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http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=13044404&method=full&si

TWO young soldiers have killed themselves after falling ill with suspected Gulf War Syndrome following the latest conflict in Iraq. Both men committed suicide after showing recognised symptoms of the illness - blamed on controversial jabs [inoculations] our troops were given before the war. One - Royal Engineer Eddie Hosdell, 21 - leapt to his death from the Humber Bridge in Hull and a 26-year-old soldier hanged himself at a base in Germany. The German-based soldier was given five jabs in one day - in direct contradiction of Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon's pre-war pledge that troops would not have multiple vaccinations at the same time.

...Campaigners say almost 200 soldiers who saw service in the 1991 Gulf War have killed themselves after developing the illness, which has always been officially denied by the Government. Charlie Plumridge, spokesman for the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA), said: "It's a shocking and sad state of affairs that these young soldiers are taking their own lives. For 12 years we have been warning the MOD that this sort of thing has happened and would continue to happen."

...The Sunday Mirror has seen medical records showing the 26-year-old soldier - not named at the request of his family - received five inoculations, including the controversial anthrax jab, on the same day. Experts attribute the illness to the cocktail of jabs and tablets given to troops, and the use of depleted uranium in allied weapons... Eddie, whose funeral took place in Hull this week, returned from the war at the end of April with 39 Engineer Regiment, based at Waterbeach Barracks in Cambridgeshire. Within days he started to behave erratically. The soldier, never in trouble before, was arrested by police on suspicion of firing a ball-bearing out of a car window near his home in Hornsea, North Humberside. He was released on bail and sent text messages to friends saying he was going to take his own life. His body was found on the Humber river on May 18.

...The parents of the soldier found dead in Germany have also demanded a full inquest. The member of the Queen's Royal Hussars hanged himself at his Army base in Sennelager, Germany, days after falling ill. He had been unfit to travel, with a rash, sleeping problems and mood swings.

...An MOD spokesman said yesterday: "We recognise people are ill but we do not recognise a single syndrome. We will not comment on individual cases."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21872-2003Aug5.html

Police in Florida are creating a counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans. Organizers said the system, dubbed Matrix, enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults.

...The Justice Department has provided $4 million to expand the Matrix program nationally and will provide the computer network for information sharing among the states, according to documents and interviews. The Department of Homeland Security has pledged $8 million, state officials said.

...Matrix is short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. The name was chosen somewhat whimsically by a Florida law enforcement officer, an agency official said. Florida officials say the system will be used only by authorized investigators under tight supervision.

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cryptome.org archived this site: check it out now.

http://cryptome.org/pam2/pam-unpub.htm - Welcome to the Policy Analysis Market, PAM

PAM is a market in Middle East Futures contracts – securities that payoff based on data indices that track regional conditions. These securities span economic, civil, and military conditions in eight countries of the Middle East plus the involvement of the United States.

Live trading will begin on 22 September 2003 with a trial phase that will last through 31 December 2003. The trial phase will be used to improve the product. Registration is now open to select 100 traders for this trial phase. We will give each of these 100 traders a $100 trading account – this is real money and the traders get to keep their profits... Consider accepting a bit of our money in return for helping us in the PAM Trial Phase.

http://cryptome.org/pam2/pam-unpub.htm#Organizations - The Organizations Behind PAM

Net Exchange has a ten-year history of applying innovative market technologies to processes not traditionally handled with markets. http://www.nex.com/

The Economist Intelligence Unit is the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist. http://www.eiu.com/

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is interested in improving on existing techniques for predicting future events and for assessing the issues that underlie and influence what might happen. http://www.darpa.mil/

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other darpa projects

http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/overview.htm

DARPA intends to conduct a challenge of autonomous ground vehicles between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in March of 2004. A cash award of $1 million will be granted to the team that fields the first vehicle to complete the designated route within a specified time limit. The purpose of the challenge is to leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be applied to military requirements.

[from the frequently-asked questions:] Q6. What does a Challenge vehicle need to do? A6. Challenge vehicles must autonomously traverse the challenge route without human interface or control of any kind. The vehicles must perform general route selection and navigation to follow the Challenge route. Vehicles must sense their environment to perceive terrain features, ground conditions, obstacles, and other Challenge vehicles. They must intelligently control their speed and direction so as to avoid or accommodate all of the above. And they must do these things quickly- overall speed will be the deciding factor and the time limit is designed to push vehicle speeds far beyond current technologies.

...Q18. What if there is no winner in 2004? A18. As long as Congressional authority exists to make the award, subsequent challenges will be held until there is a winner.

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http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030806p2a00m0fp022000c.html

HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba warned that the world is moving toward war and accused Washington of "worshipping" nuclear weapons... "A world without nuclear weapons and war that the victims of the atomic bomb have long sought for is slipping into the shadows of glowing black clouds that could turn into mushroom clouds at any moment," Akiba said. "The chief cause of this is the United States' nuclear policy which, by openly declaring the possibility of a pre-emptive nuclear strike and by starting research into small 'useable' nuclear weapons, appears to worship nuclear weapons as God."

...After the ceremony, for the second year running [Japanese Prime Minister] Koizumi left Hiroshima without attending a meeting of atomic bomb victims or without visiting facilities treating elderly A-bomb victims. He is the only post-war prime minister who has refused to do so.

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http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/conason.asp

On July 29, Prince Saud el-Faisal paid an extraordinary visit to the Bush White House. For an hour, he and George W. Bush discussed the 28-page section of the joint Congressional report on 9/11 that evidently implicates agents of his country’s government in the terrorist attack. The prince’s ostensible reason for coming to see the President—whose family has long maintained close connections with the Saudi royals—was to ask Mr. Bush to declassify those 28 pages because, as he declared at a press conference: "We have nothing to hide, and we do not seek, nor do we need, to be shielded."

