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2003-05-01 - 6:56 p.m. war news for mayday! mayday! mayday! thursday may 1, 2003.................................................................................................. not a satire. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030430-26.html A Proclamation... I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003, as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the United States to join in support of this national observance. I also call upon government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Loyalty Day. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh. ....................................................................................................... one way to celebrate loyalty day http://www.detnews.com/2003/nation/0304/23/nation-145152.htm The United States has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has restarted production of plutonium parts for bombs, the Energy Department said Tuesday... Under a Bush administration plan, the Energy Department will begin limited production of plutonium parts for the existing stockpile of nuclear weapons and begin laying plans for a new factory that could produce parts for hundreds of weapons each year... Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former Energy Department weapons expert, [said,] "To the average U.S. citizen, it would be accurate to say we have restarted the production of nuclear weapons." ........................................................................................................ look before you loot http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35498-2003Apr24.html KUWAIT CITY, April 24 -- Nearly three weeks after U.S. forces reached Iraq's most important nuclear facility, the Bush administration has yet to begin an assessment of whether tons of radioactive material there remain intact, according to military officials here and in Washington. Before the war began last month, the vast Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center held 3,896 pounds of partially enriched uranium, more than 94 tons of natural uranium and smaller quantities of cesium, cobalt and strontium, according to reports compiled through the 1990s by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Immensely valuable on the international black market, the uranium was in a form suitable for further enrichment to "weapons grade," the core of a nuclear device. ...Defense officials acknowledge that the U.S. government has no idea whether any of Tuwaitha's potentially deadly contents have been stolen, because it has not dispatched investigators to appraise the site. What it does know, according to officials at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, is that the sprawling campus, 11 miles south of Baghdad, lay unguarded for days and that looters made their way inside. ................................................................................................................ rights issues http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2989425.stm Baboons "protesting" at the killing of one of their group have disrupted traffic on the busy Tororo-Jinja highway in eastern Uganda. This is the second time the animals have behaved in such a manner on the same road. The trouble began after a speeding lorry ran over a huge female baboon... According to eyewitnesses, the driver deliberately swerved across the road to hit the female who was eating white ants. Soon afterwards, an infuriated group of baboons converged at the scene of the killing and surrounded her body. They sat in the middle on the road for about 30 minutes causing a temporary traffic jam. A similar incident happened on this very stretch of the road late last year, when baboons hurled sticks and stones at motorists after a baby baboon was knocked over and killed by a vehicle. ........................................................................................................... my li'l president http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030501-72368254.htm President Bush plans to make history today by landing in a small plane on a moving aircraft carrier hundreds of miles from shore to declare an end to the combat phase of the war in Iraq... Mr. Bush will be in the co-pilot's seat... later in the day, Mr. Bush playfully left open the possibility that he would take the controls of the plane. "Never can tell what's going to kick in — the urge," he told reporters in the Oval Office... "He's very excited," [Ari] Fleischer said. ...[Bush] will stop short of formally declaring victory. Under the Geneva Convention, such a declaration... would make the United States an "occupying power" — a status the Bush administration is not eager to embrace because it would impose international-law obligations on the American military. ......................................................................................... happy days here again http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-05-01-us-afghanistan_x.htm KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld... said Thursday "major combat activity" [in afghanistan] has come to an end... "We're at a point where we clearly have moved from major combat activity to a period of stability." .......................................................................................... or maybe not http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=53349&list=/home.php& Reports have been received of 12 American and 7 Afghan military deaths in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika resulting from a landmine explosion. According to details, American and Afghan soldiers were patrolling in a convoy when a landmine exploded... American forces have started a special campaign to capture Taliban and Al-Qaida in this area while rocket attacks against the American forces continue to occur daily. ...................................................................................... yeah, not so much http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,945575,00.html A group of Afghan asylum seekers who fled persecution by the Taliban were forcibly repatriated in a chartered flight from Gatwick last night, despite a UN warning that their country remains unsafe. The departure of about 30 men heralded the forced removal of hundreds of failed Afghan asylum seekers who have refused to go home, even though they have been offered £600 assistance each. One of those who left yesterday, Bashir Ahmed, 27, said he feared being murdered by the warlords who killed his family. ........................................................................................ okay, not happy at all. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=33718&SelectRegion=Central_Asia&SelectCountry=AFGHANISTAN KABUL, 28 Apr 2003 (IRIN) - The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) announced on Sunday that serious human rights violations had taken place in Bala Morghab District in the northwestern province of Badghis, resulting from clashes a month ago between a coalition of factions and those of a local commander, Juman Khan. "According to reports, during the recent conflict in Akazayi village, 38 civilians died, while 761 homes and 21 shops were looted," David Singh, a media relations officer for UNAMA, told IRIN in the Afghan capital... The region experienced a very similar outbreak of violence in early April, when 13 people, including two civilians, were killed as a result of internal clashes between two local warring groups in Faryab Province, neighbouring Badghis. "The tension is of course instigated by violations perpetrated by factions in the area, as well as due to an insufficient presence of the central authority and absence of a national army, law enforcement and lack of a national police force," Goran Fejic, a senior human rights adviser for UNAMA, told IRIN. .............................................................................................. shut up already! