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Local Actions and Campaigns: Good Anti-War Calendars: Next BAUAW Meeting: |
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Friday, September 10, 2004
YES ON PROP. N-BAUAW NEWSLETTER
Dear readers,
At our meeting last evening we resolved to throw our efforts
in the coming weeks before the elections, into the Proposition N
antiwar campaign in San Francisco.
Proposition N reads:
"It is the Policy of the people of the City and County of San
Francisco that: The Federal government should take immediate
steps to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and bring our troops
safely home now."
To this end we have already entered a ballot argument in support
of Prop. N at a cost of over $600.00 and have contributed an
additional $50.00 to the Prop. N campaign committee last evening.
However our funds are getting very low. We wish to publish material
so that we can cover the city with Yes on Prop N material.
Very few people even know about the initiative yet. We need to
change this and make it a central focus for the movement here.
There should be window signs in every window on every block
urging a YES on N vote.
We are a voluntary organization and have no outside funding
other than contributions from folks like you. We have no paid
staff or office so all the money we get is spent on antiwar
organizing efforts-posters, brochures, flyers, forums, teach-ins,
street meetings and mailings-and now we want to focus on
YES on N material and community organizing up until the
elections.
This means we need money for printed material and
for sound permits (at $60.00 each) for community street meetings,
etc., to get out the YES on N vote.
We are appealing to our readers to make a financial contribution to
help us in this work.
Please send a contribution to:
Bay Area United Against War
P.O. Box 318021
San Francisco, CA 94131-8021
If you can send an amount over $50.00 and wish to take a
tax deduction then make your check payable to:
Bay Area United Against War/NVM
P.O. Box 318021
San Francisco, CA 94131-8021
We want to ensure nothing less than a landslide victory for
Proposition N in San Francisco this year and we need your support!
Peace and solidarity,
BAUAW
P.S. We will be launching our redesigned web site soon with links
to all major antiwar groups. The site will include all the latest news
and information of actions and activity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Keep a lookout for the opening launch soon!
The next BAUAW meeting will be:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 7 p.m.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(BETWEEN 24TH & 25TH STREETS, S.F.)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) U.S. Hid Dozens of Iraqi
Prisoners, Investigators Say
By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 05:41 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6197512&src=eDialog/GetContent§ion=news
2) New Documents Reveal that USAID Provided $2.3 Million
to Venezuela's Opposition in 2003
By: Eva Golinger - Venezuelafoia.info
New York, September 8, 2004
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?newsno=1360
3) Ashcroft Strikes Out, Third Federal Court Rules
Federal Abortion Ban is Unconstitutional
and Cannot Be Enforced
Decision Echoes Rulings in San Francisco and New York
NEW YORK CITY
September 8, 2004
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/040908_Ashcroft.html
4) Gaza Emergency
"Barbara Lubin"
Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:12:16 -0700 (PDT)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) U.S. Hid Dozens of Iraqi
Prisoners, Investigators Say
By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 05:41 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6197512&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United
may have kept up to 100 "ghost
detainees" in Iraq off the books and
concealed from Red Cross observers, a far
higher number than previously reported,
an Army general told Congress on
Thursday.
Estimates were rough because the CIA has
withheld documents on concealed
detainees, Army generals who investigated
U.S. abuses of Iraqi prisoners told
lawmakers. Republican and Democratic
senators blasted the CIA, and called for it to
turn over the material.
At a Senate committee hearing, Gen. Paul
Kern, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel
Command, said he believed the number of
ghost detainees held in violation of
Geneva Convention protections was "in the
dozens to perhaps up to 100," far
surpassing the eight people identified
in an Army report.
Maj. Gen. George Fay, deputy commander
at the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security
Command, said he expected it may be
two dozen or more. "We were not able to get
documentation from the Central Intelligence
Agency to answer those types of
questions. So we really don't know the
volume," he said.
The Geneva Conventions require countries
to disclose information on prisoners to
the International Committee of the Red
Cross, which monitors their treatment.
The Senate and House of Representatives
Armed Services Committees held hearings
on an Army probe of the role of military
intelligence in abuses at Abu Ghraib prison
near Baghdad, as well as broader findings
on U.S. mistreatment of prisoners by an
independent panel headed by former Defense
Secretary James Schlesinger.
The reports depicted more widespread
abuses than the acts of a handful of soldiers
accused when the images of horrific
sexual and physical humiliation and torture at
the Abu Ghraib prison first came to light last spring.
CIA CRITICIZED
While the panel led by Schlesinger blamed
top Pentagon civilian and military leaders
for contributing to a climate that led to
the sadistic treatment of detainees,
Schlesinger said U.S. forces in Iraq had
behaved far better overall than in previous
wars, including World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
He said the 66 cases of confirmed
abuse, although higher than the Bush
administration first disclosed, "is a s
mall number -- comparing quite well ... with
previous wars."
Senators called the CIA's failure so far
to turn over information sought by Army
investigators unacceptable.
"The situation with the CIA and ghost
soldiers is beginning to look like a bad movie,"
said Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican.
"I think that this is something that needs
to be asked ... of the incoming director of
the CIA," McCain said, referring to Rep.
Porter Goss, a Florida Republican tapped by
President Bush to run the CIA.
The Senate Intelligence Committee
scheduled a confirmation hearing for Goss on
Sept. 14.
Warner said the Intelligence Committee
also was pressing the CIA for information,
and said the Armed Services Committee
would more closely examine the ghost
detainees issue.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the
agency's inspector general was conducting
"a comprehensive review of the agency's
involvement in detention and interrogation
activities," and the agency was "determined
to examine thoroughly any allegations of
abuse."
The findings of the Army investigation,
headed by Fay and Lt. Gen. Anthony Jones
and released in August, listed 44 instances
of prisoner abuse, 13 directly involving
interrogations.
It said 27 military intelligence personnel --
23 soldiers and four contractors --
directly took part in abuse or induced
others to do so, while another eight -- six
soldiers and two contractors -- failed to
report abuse they had witnessed. All have
been recommended for possible criminal charges.
Lawmakers said those higher up the chain
of command also must be held
accountable for failing in key duties.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina
Republican, worried that the "only people that
are court-martialed here are privates and
sergeants ... Dereliction of duty will be
redefined one way or the other after this
investigation." (Additional reporting by Will
Dunham, Jim Wolf and Tabassum Zakaria)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) New Documents Reveal that USAID Provided $2.3 Million
to Venezuela's Opposition in 2003
By: Eva Golinger - Venezuelafoia.info
New York, September 8, 2004
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?newsno=1360
New York, September 8, 2004-
Documents recently obtained from the U.S.
Department of State under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by
www.venezuelafoia.info
than $5 million annually during the
past two years was given by the United
States Agency for International Development
(USAID) to various organizations in Venezuela,
many of which are aligned with the
opposition. One of the
key groups collaborating with
USAID is Súmate, the organization that promoted the
recall referendum campaign against
President Hugo Chávez and is now rejecting the
results that have been certified by the
most credible international observers and even
by the U.S. government. Súmate,
despite its numerous undemocratic positions and
actions, has also been a recipient of
U.S. government funds from the National
Endowment for Democracy in 2003.
However, these new documents
obtained by Venezuelafoia.info have all been
censored by the U.S. Government
despite the use of the FOIA, which intends to
ensure transparency in U.S. Government
operations. The Department of State has
withheld the names of the organizations
receiving financing from USAID by
misapplying a FOIA exemption that is
intended to protect "personnel and medical
files" of individuals. Such clear censorship
indicates that USAID and the U.S.
Government clearly have something to hide
regarding their collaborations with the
Venezuelan opposition. Despite USAID's
ongoing crusade to encourage transparency
in foreign governments, the withholding
of information that does not fall under any
available exemptions clearly demonstrates
a double standard applied by the U.S.
Government in this case.
USAID is financed by the U.S. Congress and
is controlled by the Department of State.
Founded by President John F. Kennedy in
1961, USAID was established as a fund
dedicated to humanitarian intervention around
the world. Despite Kennedy's humane
intentions, USAID has more recently been
used, in many instances, as a mechanism to
promote the interests of the U.S. in strategically
important countries around the
world. In the case of Venezuela, USAID
maintains a private contractor in Caracas
monitoring and facilitating its projects
and funds and also has a local operating
center, the Office of Transition Initiatives
(OTI) that was established in 2002, after the
failed coup d'etat against President Chávez.
The private contractor, Development
Alternatives, inc. (DAI), manages and
supervises grants approved by USAID to
Venezuelan organizations.
Under a program entitled Venezuela: Initiative
to Build Confidence, DAI has awarded
67 grants to Venezuelan organizations in
various sectors and areas of interest. These
grants equal $2.3 million, just during 2003.
In total, DAI 's program in Venezuela
counts on $10,000,000 in funding for the
period August 2002 through August 2004
-$5 million annually to "focus on common
goals for the future of Venezuela".
According to the documents obtained
under FOIA and DAI's project description
(available on www.dai.com/about_dai/about_fs.htm
none of the project grants or programs
have been in collaboration with the
Venezuelan government.
In fact, many of the same recipients of U.S.
government funds through the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) have
also received USAID funding through DAI.
Despite the illegal withholding of names
on the USAID-DAI grants, one document
apparently was skipped, at least in part.
The name, Súmate appears on a grant
intended to encourage "electoral participation"
in the recall referendum, citing
$84,840 as the total grant amount.
Combined with the NED grant of $53,400 given to
Súmate in 2003-2004, the organization
that is now crying fraud about the recall
referendum against President Chávez, the
results of which have been recognized as
absolutely credible by the Carter Center
and the U.S. Department of State, has
received, at minimum, more than $200,000
in just one year for promoting its
attempts to remove Venezuela's President
from office.
Other recipients of USAID funds through
DAI which are apparent in the censored
documents include the organization
Liderazgo y Visión for its project, "Un Sueño para
Venezuela", ("A Dream for Venezuela") a
project created in 2002-2003 with the intent
of offering an alternative vision and agenda
for those opposing President Chávez's
administration. Liderazgo y Visión has also
been a recipient of NED funds over the
past few years. More than 6 organizations
have been given funding for political and
social formation and development in Petare,
a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of
Caracas, in the Miranda State. The work in
Petare and the more than $200,000 that
have been funneled into that neighborhood
in the past year, appear to have been
aimed at converting a community that was
traditionally pro-Chávez, into one that
supports the opposition. The recall referendum
results from August 15, 2004 show
the opposition gaining substantial numbers
in Petare, and Miranda state was one of
only two states in the entire nation that
gave victory to the opposition in the
referendum.
One grant from USAID/DAI focuses on
the creation of radio and television
commercials during the December 2002-
February 2003 strike imposed by the
opposition, during which the private media
dedicated its airwaves 24-7 to opposition
propaganda. One of the most striking aspects
of the media's dedication to the strike
was the use of anti-Chávez commercials to
indoctrinate viewers' opinions on
Venezuela's political situation. The USAID/DAI
grant shows funding originating from
the U.S. government for some of these
anti-Chávez commercials, collaborating with
former Fedecámaras President Carlos
Fernandez, who was one of the leaders of the
strike, in the project.
These new documents from USAID provide
evidence for a clear focus on two major
projects in Venezuela: The Recall Referendum
and the Formation of a National
Agenda that would serve as a transitional
government post-Chávez (assuming the
referendum was won by the opposition).
The documents are available for public
viewing on www.venezuelafoia.info
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Ashcroft Strikes Out, Third Federal Court Rules
Federal Abortion Ban is Unconstitutional
and Cannot Be Enforced
Decision Echoes Rulings in San Francisco and New York
NEW YORK CITY
September 8, 2004
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/040908_Ashcroft.html
NEW YORK CITY - In the third of three
federal court rulings, a Nebraska judge has
struck down the federal abortion ban passed
by Congress last October and signed by
President Bush. Planned Parenthood
Federation of America (PPFA) applauded the
ruling issued today in Carhart v. Ashcroft .
"Today's ruling should be a cease and desist
order for Attorney General Ashcroft and
his taxpayer-funded anti-choice pursuits,"
PPFA President Gloria Feldt said. "Like the
San Francisco and New York courts, the
Nebraska court recognized that women's
health, medical privacy and the U.S.
Constitution trump anti-choice ideology. Women
and doctors should make private, personal
health care decisions - not John Ashcroft
or any other politician."
On June 1, 2004, in Planned Parenthood
Federation of America v. Ashcroft, a federal
court in northern California struck down
the federal abortion ban. In doing so, the
federal court ruled that Attorney General
Ashcroft cannot enforce the federal abortion
ban against any Planned Parenthood affiliate,
or its "officers, agents, servants,
employees, [or] contractors," whether the
abortion is performed in a facility owned or
operated by Planned Parenthood or elsewhere.
On August 26, the federal court in New
York City struck down the ban again in
National Abortion Federation (NAF) v. Ashcroft .
All three cases included the overwhelming
testimony of highly respected ob/gyns
from around the country who testified that
this law would ban abortions as early as
12 to 15 weeks in pregnancy, abortions
they say are safe and among the best for
women's health. The ban would further fail
to safeguard women because it does not
contain an exception to protect their health.
The American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists (ACOG) and many other
major medical organizations join PPFA in
opposing the ban.
In an attempted sweeping invasion of
medical privacy earlier this year, Attorney
General John Ashcroft tried unsuccessfully
to obtain thousands of confidential
medical records of women who obtained
abortions. Among the records subpoenaed
were those from Planned Parenthood health
centers nationwide, but PPFA successfully
blocked the effort. Ashcroft's calculated
fishing expedition was in response to the
effort to block the federal abortion ban.
On March 29, 2003, three federal courts
began hearing legal challenges to the
"Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003," a
new law passed by Congress in October
2003 and signed by President Bush in
November 2003. The lawsuits were brought by
PPFA on behalf of Planned Parenthood
Golden Gate, the affiliate in San Francisco, and
the physicians, staff and patients of
Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide; the
American Civil Liberties Union and Wilmer
Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP on
behalf of the National Abortion Federation
and other doctors; and the Center for
Reproductive Rights (CRR) on behalf of
Dr. LeRoy Carhart and other doctors.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
is the nation's largest and most trusted
voluntary reproductive health organization.
We believe that everyone has the right to
choose when or whether to have a child -
and that every child should be wanted and
loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate
nearly 850 health centers nationwide,
providing medical services and sexuality
education for millions of women, men, and
teenagers each year.
Contact:
Colleen McCabe (212) 261-4729
Joel Lawson (202) 973-4880
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Gaza Emergency
"Barbara Lubin"
Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:12:16 -0700 (PDT)
All of us at the Middle East Children's Alliance are concerned, as I'm
sure you are, about the worsening situation in Palestine and
particularly the latest news coming out of northern Gaza. I, MECA's executi=
ve
director, spoke with a friend and doctor in Gaza City this morning and was =
told that 19 Palestinians had been admitted into the Al-Awda hospital
last night with serious injuries. The Israeli army has stated that this
an open ended invasion. We fear that this will become another operation
like those in Rafah and Beit Hanoun, leaving many more Palestinians
killed, injured, and homeless.
We felt we had to send out a message to our friends and supporters to
update you on the tragedies being paid for by our US tax dollars.
Please find below a number of excerpts with the links to full articles. We =
hope you will pass on this information to your friends and families.
Thank you,
Middle East Children's Alliance
901 Parker Street
Berkeley, California 94710
United States
No US Aid to Israel. End the Occupation.
Support Divestment and Sanctions.
From the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR):
http://www.pchrgaza.org/
files/PressR/English/2004/110-2004.htm "At the time of
writing, 4 Palestinians,
including a 10 year old child,
have been killed and 53 others, mostly children, have been injured by
the Israeli gunfire and shelling. PCHR's investigations strongly
indicate that Israeli troops used excessive lethal force against unarmed
Palestinian civilians, without adhering to the principles of proportionalit=
y
and distinction."
"...At approximately 12:00, Israeli troops indiscriminately shelled
[Jabalya] camp. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child,
were killed."
"PCHR reminds the international community of Israeli violations of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War of 1949 (Fourth Geneva Convention), particularly article 33
which prohibits collective punishment, and article 147 which considers
"extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by
military necessity, and carried out unlawfully and wantonly" a grave
breach that may amount, in some circumstances, to be a war crime under
article 85-3 of Protocol 1 Additional to the Geneva Conventions."
10-Year Old Girl Hit in UNRWA Classroom by Israeli Gunfire
UNRWA Press Release- September 7 http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/
6b9f5e29011585b585256f08004f231b?OpenDocument At 07:45 10-year old Raghda
Adnan Al-Assar was struck in the head by
Israeli fire while sitting at her desk in UNRWA's Elementary C Girl's
School in Khan Younis camp. She is now in the European
Gaza Hospital where
she has undergone major surgery.
UNRWA's Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: "The kind of live
firing into refugee camps that is so indiscriminate that it makes classroom=
s
dangerous for 10-year old children is totally unacceptable. UNRWA will
protest this violation of the sanctity of its school in the strongest
possible terms to the Israeli authorities."
Story about the extrajudicial assassination of a Palestinian at an
internet café in Jericho. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-09/09/
content_1962652.htm "A special Israeli undercover unit stormed
the West Bank city of Jericho Wednesday night and assassinated a
Palestinian member of Al Aqsa
martyrs brigades, Palestinian security sources said on Thursday.
"...Witnesses confirmed that the soldiers opened intensive gunfire
directly on Abedeia who tried to pull out from the café.
"Three of the café visitors were wounded by Israeli soldiers
who opened fire haphazardly in the café, added the witnesses."
What you can do:
-Invite MECA to speak to your community group, school, church,
synagogue, mosque, union, etc.
-Send a contribution to MECA for emergency medical aid
Donate online: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=1171
Checks can
be mailed to:
901 Parker Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
-Email this message to as many people as possible
-Tell your US senators and congress representatives to stop aid to
Israel www.congress.org
At our meeting last evening we resolved to throw our efforts
in the coming weeks before the elections, into the Proposition N
antiwar campaign in San Francisco.
Proposition N reads:
"It is the Policy of the people of the City and County of San
Francisco that: The Federal government should take immediate
steps to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and bring our troops
safely home now."
To this end we have already entered a ballot argument in support
of Prop. N at a cost of over $600.00 and have contributed an
additional $50.00 to the Prop. N campaign committee last evening.
However our funds are getting very low. We wish to publish material
so that we can cover the city with Yes on Prop N material.
Very few people even know about the initiative yet. We need to
change this and make it a central focus for the movement here.
There should be window signs in every window on every block
urging a YES on N vote.
We are a voluntary organization and have no outside funding
other than contributions from folks like you. We have no paid
staff or office so all the money we get is spent on antiwar
organizing efforts-posters, brochures, flyers, forums, teach-ins,
street meetings and mailings-and now we want to focus on
YES on N material and community organizing up until the
elections.
This means we need money for printed material and
for sound permits (at $60.00 each) for community street meetings,
etc., to get out the YES on N vote.
We are appealing to our readers to make a financial contribution to
help us in this work.
Please send a contribution to:
Bay Area United Against War
P.O. Box 318021
San Francisco, CA 94131-8021
If you can send an amount over $50.00 and wish to take a
tax deduction then make your check payable to:
Bay Area United Against War/NVM
P.O. Box 318021
San Francisco, CA 94131-8021
We want to ensure nothing less than a landslide victory for
Proposition N in San Francisco this year and we need your support!
Peace and solidarity,
BAUAW
P.S. We will be launching our redesigned web site soon with links
to all major antiwar groups. The site will include all the latest news
and information of actions and activity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Keep a lookout for the opening launch soon!
The next BAUAW meeting will be:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 7 p.m.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(BETWEEN 24TH & 25TH STREETS, S.F.)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) U.S. Hid Dozens of Iraqi
Prisoners, Investigators Say
By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 05:41 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6197512&src=eDialog/GetContent§ion=news
2) New Documents Reveal that USAID Provided $2.3 Million
to Venezuela's Opposition in 2003
By: Eva Golinger - Venezuelafoia.info
New York, September 8, 2004
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?newsno=1360
3) Ashcroft Strikes Out, Third Federal Court Rules
Federal Abortion Ban is Unconstitutional
and Cannot Be Enforced
Decision Echoes Rulings in San Francisco and New York
NEW YORK CITY
September 8, 2004
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/040908_Ashcroft.html
4) Gaza Emergency
"Barbara Lubin"
Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:12:16 -0700 (PDT)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) U.S. Hid Dozens of Iraqi
Prisoners, Investigators Say
By Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 05:41 PM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6197512&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United
may have kept up to 100 "ghost
detainees" in Iraq off the books and
concealed from Red Cross observers, a far
higher number than previously reported,
an Army general told Congress on
Thursday.
Estimates were rough because the CIA has
withheld documents on concealed
detainees, Army generals who investigated
U.S. abuses of Iraqi prisoners told
lawmakers. Republican and Democratic
senators blasted the CIA, and called for it to
turn over the material.
At a Senate committee hearing, Gen. Paul
Kern, commander of the U.S. Army Materiel
Command, said he believed the number of
ghost detainees held in violation of
Geneva Convention protections was "in the
dozens to perhaps up to 100," far
surpassing the eight people identified
in an Army report.
Maj. Gen. George Fay, deputy commander
at the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security
Command, said he expected it may be
two dozen or more. "We were not able to get
documentation from the Central Intelligence
Agency to answer those types of
questions. So we really don't know the
volume," he said.
The Geneva Conventions require countries
to disclose information on prisoners to
the International Committee of the Red
Cross, which monitors their treatment.
The Senate and House of Representatives
Armed Services Committees held hearings
on an Army probe of the role of military
intelligence in abuses at Abu Ghraib prison
near Baghdad, as well as broader findings
on U.S. mistreatment of prisoners by an
independent panel headed by former Defense
Secretary James Schlesinger.
The reports depicted more widespread
abuses than the acts of a handful of soldiers
accused when the images of horrific
sexual and physical humiliation and torture at
the Abu Ghraib prison first came to light last spring.
CIA CRITICIZED
While the panel led by Schlesinger blamed
top Pentagon civilian and military leaders
for contributing to a climate that led to
the sadistic treatment of detainees,
Schlesinger said U.S. forces in Iraq had
behaved far better overall than in previous
wars, including World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
He said the 66 cases of confirmed
abuse, although higher than the Bush
administration first disclosed, "is a s
mall number -- comparing quite well ... with
previous wars."
Senators called the CIA's failure so far
to turn over information sought by Army
investigators unacceptable.
"The situation with the CIA and ghost
soldiers is beginning to look like a bad movie,"
said Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican.
"I think that this is something that needs
to be asked ... of the incoming director of
the CIA," McCain said, referring to Rep.
Porter Goss, a Florida Republican tapped by
President Bush to run the CIA.
The Senate Intelligence Committee
scheduled a confirmation hearing for Goss on
Sept. 14.
Warner said the Intelligence Committee
also was pressing the CIA for information,
and said the Armed Services Committee
would more closely examine the ghost
detainees issue.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the
agency's inspector general was conducting
"a comprehensive review of the agency's
involvement in detention and interrogation
activities," and the agency was "determined
to examine thoroughly any allegations of
abuse."
The findings of the Army investigation,
headed by Fay and Lt. Gen. Anthony Jones
and released in August, listed 44 instances
of prisoner abuse, 13 directly involving
interrogations.
It said 27 military intelligence personnel --
23 soldiers and four contractors --
directly took part in abuse or induced
others to do so, while another eight -- six
soldiers and two contractors -- failed to
report abuse they had witnessed. All have
been recommended for possible criminal charges.
Lawmakers said those higher up the chain
of command also must be held
accountable for failing in key duties.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina
Republican, worried that the "only people that
are court-martialed here are privates and
sergeants ... Dereliction of duty will be
redefined one way or the other after this
investigation." (Additional reporting by Will
Dunham, Jim Wolf and Tabassum Zakaria)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) New Documents Reveal that USAID Provided $2.3 Million
to Venezuela's Opposition in 2003
By: Eva Golinger - Venezuelafoia.info
New York, September 8, 2004
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/print.php?newsno=1360
New York, September 8, 2004-
Documents recently obtained from the U.S.
Department of State under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by
www.venezuelafoia.info
than $5 million annually during the
past two years was given by the United
States Agency for International Development
(USAID) to various organizations in Venezuela,
many of which are aligned with the
opposition. One of the
key groups collaborating with
USAID is Súmate, the organization that promoted the
recall referendum campaign against
President Hugo Chávez and is now rejecting the
results that have been certified by the
most credible international observers and even
by the U.S. government. Súmate,
despite its numerous undemocratic positions and
actions, has also been a recipient of
U.S. government funds from the National
Endowment for Democracy in 2003.
However, these new documents
obtained by Venezuelafoia.info have all been
censored by the U.S. Government
despite the use of the FOIA, which intends to
ensure transparency in U.S. Government
operations. The Department of State has
withheld the names of the organizations
receiving financing from USAID by
misapplying a FOIA exemption that is
intended to protect "personnel and medical
files" of individuals. Such clear censorship
indicates that USAID and the U.S.
Government clearly have something to hide
regarding their collaborations with the
Venezuelan opposition. Despite USAID's
ongoing crusade to encourage transparency
in foreign governments, the withholding
of information that does not fall under any
available exemptions clearly demonstrates
a double standard applied by the U.S.
Government in this case.
USAID is financed by the U.S. Congress and
is controlled by the Department of State.
Founded by President John F. Kennedy in
1961, USAID was established as a fund
dedicated to humanitarian intervention around
the world. Despite Kennedy's humane
intentions, USAID has more recently been
used, in many instances, as a mechanism to
promote the interests of the U.S. in strategically
important countries around the
world. In the case of Venezuela, USAID
maintains a private contractor in Caracas
monitoring and facilitating its projects
and funds and also has a local operating
center, the Office of Transition Initiatives
(OTI) that was established in 2002, after the
failed coup d'etat against President Chávez.
The private contractor, Development
Alternatives, inc. (DAI), manages and
supervises grants approved by USAID to
Venezuelan organizations.
Under a program entitled Venezuela: Initiative
to Build Confidence, DAI has awarded
67 grants to Venezuelan organizations in
various sectors and areas of interest. These
grants equal $2.3 million, just during 2003.
In total, DAI 's program in Venezuela
counts on $10,000,000 in funding for the
period August 2002 through August 2004
-$5 million annually to "focus on common
goals for the future of Venezuela".
According to the documents obtained
under FOIA and DAI's project description
(available on www.dai.com/about_dai/about_fs.htm
none of the project grants or programs
have been in collaboration with the
Venezuelan government.
In fact, many of the same recipients of U.S.
government funds through the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) have
also received USAID funding through DAI.
Despite the illegal withholding of names
on the USAID-DAI grants, one document
apparently was skipped, at least in part.
The name, Súmate appears on a grant
intended to encourage "electoral participation"
in the recall referendum, citing
$84,840 as the total grant amount.
Combined with the NED grant of $53,400 given to
Súmate in 2003-2004, the organization
that is now crying fraud about the recall
referendum against President Chávez, the
results of which have been recognized as
absolutely credible by the Carter Center
and the U.S. Department of State, has
received, at minimum, more than $200,000
in just one year for promoting its
attempts to remove Venezuela's President
from office.
Other recipients of USAID funds through
DAI which are apparent in the censored
documents include the organization
Liderazgo y Visión for its project, "Un Sueño para
Venezuela", ("A Dream for Venezuela") a
project created in 2002-2003 with the intent
of offering an alternative vision and agenda
for those opposing President Chávez's
administration. Liderazgo y Visión has also
been a recipient of NED funds over the
past few years. More than 6 organizations
have been given funding for political and
social formation and development in Petare,
a poor neighborhood in the outskirts of
Caracas, in the Miranda State. The work in
Petare and the more than $200,000 that
have been funneled into that neighborhood
in the past year, appear to have been
aimed at converting a community that was
traditionally pro-Chávez, into one that
supports the opposition. The recall referendum
results from August 15, 2004 show
the opposition gaining substantial numbers
in Petare, and Miranda state was one of
only two states in the entire nation that
gave victory to the opposition in the
referendum.
One grant from USAID/DAI focuses on
the creation of radio and television
commercials during the December 2002-
February 2003 strike imposed by the
opposition, during which the private media
dedicated its airwaves 24-7 to opposition
propaganda. One of the most striking aspects
of the media's dedication to the strike
was the use of anti-Chávez commercials to
indoctrinate viewers' opinions on
Venezuela's political situation. The USAID/DAI
grant shows funding originating from
the U.S. government for some of these
anti-Chávez commercials, collaborating with
former Fedecámaras President Carlos
Fernandez, who was one of the leaders of the
strike, in the project.
These new documents from USAID provide
evidence for a clear focus on two major
projects in Venezuela: The Recall Referendum
and the Formation of a National
Agenda that would serve as a transitional
government post-Chávez (assuming the
referendum was won by the opposition).
The documents are available for public
viewing on www.venezuelafoia.info
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Ashcroft Strikes Out, Third Federal Court Rules
Federal Abortion Ban is Unconstitutional
and Cannot Be Enforced
Decision Echoes Rulings in San Francisco and New York
NEW YORK CITY
September 8, 2004
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about/pr/040908_Ashcroft.html
NEW YORK CITY - In the third of three
federal court rulings, a Nebraska judge has
struck down the federal abortion ban passed
by Congress last October and signed by
President Bush. Planned Parenthood
Federation of America (PPFA) applauded the
ruling issued today in Carhart v. Ashcroft .
"Today's ruling should be a cease and desist
order for Attorney General Ashcroft and
his taxpayer-funded anti-choice pursuits,"
PPFA President Gloria Feldt said. "Like the
San Francisco and New York courts, the
Nebraska court recognized that women's
health, medical privacy and the U.S.
Constitution trump anti-choice ideology. Women
and doctors should make private, personal
health care decisions - not John Ashcroft
or any other politician."