That glibly ridiculous assertion is contradicted by the repressive habits of his family’s autocratic regime, which has a lot to hide from its own people as well as ours. Besides, the prince knew before he landed in Washington that the President would decline his plea... After all, if [the bush administration] reveal damaging information about the Saudis, what might the Saudis reveal about them?

...Commercial connections between the Saudis and the Bushes extend from limited-partner investments in George W.’s failed oil ventures more than 20 years ago to the Carlyle Group, a mighty merchant bank that currently employs Mr. Baker, former President George Herbert Walker Bush and a host of lesser family vassals.

Saudi money has also figured in several of the most significant political scandals of the postwar era, notably the Iran-contra affair and the Bank of Credit and Commerce International blowup. Whatever the Saudis might say about any of those matters is probably better left unsaid—not only to protect state secrets, but also for the sake of Bush senior, the former C.I.A. director and suspected Iran-contra conspirator... The preference for silence and secrecy is understandably mutual.

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http://www.sundayherald.com/35736

PURE uranium oxide which could be used in the making of a “dirty nuclear bomb” capable of killing countless people is being offered for sale in a Basra souk for $250,000. Senior American officials have confirmed that rampant looting was discovered by US marines arriving at the al-Tuwaitha nuclear site on April 7.

...The [Glasgow] Sunday Herald source, who cannot be named for fear of reprisals, was approached by black marketeers in Basra and asked if he would help sell the material. He said: “The cylinders are about a foot long, grey in colour with a red band around the top. The skull and crossbones warning logo, and the label ‘pure uranium oxide’ are clearly marked in English.”

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from the asia times.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH07Ak01.html

On most days, the Pentagon's "Early Bird", a daily compilation of news articles on defense-related issues mostly from the US and British press, does not shy from reprinting hard-hitting stories... But few could help notice last week that the "Bird" omitted an opinion piece distributed by the Knight-Ridder news agency by a senior Pentagon Middle East specialist, Air Force Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski, who worked in the office of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith until her retirement in April.

"What I saw was aberrant, pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline," Kwiatkowski wrote. "If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of 'intelligence' found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post-Saddam [Hussein] occupation [of Iraq] has been distinguished by confusion and false steps, one need look no further than the process inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense [OSD]."

Kwiatkowski went on to charge that the operations she witnessed during her tenure in Feith's office, and particularly those of an ad hoc group known as the Office of Special Plans (OSP), constituted "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-option through deceit of a large segment of the Congress"... In her article, Kwiatkowski wrote that OSP's work was marked by three major characteristics:

First, career Pentagon analysts assigned to Rumsfeld's office were generally excluded from what were "key areas of interest" to Feith, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, notably Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. "In terms of Israel and Iraq, all primary staff work was conducted by political appointees; in the case of Israel, a desk officer appointee from the Washington Institute for Near Policy [a think tank closely tied to the main pro-Israel lobby in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]."

Second, the same group of appointees tended to work with like-minded political appointees in other agencies, especially the State Department, the NSC, and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, rather than with those agencies' career analysts or the CIA.

...Third, this exclusion of professional and independent opinions... resulted in "groupthink", a technical term defined as "reasoning or decision-making by a group, often characterized by uncritical acceptance of conformity to prevailing points of view". In this case, the prevailing points of view were presumably shaped by neo-conservatives like Feith, Wolfowitz and Perle.

...Feith... is widely seen as the Pentagon's most likely fall guy if it is forced to shoulder blame for bad intelligence and planning. The government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pressed President George W Bush to fire Feith for several months, according to diplomatic sources.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=9&u=/nm/20030805/wl_nm/iraq_us_propaganda_dc_2

The postwar director of U.S.-backed Iraqi Television has quit... Three months after being flown to Baghdad on board a U.S. plane to relaunch Iraqi television and radio, former exile Ahmad Rikabi is disillusioned and back in London for the foreseeable future... He said that as the United States failed to invest in Iraqi stations or to retain local staff, channels such as Iran's Al Alam and Qatar's Al Jazeera were gaining popularity in Iraq... SAIC, a California-based company contracted to relaunch the television station, said it had no comment on Rikabi's remarks. "The United States needs to listen to Iraqis more, and not just in the media sector," Rikabi said.

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occupation watch is run by international humanitarian orgs and reprints articles from elsewhere in the world press, as well as on the ground in iraq.

http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=318

July 29th, 2003 - The Union of the Unemployed in Iraq - UUI will be holding a street protest followed by a sit-in, at an undisclosed location, to highlight vast unemployment in Iraq... The UUI calls upon 'all freedom loving people, workers organisations, humanitarians and all those who oppose the hunger and deprivation in Iraq, to join us in this protest. We are determined that our demands be immediately met by the authorities'.

The demands are: That the new state, complying with Geneva Coventions on the obligations of occupying powers to provide for the welfare of its occupied population, secures social benefits for the Iraqi people... [and] recompensation for the doctors, teachers, nurses and state emplyees who have not been paid for almost 4 months.

The new state currently consists of a 'Governing Council' made up of over 50% Iraqi exiles, handpicked by the Occupation Administration. No elections or public consultations were held on the selection of the new GC... The UUI is the initiative of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq. The UUI came into force, after being a secret underground organisation, in 1993.

