~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you'll dance to anything

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/06/Worldandnation/Rumsfeld_lauds_CentCo.shtml

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday compared the volatile situation in Iraq today to America's struggle to win independence from England in 1776.

...With dedication and patience, Rumsfeld said democracy can flourish in Iraq because "the natural state of people is to be free, not to be repressed." What the world must recognize, Rumsfeld said, is that "it will take time and it will take adaptation on the part of the people and that, ultimately, just as in Afghanistan, what evolves will be something that will be distinctive to each country."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

associated press purges mention of anti-bush activity

http://www.underreported.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1056

According to the Philadelphia Intelligencer version of an AP story (emphasis added): "PHILADELPHIA - Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor received the city's Liberty Medal, an award honoring individuals whose actions represent the founding principles of the United States, on Friday.

[...] Nearby, religious enthusiasts, abortion foes and a few hundred other protesters boasted signs proclaiming their beliefs. *Many held signs protesting the Bush administration's foreign policy.*"

However, the emphasized sentence has been stricken from most of the other versions around the web... To get a real feel for what was going on in Philadelphia, one has to turn to the photos on Philadelphia's IndyMedia site [http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/04/1751242&mode=thread]... An anti-Bush protest group is claiming responsibility for scaring Bush out of coming to Philadelphia on July 4 [see http://www.justiceinjuly.org/press_release_0613.html]... Instead, Bush spoke in the protection of a military museum in Dayton (July 4, 2003 White House press release).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

things are tough all over

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/06/nbeeb06.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/07/06/ixportaltop.html

Tony Blair has demanded that the BBC retract its claim that Downing Street "sexed up" material provided by the intelligence services for a dossier presented to Parliament on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction... He said the charge was "as serious an attack on my integrity as there could possibly be".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

take it to the bridge

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=422343

A week-old ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians was facing its first crisis yesterday. Ariel Sharon's cabinet voted by a narrow majority to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, but on conditions that provoked militant groups to threaten new violence. A ministerial committee will sift through a list presented by the Shin Bet security service, but the Israeli Prime Minister said that no prisoner who had murdered Israeli civilians would go free. Nor would members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli Defence Minister, poured cold water on hopes of an early release. After a three-hour meeting in Jerusalem with his Palestinian counterpart, Mohammed Dahlan, he told reporters that it would begin in "weeks rather than days". He also said there was no timetable for freeing prisoners or for pulling Israeli forces out of more West Bank towns.

...Mr Sharon had a difficult time persuading his right-wing ministers to open the prison doors... Only after a rider was added making the release conditional on the Palestinian Authority's performance in fighting terror did the Prime Minister secure a majority of 13-9. The dissenters included key members of his Likud party.

...Saeb Erekat, a former senior Palestinian negotiator, called on the Americans and their European, Russian and United Nations partners - known as the Quartet - to save the "road-map" for peace they pressed on Israelis and Palestinians. "Where did the Quartet disappear to?" he asked. "Why haven't the Americans intervened? Without that, the whole process is very fragile."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

where's that confounded bridge

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/314691.html

Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid on Monday rejected a Palestinian demand for Israel to release members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad being held in Israeli jails, dismissing the call as "impractical"... "It could be that the day will come when they [the Palestinians] will dismantle Hamas and there will really be peace here and then we can talk about these things," he told the radio. "But that time is not yet here."

"We in the Palestinian government are responsible for the entire Palestinian nation and we are not a government of one Palestinian party," Abd al-Razeq said at a news conference with Lapid after their talks.

...On Monday, municipal workers in Gaza City began whitewashing over anti-Israeli graffiti as part of a "beautification project."