On June 1, 2004, in Planned Parenthood
Federation of America v. Ashcroft, a federal
court in northern California struck down
the federal abortion ban. In doing so, the
federal court ruled that Attorney General
Ashcroft cannot enforce the federal abortion
ban against any Planned Parenthood affiliate,
or its "officers, agents, servants,
employees, [or] contractors," whether the
abortion is performed in a facility owned or
operated by Planned Parenthood or elsewhere.
On August 26, the federal court in New
York City struck down the ban again in
National Abortion Federation (NAF) v. Ashcroft .
All three cases included the overwhelming
testimony of highly respected ob/gyns
from around the country who testified that
this law would ban abortions as early as
12 to 15 weeks in pregnancy, abortions
they say are safe and among the best for
women's health. The ban would further fail
to safeguard women because it does not
contain an exception to protect their health.
The American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists (ACOG) and many other
major medical organizations join PPFA in
opposing the ban.
In an attempted sweeping invasion of
medical privacy earlier this year, Attorney
General John Ashcroft tried unsuccessfully
to obtain thousands of confidential
medical records of women who obtained
abortions. Among the records subpoenaed
were those from Planned Parenthood health
centers nationwide, but PPFA successfully
blocked the effort. Ashcroft's calculated
fishing expedition was in response to the
effort to block the federal abortion ban.
On March 29, 2003, three federal courts
began hearing legal challenges to the
"Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003," a
new law passed by Congress in October
2003 and signed by President Bush in
November 2003. The lawsuits were brought by
PPFA on behalf of Planned Parenthood
Golden Gate, the affiliate in San Francisco, and
the physicians, staff and patients of
Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide; the
American Civil Liberties Union and Wilmer
Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP on
behalf of the National Abortion Federation
and other doctors; and the Center for
Reproductive Rights (CRR) on behalf of
Dr. LeRoy Carhart and other doctors.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
is the nation's largest and most trusted
voluntary reproductive health organization.
We believe that everyone has the right to
choose when or whether to have a child -
and that every child should be wanted and
loved. Planned Parenthood affiliates operate
nearly 850 health centers nationwide,
providing medical services and sexuality
education for millions of women, men, and
teenagers each year.
Contact:
Colleen McCabe (212) 261-4729
Joel Lawson (202) 973-4880
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Gaza Emergency
"Barbara Lubin"
Thu, 9 Sep 2004 16:12:16 -0700 (PDT)
All of us at the Middle East Children's Alliance are concerned, as I'm
sure you are, about the worsening situation in Palestine and
particularly the latest news coming out of northern Gaza. I, MECA's executi=
ve
director, spoke with a friend and doctor in Gaza City this morning and was =
told that 19 Palestinians had been admitted into the Al-Awda hospital
last night with serious injuries. The Israeli army has stated that this
an open ended invasion. We fear that this will become another operation
like those in Rafah and Beit Hanoun, leaving many more Palestinians
killed, injured, and homeless.
We felt we had to send out a message to our friends and supporters to
update you on the tragedies being paid for by our US tax dollars.
Please find below a number of excerpts with the links to full articles. We =
hope you will pass on this information to your friends and families.
Thank you,
Middle East Children's Alliance
901 Parker Street
Berkeley, California 94710
United States
No US Aid to Israel. End the Occupation.
Support Divestment and Sanctions.
From the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR):
http://www.pchrgaza.org/
files/PressR/English/2004/110-2004.htm "At the time of
writing, 4 Palestinians,
including a 10 year old child,
have been killed and 53 others, mostly children, have been injured by
the Israeli gunfire and shelling. PCHR's investigations strongly
indicate that Israeli troops used excessive lethal force against unarmed
Palestinian civilians, without adhering to the principles of proportionalit=
y
and distinction."
"...At approximately 12:00, Israeli troops indiscriminately shelled
[Jabalya] camp. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child,
were killed."
"PCHR reminds the international community of Israeli violations of the
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War of 1949 (Fourth Geneva Convention), particularly article 33
which prohibits collective punishment, and article 147 which considers
"extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by
military necessity, and carried out unlawfully and wantonly" a grave
breach that may amount, in some circumstances, to be a war crime under
article 85-3 of Protocol 1 Additional to the Geneva Conventions."
10-Year Old Girl Hit in UNRWA Classroom by Israeli Gunfire
UNRWA Press Release- September 7 http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/
6b9f5e29011585b585256f08004f231b?OpenDocument At 07:45 10-year old Raghda
Adnan Al-Assar was struck in the head by
Israeli fire while sitting at her desk in UNRWA's Elementary C Girl's
School in Khan Younis camp. She is now in the European
Gaza Hospital where
she has undergone major surgery.
UNRWA's Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: "The kind of live
firing into refugee camps that is so indiscriminate that it makes classroom=
s
dangerous for 10-year old children is totally unacceptable. UNRWA will
protest this violation of the sanctity of its school in the strongest
possible terms to the Israeli authorities."
Story about the extrajudicial assassination of a Palestinian at an
internet café in Jericho. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-09/09/
content_1962652.htm "A special Israeli undercover unit stormed
the West Bank city of Jericho Wednesday night and assassinated a
Palestinian member of Al Aqsa
martyrs brigades, Palestinian security sources said on Thursday.
"...Witnesses confirmed that the soldiers opened intensive gunfire
directly on Abedeia who tried to pull out from the café.
"Three of the café visitors were wounded by Israeli soldiers
who opened fire haphazardly in the café, added the witnesses."
What you can do:
-Invite MECA to speak to your community group, school, church,
synagogue, mosque, union, etc.
-Send a contribution to MECA for emergency medical aid
Donate online: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=1171
Checks can
be mailed to:
901 Parker Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
-Email this message to as many people as possible
-Tell your US senators and congress representatives to stop aid to
Israel www.congress.org
Thursday, September 09, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2004
BAUAW MEETING TONIGHT
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. 7 PM
1380 VALENCIA STREET
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) FW: Press conference and vigil
From: Howard Wallace
Wed, 8 Sep 2004
2) For 1,000 Troops, There Is No Going Home
By MONICA DAVEY
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/national/09deaths.html?hp
3) U.S. Forces on Offensive in Iraq Rebel Strongholds
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:28 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193417&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
4) Israel Kills 4, Including 9-Year-Old, in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:43 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193616&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
5) Family 'Thanks' Bush for Death of Son
WKYC-TV
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004Z.shtml
6) USA: Chevron donates to Schwarzenegger, gets removal of
restrictions on oil refineries in California
by Tom Chorneau , Associated Press
Friday, September 03, 2004 - SACRAMENTO
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11519
7) The Beslan hostage tragedy:
the lies of the Putin government and its media
By Vladimir Volkov
8 September 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/puti-s08.shtml
8) Protests Powered by Cellphone
By PATRICK DI JUSTO
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/technology/circuits/09mobb.html
9) Ex-Banking Star Given 18 Months for Obstruction
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/business/09star.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) FW: Press conference and vigil
From: Howard Wallace
Wed, 8 Sep 2004
Dear Friends,
Please help us spread the word about the vigil below to
commemorate the over 1,000 US soldiers who died in Iraq. If any of you
or someone from your organizations would like to speak, please do so.
Thanks so much,
Medea Benjamin
Code Pink and Global Exchange
URGENT CALL TO ACTION:
JOIN US AT A VIGIL FOR THE 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF
THOUSANDS IRAQIS KILLED IN IRAQ
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 5-7PM at UN PLAZA (Market St
between 7th and Hyde), San Francisco
For more information: Nancy Mancias, Code Pink,
415-342-6409 or foonan@jps.net
Over 1,000 young Americans have now died in Iraq, over
7,000 are maimed, and many thousands of Iraqis have died.
The President won't mourn our dead, but we will. Please
join Code Pink, Bring Our Troops Home Now Committee,
Mother Speak, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans For
Peace, Not in Our Name, and Global Exchange to say: Enough
to Endless War and Suffering, Bring Them Home NOW.
There will be dozens such vigils happening all over the
country, where we will remember the 1,000 US servicemen
and women who have died in Iraq. We will remember the tens
of thousands of Iraqis--civilians and combatants, men and
women, children, the elderly--who have been killed. We
will remember that these deaths did not have to happen.
We know that the current administration has plunged us
into this unjust and unjustifiable war, driven by greed
for oil and lust for power and fueled by lie after lie.
We cannot remain silent. We want an end to the occupation
so the Iraqi people can determine their own destiny free
from foreign interference and control.
We want our troops brought home now. Don't ask these men
and women to continue to die for politicians' mistakes and
lies. And we want them treated right when they return.
Give them the benefits there were promised and give them
the help they will need to heal their bodies, their minds
and their spirits.
We are here to remember, to honor and to mourn. We will
not forget!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) For 1,000 Troops, There Is No Going Home
By MONICA DAVEY
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/national/09deaths.html?hp
Dixie Codner had a question for the marines who came down her gravel
road, past the rows of corn and alfalfa, to tell her that her 19-year-old
son, Kyle, had been killed in Iraq. Should she bring them the dress blues, =
still pressed and hanging neatly in his closet, for his funeral?
No need, she recalled them answering. They had dress uniforms from
all the services, all sizes, waiting back at Dover Air Force Base in Delawa=
re,
where the bodies of American service members come home.
"What does that say?" Ms. Codner asked, as she sat at her kitchen table
in Shelton, Neb., on a recent morning, fingering a thick stack of photograp=
hs
that her son had sent from the desert. "How many more are they expecting?
All I know is that there are 1,000 families that feel just like we do. We g=
o
to bed at night, and we don't have our children."
Like Lance Cpl. Kyle W. Codner, each of the more than 1,000 marines and
soldiers, sailors and airmen killed since the United States sent troops
to invade Iraq leaves behind a grieving family, a story, a unique memory
of duty and sacrifice in what has become the deadliest war for Americans
since Vietnam.
But along with so much personal loss, the roster of the dead tells a
larger story, a portrait of a society and a military in transition, with
ever-widening roles and costs for the country's part-time soldiers,
women and Hispanics.
As has often been true in the United States' wars, small towns like
Shelton and other rural areas suffered a disproportionate share of
deaths compared with the nation's big cities. More than 100 service
members who died were from California, the most for any state, but
the smaller, less-populated states, many in the nation's middle - the
Dakotas, Wyoming and Nebraska - recorded some of the biggest per
capita losses.
In these mostly Republican-leaning states, people have begun to
take painful note of the toll in Iraq. Many of the families of the dead
there said they remained supportive of the war, the troops and the
president. Still, with the death toll reaching 1,000 just two months
before the presidential election, the somber milestone captured a
central spot in the national political debate this week.
More than 70 percent of the dead were soldiers in the Army, and
more than 20 percent were marines. More than half were in the
lowest-paid enlisted ranks. About 12 percent were officers. Three-
quarters of the troops died in hostile incidents: most often,
homemade-bomb explosions, small-arms fire, rocket attacks.
A quarter died in illnesses or accidents: truck and helicopter
crashes and gun discharges.
On average, the service members who died were about 26. The
youngest was 18; the oldest, 59. About half were married, according
to the death roll, which does not include a handful yet to be identified
by the Defense Department and three civilians who worked for the
military.
Part-time soldiers, the guardsmen and reservists who once expected
to tend to floods and hurricanes, were called to Iraq on a scale not
seen through five decades of war. Increasingly, Iraq is becoming their
conflict, and in growing numbers this spring and early summer, these
part-time soldiers died there. Ten times as many of them died from
April to July of this year as had in the war's first two months.
American women, too, have quietly drawn closer to combat than they
had in half a century. At least 24 female service members died in Iraq,
more than in any American conflict since World War II, a stark sign of
a barrier broken.
Many Hispanics, once underrepresented in the armed forces, have
fought and died in striking numbers. At least 122 Hispanics have
died in Iraq, meaning that they died at a rate disproportionately high
for their representation in the active forces and among the deployed
troops. Among the dead were 39 service members who were not
American citizens, significantly more than had died in Vietnam or
Afghanistan, according to Defense Department records.
Most of the troops - 85 percent - died after President Bush declared
major combat operations over on May 1, 2003. Nearly 15 percent
died after the United States turned over sovereignty to Iraq's new
leaders this June. The deadliest month was this April, as insurgents
stepped up their attacks. Nearly as many American troops died that
month as had in the initial invasion.
The Pentagon says it does not track or release estimates of the
number of Iraqis killed since the war began, although some independent
groups have offered widely varying estimates. (A group called Iraq
Body Count said Iraqi civilian deaths exceeded 11,000.)
Among Americans, especially the relatives of service members who
have died, the meaning of the toll is already a matter of feverish,
sometimes bitter, debate.
Some say they view the number of deaths - and the injuries to more
than 7,000 other Americans - as a tragic but unavoidable price of war,
and one that seems modest beside the death toll from Vietnam, which
was 58,000. About 380 troops died in the Persian Gulf war of 1991,
and some 97 in Afghanistan. Any questions about the mounting
numbers in Iraq, these relatives said, served as a rejection of the
troops' mission, an insult to their lost soldier's work.
"The loss is there, of course, but we also know the honor and the
pride," said Kelby McCrae, himself a captain in the National Guard
and the son of a veteran soldier. His younger brother, Erik, was
killed in June. "We're just so honored at the sacrifice he gave."
But others said they worried that their soldier's sacrifice in Iraq
might be forgotten as more months pass and people grow inured
to news of so many deaths, one after the next in this war.
The Guard and the Reserves: 'Weekend Warriors' Go Full Time
Eric S. McKinley was a baker and a part-time soldier. He dyed his
hair strange colors and pierced his body in places his mother
sometimes wished he had not. His six-year stint in the Oregon
National Guard was supposed to end in April, but it was extended,
and Specialist McKinley died June 13 when a bomb blew up near
his Humvee near Baghdad. Specialist McKinley's father, Tom, said
he was left with a haunting conviction: that guardsmen and
reservists are now being asked in record numbers to fight the
same lethal wars as full-time soldiers, but without the same
level of training, equipment or respect. Dozens of parents and
spouses of guardsmen - some who died and others still serving
in Iraq - said they shared Mr. McKinley's worries as they wrestled
with what the role of the nation's 1.2 million part-time service
members once was and what it was becoming.
"They are not prepared for this, not emotionally and not with
their gear and equipment," said Mr. McKinley, of Salem, Ore.
"There's this opinion that these guys are just 'weekend warriors,'
and we'll have them do all the things the regular army doesn't
have time to do. But these guys are being asked to put their lives
on the line just as much as everyone else. These guys are yanked
from their lives, and yet they aren't treated the same."
During special training at a base in Texas before he left for Iraq,
Specialist McKinley told his father that his Guard unit was getting
only two meals a day, while regular units ate three. And in Iraq,
on the day of his death, Specialist McKinley's fellow guardsmen
said he was in a Humvee reinforced with plywood and sandbags,
not real armor.
Cecil Green, a spokesman at Fort Hood where Specialist McKinley's
unit trained before it left for Iraq, said all soldiers - regular and
part time - were fed equally. But Col. Mike Caldwell, deputy director
of the Oregon National Guard, said his troops had complained about
unequal conditions during training there in months past. "There
were a lot of problems in their treatment," Colonel Caldwell said.
"It was deplorable. They were treated like slaves in some respects."
Thomas F. Hall, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs,
acknowledged in a telephone interview last week that since the
terrorist attacks of 2001, the nation's reserve components had been
called in numbers unknown since perhaps World War II. But those
part-timers sent to Iraq are trained and equipped to the same level
as any active-duty troops, Mr. Hall said.
"It's no longer your father or your grandfather's Guard and Reserves,"
Mr. Hall said. "A lot of this is a leftover vestige from a time in which
we didn't perhaps equip and train our Guard and Reserve as we need to."
Any shortages of equipment - of armored Humvees or protective gear -
have been faced by all types of troops, not just guardsmen, he said.
And Mr. Hall insisted that no one, not even him, could distinguish
between part--s and others when it came to Iraq. "They look the
same. Their standards are the same. Their training is the same,"
he said.
Recently home from Iraq with an injury, Specialist Andrew Cross,
a member of the North Carolina National Guard, said the only
difference he discerned was a little taunting. "Sure, they say stuff
about you not being full time,'' Specialist Cross said, "but who
cares what they say."
Specialist Cross's best friend, Specialist Daniel A. Desens, who
listened to Bob Marley and Dave Matthews with him as they rolled
along in their Bradleys in Iraq, was one of at least 179 guardsmen
and reservists killed there, the records of those identified as of
yesterday show.
Their deaths make up less than a fifth of those killed, but the timing
of their deaths underscores the changing makeup of American forces
in Iraq. In the first weeks of war, only a small group of reserve forces
was sent to Iraq, and only a few died. The numbers grew swiftly this
year, and reserves and guards now amount to about 40 percent of
the forces deployed to Iraq, and maybe still more soon.
Back in Oregon, Colonel Caldwell said leaders were busy arranging
more deployments for some of the state's 8,400 Army and Air
National Guard troops in the coming weeks, even as gloom lingered
over the headquarters. Four Oregon guardsmen, including Specialist
McKinley, died in a 10-day stretch.
Nationally, Mr. Hall said, recruiters may fall 1 percent short of their
goals for new Guard members when the annual count is taken at the
end of September. In Oregon, Colonel Caldwell predicted direr
shortfalls: 10 percent to 15 percent.
"I think it's pretty obvious what's happening," he said. "People
have realized: you join the Guard in Oregon, you're going to be
mobilized."
The Women: Dying, in a Role Quietly Redefined
Before she left her home in Richmond, Va., Leslie D. Jackson's
Junior R.O.T.C. instructor warned her that although women might
not officially be on the very front line of a ground war, they were
edging ever closer - and the line itself, if ever there was one in Iraq,
had grown dangerously blurry.
"I told her that even combat support roles could still take you places
that maybe you should not be," said Master Sgt. Earl G. Winston Jr.,
who taught Private Jackson at George Wythe High School. "But she said
she was ready to accept the challenge. She said she did not want her
fellow soldiers, most of them men, to think that she wasn't every bit
as good as them."
Private Jackson, who had talked her reluctant mother into letting her
sign up for the Army when she was 17, died on May 20 in Baghdad.
The truck she was transporting supplies in hit a roadside bomb. She
had finished basic training eight months before, and had turned 18,
making her the youngest of 24 women who have died in Iraq.
Not long before, she had sent an e-mail message to her former
principal, Earl Pappy, to say that she was spending long hours
driving trucks and had been unnerved at seeing a soldier killed for
the first time right before her: " 'I left home as Mommy's little girl,' ''=
Mr. Pappy said she wrote, " 'and I'm coming back as a strong woman.'
"She told me she wouldn't be in combat, and I don't think women
should be," said Viola Jackson, Private Jackson's mother. "But then
again, they joined the Army, and I guess you've got to do whatever
the other people are doing. I don't know. What I know is she was a
sweet child."
Women make up some 10 percent of American forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan, but they account for less than 3 percent of the 1,000
deaths in Iraq. Still, more women have died there than in any conflict
since hundreds died in World War II - a certain if somber sign of how
women's roles in the military have grown in the last decade.
More surprising, though, to advocates on both sides of a long-
simmering debate over what women should and should not do
in times of war has been the public's reaction to the loss of 24
women. Mostly, there has been silence.
"What it means is that our view of women has changed," said Lory
Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the
Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington and a
retired 25-year veteran of the Navy.
"Within our minds, women are doing a lot of athletic things. They're
SWAT team members and firefighters now. This is worldwide. So
people see this as less horrible. The horror of death is equal now."
But others, like Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military
Readiness, an independent public policy group in Livonia, Mich.,
said Americans were largely oblivious to the role women were playing
in Iraq and would be disturbed if they knew. Female soldiers who die
receive little attention, she said, except in small hometown newspapers;
the same is true of the 207 women who have been injured in Iraq.
Shortly after the war began, there were hints of the nation's discomfort
when three female soldiers, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch and Specialist
Shoshana Johnson, were taken hostage, and one of them, Pfc. Lori Ann
Piestewa, was killed, Ms. Donnelly said. In images broadcast around
the world, Specialist Johnson looked terrified, her eyes darting.
"The risk of capture is why we oppose women in combat," said Ms.
Donnelly, who wants the Pentagon to reconsider the jobs close to
combat that women now hold. "We're a civilized nation. Violence
against women is wrong. I hope that we don't become that kind of
a nation that doesn't care about this sort of thing."
Eight women died in Vietnam. Sixteen died in the first Persian Gulf
war. Three died in Afghanistan. And through most of that time,
people have argued over what place women should take in war.
Women have served in the American military since 1901, and others
quietly did unofficial military work as early as the Revolutionary War.
But in 1948, Congress adopted the Armed Forces Integration Act,
which capped women at 2 percent of the services and barred them
from serving on combat planes and combat ships.
After Vietnam, and the end of the draft, the restrictions on women
began to fade, one by one. By 1994, women were allowed to fly
combat aircraft, to serve on fighter ships but not submarines, and
to fill ground jobs except those most directly on the front lines:
special forces, infantry, armor, artillery. But in Iraq, the jobs that
women could fill - as drivers in convoys bringing supplies to troops
and as members of military police units - came under attack from
homemade bombs and mortar fire, too, and the notion of a front
line seemed no longer to fit the conflict.
Nearly all of the women killed were full-time soldiers in the Army.
And two-thirds of them died in hostile situations, not in accidents
or because of illness.
Even Ms. Manning, who supports bigger roles for women in the
military, said she was surprised at the degree to which women
had been included in critical operations, including patrolling
checkpoints. In part, their role may have been a necessary
outgrowth of cultural differences in Iraq. Female soldiers were
needed when Iraqi women were searched or questioned.
Still, Ms. Donnelly and other critics say, the scars from so much
change are being ignored: What will come of the children, they
asked, who lose their mothers to war?
Sgt. Tatjana Reed, a single mother, was killed on July 22 when a
bomb exploded near her convoy vehicle. She had signed papers
leaving her 10-year-old daughter, Genevieve, in the care of relatives
near her base in Germany, expecting the arrangement to be
temporary.
Sergeant Reed "always said, 'What a man can do, I can do,' ''
recalled her mother, Brigitte Dykty, who lives in Clarksville, Tenn.
"Sometimes I wish she hadn't thought that."
The Hispanics: Underrepresented, Except on Death Rolls
Five years ago, the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group
for Hispanics, released a scathing study of Hispanics in the United
States military. The central finding was that the military was not
employing as many Hispanics as it should.
In 1996, the study said, Hispanics 18 to 44 made up more than
11 percent of the civilian work force but accounted for less than 7
percent of the military's active forces.
The military took notice, and the Marines, in particular, began a
serious recruiting effort aimed at Spanish-speaking markets, said
Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the advocacy group.
"They took it very, very seriously," Ms. Navarrete said.
By 2004, Latinos accounted for 9.2 percent of all active-duty
forces and about 10 percent of those forces deployed to Iraq
nd Afghanistan.
That news came with a distinctly bittersweet edge. Of the 1,000
killed in Iraq, at least 122, or more than 12 percent, were Hispanic,
according to the Defense Department, which says ethnicity was not
tracked by the same measures in previous wars.
"It seems that in a time of peace, we're underrepresented,"
Ms. Navarrete said quietly. "In a time of war, the situation is
completely changed."
One reason for the high rate of Hispanic deaths in Iraq is that Hispanics =
account for a particularly large segment - more than 13 percent - of
the Marines, the ground troops who suffered significant losses early
in the war, as well as in the uprisings of recent weeks.
Some of those who died fighting for the United States were not even
citizens. At least 39 noncitizens - many, though not all, of Hispanic
heritage - were among the dead. Legal residents of this country have
long served in the armed forces, but records of their deaths in war
are hard to find. The official Defense Department records show that
one noncitizen died in military duty in Vietnam and three in
Afghanistan.
In 2002, Mr. Bush issued an order shortening the waiting periods
for service members and their families seeking citizenship, and
Congress made those changes permanent with a law that takes
effect in October. Some anti-immigration advocates said that
military service alone was not a qualification for citizenship, while
others worried that the changes might induce some immigrants
to enlist in hopes of speedy citizenship.
"But the bottom line, whatever the casualties, is that people are
going to continue to join because they have to," said Rodolfo Acuna,
a professor of Chicano studies at California State University,
Northridge. "They want to live better. They want to get money.
They want to better themselves."
Rey David Cuervo was born in Tampico, Mexico, but his mother,
Rosalba Kuhn, took him to Texas when he was 6. She was a maid
in Port Isabel. He was an only boy among three sisters, the quiet
one with just a handful of friends.
At age 8, she said, he went to her carrying a picture of the
American flag and explained that he planned to join the American
Army. "He said that this is all he wanted," she recalled not long ago.
"He said if they wouldn't take him in the Army here, then he'd go back
to Mexico and sign up there."
In 1999, he left for basic training.
"I was so proud," Ms. Kuhn said. "When I came here, my dreams
were that I would see my kids here, see them learn the language,
see them get a better life for themselves. Part of that was wanting
to see my son in an American uniform."
Ms. Kuhn said she thinks of her son every day when she wakes up.
She lights candles for him. She holds a hat of his under her nose
and breathes it in. In the sadness, though, Ms. Kuhn said she had
no anger. Her son wanted to go into the Army. He wanted to go to
Iraq. He chose his future.
Private Cuervo, who once told his mother that he planned to retire
from the military after 20 years and then buy a big house, died on
Dec. 28, 2003, when a bomb exploded. He was 24, one of 32,000
noncitizens in the armed forces. The government granted him
citizenship after he died.
The Small Towns: When the Population Is Reduced by One
There are no sidewalks along the quiet streets of Shelton, Neb.,
but there is red-white-and-blue bunting, a little faded now, and
tattered black ribbon tied to the street posts. Not that anyone
here needs to be reminded about Kyle Codner.
The nation's small towns experienced more than their share of
death in Iraq, a clear reflection of their representation in the
nation's military services. Not only did death arrive in
disproportionate numbers in these towns, but each death
seemed to echo louder and longer than it might have in a big city.
One resident here compared Corporal Codner's death on May 26
to a tornado whipping up in the Midwest and zeroing in on this
town of 1,100 people.
"The word 'shock' is overused, generally," said Lynn McBride, the
chairman of Shelton's village trustees and a schoolteacher. "But it
understates the feelings about this. We're all in it together here,
and there was a feeling that this couldn't be true."
To Shelton, Corporal Codner was the son of Dixie and Wain Codner.
He was one of 19 graduates of Shelton High in 2003, and one of two
to go off to the military. He was the basketball player with the blond
girlfriend, each of them usually on the king and queen court. He was
the clerk at J. R.'s Mini Mart. He was the kid who got his photograph
taken in front of the old military tank that sits at the town's entrance,
and the student named in the yearbook as "Most Likely to Kick Some
Terrorist Butt."
Nebraska and a long list of states in the country's middle and South
had some of the highest death rates per capita. Many of these states
are considered Republican strongholds. Vermont, a Democratic-leaning
state in the presidential race, had the most deaths per capita. Among
swing states in the presidential race, Oregon, Maine and Iowa had
heavy losses.
No one can be sure what role the deaths in Iraq will play in this election =
season. Nebraska has been more reliably Republican through five
decades of presidential races than any other state. Still, Democrats
in Nebraska say the war and the death toll of 14 is stirring political
discussion.
"The Republican voting bloc is persuadable here, especially when
you're talking about sending your sons and daughters to war," said
Barry R. Rubin, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party.
"One thing about Nebraska is we are very independent-minded people,
and people are seriously questioning the merits of this war."
But along the streets of Shelton last weekend, most people said they
backed the war, and would probably vote for Mr. Bush. Among them
was Corporal Codner's best friend from childhood, Matthew S. Walter,
19 and preparing to vote in his first presidential election. "I don't think=
I like what John Kerry has to say,'' Mr. Walter said.
Most people interviewed said they did not see Corporal Codner's
death through the prism of politics.
"I sense no bitterness or contrition whatsoever about Kyle,''
Mr. McBride said. "I've never heard any of that. I think the overall
feeling is that we're grateful he died the way he did - serving his
country."
About eight miles away, back at Ms. Codner's kitchen table, the
Codners said they would vote against President Bush, one of the
many people Ms. Codner describes as "someone without skin in
the game."
She and her husband go to sleep thinking of the boy in the circle
of class pictures on their living room wall, she said, and then they
wake up thinking of him. In the moments when other thoughts
crowd out those memories, Ms. Codner said, something always
brings him back. On Friday, it was the mail. Four packages that
had been sent to her son in Iraq were returned to her, unopened.
A yellow form on the front of the boxes gave a curt explanation
in the form of a checked box: "Deceased."
The Codners tried to discourage their son from joining the Marines
during his senior year in high school, but when he complained that
they were not being supportive, they tried to go along.
Wain Codner said the town's embrace helped his family the first
weeks after his son's death. "The support was incredible," he said.
"But then, people go on with their lives."
A few days before Corporal Codner died, he sent home a roll of
film. His family developed it, then waited, hoping he would call,
so he could tell them exactly what they were seeing.
The mysterious stack of pictures still sits on the kitchen table. One
shows Corporal Codner, with a wide smile, beside an Iraqi child.
In another, a thick automatic weapon dangles around his neck,
seeming to dwarf his slim frame. Another shows just a sleeping
bag and pad, arranged carefully on a concrete block. This is
probably where he slept, his parents surmise, but they will
never be sure.
Tom Torok and the research staff of The New York Times
contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) U.S. Forces on Offensive in Iraq Rebel Strongholds
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:28 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193417&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces launched operations in
three Iraqi rebel strongholds on Thursday, killing nearly two
dozen insurgents in a town near the Syrian border and bombing
targets in Falluja for the third straight day.
Fierce fighting around the town of Tal Afar, a suspected
haven for foreign fighters about 100 km (60 miles) east of the
Syrian border in northern Iraq, left 22 insurgents dead and
more than 70 wounded, a local government health official said.
"The situation is critical," Rabee Yassin, general manager
for health in Nineveh province, told Reuters. "Ambulances and
medical supplies cannot get to Tal Afar because of the ongoing
military operations."