...Sunday, August 3rd Update: Yesterday night at 11.30 p.m., the U.S. forces arrested Qasim Hadi and 54 others of the leadership and members of the of the union. The Union of the Unemployed in Iraq has been continuing a sit-in strike yesterday, for the 5th day in a row, when U.S. troops arrested them for the 2nd time... We appeal to all international organizations, all workers unions and humanitarians to strongly condemn the arrest of our members. [see also http://www.wpiraq.org/english/]

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http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=258

AMERICA’S favourite to become the leader of a new democratic Iraq has moved to distance himself from the US following the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s two sons last week. In an interview with Scotland on Sunday, Dr Adnan Pachachi, acting head of the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council, even indicated that the Iraqi people might take up arms against the Americans were it not for the fact that they were ‘tired’ of war.

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http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=341

...Reports mount of beatings and sometimes deaths of Iraqi civilians at the hands of US soldiers... "It's an embarrassment for us. A lot of this has to do with the war being over, and there being not a lot for us to do and soldiers getting killed and then their friends taking it out on regular civilians," said a US military police officer investigating instances of excessive force.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, vented anger over the army's failure to make a real example of those soldiers doling out their own "Dirty Harry" style of vigilante justice or operating in brutish fashion. "They should do certain things like sting operations and arrest those soldiers like common criminals. A lot of them should be relieved and reassigned. That's not happening," he said. "I've seen at least 20 cases," he added, referring to incidents where soldiers have beaten or robbed civilians at checkpoints.

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http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=324

I couldn't believe my eyes! Is it so easy to torture someone in an Iraq liberated from Saddam? Yet the marks on the body of Al-Mountadhar Fadhel, a young Iraqi student of 23 years old, were so undeniably real... The young man told us that everything had started in the area of the Souk el-bayâaa market. "I had gone there to buy a tape recorder, because in these places you can find less expensive products than in stores," he added... "I was in the process of negotiating the price of the product with a seller" continued Al-Mountadhar, "when an American soldier brutally kicked and overturned the cardboard with everything on top of it."

He pushed me along and then, as I instinctively raised my hands to protect myself, the soldier suddenly threw himself on me, followed by his companions. I tried to protest, but I was hit, my hands were tied and I was pushed towards a vehicle which I was made to enter. As it started to move, my eyes were blindfolded." ...He remembered that, after getting out of the car, he was dragged for several meters before he was taken down a flight of stairs to end up on the ground.

"The only words I kept repeating non-stop were, "I did nothing! Let me go!" Shortly after, I was picked up and my head was shaved. "I had long hair," said Al-Mountadhar with a note of regret in his voice. Next, I was pushed face towards the wall and my hands were tied above my head. When the first blows hit my body, I couldn't stop myself from crying, not so much because of the pain, but because I found all of this so incredibly unjust... It was an eternity. At each blow from what seemed to be a thick cable, I felt my flesh tear. I could hardly hear the words of my torturer, "To teach you to push an American back. Why did you push an American back?" I lost consciousness several times, but each time was revived. It was horrible. I had never thought I would live such an experience outside Saddam's regime."

After the beating, the soldiers kept the young man, covered in wounds and blood, late into the night. In the end, it was past 1:00 a.m. when he was released, or rather thrown into a deserted street near a commercial centre. It was in the middle of curfew, that is, the time when the young man most risked being killed, either by the soldiers themselves, who have a reputation of being trigger happy, or by any of all these forces of evil: bandits, criminals or other networks of gangsters which have flourished in the shadow of the occupation and create terror among the Iraqi population.

"I felt very weak and I had difficulty even getting on to the sidewalk," continued Al-Mountadhar. "All the while, I was calling for help. Finally, a couple of people coming out of a building approached and carried me to the nearest mosque. The brothers helped me, cleaned my wounds and kept me until curfew was lifted, before taking me home."

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http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-07-020037.asp?reg=MIDEAST

LONDON, Aug. 7 — Around 20,000 civilians were wounded in the Iraq war and the U.S.-British occupiers are ignoring their suffering, a research group said on Thursday in what it termed the first study of the conflict's casualty toll... ''A sizeable if as yet unknown proportion of Iraqi families will contain a relative whose life was ended or put on hold by the U.S. or British forces,'' it said in a report seen by Reuters prior to publication on its website, www.iraqbodycount.net. ''Even if only in self-interest, the U.S. and UK administrations should be putting the needs of the injured at the very heart of its strategy to 'win hearts and minds'.''

The report, titled ''Adding Indifference to Injury,'' said the IBC had calculated civilian casualties known so far as between a minimum of 16,439 and maximum 19,733. Incomplete information about casualties meant that the maximum figure was likely to be a closer approximation to the real total and might itself be an under-estimate, it said. The IBC's figures were based on media reports and counting projects from independent investigators up to July 6.

...Twenty thousand injury compensation claims at $10,000 each would cost the occupiers $200 million -- less than the United States spends every two days on the occupation, the group said.

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http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=311

Faced with sporadic attacks, the U.S. Army has come up with some unorthodox policies to placate Fallujah - handing over security to the locals, compensating people for homes damaged in raids and paying blood money to the families of American-inflicted casualties.

...Feuds and blood vendettas are common among the tribes and clans of Fallujah, where the words "honor" and "revenge" are used perhaps more than anywhere in Iraq... The killing by U.S. soldiers of 18 people and the wounding of 78 in Fallujah in April - U.S. officials said the soldiers were fired on first - left a scar on the community so deep that its U.S.-backed mayor realized that only with blood money could the soldiers put an end to the cycle of violence... As of Tuesday, according to local officials, blood money had been paid to 26 families who suffered losses in the April killings: usually $1,500 for a fatality and $500 for an injury. The compensation scheme now includes anyone killed or injured by U.S. soldiers.

