---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

************BREAKING NEWS**************

According to the A.N.S.W.E.R. Washington, DC news conference
covered live on CSPAN on Friday, Dec. 17, (the news conference
will be re-broadcast-see item following this) the U.S. government
is not allowing antiwar/anti-Bush protestors onto Pennsylvania Ave.
along the inauguration route.

A.N.S.W.E.R. reported, there are three types of tickets available for
the inauguration, Group A, is for personally invited guests; Group B,
is for contributors to the Bush campaign (for both of these groups
a list is carefully checked before tickets are sold;) tickets for Group C,
for the general public, are not available. None. They are simply not sold.

The Government, in a stalling move, has not denied permits to ANSWER
for space for counter demonstrators, rather they are delaying as long
as possible with the knowledge that the longer the permits are denied,
the harder it will be for people to make arrangements to come to DC
to protest. If and when permits are officially denied, A.N.S.W.E.R.
declared they would challenge the government legally as they did
in the last presidential inauguration "celebration."

We have a constitutional right to protest the inauguration. BAUAW
encourages all to show up in DC and come to Pennsylvania Avenue
with your signs and banners and express your opposition to Bush
and to the War.

We demand, along with A.N.S.W.E.R., equal access along the rout
for all. We have a right to protest our government or any of its official
representatives. Nothing gives the government the right to disallow
legal and peaceful protest. We say all out to Washington, DC if you
can make it.

If you can't go to DC, come out Jan. 20, 5pm, Civic Center, SF. in
solidarity with all protestors in Washington and everywhere who
oppose this war.

We are encouraging everyone to participate somehow by wearing
buttons and signs at work, at school and on the bus; hold banners
at freeway entrances, and crowded shopping areas etc. on Jan. 20.
Students should hold rallies and march to the Civic Center.

Come to our next meeting and pick a place to flyer or table for
Jan. 20 or hold a sign during the day, on Jan. 20 if you can.

NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

A.N.S.W.E.R. January 20 Press Conference to be rebroadcast on C-Span

Friday, December 17
8:13 pm ET on C-Span 1
11:45 pm ET on C-Span 1

Saturday, December 18
5:15 am ET on C-Span 1

Check the C-Span schedule for additional times and changes.

Leaders from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and others involved in
the January 20 Counter-Inaugural Protest in Washington DC held
a press conference today (December 17). The press conference
was broadcast live on C-Span 1 at 1 pm ET.

At this time, the press conference is scheduled to be rebroadcast
on C-Span 1 at 8:13 pm ET and 11:45 pm ET on Friday, December 17,
and at 5:15 am ET on Saturday, December 18. Additional broadcast
times are likely and can be found on the C-Span website schedule.
Please note that all times are subject to change - so please check
the schedule regularly. The program is called "Inaugural Parade
Protests - Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.)".

Programs can also be viewed on the C-Span website and heard
on the radio.

Show your support for this free speech fight and to help build
the January 20 CounterInaugural demonstration along Pennsylvania
Avenue. We cannot carry out this huge effort without the generous
donations from those in the United States who believe in justice.
You can make an urgently needed contribution for the January
20 mobilization through a secure server by clicking here, where
you can also find information on how to contribute by check.

Pledge now to support the January 20 demonstration. To
endorse, click here.

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition will send out an email update in
the next few days regarding logistics, bus drop off and other
transportation information. If you are organizing transportation
from your city, fill out the Transportation Form to list your
information on the A.N.S.W.E.R. website and help spread the
word.

For downloadable flyers, click here.

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Hello All,

Lynne Stewart will be on Court TV tonight (a segment filmed
earlier this month). The show begins at 5 pm goes until 6 pm.
Interviewed by Joe Hamill we expect her segment to be in the
latter part of the show.

And another reminder - we have a wonderful Holiday Party
planned for Saturday, Dec. 18th. Please be there!!!!

From: "Larry Felson"
Subject: Lynne Stewart case

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 07:56:15 +0000

[From Pat in New York]

The trial portion of the case has concluded. We now face summations
and charge. Govt. summations begin on December 29th and may
go into December 30th. There will be a 4 day break for New Years
until Monday, January 3rd. The Order of Summations : Summation
in Chief by Mr. Dember, AUSA for the Government; followed by
David Stern, Esq. for Mr. Yousry, and either Barry Fallick, Esq.
or Kenneth Paul, Esq. for Ahmed Sattar; followed by Michael Tigar
for Lynne Stewart. Then the Government will have rebuttal
summation by Robin Baker, AUSA. Followed by Judge Koeltl's
charge to the jury. To hear Michael Tigar it is probably best to
be in court on January 3rd and 4th. Check the website for further
updates and don't forget to come to The People's Holiday Party
on Saturday, December 18th.
COME TO THE PEOPLE'S HOLIDAY PARTY!!!

JOIN US
TO BENEFIT

THE LYNNE STEWART DEFENSE COMMITTEE
(LYNNE STEWART, ATTORNEY NOW ON TRIAL IN FEDERAL
COURT NEW YORK)

THE BRECHT FORUM
(WORKING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE & RAISING MONEY FOR
MOVING EXPENSES)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18TH - 7:30 P.M. TIL

FEATURING:
MICHAEL SMITH - MASTER OF CEREMONIES
LYNNE STEWART
VINIE BURROWS - ACTRESS CULTURAL WORKER
SPARLHA SWA - SINGER
RANDY CREDICO - COMEDIAN AND ACTIVIST
KHALIL JOHNSON - POET
NORMAN MARSHALL - PORTRAYER OF JOHN BROWN
LORCAN OTWAY OF SORCHA DORCHA, WITH DICK
CHENEY AND THE QUAKERS
DJ GRINGO LOCO - DANCING

AN EVENING OF SOLIDARITY, FUN, MUSIC, DRINKS
AND FOOD - SPEECHES AND SCHMOOZING
SLIDING SCALE $10 - $20 & up appreciated
PLACE: THE BRECHT FORUM
122 W27TH. ST.,10TH FLOOR, NEW YORK CITY
(Between 6TH & 7TH Aves.)
STOP BY ON YOUR WAY TO AND FROM OTHER
EVENTS OR FOR THE WHOLE EVENING - SEE YOU THERE
212-625-9696

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Art & Resistance in Occupied Palestine
Recent murals and Palestinian & Israeli Civil Disobedience

2) Nearly Half in U.S. Say Restrict Muslims
By WILLIAM KATES
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP)
Associated Press Writer
Dec 18, 9:43 AM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUSLIMS_CIVIL_LIBERTIES?SITE=NYSTA&SE
CTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

3) Bush looking at freezing domestic spending
WASHINGTON (AP)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/17/bush.spending.ap/index.html

4) U.S. Presses Co-Defendant Near Close of Terror Trial
By JULIA PRESTON
December 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/nyregion/17stewart.html

5) Arab media reports on US plan to attack Iran
AzerNews (Azerbaijan)
December 17, 2004
http://www.azernews.net/view.php?d=5536

6) Pentagon Seeks to Expand Role in Intelligence
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19military.html?hp&ex=1103432400&
en=0623190e8121e407&ei=5094&partner=homepage

7) In Congo War, Even Peacekeepers Add to Horror
By MARC LACEY
December 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/18/international/africa/18congo.html?hp&ex=11
03432400&en=962ad452438e18ef&ei=5094&partner=homepage

8) AARP Poll Shows Most Support Legalizing Medicinal Marijuana
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/national/19marijuana.html

9) PICTURES OF WAR
Here are two sets of pictures.
First set---
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=
1
page=1>
Second Set--
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138



---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Art & Resistance in Occupied Palestine
Recent murals and Palestinian & Israeli Civil Disobedience

Susan Greene, Eric Drooker, Dalit Baum, members of Jews for a Free
Palestine recently returned from the West Bank, Monadel Herzallah and
Special Guests

A slide and video lecture, art auction, food, and raffle fundraiser


Saturday, December 18th 7:00

New College of California, 777 Valencia Street
$10-$100 no one turned away for lack of funds

Proceeds go to medical aid for Gaza, victims of home demolition and Break
the Silence Mural Project

Sponsored by Break the Silence Mural Project and Jews for a Free Palestine,
Middle East Children’s Alliance, Justice in Palestine Coalition, Anarchists
Against the Wall

The Slide and Video Lecture:
In 2004 Break the Silence SF muralist and psychologist Susan Greene and
renowned illustrator Eric Drooker traveled to the West Bank and Gaza to
paint community murals with Palestinians.

Dalit Baum is a member of Anarchists Against the Wall and Black Laundry,
and will show video documentation of Israeli and Palestinian joint actions
and civil disobedience protesting the Wall.

The following murals were completed:

1) Hani Amer Family Mural: on the Israeli built wall that encircles the
Hani Amer home in the West Bank that has been the site of many protests and
Palestinian and Israeli peace camps. This mural was painted with the
children and extended family and represented an act of creative control over
their environment.

2) Memorial mural in Qadura refugee camp in Ramallah that honors an Italian
journalist killed by the Israeli military and eleven young people who were
killed during the first and second uprising or Intifada,

3) In the town of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza strip, several hundred thousand
citrus trees were destroyed leaving the town unemployed and devasted. On a
cultural center for youth Greene, Drooker and the center's staff painted a
three story orange tree. The Center's director wanted the children to
remember what the orange trees looked like.

The Art Auction:
A silent auction for works by some of the Bay Area's finest artists.

Cheap Arts and Crafts:
By some of the Bay Area's most crafty

Raffle:
For a wide range of exciting offerings

Refreshments and delectable foods.

Brief History of Break the Silence

Starting in 1989 when a group of Jewish Women Artists travelled to Palestine
to paint community murals in solidarity with Palestinian refugees, Break
the Silence has worked to use art to raise awareness about what life is like
for Palestinians in Israel. Our ultimate goal is to contribute to the
struggle to end the occupation of Palestine.

