From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:40:20 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:40:20 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Surge: US. troop drive faltering in Iraq Message-ID: <20070604154020.2f915016@viola.tamara-b.org> AP - June 4, 2007 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=WHIZ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT U.S. troop drive faltering in Iraq By KIM GAMEL Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S.-led forces have control of fewer than one-third of Baghdad's neighborhoods despite thousands of extra troops nearly four months into a security crackdown, a newspaper reported Monday - an assessment that came as the U.S. casualty toll soared. But military officials said they have warned all along that the fight would not be easy. Iraqi police also said at least six people were killed and 14 were wounded in three separate bombings Monday in Baghdad. The New York Times said an American assessment of the security plan through late May found that American and Iraqi forces were able to "protect the population" and "maintain physical influence over" only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods. Troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face "resistance" in the remaining 311 neighborhoods, according to the report, which cited a one-page assessment along with summaries from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi military officials played down the report. "We have stated all along that this was going to be harder before it gets easier," military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said. "It's going to be a tough fight over the summer and the plan is just in its beginning stages." It appeared to be the first comprehensive analysis of the progress of the operation that began Feb. 14. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is due to report in September on whether the current troop increase is working amid a fierce debate in Washington over whether President Bush should begin withdrawing American forces. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a military spokesman for Baghdad, also stressed that some of the extra American units ordered to Baghdad as part of a so-called surge of forces had yet to start operations. "No one expects all 457 to be under control at this time," he said in an e-mail. The Bush administration, which has ordered some 30,000 extra American troops to Baghdad and surrounding areas as part of the security crackdown, has warned that the buildup will result in more U.S. casualties as more American soldiers come into contact with enemy forces and concentrate on the streets of Baghdad and remote outposts. The U.S. military announced Sunday that 14 American soldiers had been killed over a three-day period in a deadly start for June and raising to at least 3,493 members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. May was the third bloodiest month since the war began, with 127 troop deaths reported. The newly reported deaths included four who died in a single roadside bombing Sunday northwest of Baghdad and another who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol southwest of the capital on Friday. Two other soldiers were killed and five were wounded along with an Iraqi interpreter in two separate roadside bombings on Sunday, the military said, while seven others soldiers were killed in a series of attacks across Iraq on Saturday. A car bomb also exploded outside a U.S. base near the volatile city of Baqouba, leaving a number of troops gasping for air and suffering from eye irritations, the military said. It did not confirm a report in the Los Angeles Times that the car was carrying chlorine canisters and said the soldiers who were sickened had been treated and returned to duty. Following initial optimism over the operation to quell sectarian violence, unrelenting bombings staged by suspected Sunni insurgents have killed hundreds of Iraqis. U.S. commanders have cited a drop in the numbers of execution-style killings usually blamed on Shiite militias but those numbers also have seen a recent spike. The deadliest bombing on Monday struck a minibus carrying unemployed Iraqis looking for work in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding eight. At least 16 other people were killed or found dead in attacks elsewhere, including a pregnant woman who died in a mortar barrage targeting a U.S. base in Fallujah. U.S. military leaders in charge of the Baghdad drive, now nearing the end of its fourth month, have repeatedly complained that both the Iraqi army and police units that were sent to Baghdad for the operation are often at only 60 percent full strength, if that. "Everybody's got to be performing at the same level," Garver said. "So we want to see our Iraqi counterparts performing at full capacity as soon as possible so there's all the development of Iraqi security forces going on as well." He acknowledged some challenges with the Iraqi troops, including concerns that some were biased in their loyalties to one side or another, apparently referring to the sectarian bent of predominantly Shiite forces. Iraqi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said Baghdad has 184 neighborhoods and "we are controlling more than 50 percent of them." The U.S. and Iraqi military frequently differ over details and designations of neighborhoods. "Our forces are deployed in all of Baghdad and are doing well with their operations in calming the restive areas. We are moving ahead and achieving the goals of the security plan," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commander of the 1st Cavalry Division which runs the security operation in Baghdad, expressed particular disappointment with Iraqi police performance during a recent visit to his troops in the capital's Karradah neighborhood. "The (Iraqi) Army is coming along pretty well, but the police really still need some work," the soft-spoken and understated Fil said at the Cobra Joint Security Station along a bend in the Tigris River. "You'll have to be very careful with them." The police are deeply infiltrated by Shiite militiamen who use their membership in the force more for sectarian purposes against Sunni Muslims than in conducting police operations on behalf of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Associated Press writers Steven R. Hurst and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report. ? 2007 The Associated Press. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:42:24 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:42:24 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Iraq Dead Ahead Message-ID: <20070604154224.6d20ecbf@viola.tamara-b.org> Counterpunch - June 2, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/levy06022007.html Cemetery Iraq Dead Ahead A Brief Military History and Civilian Guide to Arlington National By MARC LEVY Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by That here, obedient to their laws, we lie. -Epitaph on the Cenotaph of Thermopylae, Simonides of Ceos Cambodia 1970 The first dead American I ever saw was black. Third platoon had perimeter guard. Second platoon walked into an ambush. We followed a truck to the tree line. It was cold and muddy?his body was wrapped in a poncho?we helped pass the corpse hand over hand, like a fire brigade, as if the corpse were a bucket. But dead weight is hard to handle when it's not stiff?the steam was rising from his jungle fatigues, a hard rain was beating, his eyes were not blinking?it was the saddest sight I'd ever seen. Boston 1998 Midnight. We've been at the bar since 8pm. It feels like a lifetime, sitting at this dark wood table. Andy, a bloated ex-marine, lucky to be alive, is drinking himself to death. The Colonel, trim, jut-jawed, with Special Forces in Laos in1970, taps his ring finger as storm clouds fill his sun tanned face. Tall, powerful Chris, shot in the neck a week into his tour, quietly sips his beer. He's modestly drunk and still shocked out. Larry, a fierce gentleman-scholar despite his murderous glare, survived a battle so bad he put it this way, "The sun came up and the smoke cleared and the dew burned off. There was meat all over everything. All around the perimeter it was meat. And the wood line...looked like ruined drapes." (Black Virgin Mountain, Larry Heinemann, Doubleday, 2005) I'm sitting next to Bao Ninh, one of several North Vietnamese Army veterans. He drinks whiskey, occasionally knocks the shots back, chain-smokes Camel cigarettes. Someone asks Ninh, "What was your saddest memory?" Ninh takes a long drag, exhales, peers into the upcurling blue fog, waits, and matter of factly says, "To find and bury my friends." Chung, our interpreter, continues to translate. After combat Ninh helped snare the dead with poles, and hauled them away. Ah, I think, so that's why we never found as many as we thought we'd killed. For a time no one speaks. Then the mood changes, the conversation picks up, but Ninh stays silent. In the opening chapter of Bao Ninh's book, The Sorrow of War, it's 1976, a year after the liberation of Saigon. The main character, with other NVA veterans, scavenges the jungle for human remains in the Forest of Screaming Souls. For the Vietnamese, the spirit cannot rest until the entire corpse is buried. Ninh spent six years fighting the Americans. Out of five hundred, only ten members of the Glorious 514th Youth Brigade lived. Maybe that explains his other worldly silence. The Americans in Vietnam brought their dead to GR Point (let MIAs and BNRs be a story for another day). At Graves Registration, intact or ruined bodies, and collections of body parts (often of one man, sometimes mixed up) were prepped for shipment home. Gruesome work?the task drove some men crazy. It is said that heroin was secretly stashed inside military caskets headed back to the United States. Iraq/Afghanistan Fast forward to present American battles. The hard work of body retrieval and preparation is artfully called Mortuary Affairs. Marine Jason Cotnoir, an undertaker by trade, describes the archeology of harvesting the dead: "There were the remains of four or five guys spread out over six hundred square yards. We had to walk a grid. It was just like a police scene...there are thousands of these flags in the field, and it's just surreal knowing that all those flags represent something. ....Everything got treated as reverently as if it were a whole body. Even if it was just a leg or an arm or, God forbid, a hand or, you know, a torso...everything got treated the same." (What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers who Fought It," Trish Woods, Little Brown, 2006). Back at the base, teams make horror whole so that dumb struck kin may grieve in peace. In 2005 John Holley learned that his son, Matthew Holley, a medic with the 101st Airborne, had been killed in Iraq by an IED, and would return home as freight. In fact, since 2002, many KIA caskets were placed in the cargo bays of commercial jets. Once landed, forklift operators dispatched the gleaming metal coffins to warehouses and grieving next of kin. As if the dead were luggage, and the families did not deserve respect. Outraged, John Holley complained to his congressman, then-House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif and to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. The outcome: a January 2006 law which assures that US military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are returned on military or military-contracted aircraft. An escort and a white gloved arrival honor guard are mandatory. (Families may request commercial airlines, which may also be used when remains are sent outside the United States). The initial six month switch to charter jets, run by Kallita Charters, will cost the Pentagon an extra $10 million dollars. A minuscule sum compared to the billions spent thus far. There's a dark nexus between the Pentagon's cthonic cost cutting and the funeral industry's shameful past. The American Way In 1963, Jessica Mitford blew the polished walnut lid off the secretive burial business, with her legendary book, The American Way of Death. Blending formal prose with tart irony, she unmasked the unkind efforts America's funeral makers employed to obtain maximum profit from the bereaved. Mitford investigated the elegiac scams of gratuitous embalming (in most cases not necessary or lawfully required), double charging for services, or charging inflated prices for grooming, dressing, patching up or otherwise prepping the dead. She detailed how naive or vulnerable clients were pressured to buy outrageously marked-up coffins, the habitual false or misleading statements made by funeral directors adept at exploiting those stricken by grief (ie; inexpensive cremation-bad, costly ground burial-good). As well, Mitford illuminated the interconnected nether worlds of cemetery owners, casket, vault, and monument makers, and the flourishing trade of eternal florists. She profiled the titan funeral industry as fearful of politicians, church officials, or anyone seeking a dignified but low priced funeral. In many states it's lawful?just as it was common place a hundred years ago?to privately transport the deceased in a home made casket, and bury them. The book became a best seller. Congressional hearings were held. Regulations favoring consumers were passed. The Federal Trade Commission's "Funeral Law," written in plain English, is an indispensable guide to caring for the dead. It can be viewed here. History of Arlington National Cemetery In 1862, with Civil War losses near Washington, D.C. mounting, and many grieving families being too poor to retrieve their kin, the Arlington House estate, owned by Robert E. Lee and his wife Mary, was seized by the government for failure to pay property taxes. In 1864, Brig. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs took the land, located across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia and put it to use as a military cemetery. He hoped to render the estate unsuitable if Lee chose to return. Lee never came back, but years later an heir sued, won, and sold the land to the government. At the wars conclusion, sixteen thousand soldiers were buried at Arlington. By today's standards the early funerals of American war dead were immodest: Headstones made of wood. Misspelled names. Many of the killed in action (or by disease, the greatest killer of all) were simply unknowns. Reform was gradual. See the Army's Mortuary Affairs web site at http://tinyurl.com/yqe4c3 Arlington et al Today The burial site of choice for many veterans, with over one hundred burials per week, and approximately 290,000 burials to date, Arlington is run by the Department of the Army. Due to demand there may be delays of up to three weeks in scheduling a burial. About seventy-thousand burial sites remain on the six-hundred-twelve-acre cemetery. The Army surmises they will be gone by 2025. The Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) administers one-hundred-twenty-five national cemeteries in thirty-nine states (and Puerto Rico) and thirty-three soldier's lots and monument sites. For additional information regarding VA administered national cemeteries see http://www.cem.va.gov/ Eligibility The eligibility criteria for burial at Arlington is several pages long. A partial list of those veterans entitled to interment at Arlington are: active duty soldiers (except those on active duty for training only), career veterans retired from active service, retired Reservists at age sixty drawing retired pay and who served on active duty (other than for training), veterans honorably discharged before October 1, 1949 for medical reasons and rated at least 30% disabled at discharge, veterans awarded one of the following: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross (Navy Cross or Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal), Silver Star, Purple Heart, and ex POWs who, as prisoners, served honorably, received an honorable discharge, and who died after November 30, 1993. Although many persons believe Arlington is exclusively for active duty KIA or veterans, it is also the final resting place for various diplomats, war widows/widowers, high elected officials, members of the Supreme Court, and distinguished explorers, literary, medical, and other historical figures. As in life, outside the hallowed range of imposing granite monuments, and beneath the peaceful winding rows of engraved marble planks, there is controversy . More on that anon. Paperwork The deceased veterans estate, next-of-kin or a personal representative must contact Arlington (703-607-8585) and provide the appropriate documents to verify the veteran's eligibility for interment (ground burial) or for inurnment (burial or storage of ashes) to Arlington staff, who may help determine eligibility. Verification by Arlington may take up to three business days. A copy of the veterans discharge document, known as a DD 214, in which service is described as "honorable" or "under honorable conditions" is acceptable. The phrase "under honorable" should not be confused with "less than honorable." As well, according to Army Regulation 635-200 (effective January 19, 2004) 3-7 (b) a General Discharge is equal to an Honorable Discharge. Upon verification of eligibility, the cemetery staff will schedule the interment. Any documents requested by the cemetery staff can be faxed to (703) 607-8583. Making Arrangements Next of kin or a personal representative must contact a local funeral home to arrange for body storage prior to shipment to Washington, D.C. They must inform the funeral home director to contact the Interment Office at Arlington National Cemetery ? (703) 607-8585 ? to request a casket or urn service. The local funeral director will contact a funeral home in the Washington, D.C. area for airport pick up of the remains. The receiving funeral home will keep the casket in storage until the appointed funeral day. At that time the receiving funeral home will transport the casket to Arlington National Cemetery for burial. The local and receiving funeral homes will likely contact National Mortuary Services or Inman Shipping Worldwide. Both are respectable companies. Cremated remains can be mailed or hand carried to a local funeral home for shipment to Arlington on the day of the funeral or up to three working days in advance. For active duty service members, all costs are paid for by their branch of service. Otherwise all storage and shipping charges are paid for by the family or estate of the deceased. According to the official Arlington National Cemetery web site, "Grave sites/niches are assigned the afternoon on the day before the interment service." Down and Dirty Work In 1967, due to projected overcrowding, Arlington burials were limited by Army regs to combat wounded or KIA, highly decorated veterans, retirees with 20 years of service, high government officials with military service, and immediate family members of eligible vets. Soon after these hard and fast rules were implemented, the use of waivers began. Partial records indicate that until 1994, less than a dozen exceptions a year were made. However, during the 90s, investigations by the Army Inspector General and the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations revealed numerous cases of political favoritism. For the most part the press ignored the story. However the 1996 case of a former US Ambassador to Switzerland made national head lines. A major Clinton campaign funder, Larry Lawrence had lied about his military service, claiming to have been wounded in combat as a Merchant Marine in W.W.II. His widow, Sheila Davis (alleged by Arianna Huffington to have dallied with Clinton), was compelled to remove the body and bury it elsewhere, at her expense. But rule exceptions continued the odd or arbitrary admittance to Arlington by non military, unqualified military, or apparently undeserving military personnel. Arlington's official web site states: "The purpose for an Exception to the Interment/Inurnment Policy is to permit those who are not otherwise eligible under current policies to ask for special consideration. Please note, exceptions are only approved for those requestors whose facts merit extraordinary circumstances and whose approval will not ordinarily displace an otherwise eligible Veteran." The rhetoric sounds right but leaves room for abuse. One hopes, as did Rep. Terry Everett, former chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, that Rep. Bob Filner, the present committee chairman, will seek to end waivers, and limit burial at Arlington to qualified veterans and their immediate families. Military Honors, Preferences, Shortages Standard military honors are accorded by rank. Arlington will contact the deceased's branch of service and arrange for enlisted honors when requested. These include: pall bearers, a firing party, a bugler. Likely an old British custom, after slain soldiers from both sides were dragged off battlefields during cease fires, the opponents fired three volleys to signal that fighting could resume. Taps was composed in 1862 by the Union Army's Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield. In the absence of a bugler, the melody was tapped out on a drum. Today, due to limited valveless bugles, Taps at Arlington is often played on a valved trumpet or coronet. A 1999 law requiring Taps if requested at VA cemeteries, resulted in a shortage of buglers. Veterans service organizations issued Taps CDs. In national cemeteries across the country undignified boom boxes sounded the mournful call. With Pentagon help, S&D Consulting of Manhattan designed a small battery operated device. Tucked into the bell of a facsimile bugle, activated by the press of a switch, the electronic automated horn has been well received. At Arlington, a military chaplain will conduct the service unless the family prefers its own minister, who must be assigned by the family or the funeral home. Certain E-9s may be entitled to other honors given their branch of service. As well as the above, Commissioned and Warrant Officers are granted a caisson, band, and escort troops by Arlington if requested. For Army and Marine O-6 and up, a riderless horse, a symbol of the fallen warrior, is provided. For Flag Officers, the Minute Guns and Gun Salute are supplied. In cold weather the full band may not play but honors are performed. Most veterans are entitled to one burial flag. Requests must be made at the time of need. Flags are furnished by VA regional offices and most U.S. post offices after VA Form 21-2008 is filed and submitted with a copy of the veteran's DD 214 to either location. Grave liners, external cement containers in which caskets are placed to reduce post burial grave sinkage, are provided free of charge. A white marble tombstone or white niche cover, with appropriate inscription and faith symbol, will be furnished free. Arlington staff will place the order. The recent addition of the Wiccan pentacle brings to thirty-eight the number of allowed religious symbols, among them: Sufism Reoriented, The Church of World Messianity, Eckankar, Humanist Emblem of Spirit, and Soka Gakkai International. It takes ninety to one-hundred-twenty days after the service for the tombstone or niche marker to be installed. Next-of-kin can check the status of the order by calling 1-703-607-8577 during Arlington's business hours. A Standard Burial Service When there is no contact with the enemy, no sudden bursts of machine gun fire, no shouts or howls from gun shot men or women?I have known such howls, I have known such screams?when shrieking rockets, crump-BANG mortars or fiery IEDs do not sing their shrapnel songs, when there are no pulsing crimson streams or shiny mounds of gut-gore spillage, a patrol, jungle or urban, take your pick, is a grueling, nerve wracking affair which never ends soon enough. By contrast, the standard military honors burial at Arlington is a solemn, disciplined, dignified affair. Family and friends gather at grave side. Dress uniformed pall bearers carry the flag draped casket to the grave, lower the immaculate casket to place, grip the flag taut over the coffin while a chaplain speaks. Next, the officer in charge issues precise commands: Three quick volleys are fired by seven riflemen. There is the dolorous playing of taps, there is the crisp hypnotic folding of the flag, the chaplain steps forth, presenting it to the next-of-kin. "This flag is presented on behalf of a grateful nation as a token of our appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one," he will say. And some will swell with pride, and some will clench tight jaws or fists, and some will break and weep. Throughout, at appointed times, civilians place hands to hearts, soldiers raise hands to visor brims. Finally, an Arlington staff member will offer condolences to the bereaved, and announce that the service is done; civilians are bid to return to their cars. On average thirty minutes have passed. Talkin' Head Stone Generation This writer called Arlington National Cemetery in April 2007. The innocuous query put to staff was, "Has the government ever engraved Operation Iraqi Freedom on the tombstone without family consent?" The expected reply was swift and courteous. "Oh no, sir. We've never done that. That has never happened. The family has to ask before we do anything." Some say that's not always the case. Some feel slogans on gravestones are improper. Two years ago, in an AP story, Robert McCaffrey stated, "I was a little taken aback. They certainly didn't ask my wife; they didn't ask me." Or his son's widow. Patrick McCaffrey was killed in Iraq in June 2004. The undesired epitaph was neatly etched on his burial stone. Prior to the invasion of Iraq only the name, rank, service branch, dates of birth and death, and nominally, the specific war and country were listed on the head stones of our war dead. Until 1997 families paid the stone makers for added mementos. Today it's all free. In fact, four years ago, VA told all national cemetery and funeral home directors to inform Iraq or Afghanistan KIA next-of-kin that the tombstone epitaphs "Enduring Freedom" or "Iraqi Freedom" were available at no cost. Those interred at Arlington were eligible as well. Accordingly, at Arlington and VA national cemeteries a display stone is exhibited to the bereaved. Next-of-kin then decide what military campaign is or is not etched on the upright slab. The majority of post 9/1l Arlington tombstones contain one or the other campaign phrase. Former Senator, Vietnam veteran and past VA chief Max Cleland, while respectful of KIA family, has said, "It's a little bit of glorified advertising." Jeff Martell, who owns the Vermont company which sculpts the granite markers, stated, "It just seems a little brazen that that's put on stones." For its part the VA feels it's not a marketing stunt. "The headstone is not a PR purpose. It is to let the country know and the people that visit the cemetery know who served this country and made the country free for us," Department of Veterans' Affairs spokesmen Steve Munor has said. Other VA officials have stated that neither the White House nor the Pentagon were behind the new chthonic choices and families have the right to opt out. The director of the VA's memorial programs service, Dave Schettler, has stated, "It's just the right thing to do and it always has been, but it hasn't always been followed. Robert McCaffrey would agree. "Patrick did not want that to be there, that is a definite fact," he said. MIA=Missing in Arlington Many tree memorials dot the hallowed hills and dales of Arlington. Among the honored, officially listed by name, section and species are the My Lai massacre tainted Americal Division?Section 34, Red Maple, the fervently slaughtered Indigenous People (Native Americans)?Section 8, Eastern Cottonwood, and the gutsy Professional Lawn Care Association of America?Section 13, Rose Garden. Among the least well known are twenty-one Special Forces cadre, KIA in El Salvador, their names not etched on a small grim stone near a white oak, located in Section 12, a forlorn parcel of ground easily overlooked. The back story is not pleasant: In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan secretly authorized hundreds if not thousands of Green Berets to advise and fight alongside the brutal Salvadoran Army in that country's horrific civil war. According to Knight-Ridder, so secret was the American presence in Central American operations that 'body washing,' which originated during Vietnam, was employed. "If a guy is killed on a mission," said an ex covert operative, "And if it was sensitive politically, we'd ship the body back home and have a jeep roll over on him at Fort Huachuca," an obsure Army intel base. "Or we'd arrange a chopper crash, or wait until one happened and insert a body or two into the wreckage later. It's not that difficult." Indeed, the Washington Post quoted retired General Joseph Stringham, a Special Forces commander in El Salvador in 1983-84, as saying, "It had been determined this (El Salvador) was not a combat zone, and they were going to hold the line on that. I've puzzled over why." Thanks to Regan's anti-communist rhetoric and co-ordinated attacks on investigative journalists (see Ray Bonner's dispatches on El Mozote), to a tight lipped Pentagon, and to Washington's inbred careerism, the El Salvador cover up endured. However in 1996 President Clinton signed into law the Defense Authorization Act, which forced the Pentagon to award Expeditionary Medals to U.S military who served in El Salvador. A "Sixty Minutes" broadcast also shed light on the once secret affair. A military service was finally held in 1996. The anonymous honorific reads, "El Salvador 1981-1992. Blessed are the peacemakers. In sacred memory of those who died to bring hope and peace." In El Salvador, the jailed, tortured, or eighty-thousand civilian dead might disagree. Dulce Et Decorum Est It is good and fitting to give Mike Bonaldo, featured in "What Was Asked of Us" the last word on the soldiers way of death: "There was a pink cloud that came up after the explosion from all the blood that was in the building. You know, because there were at least two dead insurgents and the blood of marines...so there was a lot of blood in the building." Memento Mori Complete details regarding eligibility, service arrangements, and post funeral benefits are at the official Arlington web site:, from which material for this article was drawn. Click here for the website of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Arlington afficionado Michael Robert Patterson has assembled a roster of alleged abuses of Arlington waivers at arlingtoncemetery.net/abuse.htm. [Marc Levy was an infantry medic with the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam/Cambodia in 1970. Decorated once for gallantry and twice for valor, he was twice court-martialed and received a General Discharge. His work has been published in various print and online jounals. He can be reached at silverspartan at gmail.com.