...The Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations threatened Sunday to revoke the cease-fire they declared last week if Israel does not free all Palestinian prisoners... The 350 to be released falls far short of Palestinian demands for the release of all prisoners. About 6,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails for security- and non-security-related offenses. Of those, about 2,000 have "blood on their hands," 720 are Hamas members, 344 belong to the Islamic Jihad and 136 to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2003-daily/07-07-2003/main/main17.htm

BRUSSELS: Tel Aviv has sent several signals to the European Union conveying that Israel wants full EU membership. Israeli government has officially told the EU that Israel is expediting its endeavours to resolve all its outstanding disputes with its neighbouring states which is a pre-requisite under the EU rules for acceptance of any country's candidature, a reliable source in Brussels told the News... EU member states remain divided on the issue... Israel's sympathisers in the EU are advising the government of Ariel Sharon to keep on expediting official efforts to implement the Middle East "roadmap" besides achieving peace with Syria and Jordan. Israel has already concluded peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

instant karma

http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2003-daily/07-07-2003/world/w1.htm

KUWAIT CITY: Liberals sustained heavy losses in Kuwait's legislative elections, forced to concede defeat Sunday in a new 50-seat parliament dominated by Islamists and pro-government members... Final results showed that the liberals, who along with their supporters held eight seats in the outgoing parliament, were now reduced to three... "Liberals Punished as Pillars Fall," the English-language Arab Times meanwhile read... A total of 136,715 men were qualified to vote for the new parliament out of a local population of 898,000. Women are barred from voting or running for political office.

...Kuwait's cabinet was expected to submit its resignation Sunday and a new government will be formed within the next two weeks.

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supporting the troops

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0707/p02s01-woiq.html

US troops... are suffering from low morale that has in some cases hit "rock bottom." ...Some frustrated troops stationed in Iraq are writing letters to representatives in Congress to request their units be repatriated. "Most soldiers would empty their bank accounts just for a plane ticket home," said one recent Congressional letter... [There are also] daily instances of female troops being sent home due to pregnancy... "Hordes of active-duty troops and reservists may soon leave the service rather than subject themselves to a life continually on the road," writes Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution here... "The way we have been treated and the continuous lies told to our families back home has devastated us all," a soldier in Iraq wrote in a letter to Congress... In one Army unit, an officer described the mentality of troops. "They vent to anyone who will listen. They write letters, they cry, they yell. Many of them walk around looking visibly tired and depressed. We feel like pawns in a game that we have no voice [in]."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the sporting troops

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030714-463062,00.html

Much has been written about how Iraqis complicated the task of rebuilding their country by looting it after Saddam Hussein's regime fell. In the case of the international airport outside Baghdad, however, the theft and vandalism were conducted largely by victorious American troops, according to U.S. officials, Iraqi Airways staff members and other airport workers. The troops, they say, stole duty-free items, needlessly shot up the airport and trashed five serviceable Boeing airplanes.

...A boardroom table that [U.S. Lieut. John] Welsh and Iraqi civil-aviation authority officials sat around in early May was, a week later, a pile of glass and splintered wood. Terminal windows were smashed, and almost every door in the building was broken, says Welsh. A TIME photographer who flew out of the airport on April 12 saw wrecked furniture and English-language graffiti throughout the airport office building... "There was no chance this was done by Iraqis" before the airport fell, says a senior Pentagon official.

...The airplanes suffered the greatest damage. Of the 10 Iraqi Airways jets on the tarmac when the airport fell, a U.S. inspection in early May found that five were serviceable... [But] over the next few weeks, U.S. soldiers looking for comfortable seats and souvenirs ripped out many of the planes' fittings, slashed seats, damaged cockpit equipment and popped out every windshield. "It's unlikely any of the planes will fly again," says Welsh, a reservist who works for the aviation firm Pratt & Whitney as a quality-control liaison officer to Boeing.

...Airport workers say even now air conditioners and other equipment are regularly stolen. "Soldiers do this stuff all the time, everywhere. It's warfare," says a U.S. military official.