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62718-2003Apr30.html UNITED NATIONS, April 30 -- The Bush administration has stepped up efforts at the United Nations to stifle criticism of U.S. policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and other foreign countries, according to confidential U.S. diplomatic communications and senior U.N. diplomats... Earlier this month, it sought to restrict discussion of human rights violations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is currently trying to derail an initiative by the president of the General Assembly to establish a forum to openly debate current foreign policy issues... The administration "almost single-handedly quashed a resolution" that would have called for an international commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in Afghanistan over the past 25 years, said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia division at Human Rights Watch. "The U.S. does not want to risk that the warlords they support would be implicated," he said. "They essentially took the view that anything in a resolution that was bad news about Afghanistan should come out because the implication is, if there are ongoing abuses, the intervention has not been successful." ............................................................................................................. i said shut up! http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=7&u=/afp/20030430/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_war_us_warcrimes_030430201641 A US Marine sergeant is under investigation for possible war crimes committed in Iraq based on statements he made to his hometown newspaper, military officials said... He described for the Las Vegas, Nevada, Review-Journal daily how he had hunted down and shot two Iraqi soldiers after a firefight... Covarrubias told the daily he ordered the man to stop and to turn around. "I went behind him and shot him in the back of the head -- twice," he was quoted as saying. Covarrubias said he noticed another Iraqi soldier trying to escape and also shot him, then grabbed their identification cards, a rifle and one of their berets for souvenirs. ............................................................................... old-school fool http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2658637 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The retired general overseeing Iraq's postwar reconstruction said on Wednesday that his fellow Americans should beat their chests with pride at having toppled Saddam Hussein without destroying the country's assets. "We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to look in a mirror and get proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say: 'Damn, we're Americans!'," Jay Garner told reporters, saying that Iraq's oil fields and other infrastructure survived the war almost intact. ............................................................. fiction vs. fact http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=04VV5B2RZG2X2CRBAELCFFA?type=worldNews&storyID=2659381 Three weeks after Saddam Hussein's overthrow, many parts of the capital still have no water or electricity, there are floods of sewage and only a trickle of convoys have made it through with urgently needed food and medical supplies... American civilian administrator for Iraq Jay Garner told reporters on Wednesday that... "There is no humanitarian crisis -- in fact the Doctors without Borders have gone home -- and there's not much infrastructure problem here." ...Confused, weary citizens crowding the streets around the Palestine Hotel where U.S. troops and the international media are based may need more convincing... "It has never been this bad before," said Nada Ali, as she joined a crowd near the hotel. "It just seems to get worse every day. I used to have hope, but I can no longer believe we will be saved. No one cares for us. I have four people at home and my husband was killed during fighting in Basra. I have no money and I no longer know what to do," she said. "I want to survive, but it just keeps getting harder." ................................................................................ times tough http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/thenews/newsdesk/L2923853.htm Since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam three weeks ago, Baghdad's sex workers have slowly crept back to the capital's bombed-out streets... Prostitution flourished in Iraq in the 1990s as U.N. sanctions, imposed after Saddam's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, brought economic hardship, forcing many women to offer their bodies for cash -- a trade abhorred by devout Muslims... [Then] gruesome punishments were meted out on prostitutes across the capital [in 1999] in a sudden crackdown... Estimates vary on how many people were killed -- from dozens to hundreds. Still, most agree on the cause of the crackdown -- foreign pornographic videos of Iraqi prostitutes wrapped in the black, white and red national flag, and, according to many versions, dancing on a portrait of Saddam. The insult sparked the attacks by Saddam's Fedayeen loyalist militia. ... Baghdad's prostitutes no longer fear attacks from the Fedayeen. But the city is fraught with new dangers. One woman... said a friend was killed by a client the night before... "It's great that Saddam has gone because we no longer live in fear," she said. "But it's dangerous work. There's no control and everybody has got guns -- even the boys." ......................................................................................................... told you so http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2982609.stm With Iraq's hospitals in disarray, the long-term sick are being passed over in a frantic effort to treat emergency cases. For the thousands of young leukaemia victims, the outlook is bleaker than ever... [More than one] hospital in Baghdad was pillaged by looters in the wake of the fighting and is today barely functioning. Also, supplies of some cancer-treatment drugs have run out in recent weeks as Iraqi border controls have tightened and distribution networks have seized up... No-one knows if, or when, new supplies will be available. ...Leukaemia, which affects blood and bone marrow, used to be relatively rare in Iraq. According to the former health ministry, cases of the cancer increased fourfold after the first Gulf War and many have blamed the use of depleted uranium munitions used by the allied forces in that conflict. ...................................................................... war crimes http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12908278&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=TWO%20KILLED%20IN%20NEW%20IRAQ%20DEMO%20SHOOTING It started when a young boy hurled a sandal at a US jeep - it ended with two Iraqis dead and 16 seriously injured. I watched in horror as American troops opened fire on a crowd of 1,000 unarmed people here yesterday. Many, including children, were cut down by a 20-second burst of automatic gunfire during a demonstration against the killing of 13 protesters at the Al-Kaahd school on Monday. ...The crowd were facing down a military compound of tanks and machine-gun posts. The youngster had apparently lobbed his shoe at the jeep - with a M2 heavy machine gun post on the back - as it drove past in a convoy of other vehicles. A soldier operating the weapon suddenly ducked, raised it on its pivot then pressed his thumb on the trigger. Mirror photographer Julian Andrews and I were standing about six feet from the vehicle when the first shots rang out, without warning. We dived for cover under the compound wall as troops within the crowd opened fire. The convoy accelerated away from the scene... Cars pulled up like taxis to take the dead and injured to hospital, as if they had been waiting for this to happen. ...We heard no warning to disperse and saw no guns or knives among the Iraqis whose religious and tribal leaders kept shouting through loud hailers to remain peaceful... After the shootings the American soldiers looked at the appalling scene through their binoculars and set up new positions, still training their guns at us... No shots from the Iraqis and still no sign of the man with the AK47 who the US later claimed had let off a shot at the convoy. ........................................................................ solution: more war http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0430/p01s04-woiq.html BAGHDAD – Tuesday, US reconstruction chief Jay Garner convened a "town hall" meeting... At the meeting, Maj. Gen. Glenn Webster said that the 12,000 US troops already in Baghdad would be increased by 3,000 to 4,000 within 10 days, to mount foot and vehicle patrols... "We have found that there are people in this country who don't want it to be secure, who don't want electricity on," General Webster told the Iraqis at the security meeting. ............................................................... instant karma http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s844953.htm Seven US soldiers have been wounded after two unidentified men lobbed two grenades over the wall of their offices in the Iraqi town of Falluja... Local doctors said three Iraqis were killed and two left in critical condition yesterday, when US troops opened fire on an angry crowd of residents protesting the US presence in Falluja, about 50 kilometres west of Baghdad. They were protesting the deaths of 13 people in a similar incident on Monday. ........................................................................... ali ali oxen free http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/29/1051381946931.html This is the story of Ali Ismail Abbas. Ali is the 12-year-old boy who had the misfortune to be at home in Iraq when a United States rocket arrived... What happened to Ali himself is not in dispute. After the terrible explosion, Ali woke up, soaked in blood, his sheets on fire... We see photographs of Ali after his arms were amputated, the stumps and his body swathed in bandages, his face somehow unscathed. ...Perhaps our new technologies have provided new ways of using children... As ABC TV's Media Watch observed, Ali's future is brighter "with the help of The Daily Telegraph, "his rescue was organised by The Courier-Mail team", "by the Herald Sun's team", "by The Australian". Many newspapers claim a part in his recovery. Several charities and other papers have claimed his image. London's Evening Standard and the Daily Mirror are reported to be using his face and torso to raise money for good causes. ...Such are our relations to children... We use his photograph rather than that of a wounded adult because we do not feel we have to ask a child. Perhaps some of us believe that, after all he has lost, he will not miss his dignity and privacy. ...Margaret Drabble's [said], in The Millstone, that we claim that children forget and recover so readily because we dare not contemplate the fact that, in reality, they will always remember, they will never forget. ........................................................................ whatever became of pootie-poot http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-663950,00.html Speaking at the end of what was supposed to be a fence-mending meeting with Mr Blair in Moscow, Mr Putin mocked the coalition’s failure to find any biological or nuclear weapons... “Two weeks later they still have not been found,” he told a press conference. “The question is, where is Saddam Hussein? Where are those weapons of mass destruction, if they were ever in existence?" ............................................................................................... poodle snaps back http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=9AA6752C-2B34-4D15-B640-B3411FD20226 LONDON (AP) - Anyone who believes Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction will be left "eating some of their words"...Prime Minister Tony Blair predicted Wednesday. ....................................................................... condy condemns pencils, hairspray, laundry bleach, tylenol of mass destruction http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/30/1051381997497.html President George Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is now acknowledging that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program is less clear-cut, and probably more difficult to establish, than the White House portrayed before the war... For the first time, Dr Rice is saying publicly that it is less likely many actual weapons will be found. Rather, she described the programs as being hidden in so-called "dual use" infrastructure. ... Dr Rice said the US was now seeing the programs in a different light... Ingredients or precursors, many non-lethal by themselves, could be embedded in dual-use facilities. She had a new explanation too for Iraq's ability to launch these weapons that were not assembled. "Just-in-time assembly" and "just-in-time" inventory, as she put it. ........................................................................ love me, i'm a liberal http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/27/opinion/27FRIE.html?pagewanted=print&position= By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Friday's Times carried a front-page picture of a skull, with a group of Iraqis gathered around it. The skull was of a political prisoner from Saddam Hussein's regime... As far as I'm concerned, we do not need to find any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war. That skull, and the thousands more that will be unearthed, are enough for me. Mr. Bush doesn't owe the world any explanation for missing chemical weapons (even if it turns out that the White House hyped this issue). ...So why isn't everyone celebrating this triumph? Why is there still an undertow out there, a holding back of jubilation? ...It has to do with the nature of Iraq and the Middle East. You always have this worry that in the Middle East, fighting evil is like holding back the desert. The minute you fight off one evil, three others blow in to take its place. You always worry that maybe these countries are not real states, but are simply collections of tribes that can be controlled only with a fist. ........................................................................................ superstar http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=2&u=/afp/20030429/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_media_sahhaf_030429171820 DUBAI (AFP) - An Arab TV news channel has offered a job to Saddam Hussein's top spin doctor, former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf... Sahhaf, who became a global celebrity for his persistant refusal to admit that US troops were in Baghdad, has been told by the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya channel that there is a job waiting for him... Sahhaf has dropped out of sight since US forces took the Iraqi capital on April 9. ...A Web site in his honor, www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com, featuring his most quotable "bons mots" drew an overwhelming response after its launch, attracting 4,000 visitors per second, according to its webmaster [he also has an action figure: http://herobuilders.com/vilacfig1.html] ....................................................................... philosophy corner http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=44876263 Ever since the fall of Baghdad, everyone's been asking where's Saddam and where are the weapons of mass destruction he allegedly had. Fair enough. But the question that intrigues me the most is this: Where on earth are his famed look-alikes? ...Was there a special department of the Iraqi government which kept track of the look-alikes, graded them according to quality and reliability, and decided whether Saddam 1, 4 or 8 should be used for such and such appearance? ...What would happen if one of the look-alikes - or his handlers - were to assert that the real Saddam was actually an impostor and order his summary execution? Was there a procedure laid down conclusively to identify the real McCoy? DNA tests, blood groups, perhaps a conveniently inflicted scar on the derriere? ............................................................................................. uh-oh http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-04/30/article04.shtml#t The world's media is now being fed a steady stream of U.S.-found Iraqi "intelligence" documents from the rubble of Iraq's intelligence headquarters. The problem with these documents is that they are being provided by the U.S. military to some of its "favored" reporters, Wayne Madsen, an American investigative journalist, wrote Wednesday, April 30. ..."The Telegraph's April 27 Sunday edition reported that its correspondent in Baghdad, Inigo Gilmore, had been invited into the intelligence headquarters by U.S. troops and miraculously "found" amid the rubble a document indicating that Iraq invited Osama bin Laden to visit Iraq in March 1998," elaborated Madsen... Gilmore told the BBC that he noticed some "erased" information on the documents... Gilmore said the erasures were apparently made with a combination of black marker ink and correction fluid, adding that he scraped away at the paper with a razor and "miraculously" found the name bin Laden in three places. Dismissing the claims as "spurious," the investigative journalist said: "If one holds up such a sheet of paper at a 45 degree angle and under a bright phosphorescent light, the lettering under the ink can be ‘read’ because the lettering almost appears to be ‘raised’... If a razor blade were used to scrape away the markings, the indelible ink and the toner ink would be obliterated." The American journalist said that the U.S. let favored journalists to walk freely about some of Iraqi government facilities, such as intelligence headquarters, to find any "shred" of paper that can be used in its smear campaign against Iraq but clamped water-tight security on other facilities, chief among which the oil ministry. "The reason for this is obvious. While the intelligence building can be salted with phony intelligence documents, the Oil Ministry is likely rife with documents showing the links between Saddam Hussein and Dick Cheney's old firm, Halliburton. The company signed more than $73,000,000.00 in contracts with Saddam's government when Cheney was its chief executive officer." ...America's propaganda channel, Fox News, featured the "found" document on its lead story on its Fox Sunday News program. "Fox anchorman Tony Snow asked the ethically-tainted Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi about the document. Chalabi responded, saying the document provided enough information that Saddam Hussein was knowledgeable about the September 11 attacks on the United States," he said. .............................................................................. saddam implicated in oklahoma city, nader campaign, west nile virus, oakland superbowl loss, etc. http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32204 A federal magistrate in Washington, D.C., yesterday asked an attorney who claims Iraqi agents were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing... for the evidence that is the basis for a civil case filed last year that alleges ties between executed bomber Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and Iraqi agents. The suit, brought by public-interest law firm Judicial Watch on behalf of 24 plaintiffs, claims Iraq is liable for the deaths of 168 people who perished in the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building. ...................................................................................... wrongful execution http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/5753847.htm Ten days before Timothy McVeigh was executed, lawyers for FBI lab employees sent an urgent letter to the attention of Attorney General John Ashcroft alleging that a key prosecution witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trial might have given false testimony about forensic evidence [detailed in original article --mrs. h]. The allegations involving Stephen Burmeister, now the FBI lab's chief of scientific analysis, were never turned over to McVeigh or the trial court, though they surfaced as the judge was considering whether to delay his execution because the government withheld evidence. The letter, however, was recently turned over to bombing conspirator Terry Nichols who faces another trial on Oklahoma state murder charges. "Material evidence presented by the government in the OKBOMB prosecution through the testimony of Mr. Burmeister appears to be false, misleading and potentially fabricated," said the June 1, 2001, letter to Ashcroft obtained by The Associated Press. The lawyers represented several FBI lab employees, including one who sued after being fired. The letter cited Burmeister's testimony in a civil case as evidence contradicting his earlier McVeigh testimony. The letter specifically challenged Burmeister's testimony that chemical residues found on evidence came only from McVeigh's bomb, not other sources such as lab contamination. It was sent to Ashcroft's general fax number and by courier with the notation "URGENT MATTER FOR THE IMMEDIATE ATTENTION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL." Justice officials said Wednesday the letter was routed to Ashcroft's clerical office in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, where it sat for nearly two months and then was forwarded to the FBI - well after McVeigh was executed. ...Prosecutors are obligated by law to disclose any potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. Law enforcement officials, however, divulged that last year Justice Department lawyers made a lawsuit settlement offer to the law firm and the fired FBI lab employee that would have required the firm to give up all copies of the letter. The offer was eventually dropped... Justice officials could not explain how a letter marked for urgent attention by Ashcroft on an issue that was dominating the headlines could be misrouted. .................................................................................................. secrecy news o'the day http://www.msnbc.com/news/907379.asp?0cl=c1&cp1=1 Administration officials are waging a behind-the-scenes battle to restrict public disclosure of key events relating to the [September 11th] attacks. AT THE CENTER of the dispute is a more-than-800-page secret report prepared by a joint congressional inquiry detailing