There were no immediate reports of any U.S. or Iraqi
government casualties in the fighting which local government
sources said had killed 57 since Saturday.
U.S. forces said the assault was in response to provocation
after they and Iraqi security forces "were repeatedly attacked
by a large terrorist element that has displaced local Iraqi
security forces throughout recent weeks."
"These attacks by terrorist groups included
rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire, mortars and
roadside bombs, and resulted in civilian casualties," the
military said.
Further south, U.S. warplanes bombed rebel-held Falluja for
a third successive night. The U.S. military said the assault
was part of a "precision strike" on an operating base for Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant Washington says is
allied to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
"The target was a building frequently used by terrorists at
the time of the strike. Three Zarqawi associates were reported
to be in the area, no other individuals were present at the
time of the strike," the statement said.
DOCTORS SAY CHILDREN KILLED
But doctors in Falluja said at least eight people were
killed. Doctor Rafi Hayad said four of them were children and
two women. Iraq's Health Ministry said at least 16 people had
been killed in fighting in Falluja in the past 24 hours.
Reuters Television pictures showed several bloodied and
heavily bandaged children being treated in a Falluja hospital.
The United States blames Zarqawi for masterminding a series
of suicide bomb attacks and the killing of several hostages. It
has offered a $25 million reward for his capture.
A statement posted on an Islamic Web Site and claiming to
come from Zarqawi's group said four of his militants had been
killed in the U.S. bombardment of Falluja earlier this week.
The past few days have seen a surge in attacks and clashes
in Iraq that pushed the official Pentagon U.S. death toll for
the war to above 1,000. The Pentagon has admitted that U.S. and
Iraqi forces are not in control of strongholds of the
insurgency like Falluja, Ramadi and Samarra.
U.S. forces entered Samarra on Thursday for the first time
in weeks to try to reestablish Iraqi government control there.
A military statement said the troops went in to install a
temporary mayor and police chief, set up a local council and
assess police stations. There were no reports of clashes.
NO WORD ON HOSTAGES
Besides trying to contain the insurgency, Iraq's government
is also grappling with a hostage crisis.
In one of the most brazen abductions so far, two Italian
women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were snatched from
their office in central Baghdad in broad daylight on Tuesday.
No word has yet emerged from their captors.
Since April, people from more than two dozen countries have
been kidnapped as guerrillas have tried to force foreign troops
and firms to leave. More than 20 foreign hostages have been
killed, including two Italians.
The latest kidnappings has piled more pressure on Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Most Italian voters strongly
oppose Italy's role in Iraq, where it has sent 2,700 soldiers.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Margherita Boniver flew to
the Middle East on Thursday to seek help in securing the
women's release.
The abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty over the fate
of two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot, who have been held since Aug. 20 despite intense
diplomatic efforts to free them.
The seizure of the aid workers is also likely to trigger an
exodus of the 50 or so remaining foreign humanitarian workers
in Iraq.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Israel Kills 4, Including 9-Year-Old, in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:43 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193616&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces thrust into
Gaza's largest refugee camp on Thursday, killing four
Palestinians including a 9-year-old boy, as the army tightened
its grip on the northern part of the coastal strip.
Scores of gunmen fought a column of tanks and armored
vehicles as Israeli troops took up positions in and around the
teeming Jabalya camp, a militant stronghold, in an operation
the army said was aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israel.
Helicopter gunships fired missiles into the camp of 100,000
inhabitants as Israeli forces sealed it off in Israel's biggest
incursion in the northern Gaza Strip in months.
Munir el-Deqqes was shot in the chest while playing with
friends outside his grandfather's house, witnesses said. "How
can anyone blame children playing in the street?" said the
boy's uncle. "Munir was a victim of blind Israeli retaliation."
At least 35 people, including militants and civilians, were
wounded by Israeli fire, medics said.
A military source said soldiers had shot only at armed men.
It was the latest chapter in Israel's military response after
suicide bombers killed 16 people in southern Israel last week.
The raid marked a widening of Israel's incursion that began
on Wednesday when forces swept in and seized control following
a barrage of makeshift rocket strikes in southern Israel.
The latest spiral of violence could further complicate
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw troops
and settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip by the end of 2005.
Palestinian militants are determined to claim any Israeli
pullout as a victory, but Israel has vowed to smash them first.
PALESTINIAN CONDEMNATION
"We urge the ... civilized world to stop these crimes by
Israeli occupation forces and call on the United States to
shoulder its responsibilities toward the peace process,"
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said in a statement.
Israel's army killed 14 Hamas fighters at a Gaza training
camp on Tuesday in the deadliest strike ever against the
militant Islamic group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
Hamas, responsible for a double suicide bombing in the
Israeli city of Beersheba on August 31, vowed revenge for the
Israeli attacks.
In the second day of Israel's incursion in northern Gaza,
the army said its forces had penetrated to the first row of
houses in eastern Jabalya.
Israeli commanders have usually been reluctant to send
forces deep into Jabalya's cramped alleys, where they would be
vulnerable to booby traps and bombs planted by militants.
"We won't stay there forever," a senior Israeli official said.
"But we have to conduct forays just to keep them (the
rocket crews) off balance."
Medics said troops shot dead four people in Jabalya,
including at least one Hamas militant. It was not known if two
other dead, both men in their 20s, were militants or civilians.
Israeli forces surrounded Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya on
Wednesday -- towns that have been frequently raided -- and
bulldozers tore up stretches of road to cut off the area. By
Thursday, shops were getting low on supplies.
Despite the two-day-old raid, militants managed to fire
several primitive Qassam rockets from fenced-in Gaza toward the
Israeli town of Sderot. There were no reports of casualties.
In a game of cat-and-mouse, militants in some cases use
timers so they can escape minutes before the rockets are
launched, Palestinian sources said.
The army said soldiers in northern Gaza destroyed three
welding machines on Thursday used to make the rockets.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Family 'Thanks' Bush for Death of Son
WKYC-TV
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004Z.shtml
THOMPSON - In Geauga County, anger and frustration over the
death of a young soldier inside Iraq has prompted one family to
send a personal message to President Bush.
Ken and Betty Landrus have put up a large sign outside their
home near Thompson, Ohio that is sharply critical of the Bush
administration.
The sign reads "Thanks Mr. Bush for the death of our son."
Their son, Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus was killed near Fallujah in
January.
They believe the president misled the country about the
reasons for invading Iraq and that their son died for nothing.
"Yes I do feel lied to because they kept saying there's mass
destruction and nobody's found anything yet," father Ken
Landrus said.
Sean Landrus also left behind a wife and three young
children.
His youngest daughter, Kennedy, was born just before
Sean left to serve inside Iraq.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) USA: Chevron donates to Schwarzenegger, gets removal of
restrictions on oil refineries in California
by Tom Chorneau , Associated Press
Friday, September 03, 2004 - SACRAMENTO
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11519
Friday, September 03, 2004 - SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's ambitious plan to reorganize almost every
aspect of state government was influenced significantly by oil
and gas giant ChevronTexaco Corp., which managed to shape
such key recommendations as the removal of restrictions on oil
refineries.
Many corporations and interest groups participated in the
governor's reform plan - known as the California Performance
Review - but state records and interviews with the participants
show Chevron enjoyed immense success in influencing the report
through its array of lobbyists, attorneys and trade organizations.
And few corporations have spent so much political cash on the
governor, either. Since Schwarzenegger's election last October,
the San Ramon company has contributed more than $200,000
to his committees and $500,000 to the California Republican
Party.
Chevron, whose officials acknowledge they lobbied hard to get
their ideas in the report, is one of about 20 companies that paid
to send the governor and his staff to this week's Republican
National Convention in New York. On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger
attended a closed-door meeting in New York with representatives
of those companies, including Chevron. And just three weeks
after the governor's office released the 2,700-page reorganization
report, the company gave $100,000 to a Schwarzenegger-
controlled political fund.
Environmental watchdogs and local agencies that regulate some
of Chevron's operations complain that they had no such access,
and that their counterproposals appear nowhere in the massive
report.
Top reform project
Disclosure of Chevron's determined role in what many believe is
the administration's most important political reform effort contrasts
sharply with statements he made during last year's election campaign
and afterward in which he promised to sweep out a corrupt system
where "contributions go in, the favors go out."
Schwarzenegger launched the reorganization effort in January,
calling the state bureaucracy a "mastodon frozen in time" that needed
to be reviewed from top to bottom to eliminate waste and duplication.
The administration said the recommendations in the report would save
$32 billion over five years, a claim analysts said is exaggerated.
Although the governor's senior aides helped organize and oversee the
reorganization effort, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger said the
review staff, not the governor's office, was responsible for the report.
Schwarzenegger announced the review in January and then appointed
its two top members, who then assembled the rest of the staff.
Ashley Snee, the governor's deputy press secretary, said it was
premature to assume any of the recommendations will be adopted
and that those who are unhappy with parts of the report can
comment at a series of statewide hearings on the proposal.
Beneficial proposals
Proposals that would benefit Chevron are peppered throughout the
four-volume report. They include:
- Streamlining the permit process for the construction of new oil
refineries and the expansion of existing ones. Chevron, which owns
two of the state's largest refineries in Richmond and El Segundo,
wanted the state's help in revising existing laws so local government
officials would be required to make decisions more quickly on
construction permits at refineries.
- Streamlining the activities of the San Francisco Bay Conservation
and Development Commission. That agency, which issues permits
for dredging and sand mining in the Bay Area, oversees activities
related to Chevron's interests in the Bay Area.
- Reorganizing the regulatory process for picking the locations
for refineries, tank farms, liquefied natural gas and other energy
facilities. Chevron has two proposals to build liquefied natural
gas (LNG) facilities in Southern California and the Mexican state
of Baja California.
But Mark Petracca, a University of California, Irvine political
scientist, said Chevron's considerable influence on the CPR
report may taint the whole review because the study was
presented to the public as an objective and authoritative
analysis of how to fix state government.
"This is good old fashioned interest-group politics," Petracca
said. "Powerful people who have money can hire powerful
people and use occasions like this report to set the agenda
for policy beneficial to those interests."
Under scrutiny
In response, Snee repeated that the report was independent
of the governor's office.
Chevron's operations have drawn steady and critical scrutiny
from state and federal regulators, including a settlement last
October of a lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department that
required the company to install $275 million in air pollution
equipment and pay $3.5 million in civil penalties.
Company officials said they were just doing their jobs through
their vigorous participation in the CPR process, which included
meeting with senior aides to the governor.
"This is what we are here for," said Jack Coffey, Chevron's
general manager over state government relations, from New
York where he was attending the Republican convention.
Chevron learned about the CPR early and "obviously
understood their agenda," Coffey said, adding that while
there was direct contact by company lobbyists, most contact
came through trade groups of which Chevron is a member.
"We made an effort to feed those trade associations who
were more active."
But, Coffey said, Chevron's donations to Schwarzenegger are
because of his "pro-business agenda" and have nothing to
do with the CPR report.
Chevron's concerns
In an interview, Chevron lobbyist K.C. Bishop said he met with
Richard Costigan, Schwarzenegger's legislative affairs secretary,
in April or May, about trouble the company was having with
routine refinery permits and proposed legislation on the issue.
At the end of the discussion, Bishop was directed to the CPR
staff, which he visited a week or so later.
Neither the meeting with Costigan nor with CPR staff were
reported in Chevron's quarterly lobbying filings.
Also acknowledged in the CPR report were Bishop; Mike Barr,
a lawyer with the San Francisco-based firm Pillsbury Winthrop
and who represents Chevron; and affiliated lobbyists of the
Western States Petroleum - Kahl/Pownall Advocates - of which
Chevron is also a member.
Meanwhile, the Bay Planning Coalition - a business-oriented
group of which Chevron is a board member - contacted the
governor's cabinet secretary over problems its members were
having with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission.
Schwarzenegger's staff sent the coalition's issue to the CPR
staff, which met with the coalition sometime in April,
according Ellen Johnck, the coalition's executive director.
Complaints lodged
A letter from the coalition outlining the complaints -
including some lodged by Chevron - was used a primary
source for the CPR report that concluded BCDC had
overstepped its authority. Although BCDC officials offered
significant documentation to rebut the allegations, none
of the commission's defense was included in the CPR report.
In its section about making it easier to locate refineries
or LNG plants, the CPR report cites attorney Mike Carroll
of the law firm Latham & Watkins as a source. Based in
the firm's Orange County office, Carroll represents
Chevron on a variety of regulatory issues, according
to the firm's Web site.
Carroll did not return telephone calls for comment
from the Associated Press.
Chevron has two LNG proposals - a $650 million facility
that would be built offshore on an island near Tijuana in
Baja California; and a second plan that would place a
facility at Camp Pendleton in Orange County.
Schwarzenegger is expected to meet with Mexican officials
in Mexicali later this month. One expected topic of
discussion is Chevron's LNG proposal.
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) The Beslan hostage tragedy:
the lies of the Putin government and its media
By Vladimir Volkov
8 September 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/puti-s08.shtml
The hostage-taking tragedy in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia
has demonstrated the lengths to which the ruling elite in Russia is
prepared to go in deceiving its own people. Four days after the hostage
drama began with terrorists seizing over 1,000 children, parents
and teachers, elementary facts still remain unclear. The Russian
government has denied the people the most important and
elementary right-that of reliable, rapid and extensive information
on what has taken place.
From the beginning of the crisis on the morning of September 1
to its tragic end two days later, leading politicians, representatives
of the secret police and the major media outlets in Russia conducted
a deliberate campaign of disinformation regarding the extent
of the catastrophe and its dreadful consequences.
Lie number one: the number of hostages
From the outset, the number of hostages was deliberately
underestimated. The official figure of 354 hostages was repeated
by television channels and in the public appearances of
government representatives up to the point of the storming
of the school building.
Early on in the crisis, much higher figures for the hostages
were provided by newspapers and Internet sources, yet the
television networks held firm to their original claim. After
talks September 2 between the hostage takers and the former
president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Auschev-resulting in the
release of 26 women and children-the media repeated its
estimate, even though the real extent of the hostage taking
could at that stage hardly be concealed.
Auschev had seen how many people had been incarcerated
in the gymnasium hall. One of the women released
September 2 told the press: "There are many hostages,
very many. I think a thousand." Another woman whose
two children remained in the school said: "According to
the list 860 children attend the school. Maybe half of them
did not come to the school's opening ceremony. Then
there are the parents. Look around at how many people
are standing here. Here in the House of Culture there are
1,000 people and all of them have at least one relative or
child in the school."
Similar reports appeared in newspapers and Internet
magazines. Nevertheless the television channels remained
stubbornly attached to their original figure.
Lie number two: the terrorists had posed no demands
At the outset of the drama, a decision was made at the
highest political level that under no circumstances would
information be released concerning the terrorists' demands.
This was a lesson that the Putin government had drawn
from the hostage drama at the Moscow Musical Theatre
"Nordost" in 2002. Relatives of the hostages then held
captive inside the theatre had demonstrated for an end
to the Russian war in Chechnya. The demand met with
widespread popular support, and the Kremlin has had
great difficulty suppressing this political sentiment.
This time it was claimed that the terrorists had made no
demands. A statement calling for an end to the Chechen
war and the withdrawal of Russian troops made at the
start of the hostage crisis by an Islamist group was kept
secret. In addition, the government maintained that all of
its efforts to make contact with the terrorists had been
ignored.
On September 6, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported
that as early as the afternoon of September 1 and not far
from the school, "Parents of children being held in the
school had addressed the Russian president in a video.
They called upon him to fulfill all the demands of the
terrorists in order to save the lives of the children."
All the major television and other media outlets kept this
information secret for a considerable period.
According to numerous witnesses, the hostage takers made
no secret about their demands. For example, on September 3,
Izvestia interviewed a teacher who had been released along
with her three-year-old daughter. Question: "Did the terrorists
tell you their demands?" Answer: "They said they had just one
demand: the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya."
Lie number three: there were no plans for storming the building
Immediately after news of the hostage taking broke, leading
to widespread popular anguish, representatives of the Russian
government declared that everything would be done to avoid an
armed assault on the school by security forces. In fact, nothing
was done to prevent such a storming of the school.
According to a commentary in the newspaper Izvestia, the
drama "took the worst possible turn." The government sought
to hide its own failure by claiming that the storming of the
building had not been prepared, and even that there were no
plans for such an action. This claim is contradicted by a series
of facts and reports by witnesses.
On September 3, the paper Nezavicimaya Gazeta reported that
"intelligence forces were preparing to storm the school." The
paper referred to the fact that on the night of September 1 specially
equipped military transport planes had landed in North Ossetia.
The paper also said it was presumed that the anti-terror unit "Alfa"
had been flown in.
It is now known that "Alfa" and another anti-terror unit, "Vimpel,"
played the decisive role in the storming of the building. The very
fact that, following the unexpected exchange of fire on September 3,
the terrorists immediately began shooting and set off previously
installed explosives indicates that they were sure a storming of the
building would take place.
Bearing these facts in mind-the demands of the terrorists that were
never disclosed, the refusal of the government to undertake any
discussions with the hostage-takers, the scale of the censorship
of information regarding what was taking place inside the school
and the positioning of the special forces units in the front line-the
newspaper Gazeta.ru concluded on September 4: "The storming had
in fact been prepared and was to have been carried out within the
next two days. Without water, the children could only have survived
for three or four days, and then it would have no longer been
possible to rescue most of the hostages. However, on Friday they
were forced to take action."
Lie number four: the number of victims
Even after the catastrophe had taken place-bombs had gone off
in the gym, part of which had collapsed-the government and the
media continued to lie by minimizing the number of casualties.
The official death toll rose only as the bodies began to be
counted. According to government sources on Monday morning,
September 6, 335 dead had been counted. At the same time it
became clear there existed a list of missing persons totaling 260.
According to the radio station "Echo Moscow," these victims feature
neither on the lists of those who have died nor on the list of those
who have been hospitalized.
On Saturday, inhabitants of Beslan, who observed coffins with
victims inside being transported from the burnt out ruins of the
school, reported t
hat they had counted a total of between 500 and 600.
Against this background it is hardly necessary to examine the other
lies broadcast by the Russian media about the number of terrorists
involved-which was also minimized-or the course of events that
was officially reported in wildly varying versions.
The overall conduct of the Russian media, in particular the major
television networks, was shameful. While in the West many television
stations devoted special coverage to the events in North Ossetia,
often working with Russian cameramen, Russian television refused
to interrupt its regular programming.
At one point in the crisis, a correspondent for the Russian
television channel NTW addressed the camera and bluntly
declared, "We cannot say what is happening; we cannot
comment on the actions of those involved in the fighting!"
It is no wonder that television journalists have been physically
assaulted by Beslan inhabitants. As the first information emerged
on the real extent of the casualties, outraged bystanders turned
on television journalists, lashing out at their cameras and the
reporters themselves.
The role played by Russian television, however, only expressed
the iron-fisted control exerted over the major media outlets by
Putin's Kremlin, which has brought every television channel under
either direct or indirect state control. The Russian regime has
enforced media subservience with intimidation and state gangsterism,
which is backed by much of Russia's ruling strata of corrupt
businessmen and ex-Stalinist bureaucrats.
Putin used the hostage-taking crisis at the Moscow theatre two
years ago to consolidate this grip over the media, claiming that
it had abused freedom of the press in its coverage. He demanded
that the news outlets report nothing that could conceivably aid
the terrorists, including their statements or demands, analysis
of the events or coverage of Russian military and police operations.
This noose is tightening. The editor in chief of Izvestia, Raf Shakirov,
announced his forced resignation Monday after coming under fire
from the Kremlin and the newspaper's corporate publishers over
its coverage of the Beslan events. The paper filled its entire front
page last Saturday with a photograph of a man carrying a wounded
child from the besieged school. The newspaper also raised pointed
questions about the official claim that only 350 people were held
hostage and published a stinging column denouncing the self-
censorship by the television channels.
Meanwhile, a prominent Russian journalist who has reported
critically on the war in Chechnya was prevented from reaching
the scene of the latest hostage-taking tragedy under
circumstances that can only be described as ominous.
Novaya Gazeta correspondent Anna Politkovskaya fell sick
after drinking tea during the first leg of her flight to Beslan.
Rushed to the hospital after landing in Rostov, she was diagnosed
with acute food poisoning. According to one report, authorities
had blocked her from boarding her original flight, but the captain
of another airliner recognized her and invited her aboard.
The suppression of the media, together with the impotence of
the Russian parliament-the Duma chose not to meet during the
crisis, with its leaders affirming that all they could do was issue
another statement-are hallmarks of the authoritarian state that
Putin is consolidating in Russia.
The president's resort to the methods of state censorship, however,
is a manifestation of the general impotence and political isolation
of the regime as a whole. Under conditions of historically
unprecedented social inequality between a thin layer of "new
Russian" entrepreneurs and masses of impoverished working
people, democratic forms of rule are not possible.
While capable of buying off or intimidating his political opponents
and much of the media, Putin has proven unable to resolve any of
the deepening crises wracking Russia, from the war in Chechnya
and other outbreaks of regional separatism, to the generalized
corruption and breakdown that characterizes the entire state
apparatus and the economy. All of these crises came together
to produce the tragedy in Beslan.
While these failures are behind the drive to control the media,
the ham-fisted censorship carried out in the latest crisis has
provoked widespread anger and opposition within the former
Soviet Union. The "democratic reforms" that were touted as a
byproduct of the collapse of the USSR and the introduction of
capitalism have produced instead a media that is in many ways
reminiscent of the worst of the Stalinist period, based on lies and
deception and dedicated to the suppression of any news that
casts the head of state in a bad light.
Putin has seized upon the atrocity in Beslan to claim even more
authoritarian power and to reject any suggestion of negotiating an
end to the brutal war in Chechnya. His transparent aim is to
emulate Bush in claiming unlimited power to carry out repression
in the name of a "war on terror."
While hundreds of thousands turned out at rallies against
terrorism that were organized with state support on Tuesday,
the mood of outrage was directed not only at the terrorists, but
at the government itself.
The harshest anger was expressed at a rally in the North Ossetian
capital of Vladikavkaz, about 18 miles north of Beslan. The crowd
that turned out in the city's central square protested not only
against terrorism, but the state authorities as well.
"Today, we will bury our children and tomorrow we will come
here and throw these devils out of their seats, from the lowest
director up to ministers and the president," a speaker at the
rally declared.
A protest sign raised above the crowd read, "Corrupt authority
is a source of terrorism."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Protests Powered by Cellphone
By PATRICK DI JUSTO
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/technology/circuits/09mobb.html
AS thousands of protesters marched through Manhattan
during the Republican National Convention last week, some
were equipped with a wireless tactical communications device
connected to a distributed information service that provided
detailed and nearly instantaneous updates about route changes,
street closures and police actions.
The communications device was a common cellphone. The
information service, a collection of open-source, Web-based
programming scripts running on a Linux server in someone's
closet, is called TXTMob.
TXTMob works like an Internet mailing list for cellphones and is
the brainchild of a young man who goes by the pseudonym John
Henry. He is a member of the Institute for Applied Autonomy, a
group of artists, programmers and others who say their mission
is to develop technologies that serve the social and human need
for self-determination. (The group was behind iSee, a Web site that
has maps of surveillance cameras in Lower Manhattan and calculates
routes for those seeking to avoid them.)
He conceals his identity as part of an agreement with other members
of the group and out of concern that he might become the target
of an effort to force disclosure of TXTMob members' phone numbers,
which are kept in a database he maintains.
TXTMob allows people to quickly and easily send text messages
from one cellphone to a group of other cellphones. This in itself
is nothing new: other mobile networking systems like
dodgeball.com and bedno.com already exist.
To sign up for TXTMob, users enter their cellphone numbers
into the TXTMob Web site, www.txtmob .com. To thwart spammers,
the system uses opt-in registration: a machine-generated
authorization code is sent to each registered number and must
be re-entered into the Web site to activate the registration.
TXTMob is designed to carefully maintain members' privacy,
not surprising given why most are using TXTMob.
The software was not intended for everyday mobile socializing.
It was created as a tool political activists could use to organize
their work, from staff meetings to street protests. Most of the
people using it are on the left: of the 142 public groups listed on
the TXTMob site, the largest are dedicated to protesting the Bush
administration, the Republican Party or the state of the world in
general.
When a preliminary version of TXTMob was tested at the Democratic
National Convention in Boston in July, about 200 people used it to
organize protesters into spontaneous rallies, to warn them about
the location of police crackdowns and to direct volunteer medics
where they were needed, all in real time.
Based on user feedback afterward, some changes were made -
primarily beefing up the system to handle a heavier volume of
messages - to increase its usefulness for what were expected
to be much larger protests during the Republican National
Convention.
TXTMob had its first major New York workout on the evening
of Aug. 27, during the Critical Mass, a loosely organized bicycle
ride through Manhattan by anti-Republican protesters. From the
start of the ride, participants in a TXTMob group called
comms_dispatch sent a slew of messages alerting one
another to route changes and warning of traffic snarls.
As the ride neared its end, comms_dispatch buzzed with
reports of arrests from Second Avenue to 10th Avenue,
and around St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.
On Aug. 29, two days after she took part in the Critical Mass
ride, a woman from San Francisco who identified herself only
as Josie sat outside St. Mark's and read text messages on her
cellphone. Describing herself as a "voracious" TXTMob reader,
she credited the service with helping keep her safe during the ride.
"It told me where the cops were and where I could rest," she
said as she thumbed through the TXTMob messages from that
day's United for Peace and Justice march that were arriving on
her cellphone at the rate of about one per minute. "It brought
me here."
As reports of clashes between the police and protesters appeared
on her cellphone screen, it became possible to build a mental
picture of the march: a burning papier mâché dragon outside
Madison Square Garden, barricades on 34th Street, police officers
zipping around on scooters, a rally so large that the first marchers
had finished before the last marchers had started.
That, to Josie, was TXTMob's most important function. "When I can't
be at a protest, like now," she said, waving her phone, "it's like I can
be there, because I can know what's going on directly from the people
who are there in the streets."
What might have been TXTMob's greatest moment, the planned flash
mob at Union Square on Aug. 31, did not work out as planned. That
afternoon, TXTMob subscribers with cellular service from Sprint or
T-Mobile stopped receiving messages for nearly four hours, leaving
them unaware of the first meeting location. When those who did meet
started marching, the police quickly set up a barricade across 16th
Street and began arresting the marchers. All told, it took about an
hour for the event, loosely organized by the A31 Action Coalition,
to go from promise to debacle:
18:15:50 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party mtg at SE corner of Union Sq.
18:37:56 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party look for festive signs.
19:02:51 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party on B-way at 15th headed north.
Doing fine.
19:07:02 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party penned in b/w Irving and 16th.
More in next message.
19:15:23 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party disperse immediately.
What happens to TXTMob after Election Day? The events of last week
left the Institute for Applied Autonomy convinced that it has a future,
not just as an activist organizing tool but also as a general mobile
networking system.
The Internet Business Chronicle, an online publication, is using
TXTMob to deliver news updates to readers, and the number of
party groups is quickly catching up to the number of protest
groups. The pseudonymous John Henry said he was looking at
keeping the system going and might even expand it to work with
cellphones in Europe and Asia. After that, it's anyone's guess.
"People keep finding their own uses for this thing, and they're
developing it on the fly," he said. "That's what's really exciting."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Ex-Banking Star Given 18 Months for Obstruction
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/business/09star.html
Frank P. Quattrone, the Wall Street banker whose pay and deals
made him a vivid symbol of the 1990's technology boom, was
sentenced to 18 months in prison yesterday for obstructing a
government investigation into the allocation of hot stock offerings.
Mr. Quattrone, 48, who led the initial offerings of companies like
Amazon.com and Cisco Systems as a banker at Credit Suisse First
Boston, is the most prominent Wall Street figure to face prison since
Michael R. Milken pleaded guilty to six securities charges in 1990.
Judge Richard Owen of Federal District Court in Manhattan handed
down a harsher prison sentence than the 10 to 16 months stipulated
by basic federal guidelines, finding that Mr. Quattrone perjured himself
when he took the witness stand during his trial and said under oath that
he had not intended to impede the government's investigation when he
sent a one-line e-mail message at the heart of the case.
"It is crystal clear that he was untruthful," Judge Owen said yesterday.
Mr. Quattrone, who made $120 million in 2000, was perhaps the most
prominent banker in Silicon Valley during the 1990's, assembling a team
that brought public many of the biggest names in technology. After that
success and the bursting of the technology bubble, Mr. Quattrone and
First Boston came under the microscope of regulators and prosecutors,
who began investigating whether the bank was soliciting kickbacks from
preferred investors, later dubbed Friends of Frank, in exchange for access =
to hot stock offerings.
While that inquiry did not lead to criminal charges, Mr. Quattrone was
charged with hampering the investigations when he endorsed a
colleague's e-mail message in December 2000 urging his staff to
"clean up those files." Mr. Quattrone's first trial ended in a hung jury,
but he was convicted at a retrial.
Judge Owen refused Mr. Quattrone's request to remain free while he
appealed the case. Mr. Quattrone must surrender to federal prison
authorities within 50 days. The judge also fined him $90,300 and
initially asked him to make the payment immediately. "There's $50
million in the bank," Judge Owen said. "He can't write a check today?"
He then acquiesced to requests by Mr. Quattrone's lawyers to pay the
fine within 20 days.
Mr. Quattrone's sentence, which includes two years of probation, stands
in stark contrast to the one recently given to Martha Stewart, who was
also convicted of obstruction of justice. In that case, Judge Miriam
Goldman Cedarbaum sentenced Ms. Stewart to five months in prison,
plus five months of home confinement. Ms. Stewart was also allowed
to remain free pending appeal.
The Bureau of Prisons had recommended in its presentencing report
that Mr. Quattrone receive the same sentence as Ms. Stewart.