BTS has painted murals in refugee camps and cultural centers in the West
Bank and Gaza, and to reach our aim has painted murals in San Francisco
about Palestine, published articles, created videos and presented scores of
slide shows across the country.

Bay_Area_Activist list info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bay_area_activist
Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bay_area_activist/messages
Calendar: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bay_area_activist/calendar
List-Unsubscribe:
<mailto:bay_area_activist-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
List-Subscribe: List subscription is by invitation only -
Send an email to: <mailto:bay_area_activist-owner@yahoogroups.com>
to request an invitation.

WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) Nearly Half in U.S. Say Restrict Muslims
By WILLIAM KATES
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP)
Associated Press Writer
Dec 18, 9:43 AM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MUSLIMS_CIVIL_LIBERTIES?SITE=NYSTA&SE
CTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) -- Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S.
government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans,
according to a nationwide poll.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that
Republicans and people who described themselves as highly
religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil
liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention
to television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and
support limiting the rights of Muslim Americans.

"It's sad news. It's disturbing news. But it's not unpredictable,"
said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American
Society. "The nation is at war, even if it's not a traditional war.
We just have to remain vigilant and continue to interface."

The survey found 44 percent favored at least some restrictions
on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent
said liberties should not be restricted in any way.

The survey showed that 27 percent of respondents supported
requiring all Muslim Americans to register where they lived with
the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial
profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29 percent
thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and
volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and
fund-raising.

Cornell student researchers questioned 715 people in the
nationwide telephone poll conducted this fall. The margin of
error was 3.6 percentage points.

James Shanahan, an associate professor of communications
who helped organize the survey, said the results indicate

"the need for continued dialogue about issues of civil liberties"
in a time of war.

While researchers said they were not surprised by the overall
level of support for curtailing civil liberties, they were startled
by the correlation with religion and exposure to television news.

"We need to explore why these two very important channels
of discourse may nurture fear rather than understanding,"
Shanahan said.

According to the survey, 37 percent believe a terrorist attack
in the United States is still likely within the next 12 months.
In a similar poll conducted by Cornell in November 2002,
that number stood at 90 percent.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

3) Bush looking at freezing domestic spending
WASHINGTON (AP)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/17/bush.spending.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is telling federal agencies
to expect lean budgets next year, with congressional aides and
lobbyists saying President Bush appears ready to propose freezing
or even slightly cutting overall domestic spending.

Targeted would be all annually approved programs except for
defense and domestic security.

Excluding those two would leave a part of the budget the
administration estimates will total $388 billion for the fiscal
year that began October 1. Also excluded are automatically
made payments like Social Security and interest on the federal
debt.

Bush's stringent approach comes as record federal deficits
that hit $413 billion last year hinder his ability to pay for
overhauling Social Security and extending his tax cuts. He
also has tied the budget shortfalls to the weakening dollar,
and pledged to reduce red ink to help prop up the currency.

At his White House economic conference on Thursday, Bush
said he made "good progress" in holding the growth of non-
defense, non-homeland-security programs this year to about
1 percent.

"What I'm saying is we're going to submit a tough budget," he
said. "And I look forward to working with Congress on the
tough budget."

The president is still making final decisions about the $2.5
trillion budget for 2006 he will propose in February.

But House and Senate aides, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said cuts appeared destined for such programs as housing, grants
for community development, purchases of new equipment for
the Federal Aviation Administration, and Army Corps of Engineers
water projects.

Even the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, an
administration favorite, was facing an increase of just 1 percent,
pending appeals to the White House by outgoing NASA
Administrator Sean O'Keefe, a lobbyist said.

The zero-sum game that is federal budgeting means that if
spending for next year is held flat, for every dollar increase that
administration favorites like education or veterans receive,
another dollar must be cut elsewhere.

Even a program receiving the same as this year would lose
purchasing power due to inflation, now running about
3 percent annually.

Bush's spending blueprint would be among the toughest for
domestic programs since President Reagan's budgets of the 1980s.

Overall domestic spending has grown every year but three
since 1987 -- in 1995 and 1996, when Republicans first
recaptured Congress, and in 2000, immediately after a one-
time influx of U.S. aid to help poor and debtor countries.

Even as domestic spending growth has slowed, overall
expenditures including defense and domestic security
continue to climb, largely due to the costs of wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan.

Congress approved $87.5 billion for those wars in fall 2003
and $25 billion more last spring, and Bush is expected to
request another $75 billion to $100 billion early in 2005.

As word of Bush's still-evolving plans for domestic spending
has seeped out, it has cheered conservative Republicans.
They spent much of Bush's first term criticizing him for
letting spending grow too rapidly and pressuring
congressional leaders to try clamping down on spending.

Excluding homeland security and emergencies like hurricanes,
domestic spending has grown by 27 percent since Bush took
office in 2001.

"I really do believe that this White House gets it," said Rep.
Mike Pence, R-Indiana, a leading House conservative.

Last February, Bush proposed a 0.5 percent increase for
domestic programs, which Congress eventually doubled.
Advocates of cutting spending are hoping for better results
next year, since November's elections will bring more
conservatives to the House and Senate for the new Congress.

"They've run out of excuses," said Stephen Slivinski, budget
director of the conservative-leaning Cato Institute. "They
can't blame anyone else."

Still, Democrats and many moderate Republicans are certain
to fight for their priorities when Congress begins translating
Bush' budget proposal to actual spending legislation next year.

"This tells you the administration's priority is tax cuts over
fiscal responsibility and providing central services to the
American people," said Thomas Kahn, Democratic staff
director of the House Budget Committee.

Last May, the White House budget office distributed a memo
to federal agencies warning them to anticipate an overall
domestic spending cut of about 0.7 percent next year. At
the time, White House officials called the document an early
step in the budget process.

"The budget process is still under way," White House budget
office spokesman Chad Kolton said Thursday. He said the
administration still intends to cut the deficit in half in five
years, and the next budget "will reflect our commitment
to stay on that path."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

4) U.S. Presses Co-Defendant Near Close of Terror Trial
By JULIA PRESTON
December 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/nyregion/17stewart.html

A federal prosecutor in the terror trial of Lynne F. Stewart,
a New York defense lawyer, battered one of her co-defendants
yesterday with fierce questions, and then concluded a cross-
examination with an outburst of indignation about the crimes
alleged in the case.

The rush of emotion came on the final day of testimony in the
trial, which has lasted nearly six months. The prosecutor,
Christopher Morvillo, bore down on the co-defendant, Ahmed
Abdel Sattar, a postal worker from Staten Island who has worked
as a paralegal with Ms. Stewart. Suddenly accelerating the pace
of the testimony, Mr. Morvillo drew together many strands of
evidence that the government has been weaving week after
week in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He grilled Mr. Sattar
about his state of mind in October 2000, when he helped write
and release an Islamic edict "to mandate the killing of Jews
wherever they are found."

Mr. Sattar has testified that he wrote the edict, or fatwa, with
Rifai Taha, a fugitive Egyptian militant who was then hiding in
Afghanistan, probably in Al Qaeda training camps, and who
had been named by the United States as one of the world's
most dangerous terrorists. "It is a fact, is it not, Mr. Sattar,
that you drafted this statement with the leader of a terrorist
network?" Mr. Morvillo asked.

"Yes, it is a fact," Mr. Sattar replied.

"A person you knew was in Afghanistan with Osama bin
Laden?" Mr. Morvillo fired back.

"Yes."

"A person that you knew was considered by the United
States to be a threat to national security?"

"Yes."

"And a person who you knew had signed Osama bin
Laden's fatwa calling for the murder of Americans, right?"

"Yes."

Mr. Morvillo was referring to a separate edict issued by
Mr. bin Laden in February 1998, in which he called for
the killing and kidnapping of Americans. Mr. Taha was
one signer of Mr. bin Laden's fatwa.

Mr. Sattar released the edict he had written Mr. Taha under
the name of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a fundamentalist
Islamic cleric. The sheik, a client of Ms. Stewart's, is serving
a life sentence in federal prison for conspiring in a failed
1993 plot to bomb tunnels and landmark buildings in New
York. But the sheik, who was in solitary confinement at the
time, did not find out about the fatwa until some time later,
evidence in the trial has shown.

Mr. Sattar is charged with soliciting violence and conspiracy
to kidnap and kill in a foreign country. Ms. Stewart is accused
of participating in a terrorist conspiracy by violating prison
restrictions imposed on Mr. Abdel Rahman in order to pass
him letters from Mr. Sattar, which contained messages
discussing violence from the sheik's militant followers in
Egypt.

Visibly shaken by Mr. Morvillo's questions, Mr. Sattar sought
to distance himself from his own words, saying they were
"ugly and hateful." He said again that he was "outraged" by
the violence in Israel after a September 2000 visit by Ariel
Sharon to the site of Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. He was
especially troubled, he said, by the shooting of a Palestinian
boy by Israeli troops, which had been shown repeatedly on
the news.

He said he had only wanted to gain publicity for the sheik,
and added, pounding his fist on the stand: "I did not mean
to kill anybody. I was crying out loud, Mr. Morvillo."

Mr. Morvillo concluded his cross-examination of Mr. Sattar
by inquiring about phrases that the defendant edited out
of the fatwa calling explicitly for attacks on Americans
in the United States.

"Mr. Sattar, is that what you were referring to last week
when you told us that you defend the Constitution of
the United States?" the prosecutor asked.

"Yes," answered Mr. Sattar, who was born in Egypt but
became a naturalized American citizen in 1989.

"You are quite a patriot," Mr. Morvillo retorted.

Judge John G. Koeltl struck the comment from the record
and ordered the jury to disregard it. But Ms. Stewart's
chief lawyer, Michael E. Tigar, denounced it as improper
and asked the judge to declare a mistrial. The judge
denied that motion but, in an unusual step, criticized
Mr. Morvillo's remark to the jurors.

