From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 09:55:39 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:55:39 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Abuses were ordered by military - Soldier Message-ID: <200405031355.i43Dtdw14399@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Mark Graffis (activ-l) Abuses were ordered by military: US soldier's charge http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en63346&F_catID=&f_type=source BAGHDAD: As US and British leaders sought to control the damage over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by their troops, one of the six US policemen accused of humiliating the prisoners was quoted in his personal letters and private journal as detailing the abuse and saying military intelligence had ordered it. Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick wrote home in January that he had "questioned some of the things" he saw inside the prison, but that "the answer I got was, 'This is how military intelligence wants it done'", according to Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter for The New Yorker. According to his letter quoted by Hersh, military intelligence officers had congratulated Frederick and other soldiers on the "great job" done with prisoners because "they were now getting positive results and information". The Guardian newspaper in Britain also reported Saturday it had reviewed a journal Frederick began keeping in January after an investigation was launched into the abuse of prisoners. "The journals... detail the conditions of the prisoners, apparent torture and the death of one inmate after interrogation," the newspaper said. According to Frederick's journal quoted in the Guardian, "prisoners were forced to live in damp cool cells" and those placed in isolation cells were left there with "little or no clothes, no toilet or running water, no ventilation or window for as much as three days." Frederick writes in his journal that he tried to raise the issue with his superior who told him: "Don't worry about it". The prison scandal broke out Wednesday, after CBS's "60 Minutes II" program broadcast a picture showing a hooded prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. He had been told he would be electrocuted if he fell off, the report said. Other pictures showed prisoners lying on each other and being mercilessly beaten up by soldiers, with others pointing and laughing. Six US military police including Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, in charge of US-run prisons in Iraq, were charged in March with conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty, maltreatment, assault and indecent acts against up to 20 prisoners at the jail last November and December. They could face court martial. President George W. Bush said Friday that he shared "a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated." British Prime Minister Tony Blair was forced to voice contempt late Friday for what appeared to be mistreatment by his own troops, one of whom was pictured urinating on an Iraqi detainee and beating him with rifle butts. According to the Saturday edition of the Daily Mirror which ran the images, the prisoner was allegedly threatened with execution during an eight-hour ordeal which left him bleeding and vomiting, with a broken jaw and smashed teeth. The newspaper, the strongest voice of opposition to the US-led Iraq war, said it was given the pictures by serving soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, who were horrified by the acts depicted. "I am aware of the allegations which have been made today of the abuse of prisoners by British soldiers in Iraq," said Britain's most senior army officer, General Sir Michael Jackson.-AFP ========================== US spies 'urged abuse' of prisoners The Australian, Australia - 2 hours ago .. Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine said a leaked Pentagon report by Major-General Antonio Taguba, completed in February, found ... http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9451235%255E270 3,00.html US spies 'urged abuse' of prisoners BY Roy Eccleston, Washington correspondent, and John Kerin May 03, 2004 THE scandal over the US military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners at a notorious Baghdad prison is deepening, with new claims the possible war crimes were encouraged by American intelligence officers wanting inmates "softened up" for interrogation. A London newspaper has also broadened the abuse allegations to British troops. The Daily Mirror published photographs at the weekend of what it said was a tortured Iraqi man, after receiving details of the alleged eight-hour beating from two British soldiers. The claim that the "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" by at least six US military police were actively encouraged by intelligence officers came in a confidential military report leaked to The New Yorker magazine. The magazine also reported that when one Iraqi prisoner was so stressed by questioning - possibly by CIA officers - that he died, his body was packed in ice for a day and then taken from the jail with a mock intravenous drip in his arm to disguise his death. Army Reserve general Janis Karpinski, who has been stood down over the allegations, told The New York Times on Sunday that she also believed the brutal behaviour had been encouraged by intelligence officers, who were now being protected. "We're disposable," said General Karpinski, who had been in charge of military prisons in Iraq, referring to the reservist military police (MPs) allegedly involved. "Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They want to put this on the MPs and hope that this thing goes away. Well, it's not going to go away." The Arab world is outraged at photographs broadcast first on the US current affairs program Sixty Minutes II last week, showing the humiliation of naked Iraqi prisoners at one of the prisons most notorious for torture during the reign of Saddam Hussein. While General Karpinski said the pictures sickened her when she saw them, and that those responsible were "bad people", she also added that the Abu Ghraib prison cell block involved - 1A - was under the control of military intelligence officers 24 hours a day. "They were in there at 2 in the morning, they were (there) at 4 in the afternoon," she told the paper, adding that she had never been in the area, despite having overall control of the prison. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer conceded yesterday that the mistreatment provided a "propaganda victory for al-Qa'ida", but stopped short of describing the behaviour as a breach of the Geneva Convention on torture. However, Human Rights Watch in New York said that under the Geneva Conventions, mistreatment of prisoners that amounted to "torture or inhuman treatment" would be a war crime. Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, a respected private monitor of human rights abuses, claimed the bold behaviour of the soldiers in posing for photographs with the prisoners "suggests they had nothing to hide from their superiors". The scandal is a devastating blow to the US image in Iraq, where the Iraqi Governing Council is demanding an investigation. Council member Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer told Associated Press the perpetrators must be punished "as war criminals" because "the dignity of an Iraqi citizen is no less than the dignity of an American". Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine said a leaked Pentagon report by Major-General Antonio Taguba, completed in February, found that between October and December last year there were numerous cases of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" of Iraqi prisoners at the prison. Among the alleged abuses were: breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomising a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee. Six reservist military police, including several women, have been charged and face court-martial. But Hersh also reported some of the accused soldiers claimed they had been urged to act by military intelligence interrogators. The Taguba report said army intelligence officers, CIA agents and private contractors "actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favourable interrogation of witnesses". The most senior of those charged, Sergeant Ivan Frederick, in letters to his family blamed military intelligence, according to Hersh. He claimed he questioned some things that were done, such as leaving prisoners with no clothes or in women's underpants, but was told "this is how the military intelligence wants it done". The intelligence officers "encouraged and told us 'great job', they were now getting positive results and information". He also claimed a man brought in by the CIA and its employees had died. "They stressed him out so bad that the man passed away," he wrote, the magazine said. "They put his body in a body bag and packed him in ice for approximately 24 hours in the shower. The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake IV (intravenous drip) in his arm and took him away." No record was made that the man had been there. President George W. Bush, who cites the end of Saddam's torture chambers as a justification for war, has tried to reel in the public relations disaster the claims represent. "(The prisoners') treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people," Mr Bush said. "That's not the way we do things in America. And so I - I didn't like it one bit." The British allegations, complete with photographs showing a hooded man being urinated on and assaulted with a rifle butt, were made by two anonymous soldiers to the Daily Mirror newspaper. "The prisoner, aged 18-20, begged for mercy as he was battered with rifle butts and batons in the head and groin, was kicked, stamped and urinated on, and had a gun barrel forced into his mouth," the paper said. Barely conscious after eight hours of assaults, he was thrown from a truck. It was not known if he survived. "If it happened, it's completely unacceptable," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "If this is proven, the perpetrators are not fit to wear the Queen's uniform," said Chief of the General Staff General Sir Michael Jackson. The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said military police were expected to arrest six soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in connection with the apparent abuse by tomorrow. The Sunday Times reported that the treatment may have been part of a series of revenge beatings for the murder of a British soldier last August, although the Sunday Express also suggested the pictures could have been "a cruel joke". HRW's Mr Roth said the US had been slack at cracking down on troops who had already been shown to have abused prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It is clear that the US has not taken the issue of prisoner abuse seriously enough," he charged. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 09:56:44 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:56:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Refugees Return to Fallujah Message-ID: <200405031356.i43DuiQ14477@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Dave Muller (south news) May 2nd Going Home There is life, again, on the streets of Falluja. There are hugs, there are greetings, there are children watching the town refill from gateways that look out onto the roads where we ran and rode with stretchers and bodies and terrified families. Boys waved at each other across rooves that have been, for the last month, the preserve of snipers. The patchwork of territories and no mans lands is home again. On the outskirts of Baghdad on Saturday afternoon a US army fuel tanker was burning furiously and at the checkpoint on the main highway beside the Hay Askeri [Military Quarter] district of Falluja, US soldiers were turning away an exhausted looking family crammed into a Kia, a small Chinese made minibus. Thus far you might not notice anything has changed. Their orders, in the last couple of minutes, were not to let the press in either. Gunfire sounded. They said there were still snipers over there, indicating the buildings of Hay Askeri, couldnt say whether theirs or the Mujahedins. The Iraqi soldiers wearing armbands of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps were new though, in camouflage uniforms and assorted shoes. Part of the security problem in the last year has been that the Coalition hasnt properly equipped the Iraqi Police and army. Its common to see the police in blue shirts, IP arm bands and their ordinary jeans and trainers, which makes it hard to tell a genuine checkpoint from an Ali Baba one. The checkpoint was, apparently arbitrarily, only letting through 200 families in a day, of around 8000 thought to have left, so the thin dusty back roads that were our way in and out during the fighting were the main route for the returners. Saad came through earlier in the day to check that it was safe. There was no fighting on Friday or Saturday and no checkpoints this way, he said. Seventeen family members were travelling back together in a pick up. They left 26 days ago, on the fourth day of fighting, because of the air strikes. They stayed, crowded, with relatives in Abu Ghraib. They turned off the road onto a dusty track beside the river, two men and a woman in the front, another man in the back holding up a white cloth, thirteen year old Hussein leaning on the bare pole behind the cab. One of the boys held his arms in the air in celebration as we drove into Falluja. Everyone raised a hand in greeting to the ICDC guards who waved us straight through a checkpoint. Everyone raised a hand also to the Mujahedin fighters in ones, twos and little clusters around the town, their faces still cloth covered, Kalashnikovs still at hand, walking in and out of houses, one holding up the Iraqi flag, one in a black balaclava guarding a corner. They are waiting, Saad said. They will shoot the Americans if they come back. We will not accept their patrols. We blame only the Americans for what happened. The fighting in Falluja was because they were shooting civilians. Let them have our oil, we dont care, but let us live in peace. This is only people from Falluja fighting, not foreigners, because of the tribes. If the Americans kill a father or a brother then the tribes want revenge, but we dont let strangers in. A car flashed its lights, slowed down, passed bags of food to the people in the pick up, offered another to us. Women, men, small children stood by a shop, its shutters open, food on sale in scales and bags. As the pick up slowed down the kids jumped out, ran in through the gate as if to check, then dashed back out to fetch me. Hussein and Betul wanted me to see their garden, a small green space with slender trees growing up poles. They pointed out where flowers had been in the spring, asked for their photo taken, two brothers and two sisters, all dwarves. Husseins best friend and next door neighbour had been back a couple of hours, a tall thin boy with dark smudges of malnutrition under his eyes. They shook hands, Hussein bouncing with excitement, Ali looking nervous and exhausted. Their dad showed us the hole in the ground that theyd had to use as a well after the electricity was cut to the whole town, early on, as collective punishment. Abdulbakrs house was just around the corner, a pile of refilled plastic water bottles in the corner of a room whose floor was covered with pebbles. A trench runs through the hallway because theres no drain, a couple of blankets spread out beside it. The back of the house is open, steps leading up to the roof. It wasnt damaged by the bombing, they said: We were already poor, without them attacking us. The last drop off was a few streets away, the children running across the road to reunite with the other part of the family who got back earlier in the day, having stayed with a different set of relatives, cuddling the baby, reorienting, seeing that things are still where they were, Safaa wiping her eyes on her abaya amid her laughter, embracing her own children and everyone elses. You have to come back, she insists, when weve straightened things out. Before we left they gave us a list of phone numbers for the rest of the extended family still in Baghdad, so we could call them when we got back to town and tell them its safe to go home. The fuel tanker was still burning as we drove back at sunset and still this morning, as aid vehicles and families flowed towards the checkpoint. Again the seemingly arbitrary limit of two hundred families a day was in place, a family comprising up to 25 individuals. All but the driver, women with infants and invalids were required to walk through the checkpoint, to be frisked with a wand while the vehicle was checked with mirrors on the underside. Lots of them left a month ago, just as the fighting started, and have moved between relatives ever since. Almost as many were leaving as coming in, driving out to fetch the family members still outside. Nazar was going to fetch five surviving relatives from hospital, his mother Zahra and his one year old nephew Sejad killed by a missile that landed among them, fired from a US plane as they tried to flee their home, walking to find a vehicle. A local man, Salam, with a small minibus had already brought back his own family and started ferrying others back in. Hed brought two families from Baghdad this morning, was returning for more, hadnt heard that only two hundred would be allowed through in the day. It would take him another couple of hours to get back so hed have to go in the back way. He stayed in farms around the town through the fighting; his own house was fine but there are many, he said, whose houses have been destroyed in Hay Julan, Hay Shuhada and Hay Askeri. Its not a happy home coming for everyone. Maki at the clinic said there are still people missing, who havent yet turned up either living or dead, and the casualty figures from the different clinics, hospitals and mosques have yet to be collated, several hundred, at least, who can never come home. www.wildfirejo.org.uk www.wildfirejo.blogspot.com The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 09:58:22 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:58:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Fisk: Brutality a symptom of Western view of Arabs Message-ID: <200405031358.i43DwMt14523@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Dave Muller (south news) Brutality a symptom of Western view of Arabs By Robert Fisk The Independent Why are we surprised at their racism, their brutality, their sheer callousness towards Arabs? Those American soldiers in Saddam's old prison at Abu Ghraib, those young British squaddies in Basra came - as soldiers often come - from towns and cities where race hatred has a home: Tennessee and Lancashire. How many of "our" lads are ex-jailbirds themselves? How many support the British National Party? Muslims, Arabs, "cloth heads", "rag heads", "terrorists", "evil". You can see how the semantics break down. Add to that the poisonous, racial dribble of a hundred Hollywood movies that depict Arabs as dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy and violent people - and soldiers are addicted to movies - and it's not difficult to see how some British scumbag will urinate into the face of a hooded man, how some American sadist will stand a hooded Iraqi on a box with wires tied to his hands. The sexual sadism - the bobby-sox girl soldier who points at a man's genitals, the mock orgy in Abu Ghraib prison, the British rifle in the prisoner's mouth - might be a crazed attempt to balance all those lies about the Arab world, about the desert warrior's potency, the harem, polygamy. Even today, we still show the revolting Ashanti on our television stations, a feature film about the kidnapping of the wife of an English doctor by Arab slave-traders, which depicts Arabs as almost exclusively child-molesters, rapists, murderers, liars and thieves. It stars - heaven spare us - Michael Caine, Omar Sharif and Peter Ustinov and was made partly in Israel. Indeed, we now depict Arabs in our films as the Nazis once depicted Jews. But Arabs are fair game. Potential terrorists to a man - and a woman - they must be softened up, "prepared", humiliated, beaten, tortured. The Israelis use torture in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem. Now we torture in Saddam's old jail outside Baghdad and - for this is where British soldiers beat a young Iraqi to death last summer - in the former office of Saddam's most murderous chemical warfare fascist, the awful "Chemical" Ali. And the officers? Didn't the British lieutenants and captains and majors in the Queen's Lancashire Regiment know that their lads were kicking to death a young Iraqi hotel worker last summer? That man's fate - and the documentary evidence proving that he was murdered - was first revealed by The Independent on Sunday in January. Didn't the CIA boys at Abu Ghraib know that Ivan "Chip" Frederick and Lynddie England, two of the American soldiers in the photographs published last week, were obscenely humiliating their prisoners? Of course they did. The last time I saw Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade in Iraq, she told me she had visited Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo and found nothing wrong with it. I should have guessed then that something had gone terribly wrong in Iraq. I remember how in Basra, on the eve of a visit by Tony Blair, I visited the British Army's press office in the city to ask about the death of 26-year-old Baha Mousa. The dead man's family had given me British documents proving that he had been beaten to death in custody, that the British Army had itself tried to pay off the family if they would give up any legal claim against the soldiers who so cruelly killed their son. I was met with yawns and a total inability to furnish information about the event. I was told to call the Ministry of Defence in London. The officer I spoke to appeared weary, even impatient about my inquiry. There was not a single word of compassion for the dead man. Back in September last year, General Karpinski was with a small group of journalists in Abu Ghraib - the same ghastly prison in which thousands were put to death by Saddam, the same jail in which Frederick and England and their American buddies were standing their hooded Iraqi prisoner on a box with supposed electrodes on his hands - and General Karpinski took some delight in escorting us to the old Saddam execution chamber. She led the way into the concrete room with its raised dais and gallows, and - in front of us all - triumphantly pulled the gallows lever so that the trap door clanged down. She urged us to read the last messages scrawled on the walls of the neighbouring death row by Iraqis awaiting Saddam's vengeance. But there was something wrong about her prison tour. There was no clear judicial process for the prisoners and there was no mention - until I brought it up - of the mortar attack on the American-held jail which killed six of the inmates in their tents in August, when General Karpinski was already in command of Iraq's 8,000 prisoners. They had been given "counselling", she told us. "They seemed to think we had been using them as some kind of sand-bag." Abu Ghraib was then being attacked by insurgents four out of every seven nights. Now it is attacked twice every night. Oddly, she claimed in answer to a question of mine that there were "six prisoners claiming to be American and two claiming to be from the UK". But when General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior Iraqi officer in Iraq, later denied this, no one asked how the confusion had arisen. Was General Karpinski making it up? Or was General Sanchez not telling us the truth? Prisoners' names were often confused, Arabic script was mis-transliterated, men went "missing" from the files. It spoke of a whole culture in which Iraqis - especially Iraqi prisoners - were somehow not worthy of the same rights as us Westerners; which is why, I suppose, the occupying powers in Iraq always give us the statistics of Westerners' deaths but care not the slightest to discover the statistics of the deaths of Iraqis, the very people they are mandated to protect and care for. A few weeks ago, I was chatting to a young American soldier off Saadoun Street in the centre of Baghdad. He was giving sweets to street kids and mimicking the Arabic for "thank you": sukran. Did he know Arabic, I innocently asked. He grinned at me. "I know how to shout at them," he said. And there you have it. We are all victims of our high-flown morality. "They" - the Arabs, Muslims, "cloth heads", "rag heads", "terrorists" - are of a lesser breed, of lower moral standards. They are people to be shouted at. They have to be "liberated" and given "democracy". But we little band of brothers, we dress ourselves up in the uniforms of righteousness. We are marines or military police or a Queen's regiment and we are on the side of good. "They" are on the side of "evil". So we can do no wrong. Or so it appeared until those shameful pictures last week tore apart the whole bandwagon and proved that race hatred and prejudice is an old historical inheritance of ours. We used to call Saddam the Hitler of Iraq. But wasn't Hitler one of "us", a Westerner, a citizen of "our" culture? If he could kill six million Jews, which he did, why should we be surprised that "we" can treat Iraqis like animals? Last week came the photographs to prove we can. - The Independent ____________________________________________________ CIA accused of link to Iraq prison torture By Philip Shenon in Washington May 3, 2004 Page Tools * Email to a friend * Printer format * A US Army Reserve general whose soldiers were photographed as they abused Iraqi prisoners said she knew nothing about the abuse until weeks after it occurred and that she was "sickened" by the pictures. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski said she suspected the reservists were acting with the encouragement of military intelligence units that ran the special cell block used for interrogation and that CIA employees often joined in the interrogations. General Karpinski's allegations are supported by a still-classified US Army report on prison conditions in Iraq documenting many of the worst abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, including the sexual humiliation of prisoners. The magazine The New Yorker says in its latest issue that the report, by Major-General Antonio Taguba, found that military police at the prison were urged by officers and CIA agents to "set physical and mental conditions for favourable interrogation of witnesses". According to the magazine, the army report offered accounts of gruesome abuse that included the sexual assault of an Iraqi detainee with a chemical light stick or broomstick. Advertisement Advertisement In a phone interview in which she offered her first public comments about the episode, General Karpinski, who is still the commanding officer of the 800th Military Police Brigade, said the special high-security cell block at Abu Ghraib had been under the direct control of army intelligence officers, not the reservists under her command. A diary by a soldier, Sergeant Ivan Frederick, has added further fuel to the furore, painting a nightmarish picture of overworked, undertrained guards coping with hostile Iraqi prisoners and using tactics that flagrantly violate international rules for treatment of detainees. A disturbing repeated assertion in the diary is that the abuse was encouraged by interrogators from military intelligence and the army's Criminal Investigation Division. Both are under intense pressure to help stop attacks on US troops. But no intelligence or CID personnel are among the 17 people whom the army has charged or named as being under investigation. The diary - mailed to the US - is replete with dates, names and grisly details and it accords with complaints lodged for months by the human rights group Amnesty International, which has called for a "fully independent, impartial and public investigation" of the treatment of prisoners in Iraq. The scandal has expanded to include British soldiers who are also alleged to have abused Iraqi prisoners. Pictures of their misconduct were published in London's Daily Mirror newspaper. Six junior non-commissioned officers serving with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment are being questioned over claims that they abused Iraqi civilians last northern summer. They are expected to be formally arrested within days. They face court martial and may be imprisoned if found guilty of any assault charges. Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said any abuse was "completely and totally unacceptable". Doubts have been raised about the authenticity of the latest photographs, but the editor of the Daily Mirror, Piers Morgan, said he was "completely satisfied with the veracity of the photographs", adding: "We went to great lengths to check them out." However, the BBC's defence correspondent quoted sources as saying aspects of the photographs were extremely suspicious. They said the type of rifle and the floppy hats pictured were not used by troops in Iraq, and the type of truck shown in the background had not been deployed there. The New York Times; The Telegraph, London; The Baltimore Sun; Reuters The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 09:59:54 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:59:54 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Irish Govt Intercedes in Colombia 3 Case Message-ID: <200405031359.i43DxsV14960@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by rdooling (ireland list) News about Ireland & the Irish IT 05/03/04 Govnt Intercedes Over 'Colombia Three' Case NS 05/02/04 Urgent From Cristin McCauley: Columbia 3 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2004/0503/4029069072HM6COLOMBIA.html Government Intercedes With Authorities Over 'Colombia Three' Case DdeBreadun at irish-times.ie The Government has interceded with the Colombian authorities in an effort to secure an early resolution of the dilemma of the "Colombia Three", who still remain in prison after being found not guilty on a charge of training the FARC guerrillas in bomb-making techniques. Deagl?n de Br?ad?n, Foreign Affairs Correspondent. The three Irishmen - James Monaghan (58), from Co Donegal, Martin McCauley (41), from Lurgan, Co Armagh and Mr Niall Connolly (38), from Dublin - were convicted on the lesser charge of using false passports but their sentences, ranging from two to four years, could be suspended if certain conditions were met. If their lawyers made a bail payment of ?17,000 to the court, supplied in the form of a loan by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, the men could go free. But the defence team and the "Bring Them Home Campaign" refuse to do so, claiming that the men could be shot as soon as they left Bogota's La Modelo gaol. However, a request for a "safe house" with armed protection for the three men, as well as for Ms Caitr?ona Ruane MLA, chairwoman of the Bring Them Home Campaign and her sister, Ms Therese Ruane, has been turned down by the Colombian authorities. The Colombian Attorney General, Mr Luis Camilo Osorio, is entitled to lodge an appeal against the verdict in the case and there were unconfirmed reports that he had taken the necessary preliminary steps in this regard. Today is understood to be the deadline for lodging the appeal. It is normal practice to lodge appeals in such cases in Colombia and the appeal process can take as long as two years. Nevertheless, the prospect remained that the men could still be out of the country by the middle of this week. The defence lawyers say they are wary of any arrangement which would involve the men leaving jail but remaining in Colombia. The defence team has sent a petition to the judge, Dr Jairo Acosta, to allow the men to leave the country because they claim their personal security cannot be guaranteed. The judge has until the end of this week to rule on the petition, having consulted first of all with the police authorities. Although the level of politically-inspired violence has declined in some respects in Colombia, it still remains a dangerous place. It is not possible accurately to assess the threat to the men's lives, but past experience in Colombia suggests extra precautions would be sensible. Ms Caitr?ona Ruane of the Bring Them Home Campaign, who is also a Sinn F?in MLA in the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly, appealed for support in a statement issued to the media which was also sent to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Prof Noam Chomsky and prominent politicians. She said the Colombian government had created this problem by prejudicial comments. "They are the ones who have put all our lives in danger and now they are refusing to take the necessary steps. One day we have the vice-president on television saying that he supports the decision of the judge, the next we have the Minister for Defence, and senior members of the police ridiculing it. "The Colombian government need to rein in their military and police. Who is in charge here, the executive or the security agencies?" Ms Ruane has discussed the case by telephone with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and, in her statement, she said she had written him a letter requesting that he "make formal representation to the Colombian government at the highest level to send these men home now". The Irish Ambassador to Mexico, Mr Art Agnew, has been dealing with the case on behalf of the Government. (c) The Irish Times ****************************************** http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/5/2/175851/7697 Urgent From Cristin McCauley: Columbia 3 By Al Giordano, The Narcosphere (Info about Narcosphere: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/2/16/175416/747) Posted on Sun May 2nd, 2004 at 05:58:51 PM EST >From Cristin McCauley, wife of one of "The Colombia Three," the Irishmen charged on cooked evidence of training Colombian rebels in explosives use, and recently aquitted. Although The Colombia Three have been acquitted (Narco News reported there was no hard evidence against them 18 months ago), and even though they have been deported (on the lesser charge of possessing forged passports), they still can't get out of jail! That's Colombian "justice" for ya. Three Innocent Men still in Jail because Colombian Government refuses to provide adequate security Below is a Statement from Caitriona Ruane of the Bring Them Home Campaign "Three innocent men are still in jail because the Colombian Government have refused a request for adequate security for the three men and the two representatives of the Bring Them Home Campaign "This simple request for security for 5 Irish citizens was made by the men's defence lawyers, the Bring Them Home Campaign and by the Irish Government. The request included a safe house, and armed protection for the five people until Judge Jairo Acosta rules on a petition by the lawyers to permit the men to leave the country "The Colombian Government has rejected the request - the Colombian government has created this problem by prejudicial comments. They are the ones who have put all our lives in danger and now they are refusing to take the necessary steps. "One day we have the Vice president on television saying that he supports the decision of the judge, the next we have the Minister for Defence, and senior members of the police ridiculing it. The Colombian Government need to reign in their military and police. Who is in charge here, the Executive or the security agencies? "We are very concerned for their safety in the Jail, they are currently being held in La Modelo, one of the most dangerous jails in the world. They are surrounded by right wing paramilitaries. I have written an urgent letter to Brian Cowen urging them to make formal representation to the Colombian Government at the highest level to send these men home now. "We are calling on the Human rights organisations, NGO's and individuals interested in human rights to contact the nearest Colombian Embassy or consulate near them." Email a personalised letter directly to the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at rdh at presidencia.gov.co In England, Scotland & Wales Contact: Alfonso Lopez Caballero Colombian Embassy 3 Hans Crescent London SWIX OLN Tel. 0207 589 9177 / 589 5037 (Human Rights Officer's extension is 112) Fax 0207 581 1829 / 589 4718 website: Colombian Embassy in London email: mail at colombianembassy.co.uk In the US, contact: Ambassador Luis Alberto Moreno, The Embassy of Colombia, 2118 Leroy Place NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 Phone: 202 387-8338 Fax: 202 232-8643 E-mail: emwas at colombiaemb.org There are Consulates in the following cities: Atlanta, New York, Houston, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. These can also be accessed through: this website Contact Colombian embassies and consulates throughout the world. These can be found listed here, then click on "Essential List" then on "Worldwide Embassies" From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 10:00:20 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:00:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Weekly News Update #744, 5/2/04 Message-ID: <200405031400.i43E0K015019@tania.blythe-systems.com> WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS ISSUE #744, MAY 2, 2004 NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK 339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 (212) 674-9499 1. Honduras: Rights Activist Murdered 2. Honduras: Indigenous Seek Asylum 3. Honduras: Thousands Mark Workers' Day 4. Mexico: Unions Divided on May Day 5. Cuba: May Day Rally Protests US 6. Colombia: Thousands March on May Day 7. Latin America: Workers Celebrate May Day 8. Peru: Indigenous Lynch Corrupt Mayor 9. Guatemala: State Apologizes for Murder 10. Haiti: UN Approves Occupation Force 11. Haiti: Labor Organizers Beaten 12. In Other News: Puerto Rico, Negroponte ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. If this issue was forwarded to you, please write to wnu at igc.org for a free one-month subscription. The Update is produced by an all- volunteer team and is funded solely through subscription contributions. For a one-year subscription (52 issues) via email, we ask for a suggested donation of $25. Make checks or money orders payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 (for tax deductible donations or to send money from overseas, contact us for details.) Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly Immigration News Briefs and other services focused on Central America (Centr-Am News) and Colombia (Colombia Week). In addition, discounted combined subscription rates are available for John Ross' "Blind Man's Buff (formerly "Mexico Barbaro") and the weekly Nicaragua News Service. Contact us for info. Feel free to reproduce these updates, or reprint or re-post any information from them, but please credit us as "Weekly News Update on the Americas," and include our full contact information so people will know how to find us. Send us a copy of any publication where we are cited or reprinted. We also welcome your comments and ideas: send them to us at the street address above or via e-mail to wnu at igc.org. *1. HONDURAS: RIGHTS ACTIVIST MURDERED On Apr. 26, two or three unidentified assailants shot to death human rights activist Marvis Getulio Perez at a bus station in the heavily populated neighborhood of Brisas del Valle in the town of Cofradia, in the Honduran Atlantic coast department of Cortes. Perez was hit by six bullets. The shooters fled on foot. Perez was waiting for a bus to the city of San Pedro Sula, from which he was to travel to La Lima for a meeting of the National Confederation of Neighborhood Associations (Patronatos), of which he was secretary. [AP 4/27/04; Tiempo (Honduras) 4/28/04] Perez worked as a dental technician for the Human Rights Committee in Cofradia and was active in supporting the distribution of land to the poor; he was also seeking to run on the ruling National Party ticket in the November 2005 elections for the post of legislative deputy to represent Cortes department. More than 20 activists have been murdered in the past four years in Honduras; not one of the killings has been solved. [AP 4/27/04] On Apr. 27, angry residents of the 46 communities which belong to the local confederation of patronatos carried Perez's coffin into the middle of a major highway in Cofradia and blocked traffic, demanding that the government solve the murder and arrest those responsible. The residents said Perez was killed as he was fighting to prevent the installation of water meters in Brisas del Valle; he had also sued to block unfair service rates and had helped poor people recover lands claimed by the heirs of alleged owners. On Apr. 27, police arrested two youths carrying an AK-47 rifle, allegedly in connection with the killing. [Tiempo 4/28/04] *2. HONDURAS: INDIGENOUS SEEK ASYLUM Five Honduran Lenca indigenous women from Lempira department entered the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa on Apr. 29 to seek asylum, arguing that they are being persecuted by the Honduran government. Another 20 Lenca community members remained outside the Brazilian embassy, carrying signs against the Honduran government in solidarity with the five women. Some eight hours later, the Brazilian embassy rejected political asylum for the women; diplomatic personnel and Honduran police then forcibly removed them from the embassy. One of the women, Maria Martha Bejarano Reyes, said police were "brutal" in their handling of the protesters. [Tiempo 4/30/04; AP 4/29/04] Bejarano explained that the protest was in response to incidents in which soldiers attacked the community of Montana Verde, Gracias municipality, Lempira department, and tortured four local leaders. "The large landowners of the area last year accused two of our leaders [brothers Marcelino and Leonardo Miranda] of a series of crimes they did not commit, and the judges sentenced them to 29 years in prison," said Bejarano. [See Updates #678, 704, 727--note that the Miranda brothers were initially sentenced to 25 years but have since had another four years added to their sentences.] [AP 4/29/04; Rights Action 3/30/04] Since 1994, more than 100 indigenous Hondurans have unsuccessfully sought asylum in the embassies of Costa Rica, Venezuela, France and Mexico, in an effort to draw attention to the injustices faced by their communities. [AP 4/29/04] *3. HONDURAS: THOUSANDS MARK WORKERS' DAY At least 40,000 unionists, campesinos, students, teachers and doctors marched on May 1 in six Honduran cities to mark International Workers' Day. Marchers carried signs with slogans protesting the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). In the town of El Progreso, marchers blocked two bridges, backing up traffic for kilometers. In Tegucigalpa, they rallied in front of the presidential palace, which was surrounded by riot police with rubber clubs and tear gas masks. The marches were sponsored jointly by the General Workers Confederation (CGT), the Federation of Unions of Free Workers of Honduras and the leftist Unitary Workers Federation of Honduras (CUTH). Marching together for the first time, the unions were also commemorating the 50th anniversary of a 1954 strike by banana workers on the Atlantic coast against the US companies Chiquita Brands and Standard Fruit. That strike marked the emergence of the Honduran labor movement. [AP 5/1/04] Some 5,500 public school teachers in the Honduran department of Colon have been on an open-ended strike since Apr. 19. The strikers have seized the Colon education department to demand that its directors resign. They warn that if police eject them from the building, they will block highways and bridges with the support of grassroots social organizations. [Tiempo 4/28/04] *4. MEXICO: UNIONS DIVIDED ON MAY DAY Tens of thousands of workers from Mexico's independent unions overflowed the capital's gigantic main plaza, the Zocalo, on May 1 in a protest against the neoliberal economic policies of President Vicente Fox Quesada and as a show of support for the National Social Security Workers Union (SNTSS), which has broken off talks with management. The march, largely organized by the National Workers Union (UNT), an independent labor confederation, included a huge effigy of Fox as a serpent and calls for the resignation of Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) head Santiago Levy. The independent union march followed a smaller, shorter rally in the plaza by the once-powerful Congress of Labor (CT), which is affiliated with the former ruling party, the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Organizers put attendance for the CT rally at 140,000, but the left-leaning daily La Jornada estimated 20,000, noting that the demonstrators failed to fill the Zocalo. The oilworkers union, the largest in the CT, stayed away, as did the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Campesinos (CROC), which held a separate rally at the Angel of Independence monument. Speakers at both the CT and the CROC rallies criticized the social security workers' demands. [LJ 5/1/04] *5. CUBA: MAY DAY RALLY PROTESTS US Hundreds of thousands of Cubans rallied in Havana to commemorate May 1, International Workers' Day. The government, which sponsored the demonstration, put attendance at 1 million. Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz gave a two-hour speech, denouncing the US occupation of Iraq and the detention of "enemy combatants" at the US naval base in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay. He warned that the US government had plans to "affect the economy and destabilize the country," an allusion to a 500-page report the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba is to present to US president George W. Bush on May 3. The commission, headed by US secretary of state Colin Powell, is expected to recommend limiting Cuban-Americans' visits to the island and significantly cutting back their cash remittances, among other measures. [Miami Herald 5/1/04 from AP, 5/2/04 from correspondent; CNN en Espanol 5/1/04 from Reuters] On Apr. 29 the Republican and Democratic leaders of the US Senate's Finance Committee sent Treasury Secretary John Snow a request for details on the Treasury Department's tracking of terrorist-related money flows. A November report to Congress from the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) showed that it had nearly two dozen agents working on violations of the US embargo against Cuba, while just two agents investigated Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden's finances, and two more investigated former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's assets. Since 1994, OFAC handled 10,683 cases on the Cuban embargo and collected more than $8 million in fines, while it ran 93 enforcement investigations it said were related to terrorism and collected $9,425 in fines. [MH 4/30/04] *6. COLOMBIA: THOUSANDS MARCH ON MAY DAY Some 70,000 workers, students and others marched in the Colombian capital, Bogota, on May 1 to celebrate International Workers' Day. At the close of the march, riot police attacked the crowd with tear gas at the Plaza Bolivar. [Report from Dick Emanuelsson 5/1/04 via Colombia Indymedia]... Police also attacked a huge May Day march in Cali, capital of Valle del Cauca department. [Report from Ateneo Anarquista de Colombia 5/1/04 via Colombia Indymedia] Thousands of residents, including members of 90 labor unions, marched on May 1 in the Caribbean coast city of Cartagena, Bolivar department, to protest the government's plan to hand the state-run oil company Ecopetrol over to multinational corporations, and to demand jobs, education and healthcare. [El Universal (Cartagena) 5/2/04]... More than 15,000 people marched on May Day in the oil port city of Barrancabermeja, Santander department, headquarters of a strike which Ecopetrol workers began on Apr. 22 [see Update #743]. [Vanguardia Liberal (Bucaramanga) 5/2/04] Hundreds of workers marched in Ibague, capital of Tolima department, together with members of indigenous communities and social organizations, human rights activists, university students and others to mark May Day and protest Uribe's policies. [El Nuevo Dia (Ibague) 5/2/04] *7. LATIN AMERICA: WORKERS CELEBRATE MAY DAY At least 50,000 people marched in Caracas, Venezuela, in a May Day march in support of left-populist president Hugo Chavez Frias; another 20,000 took part in a separate march convened by the opposition Venezuelan Workers Confederation (CTV). Both marches met at the city center, where soldiers were deployed to prevent confrontations. CTV secretary general Manuel Cova noted Venezuela's high unemployment rate and criticzed Chavez' Apr. 30 announcement of a minimum wage increase as "insufficient." The pro-Chavez marchers, led by workers at the state-run oil company PDVSA, urged Venezuela to halt oil exports to the US, its main purchaser. [La Jornada (Mexico) 5/2/04 from DPA, Reuters] Chavez announced that the minimum wage would increase by 20% as of May 1, and would go up by another 10% on Aug. 1. [CNN en Espanol 5/1/04 from Reuters] In Buenos Aires, Argentina, organized unemployed people known as piqueteros held separate marches which converged in front of the main government building. But the country's attention was focused on the province of San Luis, where police repression of a labor demonstration left 20 protesters injured on the night of Apr. 30 and into the early morning of May 1. Thousands of workers had walked off their jobs Apr. 30 in the provincial capital, San Luis, in solidarity with a teachers' strike against the government's attempts to "revise" educational labor statutes. The protesters were also demanding the resignation of governor Alberto Rodriguez Saa and protesting the arrests of 60 strike leaders from the teachers' union. Calm returned to San Luis on May 2 after authorities released the 60 arrested activists. [Clarin (Buenos Aires) website 5/2/04; Miami Herald 5/2/04 from unspecified wire services; LJ 5/2/04 from DPA, Reuters] Brazil's two main union federations held separate demonstrations in Sao Paulo, the country's principal industrial center. The larger march, organized by Union Force, had some 800,000 participants. A rally organized by the Only Confederation of Workers (CUT), affiliated with the ruling Workers Party (PT), drew at least 100,000 people. [LJ 5/2/04 from DPA, Reuters; Agencia Estado 5/1/04] In Bolivia, the unions used a May Day mobilization to announce an open-ended national general strike beginning May 3, which is to be accompanied by roadblocks on highways and in cities. In Ecuador, about 8,000 workers reportedly gathered in Quito to demand the resignation of President Lucio Gutierrez, who they accused of "having betrayed the Ecuadoran people." Marches were also held in other cities. [LJ 5/2/04 from DPA, Reuters] In Peru, thousands campesino coca growers (cocaleros) from the Huallaga Valley who began arriving in the capital on Apr. 28 marched on May 1 in the center of Lima to demand an end to coca leaf eradication programs. More marches are planned for the coming days. [LJ 5/2/04 from DPA, Reuters; ENH 4/29/04 from AP] In Chile, the Unitary Workers Federation (CUT) led a march by some 10,000 people down the Alameda in Santiago. Leaders announced a national strike for July 29 to demand "dignity" for workers. [LJ 5/2/04 from correspondent] In San Jose, Costa Rica, dozens of teachers, campesinos, state workers and students marched on May 1 to protest a "free trade" agreement with the US [see Update #731] and other government policies. After the march reached the Legislative Assembly, a group of youths with their faces covered apparently began throwing rocks, injuring police who were guarding the building. [AP 5/1/04] *8. PERU: INDIGENOUS LYNCH CORRUPT MAYOR On Apr. 26, a crowd of some 10,000 indigenous Aymara residents of the southern Peruvian town of Ilave and the surrounding rural areas of El Collao province, Puno department, lynched Ilave mayor Fernando Cirilo Robles Callomamani. The mob dragged Robles through the streets, beat him with whips and chains, subjected him to a "people's trial" for corruption and forced him to apologize for his deeds. Robles was badly hurt and died at the scene. The controversy first erupted in Ilave, a town of 16,000 inhabitants, on Apr. 2 when Robles fled amid accusations of corruption. Critics said he took state money to complete a much- needed local highway and instead of arranging the repairs, pocketed the money. On Apr. 3, some 25,000 residents of the surrounding rural areas arrived in Ilave and shut down transport along the Puno-Desaguadero highway in a general strike to demand Robles' resignation [see Update #742]. Negotiations over the following weeks between government representatives and local residents failed to reach a solution. As of Apr. 22, 15,000 residents were continuing the strike while town council members who opposed Robles sought to remove him from office at a meeting. On Apr. 24, 10,000 people rallied in Ilave's town square to demand Robles be stripped of his power. The strike was continuing on Apr. 26 when Robles slipped back into Ilave and tried to prevent his ouster by holding a secret meeting at his home with three loyal town council members. Residents were furious when they found him there, and broke through the fence of the house to bring him out. They beat Robles, dragged him through the streets and forced him up to the roof of the three-story municipal building to apologize to the town via microphone. After a two word apology, Robles lost consciousness, collapsed and died, according to the Lima daily La Republica (it was not clear whether he also fell from the roof). Protesters then dumped Robles' body under a bridge. The mob also beat and kicked council members loyal to Robles and two journalists, including the local correspondent for La Republica. Police tried to regain control of the town later that night but were driven back by the protesters, who seized a police vehicle. On Apr. 28, Luis Thais Diaz, president of the government's National Council of Decentralization (CND), backed a people's assembly at which lead council member Alberto Sandoval Loza was designated as Ilave's mayor and the nine council members were ratified in their posts. Six people who were injured in the attack on Robles--including three council members--have accused Sandoval of leading or participating in the violence. [LR 4/27/04, 4/28/04, 4/29/04, 4/30/04, 5/1/04, 5/2/04; BBC 4/28/04] Unrest over local corruption has spread to other towns in Puno department. On Apr. 11, residents of Ayaviri, Melgar province, seized the municipal building to demand the resignation of mayor Ricardo Chavez Calderon, accused of mismanagement. On Apr. 20, residents of Paucarcolla also seized their municipal building, demanding the resignation of mayor Cosme Damian Beltran Pinedo for failing to hand over funds for an electrification project. [LR 4/28/04] On Apr. 18, some 200 Aymara residents of Tilali, in Moho province near the Bolivian border, took over the municipal building to demand the removal of mayor Melesio Larico Larico, accused of embezzlement and artificially inflating the costs of public works projects. On Apr. 28 Tilali residents took five town council members hostage and threatened to use violence if the government doesn't address their demands. [LR 4/30/04] The conflict ended on May 2 after an agreement was reached to suspend Larico from office. [CNN en Espanol 5/2/04 from AP] *9. GUATEMALA: STATE APOLOGIZES FOR MURDER On Apr. 22 Guatemalan president Oscar Berger apologized to the family of anthropologist Myrna Mack Chang, murdered by military officers in September 1990 as she was trying to investigate killings of indigenous people by the military. The apology was mandated by the Inter-American Human Rights Court in a decision officially announced on Jan. 12 [see Update #730]. The government also gave official recognition for the first time to the efforts of police investigator Jose Miguel Merida Escobar to solve the Mack murder; Merida Escobar was shot dead by unknown assailants in August 1990 just 100 meters from the National Police headquarters. The only high-ranking officer convicted in Mack's murder, Col. Valencia Osorio, remains a fugitive from justice. [Guatemala Hoy 4/20/04, 4/23/04] *10. HAITI: UN APPROVES OCCUPATION FORCE On Apr. 30 the United Nations (UN) Security Council voted unanimously to authorize a "peacekeeping mission" in Haiti made up of 6,700 soldiers and 1,622 civilians, including police agents and human rights experts. The force is to replace 3,600 US-led troops from the US, Canada, Chile and France who began deploying in Haiti as President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was removed from office on Feb. 29. The UN peacekeepers take over on June 1 for an initial period of six months. The force will be led by Brazil [see Update #741]. The UN has reportedly had trouble finding enough troops to staff the mission. [Haiti Support Group News Briefs 4/30/04 from AP; New York Times 4/30/04, 5/1/04] There continue to be reports of violence by rightwing armed groups, composed largely of former soldiers and US-linked paramilitaries. In the northwestern city of Gonaives, where the armed rebellion against Aristide and his Lavalas Family (FL) party began in February, former rebels and other anti-Aristide groups demonstrated on Apr. 25 to demand the dissolution of the National Police and the reconstitution of the army, which Aristide disbanded in 1995. A commando of about 20 ex-rebels attacked the main police station, disarming police agents, freeing prisoners and stealing vehicles parked in the courtyard. [Agence Haitienne de Presse 4/26/04] Residents of St.-Michel de l'Attalaye, a rural area south of the northern city of Cap-Haitien, say that people armed with machetes and accompanied by about 10 former soldiers killed at least four people on Apr. 29, wounded several others and set some 20 houses on fire. The victims reportedly opposed efforts by the former soldiers to replace members of the Administrative Council of the Communal Sections (CASEC), a regional council, with their own supporters. [AHP 4/29/04] Meanwhile, the interim government of US-backed interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue was trying to put together a nine-member Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) by May 1 to organize elections in 2005 to pick a new president and Parliament. Aristide's left-populist FL, which retains significant support, appeared ready to boycott the new CEP. FL representatives said Latortue's administration had failed to halt a "witch hunt" against its members. "How can they expect us to participate when our members cannot gather, when they are persecuting us and killing us?" party spokesperson Gilvert Angervil asked Reuters news service. Aristide's government was unable to organize legislative elections in 2003 because of a similar boycott by the opposition parties which now dominate the interim government [see Update #726]. [HGS News Briefs 4/26/04 from Reuters; AHP 4/30/04; Haiti Progres (NY) 4/28/04] *11. HAITI: LABOR ORGANIZERS BEATEN On Apr. 21 management goons assaulted three members of the Haitian labor organizing group Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Struggle) as they were leafleting outside the Haitian International Manufacturing, SA, plant in Port-au-Prince's industrial sector. The attack, led by a supervisor identified only as Chavannes, beat the organizers and stole a bag and some money. The company assembles garments for Crystal Brands (Izod Sportswear, Lacoste), Fun-Tees, Hilton Corporate Casuals and a number of US universities. Batay Ouvriye, which has also been organizing in the new "free trade zones" on the Dominican border [see Update #743], is asking for letters of protest to company president Albert Handal (fax +509-246-1066, email haitian_int at hotmail.com). [Campaign for Labor Rights Labor Alerts 4/30/04] *12. IN OTHER NEWS... Just after midnight on May 1, residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques set off fireworks to mark the first anniversary of the US Navy's withdrawal, after 60 years during which the Navy used much of the island for military training and as a proving ground for bombs and shells. [El Nuevo Dia (San Juan) 5/1/04]... The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony on Apr. 27 from John Negroponte about his nomination to be US ambassador to Iraq [see Update #743]. Negroponte is currently ambassador to the United Nations; he was ambassador to Honduras 1981-85, a time of major human rights violations by a secret military unit, Battalion 316. Both Republican and Democratic senators praised Negroponte's record, but a protester, Andres Thomas Conteris, Nonviolence International (NI) program director for Latin America and the Caribbean, interrupted. "Senators, please ask the ambassador about Battalion 316," Conteris called out from the audience. "Ask him about a death squad in Honduras that he supported." Guards removed Conteris from the hearing. [NI media alert 4/27/04; New York Times 04/28/04] [Conteris was on hunger strike for more than two months in 2000 to protest the US military's bombing on Vieques--see Updates #554, 556, 558] END ======================================================================= Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139 http://home.earthlink.net/~nicadlw/wnuhome.html * wnu at igc.org ======================================================================= From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 10:01:50 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:01:50 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] The Power of a Peace Candidate Message-ID: <200405031401.i43E1oH15508@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Michael P (activ-l) Washington Post Sunday, May 2, 2004; http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59791-2004May1.html The Power of a Peace Candidate By Jackson Diehl When Ralph Nader announced his independent candidacy for president in February, he claimed his chief target would be "the giant corporation in the White House . . . George W. Bush." Two months later, a more plausible agenda is beginning to emerge. The adversary is not Bush but John F. Kerry; the main subject is not corporate greed but Iraq. And, contrary to the conventional wisdom of winter, Nader may be poised for a hot summer. In February it looked as if Iraq might not be a central issue in the fall campaign. U.S casualties hit a postwar low that month, Iraqis signed a transitional constitution, and Bush and Kerry seemed to agree on the goal of establishing a democracy. Nader, according even to old friends, seemed to have no reason for his campaign other than vanity. By two weeks ago, when Nader met Washington political reporters at a breakfast, all that had changed. Twice as many American soldiers had died during the previous week in Iraq as during the entire month of February. Support for the war was dropping quickly in polls, but Kerry and Bush still mostly agreed on staying the course. And Nader had prepared a new pitch: The United States should pull all of its troops, civilian contractors and companies out of Iraq within six months. Why should voters choose Nader? Because Kerry, Nader told the reporters, "is stuck in the Iraq quagmire the same way Bush is." That leaves the independent as the sole choice for "the peace movement in this country." Polls show the potential constituency for that movement is growing rapidly. A New York Times/CBS poll last week found that 46 percent of Americans now believe the United States should withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible -- a number equal to those who agree with Kerry and Bush on sticking it out. The percentage who believed the United States should have stayed out of Iraq had risen by 50 percent since December. Nader's numbers, too, are rising. A Washington Post/ABC News poll showed him at 3 percent in early March, about equal to the 2.8 percent he polled in 2000. Five weeks later he was at 6 percent in the same poll and 5 percent in the New York Times and CNN polls. According to those polls, almost all his support has been drawn from Kerry. Democrats have been hoping that Nader, like Ross Perot, will fade in a second campaign or fail to get on the ballot in many states. But there is no sign that's happening. The campaign recently announced that it had raised $600,000 in its first two months, triple the amount Nader had at this time four years ago and enough to organize around the country. A spokesman told the Associated Press: "We're starting to establish ourselves as the only clear antiwar campaign." Nader's Iraq platform is unashamedly that of a candidate who knows he will never be called upon to implement his words. He imagines U.S. troops being replaced with a U.N.