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nukes R us

http://www.fox23news.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=93F17427-60A6-47BB-9026-9BC45364A026

(Tehran, Iran-AP) -- Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful means -- but a hard-line student group wants that to change. The Students' Islamic Association is urging Tehran to develop a nuclear weapons program, to ward off U-S and Israeli threats. A group leader says nuclear weapons would be a "deterrance" against Iran's enemies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

oh. my. fucking. god.

http://www.latimes.com/la-op-arkin6jul06,0,1445868.story

SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. — The Pentagon's Nuclear Posture Review, approved by President Bush in January 2002, outlined steps the U.S. should take to ensure its future ability to "defeat any aggressor"... including a $200,000,000.00, eight-year effort to expand and streamline nuclear war planning. Concurrently, the same commercial technologies used in wireless communications and personal computing are being enlisted to achieve a long-standing nuclear war fighter's dream: systems able to operate even during a protracted nuclear war.

...In May, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems and Lockheed Martin Mission Systems were awarded contracts to begin designing the new planning tools envisioned in the Nuclear Posture Review... New communications systems... will modernize the current systems that handle transmission of nuclear "go codes," or orders from the president to launch a nuclear attack. The update will allow for greater capacity and quicker transmission... A constellation of up to five advanced satellites costing more than $400 million apiece will be launched into orbit beginning in 2006 to enable secure communications between the president and the country's nuclear forces... When fully operational in 2010, the system will provide "survivable" terminals to connect underground nuclear command centers and nuclear forces. Even the paging devices of bomber crews on nuclear alert will be connected to the system.

...But the real innovation is the 69 "transportable terminals" small enough to be set up, operated and maintained by one person. These communications terminals will be designed to "reliably operate in pre- through post-nuclear environments"... Mobile support teams would be sent with these terminals to secret locations. In the event of nuclear war, the mobile teams... would rendezvous with submarines and transport new nuclear weapons to surviving units capable of delivering them.

The new systems are just one part of the military's implementation of the more aggressive nuclear war strategies laid out in the Nuclear Posture Review.

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now everybody twist

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=333570

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former U.S. ambassador who investigated a report about Iraq buying uranium from Niger has accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

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pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

http://www.prolog.net/webnews/wed/dv/Qus-iraq-weapons-warner.Rxp5_Dl6.html

WASHINGTON, July 6 (AFP) - US intelligence will soon expose deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, Senator John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday... Warner, who also sits on the senate's intelligence committee which is conducting a review of US pre-war intelligence on Iraq, vowed that Saddam's weapons "will eventually be discovered and shown to the world."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you may not want to read it, but you must

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,992589,00.html

The total figure of civilian deaths in the Iraqi conflict may never be known, but an investigation of random incidents reveals that whatever the total, the proportion of civilian to military deaths among Iraqis is overwhelming. A graphic illustration of this can be found in the corner of the Abu Graib cemetery on the edge of Baghdad... The grave digger, Akef Aziz, explains that those from the military, or Fedayeen Saddam units, were... covered with an Iraqi flag. Out of a total of 916 graves in this plot, 17 are those of fighters.

...The southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah... will be enshrined in Hollywood lore because it was here that US special forces rescued Jessica Lynch of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company... Most famous of all will be the first floor of Nasiriyah General Hospital, where Private Lynch was being treated... [News crews have not] bothered to visit ward 114, a few doors down from Jessica's. In there, separated by a curtain, lie Daham Kassim, aged 46, and his 37-year-old wife Gufran Ibed Kassim. Daham has his arms bound, and a stump where his right leg used to be. Gufran cannot move her arms, wounded by gunshots, and probably never will... [Mr. Kassim] speaks in English, an educated man and, until a few months ago, director of the Southeastern electricity board. His torment began on the evening of 24 March, when... Kassim told his family to prepare to depart... for the safety of his parents' farm 70 miles away.

...The family - the four children in the back - set off shortly after noon in Kassim's new car. A few minutes later they reached the American checkpoint at the northern gate to the city... 'I could see two tanks,' recalls Kassim. 'They were sand-coloured, with markings on them. I was afraid and stopped my car 60m away. Less than a minute passed. They did not open anything, I saw no one. It was silent... I was frozen with fear,' continues Kassim. 'I could see their guns moving down. Then there was a terrible noise, and my car was buried in shooting.'