The al-Mohammadi family received $2,500 after soldiers killed Ahmed Makhlouf al-Mohammadi, a car mechanic and father of seven, at a checkpoint near his home west of Fallujah. Traveling with three of his daughters, al-Mohammadi spun his car around when he spotted the checkpoint, fearful the soldiers would inappropriately touch his daughters during the search, said his nephew, Hossam al-Mohammadi. He was shot four times in the back of the head, his car overturning several times before it came to rest in a ditch. The girls escaped injury. "Last week, two American armored cars came to our house, soldiers came out and handed us $2,500," Hossam al-Mohammadi said. "The soldiers were very polite."

The military also has begun to compensate Fallujah residents whose property was damaged during raids by U.S. forces searching for weapons, insurgents or former officials of the Saddam regime.

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http://www.occupationwatch.org/article.php?id=385

The families of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed or injured by US forces will not get compensation unless they prove clear-cut negligence or wrongdoing by soldiers, US military officials say. The policy rules out payments for tragic mistakes, such as civilians shot dead at checkpoints, if soldiers believed it was reasonable to fire. And incidents after May 1, when President George Bush declared the end of major fighting, could still be regarded as combat-related and thus ineligible for compensation, the officials said on Sunday.

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http://www.cubalinda.com/English/Groups/TravelChalenge.asp

We at Cubalinda.com are organizing, with the “Freedom to Travel Committee” based in Oakland and New York City, a one-week visit to Cuba from Sunday to Sunday, October 5-12. We believe this is an excellent opportunity for you to learn about this country and to assert your right to travel to whatever country you desire. We call this a “Freedom to Travel Challenge” because participants will be coming in defiance of the unconstitutional U.S. government ban on travel to Cuba. The week’s program is integrated with our “International Workshops for Peace” that are described generally at http://www.cubalinda.com/English/Groups/WorkshopToCuba.asp.

...Our immediate motive for organizing this unlicensed travel challenge is the change in U.S. government regulations announced in March 2003 that eliminated the most important category for legal travel: People to People Educational Trips. Tens of thousands of Americans have visited Cuba legally over the years with licenses under this now-abolished category including university alumni groups, museum supporters, art lovers, students and professors. Our Travel Challenge program continues this category, now without license, by asserting the right of all Americans to get to know Cubans and to interact with them through an educational experience.

...Some of you may also be reluctant to visit Cuba for fear of fines and other retaliation from the current hard-line regime in the White House. We also address this issue with a link at the bottom of the workshops page to Special Information for U.S. Citizens. Here you will find, perhaps surprisingly, that there are very specific ways in which you can avoid a fine for visiting Cuba without special permission, i.e., without a license issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury. Take a look and you will be encouraged.

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http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/32/we_522_03a.html

Unocal is trying its best to get Doe v. Unocal tossed out of California courts. Burmese villagers are suing two of the oil company's subsidiaries, which are located in Bermuda. Unocal is accused of using the Burmese military as security guards for its operations, knowing full well that the Burmese soldiers were raping, pillaging, and enslaving local villagers during the construction of a $1.2 billion Unocal pipeline.

Unocal argues that California courts do not have the jurisdiction to hear the case, and that the laws of Burma (an oppressive dictatorship) or Bermuda (a lovely tax haven) law should apply to the case. Superior Court Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney, however, rejected the idea of applying Myanmar's law... [and] also ruled out Unocal's idea of using Bermuda law.

...The case was brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act [ATCA] of 1789, which allows federal courts to hear "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations," -- which has been interpreted to mean that aliens can sue in US courts for gross abuses of human rights. The law is unsettling multinationals that do business with unscrupulous regimes around the world. Other companies such as Chevron, Shell, and Talisman Energy have cases pending against them for complicity with human rights abuses in developing countries. The alarmed companies seek a reinterpretation of the law, even though to date not a single dollar has been awarded in any ATCA claim against a multinational.

...Katrin Dauenhauer of IPS News reports that... "The administration of President George W. Bush recently has come to the defense of some of the companies sued under the statute, arguing that the lawsuits interfere with foreign policy and that the law has been 'commandeered' to allow cases being heard that had 'no connection whatsoever with the United States.'"

...The [State] Department dramatically changed its interpretation of the two-hundred year-old statute, now insisting that victims of gross abuse cannot sue under the ATCA, even if they could prove that defendants shared responsibility for the abuses, because the claimed abuses occur outside of the United States and a ruling against the corporation would endanger American interests in the war on terror.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-757034,00.html

July 26, 2003 - BAGHDAD’s first public mobile phone service, launched this week, was yesterday ordered to close by Iraq’s governing body because it was set up without an operating licence. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US-led organisation that governs the country, is demanding that the Bahrain phone company Batelco shut down the mobile phone service that it unexpectedly launched on Tuesday. A spokesman for the CPA said last night: “They are acting in breach of our orders. If they don’t shut it down, we will take further measures. We know where their base stations are.” The dispute is an embarrassment for Britain’s Cable & Wireless, which is providing technical support for Batelco.

...Rashid al-Snan, the regional operations manager responsible for the Iraqi venture, conceded that the company does not have a licence, but added: “Nobody has a licence. We were encouraged by calls for the rebuilding in Iraq.”

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http://menareport.com/story/TheNews.php3?action=story&sid=255621&lang=e&dir=mena

Iridium Satellite Israel is supplying Iraq with public telephones worth four to five million dollars. The global satellite voice and data communication provider was authorized last month by the office of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to sell its mobile satellite communications services, subscriber terminals, and related equipment in Iraq.

