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

http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031008160508.k7if2xuk.html

An Israeli air force general who signed a petition refusing to take part in strikes in the Palestinian territories has been dismissed from his position as an instructor, Israeli media reported Wednesday. Reserve Brigadier General Yiftah Spector was sacked from his post at the air force training academy by air force commander General Dan Halutz after refusing to retract his views, the reports said.

Spector was the most senior of the 27 pilots who signed the petition last month in which they said they no longer wanted "to obey illegal and immoral orders" and they refused "to take part in aerial raids against populated civilian centers" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031007123002.kfxn919w.html

Israeli politicians and commentators questioned Tuesday the logic of the weekend air strike on Syria... Ofir Pines, general secretary of the left-wing opposition Labour party, voiced fears that the raid on a suspected training camp for Palestinian militants northwest of Damascus would further inflame a volatile situation... [and] an editorial in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot said the attack early Sunday had achieved the opposite of its objective... Dan Margalit, a columnist for the Maariv daily, said that while Syria was a "terrorist state", it had no connection to the attack in Haifa. "The bombardment of the empty Islamic Jihad training camp north of Damascus is a harmful joke by a helpless government," he wrote... The liberal Haaretz daily also took Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to task over the strike.

...Effie Eitam, housing minister in Sharon's coalition and leader of the ultra-right wing National Religious Party, said the attack on Syria had "missed its target" and Israel would have been better off if it had struck at the Palestinian leadership.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/347963.html

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon levelled harsh criticism at the Labor Party and the Israeli left wing Wednesday evening, accusing them of collaborating with the Palestinians in an effort to topple the government.

...Labor Chairman MK Shimon Peres refused to discuss Sharon's comments. At an earlier election gathering in Ashkelon, Peres said "Sharon does not want a unity government. He is very comfortable in this government that is unable to move one millimeter to the right or one millimeter to the left, and is unable to make any decisions."

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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/26A6F805-EDCB-4A67-8547-2A3B607C2562.htm

Israeli occupation troops have stormed the West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp. Soldiers invaded the city early on Tuesday, slapping a blanket curfew on the population for the third consecutive day, reported our correspondent. Occupation forces raided civilian homes, particularly near Haifa bomber Hanadi Jaradat’s house.

...Israel has declared an "all out war" against resistance activists spearheading the Intifada against its occupation.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/347941.html

As part of its war against Islamic terror groups, the Israel Defense Forces is reverting to an earlier tactic - the expulsion of terrorists' family members and accomplices from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.

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http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031009082725.9l6x9y2u.html

Four Israeli army reserve units are to be deployed to the West Bank and Gaza Strip from October 22 as part of a host of security measures to foil feared attacks by Palestinian militants, Israeli radio said.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1058298,00.html

Yasser Arafat has suffered a mild heart attack but the Palestinian leadership has sought to keep his health problems secret for fear it will "create panic".

The 74-year-old Palestinian president, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, disappeared from public view last week and re-emerged at the weekend looking extremely ill. His face was pale and pinched, he had lost weight and he was almost inaudible. He had trouble standing for more than a few minutes at a time.

...Israeli officials say the Palestinian president's health is not a factor as the government considers whether or not to carry out its threat to exile, or even kill, Mr Arafat. "It would be very convenient if nature were to take its course," said an Israeli foreign ministry official, Jonathan Peled.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=451009

A frail-looking Yasser Arafat swore in Ahmed Qurei's eight-man emergency government in his besieged Ramallah headquarters yesterday, but the new Prime Minister immediately ran into trouble. Only six ministers took the oath. Nasr Yousef, the Interior Minister, boycotted the ceremony along with Jawad Tibi, the Health Minister.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/347223.html

While former president Bill Clinton was trying to broker an elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the FBI was secretly funneling money to suspected Hamas figures to see if the militant group would use it for terrorist attacks, according to interviews and court documents. The counter-terrorism operation in 1998 and 1999 was run out of the FBI's Phoenix office in cooperation with Israeli intelligence and was approved by Attorney General Janet Reno, FBI officials told The Associated Press.