The jury is to return on Dec. 29 for closing arguments
and for instructions from the judge.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

5) Arab media reports on US plan to attack Iran
AzerNews (Azerbaijan)
December 17, 2004
http://www.azernews.net/view.php?d=5536

US forces will infiltrate Iran's territory through Azerbaijan, Iraq,
and Georgia. The US ground troops plan to complete the invasion
in two weeks, the London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

The publication said that the US National Security Council is
currently developing the plan for the occupation of Iran.
The White House plans to overthrow the Islamic regime in this
country and destroy its nuclear resources.

A Central Intelligence Agency employee David Cay, who headed the
commission engaged in searching for nuclear weapons in Iraq,
has been instructed to develop the plan for the operation.

The occupation of Iran will be carried out in three stages. The first
envisions destroying Iranian armed forces through an air attack.

Afterwards, the country's military units producing nuclear weapons
will be attacked. The number of such facilities is 125.

After the nuclear facilities are destroyed, the ground operation will
Be launched. The US plans to send a part of its contingent to Iran
through Azerbaijan.

According to the Pentagon, US troops will not attack Iran's capital,
Tehran, but surround it. US military experts say that several commando
Detachments will suffice to subdue the Iranian authorities. Arab media have
Reported that such forces are training in Florida, USA.

The ash-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper issued a similar report 18 months
Before the US attack on Iraq.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

6) Pentagon Seeks to Expand Role in Intelligence
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19military.html?hp&ex=1103432400&
en=0623190e8121e407&ei=5094&partner=homepage

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 - The Pentagon is drawing up a plan that
would give the military a more prominent role in intelligence-
collection operations that have traditionally been the province
of the Central Intelligence Agency, including missions aimed at
terrorist groups and those involved in weapons proliferation,
Defense Department officials say.

The proposal is being described by some intelligence officials
as an effort by the Pentagon to expand its role in intelligence
gathering at a time when legislation signed by President Bush
on Friday sets in motion sweeping changes in the intelligence
community, including the creation of a national intelligence
director. The main purpose of that overhaul is to improve
coordination among the country's 15 intelligence agencies,
including those controlled by the Pentagon.

The details of the plan remain secret and are evolving, but
indications of its scope and significance have begun to emerge
in recent weeks. One part of the overall proposal is being drafted
by a team led by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a deputy under
secretary of defense.

Among the ideas cited by Defense Department officials is the
idea of "fighting for intelligence," or commencing combat
operations chiefly to obtain intelligence.

The proposal also calls for a major expansion of human-
intelligence collection efforts under the Pentagon's auspices,
both within the military services and the Defense Intelligence
Agency, including more aggressive, offensive missions aimed
at acquiring specific intelligence sought by policy makers.
(The term human intelligence refers to information gathered
directly by spies rather than by technological means.)

The proposal marks the latest chapter in the fierce and long-
running rivalry between the Pentagon and the C.I.A. for
dominance over intelligence collection.

White House officials are monitoring the Pentagon's planning,
as is the C.I.A. The proposal has not yet won White House
approval, according to administration officials. It is unclear
to what extent American military forces have already been
given additional authority to carry out intelligence-gathering
missions.

Until now, intelligence operations run by the Pentagon have
focused primarily on gathering information about enemy
forces, the main preoccupation of military commanders. But
the overarching proposal being drafted in the Pentagon, which
encompasses General Boykin's efforts, would focus military
intelligence operations increasingly on counterterrorism and
counterproliferation, areas in which the C.I.A.'s directorate
of operations has always played the leading role.

"Right now, we're looking at providing Special Operations
forces some of the flexibility the C.I.A. has had for years,"
said a Defense Department official who spoke on the condition
of anonymity because the plan has not yet been approved.
"It would be used judiciously, and with all appropriate oversight
controls."

General Boykin's proposal would revamp military commands
to ensure that senior officers planning and fighting wars work
more closely with the intelligence analysts tracking threats like
terrorists and insurgency cells. Another part of the Pentagon's
plan was articulated in a recent directive by Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld that instructed regional commanders to
expand the military's role in intelligence gathering, particularly
in tracking terrorist and insurgent leaders.

"What we're talking about with the combatant commanders is
using their military forces in the field in a more thoughtful way,
and having a level of awareness to gather information that's
important," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

In public allusions to the plan, both General Boykin and Vice
Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby, the director of the Defense Intelligence
Agency, have stuck to generalities that have left unclear exactly
what is being proposed. But some intelligence officials say they
believe those remarks open the way to more clandestine military
operations intended to gather intelligence on terrorists and
weapons proliferators.

One former intelligence official questioned the utility of the
military's putting more resources into intelligence collection
at a time when it is already stretched thin in dealing with the
counterinsurgency in Iraq and addressing threats elsewhere.

"If you're a shooter, go do that job," said the former intelligence
official, who has opposed efforts by the Pentagon to expand its
intelligence gathering role. "But don't put the shooter in a pinstripe
suit and send him to Beirut to chase bad guys." He said he regarded
the military's initiative as an attempt to make inroads into turf
controlled by intelligence agencies.

A current intelligence official who works outside the Pentagon
described the relationship between the Pentagon and the C.I.A. as
"closer than ever," but he added that "cooperation is strongest in
the places where it counts most, like Iraq and Afghanistan." The
official said, "There's a real sense that there's plenty of work for
everyone, and the key for both agencies is close coordination
and insisting that all of us apply the best possible tradecraft in
human intelligence operations."

General Boykin was traveling abroad and not available for
comment this week. Over the last two weeks, he and his top
aides have declined repeated interview requests on this subject.

The general provided an overview of the plan in an address in
October to the Association of the United States Army,
a nonprofit educational organization, and copies of his
briefing slides are posted on the group's Web site.

A brief synopsis of General Boykin's plan was provided by
Defense Department officials, as were remarks prepared for
delivery in a Nov. 15 address by Admiral Jacoby.

"Our present intelligence collection architecture - optimized
to identify and track large conventional forces - is inadequate
to warn against these new challenges for terrorists, provide
sufficient information on insurgent groups, determine the
status of discrete W.M.D. production capabilities, learn the
intentions of leaderships from rogue states, or determine
friend from foe when intermingled in a foreign country,"
Admiral Jacoby said in that speech.

The admiral said intelligence agencies needed to put a new
premium on acquiring "persistent surveillance" through "
close-in and continuous collection against broader problem
sets."

General Boykin, who attracted controversy last year for saying
in remarks to Christian groups that Muslims worship "an idol"
and describing the battle against Muslim radicals as a fight
against Satan, has been the prime architect of the proposal,
which has been under review at the Pentagon since January
2004. The general reports to Stephen A. Cambone, who since
2003 has used his newly created post as under secretary of
intelligence to assert a role in which he has competed with
George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence,
and his successors for dominance over American intelligence
agencies.

Among the proposals described by Defense Department
officials is a plan to create a Joint Intelligence Operational
Command within the Pentagon, which would elevate intelligence
to much more power and prominence. The command being
proposed could replace the Defense Intelligence Agency,
Defense Department officials say.

If approved, General Boykin's proposal would allow the
Pentagon to be less reliant on other intelligence agencies,
including the Central Intelligence Agency, for its operations,
senior defense officials said.

"It will give more options to the military for how they gather
the intelligence, instead of having to depend on other agencies,"
said one senior military officer who has received a preliminary
briefing on the proposal and spoke on condition of anonymity
because the plan has not yet been approved.

Maj. Gen. Charles W. Thomas, a retired senior Army intelligence
officer who has worked as a consultant for General Boykin on
his project, said he broadly supported the general's goals.

But General Thomas warned that one possible danger in
bringing battle commanders and intelligence officials so close
together to fight a common enemy was the risk that the
intelligence could be skewed to fit the commander's war plan
and not the reality on the ground.

A spokesman for the Special Operations Command in Tampa,
Fla., Col. Samuel Taylor, said on Friday that the command had
been briefed on an early draft of General Boykin's remodeling
initiative, but that staff officers and senior commanders had
not yet reviewed it in depth.

President Bush last month ordered the C.I.A. and the Defense
Department to review a plan that could expand the Pentagon's
role in covert operations, perhaps replacing the C.I.A. in providing
paramilitary forces for such missions. Mr. Bush's directive set
a 90-day deadline for the review.

The idea of transferring paramilitary authority from the intelligence
agency to the military's Special Operations Forces was among
several prominent recommendations made by the
Sept. 11 commission.

The proposal remains under review. But in public testimony in
August, Mr. Rumsfeld and John E. McLaughlin, who was then the
acting intelligence chief, expressed reservations about the idea,
and it was not included in the measure Mr. Bush approved on Friday.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

7) In Congo War, Even Peacekeepers Add to Horror
By MARC LACEY
December 18, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/18/international/africa/18congo.html?hp&ex=11
03432400&en=962ad452438e18ef&ei=5094&partner=homepage

BUNIA, Congo, Dec. 16 - In the corner of the tent where she says
a soldier forced himself on her, Helen, a frail fifth grader with big
eyes and skinny legs, remembers seeing a blue helmet.

The United Nations peacekeeper who tore off her clothes had used
a cup of milk to lure her close, she said in her high-pitched voice,
fidgeting as she spoke. It was her favorite drink, she said, but one
her family could rarely afford. "I was so happy," she said.

After she gulped it down, the foreign soldier pulled Helen,
a 12-year-old, into bed, she said. About an hour later, he gave
her a dollar, put a finger to his lips and pushed her out of his
tent, she said.

In this same eastern outpost, another United Nations
peacekeeper, unable to communicate with a 13-year-old
Swahili-speaking girl who walked past him, held up a cookie
and gestured for her to draw near. As the girl, Solange, who
recounted the incident with tears in her eyes the other day,
reached for the cookie, the soldier reached for her. She, too,
said she was raped.