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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=2003080518273960

Palestinian and Israeli sources announced Tuesday that a meeting between premiers Mahmud Abbas and Ariel Sharon scheduled for Wednesday was cancelled... Sharon on Monday told a defense and foreign affairs committee of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) that Israel has given the Palestinians nothing so far. The Palestinian leadership and government on Monday said that Israel was not “serious” in implementing its commitments stipulated in the US-sponsored “roadmap” peace plan... Sharon’s bureau confirmed late Monday night that the meeting scheduled for Wednesday with Abbas had been cancelled in light of Sunday night’s shooting attack near the “Har Gilo” settlement, in which four illegal Israeli settlers were wounded... Abbas’ office also announced that the meeting with Sharon had been cancelled, due to what it regarded as limited good-will gestures from Israel, especially concerning the release of Palestinian detainees.

...The Israeli announcement that the IOF plan to release only 342 Palestinian detainees out of at least 8,000 angered the Palestinians and was described by [elected] President Arafat as a “fraud... They have detained more than 800 recently, including 239 in Hebron only,” Arafat announced. "Is this the implementation of the roadmap? Are they deceiving nations?” he angrily asked.

...Palestinian officials noted that 31 detainees were to have completed their sentences this month anyway, and that Israeli officials said earlier 540 would be freed, but they decreased the number to 342. On Monday, the Israeli government published a list of 342 “security prisoners” it plans to free. Also, Israel plans to release 97 Palestinians jailed for criminal offenses... No women were included in the list, which was published at the Prison Service website (http://www.ips.gov.il.) , Ha’aretz noted. IOF detain at least 73 women activists and more than 360 Palestinian children, according to Palestinian sources.

...Separately Monday, Israeli “Defense” Minister Shaul Mofaz fueled Palestinian anger further by announcing that Israel would not hand over control of any more towns until the Palestinians apprehend the gunmen who ambushed an Israeli car near Jerusalem on Sunday, badly wounding a Jewish family of illegal settlers.

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http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1789.shtml

4 August 2003 -- Defence for Children International/Palestine Section believes that there are only 13 child prisoners' names on the list of 344 Palestinian political prisoners due for release by the Israeli government this week as part of the roadmap to peace process... Around 350 Palestinian children will remain in Israeli prisons and detention centres... The situation is all the more pressing because of the deteriorating conditions in various Israeli prisons and detention centres. A lack of adequate food and water, a shortage of adequate clothing, the prohibition of family visits, arbitrary cruelty and inhumane treatment are daily trials faced by the children being held in these facilities.

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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030806192606573

WEST BANK - Hours before releasing some 340 Palestinian detainees, a number far below the expectations of the Palestinian people under the internationally-back roadmap, Israeli occupation forces stormed the West Bank town of Ariha (Jericho) and arrested 18 Palestinian security officers.

...Butheina Dukmak, a lawyer from the Mandela Institute which deals with Palestinian prisoners issues, said that some 70 percent of those being released Wednesday had in any case been due to be freed by the end of the year.

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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030805174612273

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning income tax cuts for the illegal settlers of around 60 settlements and outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Maariv daily reported on Monday. The Israeli newspaper, quoted by Reuters, said the plan would be presented to the Israeli cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon soon. The daily said the former prime minister Netanyahu planned to give income tax reductions of 13 percent to settlements defined as "under threat of terror attack,” in return for the support of the right-wing National Union party in passing the economic cuts package in May, the paper said.

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http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030806190804115

GENEVA - The United Nations development agency has called for immediate action to address the needs of Palestinian communities affected by Israel's Separation Wall, launching an appeal for $18 million in emergency assistance to address job needs and improve vital social, municipal and agricultural infrastructure requirements. The proposals, by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian people, seek to generate over 200,000 employment opportunities and includes land reclamation projects, new agricultural roads and improved water infrastructure... "Immediate action is required to meet the needs of those affected by the construction of this barrier," Timothy Rothermel, the Special Representative of UNDP in Jerusalem, said.

...Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today warmly welcomed news that the United States will pledge up to $26 million for that agency's current emergency appeal... But the agency, set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees, warned that it remained concerned about under-funding of its appeals, with $102.9 million required for the current six-month period ending this December.

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http://www.aaiusa.org/pr/release07-25-03.htm

The Arab American Institute (AAI) and Americans for Peace Now (APN) today [july 25, 2003] released the results of a survey of Arab American and Jewish American opinion about the Bush Administration’s Middle East policies and Israeli-Palestinian peace process issues... The latest survey was conducted by Zogby International in late June through early July 2003. The Jewish American segment was completed on July 6, 2003 and totaled 503 respondents. The Arab American segment was completed on July 9, 2003 and totaled 500 respondents. In both cases, the margin of error was +/- 4.5%.

...Jewish Americans and Arab Americans both voiced strong support for the Road Map to Middle East peace as laid out by the Bush Administration. 71% of American Jews either strongly or somewhat support the Road Map, just as 73.8% of Arab Americans either strongly or somewhat support the Road Map.

...A significant majority of Jewish Americans (70.6%) either strongly or somewhat supports a settlement expansion freeze, with a plurality (45.7%) strongly backing such a freeze. Only 20.8% somewhat or strongly oppose a settlement freeze.

...When asked their level of support or opposition to Israel ending its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a majority of American Jews (58.5%) said they either strongly or somewhat support an end to the occupation, 29.1% said they either somewhat or strongly oppose ending it... In the Arab American community, the majority of those polled (83.6%) said they either strongly or somewhat support ending Israeli occupation.

...The survey asked respondents about their support or opposition to a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, roughly along the lines of where the parties ended their last formal negotiations in Taba, Egypt: the establishment of an independent, secure Palestinian state alongside an independent, secure Israeli state, the evacuation of most settlements from the West Bank and Gaza, the establishment of a border roughly along the June 4, 1967 border, a Palestinian right of return only to inside a new Palestinian state, and establishing Jerusalem as the shared capital of both countries.

Among Jewish Americans, 59.2% expressed support for such an arrangement, [and] 31% did not support it... Among Arab Americans, 85.2% said they support this kind of plan, [and] 6.1% do not support it.