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:43:13 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:43:13 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US, Iraqi troops control only a third of Baghdad Message-ID: <20070604154313.17a6e8b3@viola.tamara-b.org> Reuters - June 4, 2007 http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSFLE45909920070604 U.S., Iraqi troops control only a third of Baghdad By Paul Tait BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.-led soldiers control only about a third of Baghdad, the military said on Monday, almost four months into a security crackdown during which troops are dying at rates not seen for more than two years. More than 18,000 extra U.S. troops have been deployed around Baghdad as part of the campaign, which began in mid-February and is seen as a last-ditch attempt to drag Iraq back from the brink of all-out sectarian civil war. The last of five brigades to be deployed in the crackdown will be in place soon, military spokesman Lieutenant-Christopher Garver said, adding it would not be possible to judge the success of the crackdown until all units were in place. "Obviously we're constantly doing an assessment of the plan, but that plan doesn't kick in until everyone's here," he said. But with violence spiking across Iraq as Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and insurgents try to derail the crackdown, U.S. President George W. Bush and military leaders have warned that a bloody summer lies ahead. "It's going to get harder before it gets easier," Garver said of the counter-insurgency effort. "We know it's going to be a tough fight over the summer." The New York Times reported earlier on Monday that, according to an internal military assessment and local commanders, U.S. and Iraqi troops controlled 146 of Baghdad's 457 neighborhoods. The New York Times said that, according to the one-page military assessment of the crackdown, troops had either not begun operations or still faced resistance in the capital's remaining 311 neighborhoods. "SNAPSHOT" "That's kind of like a snapshot, those numbers are going to change the more you're working through those neighborhoods," Garver told Reuters, adding he had not seen the military assessment. Bush won a bruising battle with a Congress for war funding but is under growing pressure, including from within his own Republican Party, to show progress in the unpopular war or start bringing troops home. The crackdown in Baghdad and other areas is meant to buy time for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to meet a set of political targets set by Washington aimed at promoting national reconciliation. The benchmarks, which include a crucial revenue-sharing oil law and constitutional reform, are meant to draw minority Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam Hussein, away from the insurgency and back into the political process alongside majority Shi'ites. June is showing similar casualty rates to May, with 17 U.S. soldiers killed in the first three days, 14 of them reported on Sunday. May was the third-worst month for U.S. soldiers since the invasion to topple Saddam in March 2003. The worst months were November 2004, when 137 were killed, and April the same year when another 135 died. Garver said more casualties were anticipated during the crackdown because thousands more troops were moving out of bases into command outposts, known as joint security stations, leaving them more exposed to attack. "There is a short-term risk and that is what we've anticipated would happen in bringing about long-term benefit," Garver said. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the same period. While there was a significant reduction in the number of targeted sectarian killings early on in the security crackdown, those numbers have risen again, with dozens of bodies being found in Baghdad almost every day. ? Reuters 2006. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:44:10 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:44:10 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] raqis: Take us with you when you leave Message-ID: <20070604154410.4d98118a@viola.tamara-b.org> The Wshington Times - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070604-121213-2661r_page2.htm Iraqis: Take us with you By Sharon Behn THE WASHINGTON TIMES BAGHDAD -- With pressure building in Washington for an American troop pullout, Iraqis who have worked closely with U.S. companies and military forces are begging their employers for assurances that they will be able to leave with them. "They must take care of the people who worked with the Americans," said Hayder, an Iraqi who has worked for several U.S. companies since coalition forces entered Iraq. "I work with them, I support them, I protect them. They must give us something," he said as he sipped tea in a small cafe in the fortified Green Zone. Like most Iraqis working with the Americans, Hayder insisted that his full name not be published. Those known to cooperate with U.S. forces and companies are regularly targeted, threatened and killed by both Sunni and Shi'ite extremists. Most Iraqis try to keep their relationship with the coalition forces secret, not even telling their children or families where they work. Hayder said he offered to work for no pay with the U.S. military for two years only if they would take his small family out of the country. "When the Americans leave, the war will start, and they will kill all of us, all who worked with the Americans," he said. Even with U.S. forces in Baghdad at elevated levels because of the U.S. troop "surge," Iraqis associated with the United States face extreme danger. A terrorist group claimed responsibility last week for the kidnapping of an Iraqi husband and wife employed by the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and said it had killed them. A U.S. official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that the husband disappeared earlier last month and that when the wife went looking for him, she also turned up missing. "God's ruling has been implemented against two of the most prominent agents and spies of the worshippers of the cross ... a man and woman who occupy an important position at the U.S. Embassy," the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq said in a statement published on the Internet. "The swords of the security personnel of the Islamic State in Iraq ... are with God's grace slitting the throats of crusaders and their aides and lackeys," it said. A woman who has worked closely with the U.S. military said she was deeply worried about what will happen when the Americans leave. "Who is going to protect us?" she asked during an interview near her home in downtown Baghdad. When the Americans leave, all those who worked with them "must leave also," said another woman who has been forced to move to Jordan. She asked that her name not be used in order to protect her extended family still living in Baghdad. Americans and other Westerners rely on Iraqi men and women who serve as interpreters, engineers, repairmen, security guards, computer and telecommunications technicians, drivers, cooks, cleaners and so on. Private security companies and contractors working to support the military and rebuild Iraq's teetering infrastructure also employ thousands of locals. Many have risked their lives on a daily basis for years to get to work and to protect their U.S. colleagues. But American officials say it is unlikely that the United States will open its doors to all of them. "They are not going to the United States," Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger told The Washington Times in an interview in late April. "We don't have a plan to do anything with them. They are Iraqis, and this is their country," said Sgt. Maj. Mellinger, at that time the top enlisted soldier in Iraq. For one former Special Forces operative who has worked closely with Iraqis for three years, any U.S. pullout that fails to protect Iraqi allies would bring unhappy memories of the final withdrawal 32 years ago from Vietnam. "When we leave, all these people that helped us and fought for us will be hunted down and exterminated just like the Montagnards and South Vietnamese," he said in a telephone interview. "In many ways, this is my second Vietnam," he said bitterly. Copyright ? 2007 News World Communications, Inc. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:46:25 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:46:25 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Iraq: Suicide blast in crowded market Message-ID: <20070604154625.3aa7a2d2@viola.tamara-b.org> CNN - June 3, 2007 http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/06/03/iraq.main/index.html?eref=rss_latest Suicide blast kills at least 10 in crowded market BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb detonated in a crowded outdoor market in Balad Ruz on Sunday, killing 10 people and wounding 27, a Diyala province security official said. The explosion came shortly after noon (4 a.m. ET) as the market, just east of Baquba, was packed with shoppers, police told The Associated Press. In another market attack in Baquba, gunmen fatally shot two civilians, the Diyala official told CNN. Also near Baquba, gunmen set up a fake police checkpoint just west of the city Saturday evening and killed three Iraqi civilians and wounded five others, the official said. The attacks came amid a weekend of violent clashes between coalition forces and insurgents in Diwaniya, Falluja and eastern Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. At least 20 people were wounded Sunday in Diwaniya when fighting broke out between Iraqi security forces and members of the Mehdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an Interior Ministry official said. The battles came in the same area where Mehdi Army members reportedly killed six people -- three of them civilians -- in fighting two weeks ago. The militia is said to be at the center of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence that has plagued the war-ravaged nation. Diwaniya is about 100 miles south of Baghdad. In overnight operations in the capital, U.S. warplanes bombed homes in Sadr City's Habibiya district, witnesses and an Interior Ministry official said. Five people were killed and three more were wounded during the five-hour Iraqi army operation conducted with U.S. support, the Interior Ministry official said. Witnesses reported hearing explosions in Sadr City as U.S. helicopters circled overhead. The U.S. military declined to comment during the clashes, saying it did not release statements on ongoing operations. The operation began Saturday night and ended early Sunday morning, the Interior Ministry official said. The U.S. military could not be immediately reached for comment after the operation concluded. In Falluja, U.S. and Iraqi forces destroyed a truck bomb factory after a two-hour gunbattle Saturday that killed seven members of al Qaeda in Iraq, some of whom were armed with explosive suicide vests, the military told AP. Eight suspected militants were detained for questioning. The gunbattle erupted after Falluja police came under small-arms fire and spotted two men donning suicide vests fleeing the scene, the military said in a statement, according to AP. U.S. Marines joined the police in returning fire, killing both militants, AP reported. The Marines, who were with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, then fatally shot five other suspects as they tried to escape. One of them was wearing a suicide vest that exploded, the military told AP. After the gunbattle, the military told AP, U.S.-led forces found a compound housing bomb-making materials and two trucks rigged with suicide bombs. The military destroyed the trucks and materials in a controlled detonation. Seven U.S. soldiers killed Seven U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend, the U.S. military said Sunday. In western Baghdad, a Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier was killed and two others were wounded in an explosion during combat operations Saturday. A Task Force Marne soldier also was killed Saturday while patrolling south of Baghdad, the military said. A suicide bomber killed another Task Force Marne soldier Saturday while on patrol southwest of Baghdad. "The patrol attempted to question two suspicious people near a mosque," the military said. "When soldiers approached the two men, one person detonated himself, killing one soldier." Also on Saturday, a Task Force Lightning soldier was killed in an explosion near his vehicle while conducting operations in Diyala province. The blast also wounded four U.S. soldiers, the military said. Another Task Force Lightning soldier died Sunday from wounds sustained during a Saturday explosion in Diyala. Two soldiers were wounded in the blast. In northern Iraq's Nineveh Province, two more Task Force Lightning Soldiers were killed Saturday when a bomb exploded during military operations. Task Force Lightning soldiers patrol the northern stretches of Iraq, including Diyala. With the deaths, 3,480 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war. Seven civilian contractors also have died. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:47:53 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:47:53 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US troops killed in Iraq bombings Message-ID: <20070604154753.53b2a713@viola.tamara-b.org> BBC - Jun 3, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6716683.stm US troops killed in Iraq bombings Seven US troops have been killed in six separate incidents in Iraq, most of them roadside bomb attacks. Two were killed in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, where US troops are fighting an al-Qaeda insurgency, the US military said. All of the attacks happened on Saturday. The military said the incidents were under investigation. In May, 127 US soldiers were killed in Iraq, the deadliest month for US forces since November 2004. In Saturday's attacks, one soldier died and two others were wounded in an explosion near a vehicle in Diyala, while another soldier was killed in a separate attack there. Two Task Force Lightning soldiers were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in northern Nineveh province. In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two others during clashes. One Task Force Marne soldier died after approaching two men for questioning near a mosque south-west of Baghdad. Another Task Force Marne soldier died after being shot while on patrol south of Baghdad, the military said. At least 3,485 US troops have died since the US-led invasion in March 2003. ? BBC MMVII From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:48:34 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:48:34 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Seven more US soldiers killed in Iraq Message-ID: <20070604154834.75f6fb52@viola.tamara-b.org> AFP - June 3, 2007 http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070603145220.54f9egio.html Seven more US soldiers killed in Iraq BAGHDAD (AFP) - Seven more US soldiers have been killed in a single day of intense fighting around Iraq, the military said on Sunday. Two soldiers were killed and six wounded in two separate attacks on Saturday in Diyala, a restive province northeast of the capital Baghdad which is in the grip of an Al-Qaeda insurgency. A third soldier died in western Baghdad, and two were killed on separate patrols south of the city in an area where US troops are searching for two GIs kidnapped by Al-Qaeda more than three weeks ago. "The patrol attempted to question two suspicious people near a mosque. When soldiers approached the two men, one person detonated himself, killing one soldier," said the statement. Two other soldiers were killed in Nineveh province in northern Iraq when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb. The latest fatalities bring the number of US servicemen who have died in combat and from other causes in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,481, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:50:51 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:50:51 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Wanted by Amerika: Moqtada al-Sadr speaks Message-ID: <20070604155051.48837ada@viola.tamara-b.org> The Independent - Jun 3, 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2609310.ece Moqtada al-Sadr: The man America has in its sights The US wants to talk to Moqtada al-Sadr. He thinks they want to assassinate him. In this rare interview in Kufa, Iraq, the Shia cleric tells Nizar Latif why by Nizar Latif Moqtada al-Sadr, the man Washington blames for its failure to gain control in Iraq, has rejected a call to open direct talks with the US military and has accused the Americans of plotting to assassinate him. The Shia cleric told The Independent on Sunday in an exclusive interview: "The Americans have tried to kill me in the past, but have failed... It is certain that the Americans still want me dead and are still trying to assassinate me. "I am an Iraqi, I am a Muslim, I am free and I reject all forms of occupation. I want to help the Iraqi people. This is everything the Americans hate." Mr Sadr, revered by millions of Iraqi Shias, spoke after leading Friday prayers in the Grand Mosque at Kufa, just over 100 miles south of Baghdad. It is one of the four Iraqi cities considered holy in Shia Islam. He always wears a black turban, the traditional symbol of a Shia cleric who can trace his ancestry to the Prophet Mohamed. But for the second time in two weeks, he also wore a white shroud - a symbol of his willingness to be martyred, and his belief that death is close at hand. The young cleric inherited the aura of his father, Ayatollah Mohammed al-Sadr, who was murdered by Saddam Hussein's regime. He has been a thorn in the side of the Americans since the invasion, with his Mahdi Army - the military wing of Iraq's largest Arab grassroots political movement - having clashed with US and British forces. The movement has been accused of kidnapping five Britons in Baghdad last week, possibly in retaliation for the death of a senior Mahdi commander in Basra at the hands of British forces, but the Sadrists deny involvement. Mr Sadr resurfaced recently after disappearing - possibly over the border to Iran - when the US began its security "surge" in Baghdad early this year. He ordered his fighters in Sadr City, the Mahdi Army stronghold in the capital, not to resist the operation. Last week the US military said it wanted to open direct, peaceful talks with him, but the cleric told the IoS he rejected the idea. "There is nothing to talk about," he said angrily. "The Americans are occupiers and thieves, and they must set a timetable to leave this country. We must know that they are leaving, and we must know when." He has reason to be wary of US offers to negotiate. As revealed by The Independent last month, respected Iraqi political figures believe the US army tried to kill or capture Mr Sadr after luring him to peace talks in Najaf in 2004. "We are fighting the enemy that is greater in strength, but we are in the right," he said. "Even if that means our deaths, we will not stand idly by and suffer from this occupation. Islam exhorts us to die with dignity rather than live in shame." Mr Sadr did not say how he thought the US planned to kill him. But it is clear his decision to stay out of the public eye for months was prompted by safety fears, amid a crackdown on the Mahdi Army that has seen key figures arrested and killed. With US, British and Iraqi government forces still conducting operations against the Sadr movement and its army, the cleric warned he was prepared to launch another armed uprising. "The occupiers have tried to provoke us, but I ordered unarmed resistance for the sake of the people," he said. "We have been patient, exercising statesmanship, but if the occupation and oppression continues, we will fight." The Mahdi Army has been relatively quiet, but it is becoming more active in Baghdad, responding to a series of devastating suicide bombings by Sunni extremists. Mr Sadr, whose rise to become one of the most influential figures in Iraq coincided with the US overthrow of Saddam, said his movement sought to follow the example of Hizbollah, the Shia armed resistance movement in Lebanon. "Hizbollah and the Mahdi Army are two sides of the same coin," he said. "We are together in the same trench against the forces of evil." He also spoke about a spate of recent fighting between his followers and members of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the other major Shia party which has its own armed Badr faction. The clashes sparked fears that the power struggle among Shias will explode into full conflict. "What happened with the Badr organisation and the Mahdi Army in many parts of Iraq is the result of a sad misunderstanding," he said. "We have held discussions to stop this being repeated." Mr Sadr has always been a fervent nationalist, and has recently held talks with Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province who have taken up arms against al-Qa'ida-affiliated extremists, while still opposing the US-led occupation. Despite his calls for cross-sectarian unity in Iraq, the Mahdi Army is widely accused of operating death squads responsible for the deaths and ethnic cleansing of thousands of Sunnis and Iraqi Christians. Mr Sadr also insisted he opposed Iranian influence in Iraqi affairs, referring to tentative talks between the US and Iran. "We reject such interference," he said. "Iraq is a matter for the Iraqis." Additional reporting by Phil Sands in Damascus From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:52:56 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:52:56 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Gates warns Turkey not to invade Iraq Message-ID: <20070604155256.2ff6a367@viola.tamara-b.org> AP - Jun 3, 2007 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GATES?SITE=ALANN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Gates warns Turkey not to invade Iraq By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer SINGAPORE (AP) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday cautioned Turkey against sending troops into northern Iraq, as it has threatened, to hunt down Kurdish rebels it accuses of carrying out terrorist raids inside Turkey. "We hope there would not be a unilateral military action across the border into Iraq," Gates told a news conference after meetings here with Asian government officials. Turkey and Iraq were not represented. Gates said he sympathized with the Turks' concern about cross-border raids by Kurdish rebels. "The Turks have a genuine concern with Kurdish terrorism that takes place on Turkish soil," he said. "So one can understand their frustration and unhappiness over this. Several hundred Turks lose their lives each year, and we have been working with the Turks to try to help them get control of this problem on Turkish soil." Tensions have heightened in recent weeks in northern Iraq as Turkey has built up its military forces on Iraq's border, a move clearly meant to pressure Iraq to rein in the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, separatists who launch raids into southeast Turkey's Kurdish region from hideouts in Iraq. Turkey's political and military leaders have been debating whether to try to root out those bases, and perhaps set up a buffer zone across the frontier as the Turkish army has done in the past. Turkey's military chief said Thursday the army was ready and only awaiting orders for a cross-border offensive. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday urged Turkey not to stage a new incursion, saying his government will not allow the relatively peaceful area of northern Iraq to be turned into a battleground. Turks accuse Iraqi Kurds, who once fought alongside the Turkish soldiers against the PKK in Iraq, of supporting the separatist rebels and worry that the war in Iraq could lead to the country's disintegration and the creation of a Kurdish state in the north. At the Singapore news conference Gates was asked about a reported U.S. naval bombardment on Friday of terrorist targets in northern Somalia. "That's possibly an ongoing operation," he said, adding that as a result he would not comment on it. Gates was in Singapore to attend an international security conference known as the Shangri-la Dialogue, where he reassured Asian nations that the United States remains committed to being a Pacific power and is not distracted by the Iraq war. He said he did not ask any Asian government representatives to make new commitments to help in Iraq, but he did discuss with them at length the prospect of providing more assistance in Afghanistan. He said some countries, which he did not name, told him they were open to considering new commitments in Afghanistan. ? 2007 The Associated Press. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:53:36 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:53:36 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Afghanistan: convoy ambushed 2 dead, 7 wounded Message-ID: <20070604155336.169e44d3@viola.tamara-b.org> AP - Jun 3, 2007 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AFGHANISTAN?SITE=ALANN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT NATO service member dies in Afghanistan By AMIR SHAH Associated Press Writer KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Suspected militants ambushed a NATO convoy in eastern Afghanistan, killing two members of the alliance and wounding seven troops, while 15 suspected militants were killed by police, officials said Sunday. The convoy was attacked Saturday with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. It said a service member and a translator were killed. The ISAF statement did not give any details about the location of the attack or the nationalities of the casualties. Militant attacks and military operations have escalated this spring, mostly in the country's south and east. NATO and Afghan security forces launched operations in three southern provinces aimed at disrupting the militant supply network and extending the government's reach in these volatile areas, said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi. The offensive began earlier this week in Helmand, Kandahar and Ghazni. There were no report of major clashes so far, Azimi said. Separately, in eastern Khost province, militants attacked a police checkpoint in Yaqubi district on Saturday and the ensuing clash left 12 militants dead, a statement from the Interior Ministry said. Also Saturday, police clashed with Taliban militants in neighboring Paktika province's Shakin district, leaving three suspected insurgents dead, said Ghamai Khan, spokesman for the governor. A foreign military convoy, meanwhile, opened fire on a civilian vehicle attempting to overtake it in Khost, killing a young girl on Saturday, said Wazir Pascha, a spokesman for the provincial police chief. Officials with NATO and the U.S.-led coalition, which both operate in the area, could not immediately confirm the incident. In the country's most dangerous province, Helmand, a makeshift boat carrying fighters fleeing fighting sank Friday while crossing a river, leaving an estimated 60 Taliban militants dead, Azimi said. He did not say what caused the boat to sink. "They were fleeing from the pressure of our operations in the areas," of Kajaki and Sangin, Azimi said. Hundreds of Taliban insurgents are believed to be in Helmand, the world's leading opium poppy region and the site of fierce battles in the last several months. The Afghan army was investigating how many Taliban insurgents and how many civilians were on board the boat, the Defense Ministry said. It did not say what caused the boat to sink. Meanwhile, 34 suspected Taliban were killed in several gunbattles over two days in the southern province's Kajaki district, near where a U.S. helicopter went down on Thursday, killing five Americans, a Canadian and a Briton. The Interior Ministry said four Taliban group commanders were among the 34 killed. The Defense Ministry said two Afghan soldiers were killed and two wounded in the operations. More than 1,900 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on U.S., NATO and Afghan officials. ? 2007 The Associated Press. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:57:46 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:57:46 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] 78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes Message-ID: <20070604155746.22bfe3c1@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Dave Muller (southnews) - Jun 3, 2007 Counterpunch - Jun 1, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/ross06012007.html The Secret Carnage 78,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed by Coalition Airstrikes By SHERWOOD ROSS An estimated 78,000 Iraqis were killed by U.S. and Coalition air strikes from the start of the war through June of last year, an article in "The Nation" magazine says. The estimate is based on the supposition that 13 percent of the 601,000 Iraqis who met violent deaths reported by The Lancet study released last October "had been killed by bomb, missile, rocket or cannon up to last June," author Nick Turse writes in the June 11th issue of the weekly magazine. "There are indications that the air war has taken an especially grievous toll on Iraqi children," Turse said. "Figures provided by the Lancet study suggest that 50 percent of all violent deaths of Iraqi children under 15 in that same period (March 2003 through June 2006) were due to coalition airstrikes." Since April, 2003, Turse reports, the U.S. has dropped at least 59,787 pounds of cluster bombs in Iraq, a type of weapon Human Rights Watch(HRW) termed "the single greatest risk civilians face with regard to a current weapon that is in use." The author notes cluster bombs have "a high failure rate" so that unexploded bomblets that fall to ground become, in fact, landmines which, Marc Garlasco of HRW points out, are "already banned by most nations." Garlasco, the HRW senior military analyst, says, "I don't see how any use of the current U.S. cluster-bomb arsenal in proximity to civilian objects can be defended in any way as being legal or legitimate." At a time when many nations are moving toward banning cluster munitions, the U.S. China, Israel, Pakistan and Russia are opposing new limits of any kind. At a conference in Oslo last February, 46 of 48 governments supported an international ban on cluster bombs by 2008. The cluster bomb bursts above ground and releases hundreds of smaller "bomblets" that create a kill radius about the size of a football field, shredding virtually every object in the zone. Aside from these deadly devices, Air Force officials acknowledge Coalition aircraft dropped at least 111,000 pounds of other types of bombs in Iraq last year as part of 10,519 "close air support missions," author Turse said. According to Les Roberts, co-author of two surveys of mortality in Iraq published in the British medical journal The Lancet, "Rocket and cannon fire could account for most coalition-attributed civilian deaths." The magazine quotes him further as stating, "I find it disturbing that they (Pentagon) will not release this (figure), but even more disturbing that they have not released such information to Congressmen who have requested it." Turse's article is titled, "The Secret Air War in Iraq," and alleges "The devastation from U.S. bombing is underreported---and may be increasing." He writes, "That an occupying power regularly conducts airstrikes in or near dense population centers should have raised serious concerns in the mainstream media, unfortunately, reports on the air war are sparse and mostly confined to regurgitations of military announcements." "..Until reporters begin bypassing official U.S. military pronouncements and locating Iraqi sources, we will remain largely in the dark regarding the secret and deadly U.S. air war in Iraq," Turse concludes. [Sherwood Ross is a Florida-based writer who covers military and political topics. Reach him at sherwoodr1 at yahoo.com] *** The Nation - Jun 11, 2007 issue http://www.thenation.com/issue/20070611 The Secret Air War in Iraq by Nick Turse Since World War II air power has been key to the American way of warfare--and civilian casualties have been a constant result, from Japan and Korea to Southeast Asia and now Afghanistan and Iraq. This year a seeming surge in airstrikes has led to a corresponding spike in civilian casualties. For example, in a two-day span in May, an airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed at least twenty-one civilians, while a US helicopter attack north of Baghdad killed five civilians, including two children. Yet very little is known about the air war. Due to an apparent disregard by the mainstream media, with a few notable exceptions, the full story remains one of the best-kept secrets of the Iraq War. What we do know is that since the major combat phase of the war ended in April 2003, the United States has dropped at least 59,787 pounds of cluster bombs in Iraq--the very type of weapon that Marc Garlasco, the senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch (HRW), calls "the single greatest risk civilians face with regard to a current weapon that is in use." And expert opinion argues that rocket and cannon fire from US aircraft may account for most coalition-attributed Iraqi civilian deaths. The Pentagon has restocked hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of these weapons in recent years....... From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 15:59:19 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:59:19 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Solidarity demo with Anti-G8 activists in German embassy, London Message-ID: <20070604155919.6401a5b9@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by mart - Jun 3, 2007 A.Feikneim | 02.06.2007 20:17 | G8 Germany 2007 Solidarity demonstration with Anti-G8 activists in German embassy, London. Demo in solidarity with anti-G8 protestors in Germany and the world, in opposition to heavy police brutality and surveillance of demonstrators and social centres. Tuesday the 5th of June, midday, outside the German embassy in London: Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany 23 Belgrave Square London SW1X 8PZ Tel. 020 7824 1300 Fax. 020 7824 1449 Bring banners, noise-making stuff, literature and most importantly anger and energy. Please forward widely through all medias. A.Feikneim From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 16:01:01 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 16:01:01 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Mass Demonstration against G-8 in Rostock Message-ID: <20070604160101.282747fa@viola.tamara-b.org> Bloomberg - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUEjb2hq7an0&refer=home G-8 Opponents Decry Group's Policies in Rostock By Patrick Donahue German police in the northern city of Rostock used water canons and tear gas to break up rock-throwing protesters today at a demonstration against next week's summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Marchers from an array of activist groups -- Greenpeace, anti-capitalist group Attac, Germany's Left Party, church groups and labor unions -- decried policies of the world's richest nations that they say harm the poor and the environment. Police estimated about 25,000 people participated, while protesters said the figure exceeded 80,000. Police spokesman Franz Blang said 146 of the 16,000 police officers deployed were injured, 18 of them seriously, as some protesters turned violent. Police responded with tear gas and water canons after men wearing black hoods and masks set a car and barrels on fire, sending black plumes of smoke over Rostock's harbor. Crowds surged toward the city's port with signs reading ``No War for Oil'' and ``Neoliberal Capitalism: the System of Blood Suckers.'' Altun Ismail, a print-press worker and member of the Turkish Communist Party who has lived in Germany for four years, said he had driven with six companions from Stuttgart. ``We're against imperialism,'' he said, clutching a Soviet flag. Protest organizer Werner Raetz, a coordinator with anti- capitalist group Attac, said the protest was mostly peaceful. `Huge Success' A police helicopter hovered close above the ground as demonstrators gathered around a concert stage on the edge of the harbor, with banners from anti-capitalist and environmental groups unfurled from ships' masts. Authorities had expected as many as 100,000 people would rally. ``This is a huge success for us,'' Raetz told reporters. ``We hope that the movement of globalization critics will be a force to be reckoned with.'' World leaders meet June 6-8 about 15 kilometers (9 miles) away in Heiligendamm, a 213-year-old complex of white classical buildings that was sealed off three days ago. Police were bracing for the arrival of skinhead and neo-Nazi members after a court shut down their protest in nearby Schwerin, police spokesman Axel Falkenberg said. A court in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania rejected a march in Schwerin, the state capital, by members of the National Democratic Party that planned to draw some 1,500. The decision, posted on the court's Web site, cited the potential for violence. Boarded Storefronts Rostock shopkeepers boarded up storefronts in preparation for the day's marches. Two Hamburg-Rostock trains were damaged earlier in the day, one by ``right-wing,'' the other by ``radical left'' groups, Falkenberg said. The trains were stopped and police were deployed. Tensions between protestors and German authorities have been heightened since a series of nationwide police raids on May 9 of 40 offices, apartments, book stores and cultural centers. Demonstrations in a swathe around the 12-kilometer barbed-wire perimeter fence that seals in Heiligendamm have been banned. Protesters are challenging the measures in court. To prevent potential attacks by sea, a special coast-guard unit will be sent in, helped by a four-kilometer-long submerged net. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 16:16:45 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 16:16:45 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Migrants See Abuse in Guest Worker Jobs Message-ID: <20070604161645.038d8383@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) AP via IB Times - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070602/farmworker-fraud.htm Migrants See Abuse in Guest Worker Jobs By Laura Wides-Munoz The Associated Press Arcadia, Fla. - Kenny Jesus Zavala heard too many horror stories to enter the U.S. illegally. But when a recruiter came to his central Mexico hometown and offered him a legal path as a temporary worker, it sounded too good to pass up. The recruiter promised that with an H-2A agriculture work visa, Zavala would earn $8.56 an hour picking oranges with no fear of sudden deportation. Zavala, 21, earned that much, but as soon as he cashed his check, the contractor would steal a third of the pay. "The contractor told us that if we spoke up, no one would want to hire us again," said Zavala of Moroleon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. "It's worse than for the illegals because you're not free to go. You have to stay with the contractor that brought you." The agriculture guest worker program was designed to provide a stable, legal work force for agriculture with safe working conditions for the immigrants, without adversely affecting local wages. More than 37,000 such visas were issued nationwide last year, primarily to Mexicans. But farm worker advocates say the act has not met its goals - workers are still abused and often left dependent on middlemen who steal their money. And they say it shields corporate growers from lawsuits and sanctions over lost wages, leaving the workers with nowhere to turn. An Associated Press review of temporary farmworker requests in Florida found nearly two-thirds were filed by contractors. Advocates want Congress to address those problems as it contemplates reauthorizing thousands more temporary farm workers under the proposed immigration bill. Zavala was one of nearly a dozen migrant workers in central Florida who told The AP about being forced to pay contractors kickbacks. Most declined to give their names for fear of retribution. Many are afraid to file complaints because the contractors decide who gets to come back the following year. The contractors also provide worker housing, serve as translators and often offer the only ride to the grocery store or to the doctor. Unscrupulous contractors once doctored the hours of the employees to steal from them. But as more large growers switch to electronic timekeeping, they are finding new means to squeeze money from the workers, said Mary Bauer, who recently co-wrote a study on the U.S. guest worker program for the Southern Poverty Law Center. "This seems like a new variation on an old theme," Bauer said. "Growers create this system where they claim the workers are not their employees to get cover. They benefit from it, and the contractors benefit, but the workers don't." Her group wants the U.S. to require growers - not the contractors - to file guest worker requests with the federal Labor Department and step up enforcement of existing guest worker protection laws. Walter Kates, who heads labor relations for the growers' Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, said growers rely on the contractors because the current visa system is so convoluted - employers must get approval from four different federal and state agencies. That makes it impossible to guarantee they will get their workers on time without contractors. "If there are problems out there, the majority of the industry condemns them as much as anyone else does. We don't condone cheating workers, and we don't want to be labeled with that black brush," Kates said. Because the workers are loath to complain and lose their jobs, most keep quiet or return to their native country. A growing number are also opting to go the illegal route where they are not dependent on one contractor. Mexico City native Genaro Flores, 26, decided to go home in March after two weeks of losing money to the man who hired him. He has since returned to the U.S. illegally, working in Atlanta as a day laborer. "It's a lot better here," he said. "I'm making money and I don't have to give it to the contractor." The contractor system, in which independent harvest companies supply workers to large corporate growers, has exploded in the last 20 years. Many of these operations can fold up quickly if sued and lack the deep pockets of larger agriculture conglomerates. A review of petitions requesting 4,700 guest worker permits in Florida since last September, showed about 75 percent were filed by contractors rather than growers, especially in the citrus industry. Tomato growers, who need more help year-round, are far less likely to rely on a middleman. Part of the problem is that the contractor is caught between the grower and the worker. The current H-2A agriculture visa allows workers to come to the U.S. for three- to six-month periods if local help cannot be found. The temporary workers must receive above average pay - $8.56 an hour in Florida. Yet citrus pickers, the largest percentage of Florida's guest workers, are usually paid by the number of oranges they pick and not by the hour. They have to pick about one orange every two seconds to reach $8.56 an hour. Many do not, especially those attracted by the promise of a legal job who may not have a background in farm work. And growers don't necessarily subsidize the makeup pay the contractors must shell out, said Greg Schell, an attorney for Florida Rural Legal Services. Complaints can backfire. Consolidated Citrus LP, which employs Zavala's boss, Benjamin Ramirez Harvesting, threatened to fire at least one contractor in the wake of worker complaints about pay. That would have left all the workers out of a job. In response to the workers' concerns, Consolidated handed out written messages to workers with their checks reminding them they "were under no obligation" to give money to Ramirez. He did not return repeated calls from the AP. Mike Bartos, Consolidated human resources head, said he could not discuss ongoing cases but said the company had received complaints from Rural Legal Services, which prompted the messages. He said the company offers training for contractors and brings in federal and state agencies to talk with them about labor issues. "If something like this is going on, (Consolidated) would not tolerate it," he said. Earlier this year, Schell signed roughly 20 people to a claim against the kickbacks. By May, all but four had returned early to Mexico, including Zavala, or no longer wanted to press their case fearing retaliation. Zavala said Ramirez kept the temporary Social Security cards of those who left, meaning they could be used again for other workers. For now, Zavala is biding his time, hoping his early return won't affect his ability to get a visa next year. He wants to return to the U.S. legally to work for a friend gardening in Chicago. If that doesn't work out, he might come back illegally across the desert. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:10:39 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:10:39 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Clashes Erupted during Protests on G-8 Summit in Germany Message-ID: <20070604171039.120632bc@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Clashes Erupted during Protests on G-8 Summit in Germany Havana, June 4 (acn) Nearly 1,000 were injured and 165 arrested over the weekend in, Rostock, Germany, as a result of clashes that erupted during protests against the gathering of the world's most industrialized nations plus Russia, to take place next June 6-8 in that country. International media outlets reported that some 430 police officers and 520 demonstrators resulted injured in the clashes. Silke Studzinsky, who works with emergency services, said that some 30 demonstrators are seriously injured, many with broken limbs, Granma daily reported. The confrontations between demonstrators and police comes just days before the G-8 Summit begins in Heiligendamm, a spa in northeast Germany that is completed surrounded by walls, police and the military. The demonstration is the first in a series of protests, planned against neo-liberal globalization, taking place all week long at the entrance of the summit zone. It began peacefully and almost ended as such when a group attacked a police unit, according to official reports. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:23:12 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:23:12 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Castro Looks Strong on Cuban TV with Vietnamese official Message-ID: <20070604172312.450072a2@viola.tamara-b.org> CNN - Jun 3, 2007 http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/06/03/cuba.castro/index.html?eref=rss_world Castro on Cuban TV with Vietnamese official HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- For the first time in four months, Cuban leader Fidel Castro was shown standing and talking in video footage that aired on state-run Cuban TV. Castro, 80, was seen early Sunday laughing, smiling and standing without assistance in an apparent meeting with Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh. Castro has not appeared in public since emergency surgery forced him to hand over power 10 months ago to his brother Raul Castro. While Castro's recovery has been evident in an increasing number of editorials published in Cuban newspapers, he has not shown signs of resuming his power over the communist island. (Watch Castro stand, chat with visitor Video) In the past 10 months, Castro has appeared in numerous videos and photos wearing track suits. In keeping with his previous appearances, during Sunday's televised appearance he donned a red and black track suit with white piping -- a sign that he was not meeting with Manh in any formal, official capacity. "If he were to resume power he would be wearing an olive green uniform," CNN's Shasta Darlington in Havana reported. "Since he handed power July 31 last year to Raul, we have only seen him in track suits." Castro relinquished his presidential powers to his brother after undergoing intestinal surgery, calling the move temporary. The switch touched off a flurry of speculation that the communist leader, who came to power in 1959, might be dying. Although Sunday was the first time in months he has been seen in a televised encounter, it is not the first time he has spoken to the public. In recent weeks, Castro has penned numerous editorials, many of them on the topic of ethanol. On May 24, Castro wrote a message published in Cuban newspapers discussing his recent health problems. The message detailed that he has undergone several operations, some of which were unsuccessful, but that his condition has now stabilized. *** AP - Jun 3, 2007 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CUBA_VIETNAM_CASTRO?SITE=ALANN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Castro looks strong in rare video image By ANITA SNOW Associated Press Writer HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro looked stronger Sunday in the first images the government has released of him in months, showing him in a brief videotape and four photographs meeting with the visiting Vietnamese Communist Party chief. In the video clip shown on state television, and four photographs of his two-hour meeting with Nong Duc Manh published Sunday in the Communist youth newspaper Juventud Rebelde, Castro appeared to be wearing the same red track suit with black and white trim that he wore in some of the past images released by the government. In one photograph, the pair is seen sitting on rattan chairs and chatting, and in the other three they are standing, including one that shows them embracing. The 80-year-old Castro has not been seen in public since he announced on July 31 that he had undergone emergency intestinal surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul, the Defense Minister, who turns 76 on Sunday. Castro's exact ailment and condition remain state secrets, but he is largely believed to suffer from diverticular disease, which forms sacs in the colon that can become inflamed and bleed. In one of a new series of essays he has been writing during his convalescence, Castro said he had undergone numerous operations and the first one had not gone well, explaining why his recovery has been delayed. Nevertheless, senior Cuban officials have repeatedly said Castro is on the mend and the government has occasionally released photographs and videotapes during his recovery. The video was the the first of Castro released by the government since a meeting in Havana in late January with his friend and ally Hugo Chavez; the photos were the first released since he met with the Chinese Communist Party leader Wu Guanzheng in April. The meeting between the Cuban and Vietnamese leaders was first reported by state television Saturday night on the regular news broadcast, but the images were not released until hours later. The statement said Castro and Manh met for two hours, discussing themes "of mutual interest and especially about Latin America and the Caribbean." ? 2007 The Associated Press. *** AFP via Caribbean Net News - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-1837--5-5--.html Castro practically recovered: Cuba's Alarcon WASHINGTON USA (AFP): Cuban leader Fidel Castro has nearly recovered from intestinal surgery, the third-most powerful man in Cuba said in an interview with CNN, without mentioning whether Castro would return to the presidency. "He practically -- practically we can say that he has fully recovered," said National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon. "He still has to continue a very strict regime of exercising, rehabilitation," said Alarcon. Castro, now 80, has been recovering from intestinal surgery since handing power over to his younger brother, Raul Castro, on July 31. Castro has not been seen in public since, but has in recent weeks written a flurry of article for publication in official newspapers. Most recently, he accused US President George W. Bush of trying to kill him. However, when asked, Alarcon did not offer evidence to support Castro's accusation. Alarcon stuck to Cuba's policy of treating the nature of Castro's illness as a state secret by ducking a question about it: Castro "described the problem as a very delicate surgery that he has to have -- several, not just one surgery," Alarcon said. "The worst moments are behind him." Alarcon did not say whether Castro was expected to return to power as Cuba's leader. Traveling in Madrid, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday called for a democratic transition in Cuba. Reacting to the comment, Alarcon said: "I wish that someday there will be a democratic transition in the United States, that there will be a regime change in your country, a change from war to peace, a change from arrogance and this kind of interfering in everybody's affairs." Reuters via The Washington Post - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060200813.html Change in Cuba only after Castro dies: US Commerce Secretary By Tom Brown Reuters MIAMI (Reuters) - The United States will have to wait until Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies to see if a better future is in store for his communist-ruled Caribbean island, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Saturday. He also acknowledged that President George W. Bush may leave office without seeing any of the changes his administration has pushed for in Cuba. "He (Castro) has tilted Cuba toward the failed model that exists today, and we'll have to wait and see if the future is better when he is no longer around," Gutierrez told Reuters in an interview. His comments appeared to mark a dramatic shift from just a few months ago, when Gutierrez said Cuba was at a "critical juncture" in its history and poised for change. Gutierrez, a Cuban-American, co-chairs a commission created by Bush to press for a democratic transition in Cuba. He was in Miami, the heartland of Cuban exile opposition to Castro, to address a meeting of Latin American chambers of commerce and industry. He spoke when asked about a top Cuban official's claim that Castro was now fully on the mend after an intestinal ailment that put his life at risk last year. Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon told CNN on Friday that Castro, 80, who handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul Castro on July 31 after emergency surgery, had put the "worst behind him." Gutierrez told Reuters "no one really knows" about Castro's health, apart perhaps from those in his inner circle. But he said no one should look for changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba, which Washington has long sought to isolate through an economic embargo, without a major shake-up in Cuban government policies. He did not elaborate on what specific changes could prompt a lifting of the embargo, which has been in place for more than four decades. He stressed that Washington was looking for something more than "changes around the edges," however. "Change needs to happen in Cuba," Gutierrez said. "We are firm on that ... change needs to happen on the island." Acknowledging that Bush could leave office in January 2009 with Cuba is still "stuck in the 20th century," as he sees it, Gutierrez said it would be "a shame" for everyone. "The people who will continue to suffer are the people in Cuba," he added. "They lack everything, they will continue to lack everything because of failed policies." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:33:52 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:33:52 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Schwarzenegger Breaches Cuba Blockade on Canada Visit Message-ID: <20070604173352.30575d1d@viola.tamara-b.org> Canadian Press/Ottawa Citizen via Vancouver Sun - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=f534cffb-e348-47e5-a289-52185b3792cf&k=13459 Governator [sic] breaks Cuba embargo in Canada Tongues are wagging in California after a potential breach of American law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during his recent visit to Ottawa. Schwarzenegger was on his way out of the nation's capital after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, when his five-car motorcade made an unexpected stop, the Ottawa Citizen reported. The governor got out and walked into the Westin Hotel to get a cigar - a Cuban cigar. It's illegal to sell them in American stores because of a long-standing embargo, and Americans aren't legally allowed to smoke them, even while out of country. At around 8 p.m. Wednesday, Rahmat Assad, an employee at International News Plus, was told by a police officer a special guest would soon be arriving. Assad was stunned to see Schwarzenegger walk in, accompanied by 10 police officers and security guards. "I was very surprised," he told the Citizen. "I couldn't believe my eyes. I've seen his movies." He said the governor, clad in a light blue shirt, wasn't in the store for long. An aide bought him the Cuban cigar - a Partagas - for $15.99. "They paid for it, he put it in his mouth, and he left," Assad said, adding he was so excited at the time he can't remember what Schwarzenegger said. After leaving the tiny shop, the motorcade left for the airport where the governor caught a flight to Vancouver. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the brief stop was unusual, but not unprecedented. Schwarzenegger's love of stogies is no secret, but McLear would not comment on his attitude toward the U.S. embargo of Cuban goods. "He stopped by, smoked it, nothing else," McLear said. "I don't know what kind of cigar it was and it's gone now." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:38:49 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:38:49 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Nahr al-Bared Update & March/ Lobby for a Just Peace in Palestine - Jun 10-11 Message-ID: <20070604173849.203b33f1@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Jeff Blankfort via Ed Pearl - Jun 3, 2007 This is an update from Franklin Lamb regarding the situation at Nahr al-Bared Saturday, June 3, 2007.