http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2864063.stm

Bugging devices were found at [European Union] offices used by several delegations - including those of France, Germany and the UK... The discovery of the telephone tapping systems was first reported on Wednesday by France's Le Figaro newspaper, which blamed the US. But EU spokesman Dominique-Georges Marro said it was "impossible at this stage" to determine who had planted the devices... The Justus Lipsius building, where the bugging devices were found, is a regular meeting place for EU ministers. It houses the secretariat of the EU Council of Ministers.

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http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5418901.htm

As United Nations nuclear inspectors flee Iraq, some of them are angry at the Bush administration for cutting short their work... and making false claims about evidence of weapons of mass destruction... None of the nuclear-related intelligence trumpeted by the administration has held up to scrutiny, inspectors say. From suspect aluminum tubes to aerial photographs to documents -- revealed to be forgeries -- that claimed to link Iraq to uranium from Niger, inspectors say they chased U.S. leads that went nowhere and wasted valuable time... Recent inspection teams have included a new batch of U.S. nuclear scientists from Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories. The U.N. official described these inspectors as arriving as hawks and leaving as doves, after finding Iraq "a ruined country, not a threat to anyone." It is a view radically different than the administration's... At the most, the U.N. official said, there may be "a few guys with paper and pencil and some computer in a back room."

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=273904&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

The Israeli Defense Force's Home Front Command has decided that it will, after all, distribute children's gas masks to the offspring of Israeli Arabs who have one Palestinian parent. The decision was reached after an urgent request by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to the Home Front Command.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,917119,00.html

Israeli forces fired teargas and stun grenades yesterday in an attempt to break up a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by an army bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday.

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http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=331452003

BRITISH forces field hospitals are so short-staffed that they would not be able to cope with a sustained campaign in Iraq, a senior army doctor warned yesterday.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2862325.stm

Amid dramatic scenes in the [British House of] Commons on Tuesday night, 217 MPs-- 139 of them Labour backbenchers-- backed a rebel amendment opposing the government's stance on Iraq, with 396 opposing the motion. A motion backing the government's position was passed by 412 votes to 149.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/2860759.stm

A United States defence official has said moves to ban depleted uranium ammunition are just an attempt by America's enemies to blunt its military might. Colonel James Naughton of US Army Materiel Command said Iraqi complaints about depleted uranium (DU) shells had no medical basis. "They want it to go away because we kicked the crap out of them," he told a Pentagon briefing. If war starts, tonnes of depleted uranium (DU) weapons are likely to be used by British and American tanks and by ground attack aircraft.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0319/p02s02-woiq.html

What's on the mind of an Army general on the brink of war? ..."I saw some satellite imagery of [Saddam Hussein's] palaces last night... I have visions of getting into some gilded bathtub with captured Republican Guards fanning me," he says to the laughter of the soldiers. General Weber, assistant commander of the now 20,000-strong Third Infantry Division, is a long-time armor and cavalry officer, Middle East expert, and combat veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War... Coining a phrase, he asserts that the US-led coalition will "schwack Iraq."

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=518&ncid=732&e=3&u=/ap/20030318/ap_on_re_eu/russia_us_treaty

MOSCOW - Russian lawmakers postponed indefinitely a vote Tuesday to ratify a U.S.-Russian nuclear arms treaty, as the parliament speaker warned that a war against Iraq could endanger the pact. The treaty, agreed to last May by Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush, requires that the two nations cut their strategic nuclear arsenals by about two-thirds, to 1,700 to 2,200 deployed warheads each, by 2012.

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-03-17-taxcuts-usat_x.htm

Both the [U.S.] House and Senate are scheduled to vote this week on budget blueprints that would make room for most of the 10-year, $1,500,000,000,000.00 tax cut Bush wants by making deep cuts in most government programs. But neither budget, both written by GOP leaders, includes the cost of an invasion or the subsequent need to occupy and rebuild Iraq after an expected U.S. victory. Estimates of war costs begin at $70,000,000,000.00, with many topping $100,000,000,000.00.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,916508,00.html

The United States plans to transform the infrastructure of Iraq... but has sidelined aid agencies by allocating almost all the funds available to private American firms. Non-governmental organisations and the UN would get just $50,000,000.00, a tiny fraction of the $1,500,000,000.00 being offered to private companies, according to more than 100 pages of confidential contract documents leaked to the Wall Street Journal... Washington has restricted the initial bidding process... to American firms.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/19/1047749825546.html

The White House has publicly warned the Turkish Government not to let its troops enter Iraq.

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http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/03/19/build/world/w-42-turkey.inc

The United States and the main Iraqi Kurdish groups failed Tuesday night to persuade Turkey to keep its troops out of northern Iraq...Turkey was unmoved, and continued to reserve its right to enter northern Iraq to protect its national security.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-615748,00.html

THE first shots of the war have been fired, killing at least one Iraqi during a suspected operation to mine the waters off Kuwait. But that opening skirmish is about to be dwarfed by the most formidable military assault in modern warfare: 250,000 British and American troops— backed by more than 1,000 aircraft, 400 tanks and a 110-strong armada... Tensions in the waters off Iraq are running high.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/19/1047749826250.html

Australia and Britain are the only members of the "coalition of the willing" offering the US potent strike capability... The remaining nations of the coalition have offered troops, but they will mainly play non-combat roles... Pentagon officials said assembling the coalition of the willing was more a diplomatic exercise than a military one.

...The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, has played down the significance of the scarce military support. "We have all along said, in terms of actual, active combat, there would be very, very few countries," he said.