Robert G. Morvillo, who is Ms. Stewart's lawyer, said yesterday that
Mr. Quattrone's sentence was too severe. "Is it a reasonable sentence?"
Mr. Morvillo asked. "You won't find a defense attorney in town who
thinks this is reasonable. The idea that Judge Owen jumped the
sentence just continues the defense bar view that he is overly harsh."
Judge Owen, an appointee of President Richard M. Nixon, has long
had a reputation among defense lawyers of favoring prosecutors, and
the sentencing of Mr. Quattrone capped nearly a year of dueling
between his lawyers and the judge that often included heated
exchanges in court.
At one point yesterday, Mr. Quattrone's trial lawyer, John W. Keker,
a former prosecutor of Oliver L. North during the Iran-contra trial,
told the judge he thought he was being strung along while making
his argument for leniency.
"If you've made up your mind on this, just tell me," Mr. Keker said. At
another point, in which Mr. Keker cited the hung jury in the first trial
and asserted there were grounds for appeal because the case was so
close, Judge Owen blurted out: "I don't agree with you that this was a
close case."
Mr. Quattrone's appeal will be based in large part on several rulings
Judge Owen made that barred him from introducing evidence that
may have been helpful to his case.
The clash continued in court yesterday and spilled into the street after
the hearing, with Mr. Quattrone's lawyers standing in pelting rain
accusing Judge Owen of an unfair trial.
"Cases like this are why we have courts of appeals," said Mark F.
Pomerantz, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in
Manhattan who will lead Mr. Quattrone's appeal. "The defense was
forced to try its case from the inside of a straitjacket."
"The trial judge kept out critical evidence offered by the defense,"
said Mr. Pomerantz, who represented Dr. Samuel D. Waksal, the founder
of ImClone Systems Inc. , who pleaded guilty to insider trading. "And
although the judge tied the hands of the defense, he gave the
government free rein to put in irrelevant but prejudicial evidence."
Before he was sentenced, Mr. Quattrone addressed the judge, saying:
"I humbly ask that you show mercy and compassion for me and my
family, for whom any separation from me would be extremely
detrimental."
But the judge denied his request, and Mr. Quattrone's legal team
and friends sitting in court were enraged when Judge Owen then
appeared to gratuitously make public the medical problems of
Mr. Quattrone's 15-year-old daughter, Cristina, questioning the
severity of claims from doctors who submitted records that she
has a medical disorder. Mr. Quattrone's lawyers had asked that
the medical records of the family remain sealed.
Judge Owen also dismissed arguments from Mr. Quattrone's lawyers
that he should receive a lenient sentence because his wife has a
chronic illness that makes him the "only functioning adult" in the
household.
"There's $50 million of assets out there to take care of
Mrs. Quattrone and $26 million to take care of Cristina in some
trust fund," Judge Owen said. Reading from Mrs. Quattrone's
medical records, Judge Owen added, "It says here she can drive
under limited conditions."
Judge Owen's decision to depart from the basic federal guidelines
and give Mr. Quattrone a tougher sentence raises questions about
whether it will be upheld. In a case from Washington State in June,
the Supreme Court ruled that the state's judicial system, which
allowed judges to increase a convicted defendant's sentence
beyond the ordinary range for the crime, violated the constitutional
right to trial by jury. While the ruling only applies to Washington
State, the decision - Blakely v. Washington - is being watched by
federal judges nationwide, and many have stuck to the guidelines,
worried that their sentences will be overturned. The Supreme Court
has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the guidelines for
federal criminal sentences this fall.
"Given that the Blakely case is still out there, to do an upward
departure, this is a judge who is thumbing his nose at Blakely,"
said John J. Fahy, a former federal prosecutor who practices law
in New Jersey.
Some defense lawyers contended the sentence might help
Mr. Quattrone's appeal. "It plays into the defense claim of unfair
treatment on the part of Judge Owen," said Robert A. Mintz, a
former federal prosecutor and a partner at McCarter & English.
Judge Owen agreed to a request from Mr. Quattrone's lawyers
that he be assigned to Lompoc Federal Prison Camp in California,
which is a minimum-security prison northwest of Los Angeles
where Ivan F. Boesky was once an inmate.
As he left the courthouse, Mr. Quattrone said: "To my family in
California, Dad is coming home soon, and I love you. And I can
hold my head high because I know I'm innocent and I never
intended to obstruct justice."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. 7 PM
1380 VALENCIA STREET
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) FW: Press conference and vigil
From: Howard Wallace
Wed, 8 Sep 2004
2) For 1,000 Troops, There Is No Going Home
By MONICA DAVEY
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/national/09deaths.html?hp
3) U.S. Forces on Offensive in Iraq Rebel Strongholds
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:28 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193417&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
4) Israel Kills 4, Including 9-Year-Old, in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:43 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193616&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
5) Family 'Thanks' Bush for Death of Son
WKYC-TV
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004Z.shtml
6) USA: Chevron donates to Schwarzenegger, gets removal of
restrictions on oil refineries in California
by Tom Chorneau , Associated Press
Friday, September 03, 2004 - SACRAMENTO
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11519
7) The Beslan hostage tragedy:
the lies of the Putin government and its media
By Vladimir Volkov
8 September 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/puti-s08.shtml
8) Protests Powered by Cellphone
By PATRICK DI JUSTO
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/technology/circuits/09mobb.html
9) Ex-Banking Star Given 18 Months for Obstruction
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/business/09star.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) FW: Press conference and vigil
From: Howard Wallace
Wed, 8 Sep 2004
Dear Friends,
Please help us spread the word about the vigil below to
commemorate the over 1,000 US soldiers who died in Iraq. If any of you
or someone from your organizations would like to speak, please do so.
Thanks so much,
Medea Benjamin
Code Pink and Global Exchange
URGENT CALL TO ACTION:
JOIN US AT A VIGIL FOR THE 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF
THOUSANDS IRAQIS KILLED IN IRAQ
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 5-7PM at UN PLAZA (Market St
between 7th and Hyde), San Francisco
For more information: Nancy Mancias, Code Pink,
415-342-6409 or foonan@jps.net
Over 1,000 young Americans have now died in Iraq, over
7,000 are maimed, and many thousands of Iraqis have died.
The President won't mourn our dead, but we will. Please
join Code Pink, Bring Our Troops Home Now Committee,
Mother Speak, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans For
Peace, Not in Our Name, and Global Exchange to say: Enough
to Endless War and Suffering, Bring Them Home NOW.
There will be dozens such vigils happening all over the
country, where we will remember the 1,000 US servicemen
and women who have died in Iraq. We will remember the tens
of thousands of Iraqis--civilians and combatants, men and
women, children, the elderly--who have been killed. We
will remember that these deaths did not have to happen.
We know that the current administration has plunged us
into this unjust and unjustifiable war, driven by greed
for oil and lust for power and fueled by lie after lie.
We cannot remain silent. We want an end to the occupation
so the Iraqi people can determine their own destiny free
from foreign interference and control.
We want our troops brought home now. Don't ask these men
and women to continue to die for politicians' mistakes and
lies. And we want them treated right when they return.
Give them the benefits there were promised and give them
the help they will need to heal their bodies, their minds
and their spirits.
We are here to remember, to honor and to mourn. We will
not forget!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) For 1,000 Troops, There Is No Going Home
By MONICA DAVEY
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/national/09deaths.html?hp
Dixie Codner had a question for the marines who came down her gravel
road, past the rows of corn and alfalfa, to tell her that her 19-year-old
son, Kyle, had been killed in Iraq. Should she bring them the dress blues, =
still pressed and hanging neatly in his closet, for his funeral?
No need, she recalled them answering. They had dress uniforms from
all the services, all sizes, waiting back at Dover Air Force Base in Delawa=
re,
where the bodies of American service members come home.
"What does that say?" Ms. Codner asked, as she sat at her kitchen table
in Shelton, Neb., on a recent morning, fingering a thick stack of photograp=
hs
that her son had sent from the desert. "How many more are they expecting?
All I know is that there are 1,000 families that feel just like we do. We g=
o
to bed at night, and we don't have our children."
Like Lance Cpl. Kyle W. Codner, each of the more than 1,000 marines and
soldiers, sailors and airmen killed since the United States sent troops
to invade Iraq leaves behind a grieving family, a story, a unique memory
of duty and sacrifice in what has become the deadliest war for Americans
since Vietnam.
But along with so much personal loss, the roster of the dead tells a
larger story, a portrait of a society and a military in transition, with
ever-widening roles and costs for the country's part-time soldiers,
women and Hispanics.
As has often been true in the United States' wars, small towns like
Shelton and other rural areas suffered a disproportionate share of
deaths compared with the nation's big cities. More than 100 service
members who died were from California, the most for any state, but
the smaller, less-populated states, many in the nation's middle - the
Dakotas, Wyoming and Nebraska - recorded some of the biggest per
capita losses.
In these mostly Republican-leaning states, people have begun to
take painful note of the toll in Iraq. Many of the families of the dead
there said they remained supportive of the war, the troops and the
president. Still, with the death toll reaching 1,000 just two months
before the presidential election, the somber milestone captured a
central spot in the national political debate this week.
More than 70 percent of the dead were soldiers in the Army, and
more than 20 percent were marines. More than half were in the
lowest-paid enlisted ranks. About 12 percent were officers. Three-
quarters of the troops died in hostile incidents: most often,
homemade-bomb explosions, small-arms fire, rocket attacks.
A quarter died in illnesses or accidents: truck and helicopter
crashes and gun discharges.
On average, the service members who died were about 26. The
youngest was 18; the oldest, 59. About half were married, according
to the death roll, which does not include a handful yet to be identified
by the Defense Department and three civilians who worked for the
military.
Part-time soldiers, the guardsmen and reservists who once expected
to tend to floods and hurricanes, were called to Iraq on a scale not
seen through five decades of war. Increasingly, Iraq is becoming their
conflict, and in growing numbers this spring and early summer, these
part-time soldiers died there. Ten times as many of them died from
April to July of this year as had in the war's first two months.
American women, too, have quietly drawn closer to combat than they
had in half a century. At least 24 female service members died in Iraq,
more than in any American conflict since World War II, a stark sign of
a barrier broken.
Many Hispanics, once underrepresented in the armed forces, have
fought and died in striking numbers. At least 122 Hispanics have
died in Iraq, meaning that they died at a rate disproportionately high
for their representation in the active forces and among the deployed
troops. Among the dead were 39 service members who were not
American citizens, significantly more than had died in Vietnam or
Afghanistan, according to Defense Department records.
Most of the troops - 85 percent - died after President Bush declared
major combat operations over on May 1, 2003. Nearly 15 percent
died after the United States turned over sovereignty to Iraq's new
leaders this June. The deadliest month was this April, as insurgents
stepped up their attacks. Nearly as many American troops died that
month as had in the initial invasion.
The Pentagon says it does not track or release estimates of the
number of Iraqis killed since the war began, although some independent
groups have offered widely varying estimates. (A group called Iraq
Body Count said Iraqi civilian deaths exceeded 11,000.)
Among Americans, especially the relatives of service members who
have died, the meaning of the toll is already a matter of feverish,
sometimes bitter, debate.
Some say they view the number of deaths - and the injuries to more
than 7,000 other Americans - as a tragic but unavoidable price of war,
and one that seems modest beside the death toll from Vietnam, which
was 58,000. About 380 troops died in the Persian Gulf war of 1991,
and some 97 in Afghanistan. Any questions about the mounting
numbers in Iraq, these relatives said, served as a rejection of the
troops' mission, an insult to their lost soldier's work.
"The loss is there, of course, but we also know the honor and the
pride," said Kelby McCrae, himself a captain in the National Guard
and the son of a veteran soldier. His younger brother, Erik, was
killed in June. "We're just so honored at the sacrifice he gave."
But others said they worried that their soldier's sacrifice in Iraq
might be forgotten as more months pass and people grow inured
to news of so many deaths, one after the next in this war.
The Guard and the Reserves: 'Weekend Warriors' Go Full Time
Eric S. McKinley was a baker and a part-time soldier. He dyed his
hair strange colors and pierced his body in places his mother
sometimes wished he had not. His six-year stint in the Oregon
National Guard was supposed to end in April, but it was extended,
and Specialist McKinley died June 13 when a bomb blew up near
his Humvee near Baghdad. Specialist McKinley's father, Tom, said
he was left with a haunting conviction: that guardsmen and
reservists are now being asked in record numbers to fight the
same lethal wars as full-time soldiers, but without the same
level of training, equipment or respect. Dozens of parents and
spouses of guardsmen - some who died and others still serving
in Iraq - said they shared Mr. McKinley's worries as they wrestled
with what the role of the nation's 1.2 million part-time service
members once was and what it was becoming.
"They are not prepared for this, not emotionally and not with
their gear and equipment," said Mr. McKinley, of Salem, Ore.
"There's this opinion that these guys are just 'weekend warriors,'
and we'll have them do all the things the regular army doesn't
have time to do. But these guys are being asked to put their lives
on the line just as much as everyone else. These guys are yanked
from their lives, and yet they aren't treated the same."
During special training at a base in Texas before he left for Iraq,
Specialist McKinley told his father that his Guard unit was getting
only two meals a day, while regular units ate three. And in Iraq,
on the day of his death, Specialist McKinley's fellow guardsmen
said he was in a Humvee reinforced with plywood and sandbags,
not real armor.
Cecil Green, a spokesman at Fort Hood where Specialist McKinley's
unit trained before it left for Iraq, said all soldiers - regular and
part time - were fed equally. But Col. Mike Caldwell, deputy director
of the Oregon National Guard, said his troops had complained about
unequal conditions during training there in months past. "There
were a lot of problems in their treatment," Colonel Caldwell said.
"It was deplorable. They were treated like slaves in some respects."
Thomas F. Hall, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs,
acknowledged in a telephone interview last week that since the
terrorist attacks of 2001, the nation's reserve components had been
called in numbers unknown since perhaps World War II. But those
part-timers sent to Iraq are trained and equipped to the same level
as any active-duty troops, Mr. Hall said.
"It's no longer your father or your grandfather's Guard and Reserves,"
Mr. Hall said. "A lot of this is a leftover vestige from a time in which
we didn't perhaps equip and train our Guard and Reserve as we need to."
Any shortages of equipment - of armored Humvees or protective gear -
have been faced by all types of troops, not just guardsmen, he said.
And Mr. Hall insisted that no one, not even him, could distinguish
between part--s and others when it came to Iraq. "They look the
same. Their standards are the same. Their training is the same,"
he said.
Recently home from Iraq with an injury, Specialist Andrew Cross,
a member of the North Carolina National Guard, said the only
difference he discerned was a little taunting. "Sure, they say stuff
about you not being full time,'' Specialist Cross said, "but who
cares what they say."
Specialist Cross's best friend, Specialist Daniel A. Desens, who
listened to Bob Marley and Dave Matthews with him as they rolled
along in their Bradleys in Iraq, was one of at least 179 guardsmen
and reservists killed there, the records of those identified as of
yesterday show.
Their deaths make up less than a fifth of those killed, but the timing
of their deaths underscores the changing makeup of American forces
in Iraq. In the first weeks of war, only a small group of reserve forces
was sent to Iraq, and only a few died. The numbers grew swiftly this
year, and reserves and guards now amount to about 40 percent of
the forces deployed to Iraq, and maybe still more soon.
Back in Oregon, Colonel Caldwell said leaders were busy arranging
more deployments for some of the state's 8,400 Army and Air
National Guard troops in the coming weeks, even as gloom lingered
over the headquarters. Four Oregon guardsmen, including Specialist
McKinley, died in a 10-day stretch.
Nationally, Mr. Hall said, recruiters may fall 1 percent short of their
goals for new Guard members when the annual count is taken at the
end of September. In Oregon, Colonel Caldwell predicted direr
shortfalls: 10 percent to 15 percent.
"I think it's pretty obvious what's happening," he said. "People
have realized: you join the Guard in Oregon, you're going to be
mobilized."
The Women: Dying, in a Role Quietly Redefined
Before she left her home in Richmond, Va., Leslie D. Jackson's
Junior R.O.T.C. instructor warned her that although women might
not officially be on the very front line of a ground war, they were
edging ever closer - and the line itself, if ever there was one in Iraq,
had grown dangerously blurry.
"I told her that even combat support roles could still take you places
that maybe you should not be," said Master Sgt. Earl G. Winston Jr.,
who taught Private Jackson at George Wythe High School. "But she said
she was ready to accept the challenge. She said she did not want her
fellow soldiers, most of them men, to think that she wasn't every bit
as good as them."
Private Jackson, who had talked her reluctant mother into letting her
sign up for the Army when she was 17, died on May 20 in Baghdad.
The truck she was transporting supplies in hit a roadside bomb. She
had finished basic training eight months before, and had turned 18,
making her the youngest of 24 women who have died in Iraq.
Not long before, she had sent an e-mail message to her former
principal, Earl Pappy, to say that she was spending long hours
driving trucks and had been unnerved at seeing a soldier killed for
the first time right before her: " 'I left home as Mommy's little girl,' ''=
Mr. Pappy said she wrote, " 'and I'm coming back as a strong woman.'
"She told me she wouldn't be in combat, and I don't think women
should be," said Viola Jackson, Private Jackson's mother. "But then
again, they joined the Army, and I guess you've got to do whatever
the other people are doing. I don't know. What I know is she was a
sweet child."
Women make up some 10 percent of American forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan, but they account for less than 3 percent of the 1,000
deaths in Iraq. Still, more women have died there than in any conflict
since hundreds died in World War II - a certain if somber sign of how
women's roles in the military have grown in the last decade.
More surprising, though, to advocates on both sides of a long-
simmering debate over what women should and should not do
in times of war has been the public's reaction to the loss of 24
women. Mostly, there has been silence.
"What it means is that our view of women has changed," said Lory
Manning, director of the Women in the Military Project at the
Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington and a
retired 25-year veteran of the Navy.
"Within our minds, women are doing a lot of athletic things. They're
SWAT team members and firefighters now. This is worldwide. So
people see this as less horrible. The horror of death is equal now."
But others, like Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military
Readiness, an independent public policy group in Livonia, Mich.,
said Americans were largely oblivious to the role women were playing
in Iraq and would be disturbed if they knew. Female soldiers who die
receive little attention, she said, except in small hometown newspapers;
the same is true of the 207 women who have been injured in Iraq.
Shortly after the war began, there were hints of the nation's discomfort
when three female soldiers, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch and Specialist
Shoshana Johnson, were taken hostage, and one of them, Pfc. Lori Ann
Piestewa, was killed, Ms. Donnelly said. In images broadcast around
the world, Specialist Johnson looked terrified, her eyes darting.
"The risk of capture is why we oppose women in combat," said Ms.
Donnelly, who wants the Pentagon to reconsider the jobs close to
combat that women now hold. "We're a civilized nation. Violence
against women is wrong. I hope that we don't become that kind of
a nation that doesn't care about this sort of thing."
Eight women died in Vietnam. Sixteen died in the first Persian Gulf
war. Three died in Afghanistan. And through most of that time,
people have argued over what place women should take in war.
Women have served in the American military since 1901, and others
quietly did unofficial military work as early as the Revolutionary War.
But in 1948, Congress adopted the Armed Forces Integration Act,
which capped women at 2 percent of the services and barred them
from serving on combat planes and combat ships.
After Vietnam, and the end of the draft, the restrictions on women
began to fade, one by one. By 1994, women were allowed to fly
combat aircraft, to serve on fighter ships but not submarines, and
to fill ground jobs except those most directly on the front lines:
special forces, infantry, armor, artillery. But in Iraq, the jobs that
women could fill - as drivers in convoys bringing supplies to troops
and as members of military police units - came under attack from
homemade bombs and mortar fire, too, and the notion of a front
line seemed no longer to fit the conflict.
Nearly all of the women killed were full-time soldiers in the Army.
And two-thirds of them died in hostile situations, not in accidents
or because of illness.
Even Ms. Manning, who supports bigger roles for women in the
military, said she was surprised at the degree to which women
had been included in critical operations, including patrolling
checkpoints. In part, their role may have been a necessary
outgrowth of cultural differences in Iraq. Female soldiers were
needed when Iraqi women were searched or questioned.
Still, Ms. Donnelly and other critics say, the scars from so much
change are being ignored: What will come of the children, they
asked, who lose their mothers to war?
Sgt. Tatjana Reed, a single mother, was killed on July 22 when a
bomb exploded near her convoy vehicle. She had signed papers
leaving her 10-year-old daughter, Genevieve, in the care of relatives
near her base in Germany, expecting the arrangement to be
temporary.
Sergeant Reed "always said, 'What a man can do, I can do,' ''
recalled her mother, Brigitte Dykty, who lives in Clarksville, Tenn.
"Sometimes I wish she hadn't thought that."
The Hispanics: Underrepresented, Except on Death Rolls
Five years ago, the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group
for Hispanics, released a scathing study of Hispanics in the United
States military. The central finding was that the military was not
employing as many Hispanics as it should.
In 1996, the study said, Hispanics 18 to 44 made up more than
11 percent of the civilian work force but accounted for less than 7
percent of the military's active forces.
The military took notice, and the Marines, in particular, began a
serious recruiting effort aimed at Spanish-speaking markets, said
Lisa Navarrete, vice president of the advocacy group.
"They took it very, very seriously," Ms. Navarrete said.
By 2004, Latinos accounted for 9.2 percent of all active-duty
forces and about 10 percent of those forces deployed to Iraq
nd Afghanistan.
That news came with a distinctly bittersweet edge. Of the 1,000
killed in Iraq, at least 122, or more than 12 percent, were Hispanic,
according to the Defense Department, which says ethnicity was not
tracked by the same measures in previous wars.
"It seems that in a time of peace, we're underrepresented,"
Ms. Navarrete said quietly. "In a time of war, the situation is
completely changed."
One reason for the high rate of Hispanic deaths in Iraq is that Hispanics =
account for a particularly large segment - more than 13 percent - of
the Marines, the ground troops who suffered significant losses early
in the war, as well as in the uprisings of recent weeks.
Some of those who died fighting for the United States were not even
citizens. At least 39 noncitizens - many, though not all, of Hispanic
heritage - were among the dead. Legal residents of this country have
long served in the armed forces, but records of their deaths in war
are hard to find. The official Defense Department records show that
one noncitizen died in military duty in Vietnam and three in
Afghanistan.
In 2002, Mr. Bush issued an order shortening the waiting periods
for service members and their families seeking citizenship, and
Congress made those changes permanent with a law that takes
effect in October. Some anti-immigration advocates said that
military service alone was not a qualification for citizenship, while
others worried that the changes might induce some immigrants
to enlist in hopes of speedy citizenship.
"But the bottom line, whatever the casualties, is that people are
going to continue to join because they have to," said Rodolfo Acuna,
a professor of Chicano studies at California State University,
Northridge. "They want to live better. They want to get money.
They want to better themselves."
Rey David Cuervo was born in Tampico, Mexico, but his mother,
Rosalba Kuhn, took him to Texas when he was 6. She was a maid
in Port Isabel. He was an only boy among three sisters, the quiet
one with just a handful of friends.
At age 8, she said, he went to her carrying a picture of the
American flag and explained that he planned to join the American
Army. "He said that this is all he wanted," she recalled not long ago.
"He said if they wouldn't take him in the Army here, then he'd go back
to Mexico and sign up there."
In 1999, he left for basic training.
"I was so proud," Ms. Kuhn said. "When I came here, my dreams
were that I would see my kids here, see them learn the language,
see them get a better life for themselves. Part of that was wanting
to see my son in an American uniform."
Ms. Kuhn said she thinks of her son every day when she wakes up.
She lights candles for him. She holds a hat of his under her nose
and breathes it in. In the sadness, though, Ms. Kuhn said she had
no anger. Her son wanted to go into the Army. He wanted to go to
Iraq. He chose his future.
Private Cuervo, who once told his mother that he planned to retire
from the military after 20 years and then buy a big house, died on
Dec. 28, 2003, when a bomb exploded. He was 24, one of 32,000
noncitizens in the armed forces. The government granted him
citizenship after he died.
The Small Towns: When the Population Is Reduced by One
There are no sidewalks along the quiet streets of Shelton, Neb.,
but there is red-white-and-blue bunting, a little faded now, and
tattered black ribbon tied to the street posts. Not that anyone
here needs to be reminded about Kyle Codner.
The nation's small towns experienced more than their share of
death in Iraq, a clear reflection of their representation in the
nation's military services. Not only did death arrive in
disproportionate numbers in these towns, but each death
seemed to echo louder and longer than it might have in a big city.
One resident here compared Corporal Codner's death on May 26
to a tornado whipping up in the Midwest and zeroing in on this
town of 1,100 people.
"The word 'shock' is overused, generally," said Lynn McBride, the
chairman of Shelton's village trustees and a schoolteacher. "But it
understates the feelings about this. We're all in it together here,
and there was a feeling that this couldn't be true."
To Shelton, Corporal Codner was the son of Dixie and Wain Codner.
He was one of 19 graduates of Shelton High in 2003, and one of two
to go off to the military. He was the basketball player with the blond
girlfriend, each of them usually on the king and queen court. He was
the clerk at J. R.'s Mini Mart. He was the kid who got his photograph
taken in front of the old military tank that sits at the town's entrance,
and the student named in the yearbook as "Most Likely to Kick Some
Terrorist Butt."
Nebraska and a long list of states in the country's middle and South
had some of the highest death rates per capita. Many of these states
are considered Republican strongholds. Vermont, a Democratic-leaning
state in the presidential race, had the most deaths per capita. Among
swing states in the presidential race, Oregon, Maine and Iowa had
heavy losses.
No one can be sure what role the deaths in Iraq will play in this election =
season. Nebraska has been more reliably Republican through five
decades of presidential races than any other state. Still, Democrats
in Nebraska say the war and the death toll of 14 is stirring political
discussion.
"The Republican voting bloc is persuadable here, especially when
you're talking about sending your sons and daughters to war," said
Barry R. Rubin, executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party.
"One thing about Nebraska is we are very independent-minded people,
and people are seriously questioning the merits of this war."
But along the streets of Shelton last weekend, most people said they
backed the war, and would probably vote for Mr. Bush. Among them
was Corporal Codner's best friend from childhood, Matthew S. Walter,
19 and preparing to vote in his first presidential election. "I don't think=
I like what John Kerry has to say,'' Mr. Walter said.
Most people interviewed said they did not see Corporal Codner's
death through the prism of politics.
"I sense no bitterness or contrition whatsoever about Kyle,''
Mr. McBride said. "I've never heard any of that. I think the overall
feeling is that we're grateful he died the way he did - serving his
country."
About eight miles away, back at Ms. Codner's kitchen table, the
Codners said they would vote against President Bush, one of the
many people Ms. Codner describes as "someone without skin in
the game."
She and her husband go to sleep thinking of the boy in the circle
of class pictures on their living room wall, she said, and then they
wake up thinking of him. In the moments when other thoughts
crowd out those memories, Ms. Codner said, something always
brings him back. On Friday, it was the mail. Four packages that
had been sent to her son in Iraq were returned to her, unopened.
A yellow form on the front of the boxes gave a curt explanation
in the form of a checked box: "Deceased."
The Codners tried to discourage their son from joining the Marines
during his senior year in high school, but when he complained that
they were not being supportive, they tried to go along.
Wain Codner said the town's embrace helped his family the first
weeks after his son's death. "The support was incredible," he said.
"But then, people go on with their lives."
A few days before Corporal Codner died, he sent home a roll of
film. His family developed it, then waited, hoping he would call,
so he could tell them exactly what they were seeing.
The mysterious stack of pictures still sits on the kitchen table. One
shows Corporal Codner, with a wide smile, beside an Iraqi child.
In another, a thick automatic weapon dangles around his neck,
seeming to dwarf his slim frame. Another shows just a sleeping
bag and pad, arranged carefully on a concrete block. This is
probably where he slept, his parents surmise, but they will
never be sure.
Tom Torok and the research staff of The New York Times
contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) U.S. Forces on Offensive in Iraq Rebel Strongholds
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:28 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193417&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces launched operations in
three Iraqi rebel strongholds on Thursday, killing nearly two
dozen insurgents in a town near the Syrian border and bombing
targets in Falluja for the third straight day.
Fierce fighting around the town of Tal Afar, a suspected
haven for foreign fighters about 100 km (60 miles) east of the
Syrian border in northern Iraq, left 22 insurgents dead and
more than 70 wounded, a local government health official said.
"The situation is critical," Rabee Yassin, general manager
for health in Nineveh province, told Reuters. "Ambulances and
medical supplies cannot get to Tal Afar because of the ongoing
military operations."
There were no immediate reports of any U.S. or Iraqi
government casualties in the fighting which local government
sources said had killed 57 since Saturday.
U.S. forces said the assault was in response to provocation
after they and Iraqi security forces "were repeatedly attacked
by a large terrorist element that has displaced local Iraqi
security forces throughout recent weeks."
"These attacks by terrorist groups included
rocket-propelled grenades, small arms fire, mortars and
roadside bombs, and resulted in civilian casualties," the
military said.
Further south, U.S. warplanes bombed rebel-held Falluja for
a third successive night. The U.S. military said the assault
was part of a "precision strike" on an operating base for Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant Washington says is
allied to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
"The target was a building frequently used by terrorists at
the time of the strike. Three Zarqawi associates were reported
to be in the area, no other individuals were present at the
time of the strike," the statement said.
DOCTORS SAY CHILDREN KILLED
But doctors in Falluja said at least eight people were
killed. Doctor Rafi Hayad said four of them were children and
two women. Iraq's Health Ministry said at least 16 people had
been killed in fighting in Falluja in the past 24 hours.
Reuters Television pictures showed several bloodied and
heavily bandaged children being treated in a Falluja hospital.
The United States blames Zarqawi for masterminding a series
of suicide bomb attacks and the killing of several hostages. It
has offered a $25 million reward for his capture.