The United Nations said recently that it had uncovered
150 allegations of sexual abuse committed by United Nations
peacekeepers stationed in Congo, many of them here in Bunia
where the population has already suffered horrendous atrocities
committed by local fighters. The raping of women and girls is
an all-too-common tactic in the war raging in Congo's eastern
jungles involving numerous militia groups. In Bunia, a program
run by Unicef has treated 2,000 victims of sexual violence in recent
months. But it is not just the militia members who have been preying
on the women. So, too, local women say, have some of the soldiers
brought in to keep the peace.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said recently that
there was "clear evidence that acts of gross misconduct have taken
place" in the United Nations mission in Congo, which began in
early 2000 and is known by its French acronym, Monuc. Mr. Annan
added, "This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have
to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it."

The number of cases may be impossible for United Nations
investigators to determine precisely. Helen and Solange said
in recent interviews that they had not told their stories even
to their parents, never mind to United Nations officials. Rape
carries a heavy stigma here, both girls made clear. They told
their stories when approached by a reporter.

"I didn't tell my mother because she would beat me," said
a grim-faced Solange, starring at the ground. Solange, a sixth-
grade dropout, said she had no interest in visiting a health clinic
or seeing one of the psychologists that Unicef has paid for to
counsel the many rape victims in and around Bunia. If she seeks
help, the girl said, her mother might find out.

Helen's mother is dead, and Helen did not dare tell her father for
fear of a beating. She said she knew he would blame her for going
near the soldiers in the first place and might even throw her out
of the house.

Helen did go on her own to a health clinic soon after the assault
because she said she hurt between her legs. The health worker
gave her something to drink, which she paid for with the same
dollar that the soldier had given her, she said.

"I was so afraid when he took my clothes off," Helen said, fidgeting
with her dirty T-shirt. "I was quiet. I didn't say anything."

The allegations leveled against United Nations personnel in Congo
include sex with underage partners, sex with prostitutes and rape,
an internal United Nations investigation has found. Investigators
said they found evidence that United Nations peacekeepers and
civilian workers paid $1 to $3 for sex or bartered sexual relations
for food or promises of employment. A confidential report prepared
by Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the United
Nations, and dated Nov. 8, says the exploitation "appears to be
significant, widespread and ongoing."

Violators described in the investigation, which continues, appear
to come from around the globe. Fifty countries are represented
among the 1,000 civilian employees and 10,800 soldiers who
make up the United Nations mission in Congo. Already, a French
civilian has been accused of having sex with a girl, though it is
unclear where that case stands, and two Tunisian peacekeepers
have been sent home, where the local authorities will decide
whether to punish them.

The United Nations report details allegations of sexual misconduct
by peacekeepers from Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco, Tunisia, South
Africa and Uruguay, and lists incidents in which some soldiers
tried to obstruct investigators.

When they arrive for duty, peacekeepers are presented with the
United Nations code of conduct, which forbids "any exchange
of money, employment, goods or services for sex."

The home countries are responsible for punishing any of their
military personnel who violate the code while taking part in
a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

The United Nations, which has had previous scandals in
missions in Cambodia and Bosnia, also warns the soldiers
against sexual contact with girls under 18, even though the
law in Congo permits sex with girls as young as 14.

The United Nations policy says that mistakenly believing
someone is older "cannot be considered a defense." The
youth of Helen and Solange cannot be mistaken. They said
they were abused while selling bananas and avocados to
soldiers. Each girl said she was among the girls and women
who have flocked to the camps that peacekeepers have set
up around Bunia. These two girls walked from tent to tent with
fruit balanced on their heads, using gestures to make deals.

Helen would sell her fruit for 10 francs apiece, or a few cents,
and would earn about $1 a day. She would give the money to
her older sister.

Solange would trade her fruit for the small containers of
milk issued to soldiers. She would then sell the milk in
town, making about $1.50 a day. She used the money
to help her family buy food.

Some of the girls and women who have entered the
peacekeepers' camps concede that they had less-than-
innocent intentions.

Judith and Saidati, both 15 and sexually experienced
with Congolese boys, acknowledged that they were looking
for foreign boyfriends as they sold their fruit.

The girls, who have the same father, said in a recent
interview that they both found French boyfriends first,
when the French Army controlled Bunia last year. Then
they each found soldiers from Nepal, one of the countries
supplying peacekeepers to the United Nations mission.
After that, the girls spent time with soldiers from Morocco,
who make up the bulk of the force now patrolling Bunia.

The girls said they each stuck to one soldier apiece and
switched to new ones only when their boyfriends were
transferred out. Each time they had sex, the soldiers gave
them $5, they said. Sometimes, they got other gifts, too,
they said.

One day, however, after their latest boyfriends had gone,
a social worker visited them and told them of the dangers
of having sex with soldiers. The woman sat them down
and told them about AIDS and the other sexually transmitted
diseases they might get. "She told us not to go anywhere near
the soldiers," said Judith, who like the other girls agreed to be
identified only by her first name. "She said we're still young and
they might make our lives short."

The two half sisters said the social worker's words frightened
them, and they said they had not had any boyfriends for the
last few months. But they also acknowledged that fewer
Moroccan soldiers were propositioning them, reducing their
temptation. The soldiers' new commander is keeping a closer
eye on them, the girls said. "They want to come to us but their
chief is watching them," Judith said.

Judith and Saidati said they wanted the soldiers to remain in
Bunia for many years. The girls said the United Nations troops
had succeeded in stabilizing the town, which was a war zone
just over a year ago. The foreigners also have much more money
to spend than local boys, the girls said.

"I like them," said Judith, smiling coyly.

"They treat us so nice," added Saidati, who was beaming.

But the two younger girls, Helen and Solange, were far more
sober when they spoke of the foreign troops. They said they
stopped selling fruit at the military camp immediately after
they were attacked and had never been back. They said
they had trouble sleeping at night and could not forget
what the soldiers did to them.

"Whenever I see one of them, I remember what happened,"
said Helen, who lives near a military checkpoint operated by
soldiers wearing blue helmets just like the one she remembers
seeing in the tent. "I'm afraid of them."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

8) AARP Poll Shows Most Support Legalizing Medicinal Marijuana
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/national/19marijuana.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (AP) - Nearly three-fourths of Americans
middle age and older support legalizing marijuana for medical use,
according to a poll taken for AARP.

More than half of those questioned said they believed marijuana has
medical benefits, while a larger majority agreed the drug is addictive.

AARP, whose 35 million members are all at least 50 years old, says
it has no political position on medical marijuana and that its local
branches have not chosen sides in the scores of state ballot initiatives
on the issue in recent elections.

But with medical marijuana at the center of a Supreme Court case
to be decided next year, and nearly a dozen states with medical
marijuana laws on their books, AARP said, it decided to study the
issue.

"The use of medical marijuana applies to many older Americans who
may benefit from cannabis," said Ed Dwyer, an editor at AARP The
Magazine, which will report on the issue in its March-April issue,
scheduled to appear in late January.

Among the 1,706 adults age 45 and older who were polled in
November, opinions varied along regional and generational lines
and among the 30 percent of respondents who said they had smoked
marijuana. AARP members represented 37 percent of the respondents.

Over all, 72 percent of respondents agreed "adults should be
allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician
recommends it." Those in the Northeast (79 percent) and West
(82 percent) were more receptive to the idea than in the Midwest
(67 percent) and Southwest (65 percent). In Southern states,
70 percent agreed with the statement.

Seventy-four percent of all those surveyed thought marijuana
is addictive.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

9) PICTURES OF WAR
Here are two sets of pictures.
First set---
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=
1
page=1>
Second Set--
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138


Now this is what I want you to do:

First, sit down and make sure there is nothing near you that can
be thrown at anyone, hurled at anything, smashed into pieces.

I would assume that by now these have all been used up heaving
them at the TV screen, but ya never know.

Then, turn off everything, and make the room silent.

Look at both sets. All of it. Very slowly.
As slowly as it takes to bleed to death.
As painfully as it takes to breath with a hole ripped in your lungs.
With all the focused minute concentration of a USMC sniper
narrowing a famished 12 year old in his sights.

As the tears burn ineradicable traces down your face, and
grief and rage shred your insides, and as you turn your face
to the sky in voiceless open mouthed horror and shame,
consumed by the truth of our complicity and cowardliness-
I want you to sit there in it.
Sit in it and don’t move.
Try to keep breathing.

Now, we can decide What Is To Be Done.

1. STOP THE PARADE
We must STOP the forward motion of what is going on.
Not complain, not protest, no investigations, hearings,
lawsuits, demonstrations, marches with signs.
We must make this murderous machine STOP DEAD.
We must make it all come to a complete and utter HALT.
If even for an hour, a day.
It is not enough to march, or to make some symbolic gesture,
or to carry a placard with a pithy message, or to chant,
or goddnoes change the Democratic Party Leadership.
It is not enough to be Right.
This is all very nice I’m sure.
None of this has done a goddam thing, and you know it.
Nothing.

On January 20, 2005, every blood-sucking bastard in the
US Government will be in one place-- in Washington DC.
Every no soldier’s father, lobbyist’s best boy, AIPAC Hooker.
Every Connected Pseudo-Christian Crusading Son of Jesus,
pension-robbing CEO, NRA sucking, air fouling, grandchild
sodomizing profit monger maniac MF still breathing will be there.
And all of the world’s so-called press, just flown in business
class from Kiev and hunkered down in their 500 a night hotels
will be there, with their million dollar cameras, and 100 dollar
haircuts, and thousand dollar botox jobs, and their big salaries
and big expense accounts, and even bigger egos- all
slobbering over the Status Quo- they will be there and
the World will be Watching.

And we better be there too.
And we better put a STOP to the Parade. Right there,
for everyone to see.
This is our Tiananmen Square –
This is our Tiananmen Square
Pennsylvania Avenue is our Tiananmen Square.
One man standing in front of a tank, unafraid to die-can
stop the Parade in its tracks. Bring the Government to its
knees, with the world in witness.