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http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2003/october/10_09_3.html

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's military has launched a build-up along the borders with Lebanon and Syria. Israel's military has sent an additional artillery battery and summoned three battalions for the build-up in the north. The build-up was said to have been the largest in the area since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000.

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http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/08/1065601914188.html

Syria's ambassador to Spain said yesterday that Syria would respond militarily if Israel continued to carry out attacks in its territory, as Israel released a map claiming to pinpoint the homes and offices of militants in Damascus. The ambassador, Mohsen Bilal, said: "If Israel attacks Syria one, two and three times, of course the people of Syria and the Government of Syria and the army will react to defend ourselves."

The Israeli Army said on Tuesday its map was intended to illustrate the extent of the "Terror Network in the Damascus Region". It came as the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said Israel would attack its enemies "any place, and in any way".

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55781-2003Oct7?language=printer

President Bush on Tuesday said that Israel's air strike in Syria was part of an "essential" campaign to defend the country, and drew a parallel between U.S. policy on terrorism and the actions being taken by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1058384,00.html

A bill to impose new economic sanctions on Syria will begin its passage through the US Congress today after the Bush administration gave the measures a green light... Congressional staffers said the sanctions would sail through the House of Representatives this week, and would probably be passed by the Senate too, unless the administration changed its mind.

...If passed, the Syria accountability law would impose a ban on the export of "dual-use" technology to Syria and authorise President Bush to choose from a menu of further sanctions, including curbs on US businesses in Syria, and a freezing of Syrian assets in the US.

The bill will be voted on today by the House of Representatives international relations committee and will then go to the floor of the house within days for a full vote.

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

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/07/1065292586158.html

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, once a devoted and energetic champion of Arab unity, announced this weekend his definitive separation from the Arabs, whom he heavily criticised. Standing before a group of women, in a Mediterranean villa in Syrte about 500 kilometres east of Tripoli, Gaddafi declared himself more than ever African, claiming to be "forever beyond nationalism and Arab unity."

..."Libya has for too long endured the Arabs, for whom we have paid blood and money," he said, adding that as a result, his country had been "boycotted by the US and demonised by the West." "In return, the Arabs joined forces with the US and Israel against Libya," he continued, as he confirmed his African orientation, viewing the continent as "a source of great force" for his country... And once more the top Libyan put his faith in women, deeming them "better than men and more capable." Gaddafi, who travels with a female security detail, called on Libyan women on October 1 to train themselves against "the enemy," and to be inspired by the women of Africa.

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http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_962907.htm

A rift is growing between Iraq's interim government and the United States-led coalition over the deployment of Turkish troops to Iraq. Meetings with US overseer, Paul Bremer, and the Turkish ambassador to Iraq have not resulted in any compromise, with the Americans even preventing the release of a council statement denouncing the Turkish deployment.

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http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031008162557.vt5auudo.html

ANKARA (AFP) Oct 08, 2003

A [Turkish] state-run consultative human rights body on Wednesday called on the Turkish government not to send troops to Iraq and take part in the occupation of its war-torn neighbour. "Turkey should contribute to peace and human rights not by joining the illegitimate occupation of Iraq but by refusing to join it," said a statement from the Human Rights Advisory Board, overseen by the prime minister's office.

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http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031008155500.rquxukop.html

ISTANBUL (AFP) Oct 08, 2003 Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Turkey Wednesday to denounce the government's controversial decision to send troops to Iraq, with police detaining some 60 Kurdish activists. In Istanbul, protestors chained themselves to the wire fencing of an American high school and shouted "We will not allow our soldiers to be killed" and "We will not be soldiers for the US."

