Falluja yesterday, fighting their way from house to house and shooting their way through bands of militants in their drive to recapture the city that has been the centre of insurgency since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
On the second day of the assault, US army forces pressed into the city from the east, reaching the centre as marine units drove their way down in two prongs from the north. Fighter bombers and heavy artillery fire cleared the way as the troops advanced.
US officials said 10 American and two Iraqi troops had died in Falluja since the offensive began.
Although some officers reported heavy resistance in some districts, overall the insurgents appeared to have put up less of a coordinated fight than expected.
"We expected a much fiercer reaction," said Major General Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassem, the head of Iraqi forces in Falluja and the province's newly appointed military governor.
He admitted some of the fighters may have already left. "There is movement in and out. It is a vast and difficult area. Some people even swim in and out," he said.
Full Article:guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 10:03 PM CST [
link]
Bush Looking Anew for Alaska Oil Drilling
WASHINGTON - Republican gains in the Senate could give President Bush (news - web sites) his best chance yet to achieve his No. 1 energy priority — opening an oil-rich but environmentally sensitive Alaska wildlife refuge to drilling.
If he is successful, it would be a stinging defeat for environmentalists and an energy triumph that eluded Bush his first four years in the White House. A broader agenda that includes reviving nuclear power, preventing blackouts and expanding oil and gas drilling in the Rockies will be more difficult to enact.
Republicans in the House and Senate said this week they plan to push for Alaska refuge drilling legislation early next year, and they predict success, given the 55-44-1 GOP Senate majority in the next Congress. Democrats and some environmental activists say continued protection of the refuge has never been as much in doubt.
"It's probably the best chance we've had," Rep. Richard Pombo (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., chairman of the House Resources Committee and a vocal drilling advocate, said in an interview.
Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record), R-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he will press to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as part of the government's budget deliberations early in 2005. That would enable drilling proponents to skirt an otherwise certain Democratic-led filibuster that would be difficult to overcome.
"With oil trading at nearly $50 a barrel, the case for ANWR is more compelling than ever," said Domenici. "We have the technology to develop oil without harming the environment and wildlife."
Bush is also expected in his second term to renew his call for action by Congress on a broader, largely pro-production, energy agenda — from easing rules for oil and gas drilling on federal land in the Rocky Mountains to expanding clean-coal technology and improving the reliability of the electricity grid.
New tax incentives to spur construction of next-generation nuclear power plants also will be back on the table after Democrats and some moderate Republicans scuttled it last year. Greater use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline also has wide support at the White House and in Congress.
Full Article: news.yahoo.com
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 09:50 PM CST [
link]
Dollar expected to fall amid China's rumoured selling
The dollar could slide still further, in spite of hitting an all-time low against the euro last week in the wake of George W. Bush's re-election, currency traders have said.
The dollar sell-off has resumed amid fears among traders that Mr Bush's victory will bring four more years of widening US budget and current account deficits, heightened geopolitical risks and a policy of "benign neglect" of the dollar.
Many currency traders were taken aback on Friday when the greenback fell in spite of bullish data showing the US economy created 337,000 jobs in October.
"If this can't cause the dollar to strengthen you have to tell me what will. This is a big green light to sell the dollar," said David Bloom, currency analyst at HSBC, as the greenback fell to a nine-year low in trade-weighted terms.
The dollar's fall comes as the Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise US interest rates by a quarter point to 2 per cent when it meets on Wednesday and to signal that it will continue with a measured pace of rate increases.
Speculative traders in Chicago last week racked up the highest number of long-euro, short-dollar contracts on record. Options traders have reported brisk business in euro calls - contracts to buy the euro at a pre-determined rate.
However, the market has been rife with rumours that the latest wave of selling has been led by foreign governments seeking to cut their exposure to US assets.
India and Russia have reportedly been selling US assets, as well as petrodollar-rich Middle Eastern investors.
China, which has $515bn of reserves, was also said to be selling dollars and buying Asian currencies in readiness to switch the renminbi's dollar peg to a basket arrangement, something Chinese officials have increasingly hinted at. Any re-allocation could push the dollar sharply lower and Treasury yields markedly higher.
new.ft.com
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 02:23 AM CST [
link]
Evolution textbooks row goes to court
by Gary Younge
A suburban American school board found itself in court yesterday after it tried to placate Christian fundamentalist parents by placing a sticker on its science textbooks saying evolution was "a theory, not a fact".
Atlanta's Cobb County school board, the second largest board in Georgia, added the sticker two years ago after a 2,300 strong petition attacked the presentation of "Darwinism unchallenged". Some parents wanted creationism - the theory that God created humans according to the Bible version - to be taught alongside evolution.
Shortly after the stickers were put on the books, six parents launched a legal challenge, with the support of the the American Civil Liberties Union. It started yesterday.