the intelligence and law-enforcement failures that preceded the attacks—including provocative, if unheeded warnings, given President Bush and his top advisers. ...The report was completed last December; only a bare-bones list of “findings,” with virtually no details, was made public. But nearly six months later, a “working group” of Bush administration intelligence officials assigned to review the document has taken a hard line against further public disclosure. By refusing to declassify many of its most significant conclusions, the administration has essentially thwarted congressional plans to release the report... In some cases, these sources say, the administration has even sought to “reclassify” some material that was already discussed in public testimony—a move one Senate staffer described as “ludicrous.” ...The mammoth report reflects nearly 10 months of investigative work by a special staff hired jointly by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees... [with] access to hundreds of thousands of pages of classified documents from the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and other executive-branch agencies. The staff also conducted scores of interviews with senior officials, field agents and intelligence officers. (They were not, however, given access to some top White House aides, such as national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice or... Secretary of State Colin Powell or Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.) The team’s report was approved by the two intelligence committees last Dec. 10. ...Two months later, the working group came back with its decisions—and some members were flabbergasted. Entire portions remained classified. Some of the report—including some dealing with matters that had been extensively aired in public, such as the now famous FBI “Phoenix memo” of July 2001 reporting that Middle Eastern nationals might be enrolling in U.S. flight schools—were “reclassified.” ...Officials have indicated the “review” process is likely to drag on for months. ...The tensions over the release of 9-11 related material seems especially relevant—if not ironic—in light of recent reports that the president’s political advisers have devised an unusual re-election strategy that essentially uses the story of September 11 as the liftoff for his campaign. The White House is delaying the Republican nominating convention, scheduled for New York City, until the first week in September 2004—the latest in the party’s history. That would allow Bush’s acceptance speech, now slated for Sept. 2, to meld seamlessly into 9-11 commemoration events due to take place in the city the next week. Some sources who have read the still-secret congressional report say some sections would not play quite so neatly into White House plans [details in original article-- mrs. h]. ............................................................................. pope in a twist http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen04222003.html Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity... and his constant reference to a new international structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing international treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions... According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda. .................................................................................... the new kissinger http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1NDP12DNSW21OCRBAEKSFEY?type=politicsNews&storyID=2664321 President Bush plans to announce as early as next week the appointment of career diplomat L. Paul Bremer as civilian administrator of postwar Iraq... "It's a very good idea, you need a senior diplomatic person there. That was the missing piece. He's very much in the Kissinger-Baker mode, very much a realist about it," Newsweek quoted one U.S. official as saying... Bremer served as ambassador at large for Counterterrorism in the Reagan administration. In June 2002, Bush appointed him to serve on the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council. ................................................................................ the new enron http://afr.com/iraq/2003/04/29/FFX970KC1FD.html The US government is structuring Iraq's vast oil industry much like a corporation, with a chief executive and a management team vetted by US officials who would answer to a multinational board of advisers. ................................................................................................ democracy in action http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/international/worldspecial/30OIL.html?ex=1052720930&ei=1&en=9f943e20f5bb4135 BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 29 — An American official met today with Iraq's two most senior deputy oil ministers for the first time and warned them not to make any changes in their hierarchy without the approval of the allied forces in control of the country. ................................................................................. little yellow brothers http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,947144,00.html [Regarding] Yesterday's broadcast by the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to the Iraqi nation[:] "Hello, I'm Don Rumsfeld," he said, opening the broadcast... "Back home in America I have three children and six grandchildren. The youngest is just one year old. I want the same things for them that each of you want for your children and grandchildren - safety, security and a just society where they have freedom to pursue their dreams." That kind of sentimental approach might go down well with US audiences. It does not go down as well in a society mourning its military and civilian casualties and resentful of the US presence on its streets. ..."I am pleased to visit Iraq - your country - to witness your liberation. The American people share your joy that tyranny is gone, " he said in the broadcast. He said the US and Iraq shared a common purpose in creating a new Iraq "where the country's wealth is used to benefit the people, not to line the pockets of a cruel dictator". Nowhere in the speech did he mention that he had been in Iraq almost 20 years ago, a private businessman acting on behalf of the Reagan administration and dealing with Saddam. ...He said there was more food, water and electricity in parts of Iraq than under the previous regime, remarks that might have been met with tortured laughter by anyone tuning in... His tone was at times that of the colonial governor addressing the natives. "Building a free society isn't easy. It requires hard work and sacrifice," he said. ............................................................................................... let them eat ice cream http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20030429/living/52960.shtml Now there's an ice cream for conservatives. Star Spangled Ice Cream offers I Hate the French Vanilla, Iraqi Road, Nutty Environmentalist and Smaller Governmint... Star Spangled Ice Cream is the brainchild of New Jersey corporate lawyer Andrew Stein and two Washington consultants, Frank Cannon and Richard Lessner. .................................................................................... how 'bout that free press http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=3537§ionID=21 The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV news station for Muslim Iraq. It is being produced in a studio -- Grace Digital Media... Grace Digital Media is controlled by a fundamentalist Christian millionaire, Cheryl Reagan... According to its web site, Grace News Network is "dedicated