...About 500 people attended a separate demonstration on Taksim central square and a third rally was held outside the offices of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the capital Ankara, dozens of members of trade unions, political parties and civic groups gathered in front of the parliament

..."Turkey has been dragged by the 8.5-billion-dollar carrot," opposition MP Haluk Koc, who joined the demonstrators, said in reference to the 8.5 billion dollars (7.2 billion euros) that Washington agreed to loan Ankara last month in return for its "cooperation" in Iraq. "Don't send our sons to the Iraqi hell. Don't make them shields for American soldiers," protestors chanted in the northern city of Trabzon, the news agency reported... Recent opinion polls indicate that some 70 percent of the Turkish population is against sending troops to Iraq. But the government has ignored public opposition.

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http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1116152003

IRAQI Kurds who helped US forces topple Saddam Hussein are threatening to turn their guns against their old enemy, Turkey, if Ankara sends troops to Iraq a Washington’s request.

...The Turkish parliament’s decision on Tuesday to authorise the sending of Turkish peacekeepers... upset many Iraqis because of the legacy of 400 years of Turkish colonial domination of what is now Iraq. Opposition to the Turks runs deepest in the north, where Iraq’s minority Kurds have watched ethnic cousins across the border in south-eastern Turkey wage an on-off separatist guerrilla war in recent decades, in part from bases in northern Iraq.

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http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3573107

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 2,000 Shi'ite protesters confronted hundreds of U.S. troops at a Baghdad mosque on Tuesday, demanding the release of a cleric they said was arrested by the Americans. U.S. soldiers in riot gear surrounded the protesters on Tuesday evening and told them to leave the area. But most American troops later withdrew and hundreds of Shi'ites were preparing to spend the night at the mosque in southern Baghdad.Earlier, troops fired in the air and swooped low over the area in helicopters in an effort to make the Shi'ites leave. They arrested more than 20 protesters but almost all were later released. A major highway in Baghdad was blocked by the protest.

At least one Iraqi was injured during the confrontations, hit by a U.S. vehicle. Ameed Khalid Khateeb, his face severely bruised, said he was dragged away from the protest and beaten by American soldiers. "They hit me across the face and back with rifle butts. When we tried to pray they refused to let us," he said. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

Protesters had gathered in the morning at the Ali al-Bayaa mosque in Baghdad's southwestern Bayaa district, waving banners saying "America = Saddam" and "What is this freedom?." They said a local cleric, identified as Sheikh Muayad Khazraji, was arrested by the American military. "The Americans asked me to set up a meeting for them with the sheikh at the mosque," said Saadi Reda, a local official. "When we arrived they took away the sheikh and another Shi'ite. They put plastic bags on their heads and drove them away."

Local leaders said the U.S. military told them that Sheikh Khazraji and Abdel Jalil al-Shimli, who also worked in the mosque, were accused of storing arms and calling on Iraqis to oppose the U.S.-led occupation.

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http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031006-113325-5591r

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Unexplained blood clots are among the reasons a number of U.S. soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom have died from sudden illnesses, an investigation by United Press International has found. In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes.

A disturbing parallel has also surfaced: soldiers becoming ill or dying from similar ailments in the United States. In some cases, the soldiers, their families and civilian doctors blame vaccines given to them by the military, particularly the anthrax or smallpox shots. Some of the soldiers who died suddenly had complained about symptoms suffered by Bloom -- including pain in the legs that could indicate problems with blood clots.

"If there is a significant number of deaths of this type, it would make you wonder what was going on," said Rose Hobby, whose brother-in-law, Army Spc. William Jeffries, died of a massive lung blood clot and swelling of his pancreas on March 31 after being evacuated from Kuwait... UPI's investigation found 17 soldiers who died of sudden illnesses.