"I'm a strong advocate for the separation of church and state," one of the parents, Jeffrey Selman, told the Associated Press. "I have no problem with anybody's religious beliefs. I just want an adequate educational system."
The board says the stickers were motivated by a desire to establish a greater understanding of different view points. "They improve the curriculum, while also promoting an attitude of tolerance for those with different religious beliefs," said Linwood Gunn, a lawyer for Cobb County schools.
The controversy began when the school board's textbook selection committee ordered $8m (Ł4.3m) worth of the science books in March 2002. Marjorie Rogers, a parent who does not believe in evolution, protested and petitioned the board to add a sticker and an insert setting out other explanations for the origins of life.
"It is unconstitutional to teach only evolution," she said. "The school board must allow the teaching of both theories of origin."
Her efforts galvanised the fundamentalist community.
"God created earth and man in his image," another parent, Patricia Fuller, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Leave this garbage out of the textbooks. I don't want anybody taking care of me in a nursing home some day to think I came from a monkey."
Wendi Hill, one of the parents who signed the petition, said: "We believe the Bible is correct in that God created man. I don't expect the public school system to teach only creationism, but I think it should be given its fair share."
Cobb county achieved what it believed to be a compromise by adding stickers to the books which read: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
But secular parents believed the board had been browbeaten.
"I'm shocked Cobb County is handling it this way," said Gina Stubbart, who served on the textbook selection committee. "The average person knows evolution is a widely accepted scientific theory."
This year Georgia's schools superintendent, Kathy Cox, removed the word "evolution" from the state's science teaching standards, but she quickly backtracked after receiving nearly 1,000 complaints.
In 1987, the supreme court ruled that creationism was a religious belief that could not be taught in public schools along with evolution.
Since then creationism has been repackaged as the theory of "intelligent design".
This contends that life on Earth results from a purposeful design rather than random development and that a higher intelligence is guiding this process.
Pennsylvania's Dover area school board has already voted to teach intelligent design.
The hearing in Georgia will have to establish whether intelligent design is in fact a religious theory; and if so, whether the stickers which mention neither intelligent design, nor religion by name, violate the separation of church and state.
The issue of creationism in schools has long been a point of contention between fundamentalists and secularists in the US. In 1925, John Scopes went on trial for teaching evolution in Dayton, Tennessee, in what became known as the monkey trial.
It ended with Scopes being fined $100 for violating a Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of "any theory that denies the story of divine creation as taught by the Bible and to teach instead that man was descended from a lower order of animals".
guardian.co.ukThis nasty fundamentalist streak is never far from the surface in the U.S. These tendencies are being deliberately exploited now.
rootsie on 11.09.04 @ 02:01 AM CST [
link]
Thursday, November 4th
Electoral Affirmation of Shared Values Provides Bush a Majority
by Todd S. Purdum
t was not a landslide, or a re-alignment, or even a seismic shock. But it was decisive, and it is impossible to read President Bush's re-election with larger Republican majorities in both houses of Congress as anything other than the clearest confirmation yet that this is a center-right country - divided yes, but with an undisputed majority united behind his leadership.
Surveys of voters leaving the polls found that a majority believed the national economy was not so good, that tax cuts had done nothing to help it and that the war in Iraq had jeopardized national security. But fully one-fifth of voters said they cared most about "moral values" - as many as cared about terrorism and the economy - and 8 in 10 of them chose Mr. Bush.
In other words, while Mr. Bush remains a polarizing figure on both coasts and in big cities, he has proved himself a galvanizing one in the broad geographic and political center of the country. He increased his share of the vote among women, Hispanics, older voters and even city dwellers significantly from 2000, made slight gains among Catholics and Jews and turned what was then a 500,000-popular-vote defeat into a 3.6 million-popular-vote victory on Tuesday.
Full Article: nytimes.comWell even aside from the very real possibility that the books were cooked, this analysis is nonsense. 'Moral values' now. Really? In times of fear America retreats into this insular 'moral values' bit, as if US foreign policy has no place in the moral equation, and all of us wicked Easterners and big-city slickers are bereft of 'morals.' This was a campaign of fear, and uninformed people were manipulated into the illusion that Bush and the Republicans are going to make us safe. America's narrow-mindedness and mean-spiritedness are on full display and moral values have nothing to do with it. Nostaligia, yes. For simpler days when gays were quiet in the closet and abortions were performed on 'bad girls' in back allies. Some kind of 50's retro throwback is what we're seeing here, the incredible smallness Americans are capable of when they perceive a threat. It is so pathetic that this country has such weak powers of self-reflection, and knows itself so little. It turns all that high-flown patriotic rhetoric into pure poison. This is the most dangerous nation the world has ever known, and so many of its people have fled into some soft-lens hallucination of porch swings and apple pies cooling on the windowsill. This is the alternative to taking responsibility for what we have become as a result of all the realities we repress. Is that a tortured black body hanging off the big tree in the backyard?