-led "international peacekeeping force from neutral nations . . . and from Islamic countries," ignoring the fact that the U.N. leadership is as unwilling to conduct such an operation as Islamic and neutral countries (Turkey? Sweden?) would be to man it. As Nader sees it, while those imaginary troops magically restored order in Fallujah and Najaf, "free and fair elections" would be held. But how would Iraqis agree on a governmental and constitutional framework? Nader admits this will be difficult but says Iraq "should be able to sort out these issues more easily" without the United States. Americans should provide humanitarian aid and help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, he adds -- but only if no U.S. company is allowed to profit from such work. To the extent this policy could be implemented at all, it's pretty clear where it would lead -- to "a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle," to borrow the words of John Kerry. In a speech last December, Kerry stated the obvious: An early and expedient U.S. withdrawal "could risk the hijacking of Iraq by terrorist groups and former Baathists." But will Kerry stick to this view if Nader continues to gain ground? Challenged by a pull-out-now heckler a couple of weeks ago, Kerry stiffly replied that "it would be unwise beyond belief for the United States of America to leave a failed Iraq in its wake." But he also seemed to change his conditions for departure. "Stability," not democracy, he said, was the "measure" for "getting our troops out." Kerry's aides say he's still committed to keeping American troops in Iraq until democratic elections are held. If that's his position in November, Nader will indeed offer antiwar Americans a real choice. They may well vote for him, registering their protest in large enough numbers to reelect the president who led the country into Iraq in the first place. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 10:03:34 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:03:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] How the Bush gang seized the `opportunity' of 9/11 (GL) Message-ID: <200405031403.i43E3YR15600@tania.blythe-systems.com> GreenLeft Weekly http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/581/581p12.htm UNITED STATES: How the Bush gang seized the `opportunity' of 9/11 Norm Dixon Even while working people were still coming to terms with the shock of witnessing the unimaginable and traumatic collapse of the World Trade Center, top US officials were describing this mass-murder of 3000 people as an opportunity, recent books by government insiders and Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward have revealed. As the country went into mourning, Bush's war cabinet quickly began to coolly debate just how soon it could get away with shifting the enemy in its coming war on terrorism to Iraq, a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks. In the days that followed September 11, 2001, the US rulers immediately recognised that those awful acts of mass murder had provided them with a golden opportunity to achieve the US capitalist ruling class' long-held objective of unchallenged world domination the American century it predicted was at hand at the end of World War II. Full story at: http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/581/581p12.htm From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 10:06:37 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:06:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] WSWS: What the 9/11 Hearings Revealed Message-ID: <200405031406.i43E6bW15685@tania.blythe-systems.com> World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/911-a22.shtml What the September 11 commission hearings revealed By Patrick Martin 22 April 2004 PART ONE The independent commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington has held five days of televised public hearings and released hundred of pages of staff reports and other documents, including much new material on the activities of US intelligence and counterintelligence agencies in the period leading up to 9/11. The information so far made public has shattered the official Bush administration version of September 11 -- that the suicide hijackings were an unanticipated and unforeseeable event and that no US government agency had any inkling that commercial jets would be seized and used as weapons. Several members of the commission have already declared that the evidence has convinced them the attacks could have been prevented. What has emerged is a picture of defenses deliberately stood down -- as commissioner Bob Kerrey described it, a government not at battle stations, but with"stacked arms." Bush administration officials displayed an unaccountable degree of indifference to the prospect of a major terrorist operation unfolding on American soil. At one point in the summer of 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft told acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard, after several briefings on the growing danger, that he didn't want to hear any more on the subject. At about the same time, Ashcroft stopped using commercial flights for government business because of security concerns. Likewise, Vice President Dick Cheney, designated the administration's point man on the threat of terrorism, received several briefings at the FBI, including one on the Al Qaeda cells believed to be active within the US. But Cheney said little in response to these briefings, Pickard testified, and did less, even as he was acting as the Rpowerful steamroller" of the Iraq war, according to the book just published by Bob Woodward. The high point of this seeming disinterest came on August 6, 2001, when Bush received a briefing on the threat of Al Qaeda while vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. There he received the now-famous CIA President's Daily Brief (PDB) entitled"Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within US," which mentioned targets in Washington and New York City and cited threats to hijack aircraft. The memorandum flatly contradicts Bush administration claims that the September 11 attacks came without warning. The Bush administration took no action in response to the August 6 PDB. In fact, there was a general relaxation of security measures that had been tightened in May in response to a series of warnings from the CIA and other intelligence agencies about Al Qaeda threats. Airline security was not relaxed, but only because it had never actually been tightened. The airlines had been urged to be more alert, but the FAA never required them to take any concrete measures to prevent a hijacking, one of the most familiar of terrorist tactics. This failure to act is so glaring that even the supine American media has been compelled to take notice. At his nationally televised press conference April 13, only the third such prime-time event in his presidency, Bush was asked directly what action he and his administration had taken in response to the August 6 PDB. Bush ducked the question and avoided any response. If the president had answered directly about his own reaction to the CIA briefing, he would have said:"I continued on my vacation for another three weeks." The White House had withheld the PDB for nearly two years, on the grounds that it contained information so sensitive that its release would damage US national security. Yet once it was made public, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice claimed the document was only a"historical review," and provided no contemporaneous reporting on which the administration could have acted to forestall the terrorist attack five weeks later. Why then the secrecy? WAS THE STAND-DOWN DELIBERATE? The September 11 commission has brought to light much new information on the period leading up to the attacks, but the much-publicized hearings have avoided the central question: was the extraordinary lack of vigilance a deliberate lowering of US defenses, carried out in order to permit terrorist attacks to take place and thereby create the conditions for the Bush administration to accomplish its goal of conquering Iraq and establishing US domination of the region where the bulk of the world's oil resources are concentrated? High-level national security officials of both the Bush and Clinton administrations told the commission that there was no public support before September 11 for US military intervention in the Middle East and Central Asia. Several of these witnesses explicitly stated that only the mass casualties at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon made such action politically possible. One witness, former Bush counter-terrorism director Richard Clarke, charged that the White House seized on September 11 as the pretext for a war with Iraq that, in his words, undermined the struggle against terrorism. But the commission virtually ignored Clarke's accusation, with Vice-Chair Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman, declaring that the panel had not been set up to investigate the war in Iraq. Not a single commissioner on the 9/11 panel has suggested, or even raised the possibility in a question, that the Bush administration not only used the terrorist attacks after the fact to achieve its foreign policy goals, but consciously facilitated them before the fact for that purpose. In their investigation of one of the greatest crimes of this century, an act of mass murder in which nearly 3,000 people were slaughtered, the commissioners have failed to pose the most basic question:"Who benefits?" A BIPARTISAN RULING-CLASS PANEL This failure is entirely predictable. The 9/11 commission is not a panel of impartial investigators divorced from the political conflicts and class divisions within American society. It consists of ten tried and tested defenders of American imperialism, five Democrats and five Republicans, many with extensive experience in the national security apparatus. The staff director, Philip Zelikow, is a close associate of Condoleezza Rice who supervised the National Security Council transition from the Clinton to the Bush administrations. The commissioners have three essential goals. First, they want to reveal enough about the background and circumstances of September 11 to maintain an aura of credibility and appease the public and the families of the victims. Second, they aim to prevent any significant damage to the key institutions of the state: the Pentagon, the intelligence agencies, the presidency itself. Third, they seek use the spotlight of the public hearings -- and their eventual report, due in July -- to push for a political agenda focused on strengthening the state and making possible more aggressive militarism abroad and more systematic repressive measures at home. In both sets of recent hearings -- the first, held last month and involving current and former national security officials, and the second, held earlier this month with a panel of current and former counter-intelligence officials -- the commissioners have taken a similar bipartisan stand: Democrats and Republicans alike have demanded stronger and more far-reaching action to wage the"war on terror." In the national security phase of the public hearings, the tone was set by Kerrey, the former Democratic senator from Nebraska and currently president of the New School University in New York City, who was publicly exposed as a Vietnam-era war criminal three years ago for his role in killing women, children and old men in a raid by his Navy Seal unit, for which he won a commendation. Kerrey repeatedly challenged Clinton administration officials on why they did not launch a full-scale military strike against Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan in 1998-99, rejecting their explanations that there was no public or international support for a US invasion of that country. (Since Afghanistan is landlocked, a US invasion force would have to pass through Iran, Pakistan or one of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia). It was the job of the president, he said, to shift public opinion and make the case for war, no matter how unpopular it might be. He criticized both Clinton and Bush administration officials for failing to respond militarily to the terrorist attack on the USS Cole, the naval warship hit by a terrorist attack in Yemen in October 2000, which killed 17 sailors. Clinton aides said that they could not order retaliation until they knew who had carried out the attack, while Bush aides said that by the time the CIA had made a final determination that Al Qaeda was responsible, early in 2001, the case was"stale." During the counter-intelligence phase of the public hearings, several members of the commission took turns blasting the FBI and CIA, with the Republican chairman, former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, reading a statement in which he condemned the FBI, in particular, for bungling pre-9/11 security preparations. The commissioners repeatedly suggested that the solution to the supposed"intelligence failure" on September 11 was to create a new, centralized super-agency to coordinate all domestic and foreign counterintelligence operations, headed by a director who would control the entire $40 billion US intelligence budget. This produced the curious spectacle of FBI and CIA officials reminding former elected officials of the danger of a police state. Strengthening the state is not the same as defending all those who presently occupy high positions within it. Some heads may roll. It is quite possible that the 9/11 commission will issue a stinging criticism of particular officials in the FBI and CIA, or even the White House. It has already stepped on the toes of the Bush administration on several occasions. But it does so from the standpoint of building up the powers of the military/intelligence apparatus and facilitating further attacks on democratic rights at home. The commission's work is complicated by the fact that the investigation unfolds in an election year, and in the midst of a raging conflict within the ruling elite, fueled by the deteriorating military and security situation in Iraq. The Bush administration adamantly opposed the establishment of the commission and resisted demands for the disclosure of documents and the production of witnesses, although it was eventually forced to comply. Kerrey remarked, to illustrate the divisions on the commission, that five of the panelists will vote for Kerry and five for Bush. One could just as easily note, however, that all ten support the war in Iraq, like the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the incumbent, George W. Bush, and all ten are creatures of the American financial aristocracy, like Kerry and Bush. In terms of the personalities involved, none of the five Republicans is associated with the Christian fundamentalist or neo-conservative factions so heavily represented in the Bush administration, while none of the five Democrats could be considered part of any"anti-war" faction of that party. They all fall into what would be considered the Rmiddle of the road" in the American bourgeois political spectrum. In that sense, even before it finalizes its conclusions, the panel can be said to represent the broadest consensus within the US political establishment. TWO INCIDENTS WITH ASHCROFT The essential bipartisan unity of the commission was revealed in two significant incidents last week. Attorney General John Ashcroft threw the political equivalent of a stink-bomb into the proceedings in the course of his opening statement, when he laid the blame for the US government's evident unpreparedness for September 11 entirely at the feet of the Clinton administration, claiming the much maligned"wall" between counter-intelligence and criminal investigations was the result of a memorandum drafted in 1995 by Jamie Gorelick, then deputy attorney general, now a Democratic member of the 9/11 commission. Commissioner Slade Gorton, a former senator from Washington State and a Republican, made Ashcroft look ridiculous, asking him whether, in the course of the eight months prior to September 11, Ashcroft had made any effort to rescind the Gorelick memo. On the contrary, Ashcroft admitted, his own deputy attorney general, Larry Thompson, had reaffirmed Gorelick's instructions in a memorandum of his own, issued August 6, 2001. Neither official was doing anything more than notifying Justice Department personnel of legal provisions adopted by Congress in the wake of Watergate-era domestic spying scandals. Since then, both Republican and Democratic commissioners have sprung to Gorelick's defense, in the face of a campaign by some right-wing Republican congressmen and such mouthpieces of the Republican right as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times to force Gorelick to resign from the panel. The second case of bipartisan collaboration involved Ashcroft as well. Towards the end of the attorney general's appearance before the commission, Democrat Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor, took Ashcroft through an obviously rehearsed explanation of why he had stopped taking commercial flights for official business, beginning in the summer of 2001. The exchange was particularly striking because it came after harsh questioning from Ben-Veniste over Pickard's testimony that Ashcroft had dismissed the importance of counter-terrorism and cut the FBI's budget in that area. Following his questioning concerning statements made by Pickard, Ben-Veniste abruptly changed the subject and made reference to the failure of the Warren Commission to address numerous conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination. The 9/11 commission should not make the same mistake, he suggested, and he offered Ashcroft the opportunity to answer persistent questions about his decision to stop using commercial aircraft and instead employ a leased jet -- a move that sparked widespread speculation that Ashcroft and his aides had advance warning of impending hijackings. Ashcroft was ready with a prepared answer: he had continued to use commercial aircraft for private travel, but had stopped using them for official business, because of an assessment made by the Department of Justice security team. The following exchange occurred: ASHCROFT: It was not related to a terrorism threat as a threat to the nation. It was related to an assessment of the security for the attorney general, given his responsibilities and the job that he undertakes. And it related to the maintenance of arms and other things by individuals who travel with the attorney general. And it was their assessment that we would be best served to use government aircraft. These were not private chartered jet aircraft. These were aircraft of the United States government. And it was on such an aircraft that I was on my way to an event in Milwaukee on the morning of September the 11th. BEN-VENISTE: I'm pleased to have been able to give you the opportunity to clarify that issue for all who have written to this commission and communicated in other ways about their questions about that, sir. This answer was, despite Ben-Veniste's ready acceptance, a dodge. No such travel arrangements were made for Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, who was a constant target of threats, especially for her role in the 1993 Waco massacre. What changed in the few months between Ashcroft's taking over the Justice Department and his decision not to fly commercially? The matter remains to be investigated. PART TWO: IGNORING THE WARNINGS -- THE FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT The recent public hearings of the 9/11 commission provided numerous examples of the inexplicable indifference, inaction or outright negligence of the Bush administration in response to warnings that a catastrophic terrorist attack was about to take place in the United States. As the New York Times noted in its summary of the evidence:"The warnings during the summer were more dire and more specific than generally recognized. Descriptions of the threat were communicated repeatedly to the highest levels within the White House. In more than 40 briefings, Mr. Bush was told by George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, of threats involving Al Qaeda." These warnings were issued throughout the spring and summer of 2001, but even as late as September 6, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would send a letter to Senator Carl Levin telling him that he would urge Bush to veto an effort to transfer money in the Pentagon's budget from missile defense to counterterrorism. Four days later, on September 10, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft rejected a similar appeal from the FBI. Acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard had objected that the Justice Department's proposed fiscal 2003 budget proposed no additional spending for counterterrorism over fiscal 2002, and asked Ashcroft to authorize an increase of $58 million. Pickard received the attorney general's response on September 12, the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. This was part of a pattern of indifference to the threat of terrorism from the time Ashcroft took office. According to the draft report of the 9/11 commission staff, FBI counterterrorism chief Dale Watson testified that he"fell off my chair" when he learned in May 2001 that Ashcroft had not listed terrorism as one of his priorities in a memo to the department staff. On May 9, 2001, Ashcroft testified at a congressional hearing on counterterrorism, and told the panel that protecting US citizens from terrorist attacks was his department's highest priority. The next day, the department issued guidelines for the 2003 budget which cited drug trafficking and gun violence as its top priorities, and made no mention of counterterrorism. Questioned about this by the commission staff, Ashcroft claimed the guidelines were based on a strategic plan developed by his predecessor, Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno. But he admitted that Reno's document included several references to counterterrorism which had been deleted in his own version. The incident reveals Ashcroft's curious duplicity on this subject, to which we will return. THE FBI AND THE THREAT OF HIJACKING It was within the FBI that two of the most important indications of the impending terrorist attacks were stifled and suppressed. These are the now notorious memos from agents in the Phoenix and Minneapolis offices. The first, drafted by Kenneth Williams, a counterterrorism specialist in Arizona, warned of suspected terrorists seeking training at local flight schools. Williams was primarily concerned that an Al Qaeda supporter could plant a bomb on a plane, on the model of the Lockerbie attack. His suggestion that flight schools should be systematically canvassed for reports of Islamic fundamentalist students, if it had been followed up, would have quickly led to the identification of several of the future 9/11 hijackers. The Minneapolis memo came in the wake of the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, an Islamic fundamentalist seeking flight training at a school in suburban Eagan, Minnesota. Local FBI officials took him into custody for an immigration violation after the flight instructors reported conduct they found suspicious. Moussaoui wanted learn how to fly a 747 although he had no appreciable skill or experience even in a small plane. He had paid in cash and had an excitable, even belligerent, personality, as was demonstrated in repeated courtroom outbursts after charges were brought against him in the wake of September 11. Thomas Pickard, the acting director of the FBI after Louis Freeh stepped down in June 2001, testified that he did not learn of either memo until a few hours after the hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He also learned for the first time, he said, that an FBI informant in San Diego, California had been linked to two of the actual hijackers, Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi. According to some published reports, the informant had befriended them and even arranged housing for them for several months in early 2000 while the two men were living in San Diego. During that time the two future hijackers were listed in the San Diego phone book -- and on an internal CIA terrorist watch list. These two men entered the United States in January 2000, after attending an alleged terrorist planning meeting in Malaysia which was being monitored for the CIA by the local secret police. CIA officials claimed, immediately after September 11, that they had informed the FBI sometime in 2000 that al Mihdhar and al Hazmi were in the United States. But both FBI and CIA officials told the 9/11 commission this month that the information was not turned over to the FBI until August 27, 2001, only two weeks before the terrorist attacks. The significance of the San Diego events was spelled out in the testimony of former FBI Director Freeh, under questioning by Democratic commissioner Timothy Roemer, a former congressman. Freeh said:"You know, the presence of those two hijackers in San Diego and their intersection with the informant, obviously, you know, a very fruitful opportunity for exploitation -- intelligence information, maybe in the best of all circumstances, leading to prevention. It would have been helpful for the FBI at that particular point in time to know the names of those two individuals.... if all of that had worked the way it could have worked and that informant, as well as informants all over the FBI's domain, were tasked to find out information about two specific people, you could have had a completely different result." According to testimony to the 9/11 commission, the CIA did not enter the names of al Mihdhar or al Hazmi on the official TIPOFF roster which notifies the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and other federal agencies that the person in question is a suspected terrorist. No explanation has been offered for the reason for this failure. As it happened, after the CIA finally notified the FBI, the information was routed to the New York City office of the bureau -- the destination al Mihdhar and al Hamzi had indicated in their visa applications. The New York office determined that the two men had never arrived there, and forwarded their names to the Los Angeles office for further investigation, on September 11, 2001. The FBI agent who handled the San Diego informant told the commission that if he had been told the two men were wanted for questioning,"I'm sure we could have located them, and we could have done it within a few days." PICKARD VS. ASHCROFT Pickard expressed concerns about Ashcroft's attitude to terrorism that were similar to those of Dale Watson, also citing the omission of counterterrorism from the May 10 memorandum. Even more striking was his statement, in an interview with the commission staff, that after he briefed the attorney general twice on terrorist threats during the summer of 2001, Ashcroft told him"he did not want to hear this information anymore." Pickard repeated this charge in the course of the following exchange with commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate special prosecutor: BEN-VENISTE: You had some seven or eight meetings with the attorney general? Pickard: Somewhere in that number. I have the exact number, but I don't know the total. BEN-VENISTE: And according to the statement that our staff took from you, you said that you would start each meeting discussing either counterterrorism or counterintelligence. At the same time the threat level was going up and was very high. Mr. Watson had come to you and said that the CIA was very concerned that there would be an attack. You said that you told the attorney general this fact repeatedly in these meetings. Is that correct? Pickard: I told him at least on two occasions. BEN-VENISTE: And you told the staff according to this statement that Mr. Ashcroft told you that he did not want to hear about this anymore. Is that correct? Pickard: That is correct. Ashcroft strongly denied Pickard's account, in the following exchange with a friendly commissioner, Republican Jim Thompson, the former governor of Illinois: Thompson: Acting Director Pickard testified this afternoon that he briefed you twice on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and when he sought to do so again you told him you didn't need to hear from him again. Can you comment on that please? ASHCROFT: First of all, Acting Director Pickard and I had more than two meetings. We had regular meetings. Secondly, I did never speak to him saying that I did not want to hear about terrorism. I care greatly about the safety and security of the American people and was very interested in terrorism and specifically interrogated him about threats to the American people and domestic threats in particular. Remarkably, there was no attempt by any of the 9/11 commissioners to determine whose account was true. Each man testified on national television, under oath, within a few hours of the other, giving diametrically opposed versions of events. One or both of these men -- the head of the Justice Department and the head of the FBI -- are lying about a central fact of the events leading up to September 11, a fact which has barely been commented on in the media. In this instance, there is no obvious reason why Pickard, who retired from the FBI in December 2001, should be lying about Ashcroft's conduct. The attorney general, on the other hand, has a clear motive for twisting the truth -- and this is not the only instance in which Ashcroft appears to have done so. Both Ashcroft and Pickard said they were unaware that President Bush had asked for a report on possible domestic attacks by Al Qaeda and had not been consulted in the preparation of the Presidential Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, which carried the headline,"Bin Laden Determined to Strike within US." The PDB claimed that the FBI was then engaged in 70 full field investigations into Al Qaeda, although both Ashcroft and Pickard said they did not know how the CIA had come up with that figure. Ashcroft said he did not have access to the PDBs before September 11, but this effort to portray himself as largely outside the loop on national security matters was punctured in questioning by Jamie Gorelick, a Democratic commissioner who was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration: GORELICK: Now here is my question: You did not get the Presidential Daily Brief, but you did get the senior executive intelligence brief that was provided to the next rung of the government. Is that correct? You got that daily? ASHCROFT: The SEIB... GORELICK: The SEIB. ASHCROFT: ... was available to me. GORELICK: On August 7, 2001, a SEIB that reflected much of -- although it was not identical to -- much of the content of the August 6 Presidential Daily Brief came out. And I would like to ask you if you remember seeing a document headed,"Terrorism: Bin Laden Determined To Strike In The United States," in the SEIB. ASHCROFT: I was briefed, and items of interest were noted for me from time to time by my staff. A PROVOCATION FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Ashcroft thus attempted, at several points in his appearance before the commission, to minimize or deny any responsibility for the Bush administration's failure to prevent the September 11 attacks. But the most defensive -- and therefore most revealing -- moment of his testimony came in his opening statement, when he launched a brazen and transparently false attack on Democratic commissioner Gorelick. He began this portion of his statement with the following declaration: RHad I known a terrorist attack on the United States was imminent in 2001, I would have unloaded our full arsenal of weaponry against it. Despite the inevitable criticism, the Justice Department's warriors, our agents and our prosecutors, would have been unleashed. Every tough tactic we have deployed since the attacks would have been deployed before the attacks." As we have already seen, this claim of ignorance is a brazen lie. Ashcroft was repeatedly warned of an impending attack on the United States, both in briefings from Pickard and through the circulation of material from the CIA and National Security Council (NSC). Then Ashcroft launched his political provocation. His statement continues:"The simple fact of September 11 is this: We did not know an attack was coming because for nearly a decade our government had blinded itself to its enemies. Our agents were isolated by government-imposed walls, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions and starved for basic information technology." Ashcroft went on to elaborate this claim, which is a reference to the so-called wall between intelligence-gathering and criminal investigations, which was a byproduct of the congressional investigations of the 1970s into domestic spying, dirty tricks, political harassment and other criminal activities by the FBI and CIA. He blamed the"wall" for the failure of the CIA to notify the FBI about al Mihdhar and al Hazmi, for the failure of the FBI to follow up on the Moussaoui arrest, and for the general lack of vigilance before September 11. In the week leading up to his testimony, Ashcroft had the Justice Department declassify a memorandum written in 1995, setting out guidelines entitled,"Instructions for Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations." Introducing the memorandum to the commission in his opening statement, he declared, RThis memorandum laid the foundation for a wall separating the criminal and intelligence investigations, as a matter of fact, established the wall following the 1993 World Trade Center attack, which at the time was the largest international terrorism attack on American soil, the largest prior to September 11. Although you understand the debilitating impact of the wall, I cannot imagine that the commission knew about this memorandum. So I have had it declassified for you and the public to review. Full disclosure compels me to inform you that the author of this memorandum is a member of the commission." This was a reference to Gorelick. There is no question that the Gorelick memorandum is a deliberate red herring, introduced into the proceedings for two purposes: to smear and intimidate potential critics of the Bush administration, and to distract attention from the ongoing cover-up of the role of US intelligence agencies in relation to September 11. Commissioner Slade Gorton, a former Republican senator from Washington State, defended Gorelick in his questioning of Ashcroft, exposing the fact that in August 2001, Ashcroft's own deputy attorney general, Larry Thompson, reaffirmed the guidelines for separation of intelligence and criminal investigations. This came in the following exchange: GORTON: Your second issue is a severe criticism of the 1995 guidelines that, as you say, imposed draconian barriers to communications between law enforcement and the intelligence communities, the so-called wall. I don't find that in the eight months before September 11, 2001, that you changed those guidelines. In fact, I have here a memorandum dated August 6 from Larry Thompson, the fifth line of which reads,"The 1995 procedures remain in effect today." If that wall was so disabling, why was it not destroyed during the course of those eight months? ASHCROFT: The August 6 memorandum of Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson made possible significantly more information sharing by mandating that those individuals involved in intelligence investigations who came across information relating to a felony federal offense immediately provide notice of that felony federal offense to people on the criminal side of the house. It was a step in the direction of disabling the wall. It was a step in the direction of lowering the wall, providing for greater communication. GORTON: But it was after August 6, 2001, that Moussaoui was picked up and the decision was made in the FBI that you couldn't get a warrant to search his computer. So those changes must not have been very significant. ASHCROFT: I missed your question, Commissioner. GORTON: Well, you say as a part of your criticism of the 1995 guidelines, after the FBI arrested Moussaoui, agents became suspicious of his interest in commercial aircraft and sought approval for a criminal warrant to search his computer. The warrant was rejected because FBI officials had feared breaching the wall. Yet that was after these changes that you say were significant on August 6. More fundamentally, the Ashcroft provocation -- and of much of the media commentary about September 11, 2001 -- is based on a gross distortion of the actual conditions under which US counterintelligence operated before the events of that day. Former Attorney General Janet Reno declared in her prepared statement to the 9/11 commission:"There are simply no walls or restrictions on sharing the vast majority of counterterrorism information. There are no legal restrictions at all on the ability of members of the intelligence community to share intelligence information with each other. RWith respect to sharing between intelligence investigators and criminal investigators, information learned as a result of a physical surveillance or from a confidential informant can be legally shared without restriction. RWhile there were restrictions placed on information gathered by criminal investigators as a result of grand jury investigations or Title 3 wiretaps, in practice they did not prove to be a serious impediment, since there was very little significant information that could not be shared." The largely mythical"wall" is not the reason why the FBI and CIA failed to make any serious effort to forestall the terrorist attacks of September 11. The source of their inaction -- or deliberate complicity -- must be found in the political requirements of the Bush administration, which was seeking a pretext to launch US military intervention in Central Asia and the Middle East. PART THREE: THE CIA AND AL QAEDA The testimony this month before the national commission investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks completely contradicts the longstanding claims by the Bush administration that"no one could have imagined" the use of hijacked airliners as weapons of mass destruction. (National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice made this claim in May 2002, when it became known that the CIA had briefed President Bush on August 6, 2001, six weeks before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, on the threat of terrorism within the United States directed by Osama bin Laden.) The CIA issued National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) in both 1995 and 1997 that warned of attacks on US landmarks in Washington and New York City, and the use of hijacked airliners. This fact was made public by CIA officials who spoke to the media in response to criticisms in the draft report issued by the staff of the 9/11 commission. The 1995 estimate did not name Al Qaeda, but attributed the threats to Islamic fundamentalists opposed to the US presence in the Middle East. According to an unnamed"senior US intelligence official" quoted in the Associated Press, the 1997 NIE"identified bin Laden and his followers and threats they were making and said it might portend attacks inside the United States." According to the AP account:"The intelligence official also said that while the 1995 intelligence assessment did not mention bin Laden or al-Qaida by name, it clearly warned that Islamic terrorists were intent on striking specific targets inside the United States like those hit on Sept. 11, 2001. The report specifically warned that civil aviation, Washington landmarks such as the White House and Capitol, and buildings on Wall Street were at the greatest risk of a domestic terror attack by Muslim extremists, the official said." The 1997 estimate contained much more precise data on bin Laden, based on the account of a former top aide who quit al Qaeda when the group shifted its operations from the Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. The former terrorist walked into a US embassy in the region and provided a large volume of information. Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin told the 9/11 commission that the 1997 estimate"included information that people associated with bin Laden had been surveilling institutions in the United States, and that therefore we concluded the likelihood was growing that he would attack in the United States. That was, I think, the most significant finding in the '97 NIE." THE AFGHAN MUJAHEDDIN The subject of the CIA's longer-term connection with Al Qaeda -- whose origins lie in the CIA-organized Islamic fundamentalist mujaheddin who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul -- was barely touched on in the commission hearing. Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democrat and former Watergate prosecutor, raised the subject in a brief exchange with CIA Director George Tenet, which went as follows: BEN-VENISTE: The CIA provided massive aid to the mujaheddin fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan on the theory that our enemy's enemy could be our friend. What has continued to puzzle and troubled me, George, is this: Didn't the CIA -- knowing the proclivities and the extreme xenophobia of these jihadists, who the CIA had helped to arm and train -- why didn't the CIA seek to penetrate these organizations and keep close track of them in the years that followed the disbanding of the effort in Afghanistan? Tenet: Well, first of all, there was an accommodation of mutual convenience, because we had a common enemy. And, in fact, if you go back and look at some of the planning that we did, we went back and found people that used to work for us who became part of our networks again. Equally, you found other people that were fighting you, people who had become jihadists. There are people in Afghanistan today fighting us that we knew way back when, and people in Afghanistan today who are on our side. So, I mean, we had an advantage in terms of understanding all of the personalities on the ground, who they were, what their networks looked like, so it was a plus. But, you know, we drove the Russians out and essentially the United States left Afghanistan right after all of that, and the Taliban emerged and took a country down and allowed a terrorist organization to run a state. So the history here is interesting on all sides. BEN-VENISTE: But given the fact that these were people trained in lethal modalities, who hated foreigners in Muslim countries, which is a basis of their attempt to throw the Russians out, don't you think you could have been more effective following up on some of these personalities, who include Osama bin Laden? Tenet: Well, but we didn't train him, Richard. But the point of the matter is, a guy like Masood [Mohammed Shah Masood, head of the Northern Alliance who was assassinated September 9, 2001] is somebody we met in this conflict and continued to work with. I mean, you know, we kept track of some of these people. We didn't keep track of all these people. Many of them show up as jihadists in other conflicts around the world. Ben-Veniste's questioning was perfunctory, and Tenet's replies raise more questions than they answer. He concedes that the CIA had enormous opportunities in seeking to penetrate Al Qaeda, particularly in its Afghanistan base, because of the longstanding relationship with the anti-communist Islamic fundamentalists who were recruited for the war against the Soviet army in the 1980s by then-CIA Director William Casey. But after Tenet's concession that"we had an advantage in terms of understanding all of the personalities on the ground, who they were, what their networks looked like, so it was a plus," the commission simply dropped the subject. This comment, however, makes nonsense of the claim that it was impossible to forestall the September 11 attacks because the CIA had no"assets" within the camp of Al Qaeda. Clearly, the CIA was in far better position to understand bin Laden and his cohorts, know their movements and operations, even influence their decisions, than it was with targets of American intelligence activities in many other parts of the world. The question which was not raised in the commission hearing, and has rarely been voiced publicly, is when, or even if, the CIA actually parted company with bin Laden, its former comrade-in-arms. INCOMPETENCE OR OBSTRUCTION? This background provides the necessary context for assessing the claims that instances of CIA failure to pursue the investigation into Al Qaeda, documented in the draft report of the commission staff or in televised questioning of the major witnesses, were to be explained as Rmistakes." Rather than mere incompetence, these incidents suggest a systematic pattern of obstructing aggressive action against Al Qaeda operatives. The incidents include the following: * As early as 1999, the CIA was given the first name and telephone number of one of the future hijackers, Marwan al-Shehhi, believed to be the pilot of United Airlines Flight 175, one of the planes that struck the World Trade Center. The German intelligence service obtained the name and phone number, but al-Shehhi was never located, although he continued to use the phone number during the period before the attacks. * In early 2000, as noted in a previous part of this series, the CIA learned that two of the future hijackers, Khalil al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hawazmi, had attended an Al Qaeda meeting in Malaysia. A clandestine search of al-Mihdhar's hotel room produced a photocopy of his passport, showing a visa stamp permitting him to enter the United States. When the two flew to Bangkok, in the company of a third Al Qaeda member, the CIA failed to notify its Bangkok station in time to track the movements of the suspected terrorist with a US entry visa. Only after the fact, the agency says, did it learn that al-Mihdhar and al-Hawazmi had boarded a flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles, indicating their final destination was New York City. * The CIA did not inform any domestic US police or security agency until August 2001 that the two suspected Al Qaeda operatives had arrived in the United States early in 2000. During this time, al-Mihdhar and al-Hawazmi were listed in the San Diego phone book, al-Hawazmi took flight training, and al-Mihdhar applied for and received a reentry visa from the US State Department, which had never been asked to add his name to its terrorist watch list. The two men's names only reached the Los Angeles FBI office on September 11, 2001, a few hours after they had boarded American Airlines Flight 77, the plane that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. There are allegations of CIA contact with other hijackers that have been raised in the European press but never pursued either in the US media or the 9/11 commission. The German public television network ARD and the British newspaper the Guardian reported in late 2001 that alleged hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta had been the subject of monitoring by American intelligence agents for several months in 2000, during the time when he traveled between Hamburg and Frankfurt and bought large quantities of chemicals that could be used to make explosives. Yet in the first several months of 2001 Atta went in and out of the United States several times, never being stopped by immigration authorities, although his tourist visa had expired. ONCE AGAIN -- THE STRANGE CASE OF ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI By far the most important revelation about the role of the CIA in September 11 to emerge from the commission hearings is a fuller account of the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the Al Qaeda supporter who is now on trial for his alleged connection to the terrorist attacks. Moussaoui was arrested on August 13, 2001 on immigration charges after his conduct at a Minneapolis-area flight school aroused suspicion. He demanded to learn how to fly a Boeing 747, despite limited training and no aptitude for flying smaller planes. He was loud, intolerant and paid cash. As is now well known, the FBI agents in Minneapolis recognized that Moussaoui's case was of potentially great significance. They forwarded a request to FBI headquarters in Washington for a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer and conduct other standard investigatory measures, but an FBI supervisor, David Frasca, turned them down. Top FBI and Justice Department officials said they were never informed of the request until after September 11. But according to the testimony before the 9/11 commission, the same information was routed to the CIA and went right to the top. The Moussaoui case became known to CIA officers working on a joint FBI-CIA counterterrorism task force in the Twin Cities, and they sent the details swiftly up the chain of command -- first to Director of Operations James Pavitt and Deputy CIA Director McLaughlin a week after Moussaoui's arrest, and then, on August 23 or 24, to Tenet himself. Tenet told the 9/11 commission that he had received and read a briefing paper on Moussaoui, the headline of which was"Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly." This extraordinary document -- the existence and title of which had not been previously disclosed -- was followed by even more extraordinary inaction. The director of the CIA, after nearly a decade of increasing warnings of Al Qaeda terrorist attacks and threats of hijackings and the use of airliners as weapons, read the report, and did nothing. As the commission staff report observed:"In late August, the Moussaoui arrest was briefed to the DCI [Director of Central Intelligence -- i.e., Tenet] and other top CIA. officials under the heading TIslamic Extremist Learns to Fly'... The news had no evident effect on warning." A week later, on August 31, Tenet briefed President Bush on the latest in terrorist attacks, but made no mention of the case of Moussaoui. Nor did he mention the case at a meeting September 4 in the White House, where cabinet-level"principals" gathered to approve a new presidential National Security Decision Directive on terrorism. Tenet said he did not raise the subject himself because he assumed Rthat this was something that would be laid down in front of" the White House Counterterrorism Security Group run by Richard Clarke. But in fact, Clarke was never informed, even though the FBI was notified on August 26 by French intelligence that Moussaoui had been linked to Al Qaeda recruiting of Islamic fundamentalists for the war against Russian troops in Chechnya. The time sequence and political context of these events makes Tenet's failure to report the incident even more extraordinary. According to several Bush administration witnesses, Tenet briefed Bush personally on raw intelligence about possible terrorist threats on at least 40 occasions between January and July 2001. Bush's apologists have cited these briefings as evidence that Bush was deeply concerned about the threat of terrorism, in order to rebut charges by Richard Clarke and others that the Bush administration was so preoccupied with preparing for war with Iraq that it ignored obvious dangers of an Al Qaeda attack. On August 6, 2001, allegedly in response to a personal request from Bush, the CIA drew up and Tenet approved the Presidential Daily Briefing headlined"Bin Laden Determined to Strike In US," which included a prominent warning of the danger of hijackings and threats to attack New York and Washington. Less than three weeks later, Tenet received the report entitled"Islamic Fundamentalist Learns to Fly." (It is not known whether he also learned of the comment by one Minneapolis FBI agent, who warned that Moussaoui might be the type who would fly a 747 into a skyscraper.) Tenet himself conceded, in questioning by the 9/11 panel, that he was familiar with a series of warnings from 1994 on of the use of hijacked planes as weapons, including attempts to hijack an Air France jet and fly it into the Eiffel Tower, and an effort to hit the CIA headquarters itself in Langley, Virginia, with a plane loaded with explosives. Commissioner Timothy Roemer questioned Tenet on why he did not raise the issue before September 11, noting that he had remarked, immediately after hearing that hijacked planes had struck the World Trade Center, that this might have something to do with the arrest at a Minneapolis flight school. Clearly, then, the Moussaoui case had been on his mind: Roemer: In the Woodward book, you say, immediately upon learning of the 9/11 attacks, that it's Al Qaeda, and you mention somebody in a flight school. Why would you assume that that would be...? Tenet: Because all terrorist... Roemer: Why not bring it up to the principals? This is the first principals' meeting in seven months on terrorism. Why wouldn't that be something that you would think would be interesting to this discussion? Tenet: The nature of the discussion we had that morning was on the Predator, how we would fly it, whether we... Roemer: But it's an overall policy discussion about Al Qaeda and how we fight Al Qaeda. Tenet: Well, it just wasn't -- for whatever reason. All I can tell you is just it wasn't the appropriate place. I just can't take you any farther than that. In the course of this questioning, Tenet exhibited a remarkably porous memory. Although coming in with a prepared statement and clearly expecting to be questioned about the Bush administration's internal discussions on terrorism before September 11, Tenet"forgot" that he had briefed Bush twice in August, claiming he had not seen the president that month. He also said, incorrectly, that Condoleezza Rice had been present at the August 6, 2001 briefing with the PDB on bin Laden, although this was conducted at Bush's ranch in Texas by a CIA briefer, while Rice remained in Washington. He also could not account for the claim in the PDB that the FBI was conducting 70 full field investigations throughout the United States on bin Laden-related threats -- a claim that FBI officials have since disputed. And finally, he claimed that he could not remember what the CIA actually did in response to the briefing he received on the Moussaoui case. The 9/11 commission staff concluded, in its draft report, that if the US government had announced the arrest of Moussaoui in August 2001 and publicized the concern that he intended to hijack airliners, the resulting publicity"might have disrupted the plot" that led to nearly 3,000 deaths on September 11. Commission Chairman Thomas Kean said that prognosis was based on after-the-fact psychological profiles of the hijackers, who were said to be"very careful and very jumpy." RA maximum US effort to investigate Moussaoui could conceivably have unearthed his connections to the Hamburg cell, though this might have required an extensive effort, with help from foreign governments," the staff report said. The Federal Aviation Administration was warned September 4 about Moussaoui's activities, but it never passed this on either to the airlines or the public. There is one further contradiction in the 9/11 commission testimony on Moussaoui. Tenet, like other witnesses on the issue, said that the FBI had sought intelligence information on Moussaoui from the CIA in order to get a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) from the special FISA court that authorizes such investigations. Attorney General John Ashcroft, however, in his testimony, said the FBI had sought an ordinary criminal warrant to authorize a search of Moussaoui's computer. The warrant was not sought under FISA, he said. It was, he claimed, rejected by FBI officials who wanted to preserve the option to seek a FISA warrant later. The legal distinction is an obscure one, but the conflict is nonetheless important. Once again, as at several other points in the 9/11 hearings, two top US government officials -- in this case the CIA Director and the Attorney General -- gave diametrically opposed accounts of an issue. Yet there was no effort by any member of the panel to point out this contradiction or determine whether Tenet or Ashcroft was lying. PART FOUR: A DELIBERATE STAND-DOWN AGAINST AIRPLANE HIJACKINGS The following is the concluding part of a series on the recent hearings in Washington DC investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The first part was posted April 22, Part two was posted April 26 and Part three on April 27. One of the standard claims of the Bush administration and its apologists has been that, before September 11, no one could have imagined the use of hijacked airplanes as flying bombs. Perhaps the most categorical of these statements came in May 2002 from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. She was responding to a barrage of press reports just after the existence of the now-famous August 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Brief had been made public. Contrary to the claims that the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were a bolt from the blue, the White House was compelled to admit that Bush had been given a top-secret briefing by the CIA only five weeks before September 11, focused on the danger of Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on US soil. The Bush administration was under fire for having concealed the existence of the briefing, and Rice was called on to address the issue at a press conference. Visibly distressed and agitated, she answered question after question, then finally declared:"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile." THE USE OF PLANES AS WEAPONS This contention was the subject of lengthy questioning by 9/11 commission member Richard Ben-Veniste, a Democrat and former Watergate prosecutor, in the course of the appearances by two witnesses, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former FBI Director Louis Freeh. Ben-Veniste established two central facts: that US intelligence agencies had long considered the danger of hijacked airplanes being used as weapons; and that the Bush administration was aware of these concerns. Responding to a comment by Rumsfeld during his appearance before the 9/11 commission in March, echoing Rice's mantra of"no one could have imagined," Ben-Veniste went through the litany of warnings assembled by the commission staff. These were based not even on intelligence sources, but on published reports widely available on the Internet. He challenged Rumsfeld, who was appearing side-by-side with General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to respond. BEN-VENISTE: With respect to your comment about domestic intelligence and what we knew as of September 10, 2001, your statement was that you knew of no intelligence to suggest that planes would be hijacked in the United States and flown into buildings. Well, it is correct that the United States intelligence community had a great deal of intelligence suggesting that the terrorists, back since 1994, had plans, discussed plans, to use airplanes as weapons, loaded with fuel, loaded with bombs, loaded with explosives. The Algerians had a plan in '94 to fly a plane into the Eiffel Tower. The Bojinka plot in '95 discussed flying an explosive-laden small plane into CIA headquarters. Certainly CIA was well aware of that. There were plans in '97 using a UAV. In '98, an Al Qaeda -- connected group talked about flying a commercial plane into the World Trade Center. In '98, there was a plot broken up by Turkish intelligence involving the use of a plane as a weapon. In '99, there was a plot involving exploding a plane at an airport. Also in '99, there was a plot regarding an explosive-laden hang-glider. In '99 or in 2000, there was a plot regarding hijacking a 747. And in August of 2001, there was information received by our intelligence community regarding flying a plane into the Nairobi embassy, our Nairobi embassy. And so I suggest that when you have this threat spike in the summer of 2001 that said something huge was going to happen and the FAA circulates, as you mentioned, a warning which does nothing to alert people on the ground to the potential threat of jihadist hijacking, which only, it seems to me, despite the fact that they read into the congressional record the potential for a hijacking threat in the United States, in the summer of 2001, it never gets to any actionable level. Nobody at the airports is alerted to any particular threat. Nobody flying the planes takes action of a defensive posture. I understand that going after Al Qaeda overseas is one thing. But protecting the United States is another thing. And it seems to me that a statement that we could not conceive of such a thing happening really does not reflect the state of our intelligence community as of 2001, sir. RUMSFELD: A couple of comments. I quite agree with you, there were a number of reports about potential hijacking. I even remember comments about UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles -- i.e., drones]. I even have seen things about private aircraft hitting something. But I do not recall ever seeing anything in the period since I came back to government about the idea of taking a commercial airliner and using it as a missile. I just don't recall seeing it. And maybe you do, Dick? MYERS: No, I do not. BEN-VENISTE: Well, the fact is that our staff has -- and the joint inquiry before us, I must say -- has come up with eight or ten examples which are well known in the intelligence community. My goodness, there was an example of an individual who flew a small plane and landed right next to the White House. RUMSFELD: I remember. BEN-VENISTE: Crash landed that. The CIA knew that there was a plot to fly an explosive-laden plane into CIA headquarters. So we do, within our intelligence community, have very much in mind the fact that this is a potential technique. WHAT US INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES KNEW At the April public hearing, the 9/11 commissioner took FBI Director Freeh through the following discussion, which confirms that US intelligence agencies had considered the danger of hijacked airplanes being used as weapons as far back as the mid-1990s: BEN-VENISTE: Let me turn to the subject of the state of the intelligence community's knowledge regarding the potential for the use of airplanes as weapons, a subject of obvious interest to this commission. Did the subject of planes as weapons come up in planning for security of the Olympics held in Atlanta in 1996? FREEH: Yes, I believe it came up in a series of these, as we call them, special events. These were intergovernmental planning strategy sessions and operations. And I think in the years 2000, 2001, even going back maybe to the 2000 Olympics, that was always one of the considerations in the planning. And resources were actually designated to deal with that particular threat. BEN-VENISTE: So it was well-known in the intelligence community that one of the potential areas or devices to be used by terrorists, which they had discussed, according to our intelligence information, was the use of airplanes, either packed with explosives or otherwise, in suicide missions? FREEH: That was part of the planning for those events, that's correct. Ben-Veniste then focused on the transition from the Clinton to the second Bush administration, and particularly the planning for the Genoa summit of the G-8 countries, in June 2001: BEN-VENISTE: Did that come up, the same subject, come up again? I know you carried on from the Clinton administration through six months, more or less, of the Bush administration. Did that subject come up again in the planning for the G-8 summit in Italy? FREEH: I don't recall that it did, but I would not have been involved in that planning. The FBI would not have been involved in that particular planning. BEN-VENISTE: We were advised that there was a CAP or no-fly zone imposed over first Naples, in the preplanning session, and then Genoa during the meeting of the eight heads of state. And