We have to show up. Show up at the route down
Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the
Capitol, and STOP the goddam Parade.
With our bodies.
We must lie down in the road, and not move.
Tens and hundreds and thousands and tens of
thousands of us.
BEFORE the parade can get to The Capitol.
We have this one chance to stop the goddam
Parade, and we better take it.
Peacefully. Non-violently. Passively. Assertively.
This is our Tiananmen Square.

2. Walk OUT

We have GOT to try to get to DC somehow.
But if we cannot-
Tiananmen Square can be wherever you are.
We have to STOP everything everywhere at noon on
January 20, 2005.
The Parade must come to a complete and utter halt,
wherever it is, wherever we are, whatever we’re doing.
We must walk off the job, walk out of school, stop our
cars, our busses, our cabs, our bicycyles. Put down
that sandwich, log off the chat room.
Noon on Jan 20.
Lie down in the street. And not get up.
The Parade has to stop.
We must say- NO. You go no further.

This time there is only ONE Evil.
And it has to be stopped.
For an hour or a day, for ten minutes --
with the World watching.
In a way that is undeniable-
That the press cannot stash somewhere
behind the potted plant of some celebrity
catastrophe or bogus epidemic.
In broad daylight, in every village and town.
Walk OUT.
Lie down.
Do not get up.

Look, we walked into the voting booths with full
knowledge that we had no real choice, our humanity
and citizenship made brutally vestigial waaaay before
any votes were counted, our rights stolen before our
votes were.
We walked into the booths like Jews walking into
the ovens.
Because it was easier to believe that something
acceptable was inside than to face the utter horror
of the truth.
We KNEW – and now we’re whining.
Time’s up.

There has been a Radical Regime Change in the WORLD-
and you cannot ever say you didn’t know. If that’s OK
with you, then do nothing.
If not-
January 20,2005.
See you in Tiananmen Square.

CALL TO ACTION: ONE-DAY PROTEST STRIKE AND
DEMONSTRATIONS ON INAUGURATION DAY, JANUARY 20
http://www.counter-
inaugural.org for up-to-date
counter-inauguration planning.
We call for a one-day protest strike and demonstrations
across the United States and for marches on US embassies
in as many other countries as possible. We know that for
most people January 20 is a workday, and that work conditions
can vary drastically. We suggest people reach out to others
in their workplaces, campuses and neighborhoods and either
call in sick or walk out at noon on January 20. College and
university students can easily take a day off from classes.
Whether you then choose to join an organized protest action
or form a local affinity group of friends to organize an action
of your own, join us and others in the streets to reclaim our
power. We don’t consent, and we won’t obey! In the streets
for real democracy! Act together for real alternatives!

A Call for decentralized, local actions around the world on J20
DC Anti-War Network Working Group,
Counter-Inauguration actions
http://www.dawndc.net/events/j20_05 )

The Call
http://www.dawndc.net
"DAWN calls for people all over the nation and world to converge
on Washington, DC, on the day of George W. Bush's Inauguration,
January 20, 2005, for peaceful anti-war actions. While DAWN
is coordinating with many groups for a day of actions, DAWN
calls additionally for these specific actions:
(1) A permitted nonviolent anti-war rally followed by a march
to Bush's inaugural parade route;
(2) A nonviolent civil disobedience die-in, following the rally,
in memorial to the dead at the hands of Bush and his Administration."
For more information, visit http://www.dawndc.net

DAWN also calls for organizations, affinity groups, and individuals to
partner with us in organizing these two actions.
If you or your group or organization wants to endorse DAWN's call to
action, please send an e-mail to info@dawndc.net. Write also if you wish
to collaborate in the planning or offer financial donations or other
material support.



http://www.j20walkout.tsx.org
Organizing is underway in several cities and in numerous schools for a
massive walkut on January 20th against the Inauguration. Please visit the
website and spread the word to students and youth (and everyone else!).
Post updates or announcements of your walkouts and events in
the forum and read up on others!

Build, Organize, Walkout!
-J20 Walkout! group

What Will J20 Look Like?

We call on the people of the empire to use their privilege of living
within the empire to stop it from functioning on January 20th, 2005,
the day that George W. Bush is to be inaugurated the next president of
the U.S. Together, we can stop the gears of global capitalism from
turning. We call for actions across the U.S. and around the world
which are focused on stopping the machinery of war and global
capitalism. These actions include both mass mobilizations, street
parties, Civil Disobedience and Direct Action as well as Assembleas
Populares, Encuentros and other forms of real, direct democracy.

Alongside the bodies in the streets, we also call for networks of
electronic civil disobedience, hacktivism, and tactical media to join
in the struggle. Against the bio-electronic forms of empire dominating
the conduits of capital, media, and everyday life, we make this call in
the spirit of the Critical Art Ensemble, Conglomco, RTMArk, and all the
radio pirates and Indymedia centers worldwide.

The ORGANIC collective
Opposing Repression Globally and Nurturing Independent Communities
http://ORGANICcollective.org

dc justice and solidarity legal collective:
info@justiceandsolidarity.org: http://www.justiceandsolidarity.org

working with lawyer's guild
on legal support of the week jan. 20 legal office, street teams,
training for affinity groups to do own legal support, what do to
if you get arrested….

Disgusted by Bush's election? Get active!
* Visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org for links to
events and groups
* New "Bring the Troops Home Now" car magnets at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/merchandise
* Donate at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/donate
to enable us to keep fighting back
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email

From Turn Your Back on Bush:
"Turn Your Back on Bush is a new kind of event in an old tradition:
direct nonviolent action. In the past four years, Bush has made it
clear that dissent is unwelcome in his America, and his policies
have created an atmosphere where demonstrators are corralled
and their messages marginalized. Polls show that the majority
of Americans disagree with Bush on numerous issues, but by
refusing to talk to anyone but the most subservient press
outlets and appearing only in highly staged events, he has cut
himself off from all but his most ardent supporters. We want
our audience with our President.

"On inauguration day, we will gather as citizens for the public
events of the day and join the rest of the crowd. At a given
signal, we will turn our backs. Until the moment we turn around,
there will be nothing to distinguish us from the rest of the
crowd. By leaving our signs and buttons at home, we will
avoid all of the obstacles that Bush and his supporters have
used to keep anyone who disagrees with him out of sight.
For this one moment we will speak as one and show Bush
that winning an election does not mean he has the support
of all Americans."

For more information, visit
http://www.turnyourbackonbush.org
A Text Mob Group for the Counter-Inauguration:

https://www.txtmob.com/group_info.php?listID=940
&


Subscribe to --- DRANT
http://drrant.blogspot.com · POB 411197 · San
Francisco · CA · 94141 1197
Thanks.

David Rubinson
Back in The USA !
POB 411197
SF CA 94141-1197

LINKS AND INFORMATION RE: COUNTER INAUGURATION
ACTIONS
JANUARY 20, 2005:

http://www.counter-inaugural.org <<<<<
for up-to-date counter-inauguration planning.
http://www.dawndc.net DC actions
http://www.dawndc.net/events/j20_05 Die In
http://www.j20walkout.tsx.org walkout
actions
http://www.inaugural05.com/
http://www.turnyourbackonbush.org
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org

www.newyork.notinourname.net
www.notinourname.net

http://www.unitedforpeace.org
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/events
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/events

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pythian/billionaires/

http://www.afic.army.mil/events.htm

http://www.velocitynyc.com/inaugural-balls.shtml
http://www.scinauguralball.com/
http://www.freerepublic.com/w2ball/
http://www.enaugural.com/
http://sandiego.indymedia.org
www.counter-inaugural2005.org

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/counterinaugural_tc/
info@justiceandsolidarity.org
http://www.justiceandsolidarity.org
http://www.inaugurationmedia.org
eve.lyman@bostonmobilization.org
http://ORGANICcollective.org
www.notinournmame-seattle.net
https://www.txtmob.com/group_info.php?listID=940&
text mob
http://www.contro-inaugurazione.it

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found
out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed
upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with
either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are
prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress:
Frederick Douglass

posted 1:46 PM  0 comments

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

************BREAKING NEWS**************

According to the A.N.S.W.E.R. Washington, DC news conference
covered live on CSPAN this morning, the U.S. government is not
allowing antiwar/anti-Bush protestors onto Pennsylvania Ave.
along the inauguration route.

A.N.S.W.E.R. reported, there are three types of tickets available
for the inauguration, Group A, is for personally invited guests;
Group B, is for contributors to the Bush campaign (for both of
these groups a list is carefully checked before tickets are sold;)
tickets for Group C, for the general public, are not available.
None. They are simply not sold.

The Government, in a stalling move, has not denied permits to
ANSWER for space for counter demonstrators, rather they are
delaying as long as possible with the knowledge that the longer
the permits are denied, the harder it will be for people to make
arrangements to come to DC to protest. If and when permits
are officially denied, A.N.S.W.E.R. declared they would challenge
the government legally as they did in the last presidential
inauguration "celebration."

We have a constitutional right to protest the inauguration.
BAUAW encourages all to show up in DC and come to Pennsylvania
Avenue with your signs and banners and express your opposition
to Bush and to the War.

We demand, along with A.N.S.W.E.R., equal access along the rout
for all. We have a right to protest our government or any of its
official representatives. Nothing gives the government the right
to disallow legal and peaceful protest. We say all out to
Washington, DC if you can make it.

If you can't go to DC, come out Jan. 20, 5pm, Civic Center, SF. in
solidarity with all protestors in Washington and everywhere who
oppose this war.

We are encouraging everyone to participate somehow by wearing
buttons and signs at work, at school and on the bus; hold banners
at freeway entrances, and crowded shopping areas etc. on
Jan. 20. Students should hold rallies and march to the Civic Center.

Come to our next meeting and pick a place to flyer or table
for Jan. 20 or hold a sign during the day, on Jan. 20 if you can.

NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

The only moral virtue of war is that it compels the capitalist system
to look itself in the face and admit it is a fraud.
HELEN KELLER, "The Menace of Militarism."

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Where you can still see the "must-see" film, WMD: Weapons of
Mass Deception.