A statement posted on an Islamic Web Site and claiming to
come from Zarqawi's group said four of his militants had been
killed in the U.S. bombardment of Falluja earlier this week.
The past few days have seen a surge in attacks and clashes
in Iraq that pushed the official Pentagon U.S. death toll for
the war to above 1,000. The Pentagon has admitted that U.S. and
Iraqi forces are not in control of strongholds of the
insurgency like Falluja, Ramadi and Samarra.
U.S. forces entered Samarra on Thursday for the first time
in weeks to try to reestablish Iraqi government control there.
A military statement said the troops went in to install a
temporary mayor and police chief, set up a local council and
assess police stations. There were no reports of clashes.
NO WORD ON HOSTAGES
Besides trying to contain the insurgency, Iraq's government
is also grappling with a hostage crisis.
In one of the most brazen abductions so far, two Italian
women aid workers and two Iraqi colleagues were snatched from
their office in central Baghdad in broad daylight on Tuesday.
No word has yet emerged from their captors.
Since April, people from more than two dozen countries have
been kidnapped as guerrillas have tried to force foreign troops
and firms to leave. More than 20 foreign hostages have been
killed, including two Italians.
The latest kidnappings has piled more pressure on Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Most Italian voters strongly
oppose Italy's role in Iraq, where it has sent 2,700 soldiers.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Margherita Boniver flew to
the Middle East on Thursday to seek help in securing the
women's release.
The abductions are likely to fuel uncertainty over the fate
of two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot, who have been held since Aug. 20 despite intense
diplomatic efforts to free them.
The seizure of the aid workers is also likely to trigger an
exodus of the 50 or so remaining foreign humanitarian workers
in Iraq.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
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4) Israel Kills 4, Including 9-Year-Old, in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters)
Thu Sep 9, 2004 09:43 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6193616&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
JABALYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces thrust into
Gaza's largest refugee camp on Thursday, killing four
Palestinians including a 9-year-old boy, as the army tightened
its grip on the northern part of the coastal strip.
Scores of gunmen fought a column of tanks and armored
vehicles as Israeli troops took up positions in and around the
teeming Jabalya camp, a militant stronghold, in an operation
the army said was aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israel.
Helicopter gunships fired missiles into the camp of 100,000
inhabitants as Israeli forces sealed it off in Israel's biggest
incursion in the northern Gaza Strip in months.
Munir el-Deqqes was shot in the chest while playing with
friends outside his grandfather's house, witnesses said. "How
can anyone blame children playing in the street?" said the
boy's uncle. "Munir was a victim of blind Israeli retaliation."
At least 35 people, including militants and civilians, were
wounded by Israeli fire, medics said.
A military source said soldiers had shot only at armed men.
It was the latest chapter in Israel's military response after
suicide bombers killed 16 people in southern Israel last week.
The raid marked a widening of Israel's incursion that began
on Wednesday when forces swept in and seized control following
a barrage of makeshift rocket strikes in southern Israel.
The latest spiral of violence could further complicate
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw troops
and settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip by the end of 2005.
Palestinian militants are determined to claim any Israeli
pullout as a victory, but Israel has vowed to smash them first.
PALESTINIAN CONDEMNATION
"We urge the ... civilized world to stop these crimes by
Israeli occupation forces and call on the United States to
shoulder its responsibilities toward the peace process,"
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said in a statement.
Israel's army killed 14 Hamas fighters at a Gaza training
camp on Tuesday in the deadliest strike ever against the
militant Islamic group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.
Hamas, responsible for a double suicide bombing in the
Israeli city of Beersheba on August 31, vowed revenge for the
Israeli attacks.
In the second day of Israel's incursion in northern Gaza,
the army said its forces had penetrated to the first row of
houses in eastern Jabalya.
Israeli commanders have usually been reluctant to send
forces deep into Jabalya's cramped alleys, where they would be
vulnerable to booby traps and bombs planted by militants.
"We won't stay there forever," a senior Israeli official said.
"But we have to conduct forays just to keep them (the
rocket crews) off balance."
Medics said troops shot dead four people in Jabalya,
including at least one Hamas militant. It was not known if two
other dead, both men in their 20s, were militants or civilians.
Israeli forces surrounded Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya on
Wednesday -- towns that have been frequently raided -- and
bulldozers tore up stretches of road to cut off the area. By
Thursday, shops were getting low on supplies.
Despite the two-day-old raid, militants managed to fire
several primitive Qassam rockets from fenced-in Gaza toward the
Israeli town of Sderot. There were no reports of casualties.
In a game of cat-and-mouse, militants in some cases use
timers so they can escape minutes before the rockets are
launched, Palestinian sources said.
The army said soldiers in northern Gaza destroyed three
welding machines on Thursday used to make the rockets.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Family 'Thanks' Bush for Death of Son
WKYC-TV
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091004Z.shtml
THOMPSON - In Geauga County, anger and frustration over the
death of a young soldier inside Iraq has prompted one family to
send a personal message to President Bush.
Ken and Betty Landrus have put up a large sign outside their
home near Thompson, Ohio that is sharply critical of the Bush
administration.
The sign reads "Thanks Mr. Bush for the death of our son."
Their son, Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus was killed near Fallujah in
January.
They believe the president misled the country about the
reasons for invading Iraq and that their son died for nothing.
"Yes I do feel lied to because they kept saying there's mass
destruction and nobody's found anything yet," father Ken
Landrus said.
Sean Landrus also left behind a wife and three young
children.
His youngest daughter, Kennedy, was born just before
Sean left to serve inside Iraq.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) USA: Chevron donates to Schwarzenegger, gets removal of
restrictions on oil refineries in California
by Tom Chorneau , Associated Press
Friday, September 03, 2004 - SACRAMENTO
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11519
Friday, September 03, 2004 - SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's ambitious plan to reorganize almost every
aspect of state government was influenced significantly by oil
and gas giant ChevronTexaco Corp., which managed to shape
such key recommendations as the removal of restrictions on oil
refineries.
Many corporations and interest groups participated in the
governor's reform plan - known as the California Performance
Review - but state records and interviews with the participants
show Chevron enjoyed immense success in influencing the report
through its array of lobbyists, attorneys and trade organizations.
And few corporations have spent so much political cash on the
governor, either. Since Schwarzenegger's election last October,
the San Ramon company has contributed more than $200,000
to his committees and $500,000 to the California Republican
Party.
Chevron, whose officials acknowledge they lobbied hard to get
their ideas in the report, is one of about 20 companies that paid
to send the governor and his staff to this week's Republican
National Convention in New York. On Wednesday, Schwarzenegger
attended a closed-door meeting in New York with representatives
of those companies, including Chevron. And just three weeks
after the governor's office released the 2,700-page reorganization
report, the company gave $100,000 to a Schwarzenegger-
controlled political fund.
Environmental watchdogs and local agencies that regulate some
of Chevron's operations complain that they had no such access,
and that their counterproposals appear nowhere in the massive
report.
Top reform project
Disclosure of Chevron's determined role in what many believe is
the administration's most important political reform effort contrasts
sharply with statements he made during last year's election campaign
and afterward in which he promised to sweep out a corrupt system
where "contributions go in, the favors go out."
Schwarzenegger launched the reorganization effort in January,
calling the state bureaucracy a "mastodon frozen in time" that needed
to be reviewed from top to bottom to eliminate waste and duplication.
The administration said the recommendations in the report would save
$32 billion over five years, a claim analysts said is exaggerated.
Although the governor's senior aides helped organize and oversee the
reorganization effort, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger said the
review staff, not the governor's office, was responsible for the report.
Schwarzenegger announced the review in January and then appointed
its two top members, who then assembled the rest of the staff.
Ashley Snee, the governor's deputy press secretary, said it was
premature to assume any of the recommendations will be adopted
and that those who are unhappy with parts of the report can
comment at a series of statewide hearings on the proposal.
Beneficial proposals
Proposals that would benefit Chevron are peppered throughout the
four-volume report. They include:
- Streamlining the permit process for the construction of new oil
refineries and the expansion of existing ones. Chevron, which owns
two of the state's largest refineries in Richmond and El Segundo,
wanted the state's help in revising existing laws so local government
officials would be required to make decisions more quickly on
construction permits at refineries.
- Streamlining the activities of the San Francisco Bay Conservation
and Development Commission. That agency, which issues permits
for dredging and sand mining in the Bay Area, oversees activities
related to Chevron's interests in the Bay Area.
- Reorganizing the regulatory process for picking the locations
for refineries, tank farms, liquefied natural gas and other energy
facilities. Chevron has two proposals to build liquefied natural
gas (LNG) facilities in Southern California and the Mexican state
of Baja California.
But Mark Petracca, a University of California, Irvine political
scientist, said Chevron's considerable influence on the CPR
report may taint the whole review because the study was
presented to the public as an objective and authoritative
analysis of how to fix state government.
"This is good old fashioned interest-group politics," Petracca
said. "Powerful people who have money can hire powerful
people and use occasions like this report to set the agenda
for policy beneficial to those interests."
Under scrutiny
In response, Snee repeated that the report was independent
of the governor's office.
Chevron's operations have drawn steady and critical scrutiny
from state and federal regulators, including a settlement last
October of a lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department that
required the company to install $275 million in air pollution
equipment and pay $3.5 million in civil penalties.
Company officials said they were just doing their jobs through
their vigorous participation in the CPR process, which included
meeting with senior aides to the governor.
"This is what we are here for," said Jack Coffey, Chevron's
general manager over state government relations, from New
York where he was attending the Republican convention.
Chevron learned about the CPR early and "obviously
understood their agenda," Coffey said, adding that while
there was direct contact by company lobbyists, most contact
came through trade groups of which Chevron is a member.
"We made an effort to feed those trade associations who
were more active."
But, Coffey said, Chevron's donations to Schwarzenegger are
because of his "pro-business agenda" and have nothing to
do with the CPR report.
Chevron's concerns
In an interview, Chevron lobbyist K.C. Bishop said he met with
Richard Costigan, Schwarzenegger's legislative affairs secretary,
in April or May, about trouble the company was having with
routine refinery permits and proposed legislation on the issue.
At the end of the discussion, Bishop was directed to the CPR
staff, which he visited a week or so later.
Neither the meeting with Costigan nor with CPR staff were
reported in Chevron's quarterly lobbying filings.
Also acknowledged in the CPR report were Bishop; Mike Barr,
a lawyer with the San Francisco-based firm Pillsbury Winthrop
and who represents Chevron; and affiliated lobbyists of the
Western States Petroleum - Kahl/Pownall Advocates - of which
Chevron is also a member.
Meanwhile, the Bay Planning Coalition - a business-oriented
group of which Chevron is a board member - contacted the
governor's cabinet secretary over problems its members were
having with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission.
Schwarzenegger's staff sent the coalition's issue to the CPR
staff, which met with the coalition sometime in April,
according Ellen Johnck, the coalition's executive director.
Complaints lodged
A letter from the coalition outlining the complaints -
including some lodged by Chevron - was used a primary
source for the CPR report that concluded BCDC had
overstepped its authority. Although BCDC officials offered
significant documentation to rebut the allegations, none
of the commission's defense was included in the CPR report.
In its section about making it easier to locate refineries
or LNG plants, the CPR report cites attorney Mike Carroll
of the law firm Latham & Watkins as a source. Based in
the firm's Orange County office, Carroll represents
Chevron on a variety of regulatory issues, according
to the firm's Web site.
Carroll did not return telephone calls for comment
from the Associated Press.
Chevron has two LNG proposals - a $650 million facility
that would be built offshore on an island near Tijuana in
Baja California; and a second plan that would place a
facility at Camp Pendleton in Orange County.
Schwarzenegger is expected to meet with Mexican officials
in Mexicali later this month. One expected topic of
discussion is Chevron's LNG proposal.
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) The Beslan hostage tragedy:
the lies of the Putin government and its media
By Vladimir Volkov
8 September 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/puti-s08.shtml
The hostage-taking tragedy in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia
has demonstrated the lengths to which the ruling elite in Russia is
prepared to go in deceiving its own people. Four days after the hostage
drama began with terrorists seizing over 1,000 children, parents
and teachers, elementary facts still remain unclear. The Russian
government has denied the people the most important and
elementary right-that of reliable, rapid and extensive information
on what has taken place.
From the beginning of the crisis on the morning of September 1
to its tragic end two days later, leading politicians, representatives
of the secret police and the major media outlets in Russia conducted
a deliberate campaign of disinformation regarding the extent
of the catastrophe and its dreadful consequences.
Lie number one: the number of hostages
From the outset, the number of hostages was deliberately
underestimated. The official figure of 354 hostages was repeated
by television channels and in the public appearances of
government representatives up to the point of the storming
of the school building.
Early on in the crisis, much higher figures for the hostages
were provided by newspapers and Internet sources, yet the
television networks held firm to their original claim. After
talks September 2 between the hostage takers and the former
president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Auschev-resulting in the
release of 26 women and children-the media repeated its
estimate, even though the real extent of the hostage taking
could at that stage hardly be concealed.
Auschev had seen how many people had been incarcerated
in the gymnasium hall. One of the women released
September 2 told the press: "There are many hostages,
very many. I think a thousand." Another woman whose
two children remained in the school said: "According to
the list 860 children attend the school. Maybe half of them
did not come to the school's opening ceremony. Then
there are the parents. Look around at how many people
are standing here. Here in the House of Culture there are
1,000 people and all of them have at least one relative or
child in the school."
Similar reports appeared in newspapers and Internet
magazines. Nevertheless the television channels remained
stubbornly attached to their original figure.
Lie number two: the terrorists had posed no demands
At the outset of the drama, a decision was made at the
highest political level that under no circumstances would
information be released concerning the terrorists' demands.
This was a lesson that the Putin government had drawn
from the hostage drama at the Moscow Musical Theatre
"Nordost" in 2002. Relatives of the hostages then held
captive inside the theatre had demonstrated for an end
to the Russian war in Chechnya. The demand met with
widespread popular support, and the Kremlin has had
great difficulty suppressing this political sentiment.
This time it was claimed that the terrorists had made no
demands. A statement calling for an end to the Chechen
war and the withdrawal of Russian troops made at the
start of the hostage crisis by an Islamist group was kept
secret. In addition, the government maintained that all of
its efforts to make contact with the terrorists had been
ignored.
On September 6, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported
that as early as the afternoon of September 1 and not far
from the school, "Parents of children being held in the
school had addressed the Russian president in a video.
They called upon him to fulfill all the demands of the
terrorists in order to save the lives of the children."
All the major television and other media outlets kept this
information secret for a considerable period.
According to numerous witnesses, the hostage takers made
no secret about their demands. For example, on September 3,
Izvestia interviewed a teacher who had been released along
with her three-year-old daughter. Question: "Did the terrorists
tell you their demands?" Answer: "They said they had just one
demand: the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya."
Lie number three: there were no plans for storming the building
Immediately after news of the hostage taking broke, leading
to widespread popular anguish, representatives of the Russian
government declared that everything would be done to avoid an
armed assault on the school by security forces. In fact, nothing
was done to prevent such a storming of the school.
According to a commentary in the newspaper Izvestia, the
drama "took the worst possible turn." The government sought
to hide its own failure by claiming that the storming of the
building had not been prepared, and even that there were no
plans for such an action. This claim is contradicted by a series
of facts and reports by witnesses.
On September 3, the paper Nezavicimaya Gazeta reported that
"intelligence forces were preparing to storm the school." The
paper referred to the fact that on the night of September 1 specially
equipped military transport planes had landed in North Ossetia.
The paper also said it was presumed that the anti-terror unit "Alfa"
had been flown in.
It is now known that "Alfa" and another anti-terror unit, "Vimpel,"
played the decisive role in the storming of the building. The very
fact that, following the unexpected exchange of fire on September 3,
the terrorists immediately began shooting and set off previously
installed explosives indicates that they were sure a storming of the
building would take place.
Bearing these facts in mind-the demands of the terrorists that were
never disclosed, the refusal of the government to undertake any
discussions with the hostage-takers, the scale of the censorship
of information regarding what was taking place inside the school
and the positioning of the special forces units in the front line-the
newspaper Gazeta.ru concluded on September 4: "The storming had
in fact been prepared and was to have been carried out within the
next two days. Without water, the children could only have survived
for three or four days, and then it would have no longer been
possible to rescue most of the hostages. However, on Friday they
were forced to take action."
Lie number four: the number of victims
Even after the catastrophe had taken place-bombs had gone off
in the gym, part of which had collapsed-the government and the
media continued to lie by minimizing the number of casualties.
The official death toll rose only as the bodies began to be
counted. According to government sources on Monday morning,
September 6, 335 dead had been counted. At the same time it
became clear there existed a list of missing persons totaling 260.
According to the radio station "Echo Moscow," these victims feature
neither on the lists of those who have died nor on the list of those
who have been hospitalized.
On Saturday, inhabitants of Beslan, who observed coffins with
victims inside being transported from the burnt out ruins of the
school, reported t
hat they had counted a total of between 500 and 600.
Against this background it is hardly necessary to examine the other
lies broadcast by the Russian media about the number of terrorists
involved-which was also minimized-or the course of events that
was officially reported in wildly varying versions.
The overall conduct of the Russian media, in particular the major
television networks, was shameful. While in the West many television
stations devoted special coverage to the events in North Ossetia,
often working with Russian cameramen, Russian television refused
to interrupt its regular programming.
At one point in the crisis, a correspondent for the Russian
television channel NTW addressed the camera and bluntly
declared, "We cannot say what is happening; we cannot
comment on the actions of those involved in the fighting!"
It is no wonder that television journalists have been physically
assaulted by Beslan inhabitants. As the first information emerged
on the real extent of the casualties, outraged bystanders turned
on television journalists, lashing out at their cameras and the
reporters themselves.
The role played by Russian television, however, only expressed
the iron-fisted control exerted over the major media outlets by
Putin's Kremlin, which has brought every television channel under
either direct or indirect state control. The Russian regime has
enforced media subservience with intimidation and state gangsterism,
which is backed by much of Russia's ruling strata of corrupt
businessmen and ex-Stalinist bureaucrats.
Putin used the hostage-taking crisis at the Moscow theatre two
years ago to consolidate this grip over the media, claiming that
it had abused freedom of the press in its coverage. He demanded
that the news outlets report nothing that could conceivably aid
the terrorists, including their statements or demands, analysis
of the events or coverage of Russian military and police operations.
This noose is tightening. The editor in chief of Izvestia, Raf Shakirov,
announced his forced resignation Monday after coming under fire
from the Kremlin and the newspaper's corporate publishers over
its coverage of the Beslan events. The paper filled its entire front
page last Saturday with a photograph of a man carrying a wounded
child from the besieged school. The newspaper also raised pointed
questions about the official claim that only 350 people were held
hostage and published a stinging column denouncing the self-
censorship by the television channels.
Meanwhile, a prominent Russian journalist who has reported
critically on the war in Chechnya was prevented from reaching
the scene of the latest hostage-taking tragedy under
circumstances that can only be described as ominous.
Novaya Gazeta correspondent Anna Politkovskaya fell sick
after drinking tea during the first leg of her flight to Beslan.
Rushed to the hospital after landing in Rostov, she was diagnosed
with acute food poisoning. According to one report, authorities
had blocked her from boarding her original flight, but the captain
of another airliner recognized her and invited her aboard.
The suppression of the media, together with the impotence of
the Russian parliament-the Duma chose not to meet during the
crisis, with its leaders affirming that all they could do was issue
another statement-are hallmarks of the authoritarian state that
Putin is consolidating in Russia.
The president's resort to the methods of state censorship, however,
is a manifestation of the general impotence and political isolation
of the regime as a whole. Under conditions of historically
unprecedented social inequality between a thin layer of "new
Russian" entrepreneurs and masses of impoverished working
people, democratic forms of rule are not possible.
While capable of buying off or intimidating his political opponents
and much of the media, Putin has proven unable to resolve any of
the deepening crises wracking Russia, from the war in Chechnya
and other outbreaks of regional separatism, to the generalized
corruption and breakdown that characterizes the entire state
apparatus and the economy. All of these crises came together
to produce the tragedy in Beslan.
While these failures are behind the drive to control the media,
the ham-fisted censorship carried out in the latest crisis has
provoked widespread anger and opposition within the former
Soviet Union. The "democratic reforms" that were touted as a
byproduct of the collapse of the USSR and the introduction of
capitalism have produced instead a media that is in many ways
reminiscent of the worst of the Stalinist period, based on lies and
deception and dedicated to the suppression of any news that
casts the head of state in a bad light.
Putin has seized upon the atrocity in Beslan to claim even more
authoritarian power and to reject any suggestion of negotiating an
end to the brutal war in Chechnya. His transparent aim is to
emulate Bush in claiming unlimited power to carry out repression
in the name of a "war on terror."
While hundreds of thousands turned out at rallies against
terrorism that were organized with state support on Tuesday,
the mood of outrage was directed not only at the terrorists, but
at the government itself.
The harshest anger was expressed at a rally in the North Ossetian
capital of Vladikavkaz, about 18 miles north of Beslan. The crowd
that turned out in the city's central square protested not only
against terrorism, but the state authorities as well.
"Today, we will bury our children and tomorrow we will come
here and throw these devils out of their seats, from the lowest
director up to ministers and the president," a speaker at the
rally declared.
A protest sign raised above the crowd read, "Corrupt authority
is a source of terrorism."
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8) Protests Powered by Cellphone
By PATRICK DI JUSTO
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/technology/circuits/09mobb.html
AS thousands of protesters marched through Manhattan
during the Republican National Convention last week, some
were equipped with a wireless tactical communications device
connected to a distributed information service that provided
detailed and nearly instantaneous updates about route changes,
street closures and police actions.
The communications device was a common cellphone. The
information service, a collection of open-source, Web-based
programming scripts running on a Linux server in someone's
closet, is called TXTMob.
TXTMob works like an Internet mailing list for cellphones and is
the brainchild of a young man who goes by the pseudonym John
Henry. He is a member of the Institute for Applied Autonomy, a
group of artists, programmers and others who say their mission
is to develop technologies that serve the social and human need
for self-determination. (The group was behind iSee, a Web site that
has maps of surveillance cameras in Lower Manhattan and calculates
routes for those seeking to avoid them.)
He conceals his identity as part of an agreement with other members
of the group and out of concern that he might become the target
of an effort to force disclosure of TXTMob members' phone numbers,
which are kept in a database he maintains.
TXTMob allows people to quickly and easily send text messages
from one cellphone to a group of other cellphones. This in itself
is nothing new: other mobile networking systems like
dodgeball.com and bedno.com already exist.
To sign up for TXTMob, users enter their cellphone numbers
into the TXTMob Web site, www.txtmob .com. To thwart spammers,
the system uses opt-in registration: a machine-generated
authorization code is sent to each registered number and must
be re-entered into the Web site to activate the registration.
TXTMob is designed to carefully maintain members' privacy,
not surprising given why most are using TXTMob.
The software was not intended for everyday mobile socializing.
It was created as a tool political activists could use to organize
their work, from staff meetings to street protests. Most of the
people using it are on the left: of the 142 public groups listed on
the TXTMob site, the largest are dedicated to protesting the Bush
administration, the Republican Party or the state of the world in
general.
When a preliminary version of TXTMob was tested at the Democratic
National Convention in Boston in July, about 200 people used it to
organize protesters into spontaneous rallies, to warn them about
the location of police crackdowns and to direct volunteer medics
where they were needed, all in real time.
Based on user feedback afterward, some changes were made -
primarily beefing up the system to handle a heavier volume of
messages - to increase its usefulness for what were expected
to be much larger protests during the Republican National
Convention.
TXTMob had its first major New York workout on the evening
of Aug. 27, during the Critical Mass, a loosely organized bicycle
ride through Manhattan by anti-Republican protesters. From the
start of the ride, participants in a TXTMob group called
comms_dispatch sent a slew of messages alerting one
another to route changes and warning of traffic snarls.
As the ride neared its end, comms_dispatch buzzed with
reports of arrests from Second Avenue to 10th Avenue,
and around St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.
On Aug. 29, two days after she took part in the Critical Mass
ride, a woman from San Francisco who identified herself only
as Josie sat outside St. Mark's and read text messages on her
cellphone. Describing herself as a "voracious" TXTMob reader,
she credited the service with helping keep her safe during the ride.
"It told me where the cops were and where I could rest," she
said as she thumbed through the TXTMob messages from that
day's United for Peace and Justice march that were arriving on
her cellphone at the rate of about one per minute. "It brought
me here."
As reports of clashes between the police and protesters appeared
on her cellphone screen, it became possible to build a mental
picture of the march: a burning papier mâché dragon outside
Madison Square Garden, barricades on 34th Street, police officers
zipping around on scooters, a rally so large that the first marchers
had finished before the last marchers had started.
That, to Josie, was TXTMob's most important function. "When I can't
be at a protest, like now," she said, waving her phone, "it's like I can
be there, because I can know what's going on directly from the people
who are there in the streets."
What might have been TXTMob's greatest moment, the planned flash
mob at Union Square on Aug. 31, did not work out as planned. That
afternoon, TXTMob subscribers with cellular service from Sprint or
T-Mobile stopped receiving messages for nearly four hours, leaving
them unaware of the first meeting location. When those who did meet
started marching, the police quickly set up a barricade across 16th
Street and began arresting the marchers. All told, it took about an
hour for the event, loosely organized by the A31 Action Coalition,
to go from promise to debacle:
18:15:50 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party mtg at SE corner of Union Sq.
18:37:56 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party look for festive signs.
19:02:51 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party on B-way at 15th headed north.
Doing fine.
19:07:02 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party penned in b/w Irving and 16th.
More in next message.
19:15:23 Tue., Aug 31: A31 party disperse immediately.
What happens to TXTMob after Election Day? The events of last week
left the Institute for Applied Autonomy convinced that it has a future,
not just as an activist organizing tool but also as a general mobile
networking system.
The Internet Business Chronicle, an online publication, is using
TXTMob to deliver news updates to readers, and the number of
party groups is quickly catching up to the number of protest
groups. The pseudonymous John Henry said he was looking at
keeping the system going and might even expand it to work with
cellphones in Europe and Asia. After that, it's anyone's guess.
"People keep finding their own uses for this thing, and they're
developing it on the fly," he said. "That's what's really exciting."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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9) Ex-Banking Star Given 18 Months for Obstruction
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
September 9, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/business/09star.html
Frank P. Quattrone, the Wall Street banker whose pay and deals
made him a vivid symbol of the 1990's technology boom, was
sentenced to 18 months in prison yesterday for obstructing a
government investigation into the allocation of hot stock offerings.
Mr. Quattrone, 48, who led the initial offerings of companies like
Amazon.com and Cisco Systems as a banker at Credit Suisse First
Boston, is the most prominent Wall Street figure to face prison since
Michael R. Milken pleaded guilty to six securities charges in 1990.
Judge Richard Owen of Federal District Court in Manhattan handed
down a harsher prison sentence than the 10 to 16 months stipulated
by basic federal guidelines, finding that Mr. Quattrone perjured himself
when he took the witness stand during his trial and said under oath that
he had not intended to impede the government's investigation when he
sent a one-line e-mail message at the heart of the case.
"It is crystal clear that he was untruthful," Judge Owen said yesterday.
Mr. Quattrone, who made $120 million in 2000, was perhaps the most
prominent banker in Silicon Valley during the 1990's, assembling a team
that brought public many of the biggest names in technology. After that
success and the bursting of the technology bubble, Mr. Quattrone and
First Boston came under the microscope of regulators and prosecutors,
who began investigating whether the bank was soliciting kickbacks from
preferred investors, later dubbed Friends of Frank, in exchange for access =
to hot stock offerings.
While that inquiry did not lead to criminal charges, Mr. Quattrone was
charged with hampering the investigations when he endorsed a
colleague's e-mail message in December 2000 urging his staff to
"clean up those files." Mr. Quattrone's first trial ended in a hung jury,
but he was convicted at a retrial.
Judge Owen refused Mr. Quattrone's request to remain free while he
appealed the case. Mr. Quattrone must surrender to federal prison
authorities within 50 days. The judge also fined him $90,300 and
initially asked him to make the payment immediately. "There's $50
million in the bank," Judge Owen said. "He can't write a check today?"
He then acquiesced to requests by Mr. Quattrone's lawyers to pay the
fine within 20 days.
Mr. Quattrone's sentence, which includes two years of probation, stands
in stark contrast to the one recently given to Martha Stewart, who was
also convicted of obstruction of justice. In that case, Judge Miriam
Goldman Cedarbaum sentenced Ms. Stewart to five months in prison,
plus five months of home confinement. Ms. Stewart was also allowed
to remain free pending appeal.
The Bureau of Prisons had recommended in its presentencing report
that Mr. Quattrone receive the same sentence as Ms. Stewart.
Robert G. Morvillo, who is Ms. Stewart's lawyer, said yesterday that
Mr. Quattrone's sentence was too severe. "Is it a reasonable sentence?"
Mr. Morvillo asked. "You won't find a defense attorney in town who
thinks this is reasonable. The idea that Judge Owen jumped the
sentence just continues the defense bar view that he is overly harsh."
Judge Owen, an appointee of President Richard M. Nixon, has long
had a reputation among defense lawyers of favoring prosecutors, and
the sentencing of Mr. Quattrone capped nearly a year of dueling
between his lawyers and the judge that often included heated
exchanges in court.
At one point yesterday, Mr. Quattrone's trial lawyer, John W. Keker,
a former prosecutor of Oliver L. North during the Iran-contra trial,
told the judge he thought he was being strung along while making
his argument for leniency.
"If you've made up your mind on this, just tell me," Mr. Keker said. At
another point, in which Mr. Keker cited the hung jury in the first trial
and asserted there were grounds for appeal because the case was so
close, Judge Owen blurted out: "I don't agree with you that this was a
close case."