that subsequently it was disclosed the President Mubarak of Egypt had warned of a potential suicide flight using explosive-packed airplanes to fly into the summit meeting. FREEH: I don't dispute that. But that planning would be done by the Secret Service, probably the Department of Defense. We would not have been involved in that event outside the United States in terms of the special planning, although we probably detailed some people there. The questioning then shifted to air defense plans against such suicide hijackings: BEN-VENISTE: Let me ask you this: To your knowledge, coming back to the United States, was the intelligence information accumulated by the year 2001 regarding various plots, real or otherwise, to crash planes using suicide pilots integrated into any air defense plan for protecting the homeland, and particularly our nation's capital? FREEH: I'm not aware of such a plan. BEN-VENISTE: Can you explain why it was, given the fact that we knew this information, and given the fact that, as we know now, our air defense system on 9/11 was looking outward in a Cold War-posture, rather than inward, in a protective posture, that we didn't have such a plan? Was that a failure of the Clinton administration, was that a failure of the Bush administration, given all of the information that we had accumulated at that time? FREEH: Well, I mean, I don't know that I would characterize it as a failure by either administration. I know, you know, by that time there were air defense systems with respect to the White House. There were air defense systems that the military command in the Washington DC area, you know, had incorporated. I don't think there were probably -- at least I never was aware of a plan that contemplated commercial airliners being used as weapons after a hijacking. I don't think that was integrated in any plan. Significantly, according to Freeh and Ben-Veniste, the Pentagon was involved in air defense plans for the Genoa summit, where for security reasons Bush slept on a US Navy ship anchored offshore, rather than in an Italian hotel. Anti-aircraft weapons were deployed around the city with orders to shoot down a hijacked plane that might target the assembled presidents and prime ministers. But no such precautions were taken in Washington DC. THE NORAD EXERCISE Coincident with last month's public questioning of CIA and FBI officials by the 9/11 commission, the Washington Post reported that the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, had discussed the possibility of a hijacked jetliner being flown into the Pentagon in a suicide attack only months before September 11 -- and after Rumsfeld had assumed control of the Department of Defense. The Post article, published April 15, said:"While planning a high-level training exercise months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S. military officials considered a scenario in which a hijacked foreign commercial airliner flew into the Pentagon, defense officials said yesterday." This report was based on an email message from a retired army officer, written just after September 11, defending the conduct of NORAD during the terrorist attacks. The air defense agency was widely criticized for the unaccountable delay in scrambling jet fighters over New York City and Washington after the four hijackings were reported to the FAA. The officer recalled that the hijacking scenario had been proposed by one NORAD planner and was rejected by"Joint Staff action officers" as Rtoo unrealistic." His email also cited opposition from the US Pacific Command, which regarded the notion as a distraction from"their exercise objectives." A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the scenario had been suggested and rejected for the exercise, known as Positive Force, which was to practice control of military forces under wartime conditions where the Pentagon building itself had been made unusable. NORAD's role on September 11 will be the subject of further testimony before the 9/11 commission later in May. Forty-four minutes elapsed between the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center and the launching of fighters from the Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. No fighters were launched from Andrews Air Force Base, the closest facility to Washington. It remains unclear when President Bush issued an order to authorize air defense fighters to shoot down hijacked airliners, and how or even whether that order was communicated through the Pentagon to NORAD fighter pilots. NORAD officers have said they did not learn of the order until 10:10 a.m. on the day of the attacks, after the fourth jet crashed in rural Pennsylvania. The agency initially failed to turn over documents sought by the 9/11 commission, forcing the panel to issue a formal subpoena to the Pentagon. WHY NO PRECAUTIONS AGAINST AN ORDINARY HIJACKING? The"failure of imagination" claims fall to pieces if one simply accepts their premise and asks a logical follow-up question. Suppose it is conceded, against all the historical evidence, that no one in the Bush administration conceived of the possibility that hijacked airliners could be used as flying bombs. But what about measures to prevent a hijacking of the more familiar character, in which the hijackers seek to take the passengers hostage for some political purpose? It is clear from the record that elementary security precautions against such an attack were neglected. On July 5, 2001, in response to multiple intelligence alerts and the constant pressure from Richard Clarke, the top counterterrorist official at the National Security Council, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, asked the heads of major domestic agencies to meet in the White House to be briefed by Clarke. The agencies summoned included, in addition to the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Customs Service, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. On July 6, an email message from Clarke to Rice outlined a number of steps agreed on at the meeting, including a decision that the FBI, CIA and Pentagon would develop"detailed response plans in the event of three to five simultaneous attacks." Yet the substance of these decisions was not communicated to the officials responsible for carrying them out. Neither FAA Administrator Jane Garvey nor her boss, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, was informed of the decisions of the July 5 meeting. The FAA issued a security warning to the airlines, urging greater awareness of the threat of hijacking, but did not require any specific actions. FBI field offices were never informed of the warnings of domestic terrorist attacks. According to the 9/11 staff preliminary report,"Beginning on July 27, the FAA issued several security directives to US air carriers prior to September 11. In addition, the FAA issued a number of general warnings about potential threats, primarily overseas, to civil aviation. None of these warnings required the implementation of additional aviation security measures. They urged air carriers to be alert." Democratic commissioner Jamie Gorelick, deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, raised the issue with Condoleezza Rice during her testimony April 8, but Bush's national security adviser seemed tongue-tied. GORELICK: And let me just give you some facts as I see them and let you comment on them. First of all, while it may be that Dick Clarke was informing you, many of the other people at the CSG-level, and the people who were brought to the table from the domestic agencies, were not telling their principals. Secretary Mineta, the secretary of transportation, had no idea of the threat. The administrator of the FAA, responsible for security on our airlines, had no idea. Yes, the attorney general was briefed, but there was no evidence of any activity by him about this. You indicate in your statement that the FBI tasked its field offices to find out what was going on out there. We have no record of that. The Washington field office international terrorism people say they never heard about the threat, they never heard about the warnings, they were not asked to come to the table and shake those trees. SACs, special agents in charge, around the country -- Miami in particular -- no knowledge of this. And so, I really come back to you -- and let me add one other thing. Have you actually looked at the -- analyzed the messages that the FBI put out? RICE: Yes. GORELICK: To me, and you're free to comment on them, they are feckless. They don't tell anybody anything. They don't bring anyone to battle stations. Former Senator Bob Kerrey, a Democratic commissioner who is a fervent supporter of the war in Iraq, summed up the contradictions in the Bush administration's claim that it was surprised on September 11 despite being at"battle stations," as Rice put it, against the threat of Al Qaeda terrorism. He was questioning former CIA counterterrorism chief Cofer Black, and he made reference to the tape-recorded discussion between Betty Ong, a flight attendant who died on one of the hijacked jets, and FAA controllers on the ground: KERREY: Let me ask you one last question: How in God's name did this thing happen? I've got to tell you, I hear battle stations and everything we're doing, and at our airports we were at ease. We were stacked arms. We were not prepared for a hijacking. And you may say,"Well, we didn't know all the conspiracy" -- a hijacking surprised us. That's what Betty Ong said, when we heard her voice, that the government and the FAA -- none of us were prepared for even a simple hijacking. How in God's name did that happen? BLACK: Am I meant to answer that, sir? KERREY: Yes. If you can. If can't fine. I mean, I'm not sure I could. BLACK: My answer is that I don't know, but what I will say is that, from my perspective, that's why we tend to be a group of pretty paranoid people who don't get to sleep much. Kerrey's point is worth pondering. The warhawk senator expresses exasperation at the transparent falseness of the Bush administration's claims that it had taken the threat of terrorist attacks seriously before 9/11. Even elementary precautions against conventional hijacking were not taken, he points out. Why not? The suggestion that the entire, vast US intelligence apparatus went to sleep, folded up shop,"failed to imagine," etc., is simply preposterous. The far more plausible answer -- which neither Kerrey nor Black can dare to utter -- is that at some level the US government stood down its defenses deliberately. The Bush administration wanted a terrorist attack, perhaps an airline hijacking that would put at risk a few hundred people, to provide the pretext for the worldwide campaign of military aggression which has already seen US forces overthrow two governments and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq. Rice, Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney & Co. have made incessant -- and curiously worded -- claims to the effect that if they had known that terrorists were going to hijack four airplanes on September 11 and fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, they would have done something about it. If there is any truth to these claims, it is this: the Bush administration was probably only generally aware that a terrorist attack was coming, and privately welcomed it as a casus belli. Its"failure to imagine" was that it did not anticipate the colossal damage that would be inflicted on September 11. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 10:09:04 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:09:04 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Colombia 3: 'Clear-Cut Case' Anything But Message-ID: <200405031409.i43E94s15805@tania.blythe-systems.com> Boston Herald - May 3, 2004 http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=18890 Clear-Cut Case Anything But In Colombia Trial Of Irish Trio By Jim Dee/ Irish Times BELFAST, Northern Ireland -When three Irishmen were arrested leaving the jungle base of Colombian rebels in August 2001 and accused of teaching bomb-making, the case against them seemed open- and-shut. It wasn't. After eight months of weighing the evidence, Colombian judge Jairo Acosta last week acquitted James Monaghan, 58, Martin McCauley, 41, and Niall Connolly, 38. But he convicted them on the lesser offense of having false passports. The trio's arrest, along with claims the Irish Republican Army burgled Belfast's Castlereagh police station in March 2002 and spied inside the Stormont assembly in October 2002, derailed the power-sharing government here. Pro-British unionists ridiculed the men's claim that they'd visited territory then controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to study Colombia's peace process (which later unraveled) and view the exotic scenery. Unionists saw the men's pasts as damning.Monaghan was jailed for IRA offenses and McCauley had a firearms conviction. Connolly was Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba. Early press accounts fueled unionists' anger. The men's clothes were reportedly covered with explosives residue. And, when they weren't teaching Mortar 101, they were allegedly testing new IRA missiles. The Central Intelligence Agency supposedly even had satellite photos of them doing so. And the Colombian army boasted of having a video of them teaching bomb-making. But the press don't try cases, courts do. And when the trial opened in Bogota in October 2002, the prosecution's case was weak. The original incriminating forensic tests on the men's clothing were supplied by a machine owned by the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. But 100 subsequent tests by Colombia's forensic labs were far less conclusive and, in many cases, found nothing at all. Promised photographic and video evidence never materialized. The prosecution had trouble producing its witnesses - two FARC defectors - despite both allegedly being under police protection. When they did testify, they claimed they'd seen the men teaching FARC several times in the months before their arrests. But several Irish politicians testified Connolly attended an Irish government function in Havana when the FARC defectors put him in Colombia. And dated video tapes produced by the defense showed Monaghan and McCauley in Dublin when they were alleged to have been in Colombia. Prosecutors will appeal the bomb-making acquittals, which unionists here derided as ``jungle justice.'' Unionists ask why innocent men would use false passports. Their defenders say the three known Irish republicans could have been killed by right-wing Colombian paramilitaries (FARC foes who've murdered 14,000 since 1986) if they hadn't. Whatever the truth, the bottom line is they've been acquitted on the most serious charge. And in February, three men accused of spying for the IRA inside Stormont had those charges dropped. No one has been charged with the Castlereagh break-in. But unionists still cite all three as definitive proof that republicans aren't serious about peace. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 10:49:19 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 10:49:19 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] NYC Wants to Corporatize Street Vending Message-ID: <200405031449.i43EnJF17315@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Robert Lederman Taking the Vendors Out Of Vending by Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) NYC officials want to replace the City's independent street vendors with corporate-owned vending concessions and 3,300 sidewalk advertising kiosks. Here's how they plan on tricking the vendors into helping them do it. Get ready for a whole new strategy in the War Against Vendors, a "comprehensive vending law." It will be presented by City officials as an effort to help vendors. The Department of Consumer Affairs (the City agency in charge of vending) hopes they can trick vendors into supporting these radical changes which will coordinate vending, sidewalk planters and street furniture ad kiosks all under one law. Why is such a law needed? To take the vendors out of vending. NYC officials are not really against sidewalk vending, which they see as a way for the City to potentially make hundreds of millions of dollars a year. They're just against vendors, whose legal rights are an obstacle to this plan being put into effect. Will vendors see the "trick" behind the "treats?" Here's the bait that will be offered to gain vendors' support for what City officials are referring to as both a "comprehensive vending law" and a "comprehensive sidewalk policy." 1. issuing hundreds of new vending licenses 2. eliminating the restrictions on which streets it is legal to vend on 3. eliminating the limits on size and placement of displays, including the 20 foot from a door rule 4. guaranteeing all vendors a reserved spot 5. putting all vendors under one uniform law rather than having conflicting rules for artists, veterans, food vendors and general vendors. What's wrong with these changes to the vending laws? Make sure to read the fine print before you lend your support to this deal with the devil. The Concession Imperative "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." - George Washington For the past ten years public officials have hinted that they want to turn sidewalk vending into a concession system. They are now ready to make that system a reality. What features would it have? NYC already has a highly profitable vending concession system. Throughout the NYC Parks corporate vendors competitively bid huge sums of money to obtain a monopoly on multiple reserved vending spots. With the Parks concession system expanded to the streets the City hopes to make hundreds of millions of dollars per year from sidewalk vending. It also hopes to eliminate the time and expense of enforcement against what are now estimated to be 10,000 independent sidewalk vendors. Here's an excerpt from a recent article about the Parks concession system. NY Post 4/5/04 Riches A La Cart "They're the pushcart kings - a family of Greek immigrants that pays the city $3 million a year to sell soft drinks, pretzels and franks on park property...The family shelled out $536,100 to the Parks Department this year so they can operate their two popular pushcarts outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And next year the family-owned business, M&T Pretzel, will pay an additional $63,000 to serve up food and drinks from the stands at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street that they've run since 1987...The family spends $585,000 for the right to hawk refreshments from their 12 Battery Park pushcarts, and pays $2 million to run Terrace on the Park in Queens...An article in City Limits, a monthly magazine, reported the company paid their mostly immigrant staff minimum wages for grueling work, refused them health benefits and forced the vendors to pay for a hot dog if they're hungry...Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe touted the benefit of concessions, saying they provide a public service, "amenities for people who visit parks," bring income into the city and give opportunities to budding businesspeople..." Unlike dealing with the City's independent vendors who are subject to Constitutional protections and a variety of sometimes conflicting laws, enforcement under a uniform vending concession system is easy. There's just one set of rules. If you violate those rules you lose your concession and the hundreds of thousands of dollars you paid to get it. [...] Full (very long) article at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCStreetArtists/ (c) Robert Lederman 5/1/04 Feel free to print, post or publish this essay so long as it is not altered or added to in any way. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 11:11:35 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 11:11:35 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Fallujah: US Sacks Saleh, Calls on NEW General Message-ID: <200405031511.i43FBZ518017@tania.blythe-systems.com> [With their usual clumsiness, the US has now decided that General Saleh was too close to the Baathist regime in Iraq, and has replaced him with yet another former Iraqi General, after only 4 days.] Reuters via Yahoo - May 3, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=1&u=/nm/20040503/wl_nm/iraq_dc U.S. in Falluja Turns to General Who Defied Saddam By Joseph Logan FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines besieging Falluja brought in a former Iraqi general with a history of standing up to Saddam Hussein Monday to lead a force they have charged with putting down insurgency in the city. After outrage among victims of the Baathist regime at their appointment of a former general in his feared Republican Guard, U.S. commanders have now turned to another ex-general, Mohammed Latif, to take overall command of the Falluja Brigade. His predecessor, General Mohamed Jasim Saleh, told Reuters he was stepping aside after four days in the job. U.S. casualties mount with the approach of a June 30 deadline for the handover of sovereignty to Iraqis. One U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded by small arms fire south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. In Najaf, another flashpoint city, U.S. troops fired on suspected supporters of an anti-American Shi'ite cleric who attacked their base with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Two Iraqis, including a policeman, were killed and 15 were wounded outside the walls of the U.S. base, local medics said. As U.S. commanders struggle to stamp out open rebellion in two cities and attacks that kill soldiers daily across Iraq, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he expected the U.N. to approve some form of multinational force to take over after the sovereignty handover. General Latif would, if he passes further vetting, lead the Falluja Brigade, a senior U.S. military official said. "As of tomorrow, I will have nothing to do with the Falluja Brigade," Saleh told Reuters. NEW MAN IN FALLUJA Unlike Saleh, a local man whom leaders of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority accuse of taking part in the Republican Guard's bloody suppression of a Shi'ite uprising in 1991, Latif appears to have anti-Saddam credentials, U.S. military sources said. An intelligence officer, trained in Britain, Latif was exiled and may also have spent time in prison, one said. He had been among a number of generals recently recalled by the new Iraqi defense ministry to try to reform the army as a whole. But unlike Saleh, Latif hails from Baghdad, 30 miles to the east, which may not endear him so easily to local people. Loyal to Saddam, Falluja has become a focus for anger among his Sunni minority since Marines mounted a siege a month ago in which hundreds of people were killed. They have yet to dislodge insurgents, many of whom appear to be drawn from the local community and enjoy wide acceptance among the population. Marine officers concede that some of the Falluja Brigade may well be drawn from the very guerrillas they have been fighting. The arrival of Saleh's force of several hundred uniformed ex-soldiers on the streets Saturday and the withdrawal of Marines from some siege positions to areas further from the city limits was greeted by delighted townsfolk, including masked gunmen, as victory for the Sunni guerrillas over American arms. Whatever Latif's credentials, it remains to be seen whether the Falluja Brigade can deliver on U.S. demands that it crush some 2,000 rebels and root out perhaps 200 foreign militants. A U.S. officer said many foreigners may already have escaped. Marines remained in positions on the edge of town closest to areas in the north where fighting has been heaviest and their commanders say they are ready to storm guerrillas at any time. "By no measure do we consider the Falluja campaign over," a senior U.S. military official said in Baghdad. Falluja Brigade members directed traffic in the town on Monday as local residents pointed to cars they said were full of guerrillas on patrol. Families were still burying relatives pulled from the rubble of buildings destroyed in U.S. bombing. One headstone bearing the word "Spies" marked the grave of seven people accused of helping the Americans, residents said. HEAVY LOSSES Aside from quelling irritation at Saleh's role in Falluja, Washington has also been trying to counter damage done by the broadcast of photographs showing U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Saddam's once notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Seven officers and non-commissioned officers were disciplined over the affair, the senior military official said Monday. Six other soldiers are facing criminal charges. After April became the bloodiest month for U.S. troops in Iraq with 129 combat deaths, the U.N. appeared to offer help. Annan said a resolution being considered by Washington could authorize a multinational force after June 30: "It's in everybody's interest to do whatever we can to stabilize Iraq." Heavy losses and the difficulties in places like Falluja have not helped Bush's re-election campaign. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 11:37:09 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 11:37:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Marines Under Fire in Najaf, Occupation Mixes Up Generals Message-ID: <200405031537.i43Fb9D18772@tania.blythe-systems.com> US forces are still under fire in Najaf, and are being held back from a full-force invasion of the city. Meanwhile, the Occupation's ignorance about the players in Saddam's Republican Guard has contributed to their latest embarrassing three-stooges performance: "U.S. officials have shown confusion over the identities of the generals in the Fallujah force. One U.S. officer said Saleh had been involved in an assassination plot against Saddam and that three of his children had been executed -- apparently mistaking him for Mohammed al-Shehwani, a former Air Force officer who in April was named as head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and whose three sons were killed by Saddam." AP via Yahoo - May 3, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=1&u=/ap/20040503/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq Militiamen Attack U.S. Troops in Najaf By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer NAJAF, Iraq - Militiamen pounded a U.S. base Monday in the most intense attacks yet on U.S. troops in the Shiite city of Najaf, where the Americans have been holding back their full firepower to avoid enflaming the anger of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. The shelling began overnight, when some 20 mortars hit in and around the former Spanish base that U.S. troops moved into a week ago. There were no casualties. Heavy mortar fire resumed at midday Monday, and U.S. troops returned fire. Tanks were moved up, swiveling their cannons ??? though they did not fire ??? and Apache helicopters circled overhead. Sniper fire could also be heard until the clashes eased several hours later. The U.S. military has deployed at the base and outside Najaf to crack down on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. But they have been hampered in responding to frequent al-Sadr fire on their position because the military is being extremely cautious, fearing that stepped up fighting would anger Shiites, whose holiest shrine is at the center of the city, about three miles from the U.S. base. Lt. Col. Pat White, commander of the troops, called the firefight Monday "pretty intense," but said his forces would not move against the militiamen for the time being. "We can probably maintain this kind of defense until my higher command allows me to maneuver in the city," White told CNN. Violence on Sunday killed nine U.S. soldiers across the country. In the heaviest attack, five Navy sailors and one Army soldier were killed in a mortar barrage against a base near Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Meanwhile, Thomas Hamill, a truck driver from Mississippi who escaped from his Iraqi kidnappers after three weeks in captivity, flew to Germany on Monday for a reunion with his wife. Hamill pried open a door in the house where he was being held north of Baghdad when he heard a U.S. patrol passing by Sunday, then led the troops to the house where two Iraqis were captured. In Fallujah, the U.S. military will likely bring in a new commander for the new Iraqi brigade replacing U.S. Marines withdrawing from around the city, an official said Monday ??? amid uncertainty over the identities of the Saddam Hussein-era generals to whom the United States has handed over control of the guerrilla stronghold. The Fallujah Brigade, made up of former soldiers from Saddam's army, took up further positions in the cordon around the city, replacing Marines who were pulling back to form an outer cordon. The Iraqi brigade now controls a ring around the southern half of Fallujah and is due to begin patrols inside soon. Fallujah residents have been celebrating what many consider a victory over U.S. forces, with trucks full of cheering Iraqis driving through the city, waving flags. They also began to survey the damage from the bloody, monthlong siege. On Monday, Iraqi volunteers wearing surgical masks and gloves disinterred bodies that had been buried in houses and backyards for reburial in a football field that has been turned into a graveyard. Maj. Gen. Mohammed Latif, a former military intelligence officer, is likely to take command of the Fallujah Brigade, a senior U.S. military official said. He would replace Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, who will likely take a subordinate command in the brigade, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Saleh, a former member of Saddam's Republican Guard, moved into Fallujah on Friday at the head of the new force. U.S. officials have acknowledged they did not vet the leaders and members of the new brigade to see how close their ties were to Saddam's regime ??? a sign of the military's eagerness to find an "Iraqi solution" to a monthlong siege that had raised an international outcry and strained ties with U.S.-allied Iraqi leaders. Latif participated in meetings with Marines last week on the creation of the Fallujah Brigade, the top Marine commander, Lt. Gen. James Conway, said over the weekend. Conway said he believed that Latif had been exiled by Saddam's regime for several years. "He is very well thought of, very well respected by the Iraqi general officers. You can just see the body language between them. And if I had to guess at this point, when we have this brigade fully formed, he demonstrates a level of leadership that tells me that he could become that brigade commander," Conway said. U.S. officials have shown confusion over the identities of the generals in the Fallujah force. One U.S. officer said Saleh had been involved in an assassination plot against Saddam and that three of his children had been executed ??? apparently mistaking him for Mohammed al-Shehwani, a former Air Force officer who in April was named as head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and whose three sons were killed by Saddam. Hoshyar Zibari, Iraq's Kurdish foreign minister, said there were reports Saleh was involved in crushing the uprising against Saddam's rule following the 1991 Gulf War. Latif does "not have such problems" and at one point was imprisoned by Saddam, Zibari told reporters. U.S. officials say the Fallujah Brigade will crack down on hard-core guerrillas in the city ??? though the force itself will likely include some of the gunmen who last month were involved in fighting against the Marines. U.S. commanders say the insurgent movement in Fallujah has been led by foreign Arab militants and former figures from Saddam's regime. Saleh on Sunday told the Arab television station Al-Arabiya that he did not believe there were any foreign fighters in the city. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that the U.S. military is still seeking the same objectives in Fallujah: "Deal with the extremists, the foreign fighters," rid the city of heavy weapons and find those behind the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American civilian security workers. Meanwhile, Hamill landed in Germany, where he was to have a checkup at a U.S. military hospital and see his wife, Kellie. Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver from Macon, Mississippi working for the Halliburton Corp. subsidiary KBR, was abducted by gunmen on April 9 after his convoy was attacked outside Baghdad. His fate had been unknown since he appeared in a videotape released the next day by his captors, who threatened to kill him within 12 hours unless the siege of Fallujah was lifted. On Sunday, Hamill reappeared in the town of Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad, when he ran up to a patrol from the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, part of the New York National Guard, and identified himself. He then lead the soldiers to the house from which he had just escaped, and two Iraqis with an automatic weapon were arrested. Hamill had an infected gunshot wound in his left arm. The video images of Hamill soon after his abduction showed his left arm in a sling, suggesting he'd be wounded during the attack on his convoy. Hamill's abduction came at the height of the wave of kidnappings of foreigners sparked by the intense violence that began in early April. An American soldier, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, remains in the hands of kidnappers, as do three other Italian security guards. [AP correspondents Scheherezade Faramarzi in Najaf and Jim Krane in Baghdad contributed to this report.] From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 11:48:46 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 11:48:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Panama: Torrijos Pledges to Regain People's Trust in Politics Message-ID: <200405031548.i43Fmk819269@tania.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana - May 3, 2004 http://www.plenglish.com Torrijos Pledges to Regain People's Trust in Panamanian Politics Panama City, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos is beginning Monday a four-month transition up to the moment he is sworn in as president, promising to change government policies to recover people's trust in politicians. Torrijos won the general elections on Sunday with more than 47 percent of votes and is the leader of Patria Nueva Party, an alliance between Partido Revolucionario Democratico and Partido Popular. He said his government will include those Panamanian ready to fight corruption and end with despair. The president-elect is son of late General Omar Torrijos who signed a treaty with United States to recover Panama's sovereignty over the Panama Canal. Martin Torrijos honored his father's memory and said he would be proud of the victory of his party in the elections. Part of general Torrijos' legacy was the challenge the Patria Nueva party must accomplish to modernize the government and take care of the most needed citizens, the president-elect said. "In the electoral campaign we promise to solve all problems in the country in five years and promised to establish bases for a modern, different, pluralistic new nation, where the law is observed and justice served without impunity," Torrijos said. The president-elect had also promised in his electoral campaign more jobs and security and ends with corruption, a challenge for his new administration starting on September 1 after his inauguration. Sunday's elections in Panama were the third since the 1989 US invasion and the first without the presence of US troops in Panama after their withdrawal in December 1999, agreed on the treaties Torrijos-Carter of 1977. mh/ima/mgt/edu Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 12:07:17 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 12:07:17 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Iraq: 1000+ Civilians Killed in April; US Admits No "Foreigners" Message-ID: <200405031607.i43G7Hv20212@tania.blythe-systems.com> Iraq War News Round-Up from Prensa Latina, Havana - May 3, 2004 http://www.plenglish.com More than 1,000 Iraqi civilians killed in April Baghdad, May 3 (Prensa Latina) A total of 1,082 civilians were killed and other 4,432 wounded in Iraq just in April by the US-led forces in what has turned to be the bloodiest month since the war began in March 2003, the Iraqi Health Minister reported on Monday. The highest number of victims (280) was reported at the beginning of last month in the city of Falluja, followed by Baghdad (246). In this period, according to Pentagon, 140 American soldiers were killed. But the US death toll is increasing as 11 troops have perished in Iraqi resistance actions in the last 24 hours, US commanders reported. mh/jll US Admits Foreigners Play No Role in Iraqi Resistance Baghdad, Apr 3 (Prensa Latina) After continually blaming foreign fighters with almost every attack on US-led forces in Iraq, US military experts have been forced to admit foreigners play no role in Iraqi insurgency. In the besieged city of Falluja -center of the anti-US resistance- around 90 percent of the 1,000 or more fighters battling the Marines are Iraqis, experts said. There have been no confirmed US captures of foreign fighters in Falluja so far. By blaming foreigners, US authorities hope to erase the idea that the Iraqi people as a whole are rising up against US-led military occupation and present the conflict as part of the wider war on terror. Guerrillas in Falluja have the support of many, a US defense official in Washington said. "The whole city supports this jihad," said a Fallujan. "The people of Falluja are fighting to defend their homes. We are Muslim mujahedeen fighting a holy war." In March, after suicide bombers killed up to 271 people during the Shiite holiday of Ashoura, US and Iraqi leaders quickly blamed foreign terrorists - fingering al-Zarqawi as the chief suspect. Officials said 10 foreigners had been arrested, five of whom were released, and five of whom later turned out to be Iraqis. Other suicide bombings, including two in February that killed almost 100 police and army recruits, were initially blamed on foreign groups. Subsequent evidence suggested Iraqis were behind the attacks. mh/rma Mercenary Recruitment Becomes Profitable Business in South America by Angel E. Pino Santiago de Chile, May 3 (Prensa Latina) The nations of southern South America, scenes of past bloody military dictatorships, are becoming a source of the lucrative mercenary business in the US wars of aggression. Jose Miguel Pizarro, ex Chilean army officer in the Augusto Pinochet military dictatorship, who joined the US Marines in 1995, explained the importance of his new Uruguayan business, Neskowin, in providing protection for transnational interests in the US-occupied Arab countries. Pizarro told Chilean daily La Tercera that he is sending more than 120 Chilean mercenaries to Iraq, under contract by US Blackwater Corp, and for 300 more is in process of recruiting ex-military Argentineans, "calmly" because some progressive Chilean sectors have reacted, but "the opportunities are immeasurable," he was quoted by the daily as saying enthusiastically. This business has also opened the door for the ex dictatorship soldier to make a career as a military analyst. With characteristic "objectivity", CNN contracted Pizarro to analyze the implications of the military invasion of Iraq for its Spanish service. mh/ccs/tgj/apr US Torture of Iraqis Not Isolated: Amnesty Internatinal London, May 2 (Prensa Latina) Despite claims by the Pentagon they are isolated incidents, abuse, torture and rape of prisoners by the US and British occupation forces in Iraq is not an "isolated" issue, a human rights organisation asserts. London-based Amnesty International said it has received frequent reports of torture or other ill-treatment by US-led occupation forces during the one-year occupation. Last week, the American CBS network made public some photos of grotesque and vile abuse and torture of Iraqi male prisoners, but did not air the images of brutal and aberrant rapes of female inmates by groups of soldiers. After citing double standards on human rights in the country and demanding a fully independent, impartial and public investigation, AI said in a press release that "Our extensive research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident. It is not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the television screens." Horrible images of Iraqi detainees tortured by US troops in Abu Gharib prison have prompted worldwide rejection. "The Coalition leadership must send a clear signal that torture will not be tolerated under any circumstances and that the Iraqi people can now live free of such brutal and degrading practices." The international organisation lamented that virtually "none of the charges of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated by the authorities". After those images shocked the world, most of the soldiers and officers involved in the abuses have been reprimanded with six of them facing criminal charges, but they would not face further action or court martial, a US military official said on condition of anonimity. mh/rma Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 14:03:41 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:03:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Nicaragua Network Hotline 5/3/2004 Message-ID: <200405031803.i43I3fb23160@tania.blythe-systems.com> Nicaragua Network Hotline May 3, 2004 Topics included in this hotline are: "Pure Savagery" Response to US/UK Torture Accounts, Ortega Blasts US and Neoliberalism on May Day, Bola?os Tells Labor Minister "Don't be Stingy", "Liberalism Equals Illiteracy", and, Nueva Segovia Fast Becoming a “Pine Cemetery." TOPIC 1: "Pure Savagery" Response to US/UK Torture Accounts Revelations of US and British torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners resonated in Nicaragua as well last week. Fami Hassan, Secretary of the Arab Islamic Nicaraguan League, could scarcely contain himself when commenting on the images of US and British soldiers torturing and raping Iraqi prisoners supposedly under their care. "It's pure savagery," he exploded. "It's these same shameless people who dare talk to us about 'Peace.' Is this the 'Democracy' that Mr. Bush has brought to Iraq? They're abusing, humiliating, killing these people. I don't think there's any law anywhere that justifies such outrageous behavior. The mask has been pulled off Iraq's invaders, their cruelty has been revealed. They invaded our country using the lie of weapons of mass destruction; they bombed civilians using this same lie. It's been lies from beginning to end. And now, on top of all the lies, these terrible abuses. That's what is happening, the abuse of an innocent people." Even the Bola?os government, always careful not to offend its US patron, called on the Bush administration to bring the criminals involved to swift justice. Foreign Minister Norman Caldera read parts of a letter which he said his office was dispatching to Washington. Caldera said that the Nicaraguan government, speaking as a member of the allied coalition, called on the US to, "allow the full weight of the hand of justice to fall on those guilty of these crimes," and to, "apply the strictest sanctions to all or any who have violated the conditions of the Geneva Convention concerning the human rights of prisoners of war." The crimes against Iraqi prisoners makes even more urgent the June 5 March on the Pentagon called by the ANSWER Coalition. We urge all peace loving people to come to Washington, DC on June 5 to demand that the troops be brought home immediately and that the bloated Pentagon budget be slashed to meet the urgent need for health care, education, job training, and housing. Visit the ANSWER website for travel and logistical details at www.ANSWERcoalition.org. TOPIC 2: Ortega Blasts US and Neoliberalism on May Day FSLN General Secretary Daniel Ortega, currently in Cuba, sent a special message to the May Day demonstration in the heart of Managua. One thousand or so people from unions and associations of workers heard a representative read out what was one of Ortega's most fiery statements of recent years. In it, Ortega took the United States to task, saying, “I send you this message from Havana, capital of the ever-heroic Socialist Republic of Cuba, where, together with Fidel and his people, we are commemorating this International Workers Day -- those workers who today are victims of the depredations, economic, commercial and environmental, imposed on them by the fascist interests of Yankee governments.” Ortega blasted the US for its international behavior and policies. “Peoples are resisting and fighting back against the cowardly genocide of the Empire: in Iraq; in the Palestinian territories; in Afghanistan, where, in the name of democracy, that Empire is spending millions of dollars to exterminate entire populations, in a manner comparable only with that of the Fascists of the Second World War. Ortega stressed that Iraq, together with Afghanistan, Cuba and Venezuela would “not surrender.” “Rather they will continue to fight,” he went on, “and they will win, just as once Cuba overthrew the Batista dictatorship and continues to advance against the blockade and cowardly attacks of the Empire and its paid followers.” The Sandinista leader also denounced the harsh conditions which Nicaraguan workers are currently facing, which he said were imposed by the economic policies of neo-liberalism. “In Nicaragua,” he said, “during the 14 years which have passed since 1990, the neo-liberal model has been imposed on the country. Multiplying unemployment; multiplying hunger; multiplying lying and deceit; multiplying social decomposition and government corruption.” His message was read out by Sandinista Deputy and keynote speaker, Roberto Gonzalez, who emphasized that Ortega was calling on all workers to resist neoliberalism wherever and whenever they could. TOPIC 3: Bola?os Tells Labor Minister "Don't be Stingy" During the government's rally called to celebrate the International Day of the Worker, President Bola?os refused to be drawn out on the amount which the government might be prepared to offer the workers of the country in terms of an increase in the minimum wage. However, one thing was perfectly clear, there was no way he was going to even consider the 100% raise advocated by the unions. In joking mood, the millionaire president, called on his almost equally well-heeled minister of labor, Virgilio Gurdian, "not to be stingy. The proposal which is before us," he told the small crowd, "is of 3%. How does a wage rise of 3% strike you? To me, it seems very small. The Nicaraguan government wants something a bit better than this for its workforce." While the wealthy played and postured, even the unions seemingly egregious demand - a 100% raise across the board for the 200,000 public and private sector workers concerned - would still not enable workers to achieve even a basic level of decent life for themselves and for their families. For workers in the countryside, any such increase would raise their incomes from a miserable 615 cordobas (US$38.90) a month to a paltry 1,050 cordobas (US$66.46) per month, while, in the case of city workers, the equivalent increase would provide workers with 2,370 cordobas (US$150) per month (current estimates put a month's worth of food, light, shelter, etc. for a family of four at about 3,500 cordobas (US$221.52). TOPIC 4: "Liberalism Equals Illiteracy" Members of the 25th Anniversary of the Literacy Campaign Movement (ALCM) are accusing the post-Sandinista Liberal governments of returning the general population to the levels of illiteracy comparable to the decades of the Somoza dictatorship. Speaking for the ALCM, Nery Orochena said, "It is a deliberate policy of Liberal governments to keep people illiterate. It's yet another way to enable their members to get rich unjustly, since the people don't know enough to challenge them." "As a result, the Nicaraguan people are almost back in the dark days of the Somoza dynasty," he continued. "None of the last Liberal governments has been seriously interested in education. At the start of every school year, roughly one million children of school age find they cannot attend classes; in consequence, they are excluded from the education which is their right. Add to these the high numbers of students who, having started the academic year, find they cannot continue, almost always from economic necessity, and are forced to drop out of school altogether. When the last Somoza was deposed, Nicaragua had an illiteracy rate of about 53%. That figure already stands at 40% again, and, the way things are going, we will soon have 60% or more of the population unable to read and write." He stressed again that the coming 25th anniversary celebration, to be held in August of 2005, would be much more than a mere commemoration of an epic event in the life of the country. "Starting from now, we intend to persuade all municipal governments to enter into a permanent literacy crusade and to call on the ministry of education to get involved too. Given these appalling figures, it is their absolute duty to do so." The ALCM will begin the year leading up to the actual quarter century anniversary with a celebration held this 23 August. "But it will not be a celebration of "discourses and remembered nostalgias." Orochena invited all those who had participated in the original crusade to "accompany us in what was once the 19th July Plaza, the historic center of the crusade." Among plans for the coming year, the ALCM intends to reclaim and re-open the Literacy Museum, to encourage the municipality of Managua at least to declare August 23 a holiday, to establish a National Literacy Day, to research the actual levels of illiteracy in the various departments of the country, and, together with the ministry, the municipalities and the National Assembly, to develop a new literacy crusade. TOPIC 5: Nueva Segovia Fast Becoming a “Pine Cemetery” The pine trees of the northern department of Nueva Segovia which the “gorgojos,” the voracious bark beetle, didn’t kill during the massive infestations of recent years, are fast being decimated by raging forest fires. Standing forlornly amid the smoldering remnants of the most recent blaze, which scythed through 32 square kilometers of pine forest killing everything in its path, Roberto Ortez, mayor of San Fernando, said, “Wherever you look, there is desolation.” As he traversed what he called, “This cemetery of pines,” he was assisted by representatives of the Humboldt Center, Nicaragua’s leading environmental organization and accompanied by members of the army, the civil defense and the press. “We called this area, ‘Hades’,” he continued, “the fires were so intense. The worst of it is that, on top of the devastation the beetle wrought, the ferocity of the blaze has killed off many of the younger trees which were growing back in.” While the local people, and even the fire fighters themselves, went into battle against the flames using whatever came to hand, carrying water from distant sources in backpacks designed for crop spraying and trying to beat out the flames with pitchforks and other farm implements, the “gentlemen in suits and ties” of the offices for disaster prevention mostly based in far away Managua, were “conspicuous by their absence.” Ortez complained that despite his repeated calls for assistance, “any help at all was very slow in arriving, and when it did it was about a third of what we’d asked for. We had no boots, no proper clothing, no masks, no water tanks. It was preventable. Now, the forest will never be the same. This is a major disaster." ********** This hotline is prepared from the Nicaragua News Service and other sources. To receive a more extensive weekly summary of the news from Nicaragua by e-mail or postal service, send a check for $60.00 to Nicaragua Network, 1247 E St., SE, Washington, DC 20003. We can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355. Our web site is: www.nicanet.org. To subscribe to the Hotline, send an e-mail to nicanet-hotline-on at afgj.org from the address which should receive the Hotline. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to nicanet-hotline-off at afgj.org From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 14:04:36 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:04:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Colombia Week #48 - May 3, 2004 Message-ID: <200405031804.i43I4aP23190@tania.blythe-systems.com> Colombia Week (www.colombiaweek.org) Number 48: May 3, 2004 (1) BRIEFS Government oil firm fires eight strikers Congressional commission backs reelection Pressure builds for exchange of captives Agents charged with framing 'guerrillas' (2) NEWS (Suzanne Wilson) Irishmen acquitted of terrorism charges (3) TOP STORY (Julia Olmstead) Uribe warns paramilitaries to demobilize (4) MEDIA (Phillip Cryan) A newspaper does its job for once (5) SEVEN DAYS The week in review (6) FROM THE EDITORS Original photos at www.colombiaweek.org (7) LAST WORD (El Tiempo) 'He escaped wounded' ------------------------------------------------- (1) BRIEFS ------------------------------------------------- GOVERNMENT OIL FIRM FIRES EIGHT STRIKERS: The government-owned Colombian Petroleum Company (Ecopetrol) announced April 30 it had fired eight employees because they had "promoted, directed and/or participated in" an indefinite strike. The strike began eight days earlier after 18 months of fruitless contract negotiations between Ecopetrol and the Petroleum Industry Workers Union (USO), which is seeking to preserve worker benefits and halt company privatization. On the strike's first day, President Alvaro Uribe Vilez's government declared the work stoppage illegal because it could interrupt gasoline distribution, an "essential public service." The declaration allowed Ecopetrol to fire or fine strikers. The Colombian Commission of Jurists, a human rights group, said both the nation's Constitutional Court and the International Labor Organization consider the strike legal. On the strike's second day, military units began reinforcing company security at oil installations. The company has also brought in nonunionized workers and says the strike hasn't slowed production. Ecopetrol says it employs about 6,500 workers and that about 4,500 of them are unionized. Colombia's main union federation, United Workers Central (CUT), has called for a national work stoppage May 18 to support the strike. SOURCES: Amnesty International, 4/30/04; 4/29/04; El Colombiano, 5/1/04; El Tiempo, 4/30/04; Reuters, 4/30/04; USO, 4/30/04. (CM) CONGRESSIONAL COMMISSION BACKS REELECTION: On a 12-3 vote April 30, a Congressional commission approved amending the Constitution to permit reelection of mayors, governors and the nation's president and vice president. The amendment would open the door for President Alvaro Uribe Vilez to win a second four-year term in 2006. Constitutional amendments require a lengthy legislative process ending in a majority vote by Congress. Last week the Conservative Party announced its support for the bill and the Liberal Party announced its opposition. With neither holding a Congressional majority, the measure's fate depends on smaller groups. "There's no real possibility the bill can be approved overwhelmingly," said Sen. Camilo Sanchez, the Liberal president. Polls suggest nearly 60 percent of Colombians favor presidential reelection. Uribe supporters say a second term is necessary for his programs, particularly "democratic security" efforts. The bill's foes say his reelection would polarize the country and concentrate too much power in the presidency. "It would feed those suspicions that he is an autocrat," Michael Shifter, a Colombia specialist for the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, told the New York Times. On April 27, Liberal Sen. Hictor Helm Rojas said he has been persecuted for opposing the bill. SOURCES: BBC, 4/29/04; El Espectador, 4/28/04; El Pams, 4/29/04; El Tiempo, 4/30/04; Financial Times, 4/26/04; New York Times, 4/26/04; Reuters, 4/27/04. (AR in Bogota) PRESSURE BUILDS FOR EXCHANGE OF CAPTIVES: President Alvaro Uribe Vilez on April 27 insisted his government would not yield to mounting pressure to negotiate with guerrillas for an exchange of captives because such talks would undermine his military efforts. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation's largest guerrilla group, indicated an exchange is unlikely as long as Uribe is president, the Bogota daily El Tiempo reported April 25. FARC captives include former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, 12 lawmakers from the southwestern province of Valle de Cauca, three U.S. State Department contractors, and dozens of soldiers and police officers. The government is holding about 500 guerrillas, including Ricardo Palmera, also known as "Simsn Trinidad," a high-ranking FARC leader captured January 2 in Ecuador. Former Colombian President Ernesto Samper and Roman Catholic bishops have criticized Uribe's stand against negotiating an exchange. In a letter released April 28, Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago of Portugal accused Uribe of forgetting the plight of the kidnapped. And organizations representing the families of kidnapping victims have voiced alarm at government threats to attempt military rescues. An April 18 FARC communiqui claimed that U.S. agents are helping Colombian forces plan rescue attempts in the southern provinces of Meta and Caqueta, El Tiempo reported April 22. SOURCES: El Colombiano, 4/21/04; EFE, 4/20/04; EFE, 4/28/04; El Pams, 4/22/04, 4/28/04; El Tiempo, 4/09/04, 4/21/04, 4/22/04, 4/25/04, 4/27/04, 4/28/04; Xinhuanet, 4/27/04. (TK) AGENTS CHARGED WITH FRAMING 'GUERRILLAS': Inspector general Edgardo Maya Villazsn's office filed charges in April against two agents of the nation's antikidnapping force, known as Gaula, and one agent of the attorney general's office for their alleged coercion of witnesses in a case accusing 17 people of rebellion in the central province of Tolima. The office said the agents intimidated the witnesses, who are former guerrillas, and offered them bribes and other rewards for accusing the 17 of collaborating with the Bolsheviks of Lmbano, a branch of the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second largest guerrilla group. The rewards included admission to a "reinsertion" program meant to encourage guerrillas to desert and provide information on their former associates. The program, one of President Alvaro Uribe Vilez's "democratic security" efforts, helps generate accusations that lead to detentions. But most of the detainees are eventually released due to lack of evidence. In Tolima, the inspector general's office also said the agents employed extraneous intelligence briefs against the 17, who included Josi Luis Serna Alzate, a former Roman Catholic bishop cleared of charges December 3. SOURCES: El Espectador, 4/28/04; El Tiempo, 4/27/04. (SH) ) 2004 Colombia Week. Research by Gregory Kipling and Chip Mitchell. Writing by Stacey Hunt (SH), Thomas Kolar (TK), Cynthia Mellon (CM) and Annalise Romoser (AR). Link to this section at www.colombiaweek.org/20040503.html#briefs. ------------------------------------------------- (2) NEWS: Irishmen acquitted of terrorism charges ------------------------------------------------- BY SUZANNE WILSON Colombia Week More than 32 months after their arrest, a Bogota court on April 26 convicted three Irishmen of using false passports but acquitted them of training Colombia's largest guerrilla group in bomb techniques. "The verdict shows that the charges against the three men were trumped up by prosecutors and the Colombian armed forces," defense lawyers said in a statement. Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan faced possible 20-year prison sentences since their arrest at Bogota's international airport August 11, 2001. They had visited a southern enclave the government had ceded to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as part of negotiations that collapsed in February 2002. During their nine-month trial, which ended August 1, the men admitted to meeting with guerrillas but said they were only studying the talks. They denied accusations by the Colombian and British governments that they are Irish Republican Army members. The Colombian military says IRA aid has enabled FARC attacks such as a mortar strike that killed 21 people near President Alvaro Uribe Vilez's inauguration in 2002. The government has held the three in El Modelo, a prison near Bogota known for violence and inmate mistreatment. On the passport charge, the court sentenced them to prison terms of 26 to 44 months but ruled they were to be released on probation after paying fines of $7,000 each. The court also ordered them expelled from Colombia. A spokeswoman for attorney general Luis Camilo Osorio said April 27 his office plans to appeal the acquittal and the men would have to remain in Colombia, even if released from prison. The Irish government on April 30 offered to lend money for the fines, but the three are refusing to leave prison until the Colombian government guarantees to protect them from paramilitary attacks. Caitriona Ruane, who serves in the Northern Ireland Assembly and directs the Dublin-based Bring Them Home campaign, met April 28 in Bogota with representatives of the Colombian government, the Irish government, the Red Cross and the United Nations to request government protection for the trio. "They are not safe in prison," she told Reuters that day. "We want the government to provide us security to the airport and out of the country." ) 2004 Colombia Week. Research by Gregory Kipling and Chip Mitchell. SOURCES: Agence France Presse, 4/26/04, 4/29/04; Associated Press, 4/26/04; BBC, 4/26/04, 4/28/04, 4/30/04; Belfast Telegraph, 4/30/04; El Espectador, 4/29/04; El Tiempo, 4/28/04; Ireland On-Line, 4/30/04; Irish Examiner, 4/28/04, 4/30/04; Irish Times, 4/27/04; Miami Herald, 4/27/04, 5/1/04; Online.ie, 4/28/04; Reuters, 4/26/04, 4/28/04; Scotsman, 4/26/04; United Press International, 4/29/04, 4/30/04. Link to this section at www.colombiaweek.org/20040503.html#news1. ------------------------------------------------- (3) TOP STORY: Uribe warns paramilitaries to demobilize ------------------------------------------------- BY JULIA OLMSTEAD Colombia Week The government will "annihilate" the country's main paramilitary federation unless the group respects a ceasefire and moves to demobilize, President Alvaro Uribe Vilez warned April 27. "The peace process with the illegal self-defense groups cannot advance amid ceasefire violations, vendettas, drug trafficking or confrontations between criminal groups," he said in a written statement. Uribe added that the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) has planned to assassinate him, a claim quickly denied by the group. Bishop Julia Cisar Vidal Ortmz, head of a Roman Catholic Church commission mediating the talks, voiced doubts any death threat had come from AUC factions "at the negotiating table," El Tiempo reported April 28. Paramilitary groups formed in the 1980s to ward off guerrilla attacks on ranches and businesses. The AUC agreed last July to negotiate the demobilization of its estimated 15,000 troops by December 2005. But AUC cofounder and chief negotiator Carlos Castaqo Gil disappeared during an April 16 attack on his ranch, throwing the talks into disarray. In an April 29 press release, the AUC denied any role in the attack and said it wanted the talks to continue. After two weeks of uncertainty on whether Castaqo was alive (see LAST WORD below), Reuters on May 1 quoted an unnamed friend of the warlord saying he had been strangled to death on orders of rival AUC leaders two days after the attack. On May 2, the weekly magazine Semana cited unnamed paramilitary sources telling a similar story. Many AUC groups are believed to derive most of their income from drug trafficking. The United States has requested the extradition of several AUC leaders on drug trafficking charges. Castaqo's apparent willingness to negotiate an extradition won him enemies within the federation and seems to have precipitated the attack. With Castaqo out of the picture, paramilitary leaders with close drug ties have tightened their grip on the AUC. They include Salvatore Mancuso and Diego Fernando Murillo Bejarano, who is known as "Don Berna" and "Adolfo Paz." The demobilization talks now seem to hinge on whether the government will protect them from extradition. ) 2004 Colombia Week. Research by Gregory Kipling and Chip Mitchell. SOURCES: BBC, 5/1/04; Christian Science Monitor, 4/29/04; El Colombiano, 4/28/04, 4/29/04; El Espectador, 4/29/04, 5/1/04; El Tiempo, 4/27/04, 4/28/04, 4/29/04, 4/30/04, 5/1/04; Guardian, 4/28/04; Houston Chronicle, 4/28/04; Los Angeles Times, 4/28/04; Reuters, 4/27/04, 4/28/04, 4/29/04, 5/1/04; Semana, 5/2/04; Slate, 4/28/04. Link to this story at www.colombiaweek.org/20040503.html#topstory. ------------------------------------------------- (4) MEDIA: A newspaper does its job for once ------------------------------------------------- BY PHILLIP CRYAN Colombia Week Every once in awhile, a major media outlet publishes good investigative work. And an April 25 report in Colombia's largest newspaper requires giving credit where credit is due. El Tiempo dissected "the Patriot Plan," a new Colombian counterinsurgency push designed by officials in Bogota and Washington, D.C. Reported by Luz Marma Sierra, Jineth Bedoya Lima and Washington correspondent Sergio Gsmez Maseri, the 2,000-word story says President Alvaro Uribe Vilez "is betting everything" on the plan. The piece breaks the news that the government is sending 15,000 troops into southern villages and jungles long controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation's largest guerrilla group. And it questions whether the effort will deplete security forces elsewhere and whether the guerrillas will simply relocate. "If the goal is to capture or kill the enemy," the report asks, "why would the FARC stay in the jungle and wait for the military to arrive?" During a 2002 military offensive to recover FARC territory, the report notes, the guerrillas swiftly fled the zone instead of defending it. Most media coverage of Colombia's war ignores the plight of civilians caught between various armed groups. On this topic, El Tiempo's report shines. Because government personnel have never established a lasting presence in most of the plan's target areas, the report says they will have to convince civilians they're staying: "Otherwise, how could the inhabitants of these regions take the risk of cooperating with the armed forces?" The report builds on an investigation by Scott Wilson, who's leaving Colombia after years of excellent work for the Washington Post. In a 1,700-word piece published January 25, Wilson says the inhabitants of a small southern town where the military has pushed out the FARC are "skeptical that the Army intends to stay." As a result, the villagers continue to follow guerrilla orders. And a government relief agency has failed to provide humanitarian aid to the area's refugees, he notes. Picking up where Wilson left off, El Tiempo's report revealed that the Patriot Plan prompted President George W. Bush's administration in March to request that the U.S. Congress increase the number of U.S. military personnel and contractors allowed in the country. The report says U.S. participation in the plan's development, implementation and funding has been extensive. But the report has received little media play. The only international coverage has come from outlets in China, Germany and France. Topics begging further investigation include paramilitary activity in areas retaken by government forces and the role of the U.S. personnel in the counterinsurgency operations. Hundreds of U.S. news outlets have budgets that dwarf El Tiempo's, yet nearly all Colombia coverage in the United States comes from wire services that give their reporters just a few hours for a story or from freelancers whose poor pay doesn't allow more than a few days for any report. The U.S. media, in other words, are ignoring the country leading the hemisphere in political killings and that's among the top three recipients of U.S. military aid. It's a disgrace. ) 2004 Colombia Week. Phillip Cryan returned to the United States in November after 18 months of human rights work in Colombia. Next year Common Courage Press will publish a book he's writing about U.S. policy in that country. Find previous installments of "Media," his biweekly Colombia Week column, at www.colombiaweek.org/series.html#media. Link to this one at www.colombiaweek.org/20040503.html#media. ------------------------------------------------- (5) SEVEN DAYS: The week in review ------------------------------------------------- MONDAY, APRIL 26: A Bogota court acquits three Irishmen of charges they helped train Colombia's largest guerrilla army (see NEWS above). TUESDAY, APRIL 27: A Brazilian firm gives the Colombian airline Avianca until May 31 to accept a purchase offer (El Tiempo, 4/27/04). The United States has requested a guerrilla chief's extradition, Colombian authorities say (Reuters, 4/27/04). A powerful paramilitary bloc says it won't demobilize under a proposal by President Alvaro Uribe Vilez for "detention centers" (El Tiempo, 4/27/04). Saying some paramilitaries want to kill him, Uribe warns that the government will annihilate the paramilitaries unless they observe a ceasefire and quit trafficking drugs (see TOP STORY above). The Conservative Party backs a bill allowing presidential reelection (see BRIEFS above). A senator says his life has been in danger since Uribe criticized him on the radio for opposing the reelection bill (see BRIEFS above). The nation's inspector general announces charges against government agents for allegedly framing Tolima Province residents as guerrillas (see BRIEFS above). The government tells loved ones of 12 kidnapped lawmakers it won't bow to pressure for a "humanitarian accord" (see BRIEFS above). WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28: A construction backhoe in Bogota tumbles down a hillside onto a school bus, killing 21 children and 2 adults (Associated Press, 4/29/04). Russia offers help against guerrillas (Agence France Presse, 4/28/04). A Nobel laureate from Portugal says freeing hostages doesn't seem to interest President Alvaro Uribe Vilez (see BRIEFS above). A Roman Catholic bishop who's mediating government talks with paramilitaries doubts any groups at the table have issued threats against Uribe (see TOP STORY above). A lawyer for three Irishmen acquitted on terrorism charges says they want to stay in jail until Colombia offers protection from possible paramilitary reprisals (see NEWS above). THURSDAY, APRIL 29: Visiting Colombia, the U.S. military chief for Latin America pushes for more U.S. military personnel and civilian contractors in the country (Associated Press, 4/29/04). The U.S. State Department says Venezuela isn't cooperating fully against Colombian "terror" groups (El Tiempo, 4/29/04). The government wants European Union help to verify paramilitary demobilization, Foreign Minister Carolina Barco says (Reuters, 4/29/04). Colombia's combatants include 11,000 children, the United Nations reports (Pravda, 4/29/04). A government agency denounces sexual exploitation of children (El Tiempo, 4/29/04). The Liberal Party says it will reject a bill aimed at giving President Alvaro Uribe Vilez a chance to hold power for four more years (see BRIEFS above). FRIDAY, APRIL 30: A Congressional panel approves a bill allowing presidential reelection (see BRIEFS above). The government begins firing oil workers for taking part in a strike (see BRIEFS above). SATURDAY, MAY 1: The government oil company's president warns there will be more firings if a strike doesn't end (El Tiempo, 5/1/04). A peaceful march of 10,000 people in Bogota celebrates International Workers Day (El Tiempo, 5/2/04). SUNDAY, MAY 2: An explosion in downtown Bogota injures nine people and damages the Social Protection Ministry building (El Tiempo, 5/3/04). Authorities try to identify three bodies buried near a ranch where paramilitary leader Carlos Castaqo Gil disappeared (El Pams, 5/2/04). A paramilitary leader denies ordering a hit on Castaqo (El Espectador, 5/2/04). Unnamed sources said Castaqo was killed two days after an attack on his base, a magazine reports (see TOP STORY above). ) 2004 Colombia Week. Find links to each of these stories at www.colombiaweek.org/20040503.html. ------------------------------------------------- (6) FROM THE EDITORS ------------------------------------------------- ORIGINAL PHOTOS AT WEB SITE: The Colombia Week site (www.colombiaweek.org) includes original photography, a news summary updated daily, links to more information for those stories, a search engine, biographies for all writers and editors, back editions, and easy-to-browse links to every archival story. WEB DESIGNER OPENING: Colombia Week seeks a volunteer for Web design, possibly including rebuilding the site using PHP. The position does not require regular hours or tedious content posting. It's a unique opportunity to work with technically minded editors and contribute to the English-language news of record on Colombia. Send a brief description of your Web experience to editors at colombiaweek.org. FORWARD THIS EDITION: Please send this Colombia Week to a listserv or to individuals who need reliable news about the country. Ask them to subscribe to this free bulletin by writing to editors at colombiaweek.org. ------------------------------------------------- (7) LAST WORD: 'He escaped wounded' ------------------------------------------------- The disappearance of United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) cofounder Carlos Castaqo Gil has elevated an already larger-than-life figure to mythical status. Castaqo--butcher to some, anticommunist hero to others--went missing in an April 16 attack on his ranch (see TOP STORY above). Two weeks later neither his body nor any evidence proving his death had turned up. And media outlets were still quoting unnamed sources with contradictory accounts: CARACOL RADIO, APRIL 29: During the April 16 attack, he was "executed in a corral" of the ranch. REUTERS, APRIL 30: "They killed him two days later, after [holding him] with his hands and legs bound, in his underwear." EL TIEMPO, APRIL 30: "He escaped wounded, running with two men." ------------------------------------------------- Colombia Week publishes this bulletin on Mondays and publishes daily updates, photography and archives at www.colombiaweek.org. Editors: Marjorie Childress, Chip Mitchell, Julia Olmstead and Suzanne Wilson. Contributors: Sandra Alvarez, Yolanda Alvarez Sanchez (Culture), Janneth Carrillo Arismendy (Facets), Phillip Cryan (Media), W. John Green (Context), Stacey Hunt, Anne Holzman, Bill Kingsbury, Gregory Kipling, Thomas Kolar, Cynthia Mellon, Riley Merline, Annalise Romoser, Jana Silverman (Labor), Jim Trutor (Foreigners) and Lucma Vasquez Celis (First Nations). Copyright 2004 Colombia Week. To seek republication permission, to respond with a correction or a letter for publication, or to propose any content, write to editors at colombiaweek.org. To begin or end a subscription, write to that address with SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in your subject line. Colombia Week will never sell, share or divulge its subscriber list. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 14:06:45 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:06:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Calls for Criminal Charges in Atlantic City Worker Deaths Message-ID: <200405031806.i43I6j723254@tania.blythe-systems.com> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 3, 2004 Worker Safety Groups Call for Criminal Prosecution, Heavier Fines, in Atlantic City Construction Deaths Contact: Jim Moran - 215-386-7000 Jonathan Bennett - 212-627-3900 ext. 14 The Philadelphia Area Project for Occupational Safety and Health (PhilaPOSH) and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), called on the U.S. Labor Department to initiate the criminal prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of four construction workers in a building collapse last October 30. The groups also said that the size of the fines imposed by OSHA were unacceptably small. "This is about as clear a case as you could imagine of a company knowingly ignoring the most basic safety rules," said Jim Moran, PhilaPOSH Executive Director. "Four workers are dead as a result, with 21 more seriously injured, some permanently disabled," he continued. "If a $70,000 fine and no criminal charges is the best that OSHA can do, it's telling us that workers are expendable, and that's just wrong." "The case shows how much damage the Bush administration has done to OSHA," said Joel Shufro, Executive Director of NYCOSH. "A year ago OSHA could have issued $280,000 in fines, $70,000 for each fatality. Now Bush's appointees have ruled that it doesn't matter how many workers are killed, one or one hundred, the maximum fine stays the same, $70,000." Prosecutors still have the option of initiating a federal criminal prosecution for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act or a state prosecution for homicide. PhilaPOSH and NYCOSH both urge the federal and state prosecutors to use every means at their disposal to bring those responsible for these deaths to justice. "OSHA has a dismal record on using criminal penalties against employers whose wilful violations result in fatalities," said Moran. "This is a case that must not get away." "This case highlights the need for heavier federal penalties for wilful violations of OSHA regulations," said Shufro. "Even if the contractor is prosecuted and found guilty of a criminal OSHA violation, the maximum penalty is six months in jail. There are now two bills in Congress that would increase the maximum federal penalty to 10 years for killing a worker through wilful negligence. Both of the bills, the "Wrongful Death Accountability Act," sponsored by Senator Jon Corzine, and the "Protecting America's Workers Act," sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy, would put employers on notice that negligence regarding safety is not acceptable." Another troubling aspect of the case is the extremely light penalty OSHA imposed on the general contractor, who must have been in a position to see and understand how the concrete contractor was ignoring OSHA regulations. The OSHA violations highlight the ineffectiveness of the OSHA law as it now stands. A total fine of $119,500 on four contractors is hardly a deterrent that would prevent any of the contractors from repeating the violations in the future. In fact, the concrete contractor was charged with a wilful violation that killed a worker in 1995. The citation was later reduced to a serious violation. [Issued jointly by Philadelphia Area Project for Occupational Safety and Health (PhilaPOSH), 3001 Walnut St., 5th floor, Philadelphia 19104 tel: 215-386-7000 and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), 275 7th Ave. 8th floor, New York 10001 tel: 212-627-3900] From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 14:46:33 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:46:33 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Mexico, Peru Recall Ambassadors to Cuba, Mexico to Pursue Talks Message-ID: <200405031846.i43IkXR24007@tania.blythe-systems.com> [Mexico and Peru, miffed by Fidel's comments in his May Day speech about their slavishishness toward the USA, have both recalled their Ambassadors to Cuba. Mexico wants Cuban diplomats to leave within 48 hours. The dispute is related to the Human Rights Commission vote, on which both countries went along with Washington's farcical annual crusade against Cuba.] Reuters via Yahoo - May 3, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=4&u=/nm/20040503/wl_nm/mexico_cuba_dc Mexico Open to Dialogue with Cuba Despite Dispute MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico said Monday it was still open to dialogue with Cuba despite withdrawing its ambassador from Havana and accusing the Communist government of interfering in Mexican affairs. "There is no rupture. All the channels are open, all the relationship is normal. The only exception is that we have downgraded the post of ambassador," Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez told Monitor radio station. Mexico angrily announced Sunday it was bringing its ambassador home and expelling the Cuban envoy in Mexico in a row over Mexico's support last month for a censure of Cuba at a U.N. human rights body in Geneva. "The relationship between the two nations is open, the diplomatic channels are open," Derbez said Monday, taking a more conciliatory tone. Mexico was taken aback by President Fidel Castro who harshly criticized Mexico in his May Day speech for voting against Cuba, saying Mexico's prestige in the world had "turned into ashes." "It was a surprise for us. We understand that we have had differences about certain issues in particular but we have had these differences for three years," Derbez said. Peru also called its ambassador home from Cuba after Castro attacked President Alejandro Toledo in the speech. Mexico was a traditional ally of the Communist-run island for decades but relations have fallen to an all time low under President Vicente Fox, who has swung Mexico closer to Washington since taking power in 2000. Mexico's Interior Minister, Santiago Creel, also said two members of the Cuban Communist Party's central committee had been "carrying out activities incompatible with their status" in Mexico. That term is often used by governments to denote spying but Creel added that the pair had dabbled in "affairs which should be dealt with by diplomatic channels in the relevant institutions," suggesting they had become involved in Mexican politics. A handful of people demonstrated outside the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City Monday in support of Cuba. They carried banners reading, "Cuba, brotherly nation" and "Beyond Bush and Fox, Mexico and Cuba are brothers." AFP via Yahoo - May 3, 2004 http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040503/wl_afp/peru_cuba_040503063241 Peru recalls ambassador to Cuba LIMA (AFP) - Peru has recalled its ambassador to Cuba in the wake of what it deemed "offensive" remarks by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the Foreign Ministry announced. "The Peruvian government energetically rejects offensive remarks made by the Cuban head of state with regard to Peru," the ministry said in a statement. It added that Castro's comment "will inevitably have consequences for bilateral relations." The Cuban ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry earlier Sunday and handed a formal note of protest, officials said. The decision follows a Saturday speech by the Cuban president, in which he lashed out at Latin American countries that voted for a UN resolution criticizing Cuba for human rights abuses and urging it to comply with its obligations stemming from UN accords on this issue. In his remarks, Castro said that Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo's popularity rating stood only at eight percent and he was in "no position to lead or attempt to anything." The Cuban leader insisted the Peruvian government had fallen prey to "oligarchs and transnational monopolies that make all the decisions." The Peruvian Foreign Ministry insisted Lima was committed to "indiscriminate defense of human right wherever this policy needs to be applied." From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 14:48:00 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:48:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Mexican Student Activist Found Dead Message-ID: <200405031848.i43Im0v24060@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Milt Shapiro (mex news) - May 3, 2004 Mexican Student Activist Found Dead: Justice for Pavel Noel Pavel Gonzalez was an activist during the UNAM student strike of 1999-2000. He was part of the Strike Committee of the CCH Sur and earlier enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. He was a student in the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) and he continued participating in the Another World is Possible protests in Cancun and Monterrey. Until the present he helped as a volunteer in the Smaliyel Cooperative. On 19 April of this year Pavel disappeared. On 23 April there was a protest in Mexico City outside the Judicial Police of the Federal District (PGJDF). On 24 April he was found in at Pico del Aguila del Ajusco. His body showed signs of physical mistreatment, torture and a blow to the head which caused a skull fracture. He was found propped up and hanging on a wooden cross of three metres, according to information in La Jornada, 27 April. Some people might think that this act is part of the urban violence which afflicts us daily, but the marks of systematic torture for the four days during which he was captured and the fractured skull (a mark of the Mexican army) makes evident the political undertone of this backward assassination. Obviously we do not believe it was suicide. The students and professors of the UNAM and ENAH universities demand the investigation of this vile assassination. PS Pass this message to all of your contacts. This crime must not rest with impunity. We cannot permit a return to the dirty war of the 1970s in Mexico. Source: Infoshop.org: 05/03 From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 16:02:48 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:02:48 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Send a Piana to Havana Wins License from OFAC Message-ID: <200405032002.i43K2mv26265@tania.blythe-systems.com> Berkeley Daily Planet - April 27, 2004 http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=04-27-04&storyID=18737 Treuhaft Sends Pianos To Havana ?This Time With Bush?s Blessing By Richard Brenneman Piano tuner Ben Treuhaft says he started sending pianos to Cuba in 1995 ?as sort of an enema to [then-President Bill] Clinton?s Cuba policy, but somehow his Commerce Department gave their approval.? Not so under the regime of George W. Bush, whose Commerce Department ordered the program shut down in February after the State Department said it wasn?t in the interests of the president?s foreign policy. But Treuhaft?s not known for turning away from a scrap, due in part to his exuberantly scrappy parents, both active communists when he was born. His mother, muckraker Jessica Mitford, was the daughter of English aristocracy. Her first husband, a nephew of Winston Churchill, perished during World War II. In 1943 she married Ben?s father, Robert Treuhaft, a scrappy labor and civil rights attorney born in the Bronx to Hungarian Jewish immigrants. Ben Treuhaft was born five years later, after his parents had settled into a comfortable house at 6411 Regent St. in Oakland . His parents left the Communist Party in 1958, part of the mass exodus that followed Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev?s exposure of Josef Stalin?s bloody misdeeds. But neither gave up their commitments to labor, civil rights, and the exposure of corporate corruption. Robert Treuhaft played a major role in the defense of students arrested in the Free Speech Movement?s struggles at UC Berkeley. Mitford worked with current City Councilmember Maudelle Shirek to bust the restrictive covenants barring African Americans from owning homes in much of Berkeley. Small wonder, then, that their son turned his ostensible trade as a tuner of Steinway pianos into an act of political defiance. ?I went to Cuba in 1993 on a trip organized by Global Exchange to challenge the embargo on tourism,? he said. ?We wanted to get arrested so we could challenge the policy in a courtroom. But they never arrested us.? Treuhaft did learn that Cuba?s pianos were in terrible shape, leading to his first shipment of pianos to the island nation in 1995 after the Clinton administration approved their request for an exemption from the trade embargo. Three years later, he departed for the Big Apple. ?I decided 50 years was enough,? he said. He loaded up his gear from the Underwater Piano Shop?named, he says, ?because I sometimes work under middle-C level??and set up shop in Manhattan, while he continued his Send-A-Piana-to-Havana campaign (see his website, http://www.sendapiana.com). With the help of volunteers and donations, he had sent 237 instruments and made several trips to tune pianos in Cuba before the Bush administration clamped down in February. Treuhaft enlisted the support of Oakland attorney Tom Miller and Congressional Representatives Barbara Lee of the East Bay and Jose E. Serrano of New York to help plead his cause. In a joint letter, the lawmakers praised his program as ?a first-class example of Americans applying their expertise to improve the lives of Cubans, while sharing the democratic and humanitarian principles of the United States.? Miller?s letter, written with a dry wit, included a direct jab targeted at the administration?s heavy tilt toward the evangelical community. After pointing out that many of the pianos ended up in Cuban churches, the attorney asked, ?How an attempt to silence Cuba?s churches is the fulfillment of U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba is difficult to comprehend. Please explain.? ?I figured that appealing to religion was the way to them,? Miller said. ?After they read Miller?s letter, they capitulated,? Treuhaft said. ?They called on Friday and told us they were sending a letter confirming that we?d get our license,? he said, adding, ?I think they pulled our license originally because they realized we were anti-embargo.?? From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 16:03:12 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:03:12 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Venezuela Asks USA's NED to Stop Financing Opposition Message-ID: <200405032003.i43K3CC26295@tania.blythe-systems.com> VHeadline.com - May 2, 2004 http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=20981 Venezuela asks NED to stop financing the Venezuelan opposition by Philip Stinard The Venezuelan government has asked the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to immediately stop financing people, organizations and political parties that participated in the April 2002 coup d'etat and the petroleum strike and sabotage of December 2002 thru January 2003 ... the government emphasizes that NED (with financing from the US Congress) is not only violating domestic judicial order in Venezuela, but also Articles 2 and 19 of the Organization of American States (OAS) Democratic Charter, which condemn intervention in the internal affairs of other countries. In a letter to Vin Weber, president of the Board of Directors at NED, Venezuela's Permanent Representative to the OAS, Ambassador Jorge Valero has, once again, demanded the cessation of foreign intervention in Venezuela. The Venezuelan diplomat indicated that on April 20, this year, he received a communication signed by Weber, by ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and president of the Board of Directors of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and by Senator John McCain, President of the Board of Directors of the International Republican Institute. ?Attached to that communication was a Memorandum, dated the same day (without signature) which attempts to refute the denunciations that we made before the OAS Permanent Council on March 31, in the name of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.? ?None of the arguments contained in that Memorandum invalidate our denunciations. The essence of these is that US taxpayers? money is being channeled, through NED to finance people, political parties, and organizations of the so-called ?civil society? of Venezuela, who participated in the ill-fated coup of April 11-12, 2002; who supported or promoted sabotage of the national petroleum industry (December 2002 to January 2003); and who have continued using NED?s financing to campaign against Venezuelan laws and democratic institutions.? ?In this opportunity,? says Valero in his communication ?we want to reiterate that the International Republican Institute (IRI), a subsidiary of NED, supported and celebrated the coup in Venezuela, according to a communication released April 12, 2002 by its president, George Folsom. In this communication, they confirm that the IRI had ?served as a bridge? to articulate ?to the national political parties and all groups of civil society,? who they call their ?associates,? that they had supported and/or participated in the coup.? ?There?s abundant evidence that NED used resources assigned by the US Congress to finance organizations of the so-called ?Civil Society,? whose leaders signed the Decree by which the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga dissolved all of the country?s democratic institutions.? ( See documents published at www.venezuelafoia.info ) ?There are many examples: Maria Corina Machado, of SUMATE; Rocio Guijarro and Vilma Petrash, of CEDICE; Carlos Fernandez and Julio Brazon, of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fedecamaras); Carlos Pumar, of the Confederation of Venezuelan Trade Unions (CTV); Education Assembly's Armando Leon; Citizen?s Assembly representative Maxim Ross; Civil Resistance Domingo Alberto Rangel and Julio Cesar Arreaza B., of Emerging Vision. These last three participants were in the projected to construct an ?alternative agenda,? financed by the International Center for Private Business (CIPE) and executed by the Center for the Divulgation of Venezuelan Economic Knowledge (CEDICE)." * "Can NED use money assigned by the US Congress to fund groups that supported the coup so they can elaborate an ?alternative agenda? to the National Government? Can this be called ?promoting democracy??? Valero recalled that among the signers of the Decree were ?political leaders who had received support from NED, such as Leopoldo Martinez, deputy to the National Assembly who was named Minister of Finance by the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga; and Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez from Primero Justicia. Leonardo Carvajal, leader of the Civil Education Assembly (an organization also financed by NED), was named Minister of Education by Carmona's illegitimate government.? ?It is indicated in the Memorandum that ?NED?s support was not used for the collection of signatures.? However, SUMATE?s web page gives abundant evidence that the objective has been to collect signatures in the ?Firmazo? and in the ?Reafirmazo? against President Chavez. Currently, SUMATE is totally committed to collect signatures against President Hugo Chavez in the repair process promoted by the National Electoral Council (CNE).? (See: http://www.sumate.org/quienes_somos.html ) ?In a project financed by NED titled ?Strengthening of Political Parties,? it is confirmed that the IRI has been ?working closely with Justice First to develop the party?s political platform? (Grant Agreement 2002-022/7279). In a report presented after a trip to Caracas from June 16 to 25, 2002, Christopher Sabatini affirms: ?Justice First is the principal associate of the IRI? in Venezuela.? ?In a trimester IRI report on the ?Strengthening of Political Parties? program, Mike Collins, ex-Press Secretary for the Republican Party, explains that he ?worked with Justice First, Alfredo Pena?s political movement, the Progressive Union, COPEI, Democratic Action, and a group of journalists convened by the civil society organization CEDICE.? The program?s objective was to develop ?communications and image strategies? (IRI 2001-047QR-Oct-Dec). As we have shown, NED?s financial support goes far beyond training and technical assistance.? ?The dollars that NED gives to SUMATE are not used to ?observe the signature collection process that was conducted by the National Electoral Council,? as claimed by the Memorandum attached to their letter, among other reasons because SUMATE is not legally authorized to act as a national or international observer in the Venezuelan electoral process. The only international observers that until now have been authorized by the National Government and the CNE are the OAS and the Carter Center. We must emphasize that national observers, accredited by the electoral body, cannot publicly demonstrate their affinity for any of the political formulas in question in the recall referendum. An observer must be impartial. SUMATE, on the other hand, is completely committed to the Opposition Coordinator; that is, as the whole country knows, their electoral machinery. SUMATE only acts with respect to a specific and concise recall procedure: the recall procedure against the President of the Republic.? ?In the project to be executed from September 2003 to September 2004 (Grant Agreement No.2003-548.0), SUMATE promised to use the dollars granted by NED to ?promote popular support for the referendum.? And equally to develop ?a public information campaign? through ?TV and radio commercials as well as fliers,? with the goal of achieving the recall of President Chavez?s mandate.? Ambassador Valero?s communication ends by indicating that, ?in accordance with Sentence 1395 of Venuela?s Supreme Court of Justice Constitutional Chamber, it is prohibited for organizations of this type to receive foreign funding. Therefore, NED is violating Venezuelan law when it finances organizations that don?t just participate in Venezuela?s internal political debate, but have involved themselves in unconstitutional activities.? From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 16:03:34 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:03:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] OAS, Carter Center to Observe Venez Signature Verification Message-ID: <200405032003.i43K3YK26352@tania.blythe-systems.com> [NOTE: Vcrisis.com is an anti-Chavez website.] Vcrisis.com - May 3, 2004 http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200405030543 Venezuela: Carter and Gaviria will witness signature repair process By Teresa de Vincenzo, El Universal C?sar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, president of the Carter Center, will be in Venezuela between May 29 and June 1 to head the two organizations' observation missions in the repair process related to the signatures requesting a presidential recall vote. Together, the OAS and the Carter Center will display about 120 observers who will directly witness the three-day process. Francisco Diez, representative of the Carter Center, and Marcelo ?lvarez, assistant head of the OAS mission in Venezuela, met Thursday with the directors of the National Electoral Council (CNE) to discuss the visit. Both international organizations hailed through a joint press release "the efforts made by the CNE, the (pro-government group) Comando Ayacucho and the Venezuelan opposition's organizations to find, though dialogue and consensus, the right conditions for Venezuelans to exercise their right during the claim process." Diez and ?lvarez believe that the citizens have been given the "necessary guarantees" to express their will, either by ratifying or by withdrawing their signatures. Diez underlined that the OAS and the Carter Center have offered their cooperation to the authorities and officials of the CNE to accompany them as observers of the process. He said that the observers will keep their commitment to continue on this capacity "with the responsibility shown until now, and offering the CNE and the citizens their best human and technical resources to ensure Venezuelans that their will be respected, whichever it may be." The OAS and the Carter Center urged the population to participate in the process "as a contribution to the strengthening of democracy." Translated by Edgardo Malaver From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 16:08:41 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:08:41 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] NYC: Zinn's "Marx in Soho" May 8 Message-ID: <200405032008.i43K8fC26550@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by South End Press 5/3/2004 This email has been sent to you to announce the next performance of Howard Zinn's remarkable play "Marx in Soho." The premise of the play is simple: What if Karl Marx were allowed to come back and see the world today? What would he say? Howard Zinn answered this question with a hilarious one-man play that has been greeted by sell-out crowds and rave reviews across the country. The play stars actor Brian Jones, who has been touring the play around the country. Jones recently lent his voice to the audio recording of Noam Chomsky's new book Hegemony or Survival. He is an activist in New York and a member of the International Socialist Organization. Marx in Soho Saturday, May 8, 2004 7 pm Broadway Presbyterian Church 601 West 114th Street New York City Tickets available at the door $10 Regular, $15 Solidarity Doors open at 6:30 pm Praise for Marx in Soho: "Engaging and charismatic" --Washington Post "Whatever your leanings, it's hard not to come out of this show stirred and stimulated" --San Francisco Bay Guardian Visit http://www.marxinsoho.com for background on the play. Play available from South End Press at http://www.southendpress.org/books/zinnmarx.shtml THE STORY OF THE MARX IN SOHO TOUR is told in issue #23 of the International Socialist Review, available in bookstores across the country, and online at http://www.isreview.org/issues/23/marx_in_soho.shtml Individual Orders, call 800.533.8478 To request a review copy, visit www.southendpress.org/order/review.shtml For more information on this title, visit www.southendpress.org/books/zinnmarx.shtml To be removed from our list, please send an email to remove at southendpress.org, with "Remove" in the Subject line South End Press | 7 Brookline Street, Suite 1 | Cambridge | MA | 02139 From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 16:36:19 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:36:19 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Torture: Business as Usual for Washington Message-ID: <200405032036.i43KaJS27370@tania.blythe-systems.com> Vieques Support Campaign http://www.viequessupport.org TORTURE: Business as Usual for Washington George Bush says he is "disgusted"; this is not how "we" act, he says about the photos of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and sexually humiliated. How ironic that George Bush should be disgusted by torture. His own father, George Bush Sr. was director of the CIA during Operation Condor, when US supported Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet assassinated/ executed/ "disappeared" 30,000 leftists using funds and intelligence provided by the CIA. George Bush's grandfather, Preston Bush was a wealthy industrialist with ties to German Nazis and part of the mileau of bankers and lawyers that founded the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the precursor of the CIA. The CIA-Nazi connection has been well documented. In the aftermath of World War II many Nazis, including Death Camp scientists and many from the inner circles of Heinreich Himmler's Gestapo - the Nazi intelligence service, were absorbed into the CIA. The CIA has avidly studied and implemented Nazi torture techniques. We need not look so far back in the Bush family history. Under the Bush Administration, the United States has exported $20 million of shackles and electro-shock technology according to a recent Amnesty International Report called "The Pain Merchant". Washington is obviously embarrassed that the world has gotten a peep into the occupiers' treatment of Iraqi prisoners. They insist that torture is a shocking aberration and that the military personnel involved are renegades. Yet even a cursory review of the evidence shows that the torture of Iraqi prisoners is just business as usual. George W. Bush is just the latest representative of the Powers That Be that have historically used any means available to attain their goals of economic and military hegemony. Torture as a means of imposing the will of conqurers, is embedded in the traditions of oppression in this country. If we examine the topic of torture from a historical and political framework, we see that torture is part of the means in which oppressed people are ruled. Since the days of African American slavery and the massacre of Native American people, torture has been one of their weapons. It has been effectively used by US-backed governments in Latin America, Indonesia and Africa. Let us compare Bush's protestations of dismay with the words of Daniel Mitrione, a United States "policy advisor", infamous for his classes in interrogation and torture in Brazil and Uruguay in the 1960's: "When you receive a subject, the first thing to do is to determine his physical state, his degree of resistance, through a medical examination. A premature death means a failure by the technician. "Another important thing to know is exactly how far you can go given the political situation and the personality of the prisoner. It is very important to know beforehand whether we have the luxury of letting the subject die... "Before all else, you must be efficient. You must cause only the damage that is strictly necessary, not a bit more. We must control our tempers in any case. You have to act with the efficiency and cleanliness of a surgeon and with the perfection of an artist... "I can teach you about torture, but sooner or later you'll have to get involved. You'll have to lay on your hands and try it yourselves. The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect.'' In contrast to Washington's many denials of torture, Mitrione obviously viewed his work as a conscious, well-planned act and had many opportunities to practice it. Mitrione was hardly a renegade. Former New York Times correspondent A. J. Langguth reported that some of the equipment Mitrione used in his work were sent through diplomatic pouch. Mitrione was eventually kidnapped and killed by the Tupamaro guerrillas. At his funeral, White House spokesman Ron Ziegler stated: "Mr. Mitrione's devoted service to the cause of peace in an orderly world. He will remain as an example for free men everywhere." >From the point of view of Washington, The "desired effect" of the torture is not just to "neutralize" certain individuals, but to thoroughly terrorize the populace and to strike such fear into their hearts that they will not oppose the theft of their land and the enslavement of their people. As Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano puts it "People were in prison so that prices could be free." A few highlights illustrate the history of Washington's use of torture: * In Iran, the CIA instructed SAVAK, the Iranian secret police in torture techniques. The New York Times quoted Jesse J. Leaf, a former head Iran analyst for the CIA, "I do remember seeing and being told of [CIA personnel] who were there seeing the rooms and being told of torture. And I know that the torture rooms were toured and it was all paid for by the U.S.A." * The notorious Operation Phoenix, set up by the CIA to wipe out the infrastructure of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front, subjected suspects to torture such as: electric shock to the genitals of both men and women, and insertion of a six-inch dowel into the ear, which was tapped through the brain until the victim died. * The "School of the Americas" is an infamous CIA training school where many South American military personnel are still taught torture techniques. Under public pressure, SOA officials released training manuals that offered instruction if various methods of torture. Bush said "that's not the way we do things in America", but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary: In U.S. colonized Puerto Rico, Socialist and Vieques activist leader Angel Rodriguez Cristobal was arrested at a protest then taken to the federal detention facility in Tallahassee, Florida where he was discovered dead from hanging. An independent examination of Cristobal's body revealed that he was also tortured. In New York City, Abner Louima is the best-known recent example of what can happen at the hands of U.S. law enforcement, who have been granted greater powers to terrorize poor communities. In a country with a prison population of over 2 million, the highest incarceration rate in the world, torture is a well-hidden but common event. Torture is tradition in the way this country is ruled. Since the earliest days of U.S. history, physical terror was used against Native peoples and African Americans to maintain their subjugation at a time when the rulers of this country were building their political power and accumulating wealth by thievery. It is easier for the rulers to find some justification, according to their logic, for torturing, killing or jailing the untermenschen or sub-humans. By equating all Arab people with terrorism and by stirring up racist hatred, the rulers can detain prisoners at Guantanamo indefinitely with no legal rights whatsoever. And now that the finger-pointing and blame may go on for weeks, military officials are certain to contradict one another as officials try to disassociate this event with the norms of the U.S. military. In addition, presidential candidate John Kerry and the Democratic Party will make every attempt to exploit to their advantage the latest episode of the U.S. occupation in Iraq. We in the liberation struggles of oppressed peoples and in the anti-war movement of the U.S. must make it clear that Democrats and Republicans alike are to blame. The blame for the torture of Iraqi prisoners is the invasion and occupation of Iraq itself. U.S. military cruelty in Iraq will stop as the people demonstrate their collective strength and rid their homeland of the foreign invader. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Mon May 3 16:51:09 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:51:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] RHC News Summary - May 3, 2004 Message-ID: <200405032051.i43Kp9b27598@tania.blythe-systems.com> News Summary from RHC - May 3, 2004 * Cuba's Foreign Ministry Rejects New Action Against Cuba * Washington's Blockade is Doomed to Failure - Perez Roque * Pastors for Peace Prepares for Next Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba * Globalization Impoverishes Cultural Diversity * Cuba's Tourism Convention Underway in Varadero * Taguba Report: Shocking New Evidence of Brutality Against Iraqis * British Soldiers Stand By Claims of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse * No Foreign Fighters in Fallujah - Iraqi Authorities * Sharon Faces Crisis after Likud Party Rejects Gaza Pull-Out Plan Cuba's Foreign Ministry Rejects New Action Against Cuba Havana, May 3 (RHC)-- The Cuban Foreign Ministry has issued a statement concerning recent declarations and actions by the Mexican government. In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the Foreign Ministry said that on Sunday, May 2nd, declarations were made by officials on Mexican radio and television. According to Mexican Government Secretary Santiago Creel Miranda, three Cuban officials visited Mexico last month and allegedly committed what he called "unacceptable activities" that were outside diplomatic norms. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez then accused the Cuban government of "actions that represent direct intervention in matters that only concern Mexicans." Derbez claimed that the recent deportation of Mexican businessman Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, the speech by Cuban President Fidel Castro on May 1st and the explanation made by Government Secretary Creel Miranda led Mexico's President Vicente Fox to recall his country's ambassador from Havana and order that Cuba's ambassador leave Mexico City within 48 hours. The Foreign Ministry statement pointed out that Cuban Ambassador Jorge Bola?os was informed by telephone only five minutes before these decisions were made public. The Cuban Foreign Ministry rejects this new action against Cuba and announces that these declarations and lies will receive a proper response. Washington's Blockade is Doomed to Failure - Perez Roque Havana, May 3 (RHC)-- Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe P?rez Roque says that Washington's economic blockade of Cuba is doomed to failure. Speaking with delegates attending a one-day solidarity meeting in Havana, Cuba's top diplomat said that despite US attempts to tighten its blockade of the island, the Cuban people will continue to resist. More than 600 representatives of trade union organizations and solidarity with Cuba groups from 55 countries -- many of whom attended Saturday's May Day rally in the Cuban capital -- took part in the meeting at Havana's International Convention Center on Sunday. In addition to Cuba's foreign minister, Parliament President Ricardo Alarc?n and other government officials spoke to the delegates at the solidarity meeting in Havana. Representatives from nearly 150 trade union organizations told reporters that the working people of the world fully support and defend the Cuban Revolution. Pastors for Peace Prepares for Next Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba New York, May 3 (RHC)-- The Inter-religious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) / Pastors for Peace is preparing for the next caravan to Cuba. In a statement released over the weekend from New York City, IFCO/Pastors for Peace announced that caravanistas will cross the US border into Mexico on July 7th, challenging Washington's restrictions on travel and aid to the island. Since 1992, IFCO/Pastors for Peace has delivered more than 2350 tons of assistance to the Cuban people without seeking a US Treasury Department license. This will be the 15th Friendshipment Caravan, led by IFCO Executive Director Reverend Lucius Walker. The statement by Pastors for Peace says that during this election year in the United States, "the Bush Administration has started cracking down on people-to-people exchanges with Cuba." In spite of the intensified measures, the 15th Friendshipment Caravan will travel along thirteen separate routes across the country, stop in 120 US cities and collect over 60 tons of humanitarian aid. The caravanistas will travel to Cuba with school buses, computers, medicines and school supplies collected from groups across the US -- refusing to apply for licenses from Washington as a collective challenge to the economic blockade and travel ban. Reverend Lucius Walker said that "as people of faith and conscience, it is our duty to resist and expose this cruel contradiction." He added that "IFCO/Pastors for Peace rejects this licensing system as both immoral and illegal. It is immoral because it endangers the lives of Cubans and inflicts suffering on innocent children, as well as adults. It is illegal under international law because it uses a sanction to be imposed only in time of war against a declared enemy in order to force another nation to change its government." The executive director and founder of IFCO/Pastors for Peace emphasized that "licensing is also unconstitutional because it requires people of faith to submit their acts of conscience and friendship to government licensing, in violation of our right to freedom of religious expression, political thought, association and travel. Globalization Impoverishes Cultural Diversity Buenos Aires, May 3 (RHC)-- Cuba's Minister of Culture, Abel Prieto, affirms that Latin America must defend its culture and traditions from globalized monotony. Quoted in the Argentinean daily newspaper Pagina 12, the Cuban official said that one of globalization's worst effects is the decline of national culture in the world. In the interview published on Monday, Cuba's minister of culture said that the island is training art teachers and social workers in order to stimulate education, the arts and literature. Abel Prieto said that Cuba is using culture as an antidote to the manipulation of consumerism -- noting that "it is culture, not consumption, that enhances the quality of life." The Cuban minister of culture stressed that "consumerism and the manipulation of world opinion turns people into zombies, abolishing intelligence and imposing US cultural values." Cuba's Tourism Convention Underway in Varadero Varadero Beach, May 3 (RHC)-- Cuba's 24th Annual Tourism Convention opened Monday at the Varadero Beach Resort with the participation of nearly 2000 delegates -- including tour operators, travel agents, tourism experts and officials from some 60 countries. Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero officially opened the tourism convention. The first day of activities includes a lecture on the Herve Barr? Cultural Tourism Product, responsible for the Cultural, Tourist and Development Program of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Special attention is being focussed on the tourist destination Jardines del Rey, as a major tourist attraction known for its beauty and excellent quality. Jardines del Rey is a group of keys and small islands stretching along the northern coast of the central province of Ciego de Avila -- including the larger Cayo Guillermo, Cayo Coco, Cayo Anton Chico and Cayo Paredon Grande. They are linked to the mainland by a road that crosses over the sea. This year's convention is dedicated to Great Britain, which has been a major source of tourism over the past five years and appears to have good growth potential in the future. Representatives from Cuba's main hotel chains, travel agents and officials from the Cuban Tourism and Culture Ministries are attending the event in Varadero, which runs through Saturday, the 8th. Taguba Report: Shocking New Evidence of Brutality Against Iraqis Washington, May 3 (RHC) - Shocking new evidence of brutality against Iraqi prisoners emerged over the weekend in a secret US military report into the treatment of detainees at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The report into the military prison system in Iraq by Major General Antonio Taguba - which was known months before graphic and humiliating photographs surfaced last week - said there were "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib, and listed some of them. They included breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees, beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair, threatening male detainees with rape, sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broomstick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees - and in one instance actually setting a dog on a detainee who was bitten. General Taguba's report makes it clear that far from being isolated actions by low-level personnel, intelligence interrogators encouraged the military police to "soften up" detainees. He recommended disciplinary action for at least two senior officers apart from Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, whose suspension as chief of military prisons in Iraq was revealed after the photographs were published last week. The 53-page report, not intended for public release, was obtained by journalist Seymour Hersh, who revealed some of the details to CNN and The New Yorker magazine. Hersh said the report made it clear that the troops would not have attempted to break down prisoners in the way they did unless higher-ups or intelligence agents wanted them to soften the prisoners up for interrogation. In another allegation that adds weight to a growing body of evidence that the torture reflected a pattern of abuse which goes far beyond the six guards now facing possible court martial, General Karpinski has asserted that guards and interrogators attempted to cover up the systematic abuse from the International Red Cross. The former head of US military prisons in Iraq, Karpinski stated Sunday that military intelligence officers also discouraged her from entering the cell block at Abu Ghraib where they interrogated prisoners. Karpinski claims that she was unaware of the abuse, but it wasn't clear why she allowed herself to be "discouraged" from entering the cell block where prisoners were interrogated. She merely stated that she should have been "more aggressive" about visiting the cell block, particularly after learning that military intelligence officers went to great length to try to hide the abuse from the Red Cross. And there was a case of physical abuse of Iraqi inmates at another prison camp under her command last year. In that instance, at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, four soldiers were discharged but claimed that they had been acting in self-defense and blamed chaotic conditions at the camp, while Karpinski insisted to journalists at the time that Iraqi prisoners were being treated humanely and fairly. British Soldiers Stand By Claims of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse London, May 3 (RHC) - The British soldiers who released photographs to a newspaper apparently showing UK servicemen abusing an Iraqi prisoner stood by their account after military police announced an investigation into the authenticity of the photos. The soldiers who requested anonymity also claimed that hundreds of photographs have been taken of British soldiers mistreating Iraqi civilians, and that troops serving in southern Iraq have been swapping the pictures among themselves. They said many of the pictures were destroyed last September when the troops' luggage was searched as they left Iraq, though the Ministry of Defense denied any knowledge of this. The photos, published by the Daily Mirrror, appeared to show a hooded Iraqi being struck with a rifle butt, urinated on and having a gun held to his head. The soldiers told the Mirror that this really happened, that it's not a hoax and that the army knows a lot more has happened. Despite doubts about the Mirror's pictures, British military authorities are facing questions over a series of allegations regarding the treatment of Iraqi prisoners by British troops. Amnesty International recorded four deaths of Iraqi prisoners in British custody last year and a catalogue of complaints from Iraqis about mistreatment. The British news daily The Independent has recorded seven deaths and Sunday published the details of those incidents. Iraqis say that British troops have killed at least 18 Iraqis in suspicious circumstances, and lawyers for the victims' families have announced that they will go to the high court on Wednesday to challenge the Ministry of Defense's refusal to pay damages and set up an independent inquiry. The Independent reported that it's been a year and two days since Ather Karen al-Mowafakia died in British custody in Basra, that during the next five months another six men died while in the custody of British soldiers, that it is only four months since the first details of these deaths first emerged in its pages and that as the Royal Military Police continues investigating the cases no disciplinary action has been taken or charges leveled against any soldier. No Foreign Fighters in Fallujah - Iraqi Authorities Fallujah, Iraq, May 3 (RHC) - The Iraqi general chosen to run a new security force in Fallujah has told US military commanders that there are no foreign fighters in the city. As a flood of civilians returned home after four weeks of a ferocious assault on the city by American marines, Major General Jasim Mohammed Saleh said US provocations had provoked a backlash from ordinary Iraqis in Fallujah who joined the resistance. American commanders say 200 foreign fighters are holed up in Fallujah and have demanded that the city hands them over. But Saleh, an ex-Republican Guard officer during Saddam Hussein's regime, said local tribal leaders have told him that there were no foreign fighters in the city. His remarks have put him at odds with US occupation authorities. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, added to the confusion about General Saleh's role Sunday by denying that he had even been put in charge of Fallujah. Despite insistence that foreign fighters were involved in the Fallujah resistance, Marines have only detained five foreign passport holders in the city, but US military commanders have said they're unsure whether any had fought in the uprising. Foreign participation appears far lower than civilian US occupation officials like chief spokesman Dan Senor have suggested. Senor has portrayed the battle of Fallujah as one in which foreign fighters and terrorists were holding the city's "silent majority" hostage. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the military command's chief spokesman, suggested in recent days that foreign fighters and terrorists were "driving a wedge" between Fallujah's residents and the Americans. Previous US claims that foreigners were behind attacks in Iraq have turned out to be shaky. In March, after suicide bombers killed up to 271 people during a Shiite religious holiday, US and Iraqi leaders quickly blamed foreign terrorists. Officials said 10 foreigners had been arrested, five of whom were released, and five of whom later turned out to be Iraqis. Other suicide bombings, including two in February that killed almost 100 police and army recruits, were initially blamed on foreign groups. Subsequent evidence suggested Iraqis were behind the attack. The US military has acknowledged that of 8,000 guerrilla suspects jailed across Iraq, only 127 hold foreign passports. And in the south, no one has suggested that foreigners pack the ranks of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army. Sharon Faces Crisis after Likud Party Rejects Gaza Pull-Out Plan Tel Aviv, May 3 (RHC) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered Sunday what is being called a humiliating defeat at the hands of his own rightwing party, which overwhelmingly rejected his plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip but retain virtually all the illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The prime minister's Likud Party has now formally declared that it does not want to give up any occupied territory - despite Sharon having received full endorsement for his controversial plan from US President George Bush. Sharon had originally said that the Likud vote was binding, but observers believe he will press ahead with his plan and resubmit it to the general public in a referendum. But Sunday's resounding "no" means the unilateral disengagement plan will be put on hold for now since any of Sharon's options to win approval in a different forum, including early elections or a national referendum, would take months to prepare. Some Israeli newspapers called Sharon a prime minister without a party who is also divorced from the settlers who once championed him as the architect of Israel's decades-old settlement policy. Palestinian leaders played down Sunday's vote as an internal Israeli matter, pointing out that the plan would not bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jewish settlers celebrated the outcome of the nonbinding referendum as a victory for "greater Israel." compiled by NY Transfer from http://www.radiohc.cu From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:17:30 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:17:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Nablus Shelled Message-ID: <200405041517.i44FHUm30510@tania.blythe-systems.com> The Palestine Monitor A PNGO Information Clearinghouse UPDATE Nablus Shelled Tuesday, May 4, 2004 Helicopter gun ships have fired shells into the residential neighbourhood of Al Yasemina in the Old City of Nablus. The shelling has affected several houses as well as causing significant damage to a nearby UPMRC clinic. Dr Jihad Mashal Director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees denounced the attack as part of an Israeli sequence of assaults aimed at destroying the medical, economic and social infrastructure of the Palestinian people. Has suffered This is yet another senseless act highlighting Israeli disregard for International and Humanitarian law. Dr Mashal called for immediate international intervention to condemn the violent assaults and stop the repercussion of such attacks. For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor +972 (0)2 298 5372 http://www.palestinemonitor.org From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:19:11 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:19:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Supporters of Colombia 3 Thank Irish Govt Message-ID: <200405041519.i44FJBb30578@tania.blythe-systems.com> News about Ireland & the Irish Belfast Telegraph - May 4, 2004 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=517985 Colombia Trio Backers Say Thanks By Ben Lowry CAMPAIGNERS on behalf of the three republicans being held in Colombia for travelling on false passports have thanked the Republic's government for its "intervention" on behalf of the men. Sinn Fein Assembly member Caitriona Ruane, of the Bring Them Home campaign, also called on Dublin to "redouble its efforts" to ensure that the men leave the country. The position of the Republic's government has angered unionists such as former Trade Minister Sir Reg Empey, who described it as "an outrage". Last week, the Dublin government offered to pay an ?11,500 bond, after which the men would be free to leave jail. But the trio, who were acquitted in Bogota of training Marxist rebels, are refusing to leave prison until the authorities offer guarantees for their safety. Even if they leave jail, Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan cannot leave Colombia as the chief prosecutor is appealing against the acquittals. Ms Ruane said two affidavits, which relate to the position of the Republic's government, had been given to the judge to assist him making a decision to permit the men to leave Colombia. "The Bring Them Home Campaign and the defence team would like to thank the Irish Government for their intervention and call on them to redouble their efforts to ensure that these men are permitted to return home to their families." From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:21:38 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:21:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Haiti Report for May 3, 2004 Message-ID: <200405041521.i44FLdc30713@tania.blythe-systems.com> Haiti Report for May 3, 2004 Prepared by Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center The Haiti Report is a compilation and summary of events as described in Haitian and international media. It does not reflect the opinions of Haiti Reborn. This service is intended to give a better understanding of the situation in Haiti by presenting the reader with reports that provide a variety of perspectives on the situation. IN THIS REPORT: - U.S. Pressures CARICOM to drop call for investigation and recognize new Haitian government - Fanmi Lavalas speaks of continuing persecution, withholds representative from the CEP - Interim President Boniface Alexandre appoints new departmental delegates; Appointment in Delmas leads to protests - Rebels wielding de facto power, problems for international forces in Hinche - UN Peacekeeping Mission - Haitian refugees returned; refugees in Jamaica - Interim government fires 800 government staff - Interim government drops reparations demand - Restoration of the army - Rebels plan to participate in elections - Interim government adds to list of Fanmi Lavalas members who cannot leave Haiti; announces plan to seize Aristide's accounts - Bahamas withdraws diplomats from Haiti - Louis Jodel Chamblain surrenders, human rights organizations skeptical - UNICEF: Effects of crisis on children - Meeks statement on Haiti - One killed during recruitment for Haitian National Police - 10th Anniversary of Raboteau Massacre - Latortue announces development program - Multinational Forces announce money for weapons program - Cummings and Foley visit Haiti - Aristide supporters call for his return - PAPDA, NCHR and CONAP Demonstrate U.S. Pressures CARICOM to drop call for investigation and recognize new Haitian government: The Caribbean has indefinitely postponed a meeting of its national security ministers with US homeland security secretary, Tom Ridge, because of major differences over Haiti, officials said yesterday. Caribbean Community (CARICOM) secretary-general, Edwin Carrington, said the May 3-4 meeting in the Bahamas will not take place because the 15-member regional bloc does not recognize the new US-backed Haitian interim government. CARICOM has called for a UN investigation of Haitian President Aristide's controversial departure from Haiti on February 29. Aristide says he was forced to resign by the US, which denies the claim. CARICOM has said it will reconsider the issue of recognizing Haiti's interim government in July. But Caribbean leaders may discuss the issue earlier at a regional meeting from May 4-5 in Antigua, Jamaica's foreign minister, KD Knight said on April 27. (AP, 4/28) Fanmi Lavalas speaks of continuing persecution, withhold representative from the CEP: Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue accused Fanmi Lavalas (FL) of wanting to block the formation of the new Provisional Electoral Council (CEP). Latortue declared the decree for the formulation of the CEP will soon be given. He gave FL until April 30 to name their representative to the CEP. (AHP, 4/21) FL reaffirmed on April 26 that it cannot name its official for the CEP as long as the Latortue government has not put an end to the persecutions and aggressions on its members and supporters throughout the country. At a meeting attended by more than a thousand people at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, the leaders of the party reaffirmed their desire to see democratic elections. (AHP, 4/26) Interim President Boniface Alexandre appoints new departmental delegates; Appointment in Delmas leads to protests: Provisional President Alexandre's Head of Cabinet signed the nomination of ten new departmental delegates and three new municipal commissions. Michel Bernadin - West Elie Cantave Artibonite Margarette Martin South East Wilbert Joseph North Arnold Jean Louis North East Exsersive Servil Central Plateau Alain Andre South Mombrun J. Anselme Grande Anse Henry-Max Thelus North West Jamil Vincent Nippes Port-au-Prince's municipal commission will be lead by Carline Simon from the former opposition platform. Jean Philippe Sassine and Yanick Mezile will be her assistants. Delmas' municipal council will be presided by Jean Vilfort Prisca and two members, Oreste Julien and Jean Marie Descorbet. Carmelot Guillaume Etinne, Charlienor Thompson and Wilner Benoit Germain will lead the commission in St. Marc. (AHP, 4/27) The Citizens Union of Delmas (UCD) protested against the way the municipal council of the town was named. According to a spokesperson of the UCD, Paul Emile Adrien, the authorities in place did not respect their commitment towards Delmas' organizations. President of the Council Vilfort Prisca, host of the political show "Ranmase" on Radio Caraibes, is not a resident of Delmas and therefore cannot lead the town, Adrien declared. He also announced a sit in protest at the Delmas Town Hall. Prisca insisted on April 27 that he has been living in the town of Delmas with his wife for some time. (AHP, 4/27) Rebels wielding de facto power, problems for international forces in Hinche: Members of the population in Hinche demonstrated on April 21 to protest against the presence of the multination force in the region. The ex-rebels were asked to give up the police stations, give their uniforms up and officials hand over power to a contingent of Chilean soldiers. This demonstrated great panic in the town. Members of the population considered that the rebels should play a part in this government since they were of great use to them. The ex-rebels declared that they had no intention of joining in the national police since they represented the army of Haiti, and it was a constitutional force. (AHP, 4/21) The members of the former opposition at Gonaives led an attack on the city's police station on April 25. During this intervention, the 20-man commando disarmed police officers, freed prisoners and stole vehicles from the police station's yard. Many prisoners said they feared for their lives, since it was incredibly easy for the commando to invade the police station. The officers at the Gonaives police station said they had never imagined this kind of thing would keep happening after President Aristide's departure. (AHP, 4/26) Ex-rebels in the Central Plateau gave a serious warning on 4/27 against the deployment of police officers in the department. According to them, they are the only ones who can ensure the population's security appropriately. The former militaries, who said they were angry after the arrest of six of their comrades in Port-au-Prince, declared that any decision to deploy national policemen in the area would be perilous. Their spokesperson in the department, Joseph Jean Baptiste, had reaffirmed last week his men's refusal to put down arms and join the national police. At the same time, he announced the former militaries' intention to participate in the next elections at all levels. Ex-rebel leader in the Artibonite, Winter Etienne, also announced the intention to participate in elections. (AHP, 4/27) UN Peacekeeping Mission: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his country would command the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti as long as there was an "effective commitment" from the international community for "reconstruction" of the Caribbean nation. Last month, Brazil said it would send 1,100 troops to contribute to the second phase of the UN operation in Haiti and agreed to command the multinational forces that will also include troops from the US, Canada, France, Argentina and Chile. (Xinhuanet, 4/20) Haiti remains volatile and crime is on the rise two months after deployment of a US-led multinational peacekeeping force to help restore order there, the United Nations reported. Contacts between the multinational force and Haitian armed groups "show that stability has not yet been reached, as these groups do not want to disarm and are waiting for compensation or official recognition," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest Situation Report. About 25,000 people in the country have weapons, according to a survey conducted by the Organization of American States and the UN Development Program. The force has improved security but its small size of 3700 soldiers limits its impact, the report said, noting the US sent 20,000 troops into Haiti in 1994 to restore President Aristide to power after a coup. (Reuters, 4/29) Just a month before its deadline, the UN finds itself hard-pressed to sign up peacekeeping troops and French-speaking police officers to take over security in Haiti from an American-led interim force, UN officials and diplomats say. The Security Council is considering a request by Secretary General Kofi Annan to send 6,700 peacekeepers and 1,622 civilian police officers to Haiti. Although the US led interim force has managed to impose a modicum of stability, diplomats express concern that large parts of the country remain under the rebels' control, and that there has been no systematic effort to disarm them. One problem is competition for French-speaking peacekeepers, as missions are prepared for Ivory Coast and Burundi this year, UN representatives said. In addition, some potential contributors are reluctant to offer troops because of lingering doubts about the conditions of Mr. Aristide's departure, on Feb. 29: he was assisted into exile by American officials in an incident he later referred to as kidnapping. The Bush administration denies this, saying it acted to safeguard Mr. Aristide from attack and to avert a rebel takeover. "The big problem they have is the controversy over Aristide's departure," said a senior diplomat who is involved in the negotiations. "It remains a cancer, and it tends to limit support." The countries that currently have troops in Haiti have signaled their willingness to stay under the new mandate, and Brazil has said it would take part. A Canadian official said French-speaking nations in Africa had been asked to join in, and he said he was optimistic that the UN would reach its goal of more than doubling the interim force. In a report last week, Annan noted that his efforts to raise even small amounts of money for Haiti had fallen short, with the response to his appeal for $35 million in emergency assistance "slower than anticipated." (New York Times, 4/30) The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to establish a peacekeeping force for Haiti. The new mission will have more than 8,000 troops and police, who will go for an initial period of six months. It will take over from a contingent of US-led foreign troops sent after the rebellion ousted former President Jean Bertrand Aristide in February. The UN force, including more than 1,600 police, is to take over the task of stabilising Haiti from 1 June. The UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti - to be known as Minustah - will have a wide-ranging mandate. Its tasks will include maintaining law and order, aiding the government to demobilise armed groups and protecting civilians from violence. It will also help the transitional government restructure the police and organise elections at the earliest possible date - expected to be some time in 2005. The BBC's Susannah Price at the UN says it is thought that Brazil, Chile and other Latin American countries will contribute peacekeepers. (BBC, 4/30) Haitian refugees returned; Refugees in Jamaica: The US sent 651 Haitians back to Haiti on April 27 after they were intercepted in overloaded sailing vessels off the coast of Haiti. The three vessels that carried them were destroyed. A total of 1948 Haitians have been interdicted and returned so far in 2004, Coast Guard officials said. The numbers have already surpassed those of the two previous years: 1490 in 2003 and 1287 in 2002. The Haitians returned on 4/27 were dropped off in Port-au-Prince by a Coast Guard cutter. (AP, 4/27) Jamaica appealed for assistance from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) after 130 more Haitian boat people arrived on the island, putting additional pressure on the island to deal with the Haitian refugee problem. The latest arrivals pushed to 491 the number of Haitians to have made the perilous 100-mile journey in small overcrowded boats since the influx began in February. "We expect financial support from UNHCR by the end of the week," said Foreign Minister KD Knight. (Jamaica Observer, 4/27) Interim government fires 800 government staff: A US-backed interim government announced plans to fire or transfer nearly 800 people who used to work for Aristide in the presidential palace. Only 125 of 620 security officials at the palace would be retained, and another 272 administrative employees would be fired, cabinet director Michel Brunache said overnight, without giving reasons for the dismissals and transfers. (AP, 4/26) Interim government drops reparations demand: Haiti's new US-backed leader said he had dropped a "ridiculous" demand by ex-President Aristide for France to return $22 billion he said the Caribbean nation was forced to pay its colonial masters after gaining independence in 1804. Aristide had launched a vigorous campaign to get back 90 million gold francs Haiti paid Paris in reparations after its slaves drove out the French. At today's values with interest, this is now worth about $22 billion. "This claim was illegal, ridiculous and was made only for political reasons," Latortue told Reuters. "This matter is closed. What we need now is increased cooperation with France that could help us build roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure." (Reuters, 4/18) Restoration of the army: A key justification of the US intervention in Haiti has been to build respect for the rule of law in a country destabilized by extreme partisanship and by recourse to violence rather than dialogue to settle differences. That aim, however, is being imperiled by uneven enforcement of criminal law, and by signs pointing to a possible restoration of the country's murderous army. General James Hill, commander of US forces in Haiti, recently said: "There is no need for a Haitian Army. I was here when President Aristide disbanded it, and that was the correct thing to do at the time." Hill's civilian bosses should heed his sound advice rather than that of the Haitian elite. The Bush administration should also issue immediate orders to detain former soldiers, officers, and paramilitaries charged with, or convicted of, taking part in political assassinations and massacres. As it turns out, many were deported from the US to Haiti to face justice, but were either released or escaped from prison during the revolt against Aristide. Without even handed justice and security policies in Haiti, trust and stability will remain sadly out of reach. (Andre Reding in the International Herald Tribune, 4/17) Ex-rebels of the Central Plateau, most of whom are former militaries, announced on 4/22 their intention to participate in elections on all levels. They declared that they strategically withdrew while waiting to get their retirement pension. Spokesperson of the former militaries in this department, Joseph Jean Baptiste, reaffirmed that his men refuse to put down their arms and join in the national police. They invite us to join the National Police so they can deceive us after, Baptiste declared. (AHP, 4/22) Rebels plan to participate in elections: The rebels who swept through Haiti plan to put down their weapons and form a political party, leader Guy Philippe told The Herald on April 29. The rebels will turn their weapons over to police next month at a meeting in Gonaives, Philippe said at the Ibolele Hotel, high in the mountains above the capital. At that point they will change officially from the rebel Front de Resistance to the Front de Reconstrucion Nationale, a political party. "We don't want anything to do with weapons," said Philippe, 36, a former police chief and army officer. "Now everything is politics." US officials say the new party would threaten any chance of progress in Haiti, because its ranks include military and paramilitary leaders who allegedly terrorized political opponents in the early 1990's. (Miami Herald, 4/30) Interim government adds to list of Fanmi Lavalas members who cannot leave Haiti; announces plan to seize Aristide's accounts: Haiti's interim government added 22 people, including five former government ministers, to a list of ex-President Aristide's allies who are barred from leaving the country. Aristide's FL party has denounced the list as a witch hunt by the new government against Aristide supporters, many of whom went into hiding after Feb. 29. "It is a political decision aimed at persecuting and discrediting those who collaborated with President Aristide," Lavalas spokesman Gilvert Angervil said. Justice Minister Bernard Gousse has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying he issued the list to prevent people suspected of wrongdoing from leaving Haiti. (Reuters, 4/14) Haiti's new leader said on 4/27 that he was working with the US, France and the European Union to track down and freeze bank accounts belonging to ousted President Aristide. He did not give a figure on the amount of money he accuses Aristide of having stolen from Haiti. Nor did he indicate where he thought the accounts were likely to be found. The former UN bureaucrat plans to travel to Washington, Paris and Brussels next month and said he would pursue the efforts to seize the accounts. (Reuters, 4/27) Bahamas withdraws diplomats from Haiti: The Bahamas has withdrawn all its diplomats from Haiti, following the shooting and robbery of its ambassador's wife and a threatening telephone call to the wife of a second diplomat. Bahamian Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell told the Bahamian Parliament that the government didn't believe the shooting was politically motivated. But a Caribbean diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he understood the Bahamas was investigating whether the two incidents were related and connected to the bad relations between Haiti's US-backed interim government and the 15-nation CARICOM that has refused to recognize it. The community has called for the UN to investigate the departure of ousted President Aristide, who charged he was forced from power by the US. The Bahamas is the only Caribbean country with an embassy in Haiti, though Barbados has a consulate. (AP, Nassau Guardian, 4/23) Louis Jodel Chamblain surrenders, human rights organizations skeptical: Former number two of the paramilitary organization FRAPH, Louis Jodel Chamblain promised on April 21 to go back to prison on April 22 to wait for a new sentence, after an agreement with judicial authorities. Chamblain met leaders of the justice and the chief of police, Leonce Charles. The ex-FRAPH leader was condemned to hard labor for life after he was found guilty of the murders of thousands of people during the period of the 1991 military coup detat. Chamblain was with his lawyer when he explained his decision because he greatly trusts the Haitian justice system today, he said. (AHP, 4/21) Chamblain went back to prison on 4/22 after discussing the matter with judicial and police leaders the day before. Chamblain denied the accusations against him. Every time we talk of arresting or judging Lavalas leaders, the name of Chamblain is always mentioned. Now, they will have no more excuses, the former FRAPH leader declared. For his part, ex-prisoner Jean Pierre alias Jean Tatoune, announced on Thursday that he will soon go back to prison, like Chamblain, while he waits for another sentence too. Jean Tatoune had been condemned to hard labor for life for his participation in the Raboteau massacre in April 1994. (AHP, 4/22) Proclaiming his innocence, Chamblain's surrender came as a conference for international donors opened in Port-au-Prince. Haiti's government hopes to get millions of dollars in aid to rebuild the shattered country, which is reeling from a revolt that ousted Aristide on Feb. 29. Chamblain said his conviction in absentia in 2000 was politically motivated and predicted he would be vindicated. Chamblain was accompanied by Haiti's interim Justice Minister Bernard Gousse, who called the surrender a "noble decision." "We welcome the surrender," said Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch. "We would welcome his incarceration. Our concern would be he won't stay in prison very long." (AP, 4/22) Brian Concannon, an American who helped the Aristide government prosecute Chamblain, said his surrender was a "charade" and defended his trial as one of the most open and fair in Haitian history. "I've never in the world heard of someone taking power through a violent coup d'etat and submitting himself to a justice system," said Concannon, who said he doubts the rebel leader will ever face a new trial. "Id be willing to bet almost anything he's going to get a judge to dismiss the case, which will be done much more quietly than a full trial." (Miami Herald, 4/23) Amnesty International (AI) welcomes the fact that both Chamblain and Baptiste, who were convicted of horrendous human rights abuses, could be back in custody, said AI. It is crucial that Louis Jodel Chamblain is given a fair trial in compliance with international standards. Only in this way will trust be rebuilt in the Haitian judicial system. Under Haitian law, those convicted in absentia have the right to a re-trial. This provision in the Haitian law does not apply to Jean Pierre Baptiste, as he was present during his trial. The re-trial of Chamblain will be a test for the Haitian judicial system. During the recent violence in Haiti, a number of courthouses were burnt down and archives containing evidence of his involvement in the crimes of which he was convicted may have been destroyed. AI is also concerned for the safety of judicial officials and witnesses. (AI, 4/23) UNICEF: Effects of crisis on children: UNICEF said on April 19 that a new assessment of Haitian children is the first indication of how deeply the country's recent political violence touched their lives. In more than 15% of the surveyed zones, children were reportedly killed in the violence. Children were wounded by gunshots or beaten by armed gangs in more than 1/3 of the surveyed zones. The number of child rapes increased significantly in the urban areas where violence was the most extreme. Children were recruited by armed gangs in almost a third of the surveyed zones. Many children who participated in violent activities now fear retribution for their actions. In more than 70% of the surveyed zones, families fled the violence to seek refuge in safer areas. In 8 of 10 major cities, school students received death threats aimed at preventing them from attending school or participating in public events. Several assessment mission conducted throughout the country by the UNICEF team in Haiti following the conflict confirmed that a number of schools and hospitals had been the targets of violence or looting. (UNICEF, 4/19) Meeks statement on Haiti: Following his return from Haiti on April 23, Yesterday, several of my colleagues and I visited Haiti. Our bipartisan delegation (3 Democrats Elijah Cummings, Kendrick Meek, and myself; 3 Republicans, Cass Ballenger, Mark Foley and Jeff Miller) was seeking ways the US could help Haiti become a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous nation. What became immediately clear from all our conversations and observations there is that Haiti needs disarmament What Haiti next needs the most is reconciliation, reconstitution, and reconstructionI wanted to make it crystal clear to the new president and prime minister, to officials responsible for the justice system, and to the American Ambassador, that I cannot and will not advocate for any Haitian government until I am assured that it is a break from the past. This means a government that has a plan for building a new Haiti, that strengthens Haitian democracy, and that encourages Haitians themselves to take the lead in revitalizing the economy and civic life. To earn the support of the Congress and the American people, to foster reconciliation, reconstitution, and reconstruction, the new government must: Move resolutely toward creating an inclusive political democracy, including the unencumbered participation of Lavalas which still enjoys widespread support. Place priority on providing for the most urgent needs of the vast majority of the Haitian peopleReject in word and deed the persecution of critics and political opponents. Prosecute murderers, thugs, and drug dealers, and in fact commit itself to denying a role for these criminals in government. Commit to bringing to justice persons whether they were part of the former government or are part of the present government who have committed crimes against the Haitian peopleI left Haiti convinced that American support and participation in Haiti's disarmament, reconciliation, reconstruction is essential. Without it, I seriously doubt whether the rule of law, a fair and impartial judiciary, a viable economy, durable civic peace, and free and fair election can be achieved in Haiti. I am also convinced that America must break with the ways in which it has related to Haiti in the past. We must make a long term commitment to the economic revitalization and democratic well-being of our neighbor. We must strive to be an honest broker and not a power broker." (Rep. Gregory Meeks, NY, CaribPR Newswire, 4/24) One killed during recruitment for Haitian National Police: A student was killed and 23 people were hurt when job applicants stormed Haitis police academy during a recruiting drive. Authorities used tear gas and riot batons on thousands of job hunters. Jerry Prophete, 23 years old, was trampled to death. About 150 officers were fired last week for abandoning their posts and ethics violations. Officials estimate only about 2,000 officers remain and the government wants to build the force to 6,000 by next year. (AP, 4/21) 10th Anniversary of Raboteau Massacre: This April 22nd was the 10th anniversary of the Raboteau massacre. Dozens of people were killed in this massacre perpetrated in 1994 by members of the former army and the paramilitary corps FRAPH lead by Emmanuel Toto Constant and Louis Jodel Chamblain. Ten years later, the main convicts of the only trial on the many massacred committed during the coup detat are still running free. Organizations of human rights, notable the Lawyers Committee for the Respect of Individual Freedoms (CARLI), the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) and Amnesty International, denounced the situation of impunity that the authors of this massacre enjoy. For its part, AI denounced the fact that the Latortue government is very quick to arrest and bring proceedings against Lavalas members and supporters for their presumed involvement in cases of violations of human rights, while it closes its eyes on cases of condemned individuals. (AHP, 4/22) Latortue announces development program: The Latortue government presented its development program to international sponsors in Haiti for the financing of projects in Haiti. Latortue declared his program is based on four important points: (1) Electricity is the most important field of developed since it is the root of all development. (2) Road infrastructures are essential to the development of tourism and agriculture. Latortue claims Haiti needs only 3000 km of roads, and he dreams of a coastal road from Port-de-Paix to Jeremie. (3) He also declared that the training of human resources is essential to the countrys development. The provisional government says it has to wait until June in a meeting with sponsors in Washington to know if its projects will be taken into account. (AHP, 4/22) Multinational Forces announce money for weapons program: Spokesperson of the MIF in Haiti, David Lapan announced that, in the context of the disarmament process set in motion in the country, money will be given to everyone who gives information that leads to hiding places of illegal weapons. $37,000 is available for this initiative. The more weapons a hiding place contains, the more the owner will receive. (AHP, 4/23) Cummings and Foley visit Haiti: A delegation of 6 American congressmen led by Rep. Mark Foley (FL), visited Port-au-Prince for a few hours to learn about the countrys socio-political situation and how they can help to stabilize it. Foley said the president and the prime minister expressed the wish that American Marines stay for after June 1. Latortue said the Black Caucus, of which Elijah Cummings (MD) is a member, would be starting to disassociate itself with Aristide and get a new perspective on the Haitian situation. (AHP, 4/23) Aristide Supporters call for his return: Two months after President Aristide was forced into exile, his embattled supporters demanded the international community allow him to return. Pro-Aristide organizations from the sprawling slums of Port-au-Prince reiterated their claim vigorously denied by Washington that Haiti's first democratically elected leader had been ousted by the US and France. "The US has no right to kidnap our president. We want Aristide back here in the flesh," Lesly Gustave, a spokesman for the "Little Church" community, told a news conference. Gustave and other popular organization leaders spoke at the ruins of the St. Jean Bosco church, which was burned down in 1988 by thugs while Aristide celebrated mass. They announced they would stage a series of protests starting on May 18 to press for his return. "The US and the international community are perpetrating a crime against democracy and human rights in Haiti today," Gustave told Reuters. He said the international community and a 3600 peace force led by US Marines, has turned a blind eye to crimes against Aristide supporters. (Reuters, 4/29) PAPDA, NCHR and CONAP Demonstrate: Many officials of organizations from the platform of the former opposition gave a severe warning on April 26 to the interim Prime Minister and his team, accusing them of bring too slow in the process of arresting all those accused of committing crimes under the Aristide government. They gave this warning during a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Justice premises. Officials from the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), the PAPDA (Haitian Platform to Advocate for an Alternative Development), the CONAP (Coordination of Advocacy for Women), the UNNOH and the crisis committee in the university, said it was not normal that these accused are still walking the streets freely. Two officials from these organizations, Magalie Marcelin and Josue Valval, said this sit-in was a warning to the Latortue government, which must stop making big promises and start acting. They said the mobilization will continue until there are real changes in the coutnry. Among other things, they asked for the arrest of former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. The participants also asked the soldiers of the multinational forces to leave the premises of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy's Peace University to the students of the State University. However, they did not comment on the issues of confirmed criminals still walking the streets and former rebels who committed serious crimes during the events of recent months. (AHP, 4/26) Haitireport mailing list http://www.haitireborn.org/mailman/listinfo/haitireport From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:24:36 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:24:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Iraq: The Real Prospect of Defeat Message-ID: <200405041524.i44FOa030839@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Steve Robin (activ-l) Counterpunch http://www.counterpunch.org/ A Year from "Mission Accomplished" An Army in Disgrace, a Policy in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat By PATRICK COCKBURN Baghdad. Wisps of grey smoke were still rising from the wreckage of four Humvees caught by the blast of a bomb which had just killed two US soldiers and wounded another five. It seemed they had been caught in a trap. When the soldiers smashed their way into an old brick house in the Waziriya district of Baghdad last week, they were raiding what they had been told was an insurgent bomb factory, only for it to erupt as they came through the door. The reaction of local people, as soon as the surviving American soldiers had departed, was to start a spontaneous street party. A small boy climbed on top of a blackened and smouldering Humvee and triumphantly waved a white flag with an Islamic slogan hastily written on it. Some other young men were showing with fascinated pride a blood--soaked US uniform. Another group had found an abandoned military helmet, and had derisively placed it on the head of an elderly carthorse. A year after President George Bush famously declared "major combat" in Iraq over, how is it that so many Iraqis now have such a visceral hatred of Americans? One reason is that the photographs of brutality and humiliation of Iraqi detainees by British and American troops, which have so shocked the rest of the world and angered Arab countries, have come as little surprise to Iraqis. For months it has been clear to them that the occupation is very brutal; for weeks they have been watching pictures of the dead and injured in Fallujah on al--Jazeera satellite television which CNN did not broadcast. Iraqis, who are cynical about their rulers, may also suspect that real as well as simulated torture is going on in Abu Ghraib prison, where US intelligence calls the shots. They may suspect that, as under Saddam Hussein, the humiliation and ill--treatment were quite deliberately inflicted to soften up prisoners before they were interrogated. More graphic pictures of real torture are said to have been taken as well those shown on US television last week. Saddam should not have been a hard act to follow. Iraqis knew that he had ruined their lives through his disastrous wars against Iran and Kuwait, and were glad to be rid of him. Even the supposed beneficiaries of his rule, the Sunni Arabs of cities such as Tikrit and Fallujah, could not see why they were so much poorer than the people of other oil states such as Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. Watching the dancing, jeering crowd in Waziriya was Nada Abdullah Aboud, a middle--aged woman, dressed in black. She had a reason for hating Americans, though she claimed she did not do so. "I do feel sorry for the young soldiers, though they killed my son," she said quietly. "They came such a long distance to die here." It turned out that her son, Saad Mohammed, had been the translator for a senior Italian diplomat working for the ruling Coalition Provisional Authority. She said: "My son was driving with the Italian ambassador last September near Tikrit when an American soldier fired at the car and shot him through the heart." Saad Mohammed was one of a large but unknown number of Iraqis shot down by US troops over the past year. There seems to have been no rational reason why he had been killed. But the high toll of Iraqi civilians shot down after ambushes or at checkpoints has given Iraqis the sense that, at bottom, American soldiers regard them as an inferior people whose lives are not worth very much. Iraqis make very plain what they think about the occupation in private conversation, but Paul Bremer, the US viceroy in Iraq, and the US military command, shut away in their headquarters in Saddam's old Republican Palace, had no idea of the growing hostility towards them until April. Then, when they started the sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, they discovered that aside from the Kurdish minority, Iraqis had turned decisively against the occupation. Another simple reason for disillusionment with the US is simply the Americans' failure to restore normal life. Iraqis in Baghdad continually say that Iraq recovered more quickly from the damage inflicted by the first Gulf War under Saddam in 1991 than it did after the second war in 2003. Baghdad is a city on edge. Shopkeepers keep their stock at home in case there is another outbreak of looting. The police are back on the streets and there is less casual crime than last year, but it is still more dangerous than it was under the old regime. Abu Amir, a shopkeeper in the middle--class Jadriyah district of the capital, said: "Under Saddam I sometimes did not make money in my store, but I could go home in the evening without worrying if my son had got back safely. Now there is looting everywhere. If you walk in the streets maybe you will be shot by the Americans or by criminal gangs fighting each other." A curious achievement of the US over the past year has been to revive Iraqi nationalism in Iraq. This had been largely discredited by Saddam. But Fallujah and the pursuit of Muqtada al--Sadr, the radical Shia cleric, has meant that nationalism is once more respectable. The extraordinary political weakness of the US in Iraq became evident as never before last week. Despite having an overwhelming military force available to take Fallujah and Najaf, the US did not dare do so. It had become evident even in Washington that to crush the resistance in either city -- not a difficult task against a few thousand lightly armed gunmen -- would spread rather than end the rebellion. Even so, it was extraordinary to see Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a general in Saddam's Republican Guard -- disbanded like so much else in Iraq last May -- being driven into Fallujah on Friday in full uniform past cheering crowds. The old Iraqi flag, now dropped by the US--appointed Iraqi Governing Council, was being waved from his car window. It is a measure of how far the Governing Council is out of touch with ordinary Iraqi opinion that they should have voted to change the flag in the first place. Mohammed, an engineer trying to patch up a broken sewage pipe in Baghdad, still had time to express his fury at the change. "Of course the occupation is a disaster," he said. "We understand the Governing Council are American agents. But a man has to be the worst of collaborators to change his country's flag." On 30 June the US will be handing over very little to Iraqis. Security remains firmly in US hands; so does control of money. One of the biggest US mistakes was not to hold elections earlier, something British and US officials admit in private could have been done. This would have produced a legitimate Iraqi authority to which Iraqi security forces could have given real loyalty. Dr Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Governing Council, says: "Iraqis are never going to fight other Iraqis under the orders of an American." This was amply borne out when half of the US--trained security forces deserted or mutinied in early April. The tide is going out for the US in Iraq. They were not able to use their military strength against Fallujah and Najaf. They have very little political support outside Kurdistan. They can no longer win. It may be one of the most extraordinary defeats in history. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:30:45 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:30:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] The Cuba-Mexico Dispute (PL) Message-ID: <200405041530.i44FUju31012@tania.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana - May 3, 2004 http://www.plenglish.com Cuba Rejects Declarations from Mexico Havana, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuba rejected statements Monday from the Mexican Foreign Ministry alleging it had interfered in the internal affairs of that country and announced it would give an appropriate reply in due time. The Cuban Foreign Ministry pronouncement referred to what it called outrageous declarations, inspired by arrogance, crassness and lies. It further criticized the decision of President Vicente Fox to withdraw his ambassador in Havana and request the exit of the Cuban ambassador in Mexico City. The note clarifies that the Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Bolanos, was only informed five minutes before these decisions, which it called another error on the part of the Mexican authorities. ef/cr/lgo Mexican Writer Criticizes Fox Measures against Cuba Mexico, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Mexican writer Carlos Montemayor described as outrageous the Fox government's decision to reduce relations with Cuba to the level of charg=82 d'affaires and expel two Cuban diplomats. I am surprised, Montemayor stated in comments for Prensa Latina. He went on to define the incident as the incapacity of the Fox administration to understand the historic commitments of Mexico with Cuba. It is disgraceful how repeatedly docile the Fox administration is in bowing to the whims and orders of the US government, said the author. Montemayor rejected the government=B4s repeated attempts to humiliate Cuba at Ibero-American summits and its blind obedience to the US government in Geneva (at the UN Human Rights Commission). It is outrageous, he stated, that the executive yields to the Bush administration and the interests of large international consortiums and does not tolerate the least allusion to its political cynicism. Montemayor rejected the government line of its alleged defense of national sovereignty to justify its action, classified as "a brutal rupture of diplomatic relations." ef/cr/fx/yp Mexicans Announce Demonstrations in Solidarity with Cuba Mexico, May 3 (Prensa Latina) The decision by the government of President Vicente Fox to downgrade relations with Cuba, and the withdrawal of its ambassador to Havana, Roberta Lajous, has encountered widespread rejection from Mexican society. Mexico's Movement of Solidarity with Cuba announced demonstrations to urge the government to restore full bilateral diplomatic ties, now reduced to the level of business attach=82. Its communique adds that the attitude of the Fox administration reflects a foreign policy submitted to White House dictates, which far from responding to national interests puts freedom and sovereignty at stake. On Sunday, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, and Government Secretary Santiago Creel, also asked the Cuban government to remove its ambassador, Jorge Bolanos, and declared persona non-grata the Cuban embassy political advisor, Orlando Silva Fors. After learning of the unexpected decision of the Fox government, over 300 persons congregated in the cold rain at the Cuban embassy to express their support for the island. ef/cr/emw/yp/ml Cuba Deports Assistant of Mexican Entrepreneur Havana, May 3 (Prensa Latina) Cuba announced Monday the deportation of Mexican citizen Antonio Martinez Ocampo, an assistant of Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Ahumada, who was delivered to Mexico last week to face diverse accusations. A statement from the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry said Martinez entered Cuba as a tourist on February 27; was arrested on April 5, and held in provisional prison in relation to the INTERPOL request against Carlos Ahumada. Martinez was both a messenger and collaborator of the Mexican businessperson. The note states that although the Mexican government did not request the extradition, and Martinez did not commit any crime in Cuba, his actions could affect the country, so he was sent home on a Mexicana Airlines flight Monday, at 14:45 local time. The Foreign Ministry said Martinez answered the questions in relation to the case and confirmed the statements made by Ahumada during the investigations. When Ahumada was deported on April 28, the Foreign Ministry said the accusations for which Ahumada was wanted by Mexican justice, and the subsequent political scandal, have an unquestionable political connotation and affect Mexican officials and authorities. Regarding the corruption videos broadcast in Mexico, Ahumada told Cuban investigators that the operation was deliberately calculated and planned months before with political purposes. ef/cr/tac/ml Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:34:57 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:34:57 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Negroponte as Dorian Gray, Mullah Omar Message-ID: <200405041534.i44FYv031139@tania.blythe-systems.com> - When John Negroponte was Mullar Omar - Negroponte: Dorian Gray Goes to Iraq Sent by Dave Muller (south news) New U.S. ambassador to Iraq once provided an Afghan-style sanctuary for terrorists every bit as nasty as Osama and al Qaeda When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar: New U.S. ambassador to Iraq once provided an Afghan-style sanctuary for terrorists every bit as nasty as Osama and al Qaeda By Dennis Hans Remember Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, the Islamist movement that mis-governed the failed state of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001? He and the Taliban played host to Osama bin Laden, providing him and his al Qaeda organization a safe haven from where they could plot terror attacks and train recruits who came to Afghanistan from every corner of the globe. Well, it turns out that Mullah Omar has much in common with may even have patterned his career after John Negroponte, the veteran U.S. diplomat whos about to be confirmed as our Ambassador to Iraq, where hell oversee the largest embassy and CIA station in the world. You see, the most important chapter in Negropontes career took place in the failed state of Honduras. From 1981 to 1985 he was the most powerful figure in that banana republic, just as Mullah Omar was The Man 15 years later in Afghanistan. And while Omar welcomed and protected bin Laden and al Qaeda, Negroponte arranged for Honduras to provide sanctuary for the nastiest terrorist group in the entire Western Hemisphere: the contras. Yes, the contras. You may remember them as the outfit hailed by President Ronald Reagan as the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers. But the voluminous reports of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International show that my characterization, not Reagans, is the correct one. Precise body counts are hard to come by, but the contras may well have killed more defensiveless civilians in the 1980s than al Qaeda has killed in its decade of terror albeit one slit throat at a time rather than 3,000 blown up one day in New York and 2,000 another day in Africa, among other al Qaeda atrocities. Negroponte was dispatched to Honduras in 1981 to replace U.S. ambassador Jack Binns, who had provoked the wrath of the Reagan administration. Binns was concerned over escalating torture and killings by Honduran security forces at a time when U.S. policy was to hush up such crimes. From the Reaganites perspective, Binns just didnt have the right stuff to supervise what was about to become the largest U.S. embassy in Central America and the transformation of large chunks of Honduras into a sanctuary and training facility for cold-blooded killers. The Reagan team in 1981 had an unstated policy of regime change in Nicaragua, although it pretended to Congress and the media (yep, both were lapdogs then, just like now!) that its actual goal was to stop the alleged flow of Weapons of Minimal Destruction (small arms and the like) from Nicaragua, overland through Honduras, and on to El Salvador, where Marxist guerrillas had the audacity to resist a 50-year-old U.S.-backed military dictatorship that, in 1980-81 alone, had killed 20,000 or so civilians. But the arms flow was largely illusory (another parallel to the present), particularly by the time Negroponte arrived in Honduras. The Reaganites pretense that the contras mission was to interdict the alleged arms flow was a necessary lie to get a spineless and gullible Congress to fund the project. In fact, the Reaganites were all about regime change, and their chosen instrument would be led by former officers of the Nicaraguan National Guard itself a U.S.-trained outfit that killed 30-40,000 Nicaraguan civilians from 1977-79 in a vain attempt to keep in power the long-time U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza. The new outfit came to be known as contras short for counter-revolutionaries, for the regime the Reaganites wanted to change was the Marxist-oriented Sandinista government. Whether called Guardsmen or contras, these guys were darn good at killing nurses and teachers, and absolutely fearless in executing captured and disarmed enemy combatants executions that were standard operating procedure. But the Guardia pedigree and cutthroat tactics prevented the contras from functioning as a true guerrilla force, where you live among the people youre ostensibly liberating and rely on them for food, shelter and information. Hence the need for a sanctuary in a neighboring failed state run by corrupt, authoritarian army officers and an imperious U.S. ambassador, John Negroponte. Without that sanctuary, the contras wouldnt have lasted a month. With it, they terrorized for a decade. Relying on the U.S. for food, intelligence, arms and assassination manuals, theyd maraud through the Nicaraguan countryside for a spell, then retreat to their safe haven when they needed a break from raping, torturing and killing. Actually, they also committed such crimes in their Honduran camps, albeit at a more leisurely pace. Unfortunately, the Nicaraguan government didnt have the firepower to blow up the contra camps. Probably just as well, for if the Sandinistas had wiped out the camps, the Reaganites would have destroyed Nicaragua and the U.S. media would have cheered the destruction. Thats because only the U.S. has the right to attack a state that harbors terrorists whove killed thousands of its citizens. Negropontes pretend job in Honduras was to implement the pretend U.S. policy of democracy promotion. (Sound familiar?) His real job was to prevent any meaningful democracy, and to ensure that key foreign-policy decisions were made not by the democratic fagade the irrelevant Honduran president and legislature but by two hard-nosed, hard-line SOBs: Negroponte and the head of the armed forces, General Gustavo Alvarez. Thus, in the name of democracy, Negroponte and the Reaganites not only supported military rule, they even prevented the military itself from ruling democratically! Alvarezs extremist views and repressive policies didnt reflect a consensus within the army. Many officers believed Alvarez had prostituted the nation, sold it body-and-soul to Uncle Sam. And there were rumblings over the escalating torture and killings perpetrated by a CIA-backed army unit, Battalion 316. So in 1984, right under Negropontes nose, a group of officers overthrew Alvarez! This was treated in the U.S. as a change of government, and rightly so. But democracies dont change government when army officers oust their boss, because in a democracy the army chief is not the government. If Negroponte and the Reaganites had believed their own rhetoric about Honduran democracy, Alvarezs ouster would not have been a big deal, because Honduras still had the same president and legislature. But it was a big deal. Really big. Negroponte and the CIA swung into action, confident they could marginalize the reformist army officers intent on reducing repression and re-claiming Honduran sovereignty. Using such time-honored democracy-enhancing and sovereignty-respecting tactics as bribery and arm-twisting, the U.S. team averted the crisis, cutting out the reformists and ensuring a smooth transfer of real power from Alvarez to a clique of corrupt senior officers who had long been on the CIA dole, according to a New York Times report by James LeMoyne. Negroponte and the Reaganites breathed a sigh of relief: Honduras would continue its role as hospitable host to the contra terrorists. The rape, torture and murder of Nicaraguans could continue. My guess is that when Negroponte long ago decided to pursue a career in diplomacy, he didnt anticipate an assignment where he would be required to subvert an impoverished countrys institutions to ensure rule by a corrupt, brutal military that would rent out its country to U.S.-trained terrorists. But the assignment came, and Negroponte carried it out. Hes obviously very bright and capable, but also amoral if not immoral. What will his real duties be in Iraq? Will he be promoting a transition to genuine Iraqi sovereignty and democracy, or merely the appearance? Hell be supervising a huge staff of diplomats and intelligence officers. Will they respect Iraqis, or will they engage in massive bribery and other dirty tricks to manipulate and subvert Iraqi institutions and individuals? Is the real goal to purchase influence over so wide a range of Iraqis that even a freely elected government in 2005 will end up serving U.S. strategic and economic interests at the expense of Iraqs own legitimate interests? Negroponte is capable of promoting either real or fake democracy, and history shows that if asked to do the latter hell nevertheless tell Congress and the media hes doing the former. And that leads to our closing parallel: The current U.S. president, just like the one we had when Negroponte was in Honduras, has a great appreciation for underlings who make false or misleading statements to keep the U.S. Congress and citizenry in the dark. Iraq is not the only nation in need of a transparent and genuine democracy. (c) 2004 by Dennis Hans Bio: Dennis Hans is a freelance writer who has taught courses in mass communications and American foreign policy at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. Prior to the Iraq war he wrote Lying Us Into War: Exposing Bush and His Techniques of Deceit http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/03/02/12_lying.html and The Disinformation Age http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00011.htm *** John Negroponte: Dorian Gray Goes To Iraq by Toni Solo John Negroponte will be an appropriate appointment as US proconsul in Iraq for the current regime in Washington. Death-squad-friendly Negroponte is one of the suave-talking savages who misled the US Congress about US actions in Central America through the 1980s. That same group of people have now misled the US people into disaster and disgrace in Iraq. They represent the corporate plutocracy that has always swayed US foreign policy against the interests of the United States people. As ever, they are happy to commit grotesque waste of human, material and financial resources to deliver corporate welfare to companies like Dick Cheney's Halliburton and George Bush Sr.'s Carlyle group. Corruption, mass murder, torture are part of the package - none of this is new. Same old script, same old actors The betrayal of the United States people could hardly be deeper or more sharp. The script was written years ago in South East Asia and Latin America by the same ruthless ideologues who stole into the White House after the electoral fiasco in Florida in 2000. Now these white-collar barbarians - Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, Elliot Abrams and the rest - are unable to cover up the torture, murder and corporate corruption that invariably characterise colonial regimes such as theirs in Baghdad. Only a Rip Van Winkle could plausibly pretend to be surprised. Support for Israel, Plan Colombia, war in Afghanistan and Iraq - all these foreign policy commitments serve the needs of the corporate plutocracy that dominates politics in the United States. The murder and torture reported in Iraq (and in Guantanamo, and in the air bases at Bagram and Diego Garcia) are as much White House stock in trade as it is that of allies like the governments of Israel and Colombia. It always has been - from Guatemala and Vietnam through the Philippines and East Timor, Nicaragua, Haiti and Colombia, to Afghanistan and now Iraq. The bearable lightness of being John Negroponte's conscience It may have been a long trek politically for John Negroponte from proconsul in Honduras to proconsul in Baghdad. But for a man with no noticeable moral conscience the distance is a very short step. Along with his colleague John Maisto, now US Representative to the Organization of American States, Negroponte worked efficiently to cover-up and explain away atrocities and human rights abuses so as to expedite Ronald Reagan's terrorist war in Central America. In 1989, three years after the World Court judgement against the terrorist Reagan regime, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights finally got around to issuing a judgement on the matter of forced and involuntary disappearances. The test cases involved were not from Colombia, Chile or Argentina or Uruguay nor from Guatemala or El Salvador. The court ruled that Honduras was responsible for four disappearances (those of Francisco Fairen Garbi, Yolanda Solis Corrales, Saul Godinez Cruz and Manfredo Angel Velasquez). All four cases occurred between 1981 and 1983, when John Negroponte as US ambassador was assisting the Honduran army to destroy civilian opponents of the Honduran government. In fact over 180 students, trades unionists, human rights activists and others were disappeared by the Honduran death squads. The murders helped crush opposition to the presence of Nicaraguan Contra in Honduras. For people in the US, of all those many murders that of US Jesuit priest James Carney may be the most poignant. Non-abrasive AWOL journalism or totally Teflon armor? Carney was caught by the Honduran army in 1983. He was chaplain to a group of guerrillas entrapped by Honduran and US forces then on military exercises. Honduran government Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares investigated Carney's case through the 1990s and concluded that Carney was interrogated, tortured and murdered by the Honduran army. Some testimony suggested the participation of US military personnel in the interrogation. But Negroponte has never faced questions on the fact that the Honduran army at that time would hardly have murdered James Carney without the approval or knowledge of someone on Negroponte's embassy staff. Such approval or deliberate complacency might well have come from Negroponte himself. Given the general AWOL status of corporate media reporting he is unlikely ever to be directly challenged on his role in Carney's murder. With his well-documented record in Central America, Negroponte is certainly the right man to represent the Bush regime in Iraq. He is the very model of a totally Teflon torture manager. The fact that neither Congress nor mainstream media ever grill Negroponte seriously on his record in Honduras does much to explain the catastrophe in Iraq. We can try and hide the truth about ourselves in the attic like the portrait of Dorian Gray. But the ugliness and the horror remain there all the same. Toni Solo is an activist based in Central America. Contact: tonisolo01 at yahoo.com http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0405/S00004.htm The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:36:46 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:36:46 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] June 5 Demos Highlight Iraq, Haiti Message-ID: <200405041536.i44Faku31205@tania.blythe-systems.com> ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 6, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- ANSWER TO MARCH ON PENTAGON: JUNE 5 NATIONAL PROTESTS TO HIGHLIGHT IRAQ, HAITI By John Catalinotto Anti-war, anti-occupation organizations, including the International ANSWER coalition, have chosen June 5 as the next date to mobilize nationally to challenge Washington's aggression, from Iraq to Haiti to Palestine and around the world. As of April 28, U.S. Marines are poised to assault Falluja, the heroic stronghold of Iraqi resistance just west of Baghdad. U.S. planes and attack helicopters have bombed and strafed the city, and battles are already underway in Najaf to the south. Al Jazeera television has been showing Falluja lit with fire and explosions. Iraqi resistance fighters have been clashing up to 40 different times daily with U.S. and other occupation forces. The uprising of Iraqis that has been taking place throughout April has made it clear that Washington's plan to occupy the country and seize its oil resources will be extremely costly in lives and money and stands a good chance of failure. The widespread uprising has shown millions around the world that the Iraqis are determined to liberate their country, that the U.S. occupation has lost all political support in Iraq, and that the Pentagon is ready to carry out a bloodbath in a desperate attempt to regain the upper hand. Reports in the media and eyewitness accounts from Falluja and Najaf make it clear that the U.S. military is attacking regardless of the consequences to civilians, including the many children still in Falluja. U.S. President George W. Bush on April 28 threatened as much, saying, "Our military commanders will take whatever actions necessary to secure Falluja." As if in reply, Falluja resident Ali Abdullah answered, "This attack shows the frustration in the ranks of American soldiers in Iraq and the American political defeat. We have uncovered the treachery and barbarity of the U.S. army." (Reuters, April 28) Under the pressure of these events, anti-war organizers in the U.S. believe they can't wait until planned actions at the Republican National Convention to confront the Bush administration. The intense publicity, the controversy over printing photographs of coffins of dead servicepeople, and the daily casualty reports keep this issue on the front burners. With the U.S. threatening a bloodbath in Falluja and Najaf, the ANSWER Coalition has stepped up its earlier plan for Spring- Summer actions. ANSWER is the organization that first responded to President George W. Bush's "endless war" in September 2001 after his administration used the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to justify the U.S. war drive. ANSWER then played a leading role in calling national anti- war demonstrations in an attempt to stop U.S. aggression against Iraq, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people. ANSWER PLANS NATIONAL DEMONSTRATIONS ANSWER plans a march on the Pentagon in Washington and mass mobilizations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The coalition's statement notes: "In the first three weeks of April alone, more than 1,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians, and at least 110 U.S. soldiers have been killed. ... Thousands more have been wounded. "The war is costing more than $300 million every day, money that is transferred from working people in the U.S. to the pockets of arms manufacturers and corporate war profiteers. It is a war that is destroying an entire country and the lives of the Iraqi people--already victimized for more than a decade by sanctions. "Now the White House and the Pentagon are calling for more troops, more death and destruction, and even more money for a war that is based on lies and deception." ANSWER also points out: "June 5 is the anniversary of the 1967 war in which Israel, with full backing from Washington, conquered the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights. We will march to call for an end to the colonial occupation of Palestine, and to support the Palestinian people's right to self-determination, including their right to return to their homeland. "We will stand in solidarity with the Haitian people who are living under foreign military occupation following the February 28/29 U.S.