This film is being downplayed by the mass media. It must have
something to do with the searing criticism of that very media that
is the content of the film. Go and see it.

WMD will play in the following theatres in the
Bay Area on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2004:

San Francisco, CA
Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema
601 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 267-4893

Berkeley, CA (currently playing)
The Oaks Theater
1875 Solano Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 526-1836

Orinda, CA
Orinda Theater
2 Orinda Theater Square
Orinda, CA 94563
(925) 254-906

Richard Castro
Outreach & Special Distribution
Cinema Libre Studio
818.349.8822 Ph.
818.349.9922 Fax
www.cinemalibrestudio.com

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Hey Peace Activists...
Sorry for the massive crossposting, but I had to share this with you.
In case anyone needed a reminder as to why we are doing this,
please take a moment to watch Ian Rhett'"(Didn't know I was) UnAmerican"
http://unamerican.haightfreetv.com/unamerican.56m041011.swf


It's wonderful.
Charles Shaw

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

Newtopia Magazine

www.newtopiamagazine.net

--------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Holiday Benefit Sale
at the Middle East Children's Alliance
Saturday, December 18th, 10 AM to 6 PM at
901 Parker Street, Berkeley (corner of 7th and Parker)

2) HUMOR: Iraqi leader to be announced at Jan. 16 Golden Globe Awards

3) Cuba, Venezuela Defy U.S. and Announce
Their Own Plan To Create A FairTrade
Alternative to FTAA!
----- Original Message -----
From: < nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com >
" Castro, Chavez Defy US Trade Pact "

4) New Gallup Poll Raises Questions About Media Focus on 'Values'
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK
Published: December 14, 2004 10:00 AM ET
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content
_id=1000736658

5) War Funding Request May Hit $100 Billion
By Bryan Bender
WASHINGTON
Published on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 by the Boston Globe
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1215-03.htm

6) Details of Marines Mistreating
Prisoners in Iraq Are Revealed
By Richard A. Serrano
WASHINGTON
Published on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1215-01.htm

7) Eskimos Seek to Recast Global Warming
as a Rights Issue
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
December 15, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/international/americas/15climate.html?oref
=login&oref=login

8) The Thought Police - Cops Investigate Anti-American Statements
of 11-Year-Old
The Washington Post reports two police officers recently
visited the home of an 11-year-old and questioned his parents
for three hours about anti-American comments their son made in
school The student had refused to participate in a Veterans Day
exercise and criticized the Marines. The school claimed he had
said, "I wish all Americans were dead and that American soldiers
should die." The Police questioned his parents about their views
on Sept. 11, the military and if they knew any foreigners who
criticized US policy. They also inquired whether the parents might
be teaching "anti-American values" at home. The mother, Pamela
Allbaugh, told the Washington Post "It was intimidating.
I told them it's like a George Orwell novel, that it felt like
they were the thought police." She went on to say "If someone
would have asked me five years ago if this was something my
government would do, I would have said never."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/16/1444215

9) World War 3 Report, issue 93, December 2003
http://www.ww3report.com/93.html#palestine6
Remote-control Machine Guns to Be Mounted on the Wall

10) Mark your calendar: Saturday, December 18, 6:00-8:00
(18th & CASTRO)

11) Chuck D keynotes "State of the Black Youth" convention
By Diane Bukowski
DETROIT
The Michigan Citizen
http://www.michigancitizen.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=73&twindow=Defaul
t&mad=No&sdetail=1308&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restat
us=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=

12) Israeli Army Raid Into Gaza Kills 5 Palestinians
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters)
Fri Dec 17, 2004 08:29 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7125113&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news

13) Hungry and homeless ranks swell in US cities
By Rick Kelly
World Socialist Web Site
www.wsws.org
17 December 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/hung-d17.shtml

14) Joma Sison issued this statement in the wake of the deaths
of over 1000 people due to typhoon-related mudslides and
the government's request for 600 U.S. Marines to engage
in "relief operations" near areas controlled by the NPA
and National Democratic Front of the Philippines. --dp
PS. CARHRIHL is an important human rights declaration signed
by the Philippine government and the NDFP.
Press Statement
16 December 2004
CARHRIHL DOES NOT ALLOW US COMBAT TROOPS TO INTRUDE
INTO PHILIPPINE--GRP OR NDFP--TERRITORY
UNDER PRETEXT OF RELIEF OPERATIONS
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chief Political Consultant
National Democratic Front of the Philippines

15) On Sunday December, 12, 2004, an Israeli sniper in Khan
Younis refugee camp killed Rana Syiam, 7 years old, while
she was sitting at home, eating supper with her family.
The Israeli army gave no explanation for the attack.

16) COMMUNITY SPEAK OUT FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
Sat, Dec. 18th, 1:00 pm
24th & Mission St. (24th St. BART), San Francisco
Call to Action for Immigrant Rights:

17) NEWS & COMMENTARY: Soldier has himself shot to avoid
returning to Iraq

18) Days of Protest Jan. 20 Inauguration Day and
Jan.22, 32nd Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade:

19) Guard Reports Serious Drop in Enlistment
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
December 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/politics/17reserves.html?oref=login


--------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Holiday Benefit Sale
at the Middle East Children's Alliance
Saturday, December 18th, 10 AM to 6 PM at
901 Parker Street, Berkeley (corner of 7th and Parker)

The subject of this email is Project Censored's #1 story for 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1118425,00.html

In reality, every very "tax reform" since President Kennedy, federal,
state, and local governments have been transfering taxes from the
rich and to the poor, the working class, and small businesses. This
process has been bipartisan and even occurred during the last
Presidential Election. The overwhelming majority of us are being
robbed by the government and deprived of essential services at
the same time.

FYI: The following is from the "PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION"
to the Media Monopoly: With a New Preface on the Internet and
Telecommunications Cartels, by Ben H. Bagdikian. (2000) Beacon
Press, 25 Beacon St., Boston Mass 02108-2892:

"AS THE UNITED STATES ENTERS the twenty-first century, power
over the American mass media is flowing to the top with such
devouring speed that it exceeds even the accelerated consolidations
of the last twenty years. For the first time in U.S. history, the country's
most widespread news, commentary, and daily entertainment
are controlled by six firms that are among the world's largest
corporations, two of them foreign.

"Even with the dramatic entry of the Internet and the cyber world
with their uncounted hundreds of new firms, the controlling handful
of American and foreign corporations now exceed in their size and
communications power anything the world has seen before. Their
intricate global interlocks create the force of an international cartel.

"There are pernicious consequences. While excessive bigness itself
is cause for economic anxieties, the worst problems are political
and social. The country's largest media giants have achieved alarming
success in writing the media laws and regulations in favor of their
own corporations and against the interests of the general public.
Their concentrated power permits them to become a larger factor
than ever before in socializing each generation with entertainment
models of behavior and personal values.

"The impact on the national political agenda has been devastating,
For years, the mainstream news has over dramatized its reporting
of congressional and White House debate on the national debt and
deficit beyond their intrinsic importance. Politicians raised the issue,
but it was seized upon and overblown by the major media--
media that politicians use as a bellwether on what issues will
get them the most public attention and partisan advantage.
During these crucial years, the American economy was undergoing
an astonishing phenomenon that the mainstream news left largely
unreported or actually glamorized in its infrequent references: the
largest transfer of the national wealth in American history from
a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country's
wealthiest families."

http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/1.html
Wealth Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and
Democracy

MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, May 2003, Vol. 24, No. 5
Title: "The Wealth Divide" (An interview with Edward Wolff)
Author: Robert Weissman
BUZZFLASH, March 26 and 29, 2004
Title: "A Buzzflash Interview, Parts I & II" (with David Cay Johnston)
Author: Buzzflash Staff
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/1.html
LONDON GUARDIAN, October 4, 2003
Title: "Every third person will be a slum dweller within 30 years, UN agency
warns"
Author: John Vidal
MULTINATIONAL MONITOR, July/August, 2003
Title: "Grotesque Inequality"
Author: Robert Weissman
Faculty Evaluators: Greg Storino, Phil Beard Ph.D.
Student Researchers: Caitlyn Pardue, David Sonnenberg, Sita Khalsa

THE DOMESTIC TREND
In the late 1700s, issues of fairness and
equality were topics of great debate-
equality under the law, equality of opportunity,
etc. Considered by the framers of the
Constitution to be one of the most
important aspects of a democratic
system, the word "equality" is featured
prominently throughout the document.
In the 200+ years since, most
industrialized nations have succeeded
in decreasing the gap between rich and poor.

However, since the late 1970s wealth
inequality, while stabilizing or increasing
slightly in other industrialized nations,
has increased sharply and dramatically
in the United States. While it is no secret
that such a trend is taking place, it is rare
to see a TV news program announce that
the top 1% of the U.S. population now owns
about a third of the wealth in the country.
Discussion of this trend takes place, for
the most part, behind closed doors.

During the short boom of the late 1990s,
conservative analysts asserted that, yes,
the gap between rich and poor was growing,
but that incomes for the poor were still
increasing over previous levels. Today most
economists, regardless of their political
persuasion, agree that the data over the
last 25 to 30 years is unequivocal. The
top 5% is capturing an increasingly greater
portion of the pie while the bottom 95% is
clearly losing ground, and the highly touted
American middle class is fast disappearing.
According to economic journalist, David
Cay Johnston, author of "Perfectly Legal,"
this trend is not the result of some naturally
occurring, social Darwinist "survival of the
fittest." It is the product of legislative policies
carefully crafted and lobbied for by
corporations and the super-rich over
the past 25 years.

New tax shelters in the 1980s shifted
the tax burden off capital and onto labor.
As tax shelters rose, the amount of federal
revenue coming from corporations fell
(from 35% during the Eisenhower years
to 10% in 2002). During the deregulation
wave of the '80s and the '90s, members
of Congress passed legislation (often
without reading it) that deregulated
much of the financial industry. These
laws took away, for example, the powerful
incentives for accountants to behave with
integrity or for companies to put away
a reasonable amount in pension plans
for their employees-resulting in the well
-publicized (too late) scandals involving
Enron, Global Crossing, and others.