to transmitting the evidence of God's presence in the world today." "Grace News Network will be reporting the current secular news, along with aggressive proclamations that will 'change the news' to reflect the Kingdom of God and its purposes," GNN proclaims... Grace News Network proclaims that it will be a "unique tool in the Lord's ministry plan for the world." "Grace News Network provides networking links and portals to various ministries and news services that will be of benefit to every Christian believer and seeker of truth," according to the company's mission statement. The CEO of Grace News Network is Thorne Auchter. The same Thorne Auchter who began the dismantling of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) under Presidents Reagan and George Bush I. Auchter did not return our calls seeking comment for this story. ............................................................................................... from the horse's mouth http://www.gracenewsnetwork.com/ Grace News Network, headquartered in Washington D.C. a few blocks from the White House, is dedicated to transmitting the evidence of God's presence in the world today. Through its expanding relationship with many organizations around the world, GNN gathers reports of signs, wonders and miracles and makes that information available to the world at large. ............................................................................................... no madonna bootlegs in iraq http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30441.html Chief executive for the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen, is helping draft copyright legislation for the New Iraq, according to investigative journalist Gregory Palast... Under Iraqi copyright legislation, passed by The Revolution Leadership Council in 1971, a copyright lapses 25 years after the death of the author, but no more then fifty years after the publication of the work. It's shorter for private works, and there are several public interest exemptions... The real author of this enlightened document ought to step forward. Maybe they could help liberate the USA - which extended copyright to seventy years after the author's death - from Hollywood. ...Rosen's dash for Baghdad isn't hard to explain. Iraq does not have a reciprocal copyright agreement with the United States, which means that US works are not protected. Hilary will almost certainly be setting to work on the current law's Article 13:- "The author may not prevent a person making one copy of a published work for his own use." And she will want to stiffen the penalties for infringement:- one hundred dinars, or three hundred for repeat offenders. Maybe she will shoot for something closer to the $97 trillion the RIAA has claimed as damages from the file-sharing students back in the Homeland. ...A month ago Congressman Darrell Issa (R., San Diego) introduced a bill ensuring that Qualcomm, based in his congressional district, be given a foothold in the New Iraq. Europe and the Middle East use the global GSM standard. ............................................................................................ newt takes one in the snoot http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030424/ts_alt_afp/us_mideast_portugal_030424195718 LISBON (AFP) - A top US State Department official called former congressman and current Pentagon adviser Newt Gingrich an "idiot" in an interview published here. US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones was asked to comment on Gingrich's recent harsh criticism of her department's Middle East diplomacy. "Newt Gingrich does not speak in the name of the Pentagon and what he said is garbage," US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones told the Publico daily. "What Gingrich says does not interest me. He is an idiot and you can publish that," she added. ............................................................................... new PM http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-excerpts30apr30,0,5380520.story These are excerpts from a speech by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas... "The root of our suffering and the source of our pain is the occupation and its detestable oppressive policies. We all commit to ending the occupation in all of its shapes and forms ... I reiterate that the military and colonizing occupation is the main source of our problems. "The occupation impedes our growth, and therefore ending the occupation in all of it forms and from all of the territories occupied since 1967, including our eternal capital Jerusalem, is our national priority. While we should learn from the lessons of the past, what we are living under does not cause us to lose hope in the benefits of peace... Yet, what we have outlined will be meaningless if Israel's policy of imposing facts on the ground continues. Settlements are the primary obstacle to any peace process. The construction of the so-called separation wall is a dangerous continuation of the colonization project. "...Here, I would like to address the Israeli people and the Israeli government frankly and directly. We want a lasting peace with you achieved through negotiations and on the basis of international law We denounce terrorism by any party and in all its shapes and forms both because of our religious and moral traditions and because we are convinced that such methods do not lend support to a just cause like ours, but rather destroy it. These methods do not achieve peace, to which we aspire." ........................................................................... primrose path for peace http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=288082&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y Members of the Yesha Council of Jewish Settlements of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District appear to be ready to back the idea of "Israeli cantons" and "Palestinian cantons" as an alternative to the "road map" for peace and the idea of a Palestinian state... unlike Sharon's present-day policy, the Yesha Council's plan does not envisage a Palestinian state nor the uprooting of settlements, and talks of freedom of action for the Israel Defense Forces in all of the West Bank. It also states that the Arabs will be able to run their own affairs, but under Israeli sovereignty. ........................................................................ the dirty british http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_775811.html?menu=news.latestheadlines The man who carried out the suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv beachfront pub was a British citizen according to a report. A second terrorist who managed to flee when his explosive device didn't detonate was also British according to Israeli media... Two men and one woman were killed and 35 wounded when the suicide bomber blew himself up at a beachfront bar. ....................................................................... rachel corrie in the news http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=288495&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y Since the Corrie family's worst fears came true, they have been busy... One of their immediate goals is to go to Rafah to see the place where Rachel was killed. ...Since Rachel Corrie was killed, around 10,000 letters have reached the e-mail boxes of the Corrie family; many of them were sent by Israelis... One of them is a reserve officer and a father of two who was in contact with Rachel during the course of her stay in the territories. He was the one who suggested that she try to appeal to the humane side of soldiers and he also is the one who