The self-indulgent self-serving mythologies of 'America.' I wish I could say 'spare me,' but really we deserve to be spared nothing.
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 11:45 PM CST [
link]
Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare
by Donna J. Volatile
It is now the morning after, the morning after, and Kerry supporters should be moving from mourning into anger as the ice cold splash of reality begins to settle in.
Your guy lost, plain and simple but was he really your guy to begin with?
Most of the people who got behind Kerry were people vehemently opposed to the war in Iraq and the use of pre-emptive strikes. Most of you are caring, thoughtful and intelligent people who truly wanted to make a difference. Yet, in mass you got behind a man who didn't represent your ideas and values, a man who couldn't define himself or differentiate himself from his opponent, a man who supported the invasion of Iraq and continued to do so throughout his campaign. Was Kerry really your guy?
All of you claimed you wanted regime change! Some of you really believed your guy would be capable of saving the country by implem! enting real change but many of you got behind Kerry because anybody would be better than Bush.
Hey, don't feel too bad, you were in some pretty good company! You had a wagon load of intellectuals, progressives and even some down right radicals that climbed on board the same bus. You all fed into the fear factor, not the Republican one, spewing trumped up terror alerts and threats but rather the one put forward by the Democrats: DON'T VOTE FOR NADER OR ELSE!
The Republicans cleverly played the fear factor and the terror card but the Democrats were equally duplicitous and devious in their political maneuvering. I wonder if it ever occurred to any of you just how un-democratic the democrats truly were throughout the course of this election? The Democrats didn't promote democracy, they impeded it and in the end, they decimated the third party alternative and spent billions of dollars doing it.
Regardless of whether! or not the Bush cartel stole yet another election (and there is plenty of evidence to suggest they did...), you backed the wrong horse. A chimpanzee was able to figure out a Diebold electronic voting machine faster than any of you pushing buttons for Kerry. I'm sorry, I don't wish to be mean. The truth hurts and you've got to hear it, better to hear from a friend who knows that in spite of good intentions you all behaved like naive and errant children.
So, here's the reality, slowly sinking in, as another day dawns over the evil Bush Empire: we cannot change the system from within. The Democratic party is washed up. You were failed by Kerry and by the party that foisted him upon you, against your better judgment.
There was no choice in this election! Repeat after me: There was no choice in this election, only the illusion of choice, more than that, the bill of goods you were sold was the illusion of democracy. Maintaining that illusion cost billions of dollars, like an over budgeted Hollywood epic that fails at the box office, that money would have better spent elsewhere.
Now, those of us that didn't jump on the Kerry bus were greatly relieved and yes, we gloated just a little bit but by the time John Kerry conceded, few of us had any doubts: the fix was in. Kerry caved before they had a chance to tally the remaining votes! Once again, just as in 2000, the democrats didn't put up any fight and instead called for unity. Unity?! Everybody just fall in line, get with the program, let bygones be bygones, let's all learn to get along, after one of the most emotional and divisive political campaigns in our history?!
Full Article: counterpunch.orgThe Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser Evilismby Sharon Smith
...The entire supposition of lesser evilism, of course, is that the best we in the U.S. can hope for is the election of a slightly better version of the Republican candidate. The logic of lesser evilism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when no left wing party ever gets built to challenge the two-party system.
The 2004 election exposed the reverse logic employed by the ABB left--when Kerry's "electability" (that is, his similarity to Bush) failed to get him elected. That is how, in a country where a majority of the population views the Iraq war as a mistake, the man who led the country into that war on false pretenses managed to eke out a victory.
Using the same strategy as Gore and Clinton before him, Kerry abandoned the Democratic Party's traditional base to appeal to swing (i.e., white middle-class) voters. That meant that Kerry allowed Bush to define the framework of the debate, which in this case was terrorism. Kerry did not even pay lip service to the labor movement, while distancing himself as far as possible on abortion rights and opposing gay marriage outright. His opposition to the Iraq war was so conditional, contradictory and confusing--since he was a pro-war candidate--that he squandered the enormous opportunity to congeal the massive antiwar sentiment into a coherent electoral opposition.
Full Article: counterpunch.orgIt really is quite the spectacle watching the progressive pundits who told us to shut up and vote for Kerry falling all over themselves now trying to make sense of what must be the inevitable outcome of 'Anyone But Bush.' It's aka 'No one but Bush,' and the anti-war majority sold themselves out.
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 09:26 PM CST [
link]
Soldiers Describe Looting of Explosives
by Mark Mazetti
WASHINGTON — In the weeks after the fall of Baghdad, Iraqi looters loaded powerful explosives into pickup trucks and drove the material away from the Al Qaqaa ammunition site, according to a group of U.S. Army reservists and National Guardsmen who said they witnessed the looting.