-coup against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide." The ANSWER Coalition, in a subsequent news release on April 25, writes that "momentum grows for the June 5 march on the Pentagon" and that hundreds of people had endorsed their call in just two days. ANSWER's call was also to stop the U.S. intervention against the Hugo Ch?vez government in Venezuela, and the threats against Cuba. ANSWER calls for bringing all foreign troops out of Iraq now. HIDING THE KILLINGS IN HAITI While the corporate media have Iraq on the front pages, they are ignoring the murders taking place in Haiti. Death squads the U.S. helped to establish are trying to hunt down and kill supporters of kidnapped President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas organization and activists of other left forces. The progressive groups are still on the defensive, but in some areas have been able to defend themselves, according to National Popular Party (PPN) leader Ben Dupuy. Organizers from Haitian groups, other immigrants and U.S. anti- imperialists attuned to what's happening in Haiti looked for a date and place to bring this issue again before the public. They were encouraged because a meeting April 7 in Brooklyn, N.Y., of 2,000 people, about half of them Haitian immigrants, had shown that there was a broad base of support in the Haitian and Caribbean communities ready to oppose the U.S. occupation. An ad-hoc coalition of organizers from the Coalition to Resist the February 29 coup in Haiti, the Haiti Support Network, the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circles, and the International Action Center sent out an email calling for endorsers of a demonstration focused on ending the occupation of Haiti and of Iraq. They chose June 5 as their favored date. Their call emphasized that "the world's oldest Black republic has been occupied by thousands of U.S. and French soldiers. Massacres have been covered-up by the corporate media, including the overnight slaughter of 78 people by marines in the Belair neighborhood of Port au Prince." It then adds, "Over 250,000 human beings are being starved and bombed by the U.S. war machine besieging Falluja. ... At least 800 children, women and men have already been murdered in this heroic city. U.S. troops are poised to attack the religious center of Najaf." A delegation of labor and community activists is going to Haiti April 27 to May 2. They will bring back first-hand reports from Haitian trade unionists on conditions since the U.S.-backed coup. Those who made the two calls will both protest at the Pentagon. June 5 will provide an opportunity for tens of thousands of people now aware of the horror of the U.S. military occupations and the need to fight against them to register their protest in the capital. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww at wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews- on at wwpublish.com. Unsubscribe wwnews-off at wwpublish.com. Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:37:45 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:37:45 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] First WMD Deception: Nukes & the Cold War Message-ID: <200405041537.i44Fbjn31294@tania.blythe-systems.com> ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 6, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- THE FIRST WMD DECEPTION: NUKES AND THE COLD WAR By Deirdre Griswold The U.S. government is about to grandstand once more about saving the world from "weapons of mass destruction" when it goes to a United Nations meeting on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and accuses countries like North Korea, Iran and Iraq of endangering world peace by trying to acquire nuclear weapons. First of all, there is no world peace. U.S. occupation troops are fighting deadly shoot ing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as we speak. They have killed tens of thousands of civilians over the last year in these two countries alone, and done immense damage to people's homes, the economy and the infrastructure, all to impose colonial domination and occupation. Even more to the point, the world is threatened every day by the huge arsenal of nuclear weapons that the Pentagon still wields in order to keep U.S. transnational corporations and banks top dog around the world. Any country without these awesome weapons is subject to threats that it will be bombed out of existence if it doesn't obey Washington's dictates. Viet nam was threatened repeatedly with nuclear extinction during the Paris Peace Talks with Henry Kissinger. Remember when the end of the Cold War was going to bring nuclear disarmament? Washington is spending more money on the nuclear arsenal now than before the Soviet Union collapsed--an estimated $35 billion a year. Military scientists are working on new tactical nuclear weapons for battlefield use as "bunker busters." WHY THE COLD WAR? All this should make everyone think twice about why there was a Cold War in the first place. Most people in the U.S. were made to think that it was necessary because the USSR was a menacing nuclear "superpower." The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953 supposedly for giving the USSR "atomic secrets." But this "weapons of mass destruction" argument was just as phony then as it is now in respect to the aggression against Iraq. The U.S. always had the jump on the Soviet Union with regard to nuclear weapons. The USSR's program was always a defensive one, trying to catch up with the Pentagon's latest escalation of the arms race. The U.S. developed the first atomic bomb. It's the only country to ever drop one on populated areas--Hiroshima and Nagasaki--and its a-tests in the south Pacific exposed and sickened thousands of people with radiation poisoning. In fact, the harm was so great that in 2001 the Nuclear Claims Tribunal ordered the U.S. government to pay over half a billion dollars to the people of Bikini in reparations. The U.S. has built 70,000 nuclear warheads. It still has over 10,000 stockpiled. It was first in developing the hydrogen bomb. It was first in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to target countries thousands of miles away. It was first in developing nuclear-armed submarines. It was first to develop the neutron bomb. It was first to develop multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRVs). The U.S. has spent over $5.5 trillion on its nuclear weapons program since 1945. This program has soaked up taxpayers' money under both Republican and Demo cratic administrations. And both parties, when in office, have used the nuclear threat as part of their foreign policy to advance U.S. imperialist power in the world. The truth is that the Cold War had nothing to do with U.S. "security." It was a class war against the Soviet Union and a bloc of countries that had broken out of the imperialist world market. Back then we heard endlessly about the poor people behind the Iron Curtain yearning to breathe free once godless communism was torn down. Today, it's obvious that the U.S. ruling class doesn't give a damn about the people of Russia or the other former Soviet republics or Eastern Europe. The Cheneys, Bushes and Kerrys care about the oil of the Black and Caspian Sea area. They care about exploiting cheap labor while dismantling the social safety net that provided workers with free healthcare, education, vacations, pensions and many other benefits. When workers had these things, and when rents were 5 percent of income and food was cheap, low wages didn't mean what they do today. Now workers in these former planned economies are free to starve, free to be laid off, free to sell their bodies, free to suffer ethnic discrimination, and free to be exploited by billionaire owners who grabbed up the publicly own ed property, often using gangster tactics. That's what the Cold War accomplished. And all in the name of ending the "Soviet nuclear threat." All the more reason that today's anti-nuclear movement is rightly putting the focus where it belongs: on disarming the Pentagon, the world's greatest purveyor of violence. [Figures on nuclear weapons from the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project, Brookings Institution.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww at wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews- on at wwpublish.com. Unsubscribe wwnews-off at wwpublish.com. Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:40:00 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:40:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Groups Plan Challenge to US Cuba Travel Ban Message-ID: <200405041540.i44Fe0631362@tania.blythe-systems.com> ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 6, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- GOING TO CUBA THIS SUMMER: GROUPS PLAN CHALLENGE TO U.S. TRAVEL BAN By Minnie Bruce Pratt A coalition of activists from IFCO/ Pastors for Peace, the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, and the Vencere mos Brigade will unite on July 19 in a historic breaking of the U.S. blockade of Cuba. On their return from a trip to the revolutionary island, the delegations will re- enter the U.S. together. None of the delegations will apply to the U.S. government for permission to visit Cuba, and all will join to openly reject the travel ban as they cross the border into Texas. The delegations are now accepting applications to participate in this powerful travel challenge. BUSH'S NEW WAR ON CUBA A U.S. economic blockade imposed in 1961 to undermine the revolutionary government is still in place, and has the support of both George W. Bush and John Kerry. Now the Bush administration has increased attacks designed to cut off access to information about Cuba's transformative accomplishments in culture, science and social life. In 2003, a commission headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell investigated further ways to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. Homeland Security began to interrogate and harass some of the more than 44,000 legal travelers from the U.S. to Cuba. Despite both houses of Congress having voted against the enforcement of travel restrictions, the Treasury Depart ment's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has several thousand pending cases against "illegal" travelers to the island. (www.venceremos.org) Cuban artists are denied visas to the U.S., most recently the legendary musician Ibrahim Ferrer, 76-year-old member of the Buena Vista Social Club. He was nominated for a music-industry Grammy award but denied permission to attend the ceremony. Using the pretext of the economic blockade, OFAC has been trying to effectively prevent scholarly journals from publishing scientific and other articles from Cuba. But the three activist organizations are ready to break the ban on information and travel to Cuba so others can stand up in solidarity with the Cuban people. CUBA IS NOT ALONE IFCO/Pastors for Peace began delivering humanitarian aid to Latin America and the Caribbean in 1988, and has since led 38 such caravans to Mexico and Cen tral America, 14 to Cuba, as well as sponsoring many delegations and work brigades. Founder and Executive Director Rev. Lucius Walker Jr. says this event is a move forward for the Cuba solidarity community, asserting: "I have long believed that total unity within the solidarity community in refusal to apply for a license or to be intimidated by this criminal policy of the U.S. is what it will take to end the blockade. I hope that other groups will be encou raged and emboldened to join us later by the actions of the three groups, and of perhaps as many as 500 people, who will collectively say no to the blockade." During June and July 2004, the 15th IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba will travel to 120 cities throughout the U.S., gathering tons of medicine, computers and school supplies from groups across the country. People wanting to join the caravan when it comes to their state, spend nine days in Cuba, and then re-cross the border in the unified challenge can get more information from: www.ifconews.org. This is the 35th year that the Vence remos Brigade, the oldest Cuba solidarity organization, has taken a contingent to work side by side with Cuban workers and challenge U.S. government policies against the island. Over 8,000 people have been brigadistas, and the Brigade is urging past participants to join this anniversary contingent. The African roots of Cuba's history and contemporary society, with travel to both Havana and Santiago de Cuba, will be the focus of the Brigade's work and educational tours during the first two weeks of July. For more information, go to: www.venceremosbrigade.org. FREE THE FIVE! The third group participating in the unified travel challenge ban is the National Free the Five Committee, founded to win justice for Fernando Gon z?lez, Ren? Gonz?lez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hern?ndez and Ram?n Laba ?ino. The Five were convicted of conspiracy in U.S. courts in 2001 after they had penetrated anti-Cuba right-wing organizations based in Miami in order to thwart these groups' violent plans against Cuba. Orlando Requeijo Gual, Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations, has pointed out that 3,478 people have died and 2,099 been injured in Cuba by the kind of right-wing terror that the Five were assigned to investigate. A U.S. administration that claims to be waging a world-wide "war on terrorism" prosecuted the Five and lets right-wing terrorists walk free, knowing all details of their activities. (Workers World, March 18, 2004) Gloria La Riva, coordinator for the Free the Five Committee, said, "Our goal is for everyone on the Cuba solidarity trip to become an activist for the Five, to learn more about Cuban society, and to come back with more knowledge and understanding on how to explain the case to the U.S." La Riva praised the unified breaking of the blockade by the three organizations, which she said would share a number of activities, as well as information on how to carry on the struggle at home, to support Cuba and free the Five. Those going to Cuba will meet with family members of the Five, become more acquainted with their friends and co-workers, talk with people affected by the right-wing terrorist attacks launched out of Miami, and learn about the Cuba that the Five were defending. La Riva noted that supporting the Five was part of continued vigilance for Cuba's safety. In 2000 five Cuban-Americans were arrested in Panama in an assassination plot against Cuban President Fidel Castro. A Panamanian judge gave them light sentences on April 20 after intense pressure by the U.S. One of those sentenced, Luis Posada Carriles, had also plan ned the attack that downed a Cubana Air lines flight in 1976 and killed 73 people. REVOLUTIONARY HOPE The U.S. would like to extinguish Cuba as a light of hope to the impoverished people of the Caribbean and Central and Latin America. The Bush administration continues to attempt to overcome Cuba--as it did Haiti with an economic blockade, coup and subsequent invasion, and like its attempted coup against the Bolivarian revolution of Hugo Ch?vez in Venezuela. But the Venceremos Brigade, the Free the Five Committee, and IFCO/Pastors for Peace are ready to take activists to Cuba so they can see first-hand, and then witness to others, what the Cubans have created for themselves and, ultimately, for the world, through their revolution. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww at wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews- on at wwpublish.com. Unsubscribe wwnews-off at wwpublish.com. Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:42:30 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:42:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] US diplomats launch Bush attack Message-ID: <200405041542.i44FgUX31472@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Marcus (activ-l) - May 4, 2004 BBC - May 3, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3681641.stm US diplomats launch Bush attack Around 50 retired US diplomats have written to US President George Bush to complain about America's policy towards the Middle East. The letter is similar to one written by 52 former British diplomats to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last week. The former US envoys complained that President Bush's approach is losing the US "credibility, prestige and friends". They criticised what they say is Washington's unabashed support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The American diplomats said they were deeply concerned by Mr Bush's endorsement last month of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw unilaterally from Gaza - a plan he may now have to modify after failing to gain the support of his Likud party. 'Great danger' "We are going to have the worst of all possible worlds," said Greg Thielmann, a former State Department analyst who signed the letter. "We have probably done irretrievable damage in the eyes of the Arab world," Mr Thielmann told the BBC's Today programme. "And yet we will not accomplish what seemed to be at least one positive part of the plan, which was the giving up on illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip." The diplomats are planning a news conference on Tuesday to go public with their opposition, according to the American Educational Trust (AET), a foundation where some of the former envoys are based. "Early responses are staggering," the AET said on Monday, adding "signatories are united by their belief that the US government is heading toward great danger." "Our hope is that both political parties will take heed and listen to the voices of experienced diplomats," it said. "Your unabashed support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories and now your endorsement of Sharon's unilateral plans are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends," the letter warned. Israel says it has no choice but to kill militants planning to carry out suicide attacks, and that its West Bank barrier is for security only. The signatories praised their British counterparts who went public over their concerns last month. "We former diplomats applaud our 52 British colleagues who recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair criticising his Middle East policy and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States," the US letter begins. The organiser of the American missive, Andrew Killgore, who served as US ambassador to Qatar from 1977 to 1980, told the BBC: "We thought American diplomats were as unhappy as British diplomats were over what the president did." He said Mr Bush should not "take away the right of the Palestinians to return, or give Sharon the right to take settlement blocks in the West Bank which will hardly leave the Palestinians any contiguous territory". 'Torpedo' "It seems to torpedo the idea of a separate Palestinian state," he added. Mr Killgore said the letter was mainly about policy towards Israel and the Palestinians, but it touched on Iraq too. "If anything Iraq is worse," he said. William Rogers, who was under-secretary of state for economic affairs in the mid-1970s, has not decided whether to sign the letter yet, but said: "We're not the good guys any more and our foreign relations have been and are being damaged. We are viewed as hypocritical." The BBC's Jon Leyne in Washington said those in the Bush administration who do support Mr Sharon might well point out that the state department has always been a sceptical supporter of Israel. Mr Sharon himself has always made a point of dealing directly with the White House. There has been no response yet from the White House, our correspondent says, though in the past, the administration has been quick to savage its critics. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:44:15 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:44:15 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Defeating the Power Elite: Future Actions Message-ID: <200405041544.i44FiFN31559@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by J van Steenis - May 4, 2004 Phnom Penh, May 5 2004 The future is needed in actions, the 47th letter of an Autonomous Thinker Dear reader, The elite wants to preserve the long-existing eliteworld and to transfer its power and privileges to its offspring. In this way it has united the past, the present and the future. The masses lack the time and the energy to fight for a better future because they must work hard to make ends meet in the present. This unequal situation exists already for aeons. Only when the eliteworld ceases to exist, leaders will take decisions that favour all people instead of in the first place the own privileged group. Some former top-leaders who are not anymore pressurized to defend in the first place the interests of the elite seem to propose decisions that favour masspeople. Jimmy Carter wants a world-wide ban on land mines even when these murder weapons were also refined when he was president. Ruud Lubbers defends the interests of political refugees by advancing ideas that are very different from the line he advocated when he was Dutch prime-minister. Masspeople are not so independent. Labour leaders demand higher wages, activists demand the closure of nuclear power plants. At the most these actions improve a little the situation of the masses but when one problem is solved a comparable problem comes up. Masses never fight for a society in which equal payment for equal efforts or electricity without possible nuclear explosions is self-evident. Masspeople hardly take into account that all decisions are taken with the idea that the present power relations may not be disturbed. Actions should also include the possibility of a change in the power relations (and the difference in income and possessions). The world does not change when one problem is solved nor when a new group of leaders arrives that also favours the elite. I took part in many actions against the Vietnam War but with the Iraq War new leaders repeated what happened before. Actions against the Vietnam War had a passing influence on the power relations in the rich Western countries. Another world only emerges when leaders come under lasting pressure so they cannot anymore live safely in their privileged fort. Most activists only want to improve small points though these faulty points only exist because society is wrong. Actions have restricted goals as better housing, better wages, cleaner environment or better health care but any improvement can later be cancelled by the powers that be. Actions never try to change the minds of leaders in such a way that wrong decisions are not anymore taken. Only when the elite ceases to exist, decisions will be taken in the interest of all people. Now any improvement in the life of masspeople is based on an insecure foundation. And this situation will be continued when masspeople do not introduce the concept of a completely different future world in their activities. Yours sincerely, Joost van Steenis http://www.members.chello.nl/jsteenis Ways to increase masspower From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 11:51:25 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:51:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Lehrer Regrets Al-Hawza Mistake Message-ID: <200405041551.i44FpPw31818@tania.blythe-systems.com> FAIR-L Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting Media analysis, critiques and activism http://www.fair.org/activism/pbs-alhawza-update.html ACTIVISM UPDATE: Lehrer Regrets Al-Hawza Mistake April 27, 2004 After calls from FAIR activists to correct the record, PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer issued a correction during his April 26 broadcast regarding the reason that the U.S. shut down the Iraqi newspaper Al-Hawza, which is affiliated with Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr. The editor's note said: "On our April 7 broadcast I made a mistake while running a discussion about Iraq. The issue was why the U.S. had closed down a particular newspaper. In an attempt to clarify what a guest had said, I stated it was because the paper had called for violence against Americans. I should have said, that was the reason given by the coalition, that those running the paper strongly deny it. I regret my mistake." While the correction is welcome, Lehrer still seems unclear on what was actually said about Al-Hawza. U.S. occupation spokesperson Dan Senor had told reporters (3/30/04) that Al-Hawza "repeatedly uses rhetoric designed to incite violence against U.S. soldiers and against the Iraqi people." According to the New York Times (4/5/04), "the paper did not print any calls for attacks," though "the American authorities said false reporting, including articles that ascribed suicide bombings to Americans, could touch off violence." The closure of the paper seemed to spark an uprising by Al-Sadr's militia that continues to pose a serious challenge to the occupation. While the actual content of the paper merits further reporting, FAIR appreciates that Lehrer recognized the problematic nature of his original statement. And FAIR thanks the activists who encouraged the NewsHour to set a high standard for accuracy. Read FAIR's action alert at: http://www.fair.org/activism/newshour-alhawza.html FAIR (212) 633-6700 http://www.fair.org/ E-mail: fair at fair.org From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 12:46:34 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 12:46:34 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Iranian Victims of Gas Attacks to Sue USA for Supplying Iraq Message-ID: <1083689194.4097c8ea1d4cf@che.blythe.org> reuters via Yahoo - May 4, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=6&u=/nm/20040504/wl_nm/iran_usa_weapons_dc Iranian Gas Attack Victims Vow to Take U.S. to Court TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian victims of chemical attacks said Tuesday they would take the United States to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for supplying the weapons that scarred them, the official IRNA news agency said. Iran's Society of Victims of Weapons of Mass Destruction demanded compensation from Washington and U.S. firms, saying they supplied poison gases to Saddam Hussein's Iraq during his 1980-1988 war against the Islamic Republic. The war killed hundreds of thousands on both sides and Iran has thousands of invalids disabled in chemical attacks. "The U.S. government issued over 780 licenses allowing American companies to export sensitive weapon components," the group said in a letter delivered to the Swiss Embassy, which covers U.S. interests in Tehran. An Iranian court last week said the United States should pay $600 million in compensation to survivors of attacks on the town of Sardasht which borders Iraq From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 13:20:47 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 13:20:47 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Decatur Daily Pokes Fun at US Treasury's OFAC Message-ID: <200405041720.i44HKmd02253@tania.blythe-systems.com> [Even the Decatur Daily, whose editorial desk is obviously hostile to the Cuban Revolution, is making sport of the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.] Sent by PWaldo - May 3, 2004 EDITORIAL from The Decatur Daily - May 2, 2004 Does Castro bring fear to Treasury Department? Who's afraid of Fidel Castro? Does the Cuban dictator merit an orange alert? Or perhaps even a red one? Our government obviously thinks so, even though it's doubtful Mr. Castro is hoarding any weapons of mass destruction. At best, he might have the rusting remnant of an old Soviet-era missile hanging around like the rusting vintage American cars still running on spit and glue about the country. He has a couple of beat-up old warplanes that our Air Force could take out on takeoff from any airfield near Miami and then turn around and land without the pilots breaking a sweat. Why then is the U.S. Treasury Department wasting so much time, money and manpower keeping an eye on this old communist who still enjoys poking fun at the United States? Maybe the Treasury is still hoping for a payback for the Bay of Pigs invasion that Mr. Castro turned into a rout and an embarrassment to President Kennedy and the United States. Our Treasury Department heads should be ashamed. Instead of using its resources to fight real terrorist threats, such as Osama bin Laden, it has assigned many agents to keep tab on what Mr. Castro is doing. Almost two dozen agents are busy investigating how those wonderful Cuban cigars are coming into America. If that doesn't keep them busy, they're checking up on Americans who circumvent the regulation against visiting Cuba and do it anyway. (It's easy to get there through Mexico or other foreign countries, in case anyone wants to know.) They also want to know who is sending U.S. dollars to Cuba, who is doing business there and who is violating other provisions of the long-standing embargo. With our country under constant threat of attack, the Treasury department has assigned four agents to investigating bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's wealth and how it's being spent. Those four agents opened 93 enforcement investigations in 2003 and collected $9,425 in fines for terrorism financing violations since 1994, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In the same time, OFAC says the agency initiated 10,683 investigations since 1990 against Castro's regime and collected more than $8 million in fines. Apparently, the Treasury Department leaders need to go back to class and learn how to spell priority and learn its meaning because it's obvious they don't know. At least, both Democrats and Republicans have something on which they can agree. Members of the Senate Finance Committee, on reading this report, openly questioned if the department has failed to adjust from the Cold War to the war on terrorism. That's a question we all would like answered. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 13:25:13 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 13:25:13 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Granma: Torrijos Wins Panama Election Message-ID: <200405041725.i44HPDW02451@tania.blythe-systems.com> Granma International On line - May 3, 2004 (posted 5/4/04) http://www.granma.cu Mart?n Torrijos wins Panama elections PANAMA CITY.- Mart?n Torrijos, the opposition Patria Nueva Alliance presidential candidate has emerged triumphant in the Panama general elections, the first in that country without the U.S. presence, as confirmed by the Electoral Court (TE). Son of the deceased general Omar Torrijos, who promoted the treaties that led to the return to Panama of its Canal, the likewise general secretary of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) won the elections with more than 46% of the votes, according to extra-official TE figures. The news was given to the winner by Eduardo Vald?s, head of the TE, who called him by phone with the ballot results. The conversation between them was transmitted live and direct to the entire country by television channels and radio stations. Vald?s explained that although the figures were preliminary ones, these have always coincided with the official count, which should be ready in three days. The other presidential candidates are ex-president Guillermo Endara, from the Solidarity Party; Jos? Manuel Alem?n, from the previous ruling Visi?n del Pa?s alliance; and Ricrado Martinelli, from Democratic Change. Copyright (c) 2004 Granma International. All rights reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 13:26:10 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 13:26:10 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Cuban 5: US Violating Families' Rights Message-ID: <200405041726.i44HQAM02511@tania.blythe-systems.com> Granma International On line - May 3, 2004 (posted 5/4/04) http://www.granma.cu The U.S. violating family rights in the case of the Cuban Five Once again, visas denied to the wives of Ren? Gonz?lez and Gerardo Hern?ndez While five anti-terrorist fighters are serving huge sentences, murderer Orlando Bosch confesses crimes on Miami television and remains at large BY RAISA PAGES Granma International staff writer THE violations of family and children's rights in the case of the five Cubans unjustly imprisoned in U.S. jails were denounced during the 2nd International Cuban Solidarity Conference, attended by representatives from 55 countries and 150-plus organizations who observed the country's May Day festivities. Wives who cannot visit their husbands, mothers who cannot visit their sons, fathers who cannot see or meet their children: these are the situations created by the U.S. authorities. Ricardo Alarc?n, president of the Cuban Parliament, reported that once again, the U.S. authorities have denied visas to the wives of Ren? Gonz?lez and Gerardo Hern?ndez. Ren?'s youngest daughter, Ivette, who does not know her father, has also been denied entry to the United States. A nine-minute video called Five Injustices was shown during the conference. It includes testimony by relatives of Gerardo, Ram?n, Fernando, Ren? and Antonio, who left family happiness behind in order to infiltrate terrorist groups based in Miami and defend their people from actions by that mafia. Copyright (c) 2004 Granma International. All rights reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 13:45:00 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 13:45:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] US Gunning for Chalabi with Rumors He's Working for Iran Message-ID: <200405041745.i44Hj0w03136@tania.blythe-systems.com> [Oh, dear: Ahmad Chalabi should clear out his bank accounts and head into wealthy obscurity. When the US starts leaking tales to journalists about formerly favored dictators being "corrupt" or favored agents suddenly are "rumored to be double agents," it's a sure sign they are under a big cloud and about to be ousted or worse. Ahmad Chalabi's interests are surely not the future of Iraq, but is he really a "double agent" for Iran, or only working very hard on behalf of his own enrichment? Doesn't matter -- the fix is clearly in. Time to go, Ahmad.] Sent by SRobin (ACTIV-L) Newsweek via MSNBC.com http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4881157/ Intelligence: A Double Game Has Chalabi given 'sensitive' information on U.S. interests to Iran? He denies it, but the White House is wary By Mark Hosenball Newsweek, May 10 issue - Ahmad Chalabi, the longtime Pentagon favorite to become leader of a free Iraq, has never made a secret of his close ties to Iran. Before the U.S. invasion of Baghdad, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress maintained a $36,000-a-month branch office in Tehran-funded by U.S. taxpayers. INC representatives, including Chalabi himself, paid regular visits to the Iranian capital. Since the war, Chalabi's contacts with Iran may have intensified: a Chalabi aide says that since December, he has met with most of Iran's top leaders, including supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his top national-security aide, Hassan Rowhani. "Iran is Iraq's neighbor, and it is in Iraq's interest to have a good relationship with Iran," Chalabi's aide says. But U.S. intelligence agencies have recently raised concerns that Chalabi has become too close to Iran's theocratic rulers. NEWSWEEK has learned that top Bush administration officials have been briefed on intelligence indicating that Chalabi and some of his top aides have supplied Iran with "sensitive" information on the American occupation in Iraq. U.S. officials say that electronic intercepts of discussions between Iranian leaders indicate that Chalabi and his entourage told Iranian contacts about American political plans in Iraq. There are also indications that Chalabi has provided details of U.S. security operations. According to one U.S. government source, some of the information Chalabi turned over to Iran could "get people killed." (A Chalabi aide calls the allegations "absolutely false.") Why would Chalabi risk his cozy ties to Washington by cuddling up to Iran's fundamentalist rulers? Administration officials say Chalabi may be working both sides in an effort to solidify his own power and block the advancement of rival Iraqis. A U.S. official familiar with information presented to policymakers said that White House advisers were concerned that Chalabi was "playing footsie" with the Iranians. Yet Chalabi still has loyal defenders among some neoconservatives in the Pentagon. They say Chalabi has provided information that saved American lives. "Rushing to judgment and cutting off this relationship could have unintended consequences," says one Pentagon official, who did not respond to questions about Chalabi's dealings with Tehran. Each month the Pentagon still pays his group a $340,000 stipend, drawn from secret intelligence funds, for "information collection." Still, the State Department and the CIA are using the intelligence about his Iran ties to persuade the president to cut him loose once and for all. Officials say that even some of Chalabi's old allies in Washington now see him as a liability. If Chalabi's support in the administration was once an iceberg, says one Bush aide, "it's now an ice cube." 2004 Newsweek, Inc. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 13:49:20 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 13:49:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Apocalypse Again (consortium news) Message-ID: <200405041749.i44HnKC03327@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Lisbeth (activ-l) originally published by consortium news. Republished at: http://www.duckdaotsu.org/apocalypse_dejavu.html Apocalypse Again By Nat Parry May 4, 2004 Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz character in "Apocalypse Now" applied crystal logic to the madness of the Vietnam War, concluding that what made sense was to descend into barbarism. The U.S. military hierarchy, judging Kurtz's tactics to be "unsound," ordered the colonel eliminated to keep at least a fagade of civilization. A reprise of that tragedy -- a kind of "Apocalypse Again" -- is now playing out in Iraq, with U.S. soldiers sent halfway around the globe to invade and occupy a country supposedly with the goal of protecting the world from violence and introducing democratic freedoms. As in Vietnam, there is a widening gap between the uplifting rhetoric and the ugly facts on the ground. On April 30, for instance, with previous claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's supposed links to al-Qaeda no longer tenable, George W. Bush touted a humanitarian justification for the invasion. "There are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq," Bush told reporters as he retreated to this latest line of defense. But now even those minimal standards don't appear to be true. The year-long occupation of Iraq ? like the war in Vietnam ? has led some U.S. troops to engage in behavior that much of the world views as madness or war crimes. The U.S. assault on Fallujah in April transformed a soccer field into a fresh mass grave for hundreds of Iraqis ? many of them civilians ? killed when U.S. forces bombarded the rebellious city with 500-pound bombs and raked its streets with cannon and machine-gun fire. There were so many dead that the soccer field became the only place to bury the bodies. Supposedly avenging Saddam Husseins old mass graves of the 1980s and 1990s, Bush's policies have opened up new ones. Rape Rooms Even Bushs oft-repeated assertion about closing Husseins torture chambers and rape rooms no longer can draw a sharp line of moral clarity. As Bush spoke, worldwide press attention was focusing on evidence that U.S. guards had tortured and sexually abused Iraqi prisoners held at the Abu Ghraib prison, the same prison that Saddam Hussein's henchmen used. U.S. guards photographed repulsive scenes of naked Iraqis forced into sexual acts and humiliating postures while a U.S. servicewoman gleefully gestured at their genitalia, according to pictures first shown on CBS Newss 60 Minutes II. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh disclosed in The New Yorker's May 10 issue that a 53-page classified Army report concluded that the prisons military police were urged on by intelligence officers seeking to break down the Iraqis before interrogation. The abuses, occurring from October to December 2003, included use of a chemical light or broomstick to sexually assault one Iraqi, the report said. Witnesses also told Army investigators that prisoners were beaten and threatened with rape, electrocution and dog attacks. At least one Iraqi died during interrogation. Numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees, said the report written by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. In other words, Iraqs torture and rape rooms were open for business, only under new U.S. management. One victim who faced torture at Abu Ghraib under both Saddam Husseins regime and the U.S. occupation said the physical abuse from Hussein's guards was preferable to the sexual humiliation employed by the Americans. Dhia al-Shweiri told the Associated Press that the Americans were trying to break our pride. After the publication of the Abu Ghraib photos, Bush said he shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. He added that their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. One would hope not. But Bushs protest was reminiscent of the senior officers in "Apocalypse Now" condemning Kurtz's atrocities and extrajudicial killings, when Kurtz's barbarism was only the logical extension of that war's excessive violence. The generals created Kurtz and then had to disavow him. In a similar line of argument about Iraq, many people around the world are asking whether Bush should be held accountable for the policies that led to war crimes. Bush ordered the invasion in defiance of the United Nations, deemed his Iraqi enemies to be "evil," and brought to bear massive firepower against both military and civilian targets. Restaurant Bombing Possible war crimes attributable to Bush date back to the conflict's earliest days. For one, Bush ordered the bombing of a Baghdad restaurant ? a civilian target ? because he thought Hussein might have been having dinner there. As it turned out, Hussein wasnt among the clientele, but the attack killed 14 civilians, including seven children. One mother collapsed when rescue workers pulled the severed head of her daughter out of the rubble. As the official who ordered the invasion, Bush also must bear ultimate responsibility for excesses blamed on U.S. troops who were put in an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous position of both conquering and then occupying a country with a different language and an alien culture. Bushs invasion plan left U.S. forces stretched thin as they tried to establish order after toppling Hussein's government in April 2003. Jittery U.S. soldiers opened fire on demonstrations, inflicting civilian casualties and embittering the population. In Fallujah, some 17 Iraqis were gunned down in demonstrations after U.S. soldiers claimed they had been fired upon. The city has been a center of resistance ever since. Over the past year, the insurgency has spread across Iraq, even uniting age-old religious enemies, Shiites and Sunnis, in the common cause of ending the U.S.-led occupation. More than 720 U.S. soldiers and thousands of Iraqis have died. By casting the war in Iraq as a clash between good and evil, Bush also arguably created conditions for justifying the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners who supposedly represented the "bad guys." Politically, the bloody occupation also has been a disaster for U.S. international standing, fuelling anti-American anger across the Middle East and around the globe. Even traditional U.S. backers are becoming unnerved at the image of a Christian zealot who thinks he's guided by the Almighty inflicting death and destruction on an Islamic nation. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, considered one of the staunchest U.S. allies, cancelled a meeting with Bush and declared that current U.S. policies have created hatred of Americans like never before in the region. There was no hatred of Americans, Mubarak said, but after what has happened in Iraq, there is unprecedented hatred. He said, the despair and feeling of injustice are not going to be limited to our region alone. American and Israeli interests will not be safe, not only in our region but anywhere in the world. Angry Demonstration I recently witnessed some of this hatred and anger on the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark, a marked contrast to the unprecedented outpouring of solidarity for Americans after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington. As in other cities around the world, residents of Copenhagen filled the sidewalks outside the U.S. Embassy with flowers and other displays of sympathy for the terror attacks. On April 16, however, I came across a demonstration of thousands of people, overwhelmingly Arab and Muslim. I walked along, trying to get a feel for the tone. The banners and signs were typical enough, with demands for Denmark and the U.S. to leave Iraq and calls to Stop Bushs Massacre. But there was a militancy and a strident anti-Americanism, unusual for traditionally mild-mannered Denmark. A sound truck led the march, and when the leader called out a chant, the crowd answered in a deafening response. Chants included, Jihad! Down, down, USA! and USA! You will pay! Some demonstrators displayed an open animosity toward non-Arabs. One Arab man gestured to me with his head, as if to say, Get out of here. The occupation of Iraq may be the most visible reason for the increased anger around the world, but Bushs approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is stirring possibly even deeper animosity. By endorsing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharons plan to dismantle a few Jewish settlements in Gaza while keeping other parts of the occupied territories, Bush gave Americas stamp of approval to what many around the world see as clear violations of international law. Until Bushs endorsement of Sharons plan, the U.S. had maintained, along with the European Union and other leaders around the world, that Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders were illegal and presented obstacles to peace. But in a drastic change of course, Bush essentially legitimized those settlements, buying into Sharons view of a Greater Israel. Beyond reversing 37 years of U.S. government policy towards Israel, Bush gutted his own road map to peace by eliminating the core principle that the final status of the territories will not be determined by unilateral action. Bush also has refused to join in denunciations of Israeli targeted killings of Palestinians, including Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the quadriplegic spiritual leader and founder of Hamas. EU foreign ministers said the killing of Yassin was extrajudicial and had inflamed the situation in the Middle East. Bush said he found the Israeli attack troubling and called the Middle East a troubled region, while stressing that Sharon had the right to defend Israel against terrorism. The Bush administration also vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Yassin assassination as a setback to the peace process. The U.S. explained that the resolution didnt condemn Hamas by name, although it did condemn terrorism. Soon after the Yassin assassination, Hamas said the U.S. and American leaders should be considered legitimate targets for revenge, reflecting the widely held perception that Israel only carried out the attack after receiving a green light from the Bush administration. Yassins successor as leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, called Bush an enemy of Muslims and said Bush, together with Ariel Sharon, declared war against Allah. But, he added, Allah declares war against America, Bush and Sharon. [BBC, March 28, 2004] Israel then assassinated al-Rantissi, an act also widely condemned by world leaders, including Bushs closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The EUs External Affairs commissioner Chris Patten reiterated the EUs position that We believe that targeted assassinations are wrong, illegal and counterproductive. Again, the Bush administration declined to criticize the killing, saying Israel had a right to defend itself. Policy Shift The U.S. has always maintained a close strategic relationship with Israel and has frequently acted as an extension of the Israeli government in the U.N. Security Council. But under Bill Clinton and previous presidents, the U.S. worked as a broker seeking settlement to the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Bush changed that. Ten days after his inauguration, at the first meeting of the National Security Council, Bush shifted to a more hands-off policy, according to Bush's first Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill whose insider account is presented in Ron Suskinds The Price of Loyalty. Bush is quoted as saying, We're going to correct the imbalances of the previous administration on the Mideast conflict. We're going to tilt it back toward Israel. And we're going to be consistent. Bushs analysis of the situation was that Clinton had overreached, causing negotiations to fall apart. That's why we're in trouble, Bush said. Recalling a helicopter trip he had taken with Sharon over Palestinian refugee camps, Bush remarked, Looked real bad down there. I don't see much we can do over there at this point. I think it's time to pull out of that situation. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed strong misgivings, predicting that U.S. disengagement would unleash Sharon and lead to dire consequences, especially for the Palestinians. But Bush shrugged off the concerns, saying Maybe thats the best way to get things back in balance. Elaborating on this theory, Bush said, Sometimes a show of strength by one side can really clarify things. So years of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Middle East conflict came to an end. Sharon launched some of the deadliest attacks ever seen in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Palestinians countered with suicide bombings that killed Israeli civilians. The cycle of violence spiralled out of control. Another early part of Bushs Middle East strategy was the ouster of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. ONeill, who served on Bushs National Security Council, said invading Iraq was on the new administrations agenda from the start. Then, the Sept. 11 attacks gave Bush the political opening to lead the United States into Iraq in March 2003. After a three-week war that drove Husseins government from power, however, U.S. forces struggled to bring order to Iraq and soon were facing a stubborn insurgency. As in Vietnam, the frustration of fighting a shadowy enemy that moves among the population has led to violent excesses, both in battlefield tactics and in interrogation of prisoners. When Iraqi insurgents killed four American security contractors in Fallujah and a mob mutilated the bodies, Bush ordered Marines to pacify the city of 300,000 people. According to some accounts, more than 800 citizens of Fallujah have died in the assault and 60,000 fled as refugees. Now, Arabs are calling Fallujah the new Jenin, a reference to Israels deadly assault on the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. War Crimes? In attacking Fallujah and in other counter-insurgency operations, the Bush administration again has resorted to measures that some critics argue amount to war crimes. These tactics include administering collective punishment against the civilian population in Fallujah, rounding up thousands of young Iraqi men on the flimsiest of suspicions and holding prisoners incommunicado without charges and subjecting some detainees to physical mistreatment. During the siege of Fallujah, British human rights worker Jo Wilding said it was impossible to deliver food and medical aid to besieged civilians because of the threat of American snipers. She said everyone in Fallujah has lost at least one close friend or relative to the American onslaught. Though U.S. forces insisted they were targeting only armed insurgents, international shock at the heavy firepower against a densely populated city contributed to the Marine decision to forego a full-scale assault on Fallujah. Instead, Marine commanders agreed to send in a former general from Husseins army to co-operate with city officials in restoring order. There have been allegations of war crimes elsewhere in Iraq. In the city of Kut, American soldiers allegedly beat an Iraqi man to death because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car. After the man refused to remove Sadr's picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and started beating him with truncheons, according to Agence France Press. He was taken to a hospital where he died from wounds sustained in the beating. Meanwhile, Bush has continued to insist that the U.S. has eliminated a source of tyranny and despair and anger in the Middle East by overthrowing Saddam Hussein. In a press conference on April 13, Bush stressed that the war in Iraq is not only part of the struggle against terrorism, but is part of an epic battle between the civilized world and Islamic militants, radicals, and fanatics. It is a struggle in which we are changing the world, Bush said. The world may indeed be changing, though not exactly in the way Bush suggests. Rather than becoming safer, it appears to be growing less safe. Instead of seeing the United States as a beacon of liberty, more and more people around the world are viewing Americans as arrogant bullies. Presidential Race In Europe and elsewhere, many people ? from government leaders to common citizens ? have become convinced that Bush is so inextricably tied to the failed policies in the Middle East that new leadership in Washington is a prerequisite for a solution. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is likely not exaggerating when he says that many world leaders are rooting for his victory. What is less certain is whether even a Kerry victory would create the conditions to reverse Bushs policies. On the campaign trail, Kerry has insisted that he would not abandon Iraq though he says he would reach out to the world community to share the responsibilities for bringing order. Kerry has even advocated committing 40,000 more troops, about a one-third increase in the 135,000 U.S. soldiers currently there. As for the Iraq invasion, Kerry told Time that he might have gone to war, but not the way the president did. Kerry also said he is prepared to act unilaterally in defense of U.S. interests if a situation demands it. But there is a way to do it that strengthens the hand of the United States, Kerry said. George Bush has weakened the hand of the United States. Some opponents of the Iraq War have criticized Kerry for not going further. They contend that his position constitutes Bush-Lite, although it is possible that Kerry is simply playing it safe, trying not to alienate swing voters who see a danger in a rapid U.S. withdrawal but also see a risk in Bushs tendency for rash actions and us-against-them rhetoric. At the very least, Kerry might know better than to paint the U.S. into corners with language about a clash between the civilized world and fanatics. He also might avoid quasi-religious language that casts the struggle as a crusade between good and evil. The logic of Bush black-and-white world view eliminates the gray areas where political compromise is possible. The bad guys must be crushed. Our side must be victorious. Anyone not with us is with the terrorists. Drawing such lines in the sand can have the unintended consequence of pushing some people repulsed by U.S. actions to side with the terrorists when otherwise they would have stayed neutral. Also, when U.S. soldiers see themselves as confronting evil and defending good, virtually any tactic becomes justified, whether blasting apart a rebellious city, torturing a suspected enemy or subjecting prisoners to sexual and physical humiliation to "soften them up" for interrogation. Bushs Iraq War is forcing Americans to relearn the hard lessons of Vietnam. Like Col. Kurtz in Apocalyse Now, U.S. forces are trapped between the unrealistic expectations of politicians back at headquarters and the harsh reality of a counter-insurgency war on the ground. Caught in that paradox, with no reasonable way to achieve the lofty goals, it cannot be surprising that one reaction from at least some soldiers in the field would be a descent into barbarity. While punishing individual offenders is necessary in such cases, the larger question is: Who among the higher-ups also should be held accountable? From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 15:48:36 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:48:36 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Iraq: 47,000 More Soldiers to Be Deployed; Iraqi Rts Min. Resigns Message-ID: <1083700116.4097f3947ef4f@che.blythe.org> [As more and more reports come out about torture and serious abuse by the US Occupation in Iraq, the US-appointed Iraqi Minister for Human Rights has resigned in protest and demanded that Iraqi personnel be included in guarding the prisons. Meanwhile, the US has tried to calm the troubled waters -- too little, too late, as usual -- by pledging to stop such inhumane practices as sleep deprivation and hooding of prisoners (instead of black hoods, they will use blindfolds or goggles covered with duct tape!). A kinder, gentler humiliation of those they came to "liberate." Rumsfeld has announced that the US will "maintain" a troop level of 138,000 in Iraq -- a figure they have never admitted to before. This means 47,000 more soldiers have been given the word that their one-year ordeal is about to begin... unless, of course, it's extended without warning.] AP via Miami Herald - May 4, 2004 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/8587251.htm?1c Iraqi Human Rights Minister Resigns By Lee Keath Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's U.S.-appointed human rights minister said Tuesday he had resigned to protest abuses of Iraqi detainees by American guards, and the interior minister demanded that Iraqi officials be allowed to participate in the running of prisons. Abdul-Basat al-Turki said he resigned "not only because I believe that the use of violence is a violation of human rights but also because these methods in the prisons means that the violations are a common act." He did not say what day he submitted his resignation, but Iraqi news media said it was Sunday. Al-Turki told the Arab television station Al-Jazeera that he had complained in December about human rights violations by Americans to the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. He did not say if there were any results from the complaints. Iraqis have been outraged by photos of alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. The photos allegedly show Iraqis stripped and sexually humiliated by their guards. U.S. officials are investigating practices at prisons in Iraq, amid reports that abuse may have occurred at other Iraqi facilities and in Afghanistan. "I never imagined that what I saw in those pictures was going on," al-Turki said. "I was horrified." Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi said Iraqi officials should have a role in running the prisons, which are currently entirely U.S.-managed. Iraqi government officials must ask for U.S. permission to even visit them. "We have been calling for greater participation - or at least at the beginning, some participation - by Iraqi authorities in the running and management of the prisons," al-Sumeidi told reporters in Baghdad. "One of the lessons we have learned from this is that this should have happened before," he said. "The Ministry of Interior should take at least some part." The top U.N. human rights agency has opened an investigation into civil rights in Iraq, and urged the U.S. military to prosecute soldiers alleged to have abused prisoners. U.S. officials in Baghdad ordered a halt to using hoods to blindfold Iraqi prisoners, a military spokesman said, in the wake of the uproar over abuse of detainees at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. The use of hoods has been stopped at Abu Ghraib for the past month, and troops conducting raids in the field stopped hooding detained Iraqis four days ago, the spokesman said. *** AFP viaChannelNews, Asia - May 4, 2004 http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/83208/1/.html Fresh Allegations of Prisoner Abuse in Iraq; Dangerous Standoff in Najaf BAGHDAD : The scandal over allegations of prisoner abuse by US troops in Iraq widened as insurgent attacks and prolonged uprisings halted any plans to scale down US forces. The Pentagon said force levels would be maintained as a dangerous standoff around the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, threatened to explode after fierce clashes Monday left five Iraqis dead and 20 wounded. An aide to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, holed up in Najaf with thousands of armed followers, warned that US troops trying to cut the flow of arms to the insurgents would be attacked. "We consider any checkpoint an offensive move ... " Sadr's spokesman Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani told AFP, blaming the US forces for Monday's violence. Sadr's so-called Mehdi Army is dug in around the Imam Ali mausoleum, Najaf's holiest site. Coalition forces insist that Sadr must disband his militia and face justice over his alleged role in the killing of a rival cleric last year. A source in Sadr's office said that Ahmed Chalabi, a Shiite member of the US-appointed Governing Council and long a favourite of the Pentagon, was expected in Najaf on Tuesday, though his motives were not clear. "The question of Sadr should be put in the hands of religious authorities in Najaf," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi told reporters in Brussels. "They have established a committee, and they should be allowed to fulfil the job" of negotiating with Sadr. Six US soldiers died Monday in separate incidents, including four when their vehicle overturned, taking to 757 the number of US military dead since the March invasion last year, according to a tally based on Pentagon figures. The US army also killed four attackers with artillery fire late Monday in northwestern Baghdad. Meanwhile further allegations of abuse were levelled at US soldiers amid a damaging scandal over the mistreatment of detainees in US-run prisons. Al-Jazeera television cameraman Suhaib Badraddin Baz told AFP that he was beaten, spat on and stripped naked during two months in custody. "Guards kept beating me and calling me names... It seemed to me that everyone ... coming into the room wished me dead. I was kicked and spat on over and over," he claimed. US authorities freed some 240 inmates from Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad on Tuesday, the scene of the alleged abuse which was depicted in images shown on US television last week that shocked the world. A Pentagon spokesman said Major General George Fay, army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, was probing interrogation procedures and the conduct of officers over the abuse allegations. Separately, US President George W. Bush ordered an investigation into any signs of "systemic" abuse and wants a report "as soon as possible" on what happened at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, the White House said. Five lines of inquiry have been set in motion after the abuses were reported within military channels in early January, the Pentagon said. A criminal investigation has already led to charges against six soldiers, and four other soldiers remain under investigation. Six US army officers have received career-ending reprimands. Faced with rebellions in Najaf and the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, and averaging more than 40 attacks per day, the United States has decided to keep force levels at about 135,000 troops for the forseeable future. Bush warned on the weekend that violence could be expected to increase in the leadup to the June 30 handover of limited sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. The coalition contends the handover will defuse violence which it blames on loyalists to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and foreign fighters. But the commander of a new force of former Iraqi officers brought in to ease tensions in Fallujah dismissed suggestions there were foreign extremists in the city. "There are no foreign fighters in Fallujah. Maybe there were some a month ago. Now there are none," said General Mohammed Latif, the head of the Fallujah Brigade. Troops of the brigade continued to take up positions Tuesday alongside US marines in line with a peace intiative in Fallujah, the scene of the heaviest fighting of the US-led occupation last month. On the political front, the United Nations said preparations for January elections were running ahead of schedule. "Security aside, we are better than on track," said Carina Perelli, director of the UN Electoral Assistance Division in New York. - AFP *** Reuters - May 4, 2004 U.S. to Maintain 138,000 Troops in Iraq By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is notifying about 10,000 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers and Marines and 37,000 Reserve and National Guard troops they will be sent to Iraq this year in order to maintain the current level of 138,000 U.S. troops there, defense officials said on Tuesday. The officials, who asked not to be identified, said commanders in Iraq had decided to keep an increased U.S. military presence there into the autumn because of resurgent violence and mounting U.S. casualties. They said that up to 20,000 of the troops being notified would be used to replace a like number who are now serving 90 days beyond their promised yearlong tours of duty, which were scheduled to end in April. The rest of the nearly 50,000 fresh troops will be used in the normal rotation of American forces into and out of Iraq, the officials said. The notifications come after April became the bloodiest month for U.S. troops in Iraq with at least 129 combat deaths. The military earlier this year planned to cut back the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to about 115,000 in May, but recently decided to keep the level at 138,000 for at least three additional months. That 138,000 total will now be kept into the fall and perhaps through the winter, officials told Reuters. There was no immediate breakdown available on the 37,000 Reservists and National Guard troops to be sent to Iraq, but defense officials said Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, had decided to maintain a higher level of forces. One senior Pentagon official said about 5,000 active-duty troops from the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, New York, and 5,000 Marines would go to Iraq this summer to relieve some members of the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The Pentagon said in April that about 11,000 from the 1st Armored Division based in Germany, 3,200 from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and 6,000 Guard and Reserve troops from 20 states would remain in Iraq for 90 days beyond their normal yearlong tours there. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there was no intention to further extend the service for those troops in Iraq. ? Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 15:58:26 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:58:26 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] New pro-Cuba Demonstrations in Mexico Message-ID: <200405041958.i44JwQB08220@tania.blythe-systems.com> Prensa Latina, Havana - May 4, 2004 http://www.plenglish.com New Pro-Cuba Demonstrations in Mexico Mexico, May 4 (Prensa Latina) The decision by the administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox to lessen diplomatic ties with Cuba had further repercussions Tuesday with the announcement of a "prolonged campaign" of protest. Coinciding with the return to Havana of Cuban Ambassador Jorge Bolanos, the Mexican Solidarity with Cuba Movement (MMSC) has called for mobilizations in the Federal District and Jalisco, Guadalajara to show that the vast majority of Mexicans reject the Executive decision. The MMSC in Jalisco announced immediate demonstrations as well as actions May 28 and 29 at the European Union, Latin American and Caribbean Ministers and Heads of State Summit. Monday, opposition to the arbitrary action by Fox was shown by thousands of Mexicans who marched to the US Embassy and the presidential residence and in letters by political, union and intellectual leaders calling on the government to respect the Constitution in this matter. mh/ccs/lgo/leg/yp In Mexico, March and Party Leader Demand Fox Reconsider Cuba Mexico, May 4 (Prensa Latina) The moral leader of Mexico's PRD and a multitudinous march to the US Embassy in Mexico demanded that President Vicente Fox reconsider his decision to lower the level of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Partido de la Revolucion Democratica leader Cuaht,moc C rdenas sent a message to Cuba's diplomatic mission asserting that the great majority of the Mexican people object to the Fox government's servility in allowing the US to meddle with Mexican internal affairs. Cardenas' position was borne out by the thousands of men and women carrying Cuban flags and posters who blocked part of Reforma Avenue in a five-mile march to the US Embassy and the presidential residence shouting, "Cuba Yes, Yankees No". The PRD executive national committee meanwhile insisted that the Federal government quickly rise above this diplomatic incident and reestablish ambassadorial relations between the two countries. mh/ccs/leg/yp/pmv/prl Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 16:21:15 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 16:21:15 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Brit Claims that Abuse Pix "Phoney" Overwhelm Media Message-ID: <200405042021.i44KLF009194@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Tim Murphy - May 4, 2004 For every Torture Picture Story, 3 stories about the "suspicious torture pictures". This is LONDON (London Evening Standard) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/10565332?version=1 04/05/04 - News and city section 'Name the soldiers' By Evening Standard Political editor Tony Blair today piled pressure on the Daily Mirror to name the British soldiers who claim to have taken pictures of an Iraqi prisoner being tortured. His call came amid speculation that the images may be a dangerous-hoax. The Prime Minister's spokesman said that all concerned had a "duty" to establish the facts. Senior officers are convinced-that the pictures, apparentlyof men from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment beating and humiliating a prisoner, are a sick prank or a deliberate deception. Either way, they say it could put British lives at risk in the tinderbox of Iraq. Downing Street appealed to the Mirror to end the uncertainty by co-operating fully with a military investigation into the crisis. "Clearly we would ask and hope that everybody involved would co-operate with an investigation," said Mr Blair's official spokesman. He added: "We believe everyone has a duty to co-operate." Asked if that meant Mirror editor Piers Morgan supplying the names of the soldiers to the investigators, the spokesman said: "It is a matter for people to address their own duties. "We want to get to the bottom of this in terms of the Army's reputation, at home and abroad. It is vital that everyone should co-operate with the investigation." Emphasising the " seriousness" of the charges, No10 admitted it had no idea if the pictures were genuine or fakes. Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told MPs this afternoon that the Mirror had handed over 20 photographs to military investigators and officers were talking to the newspaper to ask for further information. "Any decent thinking person will have been disturbed by the photographs," he said in an emergency statement to the Commons. "From the outset, we have taken the allegations seriously and taken the photographs at face value and will continue to do so unless there is evidence to the contrary." He appealed to all parties to tell everything they know about the alleged incident which had "caused some people to question the integrity of British soldiers and the validity of their mission in Iraq". Mr Ingram criticised the Mirror for failing to hand over the name of its informant on the grounds that it wished to protect a serving soldier from reprisals. "I genuinely do not understand that position," he said. "I have every confidence that anyone with information will be treated fairly." Earlier former defence secretary Lord King said it was vital to get to the bottom of the affair. He added: "The jury is out on these pictures. But they have already done serious damage in Britain and in the Arab world. I expect full co-operation from the Mirror and anybody else to establish whether they are real or false." Serving soldiers also believe that the two men who claim they took the pictures and witnessed the Iraqi being beaten should be named and questioned. One theory gaining ground is that they are members of the Territorial Army because the version of the rifle and the truck shown in the images is widely used by TA regiments. The Royal Military Police today began an inquiry into the affair, investigating in Iraq, the UK and in Cyprus where the Queen's Lancashire Regiment is based. The Daily Mirror insists the pictures are genuine. (c)2004 Associated New Media From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 16:25:20 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 16:25:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It? Message-ID: <200405042025.i44KPKc09339@tania.blythe-systems.com> Sent by Cherie (EMMAS list) The "News Dissector Weblog": Danny Schechter's dissections of the day's news. http://www.newsdissector.org/weblog MAY 4: "EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY 'DON'T IT?'" * THE GREAT ESCAPE * FIGHTING RACISM * WORLD PRESS FREEDOM It is May 4th. Before we delve into the latest military scandal involving poorly trained reservists and National Guard members, let us take a walk down memory lane and remember Kent State. If you don't know the reference, find out. I remember Allison Krause. When American hostage Tom Hamill walked away from his captivity in Iraq, it was big news all day (as it is again this morning as he "decompresses" at a US military base in Germany). Alas, the US government won't be able to walk away as easily from Iraq what with scandal, resistance, and criticism growing from within and without. ONLY RACISTS OPPOSE THE BUSHISTS Before any more bad news, here's the good news. We now have a new rationale for the US invasion of Iraq. Forget finding WMD's or fighting terrorists. Let us now all sing We Shall Overcome because this is now a war against racism. You heard it here second. President Bush is now such an anti-racist that he feels entitled to race bait all critics of his policy. Now hear this: The Center for Social Progress reports him saying Friday: "'There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern...I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily-are a different color than white can self-govern.' Neither President Bush nor Press Secretary Scott McClellan commented on exactly who the people are who supposedly think that. The phrase 'ours' to mean 'white' is also offensive, given that the Census reports a quarter of people in the United States are other than white." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57791-2004Apr30.html WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS OUTRAGE? Ok, fellow Klan members, here's some news I missed. It seems that the Pentagon knew all about the abuses at that prison in Iraq MONTHS ago and did didley squat about them The NY Times reports today: "Army Punishes 7 With Reprimands for Prison Abuse: The officers received penalties that most likely will end their military careers, although they were not demoted or discharged." Last night, ABC's Nightline featured interviews with Iraqis who had been in those photos. "The US may not be able to recover from this scandal," reported John Donvan. The photographs and victims of abuse are all over the Muslim world. ABC's military consultant Anthony Cordesman predicted that more Americans will die in response to this, as rage and retaliation is inspired by the stories and the images especially because of indications that women were raped and brutalized. It was reported that two of the soldiers being tried were correctional officers in American prisons. One was reminded of the case of the Haitian American Abner Louima who was assaulted anally in a Brooklyn police precinct. This same practice is alleged to have occurred in Iraq. The chickens are coming home to roost, as Malcolm X once said in another context. Last night The Muslim Leader Louis Farrakhan was on C-SPAN and cited Malcolm as he connected the many dots between abuse in Iraq and abuse here at home. It was hard to disagree with him this time. Nightline also featured an interview with the US Army Reserve General Janis Karpinski who was in charge of the prison. She brought her lawyer along and put up a brave front. She admitted responsibility, denied culpability and then shifted the blame to military intelligence officials. Defense lawyers were also heard from. How high up the military chain of command will this rebound? "It is a larger question" said one of the lawyers interviewed by Nightline. Yes it is. "There are 'multiple collateral issues of political significance'" said the defense lawyer Translation: HEADS WILL ROLL. Forget now about winning hearts and minds. Rumsfeld and company have done it now, done what has never been done before unified the entire Muslim world. Against the United States! As Rod Stewart sings: "Every picture tells a story, don't it?" http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/iraqis_tortured/ On reactions in Iraq: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1208408,00.html THE REAL RACISM A fellow blogger, xymphora explores the meaning of all this more deeply, writing yesterday: "That picture, that iconic picture of the torture victim standing on the box, Christ-like, with a hood from a Spanish Easter procession or the KKK, with the backlighting and the wires hanging down like in an old science fiction movie, that picture is the representation of the new American Empire, the symbol that the whole world now identifies with the Evil of the United States of America. They should send the Statue of Liberty back to France-the values she represented are no longer American values-and replace it with a model of this Iraqi prisoner. I wonder if he is still alive, and what state he is in. Do you think they might find it in their stony hearts to let him out of prison?" "As Robert Fisk quite properly points out, this mistreatment is a product of years of systematic anti-Arab racism (of course, the whole attack on Iraq, the idea that it was morally acceptable to apply 'shock and awe' to innocent civilians, is a product of the same racism). The knuckle-dragging hillbillies who so enthusiastically participated in the torture aren't very far removed from their lynch mob ancestors who so easily did the same thing to American blacks. They pathetically claim they can't be held accountable because they didn't have sufficient training in the niceties of the Geneva Convention. Do they mean to argue that they actually thought it was acceptable to humiliate, torture, rape and murder prisoners of war?" "The United States is in full damage-control mode, with everyone saying they are suitably appalled. Of course, they have known about this for months, and have done absolutely nothing about it, so their claims of being disgusted ring rather hollow now. Various human rights groups have been complaining since last summer about the deplorable treatment afforded to prisoners picked up by the United States, and nothing has been done about it. Prisoners are often arrested for purely arbitrary reasons, jailed indefinitely with no access to legal counsel, and their relatives aren't even informed of where they are being held. If American officials were really concerned, they would start by emptying those prisons." http://xymphora.blogspot.com/ The Christian Science Monitor is now quoting Mediachannel in reporting that: "CBS broke the story last Wednesday when it aired the photos. But it turns out that CBS had access to the pictures two week before it aired them, but had been asked not by Geo Myers not to broadcast the story because of 'tension on the ground' in Iraq. MediaChannel.org reports that it was only when CBS was concerned that someone else was about the break the story that it did its 60 Minutes II report." http://csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=D4EFEDA0D2E5E7E1EEA0ADA0E2F9ECE9EEE5 FREEDOM THE PRESS.1 The Daily Mirror in London is defending the photos it has published of outrages by British forces against Iraqis after some in the military called them a hoax. Says the paper editorially: "The Mirror has no doubt that the photographs are genuine and the story they tell is as real as it is horrifying. Others, with their own vested interests are determined they are cruel fakes." Insists the Mirror: "the incident did happen". http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid%3D14199634%26method%3Dfull%26siteid%3D50143%26headline%3Dshame-of-abuse-by-brit-troops-name_page.html FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.2 The media system that the US put in place inside Iraq seems to be cracking apart along with its credibility, as AP reports: "BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and said Monday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication." On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were "celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months...We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse." Al-Sabah was set up by U.S. officials with funding from the Pentagon soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Since its first issue in July, many Iraqis have considered it the mouthpiece of the U.S.-led coalition, along with the U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya. Zayer said almost the entire staff left the paper along with him and that they were launching a new paper called Al-Sabah Al-Jedid ("The New Morning"), which would begin publishing Tuesday. Zayer had sought to break Al-Sabah away from the Iraqi Media Network, which groups the paper, Al-Iraqiya and a number of radio stations and is run by Harris Inc., a Florida-based communications company that won a $96 million Pentagon contract in January to develop the media... "We had a project to create a free media in Iraq," Zayer said of the founding of Al-Sabah. "They are trying to control us. We are being suffocated." For an amusing/ironic comment on Freedom of the Press for World Press Day yesterday, check out this cartoon in Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0EE30E43-B137-417C-9FA4-E629E849E7DC.htm Paul Krugman, as usual, spotlights the US economic politics in Iraq that have generated a good part of the calamity there. His charge: "Making Iraq a showpiece for the administration's economic doctrines has helped undermine the transition to democracy." FREEDOM TO IGNORE THE NEWS Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting surveyed the coverage of the April 25th woman's march on Washington that drew as many as a million marchers to Washington, one of the largest demonstrations ever. How was it covered? "A Nexis search of the week surrounding the women's march found a total of six stories from the broadcast networks (not counting incidental mentions of the march): CBS ran one story the day of the march and two the next morning; NBC ran two stories and ABC only one, all on April 25. CNN, as a 24-hour cable news outlet, gave more extensive coverage to the event, running several reports on Sunday. But even CNN failed to treat the march as the historic occasion that it was, running just a small handful of brief march-related stories on Saturday and Monday. "Other cable news outlets focused not on the march itself but on abortion opponents, a few hundred of whom held a counter-protest at the march. Of three Fox News stories found on Nexis related to the march, two focused on anti-abortion activists (Special Report with Brit Hume, Hannity & Colmes, 4/22/04). Special Report examined anti-abortion opposition to the National Education Association's endorsement of the march-a story that MSNBC also covered in that network's only march report found in the Nexis database." http://www.fair.org/activism/womens-march-networks.html UNDIPLOMATIC The Mail and Guardian reports: "Fifty-three former United States diplomats on Tuesday accuse the White House of sacrificing America's credibility in the Arab world-and the safety of its diplomats and soldiers-because of the Bush administration's support for the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon." THE SECRECY STATE The National Security Archive reports: "The U.S. government classified more than 14 million new national security secrets last year, up from 11 million in the previous year and 8 million the year before, according to the new annual report to President Bush from the oversight office for the national security secrecy system. Dated 31 March 2004 and made publicly available last week, the report provides the Information Security Oversight Office's best estimate of the rising tide of secrecy, and also warns that "Allowing information that will not cause damage to national security to remain in the classification system, or to enter the system in the first instance, places all classified information at needless increased risk." http://www.nsarchive.org DEMOCRACY ON HOLD IN HONG KONG Freedom of the media and other freedoms are at risk in Hong Kong according to AFP: "China's decision to delay greater democracy in Hong Kong appears to be the result of deep-seated concerns about national stability, security and preserving economic prosperity. Analysts say Beijing is worried full democracy in Hong Kong could threaten everything from China's economic growth to the success of the 2008 Olympics." "Some suggest this is why China highest lawmaking body, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, recently ruled that the territory's residents could not directly elect their next leader in 2007. Furthermore, Hong Kong people will not be allowed to directly elect their entire legislature in 2008." YOUR LETTERS: Note to letter writers-please, fewer diatribes and more media focused analysis. Neb writes: "Clearly, the 'war president', the 'commander-in-chief' and his advisors are culpable for what our troops are doing to Iraqis. But it isn't just our troops who are torturing these people, we have 'outsourced' these illegal activities to Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. I can't imagine why we didn't give our good friend Pakistan, some of this business." WHERE DOES THE ABUSE COME FROM? Mary Ann Benavides says "Thanks for all you do!" "I realized once the news broke of the abuse of Iraqi "suspects" in prison, that for months and months now I have been distressed every time the news presents our GI's taking prisoners in Iraq or Afghanistan. They put bags over their heads and write numbers of the backs of their necks. They refer to the bags as hoods, but who would buy such a 'hood' unless the KKK? And who put numbers on prisoners but the Nazis?" "In my view the humiliation and dehumanization of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan (honestly, I have not seen this done by our military or police here at home before the Bush wars) begins a process which then can allow young soldiers to progress to other forms of humiliation and abuse." "We do not put hoods on suspects here at home. We don't 'book' people using magic marker on their neck. And we certainly would protest if we were shown photos of such behavior if our own service personnel were taken prisoner." "This is another example of reporters simply providing the footage. And I have to include myself in being complicit in this till now as a viewer." "My concerns go deeper. As a psychologist I am familiar with two sets of experiments, which if not known by the military, should be known. Stanley Milgram, years ago, did experiments in which students (at Yale?) were asked to shock other students in a 'learning experiment.' Even when the subjects (actually confederates) appeared to scream and writhe in pain, very few students refused to follow the orders to give shocks! Zimbardo did experiments where he asked students to play the roles of guards and prisoners. After very little time the guards began to abuse and mistreat the prisoners, who naturally became uncooperative as well." "Shouldn't these experiments tell us how vulnerable young people are? Should they not be a mandatory part of the military training? Should all young people not be trained to resist the impulse to demean, humiliate, or dehumanize a prisoner?" "This has me deeply disturbed! I have contacted my elected representatives about stopping the use of bags on heads and writing on necks. Stopping abuse is not sufficient. Preserving the humanity and dignity of anyone should be our starting place." Anna Taylor writes from Mendocino: "we gotta bring about big time restructuring, instead of becoming triumphalist anti-warriors only. Or forget it and, as so many on the 'left' did after Viet Nam, flee into some decadent crapfest of self-congratulation and business-as-usual for the poor. Same prob for South Africa, I gather. The Dan Hamburg factor-local former Demo congressman turned green, former poverty bureaucrat, not capable of conflict; he was in South Africa in some 'helping' capacity, probably selling out the poor as here-probably. Liberal goose-steppers R Us" Wendi writes from Oregon City: "Missed you. Glad you're back. I have a southern Africa (Botswana) specific topic to share with you, and almost sent it last week but postponed it for later. Figured you were over-busy. And besides, the planets have run adverse the whole month of April, and continue until this full moon gets out of the way tomorrow, which all flommoxed against good stable reliable communications." "You write today 'the news flows in,' from which I infer a flood." "That's MY issue. The continuous onslaught of scandal after scandal keeping new crimes crowding out the old could not serve Rove better. Mud can be washed off with new mud, just as well as cleansing water." "Weno, THEY-I am tired of being accomplice in American name to this Hitlerian cast running this country and all citizens' names down into infamy; THEY are not WE-they are torturing and murdering humans because they lied about what they were doing there; and they are there because they lied about WMD, and they lied about Iraq because they wanted to move on from Afghan, and they were in Afghan because they lied to us about who was there to go get, and they were out to get them because they lied to us who mailed the lethal anthrax letters, and they lied to us about who was involved in nine one one." Wendi goes on to ask for a debate about 911. I am reading David Ray Griffin's provocative "The New Pearl Harbor" and hope to write more about all this soon. Bev Landeman writes: "dissector, I am a fairly recent subscriber to your notes....would like a bit more information about you and your current world in South Africa. I have a granddaughter married to a young man from Malawi, making us a coffee and cream family tree as they now have twin boys and a beautiful year old girl. I would be interested in more information from you on your observations of South Africa....who can be relied on for relief and also in Iraq." "I am old enough to remember exactly where I was standing the day Pearl Harbour was bombedhaving been interested in all of the news from an early age, because of my father's interest. I went back to school at age 50 for Political Science and Artand my first class of Contemporary Political Ideas was like a whirlwind in time as I looked around at the students and realized most of them had not even been around for the Vietnam War, much less, Korean, and World War 11." "Tough to feel like an antique. I have been printing out your news and using the back of the papers to write letters to my friends abroad and my relatives in Europein particular, Sweden. I have been there often, and find our current image in the world very discouraging." BLOGS BLOCKED In the UK, our friend Paul O Hanlon tries to send some of my blogs to members of the British Parliament but finds that they are being blocked. He writes from Glasgow: "The mother of all Parliaments in keeping with its tradition of freedom of speech has blocked your blog that I forwarded to my MP. Not to worry, I have forwarded it successfully to around 100 on my list including about 20 journalists, TV programs, Human Rights organisations like Amnesty International, Stop the War (Britain), New Yorkers say no to War and Peaceful Tomorrows. Keep up your excellent work Meester Schechter and I will distribute it widely." Here is what the mother of democracy said: "INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT" "Message subject: NEWS DISSECTOR MAY 3: THE GULAG THAT IS IRAQ" "This is to advise you that your email has been blocked and will be deleted by the Houses of Parliament in due course since we believe it has inappropriate content. The intended recipient has not received the email. In the event that you believe the email has been blocked incorrectly please contact the intended recipient directly to discuss its release." OBIT IF YOU MISSED IT Mary Ellen Churchill sends along from San Francisco: an "actual obituary published in the Times-Picayune, New Orleans on 10/2/2003:" "Word has been received that Gertrude M. Jones, 81, passed away on August 25, 2003, under the loving care of the nursing aides of Heritage Manor of Mandeville, Louisiana. Her husband Warren K. Jones predeceased her. Two daughters survive her as well as four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Funeral services were held in Louisville, KY. Memorial gifts may be made to any organization that seeks the removal of President George W. Bush from office." My former one-time radio colleague on Beantown, WCOZ's Jim Cameron noted my presence on CBS News on Saturday night. "Good for you showing up on CBS the other night about the Nightline blackout. Who'd have imagined! Your coverage of late in the newsletter has been great." Finally, Andrew Stone sends in an interesting piece of online art: http://www.johnwyles.com/archives/2004/04/25/george_bush_mosaic.php I rarely have a sense of closure these days as I can barely get through all the items, arguments and information sent my way. Thanks to all who send in news. Help us make this work more visible. Write: dissector at mediachannel.org, And beware the Sasser virus. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWSFLASH! MediaChannel has launched a new grassroots citizens' initiative to prevent the types of media mistakes -- such as early, erroneous and politically biased projections -- that plagued the 2000 U.S. elections. Visit: http://www.mediafordemocracy.us Make MediaChannel your home on the Web for news, analysis, resources and more: http://www.mediachannel.org From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 16:33:48 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 16:33:48 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Wanted: The Truth about the Kent State Killings Message-ID: <1083702828.4097fe2cb9906@che.blythe.org> AntiWar.com - May 4, 2004 http://www.antiwar.com/orig/polner.php Wanted: The Truth About The Kent State Killings by Murray Polner Americans of a certain age may remember the murder of students on the Kent State University campus 34 years ago and the anger it once aroused. On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen killed four college students and wounded nine others ? one of them, Dean Kahler, is still paralyzed. He was, reported the FBI, 95?100 yards from the riflemen when he was wounded. Yet no one was ever found responsible nor have the questions surrounding the calamity ever been stilled. Antiwar protests in Kent had erupted following President Nixon's TV speech on April 30 that U.S. forces had invaded Cambodia, thus enlarging a war he had once pledged to end. The next day Nixon derided antiwar students everywhere as "bums." Protests on the campus and in the neighboring town of Kent had erupted resulting in some vandalism and property damage. The college ROTC was set ablaze on May 2nd. No one has ever determined who set the fire, though students were falsely blamed. On May 3, Ohio Governor James Rhodes, a Republican conservative running for the Senate (he lost) called antiwar students "worse than brownshirts and the Communist element and also the night riders and vigilantes. They are the worst type people that we harbor in America." On May 4th, then, Ohio guardsmen fired their M-1 semiautomatic rifles, a .45 pistol and a shotgun for 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others. We do know that, according to a government memo dated October 9, 1973, "undercover federal narcotics agents were present on the Kent State University campus on May 4, 1970." Also an armed federal agent was present on that day though no one was able to prove that his weapon was ever fired. It has never been shown that the agents were tied to the shootings, though there have been allegations of a government conspiracy. But still, rumors were rampant. Students were said to be armed with weapons but none were found. Another tale had it that a student sniper had fired and that too was shown to be a lie. In fact, we do not know why the National Guard ? the Vietnam era's haven for men dodging the draft ? was called in and who ordered the men of Troop G to open fire. After the shootings began, Glenn Frank (now deceased), a conservative KSU geology professor, courageously sought to persuade Guard officers to stand down and then made a successful plea to students to disband, less they too be shot. In 2000 I spoke with his son, Alan, a former KSU student who estimated he was 50-75 feet from the guardsmen. He was working on his father's papers and believed that his father had become increasingly dubious that justice had been served. Even so, for most Americans today, there is only historical amnesia. Two years ago, on the 30th anniversary of this avoidable tragedy, I wrote that without the discovery of a "smoking gun," or a deathbed confession, or the release of all local, state and federal documents and court records (some have complained that not all relevant documents have been released) plus a thorough examination of the papers of then Governor James Rhodes and the Ohio National Guard and the Nixon archives, we may never know the truth. All the same, I remain convinced that a serious historian can help tell us if war in Southeast Asia and the bitterness it caused at home, led directly to a college campus in small-town Ohio alive with antiwar activity. To this day, the definitive book about that terrible day has not been written. Certainly, some informative works have been published but they have concentrated only on some aspects. What we need is a book that fairly examines all the events. "And yes, there are new materials" to be found, especially in the invaluable and extensive May 4 collection at the Kent State library, says Nancy Birk, its Curator and University Archivist, citing as examples the US Department of Justice and Charles Thomas papers. Charles A. Thomas worked for twelve years at the National Archives and was selected to study films of the shooting. He concluded that, "none of the available footage showing dead and wounded students following the lethal volley had been used in assembling the compilation film shown at the public hearings" of the Scranton presidential commission in August 1970. In Kent State/May 4, edited by Scott L. Bills (KSU Press) Thomas wrote, "it looked very much as if someone had doctored the evidence to minimize any impression of the Guard's brutality and to plant the spurious notion that the soldiers had been confronted with a raging student mob." Still, the Scranton Commission's 1970 verdict, "Report of the Presidential Commission on Campus Unrest," which, while liberally casting responsibility on all parties in the days leading to May 4th, decided that "The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable." In its summary of the FBI investigation, the Justice Department concluded that "the few moments immediately prior to the firing by the National Guard are shrouded in confusion and highly conflicting statements." But "the claim by the National Guard that their lives were endangered by the students was fabricated subsequent to the event." Yet in spite of more than 1000 pages of FBI reports, eyewitnesses and other investigations, in the end the courts placed the essential burden of guilt on student antiwar demonstrators. After a federal grand jury in 1974 indicted eight guardsmen a federal judged dismissed all charges against the eight men. From the start, a majority of citizens, according to a Gallup poll conducted by phone, took the side of the National Guard, many respondents apparently willing to believe that "radical" students on college campuses threatened the war effort. Finally, in 1975, a civil suit brought by the parents found for the defendants, but an appellate court overturned the verdict. But after so many years defending their dead and wounded sons and daughters the exhausted families chose to settle with Ohio for the very modest amount of $675,000 and a statement signed by Rhodes and the guardsmen saying, "We deeply regret those events and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and the wounding of nine others which resulted." My hope is that a fair-minded historian can tell us what happened and why and whether justice was truly served. So is there a historian willing to undertake this necessary study? From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 17:00:25 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 17:00:25 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] RHC News Summary - May 4, 2004 Message-ID: <200405042100.i44L0PC10439@tania.blythe-systems.com> News Summary from RHC - May 4, 2004 * Mexicans Condemn Fox's Cut in Relations with Cuba as "Irresponsible" * Uruguay: Presidential Candidate Pledges to End Aggression Towards Cuba * Marx's Birthday Celebrated with International Conference * Top Cuban Ballet Dancer Wins Prestigious New York Award * US Occupation Troops Warned Not to Set Up Checkpoints near Najaf * Israeli Troops Block Entrance to Arafat's Headquarters * Attacks in Afghanistan as US Warns of More to Come * Covert Searches Increase Under US Patriot Act * Majority of Australians Oppose Iraq Involvement * Special Report: Actions Taken Against Cuba by the Mexican Government * Editorial: Adios, Mister Otto Reich Mexicans Condemn Fox's Cut in Relations with Cuba as "Irresponsible" Mexico City, May 4 (RHC) - Thousands took to the streets in Mexico City Monday to protest against President Vicente Fox's decision to reduce diplomatic relations with Cuba on what many political observers have called insubstantial grounds. The demonstrators blocked part of the Reforma Avenue in the Mexican capital as they marched to the United States embassy with placards claiming that the US, not Cuba, was guilty of external interference in Mexico. Fox's actions have been widely criticized in Mexico where leading politicians have accused the President of acting irresponsibly and have demanded the full restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba. The Executive National Committee of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) warned that this latest provocation by Fox's administration "seriously threatened" political balance in the region. Despite government claims that the expulsion of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Mexico and the withdrawal of Mexican diplomats from Havana was in response to alleged "unacceptable activities" by Cuban diplomats, observers are pointing to links with the political scandal unfolding around the deportation of Mexican citizen Carlos Ahumada Kurtz from Cuba on April 28th. The editorial in Tuesday's edition of La Jornada newspaper suggests that Ahumada could implicate members of President Fox's administration in a plot to bring down the government of the Federal District and its leader, Andr?s Manuel L?pez Obrador. The paper went on to describe the deportation as a severe blow for the ruling National Action Party. Political analyst and ex-rector of the National University in Mexico Pablo Gonz?lez Casanova suggested Monday that President Fox's actions were a clear demonstration of his government's unconditional support for US aggression against Cuba. The outgoing Cuban Ambassador to Mexico Jorge Bola?os Su?rez issued a statement before returning to the island Tuesday in which he thanked all those Mexicans that had gathered in front of the embassy in a demonstration of what he called the "indestructible bond of solidarity" between Cuba and Mexico. Uruguay: Presidential Candidate Pledges to End Aggression Towards Cuba Montevideo, May 4 (RHC) - The leftist presidential candidate in Uruguay Tabar? V?zquez announced Wednesday that his government would immediately restore diplomatic relations with Cuba in the case of an electoral victory this coming October. V?zquez, speaking in Buenos Aires during meetings with Argentinean President N?stor Kirchner, pledged that his government would abandon the traditional attitude of hostility maintained by previous Uruguayan administrations towards Cuba. The Uruguayan press suggested that the timing of the statements could point to a future common position of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) partners towards the island should the left come to power in Uruguay later this year as well as a common approach to the external debt that affects both countries. Kirchner and V?zquez both coincided in the need to strengthen co-operation between MERCOSUR members before signing external commercial agreements. The Uruguayan constitution requires successful candidates to win 50% of the vote plus one to avoid a second round of voting. Polls currently place V?zquez well ahead of the ruling Partido Colorado and its coalition ally the Partido Nacional. Marx's Birthday Celebrated with International Conference Havana, May 4 (RHC) - More than 200 social scientists, activists and political leaders from 40 countries met Tuesday in Havana for the opening of a four-day meeting on contemporary Marxist thought around the world. The Second International Conference 'Karl Marx and the Challenges of the 21st Century', originally founded by the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment's (CITMA) Philosophy Institute, is being held in Havana's Convention Centre until May 8th. The organizing committee's invitation calls on participants to analyse the basis of the current world order and find ways to achieve its progressive replacement, thereby contributing to a strengthening of early 21st century revolutionary thought. Central themes include the reality and contradictions of contemporary capitalism and its social, political, ideological and cultural impact on society; social actors and the forms of revolutionary struggle and the limits and contradictions of socialist experiences during the 20th century. The event is co-sponsored by the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC), the University of Havana's Faculty of Philosophy, Sociology and History and the Latin American Council for Social Sciences (CLACSO) amongst others, and marks the 20th anniversary of the Institute of Philosophy, the 45th of the victory of the Cuban Revolution, the 65th of the founding of the CTC and the 186th anniversary of Marx' birth. Top Cuban Ballet Dancer Wins Prestigious New York Award Havana, May 4 (RHC) - One of the leading figures in the world of Cuban ballet was awarded the prestigious annual 'Dance Magazine' prize Monday evening in New York. The star student of the National Ballet School class of 1986, Jos? Manuel Carre?o, has held the top spot in the national dance troupe since 1992 under the augur of the Cuban dance legend Alicia Alonso. During his career Carre?o has won numerous awards including a Diploma of Honour in Varna in 1986, a Gold Medal in New York in 1987 and the Jackson Grand Prix in 1987. Carre?o has danced with the best companies in the Word including the Royal Ballet in London, the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Marinski Theatre in St. Petersburg. The Dance Magazine prize was first awarded in 1954 and is considered one of the top international prizes in the ballet world. US Occupation Troops Warned Not to Set Up Checkpoints near Najaf Najaf, May 4 (RHC)-- A spokesman for rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned that his militia would attack any US military checkpoint between Najaf and Kufa farther north, saying that occupation troops provoked clashes Monday that killed five Iraqis and wounded 20 others. Shiek Ahmed al-Shaibani told reporters that the al-Mahdi Army would "consider any checkpoint an offensive move," noting that there are no barriers between Kufa and Najaf. He said US occupation troops at a coalition base in Najaf previously occupied by Spanish and Latin American troops provoked Monday's clashes by firing at a pickup truck transporting fighters from al-Sadr's militia from Najaf to Kufa on a backstreet in the city's industrial district. Al-Shaibani said this attack prompted the militia to fire mortars on the base and the checkpoint which was set up on the main road outside the base, killing four civilians and one Iraqi police officer. Doctors at Najaf's Hakeem General Hospital said last night that there were at least two other people killed in their cars near the base, but that it was still too dangerous for rescue crews to go into the area. The US military checkpoint was set up around noon on Monday and was manned by at least seven soldiers and guarded with heavy weaponry including two tanks and two armored vehicles. Occupation troops searched vehicles and frisked young men entering Kufa. Israeli Troops Block Entrance to Arafat's Headquarters Ramallah, May 4 (RHC)-- Israeli military jeeps have sealed off the entrances to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. According to an aide to Arafat, Nabil Abu Rudeina, "the soldiers, traveling in 15 jeeps, approached the president's headquarters and blocked the three entrances to the building." Palestinian officials have expressed concern that the move could be in preparation for an attack on Arafat, whom Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently said "no longer has immunity." Just a few weeks ago, Sharon issued a direct threat against the Palestinian president, saying: "I promised US President George W. Bush three years ago not to attack Arafat, but I am no longer bound by that promise, and Arafat no longer has immunity." His threat provoked a wave of protest worldwide. Even the United States was forced to warn Sharon to keep his promise not to harm the Palestinian leader. Meanwhile, more Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip overnight underlined Sharon's dilemma after his own Likud party rejected his Gaza pullout plan. Many consider the rejection his most stinging defeat since taking office three years ago. Two Palestinians were killed and 16 others were injured during an Israeli army incursion overnight into the town of Khan Yunes in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army unit, including ten armored vehicles and backed by two helicopter gunships, moved into the sector. Palestinian security sources said at least 18 houses were destroyed. Attacks in Afghanistan as US Warns of More to Come Kabul, May 4 (RHC)-- Ten security officers have been killed in attacks in southeastern Afghanistan -- just one day after a top US general warned of an upsurge in Taliban attacks in the region. Lieutenant General David Barno said Sunday there had been an increase in Taliban activity in the country in the past few weeks, particularly in Kandahar, with the coming of warmer weather. The US military official also said that more attacks could be expected as Afghanistan prepares for general elections in September. Barno leads some 15,500 troops stationed in southern Afghanistan. He said that since the beginning of April, about 50 people have died in violence in the south and southeast of Afghanistan. Most of those killed were Afghan pro-government troops, but a high-ranking Muslim cleric and two Afghan aid workers were also among the casualties. On Monday, five Afghan soldiers were killed in an ambush in Zabul province, according to provincial governor Khial Mohammed Husini. The soldiers were reportedly ambushed as they were traveling between the provincial capital of Qalat and their headquarters in the Shahjoy district to the north. Government troops were dispatched to the area but did not find the attackers. In a separate attack, five security officers were killed by suspected Taliban just after midnight Monday in southern Kandahar province. Covert Searches Increase Under US Patriot Act Washington, May 4 (RHC)-- The US Justice Department has released a report admitting that it conducted hundreds of secret searches around the country last year under legislation known as the Patriot Act. According to the report, the use of covert search powers and increased surveillance allowed under the legislation gave law enforcement officials more room to move in its so-called "war on terrorism." But civil liberties groups were quick to express their concern for the increased searches, given that the targets were given fewer legal protections than suspects in normal criminal cases. Complaining that the process of obtaining approval and executing the searches and surveillance is also shrouded in secrecy, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, DC said there is little judicial oversight. Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the ACLU, said that there is "a shift in the government apparatus for surveillance to a much more secret process with much less judicial oversight." In its annual report to Congress, the Justice Department said it obtained approval to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches in more than 1700 intelligence cases last year. According to the department, the number of searches had risen 85 percent in the last two years; about 1200 searches were authorized in 2002, and 900 in 2001. According to US Attorney General John Ashcroft, the data shows how the Justice Department and the FBI were "moving aggressively" against terrorism, arguing that the court-approved surveillance and search orders "are vital to keeping America safe from terror." The increased covert activity was a direct result of the easing of standards for intelligence-gathering that was authorized by the Patriot Act, a law enacted by Congress six weeks after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Many congressional representatives later admitted that they were under pressure to sign the legislation and some said they didn't even bother to read it. Under the new law, the government can obtain secret warrants by showing that a significant purpose of the search or surveillance has to do with intelligence-gathering, as opposed to a criminal investigation. Before the change, the government had to show that intelligence-gathering was the primary reason for the request. Civil liberties groups fear that investigators are using the procedures to bypass stricter requirements that cover the issuance of search warrants in criminal cases, in which the government must show probable cause that a crime was committed. The concern is that the process is enabling the government to chip away at protections afforded defendants under the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, prohibiting illegal searches. Under the Patriot Act, information obtained from the intelligence searches can later be used in criminal prosecutions, but defendants in such proceedings have fewer rights to attack the basis of the searches or to obtain intercepted information. In addition, if the intelligence searches do not lead to criminal prosecutions, the targets are never told that they were under surveillance; in criminal cases, suspects must receive notice of any surveillance even if they are never charged. Timothy Edgar of the American Civil Liberties Union told reporters that by classifying criminal cases as intelligence-related, "they are doing an end run around the 4th Amendment." Majority of Australians Oppose Iraq Involvement Canberra, May 4 (RHC)-- A majority of voters in Australia now believe that their country should not have joined the invasion of Iraq, according to a new poll. The survey was released as Prime Minister John Howard plans a pre-election trip to the United States and Europe for talks on the occupation of the Arab country. For the first time, the Newspoll published by The Australian newspaper showed 5O percent of voters now feel it was not worth going to war, against 40 percent who believe it was justified. And a large majority of Australians -- 64 percent -- do not believe a democratic government will be established in Iraq within the next few years, with only 24 percent believing it is likely. In the run-up to elections expected by November, the poll also showed 47 percent of voters back opposition Labor leader Mark Latham's pledge to withdraw the troops from Iraq by Christmas, with 45 percent backing Howard's decision to leave them there until the middle of next year. According to the survey of 1100 voters conducted last weekend, support for the occupation had dropped in recent weeks, but Howard still holds a substantial lead over Latham as preferred prime minister -- by 49 percent to 36. Howard has vowed to keep the troops in Iraq "until their job is done," which he said last week meant they would remain until security is stabilized in the country. Australia bolstered its contingent of 850 military personnel in Iraq by announcing it had sent another a 40-strong specialist army training team with 13 security troops to help with the training of Iraq's new armed forces. Howard announced this week that he will visit Washington and London for talks during the first week of June with US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Australian prime minister admitted that he will also use his visit to Washington and Capitol Hill to push for passage of Australia's proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Special Report - May 4, 2004 Information from the Cuban Foreign Ministry on Actions Taken Against Cuba by the Mexican Government On Sunday evening, May 2, both the Mexican Interior and Foreign Ministers issued a statement through Mexican television and radio. The Interior Minister, Mr Santiago Creel Miranda, said that Jos? Arbes? Fraga, head of the Americas Desk of the Communist Party Central Committee's International Relations Department, and Pedro Lobaina Jim?nez de Castro, an official in the same department, carried out "unacceptable activities" during their stay in Mexico from April 3-9. These activities, said the Interior Minister, as well as those carried out between April 20-22 by Mr Lobaina and Orlando Silva Fors, the political attach? of the Cuban Embassy in Mexico, "occurred on national territory and were outside established procedures in current accords and treaties between both nations, and should have been handled through the competent diplomatic channels." He added that "because of the nature of the recorded facts, the Interior Ministry - within the framework of the law - reserves the right to withold further details of what happened." For his part, Mexico's Foreign Minister, Mr Luis Ernesto Derbez, said that "the recent actions carried out by the Cuban government and statements made by its foreign ministry in reference to the deportation of Mr Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, as well as the speech by President Castro on May 1st, and these activities by Cuban government officials just made known to the public by the Interior Minister, lead Mexico to conclude that the attitude of the Cuban government has been a direct interference in internal affairs that are the sole responsibility of Mexicans." The foreign minister pointed out that "for this reason...the President of the Republic has decided to immediately withdraw our ambassador from Havana and... requests that the Cuban government remove its ambassador to Mexico within 48 hours." Furthermore, he announced that "...due to blatant violations of the Vienna Convention, the political counsellor of the embassy, Orlando Silva, is declared persona non grata and the decision that he leave the country was of an immediate and irrevocable nature. With this decision, bilateral relations will remain at the level of charg? d'affaires" The Cuban ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Bola?os, was only informed by telephone of these decisions five minutes before they went public. One more mistake by the Mexican government. The Cuban Foreign Ministry rejects this new act against Cuba and declares that these statements - inspired as they are by arrogance, conceit, foolishness and lies - will receive a response in due course. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Republic of Cuba, May 3, 2004 Editorial - May 4, 2004 Adios, Mister Otto Reich Right wing Cuban-Americans in Miami did not hide their consternation after the announcement of the resignation of one of George W. Bush's special ambassadors for Latin America, Mr. Otto Reich. Due to what he says are family and financial reasons, Cuban-born Otto Reich said he'd leave his post in the Bush administration in June, after joining the most belligerent and reactionary sector against the island. Otto Reich's career as an employee of President Bush has not been stable and his ultra-conservative and neo-liberal positions have created problems within the State Department. On November 22nd, 2002, the unusual designation as Under Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs created an upheaval when Bush attempted to avoid the Democratic Party's opposition to Reich, appealing his designation during a recess in the Senate in order to get him confirmed in the post. Since the US president knew that Reich did not have the possibilities of being approved, Bush did not insist on his proposal, although Reich was given the privilege of later being named as Special Envoy to Latin America. Otto Reich was taken to the United States as a teenager after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He had close ties with Jorge Mas Canosa, the late president of the right wing terrorist group the Cuban-American National Foundation. Also a close friend of renowned terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, co-authors of the sabotage bombing of the Cubana Airliner over Barbados which killed 73 people, Otto Reich has demonstrated an extremely hostile attitude toward Cuba. He participated in operations against the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. Otto Reich, as Under Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, was known for his few diplomatic maneuvers in Latin America. His statements during the failed coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez two years ago indicated that Washington obviously approved the attempted coup. It is true that Otto Reich's work in Latin America had become difficult due to the changes in that part of the world, like the victory of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and the victories of non-traditional political parties or organizations not to Washington's liking. That may be one of the reasons why Mr. Otto Reich is retiring from the government scene, although it's hard to believe that he will completely abandon his lobbying for Washington to continue tightening its policies against Cuba. compiled by NY Transfer from http://www.radiohc.cu From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Tue May 4 17:55:34 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 17:55:34 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US Claims Only 25 US Prisoners Killed in Iraq, Afghanistan Message-ID: <1083707734.40981156c5c20@che.blythe.org> [This claim would be laughable if it weren't so sickening. What about the hundreds of prisoners captured in Afghanistan who were stuffed into cattle cars, shot, and then buried in mass graves? Or are these people somehow not prisoners? It will be great consolation to the victims of the US Occupation that the former head of the Guantanamo Concentration Camp has announced "reforms" now that he's taken over. See 2nd story.] Reuters via Yahoo - May 4, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20040504/wl_nm/iraq_abuse_deaths_dc 25 Prisoners Died While Held by U.S. Forces By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty-five prisoners have died while being held by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and two of them were murdered in Iraq by Americans, U.S. Army officials said on Tuesday. An Army official said one soldier was convicted of murder in the U.S. military justice system for shooting a prisoner to death in September 2003 at a detention center in Iraq, and another prisoner was killed at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad in November 2003 by a private contractor who worked as an interrogator for the CIA. The soldier was reduced in rank to private and thrown out of the service but did not serve any jail time, the official said. The official said the soldier shot the prisoner after the prisoner had thrown rocks at the soldier, and the soldier was found to have used excessive force. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said because the CIA contractor was not in the U.S. military no legal action was taken because of lack of jurisdiction, but Army officials referred the case to the Justice Department for possible action. The official did not offer details of this killing. The official did not identify the Americans involved in the murders or the victims.. Most of the deaths took place in Iraq. Word of these investigations came as the Pentagon investigated the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib jail outside Baghdad, which has inflamed anti-American sentiment, especially in the Arab world. The official said a third death among the 25 being investigated was ruled a justifiable homicide, saying it occurred while a prisoner was attempting to escape. Of the other 22 death investigations involving prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, 12 prisoners were found to have died either by natural or undetermined causes and a further 10 deaths were still being investigated. The Army did not say in which countries the 25 killings occurred but said the vast majority were in Iraq not Afghanistan. In addition, the official said another 10 abuse cases are being investigated, nine involving allegations of assault and one involving allegations of sexual assault. *** AP via Yahoo - May 4, 2004 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040504/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_prisoner_abuse&cid=540&ncid=1480 U.S. to Lower Prison Population in Iraq By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - The new commander of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq said Tuesday he would cut in half the number of Iraqis in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison and quash some interrogation techniques considered humiliating, such as hooding prisoners. The announcement came as Iraqis freed from coalition jails ? emboldened by photographs of abused prisoners ? stepped forward with new allegations of beatings, sleep deprivation and hours spent hooded and kneeling before interrogators. Reeling from such claims, the U.S. military said it was ordering troops to use blindfolds instead of hoods, and requiring interrogators to get permission before depriving inmates of sleep ? one of the most common techniques reported by freed Iraqis. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former commander of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, said his changes to interrogation techniques were aimed at getting "the maximum amount of intelligence" while treating prisoners in a humane manner. He said he would cut the number of inmates at Abu Ghraib to fewer than 2,000 from the current 3,800. The U.S.