...Two Americans approached the car. 'They were called Chris and Joe. They took out my two dead children, then tried to give my son oxygen, but it was no use. He died there, at that moment. I asked for a helicopter to take us to hospital. They refused, but Joe gave us some morphine in exchange for my gold watch. They tied my bad leg to the other, then took us to their base.' There, the Americans... bandaged up the surviving child, father and mother. For two nights, the remains of the family slept in a bed. It appears that the story is reaching an end. 'Wait!' insists Kassim... 'Don't ask me questions. I will tell you what happened.'

On the third night, that of 27 March, 'there were some Americans wounded that night, in the fighting. Maybe they needed the beds. So they told us we had to go outside. I heard the order - "put them out" - and they carried us like dogs, out into the cold, without shelter, or a blanket. It was the days of the sandstorms and freezing at night. And I heard Zainab crying: "Papa, Papa, I am cold, I am cold." Then she went silent. Completely silent.'

...Kassim breaks off in anguish. His wife continues the story of the night. 'What could we do? She kept saying she was cold. My arms were broken, I could not lift or hold her. If they had given us even a blanket, we might have put it over her. We had to sit there, and listen to her die.' 'We'd had trouble having children,' Kassim re-enters the conversation. 'We'd been trying for six years without success and given up hope. But then God blessed us... And now four little flowers cut down. What for? For oil and a strategic place for America? ...Why did they put my Zainab out into the cold? I tell you Mister, she died of cold, she died of cold.'

...The three Kassim children put to death at the checkpoint had been buried at the site of their shooting, but later taken to the holy city of Najaf for entombment, as is the mandatory custom for Shia Islam. Zainab, however, had been interred inside the US base, 'and the question now,' pleads Kassim, revived by the urgency of the matter, 'is that we must get her to Najaf, where there is a space for her there with her brother and sisters. Please, Mister, I cannot move; you must go and ask how we can take my Zainab to Najaf.'

...'There is no one buried at this site,' assures US Marine Sergeant Jarrell, offering nevertheless to put us through to the authority able to deal with Kassim's request, which turns out to be the Civil Affairs department. The voice of Civil Affairs accordingly comes down his radio: 'Tell them this is a waste of Civil Affairs' time.'

...An examination of Kassim's car shows this to have been a clinical and frontal piece of musketry. A fusillade of heavy-calibre chain-gun tank fire attacked the vehicle, with some rounds twisting into the metalwork, but most fired straight through the windows at its occupants. [and so on.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

guilt by association

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2003/july/07_07_3.html

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iraqi insurgents have begun targeting police and security officers trained by the United States. Seven Iraqi police cadets were killed and more than 50 wounded in a bombing of a parade in the western city of A-Ramadi... The cadets were the first trained by the United States in a nine-day course and were scheduled to graduate this week.

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"let those setting out to manage the peace think mouths"

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07042003.html

The war is over, but the situation in the fields of Iraq continues to rapidly deteriorate. The banks, which provide credit and cash, have been looted, irrigation systems destroyed, road travel restricted, markets closed, warehouses and grain silos pillaged. To harvest the grain before it rots in the fields Iraqi farmers need more than eight million gallons of diesel fuel to power Iraq's corroding armada of combines and harvesters. But most of the fuel depots were incinerated by US bombing strikes. There's no easy way to get the fuel that remains to the farmers who need it most and no desire to do so by the US forces of occupations.

Even if the crops can be harvested, there's no clear way for the grain to get stored, marketed, sold and distributed to hungry Iraqi families. Under the Hussein regime, the crops were bought by the Baghdad government at a fixed priced and then distributed through a rationing system... Nothing has taken its place.

Iraqi farmers are still owed $75,000,000.00 for this year's crop, with little sign that the money will ever arrive. There's speculation throughout the country that one intent of the current policy is to force many farmers off their farms and into the cities so that their lands can be taken over by favorites of Ahmed Chalabi and his US protectors. The post-Saddam Iraq will almost certainly witness a land redistribution program: more farmland going into fewer and fewer hands.