THE GLOBAL IMPACT

As always, America's economic trends
have a global footprint-and this time,
it is a crater. Today the top 400 income
earners in the U.S. make as much in
a year as the entire population of the
20 poorest countries in Africa (over
300 million people). But in America,
national leaders and mainstream media
tell us that the only way out of our own
economic hole is through increasing
and endless growth-fueled by the
resources of other countries.

A series of reports released in 2003 by
the UN and other global economy
analysis groups warn that further increases
in the imbalance in wealth throughout the
world will have catastrophic effects if left
unchecked. UN-habitat reports that unless
governments work to control the current
unprecedented spread in urban growth,
a third of the world's population will be
slum dwellers within 30 years. Currently,
almost one-sixth of the world's population
lives in slum-like conditions. The UN warns
that unplanned, unsanitary settlements
threaten both political and fiscal stability
within third world countries, where urban
slums are growing faster than expected. The
balance of poverty is shifting quickly from
rural to urban areas as the world's population
moves from the countryside to the city.

As rich countries, strip poorer countries of
their natural resources in an attempt to re-
stabilize their own, the people of poor countries
become increasingly desperate. This deteriorating
situation, besides pressuring rich countries
to allow increased immigration, further
exacerbates already stretched political
tensions and threatens global political
and economic security.

UN economists blame "free-trade" practices
and the neo-liberal policies of international
lending institutions like the IMF and WTO,
and the industrialized countries that lead
them, for much of the damage caused to
Third World countries over the past 20 years.
Many of these policies are now being
implemented in the U.S., allowing for an
acceleration of wealth consolidation. And
even the IMF has issued a report warning
the U.S. about the consequences for its
appetite for excess and overspending.

In developing countries, the concentration
of key industries profitable to foreign investors
requires that people move to cities while forced
privatization of public services strip them of the
ability to become stable or move up financially
once they arrive. Meanwhile, the strict repayment
schedules mandated by the global institutions
make it virtually impossible for poor countries
to move out from under their burden of debt.
"In a form of colonialisation that is probably
more stringent than the original, many developing
countries have become suppliers of raw commodities
to the world, and fall further and further behind,"
says one UN analyst. World economists conclude
that if enough of the world's nations reach
a point of economic failure, such a situation
could collapse the entire global economy.

For further information on this story, please
check out the following excellent websites:
www.inequality.org

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/income.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1118425,00.html
David Cay Johnston interview also found on
Democracy Now!, May 18, 2004.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) HUMOR: Iraqi leader to be announced at Jan. 16 Golden Globe Awards

[The Borowitz Report scooped other
media sources Wednesday with its
announcement that the new president
of Iraq will be chosen by the Hollywood
Foreign Press Association and announced
Jan. 16 at the 62nd annual awards
ceremony. -- Secretary of State Donald
Rumsfeld said he foresaw criticism,
but commented: "You choose a new Iraqi
president with the awards ceremony you
have, not the awards ceremony you might
want." -- Thanks to Karen Havnaer
for sending this piece. --Mark]

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/1913/

The Borowitz Report

HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION TO
CHOOSE NEW IRAQI PRESIDENT

** Awards Ceremony to Replace January Elections **

Borowitz Report
December 15, 2004

http://www.borowitzreport.com/default.asp

With prospects for Iraq’s January 30
elections appearing increasingly dim, the
White House announced today that the
new president of Iraq would be chosen by
the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
best known for organizing the
star-studded Golden Globe Awards.

Under an unorthodox arrangement, the
new Iraqi leader will be announced two
weeks earlier than scheduled, on January
16, at the 62nd Annual Golden Globe
Awards in Hollywood.

“By allowing the Hollywood Foreign
Press Association to choose Iraq’s new
leader, we will accomplish the most
important thing: sticking to our
arbitrary January deadline,” said
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Mr. Rumsfeld added that handing over
authority to the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association was the most practical way
to choose a new Iraqi president in a
timely fashion, since the security
situation in Hollywood is “considerably
better” than that in Iraq.

And while the credibility of the Golden
Globes has come into question in
recent years, Mr. Rumsfeld argued, “
You choose a new Iraqi president with the
awards ceremony you have, not the
awards ceremony you might want.

The Golden Globes decision could
spell trouble for interim Iraqi president
Ghazi al-Yawar, who now faces a
crowded field of Hollywood favorites including
Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Buddy Schlantz, a veteran Hollywood
talent agent, said that Mr. al-Yawar must
begin aggressively courting the members
of the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association if he expects to prevail: “
If I were al-Yawar, I’d start ordering
the fruit baskets now.

Elsewhere, Bernard Kerik’s nanny resigned
today, saying that she wanted to
spend less time with his family.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

3) Cuba, Venezuela Defy U.S. and Announce
Their Own Plan To Create A FairTrade
Alternative to FTAA!
----- Original Message -----
From: < nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com >
" Castro, Chavez Defy US Trade Pact "

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN)
http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu

Cuba and Venezuela will Support
Alternative Initiative to the FTAA


Havana, Dec 14 (AIN) Presidents Fidel Castro Ruz,
of Cuba, and Hugo Chavez Frías, of Venezuela,
signed a joint declaration and an accord on Tuesday
in Havana to implement the Bolivarian Alternative
of the Americas.


The joint declaration strongly rejects the content
and intentions of the Free Trade Zone of the
Americas (FTAA), considered the clearest
_expression of the imperialist desires to dominate
the Latin American region.

With the recent accord both governments expand
and modify their Comprehensive Bilateral
Cooperation Agreement, signed on October 30,
2000.

They also take concrete steps towards integration
of the Bolivarian Initiative for The Americas,
known as ALBA by its Spanish acronyms and
which is an alternative project to the FTAA.

The document stipulates that both nations will
draw up a strategic plan that guarantees the most
beneficial productive complementation on the
basis of rationality, the optimum use of advantages
existing in both countries, the saving of resources,
and others. Both nations will also exchange
locally-developed integral technology packages
for mutual benefit.

Presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez also
agreed to subscribing a Reciprocal Credit
Accord, the development of a two-way balanced
trade and joint cultural initiatives. According to
the document, Venezuela and Cuba are
committed to undertake a series of actions
including the immediate lifting of any kind of
non-tariff barrier on all imports in both ways.

In the context of Tuesday's agreement, Havana
offers 2,000 scholarships annually to
Venezuelan youths to take higher education
courses in the fields of interest of Caracas,
which will transfer technology in the energy
sector.

AFP via al Jazeera - Dec 15, 2004
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/70FAE354-7832-4AC8-A714-604F65F6C78E.
htm

Castro, Chavez Defy US Trade
Pact

Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez have announced an
alternative trade bloc to the one proposed by
the US for a free-trade area of the Americas.

The alternative was conceived as "a battle
fought with the same rules and regulations as
those imposed by the [US] empire to divide
the people," Castro said on Tuesday.

Naming the new pact the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas (ALBA), the presidents said it
would eliminate trade barriers and tax obstacles,
provide incentives for investment, increase
banking relations and tourism cooperation.

Venezuela promised financing for Cuban
industrial and infrastructure projects, while
Cuba agreed to pay a minimum price of $27
per barrel of Venezuelan oil, as part of the
accord "to apply the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas".

FTAA dead

Before the signing of the agreement, Castro
and Chavez addressed a rally in Havana
where both presidents declared the
US-proposed Latin American Free Trade
Zone dead.

"It is an alternative to the perverse FTAA,
which they have been trying to impose on
us for years," Chavez said. "FTAA is dead."

Chavez also accused Washington of pursuing
imperialist intentions in free trade talks with
Andean countries.

Venezuela is one of the biggest suppliers
of crude oil to the US, but their relations
have been strained by disputes between
Chavez and the White House.

Washington has expressed concern over
Chavez's close ties to Castro since Chavez
won the presidency in 1998. And US
President George Bush says the FTAA is
the solution to the region's deepening
poverty.

Chavez visit

Chavez is on a two-day visit to
commemorate his first encounter in Havana
with Castro 10 years ago when he was an
army officer recently released from prison
for leading a failed coup.

At the time, Castro proclaimed him
Venezuela's future leader.

Venezuela currently provides Cuba with
53,000 barrels of oil a day at preferential
prices, while Cuba has 13,000 doctors in
Venezuela, is helping the country stamp
out illiteracy and has treated thousands
of Venezuelans in its hospitals. -AFP

Search the NYTr Archives at:
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr

To subscribe or unsubscribe or change
your settings via the web, visit:
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr

NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012
http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org

Carlos Rovira - "Carlito"

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

4) New Gallup Poll Raises Questions About Media Focus on 'Values'
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK
Published: December 14, 2004 10:00 AM ET
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content
_id=1000736658

NEW YORK In the aftermath of the Nov. 2 election, the press and
various political partisans jumped on exit polls that seemed to
suggest "moral values" was the top issue in voters' minds as they
re-elected President George W. Bush. Some analysts have questioned
that notion, but a new nationwide Gallup Poll, released Tuesday
morning, could deal a death blow to the whole idea.

Asked what they consider "the most important problem facing this
country today" the issue of values was tied for fourth place with
unemployment/jobs, with only one in ten of the Gallup sample
choosing it. Far ahead, with 23%, was the war in Iraq, followed by
terrorism and the economy in general, both at 12%, only then
followed by unemployment and values.

The modest vote for values is all the more surprising because it
was broadly define to include a wide range of concerns including
"ethics," "moral," "religious/family decline," "dishonesty," and
"lack of integrity."

This 10% total could also be compared to the 29% who named
some aspect of the economy as the top issue, along with the
35% who mentioned Iraq or terrorism.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

5) War Funding Request May Hit $100 Billion
By Bryan Bender
WASHINGTON
Published on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 by the Boston Globe
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1215-03.htm

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration plans to ask for between
$80 billion and $100 billion to fund military operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan next year, rather than the $70 billion to $75 billion
the White House privately told members of Congress before the
election, according to Pentagon and White House officials.