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http://truthout.org/docs_03/080603J.shtml

Signed into law on August 6th 1965, the Voting Rights Act was enacted to ensure the rights of African Americans... The resolution empowered the federal government to oversee voter registration and elections in counties that had used tests to determine voter eligibility or where registration or turnout had been less that 50 percent in the 1964 presidential election. Since then, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been extended three times - in 1970, 1975, and 1982. Changes include increasing the Act's scope to cover non-English speaking minorities such as Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and other minority groups. It has also been used to examine and challenge election formats that dilute minority votes and have a discriminatory effect.

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http://www.ecotalk.org/SERVEaccenture.htm

7/16/03 - Last year, while President Bush marshaled U.S. forces for the invasion of Iraq, the patriots at the Department of Defense awarded the contract for a new online voting system for the military... to an offshore company. It gets worse. Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) is the system and Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting of Arthur Andersen/Enron bankruptcy fame) is the company.

...This is hot off the newswire -- 7/15/03 "NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Accenture Ltd., the former Andersen Consulting, disclosed Tuesday that it might have violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Chairman and CEO Joe Forehand, on an earnings call with analysts and reporters Tuesday, said the consulting firm's Middle East operations could be in non-compliance with the Act, which prohibits the bribery of foreign government officials by U.S. persons."

...Accenture is the leading offshore beneficiary of government contracts whose main business is the privatization of government services, according to Lee Drutman of Citizen Works, a non-profit founded by Ralph Nader.

...According to an article last year in TheDailyEnron.com, "Accenture is lobbying furiously on Capitol Hill to defeat a measure that would deny federal contracts to US companies that move offshore to escape US taxes. Accenture, you see, has incorporated in Bermuda. But, Accenture also holds nearly $1 billion in government contracts in the US. The company earned nearly $700 million last year working for Uncle Sam and - ironically - is currently under contract with the Internal Revenue Service itself to redesign its online and Internet operations."

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not your dad's welfare state

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=12&u=/ap/20030805/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/taxes_working_poor

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that 25,000 low-income earners will be asked to bolster their tax returns with proof that they qualify for a tax credit designed to lift the working poor out of poverty. The new forms will go to families chosen for the pilot program who have at least one child and receive the earned income tax credit... The families will be asked to prove they cared for a child more than half the year... The forms will be mailed later this year, and taxpayers will have to submit them to the IRS when they file their 2003 returns early next year.

..."We must ensure those who qualify receive the credit they are due — but only those who qualify," said IRS Commissioner Mark Everson... The IRS has not settled other questions raised about how taxpayers could prove they qualify for the benefit and who could vouch for them. In particular, the IRS has not settled whether neighbors and relatives can testify that an earned income recipient cared for a child for more than half the tax year.

...Some critics said the program singled out low-income taxpayers for a higher standard of proof than high-income taxpayers, with no evidence that poor families cheat on their taxes more often. The complicated and possibly intimidating letters from IRS agents may deter eligible families from claiming the credit, others said.

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don't it always seem to go

http://www.unknownnews.net/0807-6.html

Associated Press - Aug. 6, 2003 - PHILADELPHIA — In 19 years of using his security clearance to sweep floors at a plant owned by defense contractor Lockheed Martin, janitor Michael Lynch has done nothing to arouse suspicion. Co-workers and bosses speak glowingly of Lynch, a brain-tumor survivor who's active in his church, building homes for poor people in Maine and West Virginia. But because he and his family have struggled financially, the government now sees him as a threat to national security. Defense Department officials believe the janitor may be tempted to sell government secrets to get out of debt. Last month, they asked a judge to revoke Lynch's security clearance.

Lynch, who considers himself a patriotic American... asked Administrative Judge James A. Young to allow Lynch to keep his clearance. A decision is expected by Labor Day... Lockheed has promised Lynch a job even if he loses the clearance... The Defense Department didn't respond to a request for comment.

...Lynch's troubles began shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, when an official reviewing Lynch's security clearance began raising questions about a 1993 bankruptcy, an unpaid tax bill and some discrepancies on paperwork that Lynch filled out in 1999. By January of this year, the department had concluded that Lynch, who makes $16.85 an hour sweeping floors at Lockheed's plant in Moorestown, N.J., was a threat and moved to revoke his clearance. Defense Department policy states that "an individual who is financially overextended is at risk of having to engage in illegal acts to generate funds." The policy says that a history of financial trouble and an "inability or unwillingness to satisfy debts" are among factors that could raise security concerns.

...Lynch, a former cabinet maker, was out of work for three years after surgery in 1981 to remove a brain tumor. When he was well enough, he got a job at the radar and missile guidance systems plant, then owned by RCA but later acquired by Lockheed Martin. The Lynches ran into severe financial problems in the early 1990s after his wife, Kay, stopped working to help their blind daughter, Christy, with her studies. The family couldn't make ends meet on Michael Lynch's wages and declared bankruptcy. Kay Lynch eventually went back to work, but quit again after Christy was accepted to Temple University's music program. Again finding themselves short of money, the Lynches decided to pay their daughter's tuition instead of city wage taxes, which Lockheed did not deduct from Michael Lynch's paycheck. Katz acknowledged the decision was a bad one. But he said the family has since paid $7,000 toward their tax bill — most of what they owe. [et cetera]

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http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8525

If politics abhors a vacuum, why hasn't some opportunistic, talented politician burst forth with an agenda aimed squarely at igniting the passions of young people? In 2000, less than one out of three eligible voters between the ages of 18 to 24 bothered to vote. People aged 25 to 34 were scarcely more involved. All told, approximately 39 million out of the 63 million Americans in those two age brackets failed to exercise their franchise. Had they turned out, the total youth vote would have outnumbered the 61 million votes cast by people over the age of 45.