Grain farmers aren't alone. As in the first Gulf War, US bombing raids targeted cattle feed lots, poultry farms, fertilizer warehouses, pumping stations, irrigation systems and pesticide factories (the closest thing the US has come to finding Weapons of Mass Destruction in the country) - the very infrastructure of Iraqi agriculture. It will take years to restore these operations.

Many fields in southern Iraq lie fallow, as vegetable farmers have been unable to secure seeds for this summer's crops of melons, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and beans-all mainstays of the Iraqi diet... Meanwhile, millions of Iraqis face starvation this summer. A UN staff report from late May... notes that Iraq's poultry industry has effectively been decimated. Millions of chickens perished during the war. Millions of others face starvation, since nearly all of the chicken feed stored in government warehouses has been looted. Chicken and eggs are staples of the Iraqi, amounting for more than half of the animal protein consumed by the population. Many other farm animals, including sheep and goats, could be ravaged by disease, since the nation's stockpiles of veterinary medicines and vaccines have been almost totally destroyed or looted.

Some 60% of Iraq's 24 million people depend totally for their food on the food ration system that was established after the Gulf War. Each week, these Iraqis could count on a "food basket" consisting of wheat flour, rice, vegetable oil, lentils beans, milk, sugar and salt. That system is now in shambles and is scorned at by US policymakers.

..."Let those setting out to manage the peace think mouths," says Tim Land, professor food policy at City University in London. "Grumbling stomachs are bad politics as well as disastrous for the public health."

Into this dire circumstance strides Daniel Amstutz, the Bush administration's choice to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq's agricultural system. Now an international trade lobbyist in DC with a fat roster of big ag clients, Amstutz once served as a top executive at Cargill, the food giant which controls much of the world trade in grain. During Amstutz's tenure at Cargill, the grain company went on a torrid expansion campaign. It is now the largest privately held corporation in the US and controls about 94 percent of the soybean market and more than 50 percent of the corn market in the Upper Midwest. It also has i's hands on the export market, controlling 40 percent of all US corn exports, a third of all soybean exports, and at least 20 percent of wheat exports.

...In 2000, the biggest food companies in the world, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Cenex Harvest States Co-op, DuPont and Louis Dreyfus, got together to form Pradium Inc., a kind of secret, internal grain market that offered real-time, cash commodity exchanges for grains, oilseeds and agricultural by-products as well as global information services. It also offered ways to fix price grain prices on a global scale. Amstutz served as Pradium's chairman... [Also,] during the first [George H.W.] Bush administration, he served as Undersecretary of Agriculture for International Affairs and Commodity programs. He was also the chief US negotiator on agricultural issues for the Uruguay Round of GATT talks, which led to the WTO.

The small farmers of the grain belt of the Midwest have a particular loathing for Amstutz. During his stint in the first Bush administration, Amstutz devised the notorious Freedom to Farm Bill, which eliminated tariffs and slashed federal farm price supports - all in an effort to lower grain prices for the benefit of Amstutz's cronies in the big agricultural conglomerates. As a result, thousands of American farmers lost their farms and monopolists like Cargill reaped the benefits.

The contours of Amstutz's plan for Iraq are familiar: a combination of free-market shock therapy and predation by multinational corporations... Amstutz announced that the real problem facing Iraqi agriculture is, naturally, government subsidies. "Iraqi farmers have had little incentive to increase production because of price controls that have kept food very inexpensive," Amstutz announced.

...Even as millions of Iraqi's face starvation under the stern hand of their food pro consul, Amstutz's appointment has excited little commentary in the US. His most virulent critic has been Kevin Wilkins, Oxfam's policy director in London. Watkins warns that Amstutz is little more than a carpetbagger seeking to advance the interests of the same food titans that his lobbying outfit in DC represents, Cargill, DuPont, Cenex and Archer Daniels Midland.