The soldiers said about a dozen U.S. troops guarding the sprawling facility could not prevent the theft because they were outnumbered by looters. Soldiers with one unit — the 317th Support Center based in Wiesbaden, Germany — said they sent a message to commanders in Baghdad requesting help to secure the site but received no reply.
The witnesses' accounts of the looting, the first provided by U.S. soldiers, support claims that the American military failed to safeguard the munitions. Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N. nuclear watchdog — and the interim Iraqi government reported that about 380 tons of high-grade explosives had been taken from the Al Qaqaa facility after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003. The explosives are powerful enough to detonate a nuclear weapon.
During the last week, when revelations of the missing explosives became an issue in the presidential campaign, the Bush administration suggested that the munitions could have been carted off by Saddam Hussein's forces before the war began. Pentagon officials later said that U.S. troops systematically destroyed hundreds of tons of explosives at Al Qaqaa after Baghdad fell.
Full Article: commondreams.orgAh well, just another baldfaced lie. We're used to them.
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 09:11 PM CST [
link]
Hospital denies Arafat is dead
A spokesman at the military hospital on the outskirts of Paris where Yasser Arafat is a patient today denied reports that the Palestinian leader had died.
The spokesman made a brief statement tonight shortly after a report on Israeli television, citing French medical sources, that stated that Mr Arafat was "clinically dead".
"Mr Arafat is not dead," Christian Estripeau, a spokesman for the Percy army teaching hospital in the suburb of Clamart, said.
Amid the confusion over the exact status of Mr Arafat's condition, it was clear it had significantly worsened. One unconfirmed report said he was on a life support machine.
There were conflicting statements from Palestinian officials through the day about whether the 75-year-old was in a coma or not.
Mr Estripeau told reporters that Mr Arafat remained in the intensive care unit at the hospital where he was taken for emergency treatment yesterday.
Earlier, the prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, told reporters on arrival at a European Union summit in Brussels: "[He] passed away 15 minutes ago."
The US president, George Bush, reacting to the reports of Mr Arafat's death, said: "My first reaction is God bless his soul ... my second reaction is that we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that's at peace with Israel."
But the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia denied reports that Mr Arafat was clinically dead. Mr Qureia said: "I have just spoken to the officials in Paris and they say the situation is still as it was. He is still in the intensive care unit.
A source close to the Palestinian leadership had earlier described Mr Arafat's condition as "very, very grave". Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian cabinet official, however, had said reports that Mr Arafat was in a coma were "baseless". Mr Erekat said the leader's wife, Suha, had described his condition as "stable but difficult".
Israeli security chiefs and Palestinian leaders had earlier organised separate emergency meetings to discuss the 75-year-old's failing health.
In the West Bank, an official said some of the Palestinian president's powers had been handed over to his prime minister.
Mr Arafat, who has been ill for three weeks, was last week flown to hospital after briefly passing out at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
He was initially described as suffering from bad flu, with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea, and has been receiving treatment for a still unexplained blood and digestive disorder since last Friday.
Speculation in Israel has ranged from claims he is suffering from a viral infection to reports of stomach cancer.
Full Article:guardian.co.ukSo what's the mystery illness? In this day and age it's sort of ridiculous, this 'still unexplained' fatal disease. Did the Mossad slip a little something into his food or water or what?
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 09:06 PM CST [
link]
Bush to 'spend political capital'
by Simon Jeffery
Re-elected US president George Bush today said he intended to spend the "political capital" he earned campaigning for the White House.
In his first press conference since the election he acknowledged he had to "explain the decisions I make" but said he had every intention of following through with a second term agenda stretching from an overhaul of the tax system to "spreading freedom" in the Middle East.
"The people made it clear what they wanted," he said. "I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and I intend to spend it."
Full Article: guardian.co.ukGreat.
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 08:58 PM CST [
link]
Call to cleanse Spain of Franco
by Giles Tremlett
Spain's parliament yesterday petitioned the Socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to remove the remaining symbols of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship from public buildings.
A motion urged the government to "proceed with the removal, in the shortest possible time during this legislature, of the symbols of the Francoist dictatorship ... that still survive on publicly owned buildings."
The call is supported by all parties except the main opposition group, the conservative People's party.
It was unclear exactly how the removal of the hundreds, if not thousands, of symbols of Francoism that still dot Spanish cities, towns and villages might be carried out.
Statues of the dictator can be found in Madrid and in the northern port city of Santander.
There are dozens of squares and streets dedicated to Franco, some of them using the names by which he was known to a generation of Spaniards: caudillo or generalisimo .
"Too many municipalities are host to fiestas, images or names that are counter to the spirit of our constitution," a socialist deputy, Carlos González, said yesterday.