...It's not hard to imagine what a youth-oriented agenda might include: an end to the War on Drugs, or at least the repeal of mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and greater emphasis on treatment over punishment; free college education for everyone maintaining a B average or better, plus greater investment in literacy, arts education and alternative ways of earning a high school diploma; a ban on racial profiling; real sex education in the schools and an end to the hypocritical prudery that counsels "just say no" and condemns many uninformed young people to AIDS and other STDs; a one-year universal national service obligation for 18 to 24-year-olds; funding individual trust accounts of between $1,000 and $10,000 (depending on family means) created at birth and drawable after the completion of national service; political reforms that open up the system to more diverse voices, like public financing of races and instant-runoff voting; and lowering the voting age to 16, the same age where most states will treat a minor as an adult for the purposes of criminal prosecutions. Add some visionary goals to the mix -- reverse global warming within 10 years, stop the AIDS epidemic in its tracks -- and there's no doubt that younger Americans would stand up and pay attention.

... With both Democrats and Naderites running away from popular culture in recent years, Republicans have done all sorts of things to step into the gap -- funding college groups, hanging with icons like U2's Bono and MTV star Ozzy Osbourne, hyping their supposed support for the military (while shortchanging soldiers on pay) and building a stable of youthful TV personalities to sell their party. But... I find it hard to believe that a majority of young people will identify for long with the party of intolerance, inequality and greed...If the Democratic Left can't get hip to that, they will stay in the political wilderness, and deservedly so.

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http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030804&s=featherstone

Protests against Bush's war on Iraq drew more students than any other recent protest movement, and they were younger, more working-class and more racially and geographically diverse. Now it looks as if that protest energy may provide momentum for the 2004 elections. The enthusiastic volunteerism of right-wing students played a significant role in electing George W. Bush. It stands to reason, then, that progressive students, if equally savvy, could help toss him out.

...A survey of young people conducted for MTV by Peter D. Hart Research Associates found that one out of every twelve respondents had attended an antiwar protest--and many more said the war had affected their voting plans. Fifty-three percent of those eligible to vote planned to pull the lever in 2004, a dramatic increase over recent past elections. "We're poised to see the highest [youth] participation yet," says Jehmu Greene, executive director of Rock the Vote... Though Rock the Vote took no position on the war, the organization views antiwar sentiment and the economy as the two most powerful vehicles for increasing youth voter participation this election cycle.

...Activists with the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), which coordinated antiwar protests on hundreds of campuses this past spring, are working to mold that sentiment into an antiwar voting bloc... Bush's aggressive warmongering and perilous mishandling of the economy have undoubtedly drawn many young people into electoral politics. But as much as they want to defeat Bush, most are not willing to support a prowar Democrat... Many young peace activists remain unimpressed by the pool of candidates and will be tough to recruit into electoral work. To them, participating in the Democratic Party is a distraction from building a long-term alternative to what Ralph Nader called the "Republicrats"--or building a mass movement that could make such an alternative viable.

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speaking of the youth

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994032

The pall of smoke and dust that hung over Manhattan after the September 11 terrorist attack on New York appears to have caused pregnant women in the vicinity to bear small babies, according to a new study by US researchers.

...The terrorist atrocity released a chemical cocktail of soot, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, pulverised glass and cement, and alkaline particulates into the lower Manhattan skies, says the team. As well as particulate matter, such as soot, PAHs may be particularly significant, they say. PAHs are known to bind to DNA.

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http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030721&s=vest

Though the Republican Party prides itself on being a champion of state sovereignty, one need only mention phrases like "medical marijuana" or "drug law reform" to see how quickly the Administration of George W. Bush becomes hostile to the notion of the autonomy of states. The latest--and perhaps most egregious--example of this enmity is about to become manifest via a new appointment: that of veteran Justice Department official Karen Tandy, soon to be new chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Already approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee after an all but unnoticed, if not farcical, confirmation hearing late last month, the Administration evidently hopes Tandy's nomination will next clear the full Senate with as little attention or debate as possible... Veteran defense attorneys who have tangled with Tandy... marvel at the lack of scrutiny her nomination has received, both in the press and on Capitol Hill.

[For example,]... While negotiating a 1982 plea agreement in the Eastern District of Virginia with Michael Harvey, a first-time drug offender, Tandy changed the agreement's wording--without informing Harvey, his lawyer or the court of the change--in a way that successfully set Harvey up for another arrest, prosecution and conviction in a South Carolina federal court upon completion of his plea-bargained Virginia sentence. An appeals court later vacated Harvey's second sentence, finding Tandy's actions disingenuous.

...According to material submitted to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 1988, Tandy failed to turn over exculpatory evidence in the 1987 prosecution for cocaine distribution of Alfredo Arroyo. Though the allegedly withheld materials ultimately proved unnecessary--a jury acquitted Arroyo after concluding that he had been entrapped-- [the] defense attorney... [contacted] NACDL's Government Misconduct Committee, asking for advice on what action, if any, might be initiated against Tandy. Failing to receive any guidance from the committee, Zwerling reluctantly let the matter lie.

Despite an overall lack of evidence in a 1994 case against John Wheeler, a North Carolina small-businessman, Tandy ordered Wheeler's business and property seized... Joshua Treem, Wheeler's attorney, [says,] "After two years of litigation, the government dismissed all the charges pending against Johnny. They had no evidence whatsoever. It was so bad that when they submitted the dismissal letter, the judge interlineated on the order, dismissing the charges with prejudice." ...Drug-policy observers expect Tandy's DEA to use current asset forfeiture law as expansively as possible.