...Amstutz was recently spotted in Iowa, pitching his agricultural reconstruction plan to Iowa feedlot owners. He told the farmers that they stood to profit handsomely from his plan to bring modern feedlots to Iraq, those foul-smelling operations that pack thousands of cattle and hogs into tightly confined pens. "They are meat eaters," he brayed. "Iraq is not a vegetarian society." Iowa doesn't have many cattle or sheep operation. Most of the people in his audience raised hogs. And unless Amstutz has joined in a partnership with Franklin Graham [son of evanglization-czar Billy Graham] to Christianize Iraq, there won't be a big market for pork products in Baghdad.

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http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=31142

ISTANBUL, July 06 (Online): Turkey today closed its border with Iraq after U.S. forces in Iraq detained 11 of its soldiers on suspicions of fomenting an attack on a Kurdish Governor in the north of the country, the NTV news channel reported... The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reacted furiously to the U.S. raid on Turkish troops... "This is a repugnant incident... We cannot accept this," Mr. Erdogan protested, according to Anatolia news agency, condemning the United States for "behaviour unworthy of two allied countries in a coalition".

...About 100 U.S. soldiers stormed the local offices of the Turkish special forces after cutting the telephone lines. The 11 soldiers and six employees were taken to the nearby city of Kirkurk, the daily said.

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,992467,00.html

The two British terrorist suspects facing a secret US military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay will be given a choice: plead guilty and accept a 20-year prison sentence, or be executed if found guilty... Lawyers acting for Moazzam Begg, 35, from Sparkbrook, Birmingham, and Feroz Abassi, 23, from Croydon, said that any confessions gathered while the men were kept without charge or access to lawyers in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and Camp Delta in Cuba would have no status in international law and would be inadmissible in British courts. Gareth Peirce, who acts for Moazzam Begg, said: '...If this treatment happened for an hour in a British police station, no evidence gathered would be admissible,' she said. Stephen Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad, which is leading the campaign for the two men, said: 'Our concern is that there will be no meaningful way of testing the evidence against these people. The US Defence Department has set itself up as prosecution, judge and defence counsel and has created the rules of trial. This is patently a kangaroo court.'

Begg's family believe he was kidnapped in Pakistan by US authorities. He was taken to Bagram on suspicion of passing funds to al-Qaeda... He has not seen a lawyer.

Among those representing the two British men in the United States is Michael Ratner, of the Centre for Constitutional Rights: ...'The trial system in Guantanamo Bay allows a whole series of serious breaches of defendant rights that would mean that they could never come to trial in the US. First, it allows the wiretapping of attorney-client meetings...Then there is the fact that the Pentagon "Appointing Authority" - probably US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - has the ability to remove a judge at any time without giving any reason.'

Among other concerns about the 50-page Final Rule, which was published by the Department of Defence last week for governing the trials, are: that rules of evidence are so broad that it is left at the discretion of the trial's presiding officer whether to allow any evidence he believes would be convincing... that evidence can be admitted by telephone and by pseudonym... [that] only security-screened civil attorneys be allowed to appear before the court and they can also be removed at any time.

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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,992328,00.html

The United States will beam a Farsi-language television news programme into Iran [on sunday night 7/6]... to create discontent among an alienated younger generation. US officials say News and Views will air nightly for a half-hour via satellite... The hardline clerical leadership will see the project as further evidence that recent unrest has been orchestrated from Washington... Student leaders and democracy activists say recent statements of support from President Bush and Tony Blair are counter-productive, providing ammunition to their opponents, who say that Iran has come under psychological attack by the Bush administration... The US has already launched a new radio service, called Radio Farda (Radio Tomorrow), that broadcasts Western pop music with brief news bulletins.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rolling 3 on egypt

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,992337,00.html

As George Bush prepares to leave for a whistle-stop tour of Africa, it has been revealed that he has ordered the US military to plan for a massive expansion of its presence on the continent. The Pentagon aims to secure aircraft refuelling agreements in Uganda and Senegal, two of the five nations Bush will visit. As officials consider whether to send US troops into Liberia to oversee a tentative ceasefire, the Pentagon is working on strengthening ties with Morocco and Tunisia. Arab countries of the Maghreb and in sub-Saharan Africa will be the main focus of new basing agreements and training exercises intended to combat a growing terrorist threat in the region. The Pentagon also wants to set up army bases in Mali and Algeria, which US forces could use for training or for strikes on terrorist targets.