Families say they are bewildered by the deaths. "Bill just dropped. They thought he had been shot. That is how suddenly it happened," said Rose Hobby, the woman whose 39-year-old brother-in-law William Jeffries collapsed in Kuwait. After being evacuated from Kuwait to Rota, Spain, he was in intensive care for a week before dying, Hobby said in a telephone interview from Evansville, Ind. A doctor in Spain said Jeffries had "the largest pulmonary embolism he had ever seen," Hobby said. Jeffries also had a swelling of the pancreas, often caused by heavy drinking or some drugs. Jeffries was not a drinker, Hobby said. Jeffries was back in the United States just days before his death to attend his own father's funeral. He had a scab on his arm from his recent smallpox vaccination. Hobby said she does not know if he got anthrax shots also, like most soldiers in the region.

Patrick Ivory arrived in Germany Aug. 16 to see his 26-year-old son, Army Spc. Craig S. Ivory, before he died. By then, Craig Ivory was already brain dead from a blood clot that hit his brain on Aug. 11. [and so on.]

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1057558,00.html

The test tube of botulinum presented by Washington and London as evidence that Saddam Hussein had been developing and concealing weapons of mass destruction, was found in an Iraqi scientist's home refrigerator, where it had been sitting for 10 years, it emerged yesterday.

David Kay, the expert appointed by the CIA to lead the hunt for weapons, told a congressional committee last week that the vial of botulinum had been "hidden" at the scientist's home, and could be used to "covertly surge production of deadly weapons".

Since then, the discovery of the vial has been at the heart of the debate over prewar claims that Iraq had an arsenal of banned weapons. It was cited in justifications of the invasion by President George Bush and by Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who described botulinum toxin as "15,000 times more toxic than the nerve agent VX".

Mr Straw claimed after the report came out that it presented further "conclusive and incontrovertible" evidence that Saddam had been in breach of UN resolutions. He said the report confirmed how "dangerous and deceitful" the regime was and that the military action was "both justified and essential to remove the dangers".

The US state department even argued that the discovery of the test tube meant that Mr Kay's Iraq Survey Group (ISG), contrary to its own claim, had found a weapon of mass destruction.

...It is also unclear whether the vial contained the bacteria botulinum, from which the toxin is drawn, or the toxin itself, as Mr Kay claimed in interviews over the weekend. Furthermore, the most lethal form of the germ is the A strain, while the form found by the ISG was the B strain.

Mr Kay admitted that "we have not yet found shiny, pointy things that I would call a weapon", but he insisted there was plenty of evidence of Saddam's intentions... More evidence of such programmes was included in a 200-page classified version of the 13-page report made public, but experts in the ISG, including former UN inspectors, have so far not been allowed to read the classified version, according to one of their former colleagues.

The refusal to allow ISG experts to read a report on their own work adds weight to suspicions that the report has been manipulated. "They're under huge pressure to come up with whatever," the ex-colleague said. Mr Kay has said privately the report's publication was held up for about two weeks while more work was done on it at CIA headquarters.

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http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1117492003

GEORGE Bush launched a major offensive yesterday to tackle growing doubts about his administration’s handling of post-war Iraq. Mr Bush is spearheading the fightback to convince Americans that solid progress is being made in the war against terror, despite near daily reports of US casualties and setbacks in Iraq.

The White House initiative began yesterday with a key speech by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, whom the president this week appointed as head of the Iraq Stabilisation Group set up to reconstruct the country. Ms Rice told a foreign policy forum that the team led by the chief US weapons hunter, David Kay, "is finding proof that Iraq never disarmed and never complied with UN inspectors".

...Mr Bush will use appearances in New Hampshire to talk about the US economy and Iraq six months after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, will take on critics of Bush’s Iraq policy in a speech tomorrow in Washington. White House officials said the offensive will include high-profile trips to Iraq by cabinet secretaries to highlight areas of progress, such as the re-opening of schools.

The United States is also overhauling its media operation in Iraq.