...So far, only Senator Richard Durbin has gone on record as opposed to Tandy's nomination; in response to his written queries, not only did Tandy demonstrate ignorance of key policy studies but she "didn't back off an inch," as Durbin put it, from the view that the DEA should proceed apace with medical marijuana raids.

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more health news

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/06/politics/06DRUG.html?ex=1061169001&ei=1&en=743e2d73464855fe

The Bush administration will soon propose significant cuts in Medicare payments for cancer drugs... The officials said they would also propose a modest increase in payments to doctors who give the drugs to patients in their offices. But, government documents show, the increased payments for medical services would be dwarfed by the cuts in payments to doctors for the drugs they buy.

In an interview tonight [august 5th], Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said, "It is abundantly clear, from many studies and Congressional hearings, that we are significantly overpaying for outpatient drugs under Medicare."

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http://64.4.26.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=174f77c136cd33a110a1aa03063bd66f&lat=1060277263&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2einfectiousdiseasenews%2ecom%2f200307%2fsars%2easp

So far what the world knows is that containment of the SARS virus halts spread. As Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, director of the CDC, said recently during a telebriefing, “We continue to be on the alert for cases of SARS. We have learned over and over again that it is only a missed case that can initiate yet another cascade of transmission." ...SARS-CoV [severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus] has been responsible for more than 8,400 cases and more than 800 deaths globally.

...Scientists now know exactly what this mysterious and deadly pathogen is — a close relative to the common cold. SARS is the newest member of the corona family of viruses, a strain that jumped species from animal to humans, presumably in the markets of Guangdong Province, China.

...John Jernigan, MD, MS, co-leader of the Clinical and Infection Control SARS Investigation Team of the National Center for Infectious Diseases and the CDC... said that researchers around the world concluded, “that it is a completely novel — heretofore not described — coronavirus.” When compared with a biogenetic picture of the three known human coronaviruses, Jernigan said, “you can see it is different — it is not related at all — so this is a novel pathogen.”

Not only is SARS coming from novel sources, it is following a unique epidemiological pattern as well. Researchers continue to be baffled by the precipitous rise in viral loads late in the disease course. “The problem is the amount of the virus we are finding in the first few days of the disease seems to be lower than later in the disease. This obviously is different to most other infections like flu or RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), where you have maximal viral load at the onset of the disease,” said J.S. Malik Peiris, DPhil, MD, professor in the department of microbiology at the University of Hong Kong... He added that “transmission would be more likely in the later phase of the illness than very early on.

...What can the world expect from the SARS pathogen now that travel restrictions to “hot spots” have been lifted? Will it disappear, will it be back? In the opinion of Turner of the University of Virginia, the most likely scenario is that since the virus has now been introduced to humankind, it will “establish some sort of an epidemic pattern that occurs at some interval. For instance we know that with the other coronaviruses, there are these fluctuations in incidence that occur with seasons. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that turned out to be the case at some point with SARS.”

..."It is impossible to say anything specifically about SARS and you have to go with the experience that we have with other coronaviruses or with other respiratory pathogens. What we know from the other coronaviruses... [is that] immunity to those viruses is incomplete,” said Turner. “So, if you are infected with one of those viruses you make antibody that may be protective for some length of time against the exact same virus, but it may not provide immunity even against viruses of the same serotype. So I think that based on what we know about the other coronaviruses, if SARS behaves in the same way, it is not clear that vaccine approaches are going to be extremely effective,” said Turner, who has spent much of his career researching coronavirus.

...There is little doubt among the medical community that the animal reservoir makes the likelihood of SARS-CoV returning in the fall as sure as taxes in April. There is also no hope for an ironclad treatment or vaccine, only treatment of individual symptoms... But first and foremost stringent infection control against spread is important. The key will be in prevention.

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http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=aug5steins-cards08052003

A Yukon artist has been censored by eBay for making fun of the Bush administration. Dawson City artist John Steins has been ordered off the popular auction Web site for mocking Bush and other U.S. leaders in a series of hand-painted drawings. Steins' art project is a parody of the "most wanted" deck of playing cards issued in the Iraqi war. "George Bush is the ace of spades and (U.S. Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld is the queen of spades and so far down the line," Steins says... Since being forced off eBay, Steins has found another Internet outlet for his art. He owns the domain name, "thebushadministration.com" where he's posted the images for sale.

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/06/candidate.coleman/

(CNN) -- Gary Coleman, child star of the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," has placed his name among a host of other celebrities in the running for California governor... He had no trouble getting the necessary 65 petition signatures from Independent voters in Alameda County, which he gathered at a recent Oakland A's baseball game.

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http://www.internetweekly.org/photo_cartoons/cartoon_schwarzenegger.html

Hollywood (IWR Satire) - Arnold Schwarzenegger failed a DNA test required for all potential candidates planning on running for governor in the State of California. California state qualifications for governorship require that all candidates be a member of the human race or Homo sapiens sapiens. However, DNA tests ran at Cal Tech University on a saliva swab from Mr. Schwarzenegger prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the "Terminator" actor is actually a member of Homo sapiens neandertalensis. This Neanderthal subspecies was thought to be extinct for over 20,000 years.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, who announced his candidacy on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, refused to answer reporters questions. Although these test results rule out a run in California, Mr. Schwarzenegger is still qualified to run for governor in the State of Texas.

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http://www.internetweekly.org/photo_cartoons/cartoon_kim_jong_governor.html

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- With the slogan, "a vote for Kim is a vote for Him," North Korea's Kim Jong Il threw his hat in the ring for governor in California's recall election as a Republican candidate. If elected, Kim Jong Il said, he would erase the state's budget deficit by threatening California's creditors with nuclear annihilation.