The news, revealed by the New York Times, will serve to enhance the anti-American feeling in many African nations... The US security preparations for the week-long trip, the first of Bush's presidency, have been intense and programme changes frequent... [Bush] will be under pressure to make the US position clear on a number of issues, including a possible intervention in Liberia, and the questions of debt relief and US responsibility for slavery... Malick Ndiaye, of the Committee of Initiative of Senegalese Intellectuals (CISS)... [says,] 'Our problem is that this country has had a very close relationship with Europe since the seventeenth century,' Ndiaye said. 'Bush seems to be coming here like a new conqueror.'

...US military chiefs say that emerging threats require the Pentagon to pay more attention to the continent. 'Africa, as can be seen by recent events, is certainly a growing problem,' US Marine Corps General James Jones, head of the European Command, said in an interview last week.

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http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=735132003

Black Hawk Down [hollywood's interpretation of conditions in somalia] is said to be Bush’s favourite movie and to have prompted him to vow that he would never allow American troops to find themselves in a similar situation again.

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http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-07/07/article10.shtml

A team of U.S. military experts arrived Monday, July 7, in the Liberian capital to assess ""the situation and determine whether further humanitarian assistance is required" in the war-wracked west African nation... Captain Roger Coldiron, the team's leader, said... "I will assess the security situation" and determine humanitarian needs.

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http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030705_956.html

"Without America's active involvement in the world, the ambitions of tyrants would go unopposed and millions would live at the mercy of terrorists," Bush said in his weekly radio address Saturday. He said because of U.S. policies around the world "tyrants have learned to fear, and terrorists are on the run."

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/06/wirq106.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/07/06/ixnewstop.html

"What we really need is Saddam's head displayed on a pole," explained one coalition commander last week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/world/article/0,1406,KNS_351_2089144,00.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia - In a tense encounter above the Java sea, U.S. fighter planes went into attack mode and locked their missiles on Indonesian warplanes deployed to intercept them, an Indonesian air force official said Friday... Two Indonesian F-16 fighter jets intercepted the U.S. planes and warned them they were in Indonesian airspace, he said... Nationalist politicians and military officers have long complained about espionage flights or clandestine airdrops by foreign aircraft across Indonesia's 13,000 islands, which sit strategically between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. "President Megawati Sukarnoputri must strongly protest the arrogant actions of U.S. pilots, which have insulted Indonesia's sovereignty," nationalist legislators said in a statement.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/05/international/asia/05INDO.html?ei=1&en=71e53ca8078be604&ex=1058425617&pagewanted=all&position=

From the financing of educational institutions to giving money for militant Islamic groups, the influence of Saudi Arabia, and Saudi charities, has been growing steadily here in [Indonesia,] the world's most populous Muslim country. Until recently, Indonesia has been famously relaxed about its religion. But slowly Indonesians are becoming more devout and in the battle for the soul of Islam here the Saudis are playing an important though stealthy role, Indonesian scholars say... The Saudi money has had a profound effect on extremist groups, allowing some to keep going and inspiring others to start recruiting, the officials said.

...Meanwhile, the Saudi influence in Indonesia's religious boarding schools, known as pesantren... is allowing stricter interpretations of Islam to gain favor, said Alwi Shihab, an Islamic scholar and a former minister of foreign affairs. "I told Condoleezza Rice last year that you are going to see the consequences of all this rigid interpretation because of all the money being poured in here," Mr. Shihab said... At the school in Makassar, 8-year-old girls wear jilbabs, the head coverings... At Al Irsyad, the daily newspapers are displayed on a notice board with all photographs of human faces scratched out... As the Indonesian state has become increasingly unable to look after basic needs — the unemployment rate is about 20 percent — growing numbers of Indonesians are finding some of the stricter tenets of Saudi Arabia's Islam more attractive.

...In 2000, 75 percent of Indonesians said they had a favorable opinion of the United States. This year, 83 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion.

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