"Schools, parks and squares should not be allowed to bear the names of those who oppressed and violated human rights," he said
Full Article: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 08:54 PM CST [
link]
Hunters kill last brown bear
by Amelia Gentleman
Hunters have shot dead the last female brown bear native to the Pyrenees, condemning the species to extinction and causing an "environmental catastrophe" for France, the government said.
Animal protection groups were last night concerned for the survival of the bear's 10-month-old orphaned cub which escaped unharmed, but which was barely weaned.
His mother, affectionately known by game wardens as Cannelle (Cinnamon), was killed on Monday when a group of boar-hunters shot her in what they claim was self-defence.
President Jacques Chirac said: "The disappearance of a species is always a serious loss for biodiversity." The environment minister, Serge Lepeltier, was to visit the site of the killing last night to launch an investigation into how the six experienced hunters had been allowed to organise a wild boar shoot in the area where the bear was living.
"It is an ecological catastrophe because this was the last female bear of the Pyrenean line," he said.
Full Article:guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 08:50 PM CST [
link]
F-16 Fighter Fires At School In New Jersey
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. -- A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission Wednesday fired 25 rounds of ammunition that tore through an intermediate school. No one was injured.
The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School shortly after 11 p.m.
Police were called to the area when a custodian heard what sounded like someone running across the roof of the school. The custodian was the only person in the school at the time.
Police Chief Mark Siino on Thursday said police officers noticed punctures in the roof. Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms and there were scratch marks in the asphalt outside the building.
The 2-inch long bullets are made of lead and do not explode, said Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard.
It was unclear why the shots were fired, Webster said.
nbc10.com
rootsie on 11.04.04 @ 08:46 PM CST [
link]
Wednesday, November 3rd
I do not feel like saying 'I told you so...'
by Rootsie
Except for a minute or two over the last few days, I never doubted that George Bush would be re-elected, by fair means or foul (we'll probably never know), to the office of President of the United States.
What I didn't think about was how it would feel to be an American today. I could not bring myself to vote for John Kerry yesterday, writing in 'Nobody' instead. A pretty lame form of protest, I admit. But I couldn't get with the liberal illusion that John Kerry would represent a better option for the world than Bush does.
This does nothing, however, to mitigate my disgust with the fact that some tens of millions of Americans voted for George Bush, enough so that if the election needed to be stolen, it was a doable thing. Enough for a 'mandate'. People who voted for Kerry may have been foolish or naive or both, but at least they were appalled by Bush. What about all the folk who think he's great?
I went outside my place of work today and a loud bunch of mostly young people were marching down the street, grieving really, wailing like Cassandra: 'This is NOT MY President!.' I could not agree more. People were shaking their heads and saying "my God what must the rest of the world think of us?." I would say that shame is appropriate today.
It is one thing to speculate, as I have, that 4 more years of this lurid wickedness would ensure that Americans never fall asleep at the wheel again, that the world would mobilize in resistance. It is quite another to contemplate what's waiting 'round the bend.
We know that the Bush administration is short on the 'healing' gene, and after all, Wall Street is rejoicing in the fact that the world is safe for four more years of shameless plunder, so there will be no attempts to limit casualties or minimize the million sorts of incivility and nastiness that will issue from the policies of this government. Maybe this is the final bottom of 1000 years of European stupidity, and its all uphill from here.
These thoughts don't touch the grief, though. How much will be destroyed, how many will suffer and die for the foolish ignorance of Americans and their European cronies.
When the next attack comes, at least Americans won't be asking why 'they' hate us so much. It will be obvious. The US government is in fact 'them', and probably in ways we couldn't begin to imagine. Without a care in the world for 'the American spirit,' or 'democracy' or 'family values,' and certainly none for the lives of our sons and daughters. All are equally expendable in this freakish vision of 'A New World Order.'
So no matter my cynicism about this whole election thing, it is a sad day. A fresh reminder.
rootsie on 11.03.04 @ 04:49 PM CST [
link]
Day of the Dead: The Haunting of the White House
by Cynthia McKinney and Catherine Austin Fitts
Something is rising from the ashes of September 11: the specter of questions that will haunt our country until answered.
Months after the release of the official 9/11 Commission Report - even as Congress moves to implement its proposals for a radical centralization of security forces - growing numbers of Americans are doubting their own government's account of what really happened on September 11, and how.
From the first, the Bush Administration resisted investigation and disclosure. Families of September 11 victims were forced to lobby the administration and Congress for a full and independent inquiry. They fought for 14 months, blocked every step of the way by the White House.
The political games reached such a point that the survivors of the worst attack ever on American soil were forced to hold a candlelight vigil in front of the White House. A vigil for the truth.
The White House finally assented in December 2002 to the establishment of an independent commission, under former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. Still, the administration pushed for a hand-picked panel, with a narrow focus on intelligence failures and recommendations.