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http://www.adn.com/24hour/iraq/story/1014595p-7124512c.html

The War on Terrorism has its own dehumanizing name: "hajji. " That's what many U.S. troops across Iraq and in coalition bases in Kuwait now call anyone from the Middle East or South Asia. Soldiers who served in Afghanistan say it also is used there. Among Muslims, the word is used mainly as a title of respect. It means "one who has made the hajj ," the pilgrimage to Mecca.

That's not how soldiers use it. Some talk about "killing some hajjis" or "mowing down some hajjis." One soldier in Iraq inked "Hodgie Killer" onto his footlocker. Iraqis, friend or foe, are called hajjis. Kuwaitis are called hajjis. Even people brought in by civilian contractors to work in mess halls or drive buses are hajjis - despite the fact that they might be from India, the Philippines or Pakistan, and might be Hindu or Christian. The souvenir stands found on even the smallest U.S. bases in the Middle East and run by locals are called hajji shops. A cluster of small businesses inside a larger base is "Hajji Town."

...A spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Baghdad said Monday that the term was troubling but that there had been no official order to stop its use... Centcom has a new policy, the soldier said, of not allowing press spokesmen to identify themselves in the media.

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http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/7316.htm

A growing number of soldiers - including some now home on R&R - are researching the consequences of going AWOL, according to a leading support group. The GI Rights Hotline, a national soldiers' support service, has logged a 75 percent increase in calls in the last 12 weeks, with more than 100 of those calls from soldiers, or people on their behalf, asking about the penalties associated with going AWOL - "absent without leave" - according to volunteers and staffers who man the service.

Many of the calls have come from soldiers who are among those now on the first wave of 15-day authorized leaves that began almost two weeks ago. Some hotline callers have indicated they may not return, staffers said. "What would happen if I just don't go back" to Iraq, one soldier asked a worker at a GI support-line center. "I'm going to shoot myself in the foot," said another, referring to his solution for getting home. Some soldiers are so desperate that they have called directly from the war zone, contacting the hotline when they can get satellite-phone access or after waiting in line for hours in the desert for a military phone.

...Teresa Panepinto, program coordinator of The GI Rights Hotline, a service that dates back to the Korean War... Panepinto said monthly calls to the hotline have risen from 2,000 to 3,500 in the last three months.

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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/08/1065292604414.html

Prime Minister John Howard was yesterday censured by the Senate for misleading the public in his justification for sending Australia to war with Iraq... Th motion attacked Mr Howard for failing to adequately inform Australians that intelligence agency warnings about a war with Iraq would increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack. It also noted that no evidence had yet been produced by Mr Howard to justify his claims that in March this year, Iraq possessed stockpiles of completed biological chemical weapons that justified going to war.

...Greens senator Bob Brown said [that]... Mr Howard had argued that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and support of international terrorism threatened Australia. "It has become abundantly clear that the Prime Minister was not just a bit wrong. He was totally wrong," he told parliament.

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http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/News/story.asp?datetime=07%20Oct%202003%2007:00&tbrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=NEWS&category=News&brand=EDPOnline&itemid=NOED06%20Oct%202003%2023:03:42:740

Peace activists who broke into an American air base [in England] to protest against nuclear weapons were arrested yesterday. An international group of six protesters from Malta, Austria, France, Belgium and England was arrested by military police on suspicion of criminal damage and associated offences at RAF Lakenheath, in Suffolk.

The protesters, who included Davida Higgin, of the Lakenheath Action Group and Norwich CND, broke in to carry out what they described as a "citizens' weapons inspection" on the 30 nuclear missiles they believe are stored on the US-controlled base. A second group was arrested later after breaking through the fence and scattering flower seeds while trying to place a peace flag on the base. Two more activists, a man and a woman, were arrested by civilian police outside the base on suspicion of going equipped to commit an offence and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=20&u=/afp/20031008/wl_mideast_afp/japan_iraq_diplomacy_031008104522

TOKYO (AFP) - A veteran Japanese diplomat, who was the country's ambassador to Lebanon until August, said he was fired after expressing his opposition to the US-led war on Iraq in two official telegrams... I said we should continue to exhaust all our diplomatic efforts so as to avoid the war...We must opppose the unilateral military action by the United States," [Naoto] Amaki told a news conference in Tokyo.