Mr. Quattrone's appeal will be based in large part on several rulings
Judge Owen made that barred him from introducing evidence that
may have been helpful to his case.
The clash continued in court yesterday and spilled into the street after
the hearing, with Mr. Quattrone's lawyers standing in pelting rain
accusing Judge Owen of an unfair trial.
"Cases like this are why we have courts of appeals," said Mark F.
Pomerantz, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in
Manhattan who will lead Mr. Quattrone's appeal. "The defense was
forced to try its case from the inside of a straitjacket."
"The trial judge kept out critical evidence offered by the defense,"
said Mr. Pomerantz, who represented Dr. Samuel D. Waksal, the founder
of ImClone Systems Inc. , who pleaded guilty to insider trading. "And
although the judge tied the hands of the defense, he gave the
government free rein to put in irrelevant but prejudicial evidence."
Before he was sentenced, Mr. Quattrone addressed the judge, saying:
"I humbly ask that you show mercy and compassion for me and my
family, for whom any separation from me would be extremely
detrimental."
But the judge denied his request, and Mr. Quattrone's legal team
and friends sitting in court were enraged when Judge Owen then
appeared to gratuitously make public the medical problems of
Mr. Quattrone's 15-year-old daughter, Cristina, questioning the
severity of claims from doctors who submitted records that she
has a medical disorder. Mr. Quattrone's lawyers had asked that
the medical records of the family remain sealed.
Judge Owen also dismissed arguments from Mr. Quattrone's lawyers
that he should receive a lenient sentence because his wife has a
chronic illness that makes him the "only functioning adult" in the
household.
"There's $50 million of assets out there to take care of
Mrs. Quattrone and $26 million to take care of Cristina in some
trust fund," Judge Owen said. Reading from Mrs. Quattrone's
medical records, Judge Owen added, "It says here she can drive
under limited conditions."
Judge Owen's decision to depart from the basic federal guidelines
and give Mr. Quattrone a tougher sentence raises questions about
whether it will be upheld. In a case from Washington State in June,
the Supreme Court ruled that the state's judicial system, which
allowed judges to increase a convicted defendant's sentence
beyond the ordinary range for the crime, violated the constitutional
right to trial by jury. While the ruling only applies to Washington
State, the decision - Blakely v. Washington - is being watched by
federal judges nationwide, and many have stuck to the guidelines,
worried that their sentences will be overturned. The Supreme Court
has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the guidelines for
federal criminal sentences this fall.
"Given that the Blakely case is still out there, to do an upward
departure, this is a judge who is thumbing his nose at Blakely,"
said John J. Fahy, a former federal prosecutor who practices law
in New Jersey.
Some defense lawyers contended the sentence might help
Mr. Quattrone's appeal. "It plays into the defense claim of unfair
treatment on the part of Judge Owen," said Robert A. Mintz, a
former federal prosecutor and a partner at McCarter & English.
Judge Owen agreed to a request from Mr. Quattrone's lawyers
that he be assigned to Lompoc Federal Prison Camp in California,
which is a minimum-security prison northwest of Los Angeles
where Ivan F. Boesky was once an inmate.
As he left the courthouse, Mr. Quattrone said: "To my family in
California, Dad is coming home soon, and I love you. And I can
hold my head high because I know I'm innocent and I never
intended to obstruct justice."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2004
NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:
TOMORROW, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 7 p.m.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(Between 24th & 25th Streets, S.F.)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Tomgram: Nick Turse on the new Homeland Security State
Posted September 5, 2004 at 11:09 am
2) One Thousand and One
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804A.shtml
3) CONFRONTING INSURGENTS
U.S. Conceding Rebels
Control Regions of Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/08policy.html?hp
4) Fight Oppression One Olive at a Time
Help with the Palestinian Olive Harvest this Fall
This simple act will help Palestinians resist the occupation
by insisting on life.
5) Peace activist held as 'danger to Israel'
Lawyers question state motives behind detention
without trial of former woman soldier who befriended
leading Palestinian militant
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Tuesday September 7, 2004
The Guardian
6) URGENT CALL TO ACTION: ORGANIZE A
VIGIL ON THURSDAY NIGHT
FOR THE MORE THAN 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS KILLED
7) CENSORED 2005:
THE TOP 25 CENSORED MEDIA STORIES OF 2003-2004
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html
8) 150 Arrests during Demonstration by
San Francisco Hotel Workers
By Frontlines correspondent
9) Bush & Putin self-fulfilled prophesies:
Slaughter and Terrorism
Frontlines Editorial Board
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=828&mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Tomgram: Nick Turse on the new Homeland Security State
Posted September 5, 2004 at 11:09 am
On the third night the Republican Convention was in town, I attended
a modest demonstration against the imperial broadcast media --
there's nothing like hundreds of people chanting about breaking
up media conglomerates while looking at the blank, skyscraping
faces of darkened, semi-deserted buildings. But who had time to
look for CNN or Time Warner or Fox News (where the march was
destined to end) when the most visible -- overwhelming and
intimidating -- presence on the street was the police. The "march,"
which you might want to imagine as a serpentine creature heading
south on New York's Sixth Avenue, had actually been chopped into
a series of one-block long segments by the New York Police
Department. Each small segment was penned on its sides by
moveable wooden barricades and on either end by the wheel-to-
wheel bikes of a seemingly endless supply of mounted policemen
backed up by all manner of police vehicles. Though the photographing
of protestors is an old practice, ! it once had a somewhat surreptitious
quality to it. Not here (or anywhere else in the city that week) --
police in uniform were openly videoing the crowd. To "march,"
that is, actually meant to step from pen to pen, hemmed in
everywhere, your protest at the mercy of the timing, tactics,
and desires of the police. It was one of many sobering moments
that week, a small reminder of what we've already lost, thanks
to the "war on terror" as it's being played out in our still-in-
formation Homeland Security State.
Nick Turse offered a preview of what New York had in store for
its demonstrators in a piece he did for Tomdispatch some weeks
before the Republicans arrived. I asked him, in the wake of the
Convention -- and with his own experiences as a demonstrator
in mind -- to return to the subject. Tom
The Rise of the Homeland Security State
Fortress Big Apple, Revisited
By Nick Turse
Prior to the Republican National Convention, I thought I knew
all about the militarization of Manhattan -- the transformation
of the island into a "homeland-security state" -- and about New
York City as the paradigm for the security culture that increasingly
grips American society. After all, I wrote about it in "Fortress Big
Apple."
It turns out I didn't know the half of it. Only after writing that
piece did I discover that the New York Police Department (NYPD)
had purchase two experimental sound weapons known as Long
Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) which I had once described in
writing about U.S. experimental weapons research
in Iraq.
I had then termed the deployment of an LRAD here during the
convention "improbable" -- yet there it was out on the very same
streets I was walking. I also looked out my window and caught
sight of the ultimate blending! of corporatism and the police-
state -- the Fuji blimp -- now emblazoned with a second logo:
"NYPD." This spy-in-the-sky, outfitted with the latest in video-
surveillance equipment, had been loaned free of charge
to the police all week long.
But even finding out about these new high-tech tools of the
homeland security-state didn't make things clear to me; nor
did the ever-present roar of helicopter rotors as those of us in
the streets during the RNC were surveilled from above; or even
when Brendan Galligan of the NYPD Aviation Unit
bluntly told a reporter from the local ABC TV affiliate: "I'm
looking for any kind of crime on the grou[nd]. In this case,
we're looking for roving mobs of people traveling in unison,
that might indicate some sort of problem for the ground
troops." "People traveling in unison" a crime? "Ground troops"?
I should have fully understood then, but I didn't.
I didn't quite get it when I saw the stone-faced feds out on the
streets with those ever-present ear-pieces piping in commands
from who knows where; nor as I scuttled between concrete
barricades and metal fences in the area around Madison Square
Garden while remote cameras tracked my every move; nor when
a march I was in was flanked by a phalanx of bicycle-riding police;
nor when a corps of plainclothes cops on scooters trolled the
streets near Times Square. You would think that I would have
understood it when the peaceful group of activists I was with were
pushed off the sidewalk by police in front of us, while the cops in
back ordered us onto the sidewalk; or when, left with no options,
we tried to escape by crossing Broadway only to have some of our
number caught in the NYPD's literal dragnet -- rolls of orange
plastic netting
which were repeatedly unfurled all across the city, snagging protesters,
! press, legal observers, pedestrians, and bystanders alike. I can't
understand why I didn't get it when I looked up from watching some
cops press a man's head to the pavement to see a hoard of police
on horseback heading down the street
NYPD's Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU) filmed me,
apparently for walking in a park or perhaps for what I might do,
prompting a young woman to sidle up next to me and whisper
"they're tailing you" --making me wonder, was the warning sincere
or could she be with them too?
I witnessed the fleets of black SUVs with police escorts roar down
virtually empty city streets near the Madison Square Garden bubble.
On numerous occasions, I saw flatbed police trucks filled with the
very interlocking metal barriers that a judge had ruled
could no
longer be used to pen in protesters (as the NYPD had been
doing for about a decade) -- and I saw those metal barricades
pressed back into action on multiple occasions. I witnessed a
black van door slide open, revealing tactical-gear clad troops
of some sort, brandishing automatic rifles. I witnessed cops
and feds on rooftops with binoculars and cameras trained on
me and/or my compatriots. I saw cops peering through the
near-blacked out windows of unmarked cars and noticed the
NYPD's "radio emergency patrol vehicles"
wherever protesters seemed to gather.
I repeatedly walked through gauntlets of blue-uniformed
cops and white-shirted brass to and from the subway in
Union Square Park -- where the three guys in jeans and
untucked button-down shirts (which every so often showed
the outlines of their guns) graciously smiled one evening as
I snapped a picture of their undercover activities. Much less
jolly were the secret service agents, one clad in polo shirt
and khaki pants, who moved in behind me prompting a legal
observer at an event to collect my name and contact
information in case I should be snatched off the street;
even less jolly was the beefy NYPD officer with no visible
badge or name tag who made it a point to shove me as I
attempted to take a picture of an orange-net arrest before
offering a less-than-convincing "excuse me!" as he strode
away.
Police vans with netting over the windows; helmeted riot
gear-clad cops; NYPD "paddy wagons"; constant sirens;
cops who shoved at us with their night-sticks
filming with camcorders; radios crackling information to
uniformed officers outside almost any subway stop, on
street corners, on subway platforms, and on the trains
themselves; even those menacing, or sometimes just weary-
looking, ultimate conscripts of the homeland security army,
the police attack dogs on street patrol, didn't fully hammer
home the reality of Fortress Big Apple. What did was the 10'
by 20' chain-link pen
with razor wire over the top that I found myself in after being
arrested for the crime of trying "to change trains," as a
Washington Post reporter wrote
,
after sitting "silently on a subway train! going uptown" to
"protest deaths in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere."
The floors of the pen were covered with a layer of grime
-- a mix of what might have been oil, grease, battery acid,
transmission fluid, antifreeze, diesel fuel, and possibly leaded
gasoline; the pipes overhead gave the appearance of incomplete
asbestos abatement; the rotting food and old milk cartons behind
the detention pens helped to further drive it home. Like
so many others
taken to a makeshift detention center set up by the city especially
for the protesters. It was the old municipal bus garage which bears
the name "Marine and Aviation Pier 57" but has now been dubbed
"Guantanamo on the Hudson."
Of course, being incarcerated in New York's own Giitmo! (before
being packed off to central booking and then a cell in the infamous
"Tombs") rather than in America's "offshore archipelago of injustice"
--
Abu Ghraib, the actual Guantanamo, or "Camp Justice" on the Indian
Ocean island of Diego Garcia, to name but a few -- means I fared
infinitely better than most victims of America's security culture run
amok. Still, the visible abrasions on my wrists from the plastic cuffs
(fastened so purposefully tight) that restricted the blood flow to my
hands while I was in transit to jail aboard a corrections bus, or the
tears of the woman in a cage on the same bus suffering from also
too-tight hand restraints
(which left the cops in a joking mood), do show the bare traces of
the Abu Ghraib mentality alive in America's security forces, at home
as well as abroad.
Of course, in communities of color and poor neighborhoods, such
tactics, and worse, are old hat -- as my cell-mates behind the
arraignment courtroom were quick to point out. But now the NYPD
is field-testing new tactics and tools to use against us all. Perhaps
most distressing, they've established a precedent and the tacit acceptance
of the public as well. Most New Yorkers either left town or failed to
vigorously protest the chilling effect of the growth of the homeland-
security complex.
I heard first hand of seemingly baseless preemptive arrests and
intimidation by federal agents -- an activist en route to work grabbed
off the street by the feds; another apparently tailed by a black SUV
and shadowed by plainclothes agents. The question is: Will this stop
now that the RNC has left town or will it simply become the accepted
way of doing things in New York City and elsewhere around the country?
The RNC gave the NYPD (coordinating with the feds) a perfect
opportunity to stockpile weapons systems, high-tech equipment,
and surveillance devices. It allowed them to refine, perfect, and
implement new tactics (someday, perhaps, to be thought of as the
"New York model") for use penning in or squelching dissent. It offered
them the chance to write up a playbook on how citizens' legal rights
and civil liberties may be abridged, constrained, and violated at their
discretion. In short, it gave them a free hand to transform New York
City into a true homeland security statelet.
Nick Turse writes regularly for Tomdispatch on the military-industrial-
entertainment complex. He was jailed by the homeland-security state
when he dared to ride the subway with a "war dead" placard
around his neck (scroll down to photo). He asks that you consider
donating to the NYC Legal Work Fund Collective for RNC Arrestees
and/or the National
Lawyers Guild
who saved him more than once during the protests.
Copyright C2004 Nicholas Turse
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) One Thousand and One
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804A.shtml
On the day Operation Iraqi Freedom suffered the 1,000th death
of a United States soldier, some quick numbers are in order:
1,095 days since the attacks of September 11;
538 days since the invasion and occupation of Iraq;
1,001 American soldiers dead in Iraq;
1,132 total Coalition soldiers dead in Iraq;
More than 20,000 'medical evacuations' of American
soldiers from Iraq;
More than 10,000 civilians dead in Iraq;
0 weapons of mass destruction;
0 democratic elections in Iraq;
0 connections between Iraq and the attacks of September 11;
0 captures of Osama bin Laden, in Iraq or anywhere else;
$1.7 trillion to be spent on Iraq in the next decade,
according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
report by the Committee on International Security Studies (CISS).
Jane Bright wrote to me in November of 2003 about the
death of her son, one of the 1,001. "I must share with you,"
wrote Bright, "the obituary I wrote for my son, Sgt. Evan Ashcraft,
who was killed July 24 near Mosul. I often think of the contributions
my intelligent, sensitive wonderful son could have made. He could
have been President of the United States. He could have been a
doctor caring for children in a Third World Country. He had so
much potential. He told us that when he came back from Iraq he
wanted to help people. He said he had seen so much hatred and
death that the only way to live his life was through aid to others.
Look at what we've lost. The loss is not just mine, it's the world's
loss. Evan will always be alive in my heart. He and all the other
victims of this heinous action in Iraq must be more than mere
numbers emerging from the Pentagon's daily tally. His death is
a crime against humanity and the fault lies with the war criminals
who inhabit our White House. Please share his story so that he may
come alive to your readers."
Writer Bruce Mulkey spoke recently to Jane Bright, and wrote
about his conversation in an essay titled 'Military Families Speak
Out.' Bright said to him, "Several months ago when George Bush
was performing his skit for the media in which he was looking
under his desk and under chairs for weapons of mass destruction,
I was horrified by the insensitivity of his performance. I thought to
myself, here is the president of the United States making a joke out
of a pre-emptive war and laughing about weapons of mass destruction,
the basis for going to war, a war in which my dear son died, over
1,000 coalition troops have died and thousands of Iraqi civilians
have died. How dare he!"
There are a lot of women like Jane Bright in America now.
Brooke Campbell lost her brother, Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell,
in Iraq on April 29, 2004. In his last letter to her, Ryan wrote, "Just
do me one big favor, OK? Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it.
I would not be happy with you."
Ms. Campbell, in a subsequent letter to George W. Bush , wrote,
"I last saw my loved one at the Kansas City airport, staring after me
as I walked away. I could see April 29 written on his sad, sand-
chapped and sunburned face. I could see that he desperately wanted
to believe that if he died, it would be while 'doing good,' as you put it.
He wanted us to be able to be proud of him. Mr. President, you gave
me and my mother a folded flag instead of the beautiful boy who
called us 'Moms' and 'Brookster.' But worse than that, you sold my
little brother a bill of goods. Not only did you cheat him of a long
meaningful life, but you cheated him of a meaningful death."
At some point, you simply run out of words. 1,000 dead soldiers
in Iraq, no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to September 11,
torture and rape of men, women and children at Abu Ghraib prison, the
outing of a deep-cover CIA officer for political revenge, Rumsfeld ally
Ahmad Chalabi spying for Iran, the Israeli spy in the Pentagon, all the
dead civilians everywhere, the substantial failures of Bush et al. on
September 11, the crater in the economy, a gutted health care system,
the abandonment of the elderly, the evisceration of the environment,
and a federal budget deficit that guarantees a bleak future for anyone
planning to be alive sometime in the next ten years...
At some point, you simply run out of words. Let us instead have a
moment of silence for those 1,001 soldiers, and all the civilians who
have joined them in the Iraqi dust.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestseller
of two books - ' War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to
Know ' and ' The Greatest Sedition is Silence .'
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) CONFRONTING INSURGENTS
U.S. Conceding Rebels
Control Regions of Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/08policy.html?hp
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 - As American military deaths in Iraq operations
surpassed the 1,000 mark, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that
insurgents controlled important parts of central Iraq and that it was
unclear when American and Iraqi forces would be able to secure
those areas.
As of late Tuesday night, the Pentagon's accounting showed that
998 service members and three Defense Department civilians had
been killed in Iraq operations.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers,
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference
that the American strategy in retaking rebel-held strongholds hinged
on training and equipping Iraqi forces to take the lead.
Mr. Rumsfeld said Iraqi officials understood they must regain control
of the insurgent safe havens. "They get it, and will find a way over
time to deal with it,'' he said.
But General Myers said the Iraqi forces would probably not be ready
to confront insurgents in those areas until the end of this year.
Their comments, which came after a two-day spike in violence in Iraq
led to a surge in American military deaths, represented an
acknowledgment that the Americans had failed to end an increasingly
sophisticated insurgency in important Sunni-dominated areas and in
certain Shiite enclaves. Fighting raged on Tuesday in Sadr City, in
Baghdad, as Shiite militiamen loyal to Moktada al-Sadr ended a self-
declared cease-fire. [Page A14.]
The officials' assessment also underscored the difficulty of pacifying
Iraq in time for elections scheduled for January. The cities of greatest
rebel control are Ramadi, Falluja, Baquba and Samarra, in the so-
called Sunni triangle, west and north of Baghdad, where Saddam
Hussein remains popular and many forces loyal to him have
gathered strength.
There is increasing concern in the administration over plans for
the election, with some officials saying that if significant parts
of the Sunni areas cannot be secured by January, it may be
impossible to hold a nationwide balloting that would be seen
as legitimate. Putting off the elections, though, would infuriate
Iraq's Shiite majority. The elections are for an assembly that is
to write a new constitution next year. Mr. Rumsfeld warned
that the violence would intensify as elections approached.
Mr. Rumsfeld said that Prime Minister Ayad Allawi recognized
that his government could not continue to allow rebel control
in crucial areas of the country, but that it would take time for
him to determine how to proceed.
"The prime minister and his team fully understand that it is
important that there not be areas in that country that are
controlled by terrorists," he said, adding that Dr. Allawi would
deal with the problem by "negotiation and discussion" in some
cases and by force in others.
Other administration officials, amplifying the secretary's
comments, said the administration had decided to let Dr.
Allawi try to persuade rebel leaders to join the process of
reconstructing Iraq, or suffer the consequences if they did
not.
"Allawi's strategy is to try to find people on the sidelines and
wean the moderates away, to give them courage and a hope
of reward for themselves," said an administration official.
"He's telling them: 'I'm giving you an opportunity to meet
your local concerns. You're going to be my guy, and together
we'll try to isolate the extremists.' "
Administration officials say no decision has been made yet
for American forces to attack those strongholds. The preference
is for Iraqi forces to do the job, as they were said to have been
poised to do last month in Najaf, the Shiite holy city.
But the record of the Iraqi security forces has not been inspiring,
although some Iraqi forces fought well in Najaf, American officials
said. While 95,000 soldiers have been trained and equipped up to
American commanders' satisfaction, General Myers said, they will
not be ready until the end of the year to join American forces in
any assault against insurgent strongholds and then keep the
peace afterward.
"While U.S. forces or coalition forces can do just about anything
we want to do, it makes a lot more sense that it be a sustained
operation, one that can be sustained by Iraqi security forces,"
General Myers said. "By December, we're going to have a
substantial number of Iraqi security forces equipped, trained
and led to conduct the kind of operations I was talking about.''
A senior American official said force would be tried by the Iraqi
government only after a couple of months' discussions with rebels.
"Force is the ultimate sanction, but let's exhaust the other ones
first," he added.
A two-month hiatus before major force is applied to rebel areas
would also mean a delay until after the American presidential
election, but senior officials insist there is no domestic political
calculus in the decision to wait - only a conviction that time is
needed for negotiation and for Iraqi forces to gain strength.
"This is ultimately about building an Iraqi government which
works for all of Iraq," said the official. "To the degree that we
can wait a couple months and let Iraqi politics work, so much
the better."
In describing the Iraqi forces, one American general in Iraq
said in an e-mail message that their "capabilities are still
uneven, but they're improving as we arm and equip them
better, improve their infrastructure, give them additional
training, and help them weed out the weak leaders." Mr.
Rumsfeld added that Iraqis had recently conducted effective
counterterrorism operations.
To buy time, General Myers said, Gen. George Casey, the top
American commander in Iraq, is working with the Iraqi
government to develop a strategy to retake the cities.
General Myers said that strategy included trying to "isolate
certain communities," hampering the insurgents' ability to
rearm and resupply, and curtailing attacks against American
forces. He said the strategy would also try "to set the
conditions for the successful use of force later,'' military
wording for preparing the battlefield by bombing safe
houses and weapons caches, and encouraging residents
to provide fresh intelligence on the location of insurgents.
Over the weekend, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the land
commander in Iraq, told The Associated Press that an
American assault is likely in the next four months. "I do
have about four months where I want to get to local control,''
General Metz said. "And then I've got the rest of January to
help the Iraqis to put the mechanisms in place."
Maj. Gen. John R. Batiste, the commander of the Army's First
Infantry Division, whose area north of Baghdad includes
Tikrit and Samarra, disputed reports that the United States
had given up in Samarra.
"Samarra is a city where Iraqis are taking charge to throw
out anti-Iraqi forces," he said in an e-mail message on
Tuesday. "No one has ceded the city to insurgents and
there is no cordon. What we have in Samarra is the good
people of Iraq, led by far-sighted provincial and city
leadership, senior sheiks, and clerics, standing up to the enemy."
Residents, however, say insurgents effectively control Samarra.
General Batiste and other commanders gave an upbeat
assessment, noting that "the messages at Friday Prayer are
becoming more and more moderate" and that American forces
"keep continuous pressure on the enemy" while they help Iraqis
with reconstruction. In an unusual step for a Pentagon that tends
to avoid citing body counts as a measure of success, Mr. Rumsfeld
said American and allied forces had probably killed 1,500 to 2,500
insurgents last month.
But other American officials are more pessimistic about the
prospects for regaining control of those areas. One noted, for
example, that attacks on American forces rose to 2,700 in August,
from 700 in March.
General Myers conceded that American forces faced a tough,
adaptive foe. "The enemy is becoming more sophisticated in his
efforts to destabilize the country," he said.
Opening U.S. to Iraqi Goods
By The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 - In a proclamation on Tuesday, President
Bush gave Iraq the right to export thousands of goods duty free
to the United States.
But because of the continued poor state of its economy, Iraq will
be unable to take immediate advantage of its new designation as
a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences, which
grants preferential treatment to certain products from more than
140 developing countries and territories.
Petroleum, Iraq's only major export commodity, is not given duty
free status under the system.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Fight Oppression One Olive at a Time
Help with the Palestinian Olive Harvest this Fall
This simple act will help Palestinians resist the occupation
by insisting on life.
The INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT asks you to join us
for the olive harvest in Palestine. According to the World Bank, more
than a million Palestinian fruit trees, nearly half of them olive trees,
have been bulldozed, uprooted or set ablaze by Israeli soldiers. Olive
trees become fully productive only after fifty years and produce for
many generations. Their destruction is a way of trying to breaking
the Palestinian bond with the land.
Your presence makes a difference! When international volunteers
join with Palestinians, Israeli forces are often more cautious about
abusing Palestinian rights. Volunteers also witness and report to
their communities and let the Palestinians know that they are not
alone. Come join the Olive Harvest Campaign, Oct. 5 - Nov. 15.
We also need local volunteers to organize, recruit, provide media
and logistical support, create speaking opportunities, and organize
fundraising activities. You can make a difference here, too.
Get involved. Call 510-236-4250 or e-mail info@norcalism.org
The INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT is a Palestinian-led
movement of Palestinian and International volunteers working to
raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end
to Israeli occupation. We use nonviolent, direct-action resistance
methods to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces
and policies. For more info go to www.palsolidarity.org
Come help us support Palestinians in their struggle for peace
and justice in Palestine!
Contact the INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
Support Group, 510-236-4250, info@norcalism.com
or
SEND DONATIONS to MECA/ISM, 405 Vista Heights Road
El Cerrito, CA 94530
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Peace activist held as 'danger to Israel'
Lawyers question state motives behind detention
without trial of former woman soldier who befriended
leading Palestinian militant
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Tuesday September 7, 2004
The Guardian
Tali Fahima served her time in the Israeli army, voted
for Ariel Sharon as prime minister and took it as
given that her country was struggling for survival
against terrorism.
Then last year, the 29-year-old legal secretary from
Tel Aviv picked up a newspaper and read about Zakariya
Zubeidi, the Jenin leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade, the group responsible for killing hundreds of
Israelis in suicide bombings and shootings. Ms Fahima
decided she would ask Mr Zubeidi why he killed Jews.
On Sunday, the military placed Ms Fahima in detention
without trial using a law applied to thousands of
Palestinians over the past four years of intifada but
rarely to Israelis.
The authorities declined to reveal the precise reasons
but the defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, who signed the
order, described her as "a clear and present danger to
all Israelis".
Intelligence sources told the Israeli press that Ms
Fahima had a hand in bombing an army checkpoint last
month, and that she was planning attacks inside
Israel.
But Ms Fahima's lawyers and friends accuse the
government of using draconian security laws to silence
her because she has broken a taboo against befriending
and explaining the enemy.
Ms Fahima started visiting Mr Zubeidi in Jenin a
little more than a year ago, despite an Israeli ban on
its citizens travelling to Palestinian towns. She said
she wanted to find out what motivated him to kill.
"I had to ask why a man goes ahead and does this," she
told Israeli television this year. "There is a reason
for this. A man doesn't wake up one morning and
decide, 'OK, I'm going to carry out an attack.'"
The army describes Mr Zubeidi as one of its
most-wanted terrorists. It has tried in vain to kill
him five times.
After several meetings with the al-Aqsa brigade's
commander, Ms Fahima described him as a freedom
fighter and "a kindhearted person whom I was lucky to
meet". She said she would be a human shield to protect
him from Israeli assassination attempts.
"It is hard for a 28-year-old girl who was brought up
on certain values to find out one day that they are
all wrong," she told the Jerusalem Post in June. "Who
causes the occupation? The Palestinians? No. It is the
Israelis and who am I? A Jew and an Israeli and by
sitting at home and doing nothing I am also
responsible.
"Zubeidi is not a terrorist, rather he is fighting
against the occupation. Suicide bombers are also
fighting the occupation. Put yourself in their place
and see what happens. They are denied basic rights and
freedom."
Those views have infuriated many Israelis who have
denounced Ms Fahima as a traitor and terrorist
sympathiser. Her religious parents refuse to speak to
her, and she was sacked from her job.
Ms Fahima's lawyers say if there were evidence she was
involved in violence the authorities would have laid
charges, not place her in the limbo of administrative
detention.
The justice minister, Yosef Lapid, said the activist
has not been charged due to the need to protect
intelligence sources.
"There is very, very concrete evidence in the material
indicating that she acted in a manner that endangers
the security of Israel. Until there is a trial, the
relevant officials believe that it would be better
from the point of view of the security of Israel that
she remain in detention," he said.
But Ms Fahima's lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, says her
client was detained last month after refusing to
inform for the Shin Bet.
"[The intelligence services] are attempting to prove
to her that she is politically mistaken, they are
giving her history lessons, debating with her whether
this should be described as occupation, whether
Palestinian fighters should be defined as freedom
fighters or as terrorists," she said.
One of Ms Fahima's friends, Lin Dovrat, a peace
activist, said the political motives behind her
detention were clear from the authorities' claim that
information against her was too sensitive to be made
public in court while the Shin Bet leaked accusations
to the press.
"They tried to kill Zubeidi five times and failed and
she got to him and was able to talk to him and was
able to connect with him on a very basic human level
and I think that drives them nuts," she said.
Ms Ben-Natan says that when Ms Fahima refused to
collaborate with the Shin Bet, it sought to discredit
her by telling journalists she was sleeping with Mr
Zubeidi, who is married. It is an accusation widely
given credibility in the Israeli press, and denied by
Ms Fahima.
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Adam from San Francisco!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) URGENT CALL TO ACTION: ORGANIZE A VIGIL ON THURSDAY NIGHT
FOR THE MORE THAN 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS KILLED
More than one thousand young Americans have died in Iraq,
almost seven thousand are maimed, and tens of thousands of
Iraqis have died. The President won't mourn our dead, but
we will.