The families demanded a full investigation, posing nearly 400 questions to the Kean Commission. The commissioners said they welcomed these queries. But their final report ignored most of the unanswered questions. Still posted on the website of the September 11 Family Steering Committee, these questions are a stark reminder of the Kean Commission's failures.
Now these same questions have been submitted to the New York Attorney General. Last week, the New York City office of Eliot Spitzer received a citizens' complaint to open a legal inquiry into crimes still unsolved, more than three years later.
So begins the haunting of the White House.
Driven by survivor families, independent researchers, journalists, and a growing number of ordinary citizens, an emergent "9/11 truth movement" has organized several public inquiries into the events of September 11 during the past year. As co-chairs of the first 9/11 Citizens' Commission, held in New York City in September, we were entrusted with answering questions the Kean Commission ignored.
What did we hear? We heard evidence of specific advance warnings about the 9/11 attacks from overseas. We heard about the spiking of FBI terrorism investigations and the lack of response during the attacks by high officials, including George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers.
We heard about air toxicity at Ground Zero still afflicting firefighters, first responders, and New York residents - and how, in the days after September 11, the White House intervened to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing a strong warning that the air in Lower Manhattan was unsafe to breathe.
We also learned that, although there was a stunning abandonment of standard procedure for hijackings and air defense on September 11, the 9/11 Commission Report fails to issue a call for official accountability. As Kean Commission members travel the country to promote the findings of their report, we know many people are standing up to ask them tough questions about these and many other open issues. But ordinary people lack the subpoena powers necessary for a full discovery of the facts. Citizens' investigations can only go so far.
Some of those who testified before us in New York therefore explored the case for a grand-jury investigation. Possible charges included criminal negligence, failure to perform official duties, criminal facilitation, liability for accessorial conduct, conspiracy and obstruction of justice by high-ranking U.S. government officials.
These charges, now raised in the petition to the New York State Attorney General, may sound extreme. But they reflect a growing concern within the public. A Zogby International poll of New York City residents last August showed that 49 percent believe some high officials knew about the attacks in advance and "consciously failed" to take preventive action. 41 percent of state residents overall shared that view.
A full 66 percent of New York City residents in the survey agreed the case of 9/11 should be reopened by Congress - or by Eliot Spitzer. A Congressional inquiry that respects the pressing nature of these questions is long overdue.
And so now we have no recourse but to stand vigil in front of Eliot Spitzer's office. Until the unanswered questions about 9/11 are laid to rest, by a truly independent investigation that does not declare legitimate avenues of inquiry off-limits, they will continue to haunt our country - and whoever sits in the White House next year.
fromthewilderness.comCynthia McKinney, a five-term U.S. Congresswoman from Georgia's fourth district from 1993 to 2003, won this year's primary as the Democratic nominee for her former seat and is favored in tomorrow's election. Catherine Austin Fitts is a former Assistant Secretary of Housing under President George Bush Sr. and a former managing director and board member of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc.
The questions of the Family Steering Committee are online at
http://www.911independentcommission.org/questions.htmlThe Complaint and Petition to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is online at
http://www.Justicefor911.org
rootsie on 11.03.04 @ 01:31 PM CST [
link]
Let the Disbedience (and Real Work) Begin
by Mickey Z.
Liberals can understand everything but the people who don't understand them."
--Lenny Bruce
"Crying won't help you...praying won't do you no good."
--"When the Levee Breaks," --Led Zeppelin
So...it seems the shorter of the two rich straight white male Yale-educated war criminals won, huh? The rancher beat the windsurfer. George W. Bush finally knows what it feels like to win a presidential election and thus will remain the public face of the American Empire for a little while longer.
Wait...shhhh. If you listen carefully you can hear all those protestors dusting off their Hitler mustaches, Bush/Dick jokes, and "regime change begins at home" posters. Four more years for them, too. (Then again it was four more years for everyone on the planet...no matter who won.)
And what of the luminary Left who made it all look as easy as A-B-B?
So much for any delusions we might have had about the influence of Chomsky, Zinn, McMoore, Springsteen, and the rest. More people DID come out to vote in 2004 than in 2000...to vote Republican, that is. Vote or die? Time to run another marathon, P. Diddy. This publicity stunt was a dud.
It's not too early to say: Never again (now there's a rallying cry if I've ever heard one). Never again should we endure "radical" support for anything that even looks like a Democrat..and that goes double for when Hillary runs against Rudy. (Keep your "small differences" and "ledge" to yourself in 2008...please.)
To everyone who did not lose their nerve, hit the panic button, or pull a flip-flop even JFK2 would never attempt, well, here we are.
Now what?