Administration officials said yesterday they have not concluded
how much money they will request in a "supplemental" spending
package that is scheduled to go to Congress in January.

"There's work going on inside the department to understand
what's needed, and there's work going on with the Office of
Management and Budget," the Defense Department's chief
spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters yesterday.

But some analysts and government officials said the request is
expected to run as high as $100 billion, bringing the total cost
of operations in Iraq alone to well over $200 billion since the
March 2003 invasion.

Earlier this fall, members of Congress said the Defense Department
told them in private briefings the supplemental package would be
between $70 billion and $75 billion. The budget request will be
higher, sources said, because of the greater number of soldiers --
temporarily boosted to 150,000 -- needed to provide security
around the time of the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections, and the loss of
equipment due to the vigorous insurgency there.

In June, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated
that the 2005 supplemental to be submitted this January for
Iraq and Afghanistan would be between $55 billion and $60 billion.

The January supplemental will be the third special budget request
to cover the military costs of Iraq. The administration asked for
$55.8 billion in April 2003 and $71.8 billion in November 2003.
In May of this year, Congress added $25 billion in war costs to
the fiscal 2005 defense budget. In total, $152.6 billion in military
funding for Iraq has been provided through the end of this year.

Those statistics do not include emergency money to support the
20,000 US troops in Afghanistan, which brings the total bill to
$162.3 billion.

In addition, the military has been spending more than was
approved for 2004, in anticipation of a fresh infusion of funds
in early 2005.

"They ran out of the 2004 budget a month early [and] had to
borrow [from] 2005," said John Pike, a defense specialist at the
military think tank GlobalSecurity.org, a military think tank in
Alexandria, Va. "They're already starting to suggest that the
2005 budget is going to be $100 billion for one year alone."

The Iraq operation, he said, has "been running over a billion
a week thus far. I think we're probably getting up to $2 billion
a week fairly soon."

Few analysts expect the Iraq mission to be wrapped up in
a year, and many question why the Bush administration is
continuing to budget its war costs through supplementals
-- usually reserved for one-time, emergency expenses --
rather than include them in the annual budget request that
is sent to Capitol Hill every February.

Democrats and some fiscally conservative Republicans
believe the administration is trying to hide the effects of
rising war costs on the federal deficit, thereby justifying
President Bush's calls for making some tax cuts permanent
and spending more on education and other domestic priorities.

Although war costs ultimately get added to the deficit, keeping
them off the annual budget creates a false picture of the
government's commitments at a time when Congress is making
funding decisions, critics said.

Brian Reidl, an economist with the conservative-leaning Heritage
Foundation, said the Iraq funding should be put in the defense
budget, because the Pentagon knows it will need money to pay
for the operation. Leaving it out masks the true size of the
deficit, he said.

"There's an argument to be made that [early in the year] you
don't know what you'll need" for Iraq funding, Reidl said. But
"there's no reason why you can't put in a place-holder to at
least estimate the cost."

The administration separates the Iraq funding because "it's
easier to sell the budget resolution with a smaller deficit and
a smaller spending total because Iraq is excluded," Reidl said.

Steve Kosiak, a defense budget specialist at the Center for
Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, added
that "the idea is [supplementals] are supposed to be used
when there is a surprise. This is no longer a surprise that we
are in Iraq."

The actual cost of the military operations in Iraq is higher
than any of the supplementals suggest, analysts said, because
the wartime wear and tear on people and equipment will
require expenditures long after the war ends.

A soon-to-be-completed classified study by the Government
Accountability Office requested by Democrats on the Senate
Budget Committee concludes that the cost of "resetting" the
worn-out armed forces for peacetime will require billions
more than the money needed simply to maintain combat
operations, according to congressional officials.

"They will need new training and the sense is that the longer
this thing goes on the deeper the problems get," said
a congressional staff member who has been briefed on
the GAO study.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon yesterday alerted more units to
be ready for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tens of thousands of Army soldiers from Alaska, Florida,
Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, New York, and Texas -- including
a brigade of the Army's 10th Mountain Division based at Fort
Drum in New York -- will prepare to deploy overseas by the
middle of 2005. The planned rotations, and others to be
announced in the coming weeks, would maintain a force
of 138,000 US troops in Iraq well into 2006.

However, Di Rita called the notifications "prudent planning"
and cautioned that it does not necessarily mean the United
States will need all those forces.

"It would be wrong to say that, as far as the eye can see, this
is the number," Di Rita said. "It may very well be less than this.
It may be the same amount. It may be more."

Copyright (c) 2004 the Boston Globe

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

6) Details of Marines Mistreating
Prisoners in Iraq Are Revealed
By Richard A. Serrano
WASHINGTON
Published on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 by the Los
Angeles Times
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1215-01.htm

WASHINGTON - Marines in Iraq conducted mock executions of
juvenile prisoners last year, burned and tortured other detainees
with electrical shocks, and warned a Navy corpsman they would
kill him if he treated any injured Iraqis, according to military
documents made public Tuesday.

The latest revelations of prisoner abuse cases, obtained by the
American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit against the government,
involved previously unknown incidents in which 11 Marines were
punished for abusing detainees. Military officials indicated that
they had investigated 13 other cases, but deemed them
unsubstantiated. Four investigations are pending.

Military superiors handed down sentences of up to a year in
confinement after finding Marines guilty of offenses ranging
from assault to "cruelty and mistreatment," the documents show.

The new documents are the latest in a series of reports, e-mails
and other records that the ACLU has obtained to bolster its
contention that the abuse of prisoners goes far beyond the
handful of soldiers charged with abusing detainees at the Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners being tortured by
American troops at the prison shocked the world in April. The
scandal involved abuse by reservists and members of the Army
and National Guard; the latest cases elaborated for the first time
on numerous allegations of abuse by Marines.

The mistreatment occurred as early as May 2003, months before
the first allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib were recorded. And
the most recent case involving prisoner abuse by the Marines
occurred in June, two months after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU in New York,
placed responsibility for the abuse on the Pentagon. "This kind of
widespread abuse could not have taken place without a leadership
failure of the highest order," he said.

Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said he could
not comment on the latest cases because he was unfamiliar with them.

The documents described Navy criminal investigators scrambling
to keep pace in June with an "exploding" number of abuse cases.

"Heads up," an assistant special agent in charge of the Navy's
investigative field office in the Middle East wrote to his superiors
in a 6 a.m. e-mail June 14, pleading for more investigators. "Case
load is exploding, high visibility cases are on the rise," he warned.
"We have scrubbed all of our personnel and have no other trained
personnel available to deploy."

Cases involving prisoner abuse continue to tarnish the U.S. military's
involvement in Iraq. Since the Abu Ghraib scandal, revelations have
surfaced of other detainee abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and at the
prison for terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

Authorities have charged eight prison guards for beating and
sexually humiliating prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near
Baghdad last fall. At least two prisoners at Abu Ghraib died in
custody.

In all, about three dozen prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan are
believed to have died in U.S. custody.

The cases are in various stages of investigation or prosecution.
The Pentagon confirmed this week that four soldiers were accused
of killing a prisoner in Afghanistan in 2002, but charges against
three of them were dropped.

In the case that drew the stiffest punishment, a one-year prison
sentence for the Marine, a detainee at Mahmoudiya was shocked
with an electric transformer. Wires were held against his shoulders,
and "the detainee danced as he was shocked," the documents state.

The new records - which blacked out the names of soldiers - also
show that a Marine was convicted of ordering four juvenile Iraqi
looters to kneel down beside two shallow holes in Diwaniya. Then,
"a pistol was discharged to conduct a mock execution." The
Marine was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment with hard labor.


Other Marines were punished for physically abusing prisoners.
In Karbala, a Marine held a 9-millimeter pistol to the back of
a detainee's head while another Marine snapped a picture. A glass
of water then was poured on the prisoner's head, and he was
photographed with an American flag draped over his body.

Navy investigators found other allegations unsubstantiated,
including sexual abuse cases alleging that a detainee's testicles
had been squeezed and another prisoner had been sodomized
with a rifle muzzle.

Navy investigators also interviewed a group of corpsmen from
Washington state who were dispatched to Iraq last year. Two of
them spoke about being intimidated by Marines there.

One corpsman said he was cautioned not to talk to others about
prisoner abuse. "There was a lot of peer pressure to keep one's
mouth shut," he said.

Another corpsman said, "We were told not to exhaust our resources
on the Iraqis. Several Marines told me that if I provided medical
services to any Iraqi military or civilian personnel, that they
[the Marines] would kill me."

However, the corpsman later said that "there was a wounded
Iraqi POW who needed his dressings changed" and that some
Marines "actually called my attention to him to make sure he
received treatment."

He also recalled seeing Marines force detainees' heads into
the dirt, "which was a cultural insult to them," and said that
he saw a Marine striking a prisoner with an empty, 5-gallon
plastic water jug.

The records discuss the deaths of several detainees, but they
do not identify them or say how the cases were resolved.

One prisoner, who had attempted 20 escapes, reportedly died
after breaking free of his restraints and jumping from a window,
"landing on his head," the documents state. The examining Marine
officer "surmised that the detainee died from internal cranial
bleeding from the fall that was slow to kill him."

Another prisoner was "ziplocked" - a military term for being
handcuffed - and then died in custody. "Preliminary information
is that the detainee died from an apparent heart attack," the
reports state.

In other cases, there was spirited debate, in reports and e-mails,
about the corpses of prisoners. One dead Iraqi could not be found,
and an e-mail ordered, "Try to find that body; we'll exhume
if possible."

In another e-mail exchange, military officials discussed whether
autopsies should be conducted in Iraq, at military bases in
Germany or in the United States.

"Personally," responded on