Please join United for Peace and Justice, in coordination
with Win Without War, and dozens of other groups,
including Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For
Peace, to say: Enough to Endless War and Suffering, Bring
Them Home NOW!
TAKE ACTION: ORGANIZE A PEACE VIGIL THIS THURSDAY, SEPT.
9, 2004
Please help us organize hundreds of peace vigils on
Thursday night, to mourn for all the people who?ve been
killed in Iraq, call for an end to the occupation, and
demand accountability for the lies that got us into the
war!
We will remember the more than 1,000 US servicemen and
women who have died in Iraq. We will remember the many
thousands of Iraqis--civilians and combatants, men and
women, children the elderly--who have been killed. And we
will remember that these deaths did not have to happen.
We know that the current administration has plunged us
into this unjust and unjustifiable war, driven by greed
for oil and lust for power and fueled by lie after lie. We
cannot remain silent!
We demand an end to the occupation so the Iraqi people can
determine their own destiny free from foreign interference
and control.
We want our troops brought home NOW. Don't ask these men
and women to continue to die for politicians' mistakes and
lies. And we want them treated right when they return.
Give them the benefits there were promised and give them
the help they will need to heal their bodies, their minds
and their spirits.
We will remember, honor and mourn. We will not forget!
-Text taken from the Vigil for the Fallen, held in Union
Square, NYC, last Thursday.
We suggest you hold the Sept. 9 vigil at your local
Congressional representatives? offices or at the federal
building in your town.
Post your event at http://www.unitedforpeace.org and
http://www.winwithoutwarus.org (which will link to a site
that has meet-up software) so the whole country will know
about your participation.
We also encourage you to support and participate in the
National Memorial Procession, a trail of mourning and
truth from Iraq to the White House, which will begin on
October 2 at Arlington National Cemetery. For more
information, see
http://www.peacepledge.org/resist/10-2-2004.htm.
UFPJ mailing list
UFPJ@mediajumpstart.net
https://secure.mediajumpstart.net/mailman/listinfo/ufpj
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) CENSORED 2005:
THE TOP 25 CENSORED MEDIA STORIES OF 2003-2004
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html
#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy
and Democracy
#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Hold
Corporations Accountable
#3: Bush Administration Censors Science
#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians
#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources
#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics
#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy
#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11
#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
#11: The Media Can Legally Lie
#12: The Destabilization of Haiti
#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before
the California Recall
#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies
#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses
#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens
#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in
Quest for Business Privatization
#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies
#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming hte World's
Supermarket
#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN
#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs
#22: Censoring Iraq
#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little
Comfort for the Poor of South America
#24: Reinstating the Draft
#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World
Project Censored - Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, CA 94928
(707) 664-2500
censored@sonoma.edu
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) 150 Arrests during Demonstration by
San Francisco Hotel Workers
By Frontlines correspondent
SAN FRANCISCO -- Over 500 of San Francisco hotel employees
and supporters today staged a noisy protest in Union Square with
more than 150 of them arrested for blocking Powell Street.
With labor contracts beginning to expire Saturday for more than
7,000 hotel workers in San Francisco, hotel and union representatives
are trying to hash out differences over health care and pension costs,
wages and employee workloads.
The contracts expiring Saturday affect 29 hotels. Contracts at 30 other
San Francisco hotels are due to expire in September. Union
representatives told Frontlines that management is trying to stall
negotiations. The same source says that members of Local 2 have
been working without a contract for three weeks and will take a strike
vote next week.
Hundreds of workers and labor activists marched from Market Street
to Union Square where they sat down in the streets stopping the cable
cars, blocking traffic and paralyzing the shopping district.
The workers want a two-year deal and do not want to have to contribute
more for their health care.
Hundreds of the workers chanted and banged on drums while those
willing to be arrested were hauled away by a numerous group of SFPD's
officers. Some elected officials were among those arrested, as well as
Labor leaders and some supporters of the action.
The group representing fourteen of the city's luxury hotels says it is
willing to negotiate around the clock to avert a strike and a federal
mediator is joining the talks. Union activists stated, "Talk is cheap,
they are doing the impossible not to negotiate in good faith."
The protest was organized by UNITE-HERE Local 2, which represents
more than 7,000 San Francisco hotel workers including cooks,
room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, wait staff and dishwashers.
Mike Casey, President of HERE, Local 2 was among those marching.
Members of SEIU and other unions were also visible among the
hundreds of mostly immigrant workers from HERE.
The workers would like more comprehensive health care coverage,
decent pensions, pay increases and a more reasonable workload,
said Valerie Lapin, from HERE.
"Since Sept. 11, hotels laid off a lot of workers and now business is
up and people have to work too much and risk getting hurt," she said.
Hotels "are making huge profits," Lapin said. "Now it's time to
share in some of the success."
The arrest came about when workers and their supporters blocked
the entrance of the St. Francis Hotel, one of the targets of the
demonstration. ST. Francis's management asked the SFPD to
proceed with the arrests. SFPD's complied after agreeing that
the arrests will be framed as "citizen arrests" and a brief telephone
call to "high brass" who "checked with the Mayor or some of his
staff" one cop confirmed.
Among those arrested were Walter Johnson, 80-year old retiring
SF labor Council President; Leroy King; 8th Congressional Green
candidate Terry Baum; Father Louis Vitale; D5 Green candidate
Lisa Feldstein; Supervisor Tom Ammiano and D5 Democratic
candidate Robert Haaland.
Today's action in San Francisco followed those of thousands of
California hotel workers who rallied in San Francisco, Los Angeles
and San Diego on Aug. 13 to press their contract demands.
In San Francisco, the day before a master contract covering over
7,000 workers in 60 premier hotels expired, hundreds of
demonstrators gathered in downtown Union Square to march
past several of the hotels in mid-August.
As in today's rally, workers carried signs declaring, "Health care
is a right," and "Retire with dignity."
"We won't allow the hotels to balance their books on our
backs," said Local 2 President Mike Casey, adding, "Hotel
employees work too hard to keep our city's economy strong,
to be cast aside in their retirement."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Bush & Putin self-fulfilled prophesies:
Slaughter and Terrorism
Frontlines Editorial Board
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=828&mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
We are witnessing self-fulfilled prophesies. Bush orders the
invasion and occupation of Iraq on bogus claims of terrorist
links between Saddam and al Queda and the existence of WMDs.
Putin invades Chechnya making the bogus claim of fundamentalist
terrorism against Russian civilians and the danger of WMD falling
into the hands of terrorists.
In Iraq, Bush indiscriminately attacks anybody who does not agree
with the occupation: moderate and radical Shias and Sunnis,
nationalists and former members of Saddam's party. Torture is
applied in Abu Ghraib and tens of thousands of innocent civilians
are killed or wounded.
Putin invades Chechnya, massacres the civilian population, tramples
on the national self-rule and attacks moderates, radicals,
nationalists and even those who would collaborate to some
degree with Russian rule. His bands of "Special Forces" and
masked policemen kidnap, torture and kill political activists
and human rights advocates.
Both Bush in Iraq and Putin in Chechnya are acting on behalf
of the ruling classes of their respective countries. It is more
than a coincidence that the production, transportation and
commercialization of oil and gas are behind the armed invasions
of both Iraq and Chechnya.
Unable to resist the power of either the US forces or Russian
armies, people from Iraq and Chechnya, who otherwise would
be minding their own businesses, act desperately. They kidnap,
kill, maim anybody who is an occupier or suspected of
collaborating with the occupiers.
Otherwise reasonable people turn to religious fundamentalism
and terrorism when all the avenues for political expression or
legitimate opposition to the invasion of their countries are
smothered by the force of arms. When human rights activists,
journalists and politicians - even moderate ones - are smashed,
imprisoned or disappeared, people turn their eyes toward the
intangible of God for help.
Faith will not prevail against fire, and represents a regression to
Middle Age thinking and attitudes, but what are people supposed
to do when the might of "civilization" is brought to stamp their
freedoms out? What are people supposed to turn to when every
protest ends in massacre and the uncompromising imperial
hawks talk about annihilating their cultures, their countries,
their liberties? Bush's and Putin's prophecies become a self-
fulfilled reality.
Terrorism is the last line of defense for those with no way out.
Nothing - not even a noble cause such as national independence
and self-rule by oppressed nations - can justify the slaughter of
kids at the Beslan school, the blowup of passenger jets, the
bombing of subway stations or the crashing of airplanes into
buildings filled with civilians, mostly workers, in New York.
They are crimes and those who order, plan and execute them
are criminals. However, there is no doubt that, following on the
imperial designs of the US and Russia, terrorists are the product
of the policies of the Bushes and Putins of the world.
Bush and Putin relish a fight with desperate elements of society
as that reenforces the global reactionary consciousness and provides
them with a broader platform for the continuation of their policies.
No doubt the images of slaughtered children in Russia have served
well the political aspirations of both Bush and Putin, as 9/11 served
the aspirations of Bush and his gang. Thus, terrorism demoralizes
the opposition to imperialism and strengthens those very forces
that the terrorists are opposing.
There is a clear distinction to be made between legitimate resistance
to foreign occupation, included armed resistance directed towards
the occupying forces, and attacks on civilians, particularly if they
are not involved directly with the occupation.
The Spanish people had it right. When suffering the attacks of
terrorists, they justly blamed the Aznar government for bringing
the attacks on by participating in the invasion and occupation of
Iraq. And the people did the right thing: they voted Aznar out of
government a few days after the terrorist attacks. With that small
step forward they set an example for the rest of us. Not enough
of a step, as the persistence of the capitalist system in Spain made
that step forward only a provisionary one. But an important one,
nonetheless. Under different circumstances, the present Social
democratic government will reproduce Aznar's policies.
There is no solution to be found in the hollow cries to be "strong,"
ruthless and to increase repression and the violation of Civil Liberties
spewed by Bush - and Kerry - and Putin. The increasing number of
desperate millions created by their policies demonstrates the failure
of their strategies. These governments are increasingly turning on
their own peoples as well. Bush, and Putin, may be able to guarantee
their own safety and that of a handful of their supporters, but not of
the overwhelming majority of working people - those who worked
at the Twin Towers or the children and parents at Beslan.
In the final analysis, those victims are for Putin, and Bush, no more
than "collateral" damage or elements for manipulation of the public
through effective TV spots.
It is the responsibility and duty of the working classes of both the
US and Russia - and all other imperialist countries - to break the
cycle of violence and terrorism that originates in their very
governments, by getting rid of those governments. Nothing
short of such action will bring about a solution to the present
world crisis.
Terrorism, fundamentalism and regressive consciousness are
products of an over-extension of the brutal imperial world system,
not of an innate "evil" character of entire peoples as Bush and Putin
would like us to believe.
Fundamentalists and terrorists were a tiny minority, even nonexistent,
when secular, progressive, even though bourgeois, nationalist political
formations resisted imperialism even on a limited scale in Africa, Asia
and the Middle East during the postwar anti-colonial revolutions.
By overextending the imperialist domination of Africa, Asia and the
Middle East - and by destroying any and all secular and modern
opposition to their rules in those regions -- the US and European
imperial powers gave birth to fundamentalism and encouraged its
growth. In fact, they often paid and used fundamentalists to oppose
secular leaderships in those countries.
Capitalism and imperialism have long ago exhausted their ability
to move society forward and are rapidly leading "civilization" back
into barbarism. The present day trend is for the peoples of Russia,
the US and elsewhere to be progressively less safe and more
oppressed by the plans of their ruling classes, in a direct proportion
as the US and other imperial powers oppress other nations.
The replacement of capitalism and imperialism with a democratic
socialist society, in which countries share technology and production
for the benefit of all and in which the rebuilding of our environment
and the elimination of poverty, hunger and imperial rule are priorities,
will go a long way toward eliminating the need, and thus the suffering,
of acts of desperation.
Rejecting the strategy of desperation is also the policy of socialists.
We believe that, on the grand scale of things necessary to change society,
it is the action of the mass movement on the streets and in workplaces,
which can change governments, replace regimes, transform society
and make terrorism obsolete, once the material basics of education,
food, housing, jobs and health are guaranteed for all human beings.
In a prosperous world society where classes do not exist and
exploitation and oppression are outdated, there will simply be
no motivation for crime, terrorism or regression.
TOMORROW, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 7 p.m.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(Between 24th & 25th Streets, S.F.)
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Tomgram: Nick Turse on the new Homeland Security State
Posted September 5, 2004 at 11:09 am
2) One Thousand and One
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804A.shtml
3) CONFRONTING INSURGENTS
U.S. Conceding Rebels
Control Regions of Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/08policy.html?hp
4) Fight Oppression One Olive at a Time
Help with the Palestinian Olive Harvest this Fall
This simple act will help Palestinians resist the occupation
by insisting on life.
5) Peace activist held as 'danger to Israel'
Lawyers question state motives behind detention
without trial of former woman soldier who befriended
leading Palestinian militant
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Tuesday September 7, 2004
The Guardian
6) URGENT CALL TO ACTION: ORGANIZE A
VIGIL ON THURSDAY NIGHT
FOR THE MORE THAN 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS KILLED
7) CENSORED 2005:
THE TOP 25 CENSORED MEDIA STORIES OF 2003-2004
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html
8) 150 Arrests during Demonstration by
San Francisco Hotel Workers
By Frontlines correspondent
9) Bush & Putin self-fulfilled prophesies:
Slaughter and Terrorism
Frontlines Editorial Board
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=828&mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Tomgram: Nick Turse on the new Homeland Security State
Posted September 5, 2004 at 11:09 am
On the third night the Republican Convention was in town, I attended
a modest demonstration against the imperial broadcast media --
there's nothing like hundreds of people chanting about breaking
up media conglomerates while looking at the blank, skyscraping
faces of darkened, semi-deserted buildings. But who had time to
look for CNN or Time Warner or Fox News (where the march was
destined to end) when the most visible -- overwhelming and
intimidating -- presence on the street was the police. The "march,"
which you might want to imagine as a serpentine creature heading
south on New York's Sixth Avenue, had actually been chopped into
a series of one-block long segments by the New York Police
Department. Each small segment was penned on its sides by
moveable wooden barricades and on either end by the wheel-to-
wheel bikes of a seemingly endless supply of mounted policemen
backed up by all manner of police vehicles. Though the photographing
of protestors is an old practice, ! it once had a somewhat surreptitious
quality to it. Not here (or anywhere else in the city that week) --
police in uniform were openly videoing the crowd. To "march,"
that is, actually meant to step from pen to pen, hemmed in
everywhere, your protest at the mercy of the timing, tactics,
and desires of the police. It was one of many sobering moments
that week, a small reminder of what we've already lost, thanks
to the "war on terror" as it's being played out in our still-in-
formation Homeland Security State.
Nick Turse offered a preview of what New York had in store for
its demonstrators in a piece he did for Tomdispatch some weeks
before the Republicans arrived. I asked him, in the wake of the
Convention -- and with his own experiences as a demonstrator
in mind -- to return to the subject. Tom
The Rise of the Homeland Security State
Fortress Big Apple, Revisited
By Nick Turse
Prior to the Republican National Convention, I thought I knew
all about the militarization of Manhattan -- the transformation
of the island into a "homeland-security state" -- and about New
York City as the paradigm for the security culture that increasingly
grips American society. After all, I wrote about it in "Fortress Big
Apple."
It turns out I didn't know the half of it. Only after writing that
piece did I discover that the New York Police Department (NYPD)
had purchase two experimental sound weapons known as Long
Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) which I had once described in
writing about U.S. experimental weapons research
I had then termed the deployment of an LRAD here during the
convention "improbable" -- yet there it was out on the very same
streets I was walking. I also looked out my window and caught
sight of the ultimate blending! of corporatism and the police-
state -- the Fuji blimp -- now emblazoned with a second logo:
"NYPD." This spy-in-the-sky, outfitted with the latest in video-
surveillance equipment, had been loaned free of charge
to the police all week long.
But even finding out about these new high-tech tools of the
homeland security-state didn't make things clear to me; nor
did the ever-present roar of helicopter rotors as those of us in
the streets during the RNC were surveilled from above; or even
when Brendan Galligan of the NYPD Aviation Unit
bluntly told a reporter from the local ABC TV affiliate: "I'm
looking for any kind of crime on the grou[nd]. In this case,
we're looking for roving mobs of people traveling in unison,
that might indicate some sort of problem for the ground
troops." "People traveling in unison" a crime? "Ground troops"?
I should have fully understood then, but I didn't.
I didn't quite get it when I saw the stone-faced feds out on the
streets with those ever-present ear-pieces piping in commands
from who knows where; nor as I scuttled between concrete
barricades and metal fences in the area around Madison Square
Garden while remote cameras tracked my every move; nor when
a march I was in was flanked by a phalanx of bicycle-riding police;
nor when a corps of plainclothes cops on scooters trolled the
streets near Times Square. You would think that I would have
understood it when the peaceful group of activists I was with were
pushed off the sidewalk by police in front of us, while the cops in
back ordered us onto the sidewalk; or when, left with no options,
we tried to escape by crossing Broadway only to have some of our
number caught in the NYPD's literal dragnet -- rolls of orange
plastic netting
which were repeatedly unfurled all across the city, snagging protesters,
! press, legal observers, pedestrians, and bystanders alike. I can't
understand why I didn't get it when I looked up from watching some
cops press a man's head to the pavement to see a hoard of police
on horseback heading down the street
NYPD's Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU) filmed me,
apparently for walking in a park or perhaps for what I might do,
prompting a young woman to sidle up next to me and whisper
"they're tailing you" --making me wonder, was the warning sincere
or could she be with them too?
I witnessed the fleets of black SUVs with police escorts roar down
virtually empty city streets near the Madison Square Garden bubble.
On numerous occasions, I saw flatbed police trucks filled with the
very interlocking metal barriers that a judge had ruled
longer be used to pen in protesters (as the NYPD had been
doing for about a decade) -- and I saw those metal barricades
pressed back into action on multiple occasions. I witnessed a
black van door slide open, revealing tactical-gear clad troops
of some sort, brandishing automatic rifles. I witnessed cops
and feds on rooftops with binoculars and cameras trained on
me and/or my compatriots. I saw cops peering through the
near-blacked out windows of unmarked cars and noticed the
NYPD's "radio emergency patrol vehicles"
wherever protesters seemed to gather.
I repeatedly walked through gauntlets of blue-uniformed
cops and white-shirted brass to and from the subway in
Union Square Park -- where the three guys in jeans and
untucked button-down shirts (which every so often showed
the outlines of their guns) graciously smiled one evening as
I snapped a picture of their undercover activities. Much less
jolly were the secret service agents, one clad in polo shirt
and khaki pants, who moved in behind me prompting a legal
observer at an event to collect my name and contact
information in case I should be snatched off the street;
even less jolly was the beefy NYPD officer with no visible
badge or name tag who made it a point to shove me as I
attempted to take a picture of an orange-net arrest before
offering a less-than-convincing "excuse me!" as he strode
away.
Police vans with netting over the windows; helmeted riot
gear-clad cops; NYPD "paddy wagons"; constant sirens;
cops who shoved at us with their night-sticks
filming with camcorders; radios crackling information to
uniformed officers outside almost any subway stop, on
street corners, on subway platforms, and on the trains
themselves; even those menacing, or sometimes just weary-
looking, ultimate conscripts of the homeland security army,
the police attack dogs on street patrol, didn't fully hammer
home the reality of Fortress Big Apple. What did was the 10'
by 20' chain-link pen
with razor wire over the top that I found myself in after being
arrested for the crime of trying "to change trains," as a
Washington Post reporter wrote
after sitting "silently on a subway train! going uptown" to
"protest deaths in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere."
The floors of the pen were covered with a layer of grime
-- a mix of what might have been oil, grease, battery acid,
transmission fluid, antifreeze, diesel fuel, and possibly leaded
gasoline; the pipes overhead gave the appearance of incomplete
asbestos abatement; the rotting food and old milk cartons behind
the detention pens helped to further drive it home. Like
so many others
taken to a makeshift detention center set up by the city especially
for the protesters. It was the old municipal bus garage which bears
the name "Marine and Aviation Pier 57" but has now been dubbed
"Guantanamo on the Hudson."
Of course, being incarcerated in New York's own Giitmo! (before
being packed off to central booking and then a cell in the infamous
"Tombs") rather than in America's "offshore archipelago of injustice"
Abu Ghraib, the actual Guantanamo, or "Camp Justice" on the Indian
Ocean island of Diego Garcia, to name but a few -- means I fared
infinitely better than most victims of America's security culture run
amok. Still, the visible abrasions on my wrists from the plastic cuffs
(fastened so purposefully tight) that restricted the blood flow to my
hands while I was in transit to jail aboard a corrections bus, or the
tears of the woman in a cage on the same bus suffering from also
too-tight hand restraints
(which left the cops in a joking mood), do show the bare traces of
the Abu Ghraib mentality alive in America's security forces, at home
as well as abroad.
Of course, in communities of color and poor neighborhoods, such
tactics, and worse, are old hat -- as my cell-mates behind the
arraignment courtroom were quick to point out. But now the NYPD
is field-testing new tactics and tools to use against us all. Perhaps
most distressing, they've established a precedent and the tacit acceptance
of the public as well. Most New Yorkers either left town or failed to
vigorously protest the chilling effect of the growth of the homeland-
security complex.
I heard first hand of seemingly baseless preemptive arrests and
intimidation by federal agents -- an activist en route to work grabbed
off the street by the feds; another apparently tailed by a black SUV
and shadowed by plainclothes agents. The question is: Will this stop
now that the RNC has left town or will it simply become the accepted
way of doing things in New York City and elsewhere around the country?
The RNC gave the NYPD (coordinating with the feds) a perfect
opportunity to stockpile weapons systems, high-tech equipment,
and surveillance devices. It allowed them to refine, perfect, and
implement new tactics (someday, perhaps, to be thought of as the
"New York model") for use penning in or squelching dissent. It offered
them the chance to write up a playbook on how citizens' legal rights
and civil liberties may be abridged, constrained, and violated at their
discretion. In short, it gave them a free hand to transform New York
City into a true homeland security statelet.
Nick Turse writes regularly for Tomdispatch on the military-industrial-
entertainment complex. He was jailed by the homeland-security state
when he dared to ride the subway with a "war dead" placard
around his neck (scroll down to photo). He asks that you consider
donating to the NYC Legal Work Fund Collective for RNC Arrestees
Lawyers Guild
who saved him more than once during the protests.
Copyright C2004 Nicholas Turse
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2) One Thousand and One
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 08 September 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090804A.shtml
On the day Operation Iraqi Freedom suffered the 1,000th death
of a United States soldier, some quick numbers are in order:
1,095 days since the attacks of September 11;
538 days since the invasion and occupation of Iraq;
1,001 American soldiers dead in Iraq;
1,132 total Coalition soldiers dead in Iraq;
More than 20,000 'medical evacuations' of American
soldiers from Iraq;
More than 10,000 civilians dead in Iraq;
0 weapons of mass destruction;
0 democratic elections in Iraq;
0 connections between Iraq and the attacks of September 11;
0 captures of Osama bin Laden, in Iraq or anywhere else;
$1.7 trillion to be spent on Iraq in the next decade,
according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
report by the Committee on International Security Studies (CISS).
Jane Bright wrote to me in November of 2003 about the
death of her son, one of the 1,001. "I must share with you,"
wrote Bright, "the obituary I wrote for my son, Sgt. Evan Ashcraft,
who was killed July 24 near Mosul. I often think of the contributions
my intelligent, sensitive wonderful son could have made. He could
have been President of the United States. He could have been a
doctor caring for children in a Third World Country. He had so
much potential. He told us that when he came back from Iraq he
wanted to help people. He said he had seen so much hatred and
death that the only way to live his life was through aid to others.
Look at what we've lost. The loss is not just mine, it's the world's
loss. Evan will always be alive in my heart. He and all the other
victims of this heinous action in Iraq must be more than mere
numbers emerging from the Pentagon's daily tally. His death is
a crime against humanity and the fault lies with the war criminals
who inhabit our White House. Please share his story so that he may
come alive to your readers."
Writer Bruce Mulkey spoke recently to Jane Bright, and wrote
about his conversation in an essay titled 'Military Families Speak
Out.' Bright said to him, "Several months ago when George Bush
was performing his skit for the media in which he was looking
under his desk and under chairs for weapons of mass destruction,
I was horrified by the insensitivity of his performance. I thought to
myself, here is the president of the United States making a joke out
of a pre-emptive war and laughing about weapons of mass destruction,
the basis for going to war, a war in which my dear son died, over
1,000 coalition troops have died and thousands of Iraqi civilians
have died. How dare he!"
There are a lot of women like Jane Bright in America now.
Brooke Campbell lost her brother, Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell,
in Iraq on April 29, 2004. In his last letter to her, Ryan wrote, "Just
do me one big favor, OK? Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it.
I would not be happy with you."
Ms. Campbell, in a subsequent letter to George W. Bush , wrote,
"I last saw my loved one at the Kansas City airport, staring after me
as I walked away. I could see April 29 written on his sad, sand-
chapped and sunburned face. I could see that he desperately wanted
to believe that if he died, it would be while 'doing good,' as you put it.
He wanted us to be able to be proud of him. Mr. President, you gave
me and my mother a folded flag instead of the beautiful boy who
called us 'Moms' and 'Brookster.' But worse than that, you sold my
little brother a bill of goods. Not only did you cheat him of a long
meaningful life, but you cheated him of a meaningful death."
At some point, you simply run out of words. 1,000 dead soldiers
in Iraq, no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to September 11,
torture and rape of men, women and children at Abu Ghraib prison, the
outing of a deep-cover CIA officer for political revenge, Rumsfeld ally
Ahmad Chalabi spying for Iran, the Israeli spy in the Pentagon, all the
dead civilians everywhere, the substantial failures of Bush et al. on
September 11, the crater in the economy, a gutted health care system,
the abandonment of the elderly, the evisceration of the environment,
and a federal budget deficit that guarantees a bleak future for anyone
planning to be alive sometime in the next ten years...
At some point, you simply run out of words. Let us instead have a
moment of silence for those 1,001 soldiers, and all the civilians who
have joined them in the Iraqi dust.
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestseller
of two books - ' War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to
Know ' and ' The Greatest Sedition is Silence .'
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) CONFRONTING INSURGENTS
U.S. Conceding Rebels
Control Regions of Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/08policy.html?hp
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 - As American military deaths in Iraq operations
surpassed the 1,000 mark, top Pentagon officials said Tuesday that
insurgents controlled important parts of central Iraq and that it was
unclear when American and Iraqi forces would be able to secure
those areas.
As of late Tuesday night, the Pentagon's accounting showed that
998 service members and three Defense Department civilians had
been killed in Iraq operations.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers,
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference
that the American strategy in retaking rebel-held strongholds hinged
on training and equipping Iraqi forces to take the lead.
Mr. Rumsfeld said Iraqi officials understood they must regain control
of the insurgent safe havens. "They get it, and will find a way over
time to deal with it,'' he said.
But General Myers said the Iraqi forces would probably not be ready
to confront insurgents in those areas until the end of this year.
Their comments, which came after a two-day spike in violence in Iraq
led to a surge in American military deaths, represented an
acknowledgment that the Americans had failed to end an increasingly
sophisticated insurgency in important Sunni-dominated areas and in
certain Shiite enclaves. Fighting raged on Tuesday in Sadr City, in
Baghdad, as Shiite militiamen loyal to Moktada al-Sadr ended a self-
declared cease-fire. [Page A14.]
The officials' assessment also underscored the difficulty of pacifying
Iraq in time for elections scheduled for January. The cities of greatest
rebel control are Ramadi, Falluja, Baquba and Samarra, in the so-
called Sunni triangle, west and north of Baghdad, where Saddam
Hussein remains popular and many forces loyal to him have
gathered strength.
There is increasing concern in the administration over plans for
the election, with some officials saying that if significant parts
of the Sunni areas cannot be secured by January, it may be
impossible to hold a nationwide balloting that would be seen
as legitimate. Putting off the elections, though, would infuriate
Iraq's Shiite majority. The elections are for an assembly that is
to write a new constitution next year. Mr. Rumsfeld warned
that the violence would intensify as elections approached.
Mr. Rumsfeld said that Prime Minister Ayad Allawi recognized
that his government could not continue to allow rebel control
in crucial areas of the country, but that it would take time for
him to determine how to proceed.
"The prime minister and his team fully understand that it is
important that there not be areas in that country that are
controlled by terrorists," he said, adding that Dr. Allawi would
deal with the problem by "negotiation and discussion" in some
cases and by force in others.
Other administration officials, amplifying the secretary's
comments, said the administration had decided to let Dr.
Allawi try to persuade rebel leaders to join the process of
reconstructing Iraq, or suffer the consequences if they did
not.
"Allawi's strategy is to try to find people on the sidelines and
wean the moderates away, to give them courage and a hope
of reward for themselves," said an administration official.
"He's telling them: 'I'm giving you an opportunity to meet
your local concerns. You're going to be my guy, and together
we'll try to isolate the extremists.' "
Administration officials say no decision has been made yet
for American forces to attack those strongholds. The preference
is for Iraqi forces to do the job, as they were said to have been
poised to do last month in Najaf, the Shiite holy city.
But the record of the Iraqi security forces has not been inspiring,
although some Iraqi forces fought well in Najaf, American officials
said. While 95,000 soldiers have been trained and equipped up to
American commanders' satisfaction, General Myers said, they will
not be ready until the end of the year to join American forces in
any assault against insurgent strongholds and then keep the
peace afterward.
"While U.S. forces or coalition forces can do just about anything
we want to do, it makes a lot more sense that it be a sustained
operation, one that can be sustained by Iraqi security forces,"
General Myers said. "By December, we're going to have a
substantial number of Iraqi security forces equipped, trained
and led to conduct the kind of operations I was talking about.''
A senior American official said force would be tried by the Iraqi
government only after a couple of months' discussions with rebels.