The Nuremberg Tribunal (1945-1946) proclaimed: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience ... Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
Mind you, this is the Nuremberg Tribunal I'm quoting...not an anarchist collective or a dusty Thoreau tome. This is an edict borne of a population that chose to remain silent in the face of its government's criminality. Lucy Gwin, editor of the essential disability rights zine Mouth, once told me she believed the greatest gift that could ever been given to the American people is the permission to disobey.
We should consider that permission long granted...
counterpunch.org
rootsie on 11.03.04 @ 01:18 PM CST [
link]
Global monitors find faults
by Thomas Crampton
MIAMI The global implications of the U.S. election are undeniable, but international monitors at a polling station in southern Florida said Tuesday that voting procedures being used in the extremely close contest fell short in many ways of the best global practices.
The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela, that the ballots were not so simple as in the Republic of Georgia and that no other country had such a complex national election system.
"To be honest, monitoring elections in Serbia a few months ago was much simpler," said Konrad Olszewski, an election observer stationed in Miami by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"They have one national election law and use the paper ballots I really prefer over any other system," Olszewski said.
Olszewski, whose democratic experience began with Poland's first free election in 1989, was one of 92 observers brought in by the Vienna-based organization, which was founded to maintain military security in Europe at the height of the cold war.
Two-member observer teams fanned out across 11 states and included citizens of 36 countries, ranging from Canada and Switzerland to Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia and Belarus.
Formation of the U.S. election mission came after the State Department issued a standard letter on June 9 inviting the group to monitor the election. All 55 states in the organization have, since 1990, agreed to invite observation teams to their national elections. The decision to observe a U.S. presidential election for the first time was made because of changes prompted by controversy over the U.S. elections in 2000, involving George W. Bush and Al Gore.
"Our presence is not meant as a criticism," said Ron Gould, Olszewski's team partner and the former assistant chief electoral officer for Elections Canada. "We mainly want to assess changes taken since the 2000 election."
Speaking as voting began at 7 a.m. in the Firefighter's Memorial Hall for precincts 401 and 446 of Miami-Dade County, the observers drew sharp distinctions between U.S.-style elections and those conducted elsewhere around the world.
"Unlike almost every other country in the world, there is not one national election today," said Gould, who has been involved in 90 election missions in 70 countries. "The decentralized system means that rules vary widely county by county, so there are actually more than 13,000 elections today."
Variations in local election law not only make it difficult for election monitors to generalize on a national basis, but also prohibit the observers from entering polling stations at all in some states and counties. Such laws mean that no election observers from the organization are in Ohio, a swing state fraught with battles over voter intimidation and other polling issues.
Full Article:iht.com
rootsie on 11.03.04 @ 10:10 AM CST [
link]
Tuesday, November 2nd
Oil Pipeline Blown Up in Iraq; Violence Kills at Least 12
by Edward Wong
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 2 - Insurgents blew up a northern oil export pipeline today, dealing a severe blow to the national economy, even as car bombs and gun battles across the country left at least 12 Iraqis dead, Iraqi officials said.
The sabotage of the northern oil pipeline forced a shutdown of crude oil exports to a port in Turkey, Iraqi officials said. The pipeline pumps out 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil and is the frequent target of sabotage. Hours after the explosion, firefighters were still battling a pipeline blaze near the city of Kirkuk, where pipelines run from oil fields west to the country's largest refinery in Bayji and north to Turkey.
The attacks on oil pipelines, both near Kirkuk and around Basra in the south, where the oil fields are much more extensive, have had a devastating effect on the national economy. An Iraqi oil official in Baghdad told The Associated Press that the amount of crude oil in storage at the port of Ceyhan in Turkey was down to four million barrels, half of the port's eight-million-barrel storage capacity. American and Iraqi officials are relying on steady oil exports to help revive the stagnant economy in a country where the unemployment rate hovers at 60 percent.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.02.04 @ 09:32 PM CST [
link]
Study: Sub - Saharan Africa Slides Deeper Into Poverty
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the poorest regions in the world, will slide deeper into poverty over the next decade despite a bold economic recovery plan, according to a survey released Tuesday.
The independent South African Institute of Race Relations' (SAIRR) annual report estimates that the region, ravaged by an HIV/AIDS pandemic, will account for half the world's poor by 2015 -- up from 27 percent in 1999.
``Despite the efforts of New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) and the African Union ... Africa will get significantly poorer during a time period that will see global poverty reduced by a third,'' the SAIRR said.
Nepad is an African initiative aimed at improving governance to help attract billions of dollars in aid and investment to the continent. Corruption, wars and poor governance have been blamed for the continent's inability to attract significant financial support from rich nations.
The study predicted that the number of people living on less than a dollar a day globally would fall to 810 million from 1.17 billion by 2015.
``In sub-Saharan Africa the opposite will happen. From 241 million people living on less than a dollar a day in 1990 that figure increased to 315 million in 1999 and is set to reach over 400 million by 2015,'' it said.