...The foreign ministry's most senior bureaucrat, vice foreign minister Yukio Takeuchi sent Amaki a one-page letter, saying the ministry was going to undertake revitalization reforms to rejuvenate its diplomatic corps and it was time for him to take early retirement.

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http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031008170709.6gz118fh.html

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained in an interview out Wednesday that the White House kept him in the dark before revamping US-led stabilization and reconstruction efforts in Iraq... Asked why the shift was necessary, the defense secretary brusquely replied: "I said I don't know. Isn't that clear? You don't understand English? I was not there."

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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Missile-Test.html?ex=1066644936&ei=1&en=a94d6f7584f03dd1

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan conducted its second nuclear-capable missile test in less than a week Wednesday, launching a medium-range rocket capable of hitting New Delhi and most other targets inside archrival India.

...Pakistani and Indian leaders have recently traded accusations and insults. Indian and Pakistani officials at the U.N. General Assembly last month engaged in their most bitter public sparring in years. India's U.N. ambassador, Vijay Nambiar, accused Pakistan of engaging in a "diplomacy of abuse and hate" ...while Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan accused the Indian leader of being "full of negativity."

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http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3566685&fromEmail=true

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba called on the United States on Monday to provide evidence to back up renewed charges that the communist-run Caribbean nation has a germ warfare program. The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the accusations were aimed at winning President Bush support among Cuban exiles in Florida, a crucial state for his re-election bid next year.

The Bush administration, which has yet to find evidence to back its charge that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, last week charged that Cuba has a limited biological arms program... Washington, which lists Cuba along with North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran and Sudan as states that sponsor terrorism, twice accused Castro's government last year of running a biological weapons program. Bush officials making the charges failed to produce any evidence.

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a fucking nightmare

http://www.abpnews.com/abpnews/story.cfm?newsId=3860

In a sign that he may support an effort to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriages, President Bush heeded the call of a coalition of Religious Right groups and proclaimed Oct. 12-18 "Marriage Protection Week."

Bush's Oct. 3 proclamation came one day after the leaders of a group calling itself the Coalition to Protect Marriage announced in a Washington press conference that they were dedicating the week to defining marriage as a heterosexual-only institution. Spearheaded by the conservative Family Research Council, the coalition's membership list reads like a "Who's Who" of influential Religious Right groups: The Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition, and World magazine.

The week's intent is to build support for the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment in Congress. Sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), the amendment not only would alter the Constitution to define marriage in exclusively heterosexual terms, but also would override state and local laws conferring many of the benefits of marriage on same-sex couples.

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sign o'the times

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E1667716,00.html

GOLDEN [Colorado] - From his county offices, Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall has been handing out citizens' jury-rights guides that rely on biblical phrases and conservative thought. Paschall said the 1,000 booklets - most stamped with his name and elected title - are "my personal gift to the people" and were purchased with $500 to $600 of his money and that of two political allies who work in the treasurer's office.

The pocket-sized booklets promote "jury nullification," a concept built upon since 1989 by politically conservative groups that argue juries have the right to not only decide guilt or innocence, but also whether laws are just and adhere to God's law. "YOU ARE ABOVE THE LAW!" the booklet says. "As a JUROR in a trial setting, when it comes to your individual vote of innocent or guilty, you truly are answerable only to GOD ALMIGHTY."

...Paschall said the publisher, Whitten Printers of Phoenix, "was amazed an elected official would do this" and gave him a break on the $2-per-copy price.