"Force is the ultimate sanction, but let's exhaust the other ones
first," he added.
A two-month hiatus before major force is applied to rebel areas
would also mean a delay until after the American presidential
election, but senior officials insist there is no domestic political
calculus in the decision to wait - only a conviction that time is
needed for negotiation and for Iraqi forces to gain strength.
"This is ultimately about building an Iraqi government which
works for all of Iraq," said the official. "To the degree that we
can wait a couple months and let Iraqi politics work, so much
the better."
In describing the Iraqi forces, one American general in Iraq
said in an e-mail message that their "capabilities are still
uneven, but they're improving as we arm and equip them
better, improve their infrastructure, give them additional
training, and help them weed out the weak leaders." Mr.
Rumsfeld added that Iraqis had recently conducted effective
counterterrorism operations.
To buy time, General Myers said, Gen. George Casey, the top
American commander in Iraq, is working with the Iraqi
government to develop a strategy to retake the cities.
General Myers said that strategy included trying to "isolate
certain communities," hampering the insurgents' ability to
rearm and resupply, and curtailing attacks against American
forces. He said the strategy would also try "to set the
conditions for the successful use of force later,'' military
wording for preparing the battlefield by bombing safe
houses and weapons caches, and encouraging residents
to provide fresh intelligence on the location of insurgents.
Over the weekend, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the land
commander in Iraq, told The Associated Press that an
American assault is likely in the next four months. "I do
have about four months where I want to get to local control,''
General Metz said. "And then I've got the rest of January to
help the Iraqis to put the mechanisms in place."
Maj. Gen. John R. Batiste, the commander of the Army's First
Infantry Division, whose area north of Baghdad includes
Tikrit and Samarra, disputed reports that the United States
had given up in Samarra.
"Samarra is a city where Iraqis are taking charge to throw
out anti-Iraqi forces," he said in an e-mail message on
Tuesday. "No one has ceded the city to insurgents and
there is no cordon. What we have in Samarra is the good
people of Iraq, led by far-sighted provincial and city
leadership, senior sheiks, and clerics, standing up to the enemy."
Residents, however, say insurgents effectively control Samarra.
General Batiste and other commanders gave an upbeat
assessment, noting that "the messages at Friday Prayer are
becoming more and more moderate" and that American forces
"keep continuous pressure on the enemy" while they help Iraqis
with reconstruction. In an unusual step for a Pentagon that tends
to avoid citing body counts as a measure of success, Mr. Rumsfeld
said American and allied forces had probably killed 1,500 to 2,500
insurgents last month.
But other American officials are more pessimistic about the
prospects for regaining control of those areas. One noted, for
example, that attacks on American forces rose to 2,700 in August,
from 700 in March.
General Myers conceded that American forces faced a tough,
adaptive foe. "The enemy is becoming more sophisticated in his
efforts to destabilize the country," he said.
Opening U.S. to Iraqi Goods
By The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 - In a proclamation on Tuesday, President
Bush gave Iraq the right to export thousands of goods duty free
to the United States.
But because of the continued poor state of its economy, Iraq will
be unable to take immediate advantage of its new designation as
a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences, which
grants preferential treatment to certain products from more than
140 developing countries and territories.
Petroleum, Iraq's only major export commodity, is not given duty
free status under the system.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Fight Oppression One Olive at a Time
Help with the Palestinian Olive Harvest this Fall
This simple act will help Palestinians resist the occupation
by insisting on life.
The INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT asks you to join us
for the olive harvest in Palestine. According to the World Bank, more
than a million Palestinian fruit trees, nearly half of them olive trees,
have been bulldozed, uprooted or set ablaze by Israeli soldiers. Olive
trees become fully productive only after fifty years and produce for
many generations. Their destruction is a way of trying to breaking
the Palestinian bond with the land.
Your presence makes a difference! When international volunteers
join with Palestinians, Israeli forces are often more cautious about
abusing Palestinian rights. Volunteers also witness and report to
their communities and let the Palestinians know that they are not
alone. Come join the Olive Harvest Campaign, Oct. 5 - Nov. 15.
We also need local volunteers to organize, recruit, provide media
and logistical support, create speaking opportunities, and organize
fundraising activities. You can make a difference here, too.
Get involved. Call 510-236-4250 or e-mail info@norcalism.org
The INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT is a Palestinian-led
movement of Palestinian and International volunteers working to
raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end
to Israeli occupation. We use nonviolent, direct-action resistance
methods to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces
and policies. For more info go to www.palsolidarity.org
Come help us support Palestinians in their struggle for peace
and justice in Palestine!
Contact the INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
Support Group, 510-236-4250, info@norcalism.com
SEND DONATIONS to MECA/ISM, 405 Vista Heights Road
El Cerrito, CA 94530
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Peace activist held as 'danger to Israel'
Lawyers question state motives behind detention
without trial of former woman soldier who befriended
leading Palestinian militant
Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
Tuesday September 7, 2004
The Guardian
Tali Fahima served her time in the Israeli army, voted
for Ariel Sharon as prime minister and took it as
given that her country was struggling for survival
against terrorism.
Then last year, the 29-year-old legal secretary from
Tel Aviv picked up a newspaper and read about Zakariya
Zubeidi, the Jenin leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade, the group responsible for killing hundreds of
Israelis in suicide bombings and shootings. Ms Fahima
decided she would ask Mr Zubeidi why he killed Jews.
On Sunday, the military placed Ms Fahima in detention
without trial using a law applied to thousands of
Palestinians over the past four years of intifada but
rarely to Israelis.
The authorities declined to reveal the precise reasons
but the defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, who signed the
order, described her as "a clear and present danger to
all Israelis".
Intelligence sources told the Israeli press that Ms
Fahima had a hand in bombing an army checkpoint last
month, and that she was planning attacks inside
Israel.
But Ms Fahima's lawyers and friends accuse the
government of using draconian security laws to silence
her because she has broken a taboo against befriending
and explaining the enemy.
Ms Fahima started visiting Mr Zubeidi in Jenin a
little more than a year ago, despite an Israeli ban on
its citizens travelling to Palestinian towns. She said
she wanted to find out what motivated him to kill.
"I had to ask why a man goes ahead and does this," she
told Israeli television this year. "There is a reason
for this. A man doesn't wake up one morning and
decide, 'OK, I'm going to carry out an attack.'"
The army describes Mr Zubeidi as one of its
most-wanted terrorists. It has tried in vain to kill
him five times.
After several meetings with the al-Aqsa brigade's
commander, Ms Fahima described him as a freedom
fighter and "a kindhearted person whom I was lucky to
meet". She said she would be a human shield to protect
him from Israeli assassination attempts.
"It is hard for a 28-year-old girl who was brought up
on certain values to find out one day that they are
all wrong," she told the Jerusalem Post in June. "Who
causes the occupation? The Palestinians? No. It is the
Israelis and who am I? A Jew and an Israeli and by
sitting at home and doing nothing I am also
responsible.
"Zubeidi is not a terrorist, rather he is fighting
against the occupation. Suicide bombers are also
fighting the occupation. Put yourself in their place
and see what happens. They are denied basic rights and
freedom."
Those views have infuriated many Israelis who have
denounced Ms Fahima as a traitor and terrorist
sympathiser. Her religious parents refuse to speak to
her, and she was sacked from her job.
Ms Fahima's lawyers say if there were evidence she was
involved in violence the authorities would have laid
charges, not place her in the limbo of administrative
detention.
The justice minister, Yosef Lapid, said the activist
has not been charged due to the need to protect
intelligence sources.
"There is very, very concrete evidence in the material
indicating that she acted in a manner that endangers
the security of Israel. Until there is a trial, the
relevant officials believe that it would be better
from the point of view of the security of Israel that
she remain in detention," he said.
But Ms Fahima's lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, says her
client was detained last month after refusing to
inform for the Shin Bet.
"[The intelligence services] are attempting to prove
to her that she is politically mistaken, they are
giving her history lessons, debating with her whether
this should be described as occupation, whether
Palestinian fighters should be defined as freedom
fighters or as terrorists," she said.
One of Ms Fahima's friends, Lin Dovrat, a peace
activist, said the political motives behind her
detention were clear from the authorities' claim that
information against her was too sensitive to be made
public in court while the Shin Bet leaked accusations
to the press.
"They tried to kill Zubeidi five times and failed and
she got to him and was able to talk to him and was
able to connect with him on a very basic human level
and I think that drives them nuts," she said.
Ms Ben-Natan says that when Ms Fahima refused to
collaborate with the Shin Bet, it sought to discredit
her by telling journalists she was sleeping with Mr
Zubeidi, who is married. It is an accusation widely
given credibility in the Israeli press, and denied by
Ms Fahima.
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Adam from San Francisco!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) URGENT CALL TO ACTION: ORGANIZE A VIGIL ON THURSDAY NIGHT
FOR THE MORE THAN 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS KILLED
More than one thousand young Americans have died in Iraq,
almost seven thousand are maimed, and tens of thousands of
Iraqis have died. The President won't mourn our dead, but
we will.
Please join United for Peace and Justice, in coordination
with Win Without War, and dozens of other groups,
including Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For
Peace, to say: Enough to Endless War and Suffering, Bring
Them Home NOW!
TAKE ACTION: ORGANIZE A PEACE VIGIL THIS THURSDAY, SEPT.
9, 2004
Please help us organize hundreds of peace vigils on
Thursday night, to mourn for all the people who?ve been
killed in Iraq, call for an end to the occupation, and
demand accountability for the lies that got us into the
war!
We will remember the more than 1,000 US servicemen and
women who have died in Iraq. We will remember the many
thousands of Iraqis--civilians and combatants, men and
women, children the elderly--who have been killed. And we
will remember that these deaths did not have to happen.
We know that the current administration has plunged us
into this unjust and unjustifiable war, driven by greed
for oil and lust for power and fueled by lie after lie. We
cannot remain silent!
We demand an end to the occupation so the Iraqi people can
determine their own destiny free from foreign interference
and control.
We want our troops brought home NOW. Don't ask these men
and women to continue to die for politicians' mistakes and
lies. And we want them treated right when they return.
Give them the benefits there were promised and give them
the help they will need to heal their bodies, their minds
and their spirits.
We will remember, honor and mourn. We will not forget!
-Text taken from the Vigil for the Fallen, held in Union
Square, NYC, last Thursday.
We suggest you hold the Sept. 9 vigil at your local
Congressional representatives? offices or at the federal
building in your town.
Post your event at http://www.unitedforpeace.org and
http://www.winwithoutwarus.org (which will link to a site
that has meet-up software) so the whole country will know
about your participation.
We also encourage you to support and participate in the
National Memorial Procession, a trail of mourning and
truth from Iraq to the White House, which will begin on
October 2 at Arlington National Cemetery. For more
information, see
http://www.peacepledge.org/resist/10-2-2004.htm.
UFPJ mailing list
UFPJ@mediajumpstart.net
https://secure.mediajumpstart.net/mailman/listinfo/ufpj
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) CENSORED 2005:
THE TOP 25 CENSORED MEDIA STORIES OF 2003-2004
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html
#1: Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy
and Democracy
#2: Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Hold
Corporations Accountable
#3: Bush Administration Censors Science
#4: High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians
#5: The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources
#6: The Sale of Electoral Politics
#7: Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
#8: Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy
#9: Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government for 9/11
#10: New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
#11: The Media Can Legally Lie
#12: The Destabilization of Haiti
#13: Schwarzenegger Met with Enron's Ken Lay Years Before
the California Recall
#14: New Bill Threatens Intellectual Freedom in Area Studies
#15: U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses
#16: Law Enforcement Agencies Spy on Innocent Citizens
#17: U.S. Government Represses Labor Unions in Iraq in
Quest for Business Privatization
#18: Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies
#19: Global Food Cartel Fast Becoming hte World's
Supermarket
#20: Extreme Weather Prompts New Warning from UN
#21: Forcing a World Market for GMOs
#22: Censoring Iraq
#23: Brazil Holds Back in FTAA Talks, But Provides Little
Comfort for the Poor of South America
#24: Reinstating the Draft
#25: Wal-Mart Brings Inequality and Low Prices to the World
Project Censored - Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, CA 94928
(707) 664-2500
censored@sonoma.edu
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) 150 Arrests during Demonstration by
San Francisco Hotel Workers
By Frontlines correspondent
SAN FRANCISCO -- Over 500 of San Francisco hotel employees
and supporters today staged a noisy protest in Union Square with
more than 150 of them arrested for blocking Powell Street.
With labor contracts beginning to expire Saturday for more than
7,000 hotel workers in San Francisco, hotel and union representatives
are trying to hash out differences over health care and pension costs,
wages and employee workloads.
The contracts expiring Saturday affect 29 hotels. Contracts at 30 other
San Francisco hotels are due to expire in September. Union
representatives told Frontlines that management is trying to stall
negotiations. The same source says that members of Local 2 have
been working without a contract for three weeks and will take a strike
vote next week.
Hundreds of workers and labor activists marched from Market Street
to Union Square where they sat down in the streets stopping the cable
cars, blocking traffic and paralyzing the shopping district.
The workers want a two-year deal and do not want to have to contribute
more for their health care.
Hundreds of the workers chanted and banged on drums while those
willing to be arrested were hauled away by a numerous group of SFPD's
officers. Some elected officials were among those arrested, as well as
Labor leaders and some supporters of the action.
The group representing fourteen of the city's luxury hotels says it is
willing to negotiate around the clock to avert a strike and a federal
mediator is joining the talks. Union activists stated, "Talk is cheap,
they are doing the impossible not to negotiate in good faith."
The protest was organized by UNITE-HERE Local 2, which represents
more than 7,000 San Francisco hotel workers including cooks,
room cleaners, bartenders, bellmen, wait staff and dishwashers.
Mike Casey, President of HERE, Local 2 was among those marching.
Members of SEIU and other unions were also visible among the
hundreds of mostly immigrant workers from HERE.
The workers would like more comprehensive health care coverage,
decent pensions, pay increases and a more reasonable workload,
said Valerie Lapin, from HERE.
"Since Sept. 11, hotels laid off a lot of workers and now business is
up and people have to work too much and risk getting hurt," she said.
Hotels "are making huge profits," Lapin said. "Now it's time to
share in some of the success."
The arrest came about when workers and their supporters blocked
the entrance of the St. Francis Hotel, one of the targets of the
demonstration. ST. Francis's management asked the SFPD to
proceed with the arrests. SFPD's complied after agreeing that
the arrests will be framed as "citizen arrests" and a brief telephone
call to "high brass" who "checked with the Mayor or some of his
staff" one cop confirmed.
Among those arrested were Walter Johnson, 80-year old retiring
SF labor Council President; Leroy King; 8th Congressional Green
candidate Terry Baum; Father Louis Vitale; D5 Green candidate
Lisa Feldstein; Supervisor Tom Ammiano and D5 Democratic
candidate Robert Haaland.
Today's action in San Francisco followed those of thousands of
California hotel workers who rallied in San Francisco, Los Angeles
and San Diego on Aug. 13 to press their contract demands.
In San Francisco, the day before a master contract covering over
7,000 workers in 60 premier hotels expired, hundreds of
demonstrators gathered in downtown Union Square to march
past several of the hotels in mid-August.
As in today's rally, workers carried signs declaring, "Health care
is a right," and "Retire with dignity."
"We won't allow the hotels to balance their books on our
backs," said Local 2 President Mike Casey, adding, "Hotel
employees work too hard to keep our city's economy strong,
to be cast aside in their retirement."
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Bush & Putin self-fulfilled prophesies:
Slaughter and Terrorism
Frontlines Editorial Board
http://www.sf-frontlines.com/
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=828&mode=thread&order
=0&thold=0
We are witnessing self-fulfilled prophesies. Bush orders the
invasion and occupation of Iraq on bogus claims of terrorist
links between Saddam and al Queda and the existence of WMDs.
Putin invades Chechnya making the bogus claim of fundamentalist
terrorism against Russian civilians and the danger of WMD falling
into the hands of terrorists.
In Iraq, Bush indiscriminately attacks anybody who does not agree
with the occupation: moderate and radical Shias and Sunnis,
nationalists and former members of Saddam's party. Torture is
applied in Abu Ghraib and tens of thousands of innocent civilians
are killed or wounded.
Putin invades Chechnya, massacres the civilian population, tramples
on the national self-rule and attacks moderates, radicals,
nationalists and even those who would collaborate to some
degree with Russian rule. His bands of "Special Forces" and
masked policemen kidnap, torture and kill political activists
and human rights advocates.
Both Bush in Iraq and Putin in Chechnya are acting on behalf
of the ruling classes of their respective countries. It is more
than a coincidence that the production, transportation and
commercialization of oil and gas are behind the armed invasions
of both Iraq and Chechnya.
Unable to resist the power of either the US forces or Russian
armies, people from Iraq and Chechnya, who otherwise would
be minding their own businesses, act desperately. They kidnap,
kill, maim anybody who is an occupier or suspected of
collaborating with the occupiers.
Otherwise reasonable people turn to religious fundamentalism
and terrorism when all the avenues for political expression or
legitimate opposition to the invasion of their countries are
smothered by the force of arms. When human rights activists,
journalists and politicians - even moderate ones - are smashed,
imprisoned or disappeared, people turn their eyes toward the
intangible of God for help.
Faith will not prevail against fire, and represents a regression to
Middle Age thinking and attitudes, but what are people supposed
to do when the might of "civilization" is brought to stamp their
freedoms out? What are people supposed to turn to when every
protest ends in massacre and the uncompromising imperial
hawks talk about annihilating their cultures, their countries,
their liberties? Bush's and Putin's prophecies become a self-
fulfilled reality.
Terrorism is the last line of defense for those with no way out.
Nothing - not even a noble cause such as national independence
and self-rule by oppressed nations - can justify the slaughter of
kids at the Beslan school, the blowup of passenger jets, the
bombing of subway stations or the crashing of airplanes into
buildings filled with civilians, mostly workers, in New York.
They are crimes and those who order, plan and execute them
are criminals. However, there is no doubt that, following on the
imperial designs of the US and Russia, terrorists are the product
of the policies of the Bushes and Putins of the world.
Bush and Putin relish a fight with desperate elements of society
as that reenforces the global reactionary consciousness and provides
them with a broader platform for the continuation of their policies.
No doubt the images of slaughtered children in Russia have served
well the political aspirations of both Bush and Putin, as 9/11 served
the aspirations of Bush and his gang. Thus, terrorism demoralizes
the opposition to imperialism and strengthens those very forces
that the terrorists are opposing.
There is a clear distinction to be made between legitimate resistance
to foreign occupation, included armed resistance directed towards
the occupying forces, and attacks on civilians, particularly if they
are not involved directly with the occupation.
The Spanish people had it right. When suffering the attacks of
terrorists, they justly blamed the Aznar government for bringing
the attacks on by participating in the invasion and occupation of
Iraq. And the people did the right thing: they voted Aznar out of
government a few days after the terrorist attacks. With that small
step forward they set an example for the rest of us. Not enough
of a step, as the persistence of the capitalist system in Spain made
that step forward only a provisionary one. But an important one,
nonetheless. Under different circumstances, the present Social
democratic government will reproduce Aznar's policies.
There is no solution to be found in the hollow cries to be "strong,"
ruthless and to increase repression and the violation of Civil Liberties
spewed by Bush - and Kerry - and Putin. The increasing number of
desperate millions created by their policies demonstrates the failure
of their strategies. These governments are increasingly turning on
their own peoples as well. Bush, and Putin, may be able to guarantee
their own safety and that of a handful of their supporters, but not of
the overwhelming majority of working people - those who worked
at the Twin Towers or the children and parents at Beslan.
In the final analysis, those victims are for Putin, and Bush, no more
than "collateral" damage or elements for manipulation of the public
through effective TV spots.
It is the responsibility and duty of the working classes of both the
US and Russia - and all other imperialist countries - to break the
cycle of violence and terrorism that originates in their very
governments, by getting rid of those governments. Nothing
short of such action will bring about a solution to the present
world crisis.
Terrorism, fundamentalism and regressive consciousness are
products of an over-extension of the brutal imperial world system,
not of an innate "evil" character of entire peoples as Bush and Putin
would like us to believe.
Fundamentalists and terrorists were a tiny minority, even nonexistent,
when secular, progressive, even though bourgeois, nationalist political
formations resisted imperialism even on a limited scale in Africa, Asia
and the Middle East during the postwar anti-colonial revolutions.
By overextending the imperialist domination of Africa, Asia and the
Middle East - and by destroying any and all secular and modern
opposition to their rules in those regions -- the US and European
imperial powers gave birth to fundamentalism and encouraged its
growth. In fact, they often paid and used fundamentalists to oppose
secular leaderships in those countries.
Capitalism and imperialism have long ago exhausted their ability
to move society forward and are rapidly leading "civilization" back
into barbarism. The present day trend is for the peoples of Russia,
the US and elsewhere to be progressively less safe and more
oppressed by the plans of their ruling classes, in a direct proportion
as the US and other imperial powers oppress other nations.
The replacement of capitalism and imperialism with a democratic
socialist society, in which countries share technology and production
for the benefit of all and in which the rebuilding of our environment
and the elimination of poverty, hunger and imperial rule are priorities,
will go a long way toward eliminating the need, and thus the suffering,
of acts of desperation.
Rejecting the strategy of desperation is also the policy of socialists.
We believe that, on the grand scale of things necessary to change society,
it is the action of the mass movement on the streets and in workplaces,
which can change governments, replace regimes, transform society
and make terrorism obsolete, once the material basics of education,
food, housing, jobs and health are guaranteed for all human beings.
In a prosperous world society where classes do not exist and
exploitation and oppression are outdated, there will simply be
no motivation for crime, terrorism or regression.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
US DEATH TOLL NEARS 1,000; DOZENS KILLED AS SADR CITY ERUPTS AGAIN
US Death Toll Nears 1,000; Dozens Killed as
Sadr City Erupts Again
Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 by the
Agence France Presse
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0907-01.htm
Iraq was steeped in blood as a fledgling truce in a Baghdad
rebel bastion was shattered by fresh fighting that officials
said left 40 killed and scores wounded, while the US death
count neared the 1,000 mark.
Fierce clashes were raging in Sadr City, an AFP correspondent
said, reporting that smoke was rising from some areas of the
over-populated Baghdad slum while US fighter jets were flying
overhead.
Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr cheer and shout
pro-Sadr slogans as U.S. armored vehicles withdraw after hours
of fighting in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept. 7, 2004.
U.S. forces battled al-Sadr's supporters in the Baghdad slum on
Tuesday, killing at least 34 people, including one American
The health ministry said 40 Iraqis were killed and more than
270 wounded in overnight clashes between US forces and
combatants loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Sadr Lieutenant Sheikh Naim al-Qaabi said 15 of his movement's
Mehdi Army fighters were killed and 62 wounded.
"Last night was the most intense shelling of Sadr City since the
Americans arrived in Iraq," he said, adding heavy aircraft fire
lasted from 11:00 pm (1900 GMT) to 4:00 am.
US army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton reported
several bomb and small arms attacks on US forces in Sadr City
overnight and said one US soldier was killed in an ambush there
on Tuesday.
US tanks rumbled around the neighbourhood and automatic
fire echoed on Sadr City's main al-Shuhada Street. Four US
military vehicles blocked off al-Hay square, home to Sadr's
main office.
Tuesday's clashes marked the deadliest combat in the
Baghdad neighbourhood since April.
The US military had also reported the deaths of three other
troops in separate attacks in the Baghdad area on Monday,
bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the March
2003 invasion to 992.
The fresh violence came after the US military suffered its worst
single human loss in months Monday, when a car bomb ripped
through a joint convoy, killing seven marines and three Iraqi
national guards near Fallujah.
The new eruption of violence brought an abrupt end to a period
of relative calm which had followed Sadr's call last week for a
ceasefire and pledge to join the political arena.
His surprise announcement came after the end of the weeks-
long standoff between US troops and his Mehdi Army around
the Imam Ali shrine in the holy Shiite of Najaf.
Yet negotiations to secure an agreement guaranteeing an end
to violence in Sadr collapsed last week.
Sadr's office said the Iraqi government had refused their request
that US troops should only enter the two-million-strong slum
for reconstruction purposes and also rejected their demand for
compensation.
The US military announced they had set up collection points
across Sadr City for fighters to turn in their heavy weaponry
but the call remained unheeded in the absence of a formal
agreement.
The new flare-up left the Iraqi government in a deepening crisis,
following the embarrassment over the false announcement that
Saddam's fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri had been arrested.
The capture would have been the highest-profile since Saddam
Hussein himself was netted in December 2003 but officials
sheepishly retracted their claim Monday after a day-long confusion.
Ibrahim is the most wanted member of the former regime
still at large but an interior ministry spokesman said Monday
that Iraqi forces had detained a man who resembled him.
As the capital was engulfed in a fresh wave of violence,
Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri narrowly escaped an
assassination attempt, officials said.
The governor himself told the Al-Arabiya news channel that
two civilians were killed in the roadside bomb attack, although
there was no immediate confirmation from hospital sources.
In further unrest, the 19-year-old son of the governor for the
northern Iraqi province of Niniveh which includes the city of
Mosul was assassinated by unknown attackers, medical and
police sources said.
A mortar attack on the provincial government building killed
a policeman and wounded 18 people last week. The governor's
predecessor was assassinated in July.
As a recent spate of attacks on the country's oil and gas
infrastructure further crippled the ailing Iraqi economy,
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari continued a tour of the
region to muster support for his embattled government.
After talks in Jordan, Zebari was due to visit Yemen, Sudan
and Egypt, where he will attend an extraordinary meeting of
the 22-member of the Arab League later this month.
© Copyright 2004 AFP
###
Common Dreams NewsCenter
A non-profit news service providing breaking news &
views for the progressive community.
© Copyrighted 1997-2004
www.commondreams.org
Sadr City Erupts Again
Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2004 by the
Agence France Presse
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0907-01.htm
Iraq was steeped in blood as a fledgling truce in a Baghdad
rebel bastion was shattered by fresh fighting that officials
said left 40 killed and scores wounded, while the US death
count neared the 1,000 mark.
Fierce clashes were raging in Sadr City, an AFP correspondent
said, reporting that smoke was rising from some areas of the
over-populated Baghdad slum while US fighter jets were flying
overhead.
Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr cheer and shout
pro-Sadr slogans as U.S. armored vehicles withdraw after hours
of fighting in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept. 7, 2004.
U.S. forces battled al-Sadr's supporters in the Baghdad slum on
Tuesday, killing at least 34 people, including one American
The health ministry said 40 Iraqis were killed and more than
270 wounded in overnight clashes between US forces and
combatants loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
Sadr Lieutenant Sheikh Naim al-Qaabi said 15 of his movement's
Mehdi Army fighters were killed and 62 wounded.
"Last night was the most intense shelling of Sadr City since the
Americans arrived in Iraq," he said, adding heavy aircraft fire
lasted from 11:00 pm (1900 GMT) to 4:00 am.
US army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton reported
several bomb and small arms attacks on US forces in Sadr City
overnight and said one US soldier was killed in an ambush there
on Tuesday.
US tanks rumbled around the neighbourhood and automatic
fire echoed on Sadr City's main al-Shuhada Street. Four US
military vehicles blocked off al-Hay square, home to Sadr's
main office.
Tuesday's clashes marked the deadliest combat in the
Baghdad neighbourhood since April.
The US military had also reported the deaths of three other
troops in separate attacks in the Baghdad area on Monday,
bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the March
2003 invasion to 992.
The fresh violence came after the US military suffered its worst
single human loss in months Monday, when a car bomb ripped
through a joint convoy, killing seven marines and three Iraqi
national guards near Fallujah.
The new eruption of violence brought an abrupt end to a period
of relative calm which had followed Sadr's call last week for a
ceasefire and pledge to join the political arena.
His surprise announcement came after the end of the weeks-
long standoff between US troops and his Mehdi Army around
the Imam Ali shrine in the holy Shiite of Najaf.
Yet negotiations to secure an agreement guaranteeing an end
to violence in Sadr collapsed last week.
Sadr's office said the Iraqi government had refused their request
that US troops should only enter the two-million-strong slum
for reconstruction purposes and also rejected their demand for
compensation.
The US military announced they had set up collection points
across Sadr City for fighters to turn in their heavy weaponry
but the call remained unheeded in the absence of a formal
agreement.
The new flare-up left the Iraqi government in a deepening crisis,
following the embarrassment over the false announcement that
Saddam's fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri had been arrested.
The capture would have been the highest-profile since Saddam
Hussein himself was netted in December 2003 but officials
sheepishly retracted their claim Monday after a day-long confusion.
Ibrahim is the most wanted member of the former regime
still at large but an interior ministry spokesman said Monday
that Iraqi forces had detained a man who resembled him.
As the capital was engulfed in a fresh wave of violence,
Baghdad governor Ali al-Haidri narrowly escaped an
assassination attempt, officials said.
The governor himself told the Al-Arabiya news channel that
two civilians were killed in the roadside bomb attack, although
there was no immediate confirmation from hospital sources.
In further unrest, the 19-year-old son of the governor for the
northern Iraqi province of Niniveh which includes the city of
Mosul was assassinated by unknown attackers, medical and
police sources said.
A mortar attack on the provincial government building killed
a policeman and wounded 18 people last week. The governor's
predecessor was assassinated in July.
As a recent spate of attacks on the country's oil and gas
infrastructure further crippled the ailing Iraqi economy,
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari continued a tour of the
region to muster support for his embattled government.
After talks in Jordan, Zebari was due to visit Yemen, Sudan
and Egypt, where he will attend an extraordinary meeting of
the 22-member of the Arab League later this month.
© Copyright 2004 AFP
###
Common Dreams NewsCenter
A non-profit news service providing breaking news &
views for the progressive community.
© Copyrighted 1997-2004
www.commondreams.org