taught her a few key Hebrew phrases so she say them to the soldiers. "What would your mother think about what you're doing," was one phrase; another was "you're operating under a black flag." After her death, the reserve officer wrote to her family and told them how sorry he was that he told Rachel that soldiers also have a conscience. ...As terrible as Rachel's loss is for his family, Craig Corrie thinks it is also terrible for the nation when it agrees to accept such actions or agrees that its army should act this way. He cannot understand why the bulldozer driver hit his daughter while she stood in front of him - "this is a girl who weighed 125 lbs. He could have picked her up and put her under arrest." He himself was in charge of a bulldozer force while serving as a soldier in the engineering corps in Vietnam. ...The family says it never received a report from the Israeli army about the circumstances of the incident nor has it ever heard directly from any military official. ......................................................................... life in palestine http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2990845.stm Eight Palestinians, including a two-year-old child and 13-year-old boy, have been killed in Gaza during a large incursion by Israeli troops, Palestinian officials say. Seven Israeli soldiers were also injured in the raid, which took place just after midnight and seems to have been targeting Yousef Abu Ein, a leading member of the militant group Hamas... Residents said Israeli soldiers besieged the four-storey building in the Shijaia neighbourhood, where his extended family live... The gun battle is still reported to be raging over 10 hours later, with armoured troops carriers and helicopters attacking Mr Abu Ein's home. ............................................................... you say potato, i say ghetto http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=288885&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y Military sources continually stress that the [Israeli] separation fence is not an international border, but the security activity along the fence has all the characteristics of a frontier. This includes patrols, surveillance and military camps built along the fence to serve the troops engaged in security operations. The fence will be more than 600 kilometers long - almost twice as long as the original Green Line. This is because in many places the fence is being built around settlement enclaves to include them in Israeli territory... The fence was approved in June 2002 and was supposed to be about 90 kilometers. Other sections were added and today it is 150 km long ..................................................................................... libya shows the money http://www.guardian.co.uk/Lockerbie/Story/0,2763,946403,00.html Libya will ask to be removed from Washington's "axis of evil" list after it has paid the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing $10,000,000.00 (£6.3m) each, its foreign minister, Abdel Rahman Shalgham, told the Agence France Press news agency yesterday. ...Mr Shalgham said the payment was conditional on United Nations sanctions against Libya being lifted after payment of an initial $4,000,000.00 to each family, and US sanctions being taken away after another $4,000,000.00 payment. After the final $2,000,000.00 payment, Tripoli hoped to be removed from the US list of states sponsoring terrorism. ........................................................... girls in libya http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/2986395.stm "People think we are like cavemen," states Amira boldly. Her comment is met with horrified gasps from her school friends but her teacher urges her on. "It's true," she whispers, "they do." Amira is a 17-year-old pupil at the Revolution Girls School in Tripoli and she is desperate to change the world's image of her and her home country of Libya. ...The accepted Western wisdom is that this is a dictatorship with a lack of freedom and a bad record on human rights. So it is surprising to hear that Amira enjoys watching US talk show Larry King Live. Her 16-year-old friend Rima lives for the latest Hollywood movies: "I like Antonio Banderas - and Mel Gibson is my favourite. "I watch the Cartoon Network. And we get BBC World and Discovery Channel." Satellite television is widespread here, and it is fairly cheap to use one of the many internet cafes where you can look up anything you want on the web. "We are like any teenager in the UK," says Amira who even admits to listening to Britney Spears. "We are all the same." That seems fair enough until you notice that all these girls are wearing military uniform to school. They say they think their combat gear is cool. And the number of stripes they have on their shoulders tells you what year they are in. Each week they have a lesson in military matters, from military law to how to hold a gun, with some basic practice thrown in. But even this is not as sinister as it sounds, according to the girls. They say it is something that is useful to learn, a subject like any other. ...How are they going to change years of negative publicity? "We want to charm you," says a 17-year-old called Reem. Amira eagerly adds: "I'm going to write computer programs to show people in every country in the world what we are really like." ................................................................................................ gilgamesh http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2982891.stm Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh... Now, a German-led expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King. ..."The most surprising thing was that we found structures already described by Gilgamesh," [Jorg Fassbinder, of the Bavarian department of Historical Monuments in Munich] stated. Iraq has long been the site of some of the most important historical finds "We covered more than 100 hectares. We have found garden structures and field structures as described in the epic, and we found Babylonian houses." But he said the most astonishing find was an incredibly sophisticated system of canals. "Very clearly, we can see in the canals some structures showing that flooding destroyed some houses, which means it was a highly developed system. "[It was] like Venice in the desert." ..................................................................................................... uncle sam asks brother-in-law for another loan http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2620546,00.html The Treasury Department says the United States could face the prospect of not being able to pay its bills in late May unless Congress raises the government's borrowing authority, now capped at $6,400,000,000,000.00. ...Last year, Congress boosted the old debt limit by $450,000,000,000.00... A federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher, weaken the world economy and deliver a political blow to President Bush. ........................................................... the famous john negroponte http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030402/od_afp/us_un_envoy_kitchen_030402183214 WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will pay $600,000.00 to renovate the kitchen at the residence of the US ambassador to the United Nations... The State Department has approved the expenditure at the request of the envoy, John Negroponte. ........................................................................................ JUST A REMINDER http://www.maryknoll.org/GLOBAL/ALERTS/no_negroponte.htm Former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras John Negroponte... played a significant role in the CIA-sponsored terrorism of Hondurans during the Nicaraguan Contra War... John Negroponte deliberately falsified State Department human rights reports throughout his time in Honduras. U.S. missionaries and many people of faith and conscience were murdered by the CIA-trained Honduran Battalion 3-16, which Negroponte at best overlooked and at worst oversaw. ...The New York Times credits John Negroponte with "carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua" during his tenure... In addition to his work with the Nicaraguan Contra army, Negroponte helped conceal from Congress the murder, kidnapping and torture abuses of a CIA-equipped and -trained Honduran military unit, Battalion 3-16... The Baltimore Sun reports that Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga, then a delegate in the Honduran Congress and a voice of dissent, told the Sun that he complained to Negroponte on numerous occasions about the Honduran military’s human rights abuses. Rick Chidester, a junior embassy official under Negroponte, reported to the Sun that he was forced to omit an exhaustive gathering of human rights violations from his 1982 State Department report. Sister Laetitia Bordes went on a fact-finding delegation to Honduras in May 1982 to investigate the whereabouts of 32 Salvadoran nuns and women of faith who fled to Honduras in 1981 after Archbishop Oscar Romero’s assassination. Negroponte claimed the embassy knew nothing, but in 1996, Negroponte’s predecessor Jack Binns reported that the women had been captured, tortured, and then crammed into helicopters from which they were tossed to their deaths... In 1994, the Honduran Human Rights Commission charged Negroponte personally with several human rights abuses. On August 27, 1997, CIA Inspector General Frederick P. Hitz released a 211-page classified report entitled "Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in Honduras in the 1980s." This report was partly declassified on October 22, 1998, in response to persistent demands by the Honduran human rights ombudsman. You can read parts of the document on the National Security Archives website. Only senators and their staff who have security clearance can read the report in its entirety [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/latin_america/honduras/]. .................................................................................................... the religious life http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/golf/ The Presidential Prayer Team Tour: Golf and Prayer Walk This event in nine cities is to honor the brave men and women who are defending our nation's freedom. It is also a way to bring much needed funds to the operation of The Presidential Prayer Team... Each golf event will feature a $1 Million Hole-in-One Contest, along with other prizes. ................................................................................................ it's all that makes the world go around http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=401712 BP announced its biggest ever profit bonanza yesterday, making $3,700,000,000.00 (£2.3bn) in the first quarter of the year, or $41,000,000.00 a day. The figure – more than double [that] made for the period last year – was the highest for any quarter and was driven by higher gas and oil prices. During the first three months of the year, the oil price averaged $29.80 a barrel. ...Lord Browne of Madingley, BP's chief executive... defended the level of profits made by BP, which he said was good for the whole of the UK. ........................................................................................... poverty: it's the law http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2003/04/30/MN93677.DTL As part of his post-Iraq victory tour, President Bush will be at a defense plant in Santa Clara on Friday to argue for $550,000,000,000.00 in proposed tax cuts... Bush won't be speaking at a soup kitchen the way he did in Santa Clara County during the 2000 campaign... Bush also won't be speaking at the Veterans One-Stop Center, a small office on North Winchester Boulevard... It would be great to hear the president explain to patriotic vets why he's cutting their benefits while giving tax benefits to the rich. Here's a place Bush really ought to visit. Santa Clara University... On Tuesday, third-year law students Isaac Escobedo and Niki Okcu had laptops and books open on a table in the university's multicultural center... "We started law school in the boom," said Escobedo. "Now we're the first class graduating into the bust." ...Once they pass the bar exam, they face the burden of a huge debt. "A lot of my friends owe $120,000, and that's just in principal," said Escobedo, marveling at the figure. "A hundred and twenty G's." ...When asked about the economy and Bush's tax plan, Okcu said, "As long as Bush is president, I don't think things will get better." Escobedo said, "I think things might come back. But then, I'm a Republican." Perhaps Escobedo is an old-fashioned Republican, because he questioned how the country could run up a huge deficit and grow economically at the same time. Okcu has even more doubts. "When I started law school, they said it would take six months for the economy to recover," said Okcu. "My second year, they said it would take six months. This year, they said it would take six months." ...More people than ever are trying to escape Silicon Valley's bad times by going to law school... "You get used to eating wonton noodles when you're a student," said Escobedo. "Just get used to eating wonton noodles for another three years. ........................................................................................................... notice: you are screwed; vote for capital rule today http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/3857521.html Your next annual statement from the government estimating your Social Security retirement benefits will state in blunt language that those funds are in jeopardy... "Action is needed soon to make sure that the system is sound when today's younger workers are ready for retirement." The warning, which the government plans to unveil today, will be included in the annual letter from Social Security to 138 million workers over the age of 25, estimating their benefits under various retirement strategies... Tax revenue now far exceeds benefit payments, but the letter estimates that will last only 14 more years under current law. "By 2042," it warns, "the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted." ................................................................................................. homeland security has served its purpose http://www.forbes.com/personalfinance/retirement/newswire/2003/04/30/rtr957402.html The U.S. will cut 6,000 airport screening jobs -- 11 percent of workers who clear passengers and luggage through security checks -- over the next five months... The work force reduction would yield a budget savings of $280 million. ................................................................................................ pre-emptive invasions work wonders http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2989867.stm Terrorist attacks worldwide declined significantly in 2002... the US Government says... 725 people were killed - down from 3,295 in 2001... "Despite solid progress, the danger persists", said Cofer Black, the State Department's counter-terrorism co-ordinator. .............................................................................................. PART TWO is right around the corner.
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