-led coalition has about a dozen prisons around Iraq holding a total of 7,000 to 8,000 inmates. The Saddam Hussein-era Abu Ghraib, on the western edge of Baghdad, is at the center of reports that American guards abused Iraqi prisoners. Some officials have warned the prison is overcrowded. Over the summer, Miller led a team of 30 specialists who investigated ? and changed ? interrogation methods used in U.S.-run prisons here. One former prisoner, Muwaffaq Abbas, on Tuesday displayed scarred wrists, black eyes and a jagged gouge on his eyebrow that he said came from nine days in a U.S. lockup. Abbas, like many other former prisoners, said he was prevented from sleeping by booming rap music and sadistic guards. "Sometimes we fell asleep despite the loud music. The soldier would put a bullhorn next to my ear and scream," said Abbas, a Baghdad lawyer arrested at his home in March along with five relatives. Abbas said he was asked a range of questions, including the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and whether he gave money to anti-U.S. guerrillas, which he denied. Miller's investigation at Abu Ghraib is one of three ordered by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in response to alleged abuses by U.S. Military Police, their commanders and interrogators. Six soldiers have been charged and six more received stiff reprimands. The Army said 20 investigations into prisoner deaths and assaults were under way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Miller took over as head of the prison last month after the previous chief, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, was suspended amid investigations into the claims of abuse. An Iraqi human rights official, Mohammed al-Musawi, said he doesn't trust the U.S. military to police its own conduct. His group, the Human Rights Organization in Iraq, demanded that its investigators and other rights advocates be allowed to visit Iraqi prisoners. Al-Musawi said U.S. soldiers who violate international human rights law should be handed over to Iraqi courts. Although the military has been loath to discuss the methods it uses to convince ? or coerce ? prisoners to divulge information, a pattern of techniques has emerged from about 100 former Iraqi prisoners who spoke to al-Musawi's group. Based on their descriptions, the military's chief aim appears to be to humiliate prisoners or make them physically uncomfortable in order to get information. Methods allegedly include jolts from cattle prods or stun guns, described to al-Musawi by at least 10 Iraqi prisoners as "electric sticks." Beatings during arrest and interrogation were said to be routine. Ex-prisoners said they were hooded for days and made to stand or sit in uncomfortable positions for hours or days. Some were left in the cold or sitting in the scorching sun. Miller said U.S. interrogators are prohibited from hitting or even touching prisoners. "There are interrogation techniques that increase anxiety," he said. "There is aggressive conversation, but we do not threaten. That is not something we do. There is no physical contact between the detainees authorized and the interrogator." Many Iraqi prisoners retain permanent signs of their detention in the thin, shiny scars on their wrists from soldiers' sharp plastic cuffs. Ex-prisoners told al-Musawi and The Associated Press that their wrists were cuffed behind their backs for days. Al-Musawi said prisoners reported soiling themselves because they were unable to remove their trousers or clean themselves after urinating or defecating. In Baghdad last summer, an AP reporter observed prisoners wearing only underwear and blindfolds, handcuffed and lying in the dirt 24 hours after their capture during a raid on a Sunni neighborhood. An Amnesty International researcher told AP last year that a U.S. military investigator in Baghdad said loud music and sleep deprivation were acceptable interrogation techniques. A U.S. Army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AP that U.S. interrogators routinely used strobe lights. Former prisoner Bashar al-Baldawi, 33, told AP his interrogators kept him awake for five or six days at a time. He said he was hooded for 11 days. "One day I fell asleep because I was so tired and an American soldier opened my mouth and put Tabasco sauce in it," al-Baldawi told AP. Another ex-prisoner, Khraisan al-Abally, told AP last year that U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days. "I thought I was going to lose my mind," al-Abally said. "They said, 'I want you on your knees.' After three or four days it's very painful. My knees were bleeding and swollen." Some, like the Abu Ghraib prisoners seen in the infamous photos, were forced to strip naked. Suhaib al-Baz, 24, a cameraman for the Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera, said he was stripped, beaten, spat upon and deprived of sleep during his 74-day stint in Army custody. Al-Baz said soldiers took "torture shots" with personal cameras. In one case, Al-Baz said he saw a soldier's computer screen saver showing a photograph of a hooded, handcuffed prisoner being attacked by a dog. Iraq's U.S.-appointed human rights minister, Abdul-Basat al-Turki, said he had resigned to protest the alleged abuses, and the interior minister demanded that Iraqi officials be allowed to help run the prisons. Some of the techniques cited by Iraqis are similar to those described by Palestinians interrogated by the Israeli military and Irish Catholic prisoners detained by British forces. Britain put a stop to such procedures after a European court in 1982 found they violated human rights law; Israel scaled back its use of torture after its supreme court in 1999 banned the practice except in extreme situations. However, U.S. interrogation techniques seem to have stiffened after the Sept. 11 attacks. A former CIA (news - web sites) official, Cofer Black, told a U.S. Senate hearing in 2002 that "after 9/11, the gloves came off." From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Wed May 5 02:22:09 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 02:22:09 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] The Role: Open Letter to Troops in Iraq (Goff) Message-ID: <200405050622.i456MAU31653@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Tim Murphy (activ-l) http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/what/latest.html - 4th May 2004 THE ROLE Another Open Letter to the Troops in Iraq by Stan Goff In 1994, I was running an A-Detachment in 3rd Special Forces, ODA-354 to be precise, a team that specialized in free-fall parachute infiltration and special (strategic) reconnaissance. 3rd Special Forces Group's area of operation encompassed sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, and our team was specifically designated for the Dominican Republic and Haiti. So we had two language requirements on the team, Spanish and French (even though most Haitians actually speak Haitian Kreyol). I had a communications sergeant on my team named Ali Tehrani. His father was an expatriate Iranian who'd married a German, and Ali had been raised in extremely comfortable circumstances in Europe, where his father and the society around him pushed him to fluency in English, German, Spanish, and French. Ali also spoke decent Italian. He was the most fluent French-speaker on the battalion, and a year before we were sent to Haiti with the 1994 invasion, Ali had been sent to the camps constructed by the United States military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the purpose of detaining tens of thousands of Haitians who were trying to escape the brutal repression and grinding poverty of Haiti in ramshackle boats. Ali was needed there because of his language fluency. Ali was typical of many of the "non-white" members of Special Forces in two respects. He was demonstrably patriotic - compelled, it seemed, to prove his devotion to the American security state - and he adopted the prevailing attitude within much of Special Operations of Negrophobia - a kind of institutional disdain for Black troops that served to bloc other "non-whites" with whites in SF. It's a peculiar mechanism of white supremacy where there is not a master-race mentality so much as a deficient-race ideology from which all others could self-exclude. This - along with an anabolic version of masculinity - served as one form of social glue in SF culture, though there were a few exceptions. Ali's Negrophobia wasn't virulent like that I had witnessed in other SF troops. In fact, he was willing to grant exceptions among individual Black soldiers fairly easily. It was more part of his obsessive desire to fit in. Ali had spent six months "working the camps" at Guantanamo in 1993. When we received word of our mission to invade Haiti in 1994, he reacted violently. His revulsion toward Haitians was visceral and white-hot. Given that my own team's mission might depend on both Ali's language capabilities ("my" language was Spanish) and on our ability to establish rapport with local Haitians, Ali's outburst sent up a warning flare in front of me, and I made time to sit down with him for a long talk. Ali was, aside from his passive racism and the simmering rage that one could always sense just below his surface, a very intelligent and sensitive man. I always suspected that he may have suffered either physical or psychological abuse as a child. When we talked, we fairly quickly concluded together that his aversion to Haitians had something to do with the role he had been thrown into against the Haitians at the camps, the role of jail-boss, and he agreed to keep that in mind and to subordinate his conditioned reflexes on the matter to mental time-outs in order to assure that he would behave appropriately while we were on the mission in Haiti, which he did most of the time. But the point I'm getting to is this. The antagonism that Ali experienced as an individual toward Haitians was structured by the institutional antagonism built into the jailer-and-jailed relationship. Ali had internalized the external reality that he was a prison guard and they were the prisoners. His job was to dominate, to bend Haitians to his will, and every exercise of human agency by the Haitians threatened that. Their very humanity - that combination of independent consciousness and will - was structured by the prison-camp phenomenon to be an enemy force in relation to Ali and the other prison-keepers. In 1971, Stanford University Professor of Psychology Phillip Zimbardo designed an experiment that would come to be known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Subjects were recruited and paid a modest stipend, whereupon they were separated into "prisoners" and "guards," and placed in a mock prison built in a Stanford basement. The prisoners were stripped, deloused, shackled, and placed in prison clothes, while the guards were given authoritative uniforms, sunglasses, and batons. Long story short - within two days there was a near prison riot, psychosomatic illness began to break out, white middle-class kids in the role of guards became rapidly and progressively more sadistic and arbitrary, and the two-week experiment had to be abandoned after only six days before someone was badly hurt or killed. The experiment seemed to support the truism that "absolute power corrupts absolutely." But that conclusion serves as a description, not an explanation. It describes what happens to the individual, but it fails to account for the role of rationalization that legitimates the domination, and it completely fails to account for institutional support of that domination. When one uses the term "systemic," she is saying that the source of this abuse is not individual moral failure, but a predictable expression of the system and its structures. The abuses of detainees, by US troops, by CACI International and Titan Corporation mercenaries, and by the CIA in Iraq, is "systemic." But in the same way that the system found an expression in the thoughts and emotions of Ali Tehrani, in the same way that the structure of domination and subjection pushed him to rationalize away his shared humanity with his Haitian captives, we can now see in the leering grins of the Abu Ghraib prison guards, who are regular people - like the experimental subjects in the Stanford Prison Experiment - who quickly learned to behave as sadistic torturers. The military has admitted that 60% of these detainees are neither combatants nor threats. As this is written, the US military is about to release hundreds of detainees who fall in that category, and there will be more horror stories coming, because it was systemic. People were not only humiliated and forced to pose in degrading positions with each other naked. They were forced to masturbate in front of taunting guards. Some were sodomized with foreign objects. It appears that some were also beaten to death during interrogation - one whose body was put on ice for a day then carted away the next on a litter with a faked intravenous infusion in the arm. Now the cover stories are being spun out like webs. We are being asked to believe that: (1) The only abuse that occurred against anyone detained by American forces in Iraq was photographed and reported. (2) No abuses occurred anywhere that were not photographed or reported. (3) The one percent of US troops who are the "bad apples" all happen to serve together in the same unit the unit that is the only one guilty, and that happened to get caught because of the photographs. (4) The aggressive investigation now being proclaimed by everyone from George W. Bush to CENTCOM, about abuses that were already on record in the military (an internal investigation had already been launched in February by Major General Antonio M. Taguba, but was kept from the public), would have happened had the photographs and story not been aired on national television. (5) The military was not attempting to cover up their own investigation, and that they would have informed the public of these abuses even had Seymour Hersh not put the whole miserable episode into print. (6) The military did not cover anything up in the two weeks between the time CBS warned them that they were going to air an expose and when they actually did air it. (7) No one in the chain of command above Brigadier General Janis Karpinski is responsible for the failure to halt these abuses, even though Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez was informed of the investigation of these abuses, complete with sworn statements and photographs, by General Taguba last February. Other abuses and violations of the Geneva Conventions and Laws of Warfare are already on record, some with videos available on the web, such as: (1) Shooting people who are clearly not armed and who are engaged in no threatening behavior. (2) Shooting into ambulances. (3) Shooting wounded people who are not armed. (4) Shooting wounded people who are obviously no longer capable of fighting. (5) Shooting into crowds. There has never been a Stanford Military Occupation Experiment to complement the Stanford Prison Experiment, unless we just count the military occupations themselves. There is a structured, systemic antagonism between an occupying military and the people whose land they occupy. And there will be no investigations of any of it, because there never are, unless and until the American public is confronted with them. The National Command Authority and its cheerleaders cannot say out loud this is what we are doing, and it can't get done unless we dehumanize the occupied. This reality, this system, will express itself in the thoughts and emotions of you, the troops who carry it out, because this military occupation is in a sense making a prison of Iraq and making you, the troops, its turnkeys. It will only be those exceptional individuals among you in the military who refuse to surrender their humanity - no matter how little you may understand the big picture - and who will witness. You who do break with the system and witness are very important people, important to history, because your refusal to surrender your own moral integrity to the system may lead to our collective salvation by ending this felonious occupation. The troops who filed reports about the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison were such exceptions. So were Tom Glen and Ron Ridenhour. In The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch wrote in 1979 about US leadership during the occupation of Vietnam: Success in our society has to be ratified by publicity all politics becomes a form of spectacle. It is well known that Madison Avenue packages politicians and markets them as if they were cereals or deodorants; but the art of public relations penetrates more deeply into political life The modern prince [an apt turn of phrase for the current member of the Bush political dynasty] confuses successful completion of the task at hand with the impression he makes or hopes to make on others. Thus American officials blundered into the war in Vietnam More concerned with the trappings than with the reality of power, they convinced themselves that failure to intervene would damage American 'credibility' [They] fret about their ability to rise to crisis, to project an image of decisiveness, to give a convincing performance of executive power Public relations and propaganda have exalted the image and the pseudo-event. What these images of the Abu Ghraib humiliation and torture have done in the United States is collide with the "exalted image and the pseudo-event" of the Bush propaganda apparatus, just as the images of the My Lai massacre did in 1969. That collision between the reality and the real image of war startles civilians here in the La-La Land of wide screen TV and suburban SUV's, and it shakes them out of their opiated shopper dream-state. My Lai is what General Colin Powell was remembering when he implemented "the Powell Doctrine" for the military, which includes a co-opted press and a vigorous attempt to keep things like flag-draped coffins off of those wide screen TVs. Most of you don't remember My Lai. On March 16, 1968, units of the Americal Division, to which Powell was assigned as a staff officer in Chu Lai, entered a Vietnamese village called My Lai and spent four hours raping women, burning houses, then finally massacring men, women, and children - including infants who dying women tried to shield with their own bullet-riddled bodies. The massacre was stopped by a Georgia-born helicopter pilot named Hugh Clowers Thompson who landed his chopper between the few surviving Vietnamese and the blood-intoxicated soldiers, and ordered his door gunners to open fire on the Americans if they failed to stand down. A few weeks later, General Creighton Abrams, then commanding general in Vietnam, received a letter from a young Specialist-4 in the Americal Division named Tom Glen: The average GI's attitude toward and treatment of the Vietnamese people all too often is a complete denial of all our country is attempting to accomplish in the realm of human relations Far beyond merely dismissing the Vietnamese as 'slopes' or 'gooks,' in both deed and thought, too many American soldiers seem to discount their very humanity; and with this attitude inflict upon the Vietnamese citizenry humiliations, both psychological and physical, that can have only a debilitating effect upon efforts to unify the people in loyalty to the Saigon government, particularly when such acts are carried out at unit levels and thereby acquire the aspect of sanctioned policy [American soldiers attack Vietnamese] for mere pleasure, fire indiscriminately into Vietnamese homes and without provocation or justification shoot at the people themselves Fired with an emotionalism that belies unconscionable hatred, and armed with a vocabulary consisting of 'You VC,' soldiers commonly 'interrogate' by means of torture that has been presented as the particular habit of the enemy. Severe beatings and torture at knife point are usual means of questioning captives or of convincing a suspect that he is, indeed, a Viet Cong It would indeed be terrible to find it necessary to believe that an American soldier that harbors such racial intolerance and disregard for justice and human feeling is a prototype of all American national character; yet the frequency of such soldiers lends credulity to such beliefs What has been outlined here I have seen not only in my own unit, but also in others we have worked with, and I fear it is universal. If this is indeed the case, it is a problem which cannot be overlooked, but can through a more firm implementation of the codes of MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam) and the Geneva Conventions, perhaps be eradicated. Glen's letter was forwarded from Abrams' office to the Americal Division and ended up with Major Colin Powell in Chu Lai. Powell never followed up by questioning Glen, and instead ended his "investigation" of Glen's allegations after accepting uncritically the claim by Glen's commander that Glen hadn't been close enough to "the front" (whatever that was supposed to be in Vietnam) to have any knowledge of such alleged abuses. Powell then began his career as a damage-control expert in the military by writing a letter, dated December 13, 1968, in which he said, ""There may be isolated cases of mistreatment of civilians and POWs [but] this by no means reflects the general attitude throughout the Division In direct refutation of this [Glen's] portrayal is the fact that relations between Americal soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." He went on to impugn Glen's account for having been brought to light only reluctantly and lacking sufficient detail. This was, of course, horseshit. Abuses were systemic. Glen had only heard through rumors about My Lai. It was another GI, Ron Ridenhour, an infantryman who was not willing to surrender his humanity to occupier-racism, who finally pieced together, on his own initiative, the story of the My Lai massacre, and brought it to public light. When the photographs of the massacre were combined with Ridenhour's account, and the American public was confronted with the reality of an entire unit participating in a systematic massacre of civilians, it marked a turning point in the loss of political support in the United States for continued military occupation of Vietnam. Powell himself admitted war crimes in his memoir, My American Journey, where he wrote, "I recall a phrase we used in the field, MAM, for military-age male If a helo spotted a peasant in black pajamas who looked remotely suspicious, a possible MAM, the pilot would circle and fire in front of him. If he moved, his movement was judged evidence of hostile intent, and the next burst was not in front, but at him." Powell would also come to the defense of Brigadier General John Donaldson who had the door gunners on his own helicopter shoot Vietnamese for sport. Donaldson was exonerated, naturally, in a military investigation. Powell not only developed as a skilled cover-up artist, he would eventually incorporate this ability to manage public perception about war as a key element in the "Powell Doctrine," which he imposed on the military and the press. He never forgot My Lai, and he has always believed that exposure of My Lai and other atrocities were responsible for the US defeat in Vietnam. Donald Rumsfeld shares these beliefs with Colin Powell. They are both wrong. The two phenomena that collide with this Powell-Rumsfeld orientation were and are (1) the decision of their 'enemy' never to quit, and (2) the inevitability that someone who is part of the occupation force will be confronted with these contradictions between "the exalted image and the pseudo-event" and the real character of war - and that this someone will expose it in an attempt to rescue his or her own humanity. The war in Vietnam was lost by the French then the Americans because they didn't belong there, and the resistance endeavored to do whatever was necessary to make that point. This is also the situation in Iraq. So I'll leave to others the analysis of whether the troops facing courts martial are scapegoats (they are, and they are also probably guilty as hell), and whether or not the military is letting the officers off with reprimands and walking papers to prevent the fire spreading (which it is). I'll just emphasize that the war in Iraq cannot be won. Not because of the inability of US troops to fight, but because we don't belong there. And since that's the case (which I firmly believe it is) every life - Iraqi, American, or otherwise - that is lost or ruined is wasted. All this talk of whether Military Intelligence or the mercenaries working for CACI International or the CIA or the MP commanders were responsible is diversionary bullshit so we won't see how Iraq itself has become the Stanford Military Occupation Experiment. Because if we conclude that the problem is systemic, then the only thing to do to stop this is to walk away. And the Bush administration sent troops there for the purpose not of building democracies, but of building permanent military bases in the heart of oil country, and if they walk away, they can't rightly build bases, can they? So we can either blithely obey and support our new Neros, or we can continue to cling to the absurd notion that the vandal can rebuild the house they just ravaged, or we can do what we might to make them walk away. Troops that come forward will play a key role in this moral imperative. Every troop that comes forward with accounts of the inhumanity of this war - while jeopardizing his or her career - is serving to hasten an end to this criminal enterprise of the Military-Petroleum Complex. These troop/witnesses will serve to hasten an end to the suffering of Iraqi families and the suffering of the families of the occupying forces. They will serve to prevent more torture, more humiliation, more suspicion and hatred, and more lives being thrown away on this imperial folly. Every troop who keeps his secrets, who faithfully serves the system and never bears witness, can travel for the rest of his life. She can go to Rio de Janeiro. He can go to Bangladesh. She can go to Lagos, or Montreal, or Tokyo, or Moscow, or Antarctica. But no matter where he goes, there he'll be - alone with the growing weight of his own silence on his head, wrapping himself in his own rationalizations, and restlessly turning away from the faces that look back at him in the mirrors of his memory. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Wed May 5 02:27:53 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 02:27:53 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Torture: Putting the Lie to the "handful of bad apples" Defense Message-ID: <200405050627.i456RrK31810@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by lisbeth (activ-l) http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=275 Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers Wife, Daughters Tell of Iraqi Man Discharged from U.S. Custody in Coma by Dahr Jamail Brian Dominick contributed to this item. Editor's Note: Part of the following feature story was first reported by Baghdad correspondent Dahr Jamail back in January, when almost no one was paying attention to stories of the horrifying treatment dealt to Iraqi prisoners by their Western captors. Now that the world has deemed the topic newsworthy, Jamail has returned to the story for more thorough coverage. As part of our mission to The NewStandard will continue to pursue this and other stories like it in the near future. As any Iraq correspondent who speaks with Iraqis can attest, there is no shortage of them. Baghdad , May 4 - Not all evidence of military personnel mistreating Iraqis held in US custody come from leaks within the American- and British-run detention facilities. In many cases, such as that of Sadiq Zoman, 57, who last year entered US custody healthy but left in a vegetative state, the story originates with family members desperate to share their loved one's story with anyone willing to listen. American soldiers detained Zoman at his residence in Kirkuk on July 21, 2003 when they raided the Zoman family home in search of weapons and, apparently, to arrest Zoman himself. More than a month later, on August 23, US soldiers dropped Zoman off, already comatose, at a hospital in Tikrit. Although he was unable to recount his story, his body bore telltale signs of torture: what appear to be point burns on his skin, bludgeon marks on the back of his head, a badly broken thumb, electrical burns on the soles of his feet. Additionally, family members say they found whip marks across his back and more electrical burns on his genitalia. The NewStandard has obtained photographs taken by staff at the Salahadeen Hospital in Tikrit, footage shot by an Al Jazeera camera crew shortly after Zoman's arrival there, as well as documents tracing some of the Iraqi man's journey through his captivity and then through the civilian medical establishment. According to the Army paperwork, the only identifying information provided to Iraqi medical personnel upon Zoman's transfer from US military to Iraqi civilian care was an incorrect name. A transfer form -- signed by Colonel Donald M. Campbell, Jr., 4th Infantry Division (4th ID) chief of staff -- states that Zoman, considered a "security detainee," was to be transferred to a Combat Support Hospital, and then be returned to 4th ID custody "if he recovers." The form provided no information as to where he had been picked up, no address and no other personally identifying information. His family claimed that when Zoman was initially detained, American soldiers had taken all of his personal papers and identification. US Army documentation and interviews obtained so far also lack details of what happened to Zoman while in US Army custody for interrogation. The Zoman family has been able to reconstruct a rough story of Sadiq's incarceration from eyewitness accounts related by neighbors who were detained at the same time. They say Zoman was first held at the Kirkuk Airport Detention Center, then transferred still healthy to Al-Ka'ad, a school the Army had converted into a detention facility. On August 6, witnesses said, he was moved to a base in Tikrit where they say he was beaten. Major Josslyn Aberle, Public Affairs Officer at the 4th Infantry Division, said that Zoman's injuries were not inflicted by soldiers from the 4th ID or other Army units involved in capturing and holding Zoman. While not immediately able to trace Zoman's full history while in US custody, she said the types of injuries described by Zoman's family, doctors and photographs "just absolutely would not be tolerated" by the military. Aberle continued, "Throughout our task force, the few incidents of detainee mistreatment were investigated immediately and those soldiers involved were punished underneath the uniform code of military justice. In one case that [led to] a soldier being court martialed. When we found out about any types of mistreatment of detainees or Iraqi citizens, any allegations were treated seriously and investigated immediately because that type of behavior was not tolerated." Aberle said none of those cases of detainee mistreatment was related to the Zoman case, nor did they involve beatings. According to further US military documentation, on August 11, Mr. Zoman was transferred to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, where he was treated by Lieutentant Colonel Michael C. Hodges, M.D. Lt. Col. Hodges' medical report listed the primary diagnoses of Zoman's condition as hypoxic brain injury (brain damage caused by lack of oxygen) "with persistent vegetative state," myocardial infarction (heart attack), and heat stroke. The same medical report did not mention any bruises, lash marks, head injury, burn marks or other signs Iraqi doctors said they found on Zoman's body upon his arrival at Tikrit hospital nearly two weeks later. The report said previous care providers had verbally stated, upon transferring Zoman to the Combat Support Hospital, that Zoman had been conscious enough to complain of "chest pain that radiated into his arm" earlier that day. At that point, the report says, Zoman was treated with a nitroglycerine tablet and intravenous fluids before being "returned to the prison population," only to be brought back to medics later, "shaking and unresponsive." Asked to comment on the treatment described in the medical report, physician Jules Marsh of Takoma, WA pointed out numerous concerns with the treatment Zoman received in military custody. "The fact that they administered nitroglycerine indicates that they were at least suspicious his chest pain was of cardiac origin," Dr. Marsh said. "The fact that it responded to the nitroglycerine certainly raises that suspicion. With the possible exception that the patient has a history of stable angina, which isn't indicated in the report, this should have prompted a further workup on an emergency basis." Regarding medical treatment afforded Iraqi detainees in custody, Major Aberle said, "There's no difference in the care that a detainee receives than the care a US soldier receives." The medical report of Lt. Col. Hodges concluded with a statement that was later upheld by Iraqi doctors in Baghdad: "This patient will need extensive rehabilitation and physical therapy but he, unfortunately, has less than 1% chance of any meaningful neurological recovery at this time." According to documentation, on August 23, after two weeks of care at the Combat Support Hospital, the Army transferred Zoman from the Combat Support Hospital to the civilian Salahadeen Hospital in Tikrit. The Zoman family found Sadiq there on September 4, 2003, only because the Red Crescent of Tikrit had posted photos of him on buses around Tikrit in hopes someone would recognize him. Remarkably, a friend saw one of the pictures and contacted the family. Zoman has nine daughters, the oldest is 32 and the youngest 15. He was the assistant manager of a hospital in Kirkuk. Zoman appears to have been a member of the Ba'ath party. Under the Saddam Hussein regime, government administration jobs were only available to people who joined the Ba'ath party. Rheem Zoman, the 19 year-old daughter of Sadiq, spoke frankly about her father and his condition. "I was horrified," she said of his bittersweet return to his worried family. "He had whip marks all across his back and electrical burn marks all over his body." The alleged mistreatment of Sadiq Zoman while in US custody came as no surprise to his friends and neighbors. Some of them had returned after having been abducted by US forces with their own stories of terrifying and heartbreaking ordeals. And after a year of occupation, stories like Zoman's may come as no surprise to the American public, now that evidence of torture presently receives mainstream attention in the wake of revelations by CBS, The Mirror and The New Yorker of widespread abuses taking place inside US- and British-run Iraqi prisons. But with untold thousands of prisoners held at least temporarily at military bases throughout Iraq, cases like that of Sadiq Zoman suggest the problem may extend beyond the major holding facilities to more remote stations. There unit commanders and military counter-intelligence personnel hold and interrogate Iraqis even before many of the detainees reach prison facilities like the now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison. Zoman's family said he was in perfect health before US soldiers took him away. They further insist no firearms, bombs, or other incriminating evidence was ever found by the search that accompanied Zoman's capture by US troops. They said that when US soldiers entered their home to detain Zoman the front door was smashed in, furniture broken and torn apart, and money, gold and jewelry looted by the troops. The Army has so far offered no explanation of why the Zoman home was raided or the reason for Zoman's capture. Sadiq Zoman remains completely unresponsive. His family cares for him in a stark home nearly devoid of furnishings situated in the Al-Dora neighborhood of Baghdad. The family moved there from Kirkuk last fall in order to facilitate better care and conditions for Zoman. The family has sold nearly everything that remained after the Army raid to purchase food and medical supplies. Entire rooms in their new Baghdad home are completely empty since nearly all their furnishings have been sold. None of the Zoman daughters has work, owing to the skyrocketed post-war unemployment situation. Sadiq Zoman himself has no pension, since he was a government employee. Hashimi Zoman, Sadiq's wife, standing over her comatose husband with a paper fan to cool him, remarked, "We make his food with a blender because it must be liquid. But with no electricity there is no blender, so no food for him at times." The family keeps electrical fans over Sadiq's bed, but when the power cuts, they switch to laborious manual cooling to fend off the mid-day heat. Daughter Rheem said, "You see our situation. We often don't have electricity, only six hours per day, so we take turns fanning him to keep him cool." The family of Sadiq Zoman says they have received no explanation, nor any compensation for his situation from either the US military or the US-run Coalition Provisional Authority. Major Aberle said the 4th Infantry Division, now back at Fort Hood, Texas, maintained that Iraqi detainees are treated well because of the need to establish credibility among the Iraqi people. "Building the trust, building the relationships between the Iraqis and coalition forces -- that is so critical. When you have an instance of a detainee being allegedly abused or treated improperly, that makes us no different than the former regime." Daughter Rheem stated, "My father is a good man who helped so many people in our community. Why have they done this to him? Can you tell me? Everyone who knows him can say that he did so many good things to help people." With tears in her eyes, Hashima Zoman added, "Is it fair for any man's family to be made to suffer like this? Is it right that his daughters must see him like this? Our lives will never be the same again, no matter what happens." (c) 2004 The NewStandard. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Wed May 5 02:30:20 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 02:30:20 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Game Is Up for the Yanks in Iraq Message-ID: <200405050630.i456UK931891@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Dave Muller (south news) Published on Tuesday, May 4, 2004 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune It may be years before the helicopters pluck the last Americans off the roof of the Baghdad embassy (or a post-Bush administration might still manage a more graceful exit), but basically the game is up It Looks as if Game is up for Americans in Iraq by Gwynne Dyer LONDON -- The situation in Iraq is "disintegration verging on collapse," said Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on the last day of April. It was a month that saw more American troops killed than during last year's invasion, a decisive U.S. defeat in the siege of Fallujah, and horrific revelations about the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by both American and British soldiers. It may be years yet before the helicopters pluck the last Americans off the roof of the Baghdad embassy (or a post-Bush administration might still manage a more graceful exit), but basically the game is up. One hundred thirty-eight American soldiers were killed in Iraq in April, and over 1,000 wounded. The ABC network's decision to devote its "Nightline" program on Friday to showing pictures and reading out the names of the 721 American soldiers who have died in Iraq was not driven by hostility to the Bush administration. The producers were just responding to what their audience was feeling -- but it spoke volumes about the state of American public opinion. Meanwhile, any hope of getting the consent of Iraqis to a permanent U.S. military and political presence in the country has gone gurgling down the drain. It is still not clear who ordered the siege of Fallujah in response to the killing and mutilation of four American "security contractors" (mercenaries) at the end of March, but it was a blunder that will be studied in military staff colleges for decades to come, the lesson being: When there is no way that you can succeed, it is wiser not to reveal your weakness by trying and failing. There was no way that U.S. Marines could occupy Fallujah and destroy the local resistance forces without killing thousands of Iraqis, most of them civilians. There was no way that they could ever identify and capture the men who killed and mutilated the "contractors." Besieging the city was an emotional response that made no military or political sense, as they realized about three weeks too late. "They" may be Paul Bremer's occupation regime in Baghdad, or it may be the micromanagers back in the Pentagon who persistently usurp command functions in Iraq; the inquest that will finally lay the blame for this fatal move will only happen after U.S. troops retreat from Iraq months or years from now. But in only one month they have inadvertently succeeded in reviving Iraqi pride and national identity on the basis of a shared anti-Americanism, and given the whole Arab and Muslim world nightly television lessons in how popular resistance can defeat U.S. power. After the first week's fighting killed the better part of a thousand people in Fallujah (with Arab TV crews in the city making it clear that a high proportion of the victims were civilians killed by American snipers), somebody in the U.S. occupation forces realized the extent of the disaster and insisted on the talks that eventually let the U.S. forces walk away without launching their final assault. But the price, by then, was handing the city over to a locally born general, Jassim Mohammed Saleh, who was commanding one of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards divisions only 13 months ago, and to a force consisting entirely of former Iraqi soldiers living in the city. Gen. Saleh drove into Fallujah on Friday wearing his old Iraqi army uniform and waving the old Iraqi flag that the puppet "Iraqi Governing Council" has just abolished. The people of Fallujah had "rejected" the U.S. Marines, he said, and both he and local U.S. Marine commanders made it clear that the new emergency military force would include some of the resistance fighters in the city. On Sunday the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, insisted that Gen. Saleh had not yet been given the job, but that just put the extent of the disarray in the U.S. military on public display. Fallujah has become a no-go zone for American troops, and that is also the likely outcome of the parallel showdown in the holy city of Najaf between American troops and the militia of radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Making these deals does less damage to the U.S. position than plowing on with unwinnable confrontations, but the damage has already been very great. The whole Arab world is absorbing the lesson that U.S. military power has its limits -- at the same time as it seethes in fury and humiliation at the brutal abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. and British forces. One picture says it all: A 21-year-old female American soldier grinning cockily at the camera, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, as she points in mockery at a naked male Iraqi prisoner who is being forced to masturbate by his captors. You could not come up with an image better calculated to enrage and alienate Muslim opinion if you hired all the ad agencies in the world. So the entire U.S. neoconservative adventure in the Middle East, never very plausible, is now doomed, though it will drag on in a broken-backed way for some time to come. Even the option of handing Iraq over to the United Nations and replacing American troops there with Muslim troops under U.N. command, still viable a month ago, will soon be foreclosed unless U.N. officials take a firmer stand against the occupation regime. It is going to get very messy. Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. (c) Copyright 2004 Star Tribune. From nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com Wed May 5 02:31:53 2004 From: nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com (nytr at tania.blythe-systems.com) Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 02:31:53 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [NYTr] Nanjing 1937 to Fallujah 2004: War Crimes in Perspective Message-ID: <200405050631.i456Vrv31970@tania.blythe-systems.com> sent by Dave Muller (south news) From Nanjing 1937 to Fallujah 2004:War Crimes in Perspective by Herbert P. Bix May 03, 2004 JAPAN The roots of the Japan-China War (1937-45) can be traced back to the surprise attack that Japanese army officers launched, in September 1931, on Chinese forces in Manchuria. Their premeditated coup led to Japan's seizure of the vast, resource-rich region. Initially carried out in the name of self-defense, the Manchurian takeover was later justified as a step toward establishing a new status quo in Asia. A long series of clashes alternating with truces followed between Japanese forces and Chinese un-reconciled to Japanese rule. Starting with the battle of Shanghai, a port city at the mouth of the Yangzi River in early autumn 1937, the war began in earnest. During fighting near the foreign concessions, Japanese forces started killing Chinese prisoners of war on the spot. Three-months later, after they had completely encircled and isolated Nanjing, Chinese resistance crumbled and the capital of Nationalist China fell. Frustrated and exhausted Japanese army units, their discipline frayed by fierce fighting, went on a rampage. The news of killing, pillage, arson, and rape was widely reported and spread quickly throughout the world. Chinese anger increased; nationalist resistance hardened and a "fight Japan" attitude spread. Japan's decision to take Nanjing and the ensuing bloodbath marked strategic and symbolic turning points in a war of conquest for which no solution short of withdrawal would ever be in sight. But Nanjing might not have become a symbol of massacre in the West had the interests of the Great Powers not been served by remembering it. For the Japanese sinking of the U.S. gunboat "Panay" and the British gunboats "Lady Bird" and "Bee," occurred in the midst of the attack on Nanjing. News of these incidents overlapped with reporting on the massacre and highlighted the seriousness of the challenge that Japan was mounting to Anglo-American imperialism in China. By late 1938 the Japanese imperial armed forces had bogged down. They had been constantly treating the Chinese as a conquered people, underestimating the hatred that their brutal behavior had engendered. Now, they could neither win the war nor, for domestic political reasons, acknowledge having lost it. They could only go on winning battles, occupying coastal cities and their hinterlands, and setting up puppet governments with Japanese officers in the background, running the show. Hoping to break the stalemate, Tokyo spread the fighting to Southeast Asia, then escalated again by attacking Pearl Harbor. The road to diplomatic failure and calamity that Japan's leaders had embarked on in 1931 ended, fourteen years later in August 1945, with the unconditional surrender of a nation in ruins from American bombing. * Imperial Japan was hardly alone in killing the innocent. The second half of the twentieth century, which really began in 1945, witnessed massive attacks on civilian populations and scores of atrocities from which Americans too easily averted their eyes because their own government or its client regimes was doing most of the killing. To pose comparative questions about war crimes in different situations, times, and places is a simple but useful strategy for illustrating this nationalist bias. The U.S. war in Vietnam, Israel's thirty-seven-year-long occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the U.S. occupation-war in Iraq are three events that, when brought together with Japan's China War, illustrate the usefulness of the comparative approach. They also serve to make explicit how war crimes are used to justify as well as criticize the international behavior of states. In the 1960s and early 1970s the United States was fighting in Vietnam. It was the heyday first of President Kennedy, who started the war, and Johnson and Nixon who escalated the killing to genocidal levels because they too were unwilling to acknowledge defeat in an ideological crusade against global communism. Leading voices of sanity, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn most notably, grappled with historical analogies to 1930s Japan. It should have been only a matter of common sense for American elites to have recognized the parallels between the imperialisms of Japan and the United States, and to have grasped that the weaknesses of the American position in Vietnam would eventually result in defeat. Unfortunately, few had the courage or vision to recognize the power of the analogy. As the case of former Sec. of Defense Robert S. McNamara illustrates, no senior American decision-maker ever acknowledged that the concept of "crime" was applicable to what the U.S did in Indochina. After the cold war I revisited the 1930s in order to study the varied roles that the Showa Emperor Hirohito had played in mobilizing the energies of the Japanese people for war, and in making an immoral war seem moral. Later I drew parallels between Japanese atrocities in China and American atrocities in Vietnam.{1} One general similarity was that between the mainstream, postwar Japanese response to the Nanjing massacre, and the debate over American involvement in Vietnam, which came to a climax at the time of the My Lai or Son My village atrocity, in which American soldiers murdered nearly five hundred unharmed, non-combatant civilians. Japan's postwar leaders were forced to draw lessons from the lost war. The Japanese people, exposed for the first time to eyewitness testimony and photographic evidence presented at the Tokyo international war crimes trial, learned the truth about some of the atrocities and war crimes that their soldiers had committed. Other crimes, such as the sexual slavery of "comfort women," would remain hidden for decades. But after the American occupation of their country had ended, and throughout most of the cold war, official denial of mass atrocities and the repetition of lies rather than the clarification of facts dominated Japanese government responses to the Nanjing massacre. This suggests that the deep wounds inflicted by war on the Japanese people penetrated their conservative political class the least. In the United States after the Vietnam War something similar happened. Political and military leaders, as well as young, ambitious future-politicians like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who served in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, and bureaucrats like Paul Wolfowitz who started his government service under Ford, failed to learn any "lessons" from the U.S. war beyond the need to avoid another "quagmire." The only flaws in the war that they ever perceived were strategic and tactical ones, and those pertaining to media access to the battlefield. No international war crimes tribunal stood in judgment on American war crimes, nor did the American polity (unlike Japan's) undergo any radical restructuring. The anti-war movement, effective in mounting critiques and helping to end the war, was unable to sustain pressure for domestic institutional reforms that would lead to fundamental changes in U.S. foreign policy. Neither the House nor the Senate held Presidents Johnson and Nixon legally accountable for lying repeatedly to the American people about the origins and reasons for the war. Neither president nor top civilian and military advisers were ever charged with having committed war crimes. The mainstream American response to atrocity was to shift blame for events like the My Lai massacre downward onto a lowly second lieutenant while ignoring the larger operation of which My Lai was a part: Operation Wheeler Wallawa, which killed an estimated 10,000-11,000 Vietnamese civilians.{2} Treating My Lai as an exception, and covering up countless other atrocities against unarmed civilians -- from the murders committed by Bob Kerrey's unit at Thang Phong to those committed by the US Army's "Tiger Force" unit -- was part of a larger pattern of justifying the Vietnam War to the American people.{3} At the end of Nixon's presidency no moral reckoning with American war crimes occurred. The sole lesson from the My Lai incident that political elites drew (and that the corporate media echoed) was that "we are great and good" for My Lai was the exception, not the rule. Perhaps that conclusion was understandable given the public's immersion in the propaganda of that time. Subsequent presidents and their advisers did recognize that it was in their self-interest to avoid a situation like the one that had humbled the U.S. in Vietnam. But dominant political and military values never altered. In dealing with weak states that refused to follow Washington's orders, the Pentagon and the White House again and again resorted to indiscriminate terror, coercion, and intimidation to achieve their objectives. After a brief interregnum, U.S. global military interventionism resumed in response to the rise of Islamic nationalism in Iran, civil war in Lebanon, and movements to overthrow U.S. client regimes in Latin America. Three decades later the failure to reform America's deeply flawed political system, and the rise of the war-mongering neo-cons, led to Bush's own "Vietnam" in Iraq. And this time, in place of My Lai, Thang Phong, or Son Thang, the U.S. marines are conducting a revenge massacre of civilians in Fallujah, a city of some 300, 000, thirty-five miles west of Baghdad, on the edge of the Iraq desert. Opinions about Fallujah and the April rebellion are still forming, but the general outlines are clear, as is the context in which the fighting arose. In late March, after six months of relative quiet in the rebellious Sunni city of Fallujah, U.S. marines, newly arrived in Iraq, took over from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, and tried to enter Fallujah to assert their control. Their provocative actions set off a cycle of revenge killings which, on March 31, led to the ambush-murder and mutilation of four U.S. mercenaries by a small band of unknown men. Shortly afterwards, on March 25, 2004, proconsul Paul Bremer, head of the isolated U.S. "Provisional Coalition Authority" in Iraq, announced that the U.S. government intended to retain its occupying army and permanent military bases in Iraq no matter what any future Iraqi government might do or request. Not since the Japanese imperial army established "suzerainty" over "Manchukuo" in 1932, and later ruled occupied China from behind the fagade of other puppet governments had an imperialist power resorted to such a nakedly colonial formula. But Bremer communicated precisely that to Iraqis: Outwardly the U.S. would proclaim the existence of a new state of affairs; in practice it would continue to exercise complete dominion over Iraq and not allow it to control its armed forces, police, or foreign policy, let alone rescind his earlier orders privatizing the Iraqi economy. This legerdemain was to be displayed for all the world to see on June 30, the day something called "sovereignty," which the U.S. never legitimately possessed, was "transferred" to some other U.S.-selected entity. Bremer then moved to eliminate an outspokenly anti-American Iraqi leader: the young Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, descendant of a leading Shiite family that had provided both religious and political leadership for modern Iraq from its earliest days. His grandfather was Iraq's prime minister in 1932; Ba'athists murdered his uncle, a venerated Ayatollah, in 1980 and his own father nineteen years later.{4} To arrest Sadr and destroy his militia, the "Army of the Mahdi," became Bremer's objective. A small newspaper published by Sadr's followers was closed; a Sadr deputy in Najaf arrested. In reply, protestors took to the streets and Sadr called on his supporters to conduct sit-ins against the occupation. The largest demonstration occurred in East Baghdad, in an impoverished district known as Sadr City. On April 3, the U.S. military command escalated the crisis, ordering troops to fire on the crowds and sending tanks into Baghdad's streets.{5} Over the next few days small-scale fighting erupted across Iraq between Iraqis and so called "Coalition" troops, consisting mainly of soldiers sent by their governments, against the wishes of overwhelming majorities of their people, in return for deals cut with the Bush administration. Joining with several other religious militias, the "Mahdi Army" expelled Coalition police and soldiers from towns and cities where resentment against the Americans was strongest.{6} Because Sadr's and other religious militias represented a social movement with broad popular support, they easily gained control of six Shiite cities, including Karbala, Kufa, and parts of nearby Najaf, with little loss of human life. In this way, moving more quickly than Bremer, Sadr and his militia ignited a nationwide rebellion which exposed the political powerlessness of the occupation and brought to an end the impunity of both the American military and private mercenaries who comprise a growing proportion of U.S. forces. By April 4 American forces, their assorted Coalition partners, and Iraqi collaborators were under assault throughout south, central, and northern Iraq. Two days later, when marines intent on avenging the earlier murder of the four Americans made another foray into Fallujah's central residential neighborhoods, they responded to stiff resistance by slaughtering unarmed civilians, including women and children. Concurrently, in Baghdad's Sadr City, Shiite militiamen supportive of al-Sadr, took control of the city hall and police headquarters.{7} An AP journalist, writing from the sacred pilgrimage city of Najaf, quoted al-Sadr as declaring, "America has shown its evil intentions, and the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it . . . . They must defend their rights by any means they see fit."{8} The Shiite and Sunni rebellions had become linked. At that point the stunned U.S. military deployed all the force it could muster to shatter the Iraqis' will to resist. Overstretched American combat soldiers, applying Israeli street-fighting tactics against the Sunnis and Shiites, retook many Shiite cities that the militias had controlled. But they have been unable to regain control of East Baghdad, and they have yet to capture or kill al-Sadr or destroyed his militias, their stated objectives.{9} As reports spread of the marine siege and "lockdown" of an entire city, the heroism of the poorly armed Fallujah resistance and the indiscriminate U.S. destruction of civilian lives and property has kindled a fire of intense hatred in the hearts of many Iraqis. Energized through their mosques, Shiites and Sunnis, historic enemies, began to cooperate in sending food assistance and joining the national resistance. In the capital as in the provinces, U.S. troops fired on pro-Sadr demonstrators; in violation of international law they barged into hospitals and arrested the wounded. To prevent banned weapons from being sent to Fallujah along with food aid, they conducted punitive searches of mosques, kicking in doors, spraying walls and ceilings with gunfire, and in other ways desecrating them. In the process they destroyed tons of foodstuff earmarked for the encircled cities. In besieged Fallujah, where the resistance fought the marines to a standoff, the worst war crimes occurred. The U.S. military dropped 500-ton, laser-guided bombs and body-shredding cluster bombs, destroying mosques, schools, and whole residential areas. "Predator" drones, helicopters, and AC-130 gunships rained death on all who ventured onto the streets. When this level of "shock and awe" failed to quell the uprising, the US military command declared a "truce," hoping to wait out the rebellion until the marines determined the next appropriate level of destruction. While preparing to launch a full-scale invasion of the city, marine artillery continued firing on residential neighborhoods and teams of marine snipers -- their motto "one bullet, one kill" -- made forays into Fallujah in order "to clear the streets and undermine the insurgents."{10} Firing from bridges and the rooftops of factories and apartments, using explosive dum-dum bullets, the marines shot up ambulances and killed women together with their infants, young children, and old men -- some as they tried to flee the fighting. One refugee, interviewed in Baghdad by independent journalist Dahr Jamail, recalled that "There were so many snipers, anyone leaving their house was killed."{11} Los Angeles Times journalist Tony Perry cited a proud corporal who said, "sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies, then I'll use a second shot."{12} In Iraq private mercenaries, employed by "privatized military firms," roam the war zones in civilian clothes and indigenous garb, selling their fighting and logistical services for cash. Also unlike Nanjing, no disbanded army is present in Fallujah, only resistance fighters, comprised of "Shias, Ba'athists, Sufis, tribes, and Arab fighters."{13} They represent mainly the youth of the community, buoyed by its sympathy. But judging from statements issued by senior American commanders and their spokesmen, the same self-righteous, narrow-minded thinking that characterized Japanese officers in wartime China during and after the Nanjing massacre, prevails today among U.S. officers, from Gen. John Abizaid at Central Command to frontline generals Ricardo Sanchez and spokesman Mark Kimmett. And just as the Japanese press served the needs of the state by failing to report the truth of the Nanjing massacre, so American corporate media perform a similar function by not reporting the full extent of the U.S. military's killing and general mistreatment of unarmed civilians throughout Iraq, After three weeks of rebellion the casualty figures from Fallujah alone ranged from a low of 600 to 650 combatant and non-combatants killed and over 1,200 injured -- readily admitted to even by the U.S. command -- to estimates ranging upward from one thousand.{14} The overwhelming majority may be women, children, and old people but who knows their real numbers? The U.S. occupiers are attacking on many fronts with artillery, planes, and tanks, but most Iraqis still wait to see how far the Americans around Fallujah and Najaf will push their collective punishments. In the U.S. military command some believe that if they are to reassert control in western and central Iraq, they must retake symbolically important Sunni Fallujah, and destroy al-Sadr and his militia in the Shiite "Shrine cities" of Kerbala, Kufa, Najaf, and Nasiriya.{15} The occupation army's drive to crush the resistance has rendered concern for civilian casualties largely irrelevant. At this writing Fallujah has been elevated to the level of a presidential targeting decision. Whether Bush will choose to destroy the Fallujah resistance, which he mistakenly denigrates as "a bunch of thugs and killers," or allow his field commanders to heed the advice of Iraqi collaborators and negotiate a solution with them remains unclear.{16} If his generals tell him that an offensive is feasible, and his close advisers warn that he must escalate the violence in order to "stabilize" Iraq, he will probably give the order. Despite any temporary truce, the eventual outcome will be determined by policy issues having to do with Fallujah's influence on the larger U.S. position in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, and not by worry over committing more acts in violation of international law. Having lost the trust of the current generation of Iraqis by the brutal manner in which it has mismanaged a full year of occupation, the U.S. military may be unable to sustain its presence in Iraq no matter what tactical victories it achieves or changes of strategy it adopts. The people of Fallujah have paid dearly, but the events in that city have redefined the conflict in ways that highlight the complete political bankruptcy of the U.S. occupation and point to the likelihood of U.S. failure to gain military and e