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http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/oct03/175277.asp

The Wisconsin Library Association has warned libraries about the new federal Patriot Act, leading some to purge circulation records to protect privacy, and others to begin warning patrons about the law's effects. The warning came last spring in the form of a sample policy for the association's member libraries to use to "protect against the unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of library users." In recent months, the association has surveyed its members on what actions they've taken. At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay's Cofrin Library, workers regularly delete records of requests for books or other material once those transactions are completed. "If we had kept those patron records and if we were visited by the FBI," said Library Director Leanne Hansen, "then they would have been able to look at all those records. They would have had access to all patron records, not just one individual's."

...The library association is suggesting that its members ask: "Do you have a good reason to keep the records that you are keeping? If you don't, get rid of them."

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archived and worth re-reading

http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=111675

9/29/03 - Officials in a number of states, desperate to cut budget deficits, have begun reducing the amount or quality of food served to prison inmates. These new food plans involve either reducing the number of calories provided a day or eliminating a meal on weekends and holidays by serving two meals instead of three. So far, officials in the states that have cut prisoners' food say that inmates have not complained and that the nutritional value of the meals being served still meets national standards. Among these states are Virginia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Iowa, Texas and Arizona, with other states, including Massachusetts, beginning to experiment with the reduced diets in individual prisons.

But experts on prisons say that food is only a very small portion of the overall cost of running a prison system - about 80 percent of prison budgets go for guards' salaries - so that any savings achieved by reducing inmates' food will be minimal and is more about symbolism... [For example, in Texas,] where in previous years a prison might have served a chicken patty with macaroni and cheese, it has cut out the macaroni and cheese. Cheaper cuts of meat have also been substituted for better grades of meat, even when the meat is raised on the prison's own farm. The more expensive cuts are now being sold commercially... Powdered milk has been substituted for whole milk, and a juice-like drink for real juice.

Allen, the state representative, said he was not worried about prisoner protests over the new policy. "Inmate protests are not well-received in Texas," he said. "If inmates want to act out violently about their food, we have other places to put them." Neither is he worried about lawsuits, he said.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1058329,00.html

October 8th - Convicted murderers with severe mental health problems can be forced to take drugs that would make them clinically sane so that they can be executed, the US supreme court has ruled.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58715-2003Oct7.html

President Bush intervened directly last week for the first time in congressional negotiations over the future of Medicare, telephoning Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to warn that he opposed the direction lawmakers appeared to be taking in a bid to provide drug benefits to poor, elderly people, according to several congressional sources.

...The disagreement centers on whether Medicare recipients -- generally elderly or disabled -- who are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid should receive the prescription drug benefit that Congress is trying to add to Medicare. Currently, such patients get help in paying for medicine through Medicaid, a government health insurance program shared by the states and the federal government. The assistance varies from state to state. The Medicare bill passed by the House in June would allow those patients -- about 6.2 million of the program's 40 million people -- to receive the new federal drug benefit. The Senate bill would not.

...The White House last night declined to comment on Bush's telephone call. Deputy press secretary Claire Buchan reiterated the administration's position on Medicare, saying [bla bla bla.]

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arnold uber alles. from oct. 3rd

http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row=0

The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay. Also frolicking with Arnold and Ken was convicted stock swindler Mike Milken.

Now, thirty-four pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.

Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers... It takes real cojones to bring such a suit. Who's the plaintiff taking on the bad guys? Cruz Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor and reluctant leading candidate against Schwarzenegger.

Now follow the action. One month after Cruz brings suit, Enron's Lay calls an emergency secret meeting in L.A. of his political buck-buddies, including Arnold. Their plan, to undercut Davis (according to Enron memos) and "solve" the energy crisis -- that is, make the Bustamante legal threat go away. How can that be done? Follow the trail with me.

While Bustamante's kicking Enron butt in court, the Davis Administration is simultaneously demanding that George Bush's energy regulators order the $9 billion refund. Don't hold your breath: Bush's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is headed by a guy proposed by-- Ken Lay. But Bush's boys on the commission have a problem. The evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid: fraudulent reporting of sales transactions, megawatt "laundering," fake power delivery scheduling and straight out conspiracy (including meetings in hotel rooms). So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay only two cents on each dollar they filched.

Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if the Governor of California won't play along. Solution: Re-call the Governor... The pay-off? Once Arnold is Governor, he blesses the sweetheart settlements with the power companies. When that happens, Bustamante's court cases are probably lost. There aren't many judges who will let a case go to trial to protect a state if that a governor has already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency.

...I asked Mr. Muscle's PR people to comment on the new Enron memos -- and his strange silence on Bustamante's suit or Davis' petition. But Arnold was too busy shaving off his Hitlerian mustache to respond. The Enron memos were discovered by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Los Angeles, www.ConsumerWatchdog.org.

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and from harper's weekly round-up

http://www.harpers.org/weekly-review/

American officials said that there are 650,000 tons of ammunition lying around Iraq, much of it unsecured. General John Abizaid told Congress that "there is more ammunition in Iraq than any place I've ever been in my life, and it is all not securable." Pentagon officials had previously claimed that "all known Iraqi munitions sites are being secured by coalition forces." David Kay, the head of the CIA team searching for traces of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, issued his status report; Kay admitted that no unconventional weapons had been found but did point to a single vial of botulinum toxin, which an Iraqi scientist had stored in his refrigerator since 1993, as evidence of evil intent. President Bush cited the vial and said that the report justified the invasion. It was noticed that Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and until recently the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has set up a consulting firm to help clients exploit the occupation of Iraq. According to the company's website, "New Bridge Strategies, LLC is a unique company that was created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq." The company describes the "opportunities" in Iraq as "unprecedented" in nature and in scope. Allbaugh was apparently exasperated by the attention being paid his new company: "Because my friend is president of the United States," he said, "I'm supposed to check out of life?"

...Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada said that he was thinking of trying marijuana: "Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand."

...A Russian electricity company was threatening to kidnap people's pets as a way to force delinquent customers to pay their bills. A team of Swedish scientists concluded that the world's remaining oil and gas supplies have been exaggerated by up to 80 percent and said that production levels will probably peak in 2010. A new study estimated that 160,000 people die as a result of global warming every year; President Vladimir Putin suggested that global warming could be good for Russians because they "would spend less money on fur coats and other warm things."

...Laura Bush told the Russians that American children's books teach children to be good Americans and that her children used to enjoy acting out "Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss. Margaret Thatcher was said to be losing her mind.

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what to do til the analyst comes

http://slate.msn.com/id/2089522/

This Thursday evening, the nine remaining candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination will meet in Phoenix for the fourth debate of the year. If these events have started to blend together, why not grab a bottle or two of your favorite tipple and bring on the blurriness by playing Slate's debate drinking game. Cheers!

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Take one drink if:

A candidate mentions an ordinary American by name

A candidate mentions Bill Clinton

A candidate mentions John Ashcroft

A candidate mentions John McCain

A candidate mentions Enron

A candidate mentions Halliburton

A candidate mentions a member of his or her family

A candidate gives out his or her campaign Web site URL

A candidate flourishes a printout of a strategy paper or a bill he or she co-sponsored

A candidate looks into the wrong camera during introductions

A candidate speaks Spanish

A candidate refuses to answer a hypothetical question

A candidate evades the question of whether they'd vote for Bush's $87 billion

A candidate uses the phrase "when I'm president"

A candidate promises to "support our troops"

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Take two drinks if:

A candidate says a rival is "wrong"

A candidate says he or she is "surprised" by something a rival says

The camera catches an audience member in mid-yawn

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Drain your glass if:

You laugh out loud at a candidate's joke

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Finish the bottle if:

The candidates get into a fistfight

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Kamikaze version: Take a drink every time a candidate mentions President Bush by name. (Note: This is not recommended if you have to work Friday.)