The study also found that spending on healthcare had declined by 4.8 percent in real terms in South Africa between 1996 and 2003, and that the mortality rate for children under five years of age had risen by 63.9 percent between 1998 and 2002.
The SAIRR said the proportion of tuberculosis cases recorded in the country that were also HIV positive related increased from 23.4 percent in 1995 to 62 percent in 2003.
South Africa has the highest caseload of HIV/AIDS in the world with one in nine people estimated to be infected with the virus that causes AIDS, according to government statistics.
Neighboring countries are facing similar or higher rates of infection.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.02.04 @ 09:27 PM CST [
link]
Doctors Say Arafat Improving, Rule Out Leukemia
CLAMART, France (Reuters) - French doctors said on Tuesday Yasser Arafat was responding to treatment and ruled out leukemia, though aides said the Palestinian leader could remain in a French military hospital for several more weeks.
Arafat was well enough to follow the U.S. presidential election and had taken calls from heads of state and senior Palestinian officials, said aides in the southwestern Paris suburb where the 75-year-old leader is being treated.
Initial tests ``confirmed the abnormal blood count, high white blood cell count and low platelet count and ruled out a diagnosis of leukemia,'' Palestinian envoy to Paris Leila Shahid said in a statement read to journalists.
The statement, drawn up by doctors at the Percy military hospital and approved by Arafat, was the first by the hospital since his admission and broadly confirmed aides' comments.
It said there had been a ``general improvement'' in his condition over his first three days in hospital, which allowed doctors to perform more tests.
``Pathology tests have shown an improvement in his white blood cell count and persistent abnormalities in some biological constants concerning the digestive function,'' the statement said.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.02.04 @ 09:23 PM CST [
link]
Thai Buddhist Beheaded in Southern Revenge Killing
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Suspected Muslim militants beheaded a Buddhist village leader in southern Thailand in revenge for the deaths of 85 protesters last week and left the head and trunk two miles apart, officials said on Tuesday.
Local people found the head of a 58-year-old deputy village chief in a fertilizer bag on a road in Narathiwat province with a hand-written note saying the beheading was in revenge for the deaths of Muslim protesters in army custody, officials said.
``A revenge for the innocents of Tak Bai district,'' an official quoted the note as saying in reference to the place where seven protesters were killed and 78 suffocated or were crushed in army trucks after their arrest.
The trunk of Ran Tulae was found on the same road two miles away an hour after the head was found, the official said.
Ran was the second Buddhist to be decapitated since violence erupted in Thailand's largely Muslim south in January. In May, a 67-year-old rubber tapper was beheaded at his plantation in Narathiwat.
The decapitation was the latest incident in 10 months of violence in the south near the Malaysian border in which nearly 450 people have been killed and the first murder linked directly to revenge for the deaths of the protesters.
Islamic leaders and analysts had predicted Muslim outrage would trigger reprisals.
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.02.04 @ 09:20 PM CST [
link]
Tiptoeing Leftward: Uruguayan Victor's Moment of Truth
by Larry Rohter
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Nov. 1 - After a 33-year struggle, the left has finally gained power here. But if the experience of a neighboring country like Brazil is any guide, Tabaré Vázquez and his Broad Front, narrow winners in the election on Sunday, are more likely to tinker around the edges of Uruguay's problems than carry out the profound social transformation they have been promising.
Dr. Vázquez's coalition is a rather ungainly beast, ranging from Communists to Christian Democrats, and he has sought to keep its various components happy with declarations that can be interpreted in many different ways. But his victory has awakened expectations of immediate change that are likely to be fanned by those on the left, which includes former Tupamaro guerrillas.
At the same time, Dr. Vázquez lacks the financial resources he needs to fulfill those promises, which in turn constrains his political maneuverability. So what will he turn out to be: an unpredictable populist like Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, or a fiscal disciplinarian like Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil?
"As they say at bullfights, this is the hour of truth," said Luis Eduardo González, a pollster and prominent political commentator. "There has been a lot of dubious rhetoric" about a social revolution, he said, but if Dr. Vázquez and other Front leaders knuckle under to the harsh realities facing this country of 3.5 million, "they will have to deny their own past history."
Full Article: nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.02.04 @ 09:17 PM CST [
link]
Sweep Expected in Venezuela Vote
by Juan Forero
BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Oct. 31 - Allies of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, were expected to sweep crucial posts in nationwide regional elections on Sunday.
Political analysts, pollsters and some opposition leaders have been predicting for weeks that the opposition would lose as many as 100 mayoral posts, including the one in the capital, Caracas, and as many as five governorships. Pro-Chávez governors already control 15 of 23 states, while opposition or independent mayors run 200 of 337 municipalities. The vote includes state assembly seats.
Full Article:nytimes.com
rootsie on 11.02.04 @ 09:13 PM CST [
link]