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http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V3612.AP-Spain-Iraq.html

Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Tuesday ruled out sending Spanish troops to take part in a U.S.-led attack on Iraq but said he would deploy military personnel and equipment in a support capacity and offer warplanes to defend Turkey.

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http://majorbarbara.blogspot.com/2003_03_09_majorbarbara_archive.html#90689791

Who exactly stands to make money if Saddam sets his oilfields ablaze? Could it conceivably be Halliburton? ...The first business deal Halliburton announced after Dick Cheney was named CEO was to form an "alliance" with top oilfield firefighters -- the ones who put out the well fires in Kuwait.

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archived from march 8th 2003

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/08/MN242495.DTL

...The contract was disclosed in the last paragraph of a Defense Department statement on preparations for Saddam Hussein's possible destruction of Iraq's oil fields in the event of a U.S.-led invasion. The statement calls for proposals on how to handle oil well fires and for assessing other damage to oil facilities. The contract went to Kellogg Brown & Root Services, which is owned by Halliburton Co.

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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--nyc-security0319mar18,0,4203684.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

The New York Police Department has stepped up security outside major television news outlets in Manhattan to prevent possible takeovers by terrorists who may want to broadcast anti-American messages... Under a sweeping plan called Operation Atlas, police officials will deploy special patrols to guard television stations clustered in midtown Manhattan and elsewhere.

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READ THIS

http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/march/m031603e.htm

If the nation escalates to "red alert," which is the highest in the color-coded readiness against terror, you will be assumed by authorities to be the enemy if you so much as venture outside your home, the state's anti-terror czar says. "This state is on top of it," said Sid Caspersen, New Jersey's director of the office of counter-terrorism. Caspersen, a former FBI agent, was briefing reporters, alongside Gov. James E. McGreevey, on Thursday, when for the first time he disclosed the realities of how a red alert would shut the state down.

..."Red means all noncritical functions cease," Caspersen said. "Noncritical would be almost all businesses, except health-related."

..."The state will restrict transportation and access to critical locations," says the state's new brochure on dealing with terrorism. "You must adhere to the restrictions announced by authorities and prepare to evacuate, if instructed. Stay alert for emergency messages."

Caspersen went further than the brochure... "The state police and the emergency management people would take control over the highways. You literally are staying home, is what happens, unless you are required to be out."

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http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/03/20020312-5.html

Severe Condition (Red)... Federal departments and agencies also should consider the following general measures: ...Increasing or redirecting personnel... pre-positioning and mobilizing specially trained teams or resources; monitoring, redirecting, or constraining transportation systems; and closing public and government facilities.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497418339.html

When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They were never used.

But with the looming possibility of a US invasion of Iraq, recent pronouncements by President George Bush's domestic security chief, Tom Ridge, and an official with the US Civil Rights Commission should fire concerns that these powers could be employed or a de facto drift into their deployment could occur... FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible for handling US domestic unrest.

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on this page explaining what FEMA is, these are the only links that are not connected. in other words, you can't read the details of these orders.

http://www.alpinesurvival.com/fema-statement.html

"EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.

"EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in U.S. financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President, Congress cannot review the action for six months."

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http://www.cleveland.com/printer/printer.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?o0306_BC_OH--Scalia-Rights&&news&newsflash-ohio

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Tuesday night that government has room to scale back individual rights during wartime without violating the Constitution... He said that in wartime or other situations where lawbreaking is rampant, government sometimes has to scale back individual rights of suspects... He said that in wartime, one can expect "the protections will be ratcheted right down to the constitutional minimum."

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http://www.alpinesurvival.com/fema-statement.html

In April 1984, President Reagan signed Presidential Director Number 54 that allowed FEMA to engage in a secret national "readiness exercise" under the code name of REX 84. The exercise was to test FEMA's readiness to assume military authority in the event of a "State of Domestic National Emergency" concurrent with the launching of a direct United States military operation in Central America.

The plan called for the deputation of U.S. military and National Guard units so that they could legally be used for domestic law enforcement. These units would be assigned to conduct sweeps and take into custody an estimated 400,000 undocumented Central American immigrants in the United States. The immigrants would be interned at 10 detention centers to be set up at military bases throughout the country.

REX 84 was so highly guarded that special metal security doors were placed on the fifth floor of the FEMA building in Washington, D.C. Even long-standing employees of the Civil Defense of the Federal Executive Department possessing the highest possible security clearances were not being allowed through the newly installed metal security doors. Only personnel wearing a special red Christian cross or crucifix lapel pin were allowed into the premises.

Lt. Col. North was responsible for drawing up the emergency plan, which U.S. Attorney General William French Smith opposed vehemently. The plan called for the suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to FEMA, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and the declaration of Martial Law... The plan also advocated the rounding up and transfer to "assembly centers or relocation camps" of a least 21 million American Negroes in the event of massive rioting or disorder, not unlike the rounding up of the Jews in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

The second known time that FEMA stood by was in 1990 when Desert Storm was enacted... One of the elements incorporated into the [updated] plan was to set up operations within any state or locality without the prior permission of local or state authorities.

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http://cryptome.org/eo13289.txt

[Federal Register: March 14, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 50)][Presidential Documents][Page 12565-12568]From the Federal Register Online [wais.access.gpo.gov]

Executive Order 13289--Establishing the Global War on Terrorism Medals

...The Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary [and/or Service] Medal shall be awarded to members of the Armed Forces of the United States who serve or have served in military expeditions to combat terrorism... The Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal may be awarded posthumously.

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