-JB Saturday, June 3, 4 a.m. Tripoli Time Contrary to many media reports the Lebanese Army has not entered deeply into Nahr al-Bared. According to PLO Fatah official Abu Imad Halwani this morning, the Army has "not entered the camp, but have been besieging it from the north and the east". The army has heavily shelled much of the camp but the positions they currently control include only peripheral sniper positrons of Fatah al-Islam around the edge of the camp. There are many untouched underground bunkers and tunnels. Media and Army estimates of casualties are very speculative since no one has any idea, with 20 hours of intensive shelling. How many are dead or wounded there are among civilians and Fatah al-Islam. Two hours ago the Army announced that it lost 5 more troops today bringing its total to 40. The government and Army are disposed to minimizing the number of civilians killed by their bombardment lest the other 11 Palestinian Camps in Lebanon erupt with violence. What is clear is that the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians inside Nahr al-Bared is almost beyond description, with up to 11,000 hunkered down praying they will remain alive. It appears that the next two days will clarify whether they army actually has made deep inroads towards taking the Camp and expelling Fatah al-Islam who minutes ago denied that their leader, Shakir al-Absi is wounded or cornered, according to FAI's deputy leader and military commander, Mohammad Abu Hureira. FL *** sent by Leslie Cagan, UFPJ - May 31, 2007 June 10-11: March & Lobby for a Just Peace in Palestine & Israel On Sunday, June 10th, people from around the country will gather in Washington, DC, to protest 40 years of Israel's illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The economic, military and political support from Washington has made it possible for this brutal occupation to continue. We will be in the nation's capital to call on Congress to set a new direction for U.S. policy in the region. This mobilization is taking place as the crisis in Gaza gets worse: 46% of the population is hungry, and unemployment has grown from 30% in 2000 to 71% in 2007, while 80,000 security personnel and civil servants have not been paid for months. The internal divisions in Gaza are fanned by U.S. policies, which undermine the unity government elected by the Palestinian people. At the same time, there is an extremely serious situation in Lebanon as, according to the Associated Press, "The Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp is ringed by hundreds of soldiers, backed by artillery and tanks, in place to storm the camp and prevent militants from fleeing." It is estimated that 1/2 of the 30,000 Palestinians in this camp have fled, leaving 15,000 still facing this danger. United for Peace and Justice is working with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation on this timely effort. Without a just peace for all of the people in the region, there will be no end to the fighting and suffering. And without an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, there will be no peace throughout the entire region. With ten days until the demonstration, there is still a great deal of organizing to do. We urge you to make plans now to join us in Washington, DC, and to do whatever you can to help get the word out. The weekend will include a number of activities, and we encourage you to participate in as many of them as you can. The major events are: * Sunday, June 10th, Rally and March: Rally at 2 pm on the West Lawn of the Capitol, followed by a march at 4 pm to the White House. For a list of the confirmed speakers, click here. * Monday, June 11th, Grassroots Lobby Day: After a morning training session, people will attend meetings in the offices of members of Congress. Organizing for June 10-11 is taking place in many cities and towns around the country, and in a wide range of communities and constituencies. We call your attention to three specific efforts, and we hope you will circulate this information: 1. A group of about 20 prominent activists in the African-American community have issued an open "Letter to Black America on Palestinian Rights and June 10th March & Rally." 2. Jewish Voice for Peace is organizing a Jewish contingent to march in the demonstration on June 10th. 3. One of the rally speakers is Cindy Corrie of the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. Cindy's daughter Rachel was killed by the Israeli army in March 2003 while she stood to nonviolently protect the home of a Palestinian family from being demolished. Cindy Corrie has made a video clip encouraging everyone to attend the June 10-11 mobilization in DC. Watch the video and then pass it on to everyone you know: Google Video / YouTube. UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545 To subscribe, visit www.unitedforpeace.org/email From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:41:49 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:41:49 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Abunimah: S. Africa Shows A Single State Can Succeed Message-ID: <20070604174149.4133d831@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Ed Pearl Christian Science Monitor - May 14, 2007 http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0514/p09s01-coop.html A political marriage of necessity: a single state of Palestine-Israel The case of South Africa shows that a unity government can succeed. By Ali Abunimah Chicago - As Israel celebrates 59 years of independence, Palestinians on May 14 commemorate the Nakba, the catastrophe of expulsion and decades of exile that continue to this day. When my mother was 9 years old, she and her family mounted the back of a pickup truck and left their village of Lifta, adjacent to Jerusalem, under threat from Zionist militias. My grandmother covered the furniture in the family home that my grandfather had built. Anticipating a short absence until fighting in the area died down, they took only a few clothes. That was almost six decades ago. Like hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians, they were never allowed to return, and their property was seized by Israel. My mother remembers her early childhood and the Jewish neighbors who rented the apartment her father owned. She recalls helping them on the Sabbath and playing with their daughter after school. A life such as this is no more than a distant memory for most Palestinian refugees, who, with their descendants, now number more than 5 million. But a better life needn't be just a memory. It is feasible for Palestinians to return to their homeland while peace with Israelis is built at the same time. Another diplomatic push will not bring about the fantasy of neat separation of Israelis and Palestinians into two states. This would only perpetuate inequality and division. Instead, international pressure should be put on Israel to drop its insistence on supremacy over Palestinians. Then both parties can come together to begin building a single, multiethnic state where Jews and Palestinians can again live side by side. One of the hard - but not impossible - tasks will be convincing many Israelis of the viability of a single-state solution. In 2004, for example, Israeli historian Benny Morris, who has written several books documenting the forced expulsion of the Palestinians, said that a "Jewish state would not have come into existence without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was necessary to uproot them." But Mr. Morris is no bleeding heart. He added, "There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing." If Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, could be faulted, Morris said, it was because he "did not complete the transfer in 1948." Millions of Palestinians live in squalid camps under Israeli military rule and in surrounding countries. Israel has refused to allow these refugees to return home as required by international law. The reason is simple: From its inception, the Zionist movement set out to turn a country where the vast majority of people were not Jewish into a country that gives special rights and privileges to Jews at the expense of non-Jews. If Palestinian refugees were black Africans, no one would dispute an "apartheid" label that former US president Jimmy Carter has used to describe the situation. But while some see Israel as a miracle, many Israelis themselves recognize that the Zionist project has been far from a success: Today the number of Israeli Jews and Palestinians inhabiting the country is roughly equal at about 5 million each. Just more than 1 million Palestinians live as citizens of Israel, albeit with inferior rights, while almost 4 million live under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Their high birthrate means that in a few years, Palestinians will once again become the majority as they were prior to 1948. To assert, as Israel does, that it has a right to be a "Jewish state" means to recognize that it has a right to manipulate demographics for the purpose of ethnic domination. This outlook violates fundamental human rights. Palestinians, many of whom are already being forcibly displaced by the cruel wall that snakes through the West Bank, fear another 1948-like expulsion. At the last Israeli election, parties that explicitly endorse ethnic cleansing of Palestinians made major gains, including the one led by Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Palestine/Israel is as unpartitionable as was South Africa and Northern Ireland, where similar ethnic conflicts had also defied resolution for generations. In both places, it was only when the dominant group dropped its insistence on supremacy that a political settlement could be reached. What was once unimaginable happened: Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and F.W. de Klerk's National Party joined hands in a national unity government in 1994. Leaders in Northern Ireland made similar progress this year. Neither political marriage came about through love, but through necessity and with outside pressure. In time, social reconciliation may come, but it has not been the prerequisite for political progress in South Africa or Northern Ireland. Such pressure on Israel as the strongest party is necessary, which is why I support the growing movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions modeled on the antiapartheid campaign. At the same time, we must begin to construct a vision of a nonracial, nonsectarian Palestine-Israel, which belongs to all the people who live in it, Israeli Jews, Palestinians, and all exiles who want to return and live in peace with their neighbors. [Ali Abunimah is cofounder of the online publication The Electronic Intifada and author of "One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse."] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:44:01 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:44:01 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] In Clash With Marines, Reservists Gain Ally in VFW Message-ID: <20070604174401.367e9fd9@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) The Washington Post - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/01/AR2007060102421.html In Clash With Marines, Reservists Gain Ally in VFW By David Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer The national commander of the proud, patriotic, 2.4 million strong Veterans of Foreign Wars (motto: "Honor the dead by helping the living") took one look at the mushrooming dispute between three antiwar Marine reservists and the U.S. Marine Corps, and knew where his sympathies lay: with the protesters. "What the Marine Corps is trying to do is hush up and punish these individuals who served our country," Gary Kurpius, the national commander, said in a telephone interview. "All they're doing is exercising the same democratic voice we're trying to instill over in Iraq right now." The Marines have accused the three reservists, all members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, of wearing their uniforms during political protests and making "disrespectful" or "disloyal" statements. All three were honorably discharged from active duty, but now face "other than honorable" discharges from the inactive reserve, which could affect future employment and veterans benefits. The VFW issued a blistering statement on the controversy yesterday. Headline: "VFW to Corps: Don't Stifle Freedom of Speech." Kurpius, an Army vet who fought in Vietnam, doesn't even agree with the protesters. "We're pretty much on record supporting the troops, and if you're going to support the troops, you're going to have to support their mission," he said. "I may disagree with the message . . . but I and my organization will always defend their right to say it." The Marines respond that this is not a free-speech case. Adam Kokesh, 25, one of the protesters, "violated Marine Corps uniform regulations and he was disrespectful to a commissioned officer," said Master Sgt. Ronald Spencer, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Mobilization Command in Kansas City, Mo. "That would be the issue. It has nothing to do with free speech." Kokesh, who fought in Fallujah and now is a graduate student at George Washington University, was wearing parts of his camouflage uniform in March during a demonstration where 13 veterans roamed Capitol Hill and downtown Washington carrying imaginary weapons to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq. When Kokesh was contacted by the major assigned to investigate the case, he responded with an e-mail about his service and opposition to the war, and concluded with a profane suggestion about what the major could go do. While all three reservists wore parts of their uniforms during demonstrations, at least one of the charges seems to involve speech only: Liam Madden, 22, of Boston, is accused of making disloyal statements in a speech where he accused the Bush administration of "war crimes"; said the conflict is a war "of aggression" and "empire building"; and said Bush "betrayed U.S. military personnel." Madden says he was not in uniform during that February speech in New York. Spencer, after addressing the uniform issue, said he needed a few hours to research questions about the alleged disloyal statements, then did not return messages to answer those questions. Maj. Stewart Upton, a Pentagon spokesman, referred those questions back to Spencer, saying, "I'm unable to speak to the legal reasoning behind the freedom of speech charges issued by the Marine Corps." Kokesh's lawyer, Michael Lebowitz, an Iraq Army vet with the Washington firm of Greenberg & Lieberman, says what's at stake is the very definition of a civilian. These reservists are among the 158,000 on the Individual Ready Reserve, a pool of discharged former active-duty soldiers and Marines who aren't paid, don't drill, have no chain of command, yet may be recalled to duty during the few years they are on inactive reserve. Lebowitz says they have the free-speech rights of civilians; the Marines disagree. "Someone in the Marine Corps needs to exercise a little common sense and put an end to this matter before it turns into a circus," said the VFW's Kurpius. The circus may already have arrived, in a white touring bus. Yesterday evening, Kokesh, 25, held a news conference at Union Station. Then he and his supporters boarded what they call the Yellow Rose of Texas Bus for Peace, festooned with flags and antiwar slogans for a road trip to Kansas City, where Kokesh faces a discharge hearing Monday. In the crowd was Tina Richards, an antiwar activist who is the mother of Cloy Richards, 23, who served two tours in Iraq -- and who was also investigated for wearing his uniform during protests. The young man is 80 percent disabled and can't afford to risk the $1,300 a month he receives in veteran's benefits. He has been told he could lose them if he receives an other-than-honorable discharge, according to his mother. "It's a form of intimidation and blackmail on the military's part to quiet the combat veterans who are speaking out against the war," said Tina Richards, who wears parts of her son's uniform to protest on his behalf. Kurpius noted the example of retired generals -- including at least one Marine -- criticizing the war effort, even though retired top officers retain certain obligations to the military. "I see them on CNN all the time, badmouthing the administration," Kurpius said. "Why is something not done about those individuals, when these poor troops are being hammered?" From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:47:15 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:47:15 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Coca-Cola Continues Environmental Abuses in India Message-ID: <20070604174715.33307b82@viola.tamara-b.org> India Resource Center http://www.indiaresource.org Coca-Cola Continues Environmental Abuses in India Community Demands Immediate Shut Down and Investigation For Immediate Release - June 4, 2007 New Delhi, India (June 4, 2007): In a shocking finding, another Coca-Cola bottling plant in India has been found to be operating in complete violation of environmental laws and regulations in India. A fact-finding team led by the India Resource Center to a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Sinhachawar in the state of Uttar Pradesh issued a report today detailing the violations. Specifically, the team found that: **The plant is indiscriminately dumping its sludge, considered to be industrial hazardous waste, across the plant premises, in complete violation of the laws regarding handling and disposal of industrial hazardous waste in India. **The Effluent Treatment Plant was non-operational, and the bottling plant was discharging its wastewater into surrounding agricultural fields and a canal that feeds into the river Ganges. **The plant did not disclose the amount of hazardous waste being used and generated, as required by the Supreme Court of India for all industrial units in India that deal with hazardous waste. The full report with images can be found at http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/cokebaliafact.html in Hindi at http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/baliahindireport.pdf Such careless disposal of the sludge and the wastewater results in the pollution of the agricultural lands, local water supplies as well as the food chain. At stake are the very lives and livelihoods of thousands of people who live around the bottling plant premises, who are primarily farmers. The findings are particularly disturbing because the Coca-Cola company has had ample time to align its operations in India with environmental rules and regulations, and it has been rapped for similar wrongdoings before. In 2003, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India assessed the sludge at eight Coca-Cola bottling plants, and found them all to contain excessive levels of lead, cadmium or chromium. As a result, the CPCB ordered the Coca-Cola company in India to treat its waste as industrial hazardous waste, and deal with it accordingly. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) also tested the sludge around the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada in Kerala in 2003, and found it to be toxic. The Coca-Cola company was distributing the toxic sludge to farmers as 'fertilizer', and was ordered by government authorities to stop the practice after the toxicity of the sludge was confirmed. The BBC report found that the toxins from the sludge had polluted the groundwater. The bottling plant in Sinhachawar is a Coca-Cola franchisee owned unit operated by the Brindavan Bottlers Limited, which is owned by India's largest bottler of Coca-Cola, the Ladhani Group of Companies. "Our lives have been made much more difficult after the Coca-Cola bottling plant began its operations here," said Mr. Baliram of the locally based Coca-Cola Bhagao, Krishi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Get Rid of Coke, Save Farming Struggle Committee). "We are demanding that the Coca-Cola plant be shut down immediately and be investigated for any wrongdoing." The fact finding team, which included twenty residents from the village of Sinhachawar, also heard complaints of illegal land acquisition by the bottling plant as well as the drying up of water wells and hand water pumps since the bottling plant began operations. "The Coca-Cola company is announcing to the world that it is an environmentally responsible company, and it has partnered with UN agencies and NGO's to paint a pretty green picture of itself. But all that is corporate social responsibility gone wrong because the reality on the ground is different. It is littered with toxic waste and a complete disregard and destruction of the way of life as many people in rural India know it," said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center. "Coca-Cola's track record in India is indicative of an arrogant company that operates with impunity," said Srivastava. The Coca-Cola company's operations in India have been challenged by various communities across India who are experiencing severe water shortages as well as polluted water and land as a result of the company's practices. The Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada, one of the company's largest in India, has been shut down since March 2004. The local campaigns to challenge Coca-Cola in India have found tremendous support internationally, and particularly among college and university students in the US, UK and Canada. Just last week, the prestigious Smith College in the US announced that it will no longer do business with the Coca-Cola company because of concerns in India, ending a five decade relationship with the Coca-Cola company. Over twenty colleges and universities have taken similar actions. The Central Pollution Control Board has been asked to investigate the pollution at the Sinhachawar bottling plant immediately, and other agencies dealing with water and land have also been asked to intervene in the matter of the offending Coca-Cola bottling plant in Sinhachawar. The fact finding team has recommended that the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Sinhachawar be shut down immediately to prevent any further damage to the community and the environment. For more information, visit http://www.indiaresource.org/ Contacts: Baliram, Coca-Cola Bhagao, Krishi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti +91 94507 79325 (India) (Hindi only) Amit Srivastava, India Resource Center +91 98103 46161 (India) +1 415 336 7584 (US) E: info at IndiaResource.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:51:01 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:51:01 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Hugo Chavez is no enemy of free speech Message-ID: <20070604175101.0a22bab7@viola.tamara-b.org> [Looks like this Op-Ed was picked up substantially unchanged from last week's LA Times. It's good to see the DSM is running it also. -NYTr] The Christian Science Monitor - June 4, 2007 http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0604/p09s01-coop.html Chavez is no enemy of free speech Hugo Chavez let Radio Caracas Televisisn continue to air for five years after the station supported a coup attempt. By Bart Jones Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Televisisn (RCTV) might seem to justify fears that Mr. Chavez is crushing free speech and eliminating any voices critical of him. Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; the Committee to Protect Journalists; and members of the European Parliament, the US Senate, and even Chile's Congress have denounced the closure of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest private television network. Chavez's detractors got more ammunition last week when the president included another opposition network, Globovisisn, among the "enemies of the homeland." But the case of RCTV - like most things involving Chavez - has been caught up in a web of misinformation. While one side of the story is getting headlines around the world, the other is barely heard. The demise of RCTV is indeed a sad event in some ways for Venezuelans. Founded in 1953, it was an institution in the country, having produced the long-running political satire program "Radio Rochela" and the blisteringly realistic nighttime soap opera "Por Estas Calles." It was RCTV that broadcast the first live-from-satellite images in Venezuela when it showed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969. But after Chavez was elected president in 1998, RCTV shifted to another endeavor: ousting a democratically elected leader from office. Controlled by members of the country's fabulously wealthy oligarchy, including RCTV chief Marcel Granier, it saw Chavez and his "Bolivarian Revolution" on behalf of Venezuela's majority poor as a threat. RCTV's most infamous effort to topple Chavez came during the April 11, 2002, coup attempt against him. For two days before the putsch, RCTV preempted regular programming and ran wall-to-wall coverage of a general strike aimed at ousting Chavez. A stream of commentators spewed vitriolic attacks against him - while permitting no response from the government. Then RCTV ran ads encouraging people to attend a march on April 11 aimed at toppling Chavez and broadcast blanket coverage of the event. When the march ended in violence, RCTV and Globovisisn ran manipulated video blaming Chavez supporters for scores of deaths and injuries. After military rebels overthrew Chavez and he disappeared from public view for two days, RCTV's biased coverage edged fully into sedition. Thousands of Chavez supporters took to the streets to demand his return, but none of that appeared on RCTV or other television stations. RCTV News Director Andris Izarra later testified at National Assembly hearings on the coup attempt that he received an order from superiors at the station: "Zero pro-Chavez, nothing related to Chavez or his supporters.. The idea was to create a climate of transition and to start to promote the dawn of a new country." While the streets of Caracas burned with rage, RCTV ran cartoons, soap operas, and old movies. On April 13, 2002, Mr. Granier and other media moguls met in the Miraflores palace to pledge support to the country's coup-installed dictator, Pedro Carmona, who had eliminated the Supreme Court, the National Assembly, and the Constitution. Would a network that aided and abetted a coup against the government be allowed to operate in the United States? The US government probably would have shut down RCTV within five minutes after a failed coup attempt - and thrown its owners in jail. Chavez's government allowed it to continue operating for five years and then declined to renew its 20-year license to use the public airwaves. It can still broadcast on cable or via satellite dish. Granier and others should not be seen as free-speech martyrs. Radio, TV, and newspapers remain uncensored and unthreatened by the government. Most Venezuelan media are still controlled by the old oligarchy and are staunchly anti-Chavez. If Granier had not decided to try to oust the country's president, Venezuelans might still be able to look forward to more broadcasts of "Radio Rochela." [Bart Jones spent eight years in Venezuela, mainly as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and is the author of the forthcoming book "Hugo! The Hugo Chavez Story, From Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution." ] )2007 Los Angeles Times Syndicate. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:52:31 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:52:31 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Lula rebuffs Bush move on climate change talks Message-ID: <20070604175231.6e104993@viola.tamara-b.org> The Guardian - June 4, 2007 http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2094756,00.html Brazil rejects Bush move on climate change talks by John Vidal and Julian Borger Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has flatly rejected President Bush's proposals for parallel global negotiations to combat climate change, insisting that countries come to agreement at the United Nations, and not under US leadership. In a rare interview with a British newspaper, President Lula told the Guardian that Brazil, a fast developing country whose support is critical to a global deal on emission cuts, had not even been informed that Mr Bush was contemplating a new negotiating framework, before the US president made his announcement last Thursday. "The Brazilian position is clear cut," Mr Lula said. "I cannot accept the idea that we have to build another group to discuss the same issues that were discussed in Kyoto and not fulfilled. "If you have a multilateral forum [the UN] that makes a democratic decision ... then we should work to abide by those rules [rather than] simply to say that I do not agree with Kyoto and that I will develop another institution," said Mr Lula, who was in London to watch Friday's England-Brazil international football friendly. The Bush administration has sought to cultivate President Lula as an ally, seeing the former trade unionist as a centre-left alternative in Latin America to the more radical anti-American socialism espoused by Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Presidents Bush and Lula also share an enthusiasm for the potential for "bio-fuels" made from plants as a substitute for fossil fuels. However, on overall climate change policy, President Lula was dismissive of the Bush approach, calling it "voluntarism", meaning a reliance on "coalitions of the willing" rather than establish global institutions and the pursuit of voluntary goals rather than binding commitments. "We cannot let voluntarism override multilateralism," he said. President Bush said last week that he wanted Brazil and other rapidly develo ping countries to join rich nations in what he called a "new framework" to curb greenhouse gas emissions as an alternative to the planned UN process. He said that later this year he would convene a series of meetings of the 15 nations that produced most greenhouse gas emissions. But Mr Lula, Brazil's president since 2003, rebuked Mr Bush for seemingly sidestepping the UN and not taking its global responsibilities seriously. "I am open-minded about talking to President Bush ... I will never refuse to discuss any idea, but we should respect the decisions made in the multilateral forums. It is the only thing we have all agreed on in a democratic way," he said. "If the US is the country that most contributes with greenhouse gases, in the world, it should assume more responsibility to reduce emissions." The German hosts of this week's G8 summit at Heiligendamm have also flatly rejected the idea of creating a separate process to deal with climate change. Chancellor Angela Merkel called it "non-negotiable". Tony Blair has been a lonely voice on the world stage, hailing the Bush plan as an "important step forward". President Lula will be one of five leaders of rapidly developing countries to join the G8 leaders in Germany, where he will champion Brazil's global leadership in the use of plant-derived ethanol for fuel. His promotion of bio-fuels has brought criticism from Mr Chavez, the continent's leading oil producer and Castro, who has argued that growing bio-fuels is equivalent to taking food crops from the mouths of the poor and putting it in the petrol tanks of the wealthy. Mr Lula picked his words on his fellow presidents carefully. "Its normal that those countries that have oil feel a bit strange about this idea of bio-fuels," he said, but he suggested it was time for the Latin American left to move beyond its instinctive anti-Americanism. "A long time ago I learned not to put the blame for backwardness in Brazil on the US," he said. "We have to blame ourselves. Our backwardness is caused by an elite which for a century didn't think about the majority and subordinated itself to foreign interests." Asked about the global legacy left by the Tony Blair, who has highlighted his own efforts to improve aid and trade conditions for developing countries, President Lula had little to say. "I didn't have much contact with prime minister Tony Blair," he noted. President Lula said the decisive moment in the current "Doha round" of talks would come in the next few weeks, with the G8 summit at a trade ministers' meeting due in mid-June. "I think that this month something has to happen. If nothing happens, we will go into history as a generation of politicians that failed humanity, especially the poor," the president said. "If there is no agreement on Doha round, it's useless to talk about fighting terrorism, its useless to fight organised crime because poverty is the principal seed for the growth of terrorism." The only more important issue in the world than trade, President Lula said, is climate change, and both are nearing a potential turning point. "In the Doha round, I want to solve the issues of today and tomorrow," the Brazilian leader said. "On the climate issue I have to solve the problem of planet earth, the only one we know of on which we can survive ... So for God's sake, let's take care of planet earth." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:54:59 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:54:59 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Darfur Advocacy Group Undergoes a Shake-Up Message-ID: <20070604175459.487c48b3@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) [The Executive Director of the Darfur Action Group was ousted, according to this article, because of his hawkish demands to end negotiations with the Sudanese Government, impose a no fly zone and insert a "multilateral" armed forces into the country. His ouster was not originated by the dread "anti-imperialist left" of myth but by people actually doing the work on the ground, people who saw that such escalation would do no good, but much harm and who were more interested in saving lives than in opening a new front on the war on terror.SR] The New York Times - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/world/africa/02darfur.html Darfur Advocacy Group Undergoes a Shake-Up By Stephanie Strom and Lydia Polgreen Even as advocacy groups attained the seeming triumph of President Bush's new sanctions against Sudan, the organization that helped bring the conflict in Darfur to the world's attention is in upheaval, firing its executive director, reorganizing its board and rethinking its strategies. At the heart of the shake-up are questions of whether the former executive director of the organization, the Save Darfur Coalition, wisely used a sudden influx of money from a few anonymous donors in an advertising blitz to push for action. The advertisements strained relationships with aid groups working on the ground in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, where at least 200,000 people have been killed and millions have fled their homes. Many of the groups opposed some of the tone and content of Save Darfur's high-decibel advocacy campaign. Coalition board members sought to minimize the dispute, saying that tensions had existed between advocates and aid workers in previous crises, like Kosovo, and that the organization's rapid growth and changing membership had motivated the board's decision to remove the director, David Rubenstein. "We are grateful for the extraordinary job he has done and wish him the best in his search for new opportunities for public service," said Ruth W. Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service and a Save Darfur board member, who declined to discuss the reasons for Mr. Rubenstein's dismissal. Allyn Brooks-LaSure, a spokesman for the organization, said Mr. Rubenstein was not available for comment. Perhaps no cause in Africa since the campaign to end apartheid in South Africa has drawn such wide and deep grass-roots support across the political spectrum. Many activists, politicians and policy makers praise Save Darfur in particular for its role in raising awareness about the crisis. "It is extraordinary," said Samantha Power, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. "The fact that Darfur is even on the policy map along with Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, global warming, the fact that Darfur merits an 8 a.m. statement by the president, is testament to one thing and one thing alone, and that is this movement." The group says it has delivered more than a million postcards to Mr. Bush, organized mass rallies that have drawn tens of thousands of participants and urged its members to wear green wristbands emblazoned with the anti-genocide motto "Not on our watch." But Save Darfur has gotten into hot water with aid groups helping the refugees of the conflict. In February it began a high-profile advertising campaign that included full-page newspaper ads, television spots and billboards calling for more aggressive action in Darfur, including the imposition of a no-flight zone over the region. Aid groups and even some activists say banning flights could do more harm than good, because it could stop aid flights. Many aid groups fly white airplanes and helicopters that may look similar to those used by the Sudanese government, putting their workers at risk in a no-flight zone. Sam Worthington, the president and chief executive of InterAction, a coalition of aid groups, complained to Mr. Rubenstein by e-mail that Save Darfur's advertising was confusing the public and damaging the relief effort. "I am deeply concerned by the inability of Save Darfur to be informed by the realities on the ground and to understand the consequences of your proposed actions," Mr. Worthington wrote. He noted that contrary to assertions in its initial ads, Save Darfur did not represent any of the organizations working in Darfur, and he accused it of "misstating facts." He said its endorsement of plans that included a no-flight zone and the use of multilateral forces "could easily result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals." Another aid group, Action Against Hunger, said in a statement last week that a forced intervention by United Nations troops without the approval of the Sudanese government "could have disastrous consequences that risk triggering a further escalation of violence while jeopardizing the provision of vital humanitarian assistance to millions of people." Aid groups also complain that Save Darfur, whose budget last year was $15 million, does not spend that money on aid for the long-suffering citizens of the region. The tension between aid and advocacy is not unique to the Darfur conflict, though it is almost always papered over by the code of silence that governs relations among nonprofit groups. "I think these agencies probably agree on many more questions than they disagree on, but clearly there is a different perspective between people who are on the ground and having to deal with local security and harassment, and advocacy groups," said Ken Bacon, president of Refugees International, an advocacy group and member of the Save Darfur Coalition. "We travel into areas like Darfur for a month or so, then leave, and therefore we face different pressures." At the same time, the relationship is also symbiotic: brazen advocacy groups help put pressure on governments and raise awareness among donors, thus supporting the work done on the ground by more diplomatic counterparts. The Sudanese government is adroit at exploiting that tension. It deploys a variety of tactics to impede aid workers, including delaying approval for visas, refusing to allow shipments of necessary supplies and prohibiting the workers from boarding planes, and it blames advocacy for its actions. When the International Rescue Committee issued a press release last summer noting an increase in rapes and other sexual violence based on what it was seeing in refugee camps, its workers were hauled before government officials, and its efforts to get visas and travel permits became mired in red tape. "The Sudanese are very astute, and they following what's going on in the U.S. press," Mr. Bacon said. "When I met with President Bashir, he mentioned Save Darfur specifically and said it was treating his government unfairly and preventing the U.S. from dealing with him or granting him concessions for what he is trying to do to improve things." So some relief agencies said they were horrified when Save Darfur's ads in February reported that "international relief organizations," among others, had agreed that the time for negotiating with the Sudanese government had ended. Mr. Rubenstein and Mr. Worthington and other executives of relief organizations have met to discuss the concerns he expressed. "We've had good conversations with Save Darfur and have seen changes in their ads that reflect a better understanding of the evolving reality on the ground," Mr. Worthington said. Mr. Bacon said similar tension had flared publicly during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, when relief groups had staff members in the Balkans at the same time advocacy groups were calling for bombing and more aggressive military action. "Not only were there concerns among relief agencies that their workers would be hit if there were bombing, but they were also fearful that more aggressive action could provoke a counterattack against aid workers, who might be seen as representative of the Western powers doing the bombing," Mr. Bacon said. John Prendergast, a member of the board of Save Darfur and a leading activist on Darfur, said the changes that the board decided to make were part of an effort to reorganize and re-energize the movement along the lines of its earliest conception: to be a broad, permanent alliance of many different types of organizations working together to prevent atrocities and genocide. "The growth was so fast in the coalition, as was interest in the issue of Darfur and in the budget, that it was hard to kind of manage the difference between an organization and a coalition," Mr. Prendergast said. "People felt that the time had some to go back to the roots of the coalition of groups that is so rich and so diverse." Stephanie Strom reported from New York, and Lydia Polgreen from Dakar, Senegal. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:56:30 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:56:30 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Attacks on US Troops in Iraq Grow in Lethality, Complexity Message-ID: <20070604175630.40ec1dd3@viola.tamara-b.org> The Washington Post - Jun 3, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/02/AR2007060201294.html Attacks on U.S. Troops in Iraq Grow in Lethality, Complexity Bigger Bombs a Key Cause of May's High Death Toll By Ann Scott Tyson and John Ward Anderson Washington Post Staff Writers As U.S. troops push more deeply into Baghdad and its volatile outskirts, Iraqi insurgents are using increasingly sophisticated and lethal means of attack, including bigger roadside bombs that are resulting in greater numbers of American fatalities relative to the number of wounded. Insurgents are deploying huge, deeply buried munitions set up to protect their territory and mounting complex ambushes that demonstrate their ability to respond rapidly to U.S. tactics. A new counterinsurgency strategy has resulted in decreased civilian deaths in Baghdad but has placed thousands of additional American troops at greater risk in small outposts in the capital and other parts of the country. A declassified U.S. military report describes a complex insurgent attack last December on a convoy in Iraq. "It was one ambush with three separate kill-zones," according to the report, "all of which were in communication with one another." Such ambushes are among the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq. Fighters have grown skilled at sophisticated ambushes using multiple weapons - such as roadside bombs, mortars and gunfire - and also target forces aiding the fallen. Special Forces Maj. Jim Gant's nine-man U.S. military advisory team, with the call sign "Spartan," had orders to travel with more than 100 Iraqi police in 26 vehicles south from Balad to Baghdad through an area where insurgents "have complete freedom of maneuver," according to the after-action report. Gant's team had spent two months working with Iraqi police to quell sectarian violence in the Shiite town of Balad, facing resistance from al-Qaeda fighters in Sunni villages. On Dec. 11, 2006, Gant loaded his vehicles with thousands of rounds of ammunition, tried to confuse insurgents by driving north first, and requested cover from F-16 fighters, which never came. Instead, he and his men faced the heaviest ambush of Gant's 17-year-career. They pushed through the kill zones, inspired police to fight back, and used large bursts of machine-gun fire to create a "momentary impression of superior firepower," the report said. Gant, 40, was twice decorated for his actions: After the battle, Iraqi police slaughtered goats and covered his team with crimson handprints to celebrate. On May 3, he received the Silver Star for "selfless courage under fire." - Ann Scott Tyson "It is very clear that the number of attacks against U.S. forces is up" and that they have grown more effective in Baghdad, especially in recent weeks, said Maj. Gen. James E. Simmons, deputy commander for operations in Iraq. At the same time, he said, attacks on Iraqi security forces have declined slightly, citing figures that compare the period of mid-February to mid-May to the preceding three months. "The attacks are being directed at us and not against other people," he said. May, with 127 American fatalities, was the third-deadliest month for U.S. troops since the 2003 invasion. As in the conflict's two deadliest months for U.S. troops -- 137 died in November 2004 and 135 in April of that year -- the overarching cause of May's toll is the ongoing, large-scale U.S. military operations. Simmons called the high U.S. losses in May "a very painful and heart-wrenching experience." The intensity of combat and the greater lethality of attacks on U.S. troops is underscored by the lower ratio of wounded to killed for May, which fell to about 4.8 to 1 -- compared with an average of 8 to 1 in the Iraq conflict, according Pentagon data. "The closer you get to a stand-up fight, the closer you're going to get to that 3-to-1 ratio" that typified 2oth-century U.S. warfare, said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense information Web site. Simmons said that in May, the number of armor-piercing weapons known as explosively formed projectiles roughly matched the April high of 65, and the main source of increased U.S. deaths was "large and buried IEDs," or improvised explosive devices. U.S. deaths have risen sharply in some of Baghdad's outlying regions, such as Diyala province, where Sunni and Shiite groups have escalated sectarian violence and fought back hard against American forces moving into their safe havens. "Extremists on both sides of this thing are trying to make a statement by attacking U.S. troops," Simmons said. The overall percentage of U.S. military fatalities caused by roadside bombs had dipped from more than 60 percent late last year to 35 percent in February. It then rose again to 70.9 percent in May, according to research by the independent Web site icasualties.org. Gains in defeating the bombs have not resulted in fewer deaths because the number of bombs -- and the lethality of some types -- have increased, military officials said. Insurgents are also staging carefully planned, complex ambushes and retaliatory attacks as they target U.S. troops, the officials said. While few in number, these include direct assaults on U.S. military outposts, ambushes in which American troops have been captured, and complex attacks that use multiple weapons to strike more than one U.S. target. For example, attackers will bomb a patrol and then target ground forces or aircraft that come to its aid. "We are starting to see more sophistication and training in their attacks," said a senior military official in Baghdad. While the vast majority of attacks are still relatively simple and involve a single type of weapon, "clearly the trend is going in the wrong direction," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. In an attack Monday in Diyala, for example, an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter carrying two U.S. soldiers took heavy enemy fire during combat and crashed in farmland southwest of the town of Abu Saydah, about 40 miles north of Baghdad in a region where the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to establish a new stronghold. The U.S. military scrambled Bradley Fighting Vehicles at Forward Operating Base Normandy, 19 miles from the crash, for an urgent rescue. But as the Quick Reaction Force rumbled through the rural terrain just a mile and a half from the crash site, a huge roadside bomb hit a Bradley, killing four soldiers and wounding another four, one mortally. Suddenly, the rescue mission itself was in peril, and helicopters rushed to evacuate the injured. Other units pushed forward to the copter crash, recovering the bodies of the pilots and killing three insurgents. But back at the Bradley bomb site, where soldiers were clearing the wreckage, a second bomb exploded, killing another U.S. soldier. In all, eight U.S. troops died and three were wounded in the Memorial Day incident, which contributed to May's toll. A declassified U.S. military report describes a complex insurgent attack last December on a convoy in Iraq. "It was one ambush with three separate kill-zones," according to the report, "all of which were in communication with one another." Such ambushes are among the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq. Fighters have grown skilled at sophisticated ambushes using multiple weapons - such as roadside bombs, mortars and gunfire - and also target forces aiding the fallen. Special Forces Maj. Jim Gant's nine-man U.S. military advisory team, with the call sign "Spartan," had orders to travel with more than 100 Iraqi police in 26 vehicles south from Balad to Baghdad through an area where insurgents "have complete freedom of maneuver," according to the after-action report. Gant's team had spent two months working with Iraqi police to quell sectarian violence in the Shiite town of Balad, facing resistance from al-Qaeda fighters in Sunni villages. On Dec. 11, 2006, Gant loaded his vehicles with thousands of rounds of ammunition, tried to confuse insurgents by driving north first, and requested cover from F-16 fighters, which never came. Instead, he and his men faced the heaviest ambush of Gant's 17-year-career. They pushed through the kill zones, inspired police to fight back, and used large bursts of machine-gun fire to create a "momentary impression of superior firepower," the report said. Gant, 40, was twice decorated for his actions: After the battle, Iraqi police slaughtered goats and covered his team with crimson handprints to celebrate. On May 3, he received the Silver Star for "selfless courage under fire." Simmons said helicopter downings such as the one in Diyala reflect a "thinking and adaptive enemy" that is refining its skills. "There is a greater degree of training," he said. Moreover, he said that as in past cases, insurgents may have placed the bombs that killed the ground troops deliberately along routes leading to the copter, but said military investigators have not confirmed that. In a complex attack in Babil on May 12, a small, two-Humvee U.S. patrol that was watching an area where insurgents often buried roadside bombs came under insurgent observation. Insurgents got through a perimeter of concertina wire, attacked the patrol with grenades, hustled captured soldiers into a getaway car, then used bombs pre-positioned on both sides of the approaching road to delay for about an hour other U.S. forces coming to the patrol's rescue. Four soldiers were killed in the assault, the body of another was found later, and two remain missing. U.S. commanders have long warned that more casualties would probably result from the increase of about 25,800 U.S. troops ordered by President Bush in January. The increase has placed the troops in the Baghdad region and the Sunni stronghold of Anbar province. These forces have been stationed since February at small patrol bases in Baghdad neighborhoods under a counterinsurgency strategy intended to pacify the capital. The 2004 spikes in American deaths resulted from major U.S. ground offensives, such as the November 2004 campaign to retake the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah. Today, the losses are occurring as large numbers of U.S. troops disperse into Baghdad and other areas in an effort to protect Iraqis. Commanders credit U.S. military operations with sharply lowering civilian deaths in Baghdad. The numbers of civilians killed and wounded as well as sectarian murders have all fallen roughly 50 percent in Baghdad in the 90 days ending in mid-May, compared with the previous three months, Simmons said, despite what some military officials described as a slight upturn in civilian deaths in May. U.S. patrols and raids have also uncovered nearly 2,500 weapons caches and killed or captured more than 20,000 insurgents, militia members and other fighters nationwide since January. Among the enemy killed or captured are more than 1,700 individual targets considered "high value," in what military officials and analysts say is an effort to eliminate leaders of enemy cells in hopes they cannot quickly be replaced. "Maybe this is the bloody period when we are doing the heavy fighting to get at the bad actors so we can have a more peaceful future," said Michael O'Hanlon, a military analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington. But after lying low to a degree and watching U.S. tactics, fighters are now responding and retaliating. "In February, all sides -- including al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaish al-Mahdi -- stepped back to take the measure of the surge, and by late April and May, they stepped forward again and are aggressively testing the resolve of U.S. forces," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Queen Mary College University of London, using the Arabic name of the Shiite Mahdi Army. Military officials and analysts say the factors contributing to the increased deaths will likely not ease soon. "We are looking at a very nasty summer," Dodge said. Anderson reported from Baghdad. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 17:58:50 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:58:50 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Where's My Fence? Donor to Border Wall Sues Minutemen Message-ID: <20070604175850.4f124b77@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) East Valley tribune - May 31, 2007 http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/90687 Minutemen sued over donation for border fence by Mike Branom East Valley Tribune A Fountain Hills man who mortgaged his home to help pay for a secure fence along a portion of the U.S-Mexico border is suing the Minuteman border watch organization and many of its leaders, who are building the fence. Jim Campbell says there is no "Israeli-style" fence after he donated $100,000 to the project. Now, claiming fraud and breach of contract, he is seeking a judgment of more than $1.2 million, plus the return of his donation. In addition to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the lawsuit lists three conservative consultants and charities as defendants. The suit, filed last week in Maricopa County Superior Court, was first reported in The Sierra Vista Herald. Neither Campbell nor the Minuteman group returned messages seeking comment. Minuteman president Chris Simcox told the Herald that Campbell's donation had resulted in the erection of a steel framework, but low funding has halted construction. "His $100,000 is sitting out there," Simcox said. "We've showed good faith." In the suit, Campbell, an Air Force veteran, said he was intrigued by a spring 2006 announcement the group was planning to build a multilayered fence consisting of concertina wire, motion-detecting cameras and anti-vehicle ditches along 10 miles of private land in Cochise County. Campbell's donation was to be used to purchase structural pipes, he said. But Campbell said at the May 27, 2006, groundbreaking that the members began construction of a "flimsy" fence. Campbell told the group he wanted his money back, only to have Simcox assure him the border fence project would go forward as planned. Yet the group diverted his money, Campbell said, and "as a direct and proximate result of this diversion, the nine-tenths of fence under construction has languished" in a state of inactivity, the lawsuit states. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:00:59 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:00:59 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Hillary: A detour on the way to the coronation? Message-ID: <20070604180059.2532a175@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) [The underwhelming support Hillary is receiving in Iowa suggests payback from the much maligned and ignored grassroots Dem voter. SR] AP via The Houston Chronicle - Jun 1, 2007 http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/90687 As aide's memo predicted, Iowa not wild about Clinton By Beth Fouhy Associated Press Emmetsburg, Iowa - Memo to Hillary Rodham Clinton: Your deputy campaign manager was right. An internal campaign memo late last month urged the Democratic front-runner to bypass first-up and momentum-generating Iowa because of Clinton's lackluster showing despite drawing large crowds - a memo she immediately disavowed. Yet, the reality from Des Moines to Dubuque lends credence to deputy campaign manager Mike Henry's assessment that for Clinton, Iowa is "our consistently weakest state." Presidential rival John Edwards has capitalized on the remnants of his 2004 presidential operation in the state, the freedom to visit in the absence of a day job and a fresh populist appeal to grab the lead in recent polls. Clinton's other top rival, Barack Obama, has drawn large crowds and hired a team of experienced organizers with a deep knowledge of Iowa's arcane caucus system. Even lesser-known candidates Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd have gained some traction with ads on Iowa television. "If the caucuses were held today, it's fair to say she would probably not win," former state Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer said. "It's going to take a tremendous amount of work to catch up - it's doable, but it's going to be difficult." Voter familiarity The notion of the Democratic front-runner losing Iowa would jolt the presidential race. The state's last three winners captured the Democratic nomination as Al Gore beat back Bill Bradley's strong challenge in 2000 and John Kerry saw his moribund candidacy revived after his victory in 2004. Clinton's husband, Bill, then the sitting president, cruised in 1996. Hillary Clinton isn't as familiar to Iowa voters, and within days of the memo, she was back in the state. She and six of the Democratic presidential candidates will be in the state tonight for a state party dinner. Obama is skipping the event for a series of fundraisers on the West Coast, a decision that upset several Iowa Democrats. In need of help Iowa has presented a particularly vexing challenge to the New York senator and has complicated her effort to project herself as the inevitable Democratic nominee. She trails Edwards and sometimes Obama in polls here despite her strong showing nationally and in other states. "I need your help. I need your help to sign up and caucus for me. I need your help to come out in January and be part of the team I'm building across Iowa and America," Clinton recently told a crowd of some 400 at the Pizza Ranch restaurant in Emmetsburg, in the northwest region of the state. Her advisers acknowledge she would not win Iowa if the vote happened anytime soon. And anything less than victory in Iowa would undermine her greatest asset: the hard-fought perception that she is the inevitable nominee. "There is no notion of inevitability - that's not what's being projected here," said Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor and national co-chair of Clinton's campaign. "We understand it's a tough fight, and that it's a very competitive situation." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4855933.html From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:02:38 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:02:38 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] World Media Highlight Talks between Fidel Castro and Nong Duc Manh Message-ID: <20070604180238.1f061b67@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles World Media Highlight Talks between Fidel Castro and Nong Duc Manh Havana, June 4 (acn)The meeting over the weekend in Havana between Cuban President Fidel Castro and the General Secretary of the Central Committee of Vietnam's Communist Party Nong Duc Manh was highlighted by media outlets around the world. Online newspapers in the United States, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Peru, Puerto Rico, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil reported the event. The meeting of the two leaders was televised and covered by Cuba's media and news agencies with front page illustrations. Meanwhile, major international news agencies such as France's AFP, China's Xinhua, UK-based Reuters and media outlets in Europe noted in their Spanish editions that the meeting reaffirmed the two countries' determination to foster bilateral ties. Some of the hundreds of news articles published on the event read "Talking at length, Fidel Castro looked stronger and more vibrant", wrote AP news agency, while Canada.com and radio Jamaica said, "Sronger, more upbeat Fidel Castro Appears on Cuban Television". The Edmonton Journal from Candada said Fidel Castro appeared more vigorous Sunday. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh paid an official and friendly visit to Cuba June 1-3. At the end of the visit, Cuba and Vietnam issued a joint statement, highlighted by the Vietnamese media and which reads that during talks, General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and President Fidel Castro reaffirmed profound sentiments of the special friendship and solidarity between Vietnam and Cuba, which has become a symbol of the current era. General Secretary Manh also held talks with the Second Secretary of Cuba's Communist Party Central Committee Raul Castro Ruz. Both leaders addressed the situation of their respective Parties and countries and discussed bilateral relations and international issues of mutual concern, the statement read. The document expresses that both countries affirmed their willingness to make contributions to the strengthening and boosting of the Non-Aligned Movement, of which Cuba holds the Presidency, so that the group can realise the desire and will of member countries, which represent a majority of humankind. The two sides highly valued the result of General Secretary Manh's official and friendly visit to Cuba, considering it to be an important event, creating a new driving force to enhance the relations between the two Parties, States and peoples and contributing to peace, stability, co-operation, development and prosperity in the two regions and the world at large, the documents reads. Nong Duc Manh and his delegation traveled to eastern Santiago de Cuba city on June 3 where he paid homage to Cuban National Hero Jose Marti at the cemetery, which treasures his remains. Speaking to students and professors during a rally at that eastern city Nong Duc Manh said that the Vietnamese people will never forget the solidarity offered by Cubans during their independence war and he recalled the statement by Fidel Castro that Cubans were willing to shed their own blood to contribute to the independence and reunification of the Asian nation in its fight against US imperialism. The Vietnamese party leader began his Latin American tour with a technical stop-over in Havana; he later visited Chile, Brazil and Venezuela, and he returned to Cuba for his three day official and friendly visit. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:05:10 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:05:10 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Fisk: Can the Lebanese army fight America's war? Message-ID: <20070604180510.7323d1e2@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Ed Pearl The Independent via Info Clearing House - Jun 3, 2007 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17820.htm Can the Lebanese army fight America's war against terror? By Robert Fisk On the surface, it all makes sense. A group of radical Islamists fighting the Lebanese army shoot on amid the ruins of Nahr el-Bared refugee camp. Nahr el-Bared means "the cold river", but there is no river. They are shelled by the Lebanese army. In fact, Lebanese Gazelle helicopters machine-gunned them yesterday. Another chapter in the war on terror. In reality, it is another tragedy in that same conflict (though let's delete the word "terror"). The Gazelles have no rockets - courtesy of the United States, because Israel fears they will be used against its own forces. The Belgians even offered Leopard tanks - again vetoed by the United States - in case the Lebanese used them against the Israelis. So the Lebanese are armed sufficiently to fight Palestinians, but not enough to fight their enemies on their southern frontier. Are the Fatah al-Islam gunmen supported by Syria? Probably yes. But a familiar pattern was emerging yesterday. The International Red Cross was asking "all the parties" for a ceasefire, the phrase used so promiscuously during the 1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon, as if the Palestinian gunmen were combatants in a civil conflict, rather than the murderers of 20 Lebanese soldiers more than two weeks ago. Yesterday the BBC was adding to the normality of war, by referring to the "maze of concrete buildings and narrow alleyways" of Nahr el-Bared, as if refugee camps in the Middle East were made of anything else. So can the Lebanese army really fight America's war in the north of this country? Though composed of Shias, Sunnis, Druze and Christians, it has held together. But it was not created to fight the West's wars in the Middle East. Just over a week ago a secret meeting was held in the south of this country in which intelligence officers from the French, Italian and Spanish governments - based in their embassies in Beirut - sat down and talked to senior officials of the Hizbollah guerrilla movement, Israel's greatest enemies in Lebanon. They were assured - as they hoped they would be - by Hizbollah that their soldiers in the enlarged peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon would be protected from al-Qa'ida and their friends in Fatah al-Islam. They were also told that if Israel attacked Lebanon again this summer, there would be a far fiercer war than the 34-day conflict last June and July. North of the Litani River - and amid the conflict in northern Lebanon this has gone unreported - the Hizbollah is building new roads and bunkers in preparation for the next battle with Israel. Because the refugee camps of the north are so isolated, and because Beirut survives, despite the nightly bombings by (as usual) unknown suspects, this country still presents a picture of peace and comparative normality. But it is in grave peril, and - as in Afghanistan and Iraq - we are continuing to ignore this. ? 2007 Independent News and Media Limited From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:07:08 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:07:08 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Support Our Troops: Deniable, disposable casualties Message-ID: <20070604180708.49eed6ad@viola.tamara-b.org> The New York Times - Jun 3, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/opinion/03sun1.html Editorial What 'Support Our Troops' Entails Whenever and however American troops withdraw from Iraq, a flood of wounded and psychologically damaged veterans will present the nation for decades to come with costly needs that already are overwhelming government services. The backlog of disability claims stands at more than 405,000, with cases averaging 177 days to be processed - almost twice the backlog for civilians. Experts estimate that an additional 400,000 claims will be filed in the next two years. At the same time, better battlefield care is sending veterans home with severe brain traumas that might have been fatal in earlier wars. Complex new treatments are required for these survivors and for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and symptoms of depression that veterans groups fear are driving up suicide rates. Congress is taking the lead in prodding the Bush administration, which shamefully underestimated the cost of treating the wounded. The House is sensibly budgeting $6.6 billion more than last year for veterans health care and processing claims. A series of other measures approved by the House tackle only some of the problems but point in the right direction. The Senate should act quickly on these proposals, which include: ?Creation of up to five new brain trauma research centers to create comprehensive treatment programs. This is a whole new field of intensive care prompted by the signature injury of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, inflicted in roadside bomb attacks. ?Extending open-ended care for combat veterans to the first five years after their return, from the current two years. This is needed not only because of the backlog in claims and appeals but also because of the slower-evolving nature of postwar stress trauma and other illnesses. ?A more intensive program to contact veterans who need to know about their rights. Blue ribbon studies are under way, while the Department of Veterans Affairs scrambles to add claims processors and case managers to deal with such problems as outpatients who slip through the bureaucratic cracks. Far more is needed - especially speeding up the disastrously slow pace of judging benefit claims and appeals, and reforming anachronistic disability standards from World War II that focused on returning wounded veterans to factory and farm jobs, not the modern work world. Clearly, the administration has failed in more than its battle strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. While talking a lot about supporting the troops and using them shamelessly in Congressional battles and election years, the administration has systematically shortchanged the wounded and maimed who make it back from harm's way. The nation has a moral obligation to help them face a whole new challenge of survival. *** Los Angeles Times - Jun 1, 2007 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks1jun01,0,6814674.column?coll=la-opinion-rightrail Deniable, disposable casualties Thousands of civilian contractors serve and die alongside U.S. forces, with little accountability for the companies that employ them. By Rosa Brooks SOMETHING WAS missing from my local Memorial Day parade. There were soldiers, sailors, World War II veterans, firefighters, Girl Scouts, soccer players, marching bands, flag-draped floats and even a festive contingent from the Board of Education. But there was no float memorializing the hundreds of civilian contractors killed in Iraq. It's fashionable to look down on the civilian contractors employed by firms such as Halliburton and Blackwater. When contractors make the news, it's usually in the context of stories about waste and fraud in reconstruction or service contracts, or human rights abuses committed by private security contractors. So when civilian contractors die in Iraq, most of us don't waste many tears. These are guys who went to Iraq out of sheer greed, lured by salaries far higher than those received by military personnel, right? If they get themselves killed, who cares? But we should all care. Not because it's our patriotic duty to support the lucrative corporate empires that employ the thousands of civilian contractors in Iraq, but because most of the men and women employed by these corporate giants are in Iraq at our government's behest. They drive trucks containing supplies for troops in the field. They operate dining halls at military bases, guard buildings, install and maintain computer and telephone systems and train local officials. They're part of our war - and just like those who serve in the military, they pay for our government's mistakes with their health and their lives. In Iraq, civilian contractors form a vast parallel army. In the Persian Gulf War, fewer than 10,000 civilian contractors accompanied more than 500,000 military personnel. In Iraq today, an estimated 126,000 Defense Department civilian contractors support 145,000 troops. Thousands more civilians work under contract to other U.S. government agencies. A combination of poor record-keeping, corporate stonewalling and the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy has prevented even the Government Accountability Office from getting solid numbers on civilian contractors in Iraq. Prime contractors subcontract out much of their work to other companies, which in turn subcontract out much of their work to other companies, which in turn . you get the idea. Add in foreign corporations and the offshore subsidiaries of the U.S. giants and you get a game of corporate hot potato in which no one knows, at the end of the day, whose potato it was to begin with. In February, Congress heard testimony from the families of four Blackwater employees killed in Fallouja in March 2004. Their work had something to do with a contract relating to dining facilities at Army bases, but as Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) complained, "We still don't know for sure the identity of the prime contractor under which the four Blackwater employees were working." Only a fraction of the civilian contractors in Iraq fit the stereotype of the gun-toting, muscle-bound mercenary. Most contractors from the U.S. are blue-collar men and women: truck drivers, mechanics, IT specialists, former soldiers and cops, drawn to Iraq by the prospect of tax-free earnings that dwarf what they could make at home. You could call it greed, but you'd be overlooking the economic insecurity and hardship that lie behind many decisions to sign up with companies such as DynCorp or KBR: the overdue mortgage, the unpaid debt from a spouse's surgery, the dead-end local jobs. And plenty of contractors also want to "do their bit," but for one reason or another - age, health - joining the military isn't an option for them. Just like the troops they support, civilian contractors are dying by the score in Iraq. After the New York Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Labor acknowledged 917 deaths, including at least 146 during the first quarter of 2007. Another 12,000 have been wounded or hurt, and those numbers almost certainly underestimate the true toll. When they're injured or killed, contractors or their families often find it difficult to obtain healthcare or compensation. The industry is poorly monitored and regulated, and some contractors have alleged that their employers actively misrepresented employment conditions and benefits. Congress is considering a range of legislation designed to increase contractor accountability and oversight. That's long overdue. The administration's heavy reliance on civilian contractors represents an unprecedented privatization of war that, if unchecked, could prove lethal for American democracy. The privatization of war hides crucial foreign policy decisions behind a thick corporate smokescreen, gives corporate giants an incentive to see the Iraq war prolonged and masks the true human costs of the war. Contractors are deniable and disposable. They don't get military salutes at their funerals, and they're not invited to march in Memorial Day parades. But like the 3,474 U.S. troops killed so far in Iraq, they too are casualties of this seemingly endless war. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:27:38 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:27:38 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Al-Qaida: Captured US troops killed Message-ID: <20070604182738.6f79206a@viola.tamara-b.org> [At least they've stopped calling them "kidnapped" instead of "captured." US Occupation troops are not the Lindburgh baby! -NYTr] AP via Yahoo - Jun 4, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq Al-Qaida: Captured U.S. troops killed By KIM GAMEL Associated Press Writer Insurgents linked to al-Qaida issued a video Monday claiming they killed all three U.S. soldiers captured in an ambush last month. "They were alive and then dead," a voice said during a sequence of images that included the military IDs of two Americans still missing. The nearly 11-minute video by an al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, offered no proof that the soldiers were killed and buried. The U.S. military insisted the massive manhunt south of Baghdad will go on. "We condemn the tactics used by these terrorists, and are using all means available to pursue those responsible," said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, the chief military spokesman in Baghdad. "We continue to search and hope that our two missing soldiers will be found alive and in good health." The video, posted on a militant Web site, included grainy black-and-white footage said to have been taken during the May 12 pre-dawn ambush. It also showed credit cards, money and other personal items the militants called "booty." A headline said: "Bush is the reason of the loss of your POWs." The video was likely a show of strength by al-Qaida-linked militants, who find themselves increasingly engaged in violent battles against more moderate Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Jon Alterman, the Middle East program director for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the insurgents could have many other reasons for releasing the video. "It could be an effort to stop U.S. efforts to find them. It could be an effort to lighten up the pressure. It could be an effort to sow confusion," he said. "It certainly doesn't seem like anything definitive." Regardless of the soldiers' status, the footage was the latest setback for the U.S. military as it seeks to quell the sectarian violence raging in Iraq. Military officials also acknowledged Monday that U.S.-led forces have control of fewer than one-third of Baghdad's neighborhoods despite thousands of extra troops nearly four months into a security crackdown ? an assessment that came as the U.S. death toll approached 3,500, with at least 15 American troops reported killed in the first three days of June. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a military spokesman for Baghdad operations, confirmed a status report completed in May found that American and Iraqi forces were able to "protect the population" and "maintain physical influence over" only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods, while troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face "resistance" in the others. The report appeared to be the first comprehensive analysis of the progress of the operation that began Feb. 14. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is due to report in September on whether the current troop increase is working amid a fierce debate in Washington over whether President Bush should begin withdrawing American forces. But Bleichwehl stressed that the assessment, first reported by The New York Times, did not mean a lack of progress and said the setbacks were largely because of the need to return to some areas that had previously been cleared, as well as problems with the availability and reliability of Iraqi police. "It's way too early to try and project what Baghdad will look like in September," he said in a telephone interview. U.S. officials also pointed out that they have warned from the beginning that it would not be easy to pacify Baghdad and did not expect to see serious progress until autumn. "We have stated all along that this was going to be harder before it gets easier," military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said. "It's going to be a tough fight over the summer, and the plan is just in its beginning stages." Iraqi authorities reported at least 15 people killed Monday in eight bombings, shootings and other incidents. In addition, at least 47 bodies were discovered nationwide, apparent victims of sectarian or political killings; they included 28 bullet-ridden bodies in Baghdad, most handcuffed, blindfolded and showing signs of torture The Bush administration, which has ordered some 30,000 extra American troops to Baghdad and surrounding areas as part of the security crackdown, has warned that the buildup will result in more U.S. casualties as American soldiers increasingly come into contact with enemy forces and concentrate on the streets of Baghdad and remote outposts. The three U.S. soldiers were abducted as they were participating in an operation to watch for insurgents placing roadside bombs on a dangerous road near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The militants breached the concertina wire surrounding the stationary outpost composed of two Humvees, killing four other American troops and an Iraqi. The Islamic State of Iraq issued Web statements shortly after the attack claiming responsibility and warning the Americans to call off the hunt "if you want their safety." A body found in the Euphrates River on May 23, 11 days after the attack, was identified by the U.S. military as Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif. Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and of Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., remain missing. Monday's video clip, made available to The Associated Press by the Washington-based SITE Institute, offered close-ups of two identification cards for Jimenez and Fouty, but did not show the soldiers. The video also showed footage of three masked and black-clad men in a forest standing around an easel displaying a sketch of the area, apparently mapping out the attack plan. "I have urged you to bring me American prisoners," said one of the men, whose name was not given but was identified as a leader. "The Americans sent 4,000 soldiers looking for them," an unidentified voice said on the video, which featured the logo of the media production house of the Islamic State of Iraq. "They were alive and then dead." The voiceover blamed their deaths on "the American Army and their leaders, who do not care for the feelings of the soldiers' mothers." "And as you refused to deliver the bodies of our killed people, we will not deliver the bodies of your dead, and their end will be beneath the ground, Allah willing," the voice said. Fouty's stepfather, Gordon Dibler, said relatives and family friends will continue believing he is alive. "It's actually been hopeful for me that these items are being displayed," Dibler told reporters during a news conference in Oxford, Mich. "I hope that those who hold him understand that he is just a boy, becoming a man." [Associated Press writers Corey Williams in Detroit and Anna Johnson and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.] Copyright ? 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:30:21 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:30:21 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Bush opens Europe trip on jarring note Message-ID: <20070604183021.793f4852@viola.tamara-b.org> AP via Yahoo - Jun 4, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_on_re_eu/bush Bush opens Europe trip on jarring note By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent President Bush's European trip was jarred as it began Monday by deteriorating relations with Russia and threatening words from President Vladimir Putin. Bush and Putin will see each other at the annual summit of industrialized nations, beginning Wednesday at the Baltic Sea resort city of Heiligendamm, Germany. In a diplomatic poke in the eye at Putin, Bush bracketed the summit with stops in the Czech Republic and Poland ? the two countries where the United States wants to build a missile defense system for Europe. Already complaining of being encircled by NATO's expansion, Putin said putting missile defenses on Russia's doorstep would ignite a new arms race. He threatened to retarget Russia's missiles toward Europe. Bush says the anti-missile program is intended to protect Europe from states like Iran and North Korea, but Putin said neither country possesses the rockets the American system is intended to shoot down. "It's a defense against something which does not exist," the Russian president said. "It would be funny if it was not so sad." Flying to Europe with Bush, National Security Adviser Steve Hadley reacted cautiously to Putin. "There has been some escalation in the rhetoric," he said. "We think that is not helpful. We would like to have a constructive dialogue with Russia on this issue. We have in the past." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Putin to cool down. "This isn't the Soviet Union and we need to drop the rhetoric that sounds like what the United States and the Soviet Union used to say about each other and realize it is the United States and Russia in a very different period," Rice said on the way to an Organization of American States meeting in Panama City, Panama. "It doesn't really help anybody to start threatening the Europeans," she said. "You cannot launch a threat at Europe that is separable from the United States." Bush and his wife, Laura, arrived late Monday evening. In his only address of an eight-day trip through six countries, Bush will make a speech on Tuesday about supporting global democratic aspirations. Hadley said Russia, accused of backpedaling on democracy, would come up in that speech because "there are no exceptions to the freedom agenda." "So obviously when we look for the progress of freedom and democracy we look for the progress of freedom and democracy in Russia and China," Hadley said. Putin's sharp words at Washington ? and Britain, as well ? set an unusually chilly tone for the three-day summit in Heiligendamm. Leaders of the eight participating countries ? the United States, Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan ? typically mask their differences in statements that have been watered down to find consensus. "The most interesting issue on the agenda, to me, is Russia and how the other seven will handle Mr. Putin, who is really the elephant in the room," said Simon Serfaty, a senior adviser to the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Aside from his sharp words at Washington, Putin also took a slap at Britain for seeking the extradition of a Russian businessman who is a suspect in the killing of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. Putin called London's move "stupidity." German Chancellor Angela Merkel also had a run-in with Putin last month, criticizing Russia's crackdown on political opponents. In interviews before the trip, Bush called Putin "my friend" but said the U.S.-Russian relationship was complicated. "Vladimir Putin will tell me that Russia is a democracy and that he's advancing democracy," Bush said. "We have got some questions about that, of course." There is a growing list of irritants in the U.S.-Russian relationship. Russia is unhappy about a U.S.-backed bid for independence for Kosovo. The United States wants Putin to do more to press Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. Seeking a better footing in the relationship, Putin has accepted Bush's invitation for a July 1-2 meeting at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Bush was expected to face pressure in Heiligendamm over what is widely perceived as U.S. footdragging in combatting global warming. But the president tried to pre-empt critics with his proposal last week challenging major polluting countries to agree on a target for reducing greenhouse gases. Still, Bush's proposal to let each country decide how much to do leaves a gap between Washington on one side and Merkel and the European Union on the other. Merkel had hoped that concrete goals to reduce emissions would be a centerpiece of her leadership of the G-8. Hadley gave Merkel a diplomatic nudge to support Bush's stand. "It's not about upstaging Angela Merkel. Quite the contrary," Hadley said. "It is not an alternative to anybody's plan, but it is an effort to identify a way forward and, quite frankly, it's an opportunity for Angela Merkel to preside over a very successful G-8." Along with his stops in Prague, Poland and Heiligendamm, Bush will visit Italy, Albania and Bulgaria. Copyright ? 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 18:40:09 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:40:09 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Group denies link to NYC "terror" plot Message-ID: <20070604184009.617eaa16@viola.tamara-b.org> AP via Yahoo - Jun 4, 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/terrorism_plot_trinidad Group denies link to NYC terror plot By TONY FRASER Associated Press Writer The leader of a radical Trinidadian Muslim group denied Monday that his organization had any connection to four men accused of planning to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Yasin Abu Bakr, the leader of Jamaat al Muslimeen, told The Associated Press he knew "nothing" about the alleged plan to bomb a fuel pipeline feeding the airport, a plot authorities say was hatched by a group that included a former Guyanese politician. U.S. authorities claim the alleged plotters sought support in Trinidad from Jamaat al Muslimeen, which staged a deadly coup attempt in the Caribbean nation in 1990. The men did not receive such support, according to court documents. But the documents also say that Abdel Nur, a Guyanese suspect thought to be still at large in Trinidad, said he met in May with Abu Bakr at his compound in Trinidad and the Islamic leader suggested that he return later with others involved "to discuss the plan in detail." Nur allegedly said the Jamaat al Muslimeen leader also wanted to do further checks on Russell Defreitas, the 63-year-old accused mastermind of the plot, and an unidentified confidential informant who had infiltrated the group, the documents said. Abu Bakr declined to say if he knew the men, but also denied any involvement. "I know nothing about these men, and I have nothing to do with whatever they are being charged for," he said in his first public comments since U.S. authorities disclosed the plot on Saturday. Two of the suspects ? Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament, and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad ? are in custody in Trinidad. Nur was being sought by Trinidadian authorities. Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK air cargo employee, was jailed in the United States. Abu Bakr's group, often accused of aiming to create an Islamic state in Trinidad, describes itself simply as a religious organization. The group stormed Parliament and took the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage in a 1990 rebellion that left 24 dead ? the only Islamic revolt in the Western Hemisphere. The rebels eventually surrendered and were later pardoned. It is not known to have international reach, although a member was convicted of trying to smuggle 70 assault rifles to Trinidad from Florida in 2005. Abu Bakr faces charges stemming from a 2005 sermon in which he called for war against rich Muslims who refuse to pay zakaat, an Islamic tithe used to alleviate poverty. The following week, he was arrested by police who razed the group's compound and charged him with sedition and incitement to violence. "You know why they are linking me with this so-called plot is to bias the minds of jurors who will be sitting in my case," he said. Separately, a lawyer for the two men held in Trinidad said they would fight extradition to the United States. Ibrahim and Kadir made their initial court appearance Monday for extradition on one count each of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act against the U.S. government. "We will be opposing extradition," said Rajid Persad, a lawyer who represents both men. The judge set another hearing for June 11 to consider bail and scheduled an extradition hearing for Aug. 2. Farid Scoon, another lawyer for the men, said they intend to seek bail. The extradition fight could be a drawn-out affair. Ibrahim and Kadir could appeal all the way to the Privy Council in Britain, the highest court of appeal for the former British territory. Copyright ? 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved *** [Prison Planet is a somewhat tinfoil-hat crowd conspiracy site; however, the number of provocateur-instigated incidents are legion, both before 9/11 and since. -NYTr] Sent by Mark Graffis (activ-l) Prison Planet - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/040607stagedterror.htm JFK Airport Plot Has All The Hallmarks Of Staged Terror Near-retarded "ringleader", paid government provocateur mirrors legion of previous cases An alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks, terminal buildings and fuel lines running beneath Kennedy International Airport has all the hallmarks of being another staged terror alert, having never advanced beyond a rudimentary planning stage while being prodded and provocateured by a paid government informant. In every single major terror sting we have researched in the west since 9/11, not one single plot has been absent the ingredient of a government provocateur, save the cases that were outright manufactured by imaginative government propagandists in alliance with the corporate media. In this case, the provocateur was "An informant with a criminal history including drug trafficking and racketeering agreed to work with investigators on the case, in exchange for payments and a reduced sentence," according to the New York Times. Officials have refused to say how they became aware of the plot in the first place, but in every previous case of this nature we have found that it is the government agent provocateur who radicalizes the group and formulates the plot. The cover story is that the group is infiltrated by the informant having already planned the attack but as more details emerge, inevitably the plot always reveals itself as an artificial creation on behalf of the intelligence services. What's the motive? The war on terror is the most politically exploited concept since the cold war. The propaganda boon from hoodwinking Americans into thinking they are constantly under threat from terrorists is unsurpassed. On the very day that this alleged plot was announced, Rudy Giuliani was already using it to inflate his presidential campaign. In addition, the new head of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan, told a reporter this past weekend that America needs to be attacked by terrorists so that people will appreciate the work that President Bush has done to protect the country. Once again we learn that "the plot was only in a preliminary phase and the conspirators had yet to lay out detailed plans or obtain financing or explosives," and yet the event is reported by a jingoistic and frothing media as if an imminent attack on the scale of 9/11 has been averted. But as always, the devil is in the details, because even if the group had managed to acquire the financing and explosives to enact the plot, it would have been unsuccessful, due to "safety shut-off valves would almost assuredly have prevented an exploding airport fuel tank from igniting all or even part of the network." The sum of the group's planning for the alleged attack amounts to nothing more than visiting Google Maps and printing off photographs. It appears that part of the agenda in hyping the alleged plot is to undermine Hugo Chavez, since the ringleader, Russell Defreitas, has links to Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a Muslim group headed up by Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, and in turn Bakr has been affiliated with Chavez. As Kurt Nimmo writes, Neo-Con websites are already exploiting these tenuous links to demonize Hugo Chavez, who - whatever you think of his domestic policies - has been a constant thorn in the side of the Globalists and was subject to an attempted CIA coup in 2002. Defreitas is described by one law enforcement official as a sad sack and not a Grade A terrorist, who would have been incapable of carrying out any attack. A friend described him as "not smart enough" to have carried out the attack. In several other cases, we see a pattern where near-retarded individuals are used as patsies for terror plots orchestrated by intelligence agencies because they are easily manipulated and cannot defend themselves after the fact. >From out of nowhere, Defreitas goes from embracing American culture and enjoying jazz music to dressing in traditional Muslim garb and referring to himself as Mohammed while planning a devastating attack due to his supposed hatred of the west. The basic tenet that the terror threat has been overhyped and magnified a thousand-fold for political propaganda is proven alone by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that show only 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were terrorism related, despite the fact that the Bush administration has repeatedly asserted that it is the primary focus of the DHS. As more details leak out, there seems little doubt that the JFK airport plot will dissipate into nothing more than another hyped terror alert - coddled, molded, and directed by the government, before being unleashed on an increasingly skeptical American public in another vain attempt to prop up the flagging legitimacy of the "war on terror". From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:01:47 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:01:47 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] De[leted Uranium: A Way Out? Message-ID: <20070604230147.42d0bc5b@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Francis Boyle Global Research - June 3, 2007 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5864 Depleted Uranium - A Way Out? Compensation to those affected by this poisoned legacy by Felicity Arbuthnot UN Observer The term ?Gulf War Syndrome? is now known world-wide ? but - after the 1991 Iraq war, as formerly A1 fit soldiers fell ill with debilitating symptoms, in their thousands, the cause was, for two years, a "mystery". It was in 1993, when a group of twenty-four affected soldiers approached Professor Asav Durakovic, one of the world's leading experts in the effects of radiation, that a cause came to light. They had many times the ?safe? level of chemically toxic and radioactive depleted uranium (DU) in their bodies. Duracovic, although a senior officer in the US army during the first Gulf war, had been unaware that the weapons used had contained depleted uranium. ?I was horrified?, he said: ?I was a soldier, but above all I am a doctor.? By 1997, it was estimated that ninety thousand US veterans were suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. Durakovic, who is also medical consultant for the Children of Chernobyl project at Hadassah University, Jerusalem, lost his job as Chief of Nuclear Medicine at the Veteran's Administration Medical Facility at Wilmington, Delaware, as a direct result of his work with Gulf war veterans contaminated with radiation, he states. Two other physicians, Dr Burroughs and Dr Slingerland of Boston VA also lost their jobs when they asked for more sensitive equipment to better diagnose the soldiers referred to them by Professor Durakovic. Oddly, all the records pertaining to the sick soldiers at the Delaware VA went missing, a syndrome of another kind which has become familiar, both sides of the Atlantic. Two years before Durakovic's discovery, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) ?self initiated? a Report warning the government that if fifty tones of the residual dust, from the explosions of the weapons on impact, was left ?in the region?, they estimated it would generate ?half a million? extra cancer deaths by the end of the century (2000.) Iraq's cancers and birth deformities have become an anomaly, compared to those in the Pacific Islands and amongst British troops after the nuclear testing in the 1950's. Further, ?depleted? is a misnomer. These weapons are made from waste from the nuclear fuel cycle and thus contain the whole lethal nuclear cocktail. DU weapons (sold to seventeen countries that are known and possibly others - why let poisoning the planet and its population get in the way of numerous millions of quick bucks) are equivalent to spreading the contents of a nuclear reactor around the globe. And far from fifty tones and that chilling warning, in Iraq several thousand tones now cover this ancient, Biblical land and with the bombs raining daily, the audit rises nearly hour by hour. The US is currently by far the largest user of DU weapons. Over the past decade, they have brought more than sixteen million DU shells and bullets from Alliant Tech Systems alone. (Source: Janes.) Strangely, this time, there have been few reports of soldiers with the terrible effects of 1991, where they were only in the region for a few weeks. Although troops now remain for months or a year, Gulf War Syndrome mark 2 seems not an issue. Perhaps it is because, reportedly, doctors treating returning troops have been threatened with jail and or hefty fines if they say anything regarding DU-related symptoms. The implication regarding compensation to countries affected by this poisoned legacy (DU's lethality lasts for four and a half billion years) and troops is financially stratospheric. Since the 2003 invasion, US troops are denied entry to the International Atomic Energy Authority or any radiation experts to test ground and air levels. In Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia where DU weapons were used (with missiles also dropped accidentally in neighboring countries, by the US, to whom all the world's lives are seemingly cheap) the ?Iraq Syndrome? became quickly apparent. Even European peacekeepers on relatively short tours of duty became ill, developed leukemia's and other cancers and a number died. A five man film crew from BBC Scotland all tested DU positive after filming for less than a week there. Afghanistan too was ?liberated? in 2001, by uranium weapons, which continue to be routinely used, condemning generations yet to be born to deformities and the living - the new born and under fives the most susceptible - to cancers and other horrific DU-related conditions. Durakovic also found high levels of uranium in hospital patients there, as there will undoubtedly be in the occupying forces. He also found identical conditions to Iraq amongst the young: ?Children born with no limbs, no eyes, or with tumors protruding from their mouths and eyes.? The latest country to fall victim to uranium weapons is Lebanon - but with a Difference; it transpires. Dr Chris Busby*, founder of the Low Level Radiation Campaign and Green Audit, is Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk and also sits on the (UK) Ministry of Defense Uranium Oversight Board. Israel is one of the countries with uranium weapons and: ?The first evidence that the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) were using them? (in the July-August 2006 Israeli bombardment) ?was a Getty Picture Library image of an Israeli soldier carrying a DU anti-tank shell?, says Busby. He then noted a report in Lebanon's Daily Star, that Dr Khobeisi, a scientist, had measured gamma radiation in a bomb crater at Khiam in the south of the country, at ten to twenty times higher (samples taken from different locations in crater) than naturally occurring background radiation. The following month, Dai Williams,** an independent researcher went to Lebanon on behalf of Green Audit, to investigate and bring back samples to the UK for testing. He also brought back an air filter from an ambulance. Tested at the Harwell UKAEA laboratory: ?The results were astonishing.? Both soil and filter contained enriched uranium with the soil sample containing uranium about nine times higher than the natural background. (Remember how threatening the West has become towards Iran's efforts to enrich uranium?) The soil sample was also sent to the School of Ocean Sciences, in North Wales for a second test by a different method for certainty. The results were the same. Busby asks: ?Why use enriched uranium? It is a bit like shooting your enemy with diamonds.? He contends it is possible that it is a ?smokestream? for the wider use of depleted uranium, as the final contamination ?when all gets mixed up after the war has a natural isotopic signature?. (ie: can be read as uranium which occurs naturally in nature.) There are two other chilling possibilities says Busby: a fusion bomb or a thermobaric bomb, both of which would need enriched uranium. Certainly, doctors were reporting bodies in conditions they could find in no medical manuals, as in the attack on Falluja, Iraq. Lebanese authorities denied the presence of enriched uranium; Israel denied using it. The bombardment had ended on the agreement that UN peacekeepers went in. Given their debilitation and mortality rate in the Balkans, this lethal presence might well have deterred them. To be certain the incident was not in isolation. Williams returned to Lebanon and brought back soil and water samples from Khiam and other sites. Enriched uranium was found in water samples from two separate craters in Khiam and in one of the soil samples. Then the money ran out. The samples tested had already cost ?2,000. Donations from an Arab friend and Swiss supporters totaled ?850 - and Dai Williams had paid the rest out of his own money. More work is needed, but it is now known that the IDF used enriched uranium in Lebanon. And: ?Since it is in the ambulance air filter, it is also in the lungs of the inhabitants ... the Lebanese people have been sacrificed to cancers, leukemia's, birth defects, like the people of the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq?, says Busby, adding ?and it may be worse: since we still do not know what the weapon was.? And have these weapons been used on the people of Gaza and the West Bank? Further, Israel is not alone decimating those she perceives as her enemies, but her own people, neighboring countries and even those further a field. In context, Green Audit studied airborne uranium at sites in the UK, between 1998 and 2004. There was only one period in which uranium in the air ?significantly? exceeded the naturally occurring background presence: during the bombing of Iraq, in March and April, 2003. As with the radio nuclides from Chernobyl which affected Europe and the globe, and still contaminates agricultural land, the potentially deadly wave of invisible particles traveled on the wind from Iraq. ?We are all Gulf war victims now?, commented Busby's colleague, Richard Bramhill. Can anything be done to halt the use of these genocidal weapons? Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois and author of The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, thinks so. He has launched a campaign for a global pact against uranium weapons. Boyle points out that the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits: ?the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices?. Clearly he says, DU is ?analogous? to poison gas. The Government of France is the official depository for the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Boyle contends that rather than aiming for an international treaty prohibiting the use of DU, which would probably take years, pressure should be put on every state to submit a letter to the French government to enforce a ban. ?All that needs to be done is for anti-DU citizens, activists and NGO's in every country to pressure their Foreign Minister to write to their French counterpart, drawing attention to the ?Protocol for the Prohibition of the use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare?, of 17th June 1925, prohibiting uses as above. The letter should add that this Protocol is believed to: ?already prohibit the use in war of depleted uranium ammunition, uranium Armour plate and all other uranium weapons?. A request should be made that the letter is circulated to all other High Contracting Parties to the 1925 Protocol and addressed to: His Excellency, The Foreign Minister, Republic of France, 37, Quai d'Orsay, 75351 Paris, France. Or Fax: 33-1-43-17-4275 Professor Boyle points out that: ?As the Land Mines Treaty demonstrates, it is possible for a coalition of determined activists and NGO's, acting in concert with at least one sympathetic state, to bring into being an international treaty to address humanitarian concerns.? Such a sympathetic state exists: Belgium, last month, outlawed uranium weapons. If the rest of the world does not follow, what will happen is what Richard Bramhill calls ?a DU-locaust? - of the children of the countries where these weapons have been used, of soldiers, of the uranium miners and of the munitions workers, as the living, dead and deformed prove. Notes * Author of Wings of Death and of Wolves of Water (2007) essential reading on radiation's horrors, published by Green Audit, available direct from admin at greenaudit.org Busby is also involved in Radioactive Times, the journal of the Low Level Radiation Campaign, a detailed quarterly update on nuclear industry shenanigans ( http://www.llrc.org ) ** http://www.eoslifework.co.uk for a wealth of DU related material. Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist and activist who has visited the Arab and Muslim world on numerous occasions. She has written and broadcast on Iraq, her coverage of which was nominated for several awards. She was also senior researcher for John Pilger's award-winning documentary: "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq". and author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of ?Baghdad? in the ?Great Cities? series, for World Almanac Books (2006.) Please also see: Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare http://www.opcw.org/html/db/cwc/more/geneva_protocol.html AMERICA'S GREATEST CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY / MILITARY USE OF DU http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2006/10/31.html The Queen's Death Star, by Leuren Moret http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2006/DU-Europe-Moret26feb06.htm "Perpetual Death From America" By Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD Afghan-American Freelance Academic http://www.rense.com/general35/perp.htm Depleted Uranium - Poisoning U.S. Troops And The Planet http://uruknet.info/?p=m32443&hd=&size=1&l=e New study detects traces of uranium in South http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=78163 Dust Up, John Upton/Tracy Press http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=3422&blz=1 Depleted Uranium Situation Requires Action By President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, states Dr. Doug Rokke, Ph.D. http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=2158&blz=1 WHAT THE PENTAGON REALLY KNOWS ABOUT THE CRIMINAL USE OF POISONOUS URANIUM WEAPONS, by Christopher Bollyn http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=1902&blz=1 Iraqi Doctor Learns from Hiroshima's Past, note Shinya Ajima and Shinsuke Takahashi http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=1851&blz=1 DEPLETED URANIUM: THE WAR CRIME THAT HAS NO END, by Paul Rockwell http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1462&blz=1 TV Not Concerned by Cluster Bombs, DU: 'That's just the way life is in Iraq', from FAIR http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=882&blz=1 Hazards of Uranium Weapons in the Proposed War on Iraq, by Dai Williams http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=575&blz=1 Pandora DU Research Project http://stopuraniumwars.blogspot.com [Felicity Arbuthnot is a frequent contributor to Global Research.] ? Copyright Felicity Arbuthnot, UN Observer, 2007 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:14:45 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:14:45 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Vietnamese Leader Reaffirms Solidarity with Cuba Message-ID: <20070604231445.15fe1ca2@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Vietnamese Leader Reaffirms Solidarity with Cuba Havana, June 4 (acn) "Vietnam will always be on Cuba's side," said the secretary general of that country's communist party, Nong Duc Manh, on Sunday during a farewell ceremony held in the eastern Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba. During the observance, the Vietnamese leader reaffirmed his country's opposition to the US blockade of the island, as well as the Asian nation's support for the international campaign demanding the freedom of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unjustly held in US prisons. Duc Manh, who has paid an official three-day visit to Cuba, also condemned the release of notorious terrorist Posada Carriles by US courts. The ceremony was attended by students and teachers of the Mariana Grajales Computer Sciences Polytechnic Institute, members of the Cuban Communist Party's Political Bureau Esteban Lazo and Misael Enamorado, and other government officials. Duc Manh recalled the solidarity shown by Cuban during the US-Vietnam war, and thanked President Fidel Castro for confirming the island's support to preserve the Asian country's independence from Washington's imperial interference. During his visit, Duc Manh held a 2-hour meeting with Fidel Castro and signed seven trade accords and collaboration agreements with the island. With his visit to Cuba, Duc Manh wraps up a Latin American tour which also included Chile, Brazil and Venezuela. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:16:43 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:16:43 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Clashes Erupt during Protests on G-8 Summit in Germany Message-ID: <20070604231643.5e09daf5@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Clashes Erupt during Protests on G-8 Summit in Germany Havana, June 4 (acn) Nearly 1,000 were injured and 165 arrested over the weekend in, Rostock, Germany, as a result of clashes that erupted during protests against the gathering of the world's most industrialized nations plus Russia, to take place next June 6-8 in that country. International media outlets reported that some 430 police officers and 520 demonstrators resulted injured in the clashes. Silke Studzinsky, who works with emergency services, said that some 30 demonstrators are seriously injured, many with broken limbs, Granma daily reported. The confrontations between demonstrators and police comes just days before the G-8 Summit begins in Heiligendamm, a spa in northeast Germany that is completed surrounded by walls, police and the military. The demonstration is the first in a series of protests, planned against neo-liberal globalization, taking place all week long at the entrance of the summit zone. It began peacefully and almost ended as such when a group attacked a police unit, according to official reports. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:18:24 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:18:24 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US Guantanamo Prison Is Not a Closed Chapter Message-ID: <20070604231824.59063b0e@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles US Guantanamo Prison Is Not a Closed Chapter By Angel Rodriguez Alvarez AIN Special Service After several weeks of silence in the international press, and despite the fact that the situation continues, the Delta Concentration Camp at the illegally-occupied US naval base in Guantanamo has returned in the news. This time, and it's not the first, the news cables report of the suicide of a Saudi prisoner "found not breathing in his cell", according to a communique issued by the camp's authorities. In a clear attempt to ease the impact of such an incident before international public opinion, the statement outlines three elements: "They attempted to save his life but he was declared dead; they have launched an investigation, although everything indicates that he committed suicide; and his remains are being treated with cultural sensitivity and the appropriate religious rituals." In this matter, the US military in Guantanamo is attempting to make the world forget about the brutal human rights violations of prisoners in the camp. We must recall that Washington has maintained hundreds of men under the vague and imprecise charge of being "enemy combatants" for over the past five years without legal assistance nor legal process -- which technically adds up to kidnapping. These prisoners, which surpassed 600 at one time and are now at approximately 380, have been submitted to brutal interrogations accompanied by physical and mental torture, which reminds one of prisons during the Inquisition and the concentration camps under Hitler. We must not forget that those who now are talking about respectful treatment of the remains of the Saudi, are the same ones who carried out forced interrogations ignoring the basic religion principles against shaving off the prisoners beards and demanding that they use pages of the sacred Koran as toilet paper. The recent suicide, for as much as we know, is the fourth one to occur. On June 10, 2006, two detained Saudis and one from Yemeni hung themselves with sheets. At that time, an official statement described those deaths with unprecedented cynicism, calling them an act of "asymmetric war" and "a public relations stunt." We should mention the undetermined number of suicide attempts and hunger strikes that forced authorities to feed the prisoners intravenously or through tubes to prevent their deaths, which have been tremendously negative to the installation's public image. Concerning this horror story, Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner said, "It is probable that the death of the Saudi was out of desperation. It has been five and a half years of desperation without a legal solution." This issue is far from being a closed chapter. Suicide at this time should serve to point up this issue as being one of the cruelest situations in the world, with an urgent need for ongoing protests. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:20:39 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:20:39 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Bush's "Magic" Economic Formula: The Rich get Richer Message-ID: <20070604232039.01a88af9@viola.tamara-b.org> Alternet - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/story/52955/ Bush's "Magic" Economic Formula: The Rich get Richer; Regular People Lose Ground By Larry Beinhart Supposedly we are in a sustained economic recovery and have been since 2002. Part of this is Bush hot air and the Republican Noise Machine, which the media quotes verbatim. By a certain measure, however, it's real. The economy has grown. Corporate profits are at an all-time high. Average income is up. There's lots of money around. But the recovery has some really strange features. Oddities never before seen in a recovery. Jobs: During Bush's first term the US actually lost private-sector jobs. It finally improved in 2005, and now job creation is almost keeping pace with the increase in population. Still, over all, it's the worst record since Hoover, the fellow who presided over the onset of the Great Depression. How do you have a recovery without creating jobs? Income: Yes, average income is up during the tenure of the current administration. The joke about average income is: Bill Gates walks into a bar. The average income of every person in the room immediately goes up 10,000 percent. But median income, the amount that people in the middle of the group earn, barely budges. So let's look at that figure. Median income is down. The average person makes less now than when Bush came into office. Not only that, the downward pressure on wages is no longer just a blue-collar issue, it's moved up to white-collar workers, the educated classes, even doctors. How do you have a recovery when people are making less than before the recovery? Cost of living: Key factors of the cost of living are much higher than they were six years ago. In particular, fuel is up 100 percent, higher education costs are up about 44 percent, health care premiums are up 80 percent, and affordable housing is scarce. Normally, when the cost of living goes up, we have inflation. But we've had low inflation during the Bush years. How can the cost of living go up while the cost of money stays low? Here's the most peculiar statistic of all: the Dow Jones index You may have been hearing that the Dow Jones Index is at an all-time high. It's true. However, it is only 16 percent higher than the day George Bush came into office. By comparison, when Clinton left office the Dow was 320 percent higher than when he came into office. It's a very rough measure of course, and there are many others. But by that measure, during the Clinton years investment in America's leading business had grown more than three times over. Under Bush it's only grown 16 percent in six years. Since the consumer price index is up 18 percent over the same period, when the new all-time high is adjusted for inflation, growth is effectively below zero. How can there be a "recovery" in which not even businesses grow? When a government wants an economy to grow, it throws money at it. The administration did that with spending on pharmaceuticals, homeland security, and a couple of wars. But their most important weapon of choice was tax cuts for the rich, especially on unearned income, capital gains, inheritance, dividends, and interest. This was sold, and accepted, on the myth that the rich -- the investing class -- are the most creative and daring members of our society. Just unleash them and they will march off into the wilderness -- actual, urban, or cyber -- with sacks of cash over their shoulders and they will build things! Factories! Airlines! Housing! Toys! Computers! Undreamed wonders! Entire new civilizations! With jobs! jobs! jobs! Like an Ayn Rand novel! But that's not what happened. Because a shortage of cash was not the problem. The country, the world, is awash with cash. The good, old, risk for rewards version of capitalism -- the burghers invest in a daring sea captain sailing to the Indies -- still exists. In recent years, it's given us FedEx, Wal-Mart, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. But alongside it, over the last 50 years, the economy of credit has grown up. In vastly oversimplified terms the credit economy works like this: You own a house. It's worth $100,000. Someone buys the house, no money down. They borrow that money. Let's say it's a straight-line 8 percent, 30-year mortgage. Forget closing costs, points, and any other complications -- that's a $220,000 debt. It goes on the bank's books as an asset. Now you have $100,000. The bank has $220,000 (on paper). The buyer has a house worth $100,000. The bank has a lien on it, but the buyer will be gaining equity, plus he can get a second mortgage and home-improvement and other loans on it. Again, this is a vast oversimplification, but that transaction has "created" something like $420,000 that is now "in play," as part of the economy. No "thing" has been created -- no new business, no product, no jobs, no idea, no intellectual property, no entertainment. But money has been created. If you buy a dress on your Visa card or organize a consortium to buy a company, the same thing happens -- debt creates money. In every transaction, there's profit to be taken off the top. A perfect example of the transformation of our society into a credit economy is the change in the way we finance higher education. States, and even cities, used to be in the business of building universities that were free, or nearly so. These were financed, up front, with tax money as an investment in our human infrastructure. Then, in 1965, the student loan program was invented. This changed the higher education business into a debt creation business and created a whole new creditor class, college graduates, who, were handed, along with their diploma, debts of ten to fifty thousand dollars or more. The number one industry in America today is the money business -- debt swapping. In a closed economy, that might have a positive effect, as people look for something to do with their money. Not, perhaps, as a general rule, but in an economy like ours, handing out money to rich people is the least effective way to make a healthier, stronger economy that benefits society as a whole. There are two reasons. The first is that the Ayn Rand fantasy is a fantasy. For the most part, when people with millions of dollars get an extra hundred thousand, or several hundreds of thousands, or even millions, they invest it passively, in financial instruments and real estate. So we get, for example, a real estate bubble. Which is worse that a dot.com bubble because a dot.com bubble is symptomatic of the excitement of investing in new, high risk, but high reward enterprises that are producing new things. A housing bubble is symptomatic of lots of money floating around with nowhere productive to go. The other reason is that insofar as investment does go into business, in terms of our society, there's a hole in the bucket. The hole is called globalization. I'm writing this on a Mac. When I bought it, the money went through American Express (which took a few points) to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, where Steve Jobs dipped in his ladle, then the rest poured out though the hole in the bottom to China, where it was actually made. That's the economy that the statistics describe. Lots of money is moving. As it passes through the company, the company profits. The company isn't going to build anything, so profits are spent on executive compensation. The actual work is outsourced (the money flows out), and no jobs are created. Nor does the actual business grow very much either, except as a middle man, taking American money and passing it on to foreign businesses (and oil producers). At the same time, this creates downward pressure on normal working people. Remember those old movies, with 200 men at the factory gate? A foreman inside with three jobs to give out, saying, "You. You. And you. The rest of you, go home." Those three lucky stiffs didn't demand health insurance, pensions, or job security. Now it's India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico, Honduras, China, Korea, and many others at the gate. American companies tell their workers they have to be competitive. Not only do wages go down, but benefits begin to disappear. This is combined strong anti-union and anti-worker efforts by government, supporting the anti-union and anti-worker efforts of major corporations. This may be bad for America as a society, but the people in the money business love it. Indeed, it is the trick that makes Bushenomics work for people in the money business. That includes anyone who invests in financial instruments. The problem with pumping out money -- printing money -- is that it can create inflation. Money lenders hate inflation. If I loan out money at 8% and by the time the creditor pays it back, inflation is up 8%, then my profit is zero. The profit margin in lending is -- in a significant part -- the difference between the rate of the loan and the rate of inflation. Really high inflation, and worse, runaway inflation, is, of course, a threat to everyone. But moderate inflation, with rising wages, favors debtors and hurts creditors. So how can you pump out money while keeping inflation down? In Bushenomics you do it by keeping a lid on earned income. Even driving it down. Millions upon millions of people earning a little bit less take away from the pressure of a few people earning millions upon millions more. That, along with, the flood of low cost goods from low wage countries, helps balance out the inflationary pressure of rising costs in certain particular industries, like oil, health care and higher education. It's not a question of conservatism vs. liberalism. Of government vs. free markets. All economies are, of necessity, mixed. All governments are concerned with the wealth of their nation. Government decisions will always effect how business operates. The question is, does the way government spends and invests create a sounder and healthier society? Or does it merely make certain sectors and classes rich, while hollowing out our economy? If we are to invest public funds -- through government borrowing or spending or through simply spending tax revenues -- we have to be aware that rich people running around with bags of money won't necessarily do what is good for the wealth of our nation. They may run us into bankruptcy, the way the smartest guys in the room ran Enron into bankruptcy. [Larry Beinhart is the author of Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin.] ? 2007 Independent Media Institute. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:30:53 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:30:53 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Gitmo Gulag Judge Dismisses Detainee Case Message-ID: <20070604233053.603be248@viola.tamara-b.org> AP via The Guardian - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6683314,00.html Gitmo Judge Dismisses Detainee Case GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A military judge dismissed terrorism-related charges Monday against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, delivering a blow to the Bush administration's attempt to try Guantanamo detainees in military courts. The ruling raised questions about whether the U.S. would have to further revise procedures for prosecuting prisoners, leading to major delays. The chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, argued that the ruling could spell the end of the war-crimes trial system set up last year by Congress and President Bush after the Supreme Court threw out the previous system. A military prosecutor said the ruling would be appealed, and the U.S. military entity responsible for holding the military trials said it believed Congress intended to grant jurisdiction to try suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members and supporters. Canadian detainee Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured after a deadly firefight in Afghanistan and who is now 20, will remain at the remote U.S. military base along with some 380 other men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, said he had no choice but to throw out the Khadr case because he had been classified as an ``enemy combatant'' by a military panel years earlier - and not as an ``alien unlawful enemy combatant.'' The Military Commissions Act, signed by Bush last year, says only those classified as ``unlawful'' enemy combatants can face war trials here, Brownback noted during the arraignment in a hilltop courtroom. Later Monday, a lawyer representing the only other detainee charged with war crimes, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, asked another military judge to throw out that case, based on the Khadr ruling. The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, called a recess before the prosecutor could make a statement. Sullivan said the dismissal in the Khadr case would have ``huge'' impact because none of the detainees held at this isolated military base in southeast Cuba has been found to be an ``unlawful'' enemy combatant. ``It is not just a technicality; it's the latest demonstration that this newest system just does not work,'' Sullivan told journalists. ``It is a system of justice that does not comport with American values.'' Sullivan said that in order to reclassify the detainees as ``unlawful'' combatants, the whole review system would have to be overhauled, a time-consuming act. The Pentagon said the issue was little more than semantics. A spokesman said the system was not dealing with lawful combatants, who fight in uniform for a national army. It was set up to determine if a detainee acted as an ``unlawful enemy combatant'' who was not in an internationally recognized military, did not wear a uniform or rank insignia, did not carry arms openly and was not a party to the Geneva Conventions, he said. ``It is our belief that the concept was implicit that all the Guantanamo detainees who were designated as `enemy combatants' ... were in fact unlawful,'' Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon told The Associated Press. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said that because Brownback dismissed the case without prejudice, the U.S. may be able to retry Khadr. He also said it is unclear whether all detainees would have to be reclassified. A military spokeswoman, Army Maj. Beth Kubala, said the prosecution had five days in which to file an appeal. But Sullivan said the court designated to hear any appeal - known as the court of military commissions review - doesn't even exist. Kubala told AP Television News that Brownback's ruling underscored the fairness of the system. ``The military commissions procedures and rules are robust and grant significant rights to the accused,'' she said. The only other Guantanamo detainee currently charged with crimes is Hamdan, who is accused of chauffeuring Osama bin Laden and being the al-Qaida chief's bodyguard. The third detainee charged under the new system, Australian David Hicks, pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaida and is serving a nine-month sentence in Australia. Brownback's ruling came just minutes into Khadr's arraignment on charges he committed murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying. Khadr allegedly killed a U.S. Army soldier with a grenade in the firefight, in which he was wounded. He appeared in the courtroom with a beard and wearing an olive-green prison uniform. ``The charges are dismissed without prejudice,'' Brownback pronounced as he adjourned the proceeding. A prosecutor, Army Capt. Keith Petty, said he had been prepared to show Khadr was an unlawful combatant because he fought for al-Qaida, and videotapes showed Khadr making and planting explosives targeting American soldiers. Khadr seemed oblivious to the ruling. He calmly watched the judge throw out the case - looking not at Brownback but at a computer screen at the defense table that showed a live TV broadcast of the proceedings. Khadr could see himself on the screen The U.S. military has hoped to accelerate its prosecutions of Guantanamo detainees, with the Pentagon saying it expects to eventually charge about 80 of the 380 prisoners held at this isolated base, but questions lingered about the legitimacy of the process. The Supreme Court, ruling in favor of a lawsuit brought by Hamdan, last June threw out a previous military tribunal system that was set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, calling it unconstitutional. Congress responded with new guidelines for war-crimes trials and Bush signed them into law. Hamdan's attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, told The Associated Press that he will challenge the new system as unconstitutional. For example, the Military Commissions Act retroactively made certain acts, such as conspiracy a crime, Swift said. ``This case raises significant questions'' about the separation of powers, Swift said. ``Congress cannot violate the Constitution to fix things ... but they are backdating anything and making it a crime.'' Hamdan is charged with conspiracy - centered on his alleged membership in al-Qaida and purported role in plotting to attack civilians and civilian targets - and with providing material support for terrorism. As part of the second charge, Hamdan is accused of transporting at least one SA-7 surface-to-air missile to shoot down U.S. and coalition military aircraft in Afghanistan in November 2001. The son of an alleged al-Qaida financier, Khadr is accused of killing U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Speer with a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002. Khadr's attorneys said he was a child soldier and should be rehabilitated, not imprisoned. ``The U.S. will be the first country in modern history to try an individual who was a child at the time of the alleged war crimes,'' the attorneys said in a joint statement in April. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:34:47 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:34:47 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] The Legacy of Tailhook: Sexual Assault in the US Military Message-ID: <20070604233447.5e7ce27f@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Ed Pearl In These Times - May 29, 2007 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3182/the_legacy_of_tailhook/ The Legacy of Tailhook Supporting our troops at any cost overshadows holding them accountable for sexual assault within military Women in the military continue to endure harassment and even sexual assault; it just happens in tents and outposts instead of the Vegas Hilton. By Susan J. Douglas It is the 15th anniversary of ?The Year of the Woman,? as 1992 was billed. Spurred, in part, by their fury over how the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee treated Anita Hill during her testimony about Clarence Thomas being a crude sexual harasser, an unprecedented number of women ran for and won seats in Congress. Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Carol Moseley Braun and Patty Murray all won Senate seats; a year later, President Clinton appointed a record number of women to government positions, including Janet Reno as the first female attorney general. Such achievement rarely comes without a backlash, and 1992 was no exception. For this spring and summer is also the 15th anniversary of the Tailhook scandal. The actual event?the drunken Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas, in which naval aviators formed a gauntlet on the third floor of the Hilton and trapped women in it, pawing and molesting them, stripping off their clothes?took place in September of 1991, but the scandal exploded the following spring as the press and the Navy itself revealed a massive cover-up. The night of the event, Paula Coughlin, an admiral?s aide and helicopter pilot, filed a complaint with a top aide to Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett and two inquiries began, one by the Naval Investigative Service and the other by the Naval Inspector General. More assaults came to light. Yet the Navy?s April 1992 whitewashed reports identified only two suspects from approximately 5,000 Tailhook attendees. As 26 women, 14 of them officers, claimed to have been assaulted, these findings defied credulity, and Garrett was compelled to widen the inquiry. By June of 1992, Garrett faced a full-blown scandal about the cover-up, including the fact that 55 pages of interviews had been omitted from the final report, including one that placed Garrett himself at one of the Tailhook party suites. Garrett resigned at the end of June, shortly after Paula Coughlin appeared on ABC News to describe her and the other women?s ordeal. Garrett?s replacement ordered a service-wide ?stand-down? so that every officer and enlisted person would take a full day?s training on sexual harassment. Such training became standard in the military, and sexual harassment hotlines were set up to field complaints and answer questions about policy. (The Tailhook Association?s response was to retain a PR firm, and in 1999 its ties to the Navy were reestablished, having been severed in the wake of the scandal.) One argument that emerged after Tailhook was that men in the military would never respect women in the armed services or treat them as equals until women could serve in combat. In 1993, under the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress rescinded restrictions on women in combat and the Clinton administration opened 250,000 positions previously closed to women in the military. Tailhook was a public event involving many women (and at least one teenage girl) at the same time. Such stories often have journalistic legs; when such incidents occur one by one, in private, they are deemed less newsworthy. But various reports indicate that women in the military today continue to endure widespread harassment and even sexual assault; it just happens in tents and outposts instead of the Las Vegas Hilton. Sara Corbett, writing for the New York Times magazine in March, documented the trauma female soldiers face from the debilitating combination of post-traumatic stress disorder from the war and sexual harassment or assault. Corbett also noted the inculcation of the ?why bother? attitude among the women: Why bother to report sexual harassment or assault, as such complaints are looked down upon and only a fraction of them result in punishment of the perpetrator. The women she interviewed also recounted the hostility they frequently confronted: Said one, ?You?re one of three things in the military?a bitch, a whore or a dyke.? Corbett?s subjects aren?t atypical. A survey conducted by the Veterans Association reported that 30 percent of female veterans had been victims of sexual assault, and 14 percent of those had been gang raped and another 20 percent raped more than once. Sexual assault remains underreported in the military, but estimates based on surveys like this place the rate at anywhere from three to 10 times that for female civilians. So why wasn?t Corbett?s story more widely picked up by other news outlets? Are these stories we can?t bear to hear in our guilt over having sent troops to Iraq under false pretenses? As everyone competes to claim they ?support our troops,? accounts of the criminal behavior of a subset of these troops are almost too taboo to raise. Yet the silence comes at the expense of these women?brave, tough, self-sacrificing. So we should remember Tailhook, what it did, and did not, change in the military. And it would be nice to have a real ?Year of the Woman,? not just for senators and First Ladies, but for all women, especially those willing to die for our country. [Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan and author of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How it Has Undermined Women.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:36:03 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:36:03 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US Cuts Back Climate Checks From Space Message-ID: <20070604233603.58fa304f@viola.tamara-b.org> AP via The Guardian - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6683712,00.html U.S. Cuts Back Climate Checks From Space By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases. A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago. Because of technology glitches and a near-doubling in the original $6.5 billion cost, the Defense Department has decided to downsize and launch four satellites paired into two orbits, instead of six satellites and three orbits. The satellites were intended to gather weather and climate data, replacing existing satellites as they come to the end of their useful lifetimes beginning in the next couple of years. The reduced system of four satellites will now focus on weather forecasting. Most of the climate instruments needed to collect more precise data over long periods are being eliminated. Instead, the Pentagon and two partners - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA - will rely on European satellites for most of the climate data. "Unfortunately, the recent loss of climate sensors ... places the overall climate program in serious jeopardy," NOAA and NASA scientists told the White House in the Dec. 11 report obtained by the AP. They said they will face major gaps in data that can be collected only from satellites about ice caps and sheets, surface levels of seas and lakes, sizes of glaciers, surface radiation, water vapor, snow cover and atmospheric carbon dioxide. Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch, a watchdog program of the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, called the situation a crisis. "We're going to start being blinded in our ability to observe the planet," said Piltz, whose group provided the AP with the previously undisclosed report. "It's criminal negligence, and the leaders in the climate science community are ringing the alarm bells on this crisis." Bush has repeatedly cited his administration's record on researching global warming as a response to criticism of his opposition to forced reductions in the greenhouse gases blamed for it. The administration has been spending about $5 billion a year on global warming: $2 billion on climate research and $3 billion on technologies for combatting it. Last week, the president proposed the idea of the 15 largest global-warming polluters - the U.S. is the largest, followed closely by China - meeting to set goals for fixing the problem while leaving it up to each nation just how to do it. The problem will be a major topic at this week's summit of world leaders in Europe. Bush requested $331 million for work on the scaled-back satellite system next year in his fiscal 2008 budget proposal. Congress has yet to act on it. The American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences have both cautioned that downsizing the satellite program will result in major gaps in the continuity and quality of the data gathered about the Earth from space. NASA and NOAA agreed in April to restore sensors that will enable the satellites to map ozone. NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher said that would give scientists a better idea of the content and distribution of atmospheric gases. But seven other separate climate sensors are still being eliminated or substantially downgraded by lower-quality equipment to save money, according to the report to the White House. Most of the satellites, which were scheduled to launch starting next year, have been delayed to between 2013 and 2026. White House science adviser Jack Marburger, for whom the report was intended, acknowledged that climate scientists had been depending greatly on the planned satellites. "We're obviously very concerned about this," he told the AP. "It got in trouble and we couldn't fit all those instruments on it ... leaving us with a number of problems and questions: How do we maintain our momentum in this very important area of science?" Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who chairs the House Committee on Science and Technology, called for a hearing later this week on the satellite program. Gordon believes Lautenbacher should resign, the panel's spokeswoman said. The committee wants to hear from Marburger and the satellite program's director, Air Force Brig. Gen. Susan Mashiko, and to receive an update from congressional investigators. "You're looking at a program that's roughly $6 billion over budget with no hope of recovery," said Alisha Prather, the spokeswoman. "They can't even tell us when different pieces of the puzzle may be functional. ... It's failed leadership." Anson Franklin, a spokesman for Lautenbacher, said he would have no comment Monday. NASA spokeswoman Tabatha Thompson told the AP a final version of the "impacts" report was delivered to Marburger on Jan. 8. It was not made public because it is "a pre-decisional document within the administration," she said. NASA and NOAA also are looking for guidance from the National Research Council, which is holding a workshop on the satellites this month. Chet Koblinsky, director of NOAA's climate program office, told the council the satellites "represented the cornerstone of the nation's future space-based climate research program," according to PowerPoint slides obtained by AP. The delays were caused in part because of problems with an infrared sensor that officials either didn't monitor closely enough or didn't bring to the attention of their managers, the Commerce Department's inspector general reported last year. That report also said a contractor on the project was receiving excessive fees. The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS, was first announced in 1994. It was an effort to combine weather-forecasting satellites operated by the Defense Department and NOAA and add climate data-gathering instruments. The plans also involved the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and the National Space Development Agency of Japan. By 2005, however, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found the costs for the U.S. satellites could run to $9.7 billion and were almost a year and a half behind schedule. The Pentagon last year pegged the cost at $11.5 billion and found that it was further behind schedule. Jerry Mahlman, a former scientist at NOAA who is now at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said he and other colleagues warned of problems as far back as 1995. He compared the preparations for the satellites to a "planned train wreck." [AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:38:06 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:38:06 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution Message-ID: <20070604233806.09f9d917@viola.tamara-b.org> The Guardian - June 5, 2007 http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,2095349,00.html Massacres and paramilitary land seizures behind the biofuel revolution * Colombian farmers driven out as armed groups profit * Lucrative 'green' crop less risky to grow than coca By Oliver Balch in Mutat and Rory Carroll in Cartagena Armed groups in Colombia are driving peasants off their land to make way for plantations of palm oil, a biofuel that is being promoted as an environmentally friendly source of energy. Surging demand for "green" fuel has prompted rightwing paramilitaries to seize swaths of territory, according to activists and farmers. Thousands of families are believed to have fled a campaign of killing and intimidation, swelling Colombia's population of 3 million displaced people and adding to one of the world's worst refugee crises after Darfur and Congo. Several companies were collaborating by falsifying deeds to claim ownership of the land, said Andres Castro, the general secretary of Fedepalma, the national federation of palm oil producers. "As a consequence of the development of palm by secretive business practices and the use of threats, people have been displaced and [the businesses] have claimed land for themselves," he said. His claim was backed up by witnesses and groups such as Christian Aid and the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia. The revelations tarnish what has been considered an economic and environmental success story. The fruit of the palm oil tree produces a vegetable oil also used in cooking, employs 80,000 people, and is increasingly being turned into biofuel. "Four years ago Colombia had 172,000 hectares of palm oil," President Alvaro Uribe told the Guardian. "This year we expect to finish with nearly 400,000." "Four years ago Colombia didn't produce a litre of biofuel. Today, because of our administration, Colombia produces 1.2m litres per day." Investment in new installations would continue to boost production, he added. However the lawlessness created by four decades of insurgency in the countryside has enabled rightwing paramilitaries, and also possibly leftwing rebels, to join the boom. Unlike coca, the armed groups' main income source, palm oil is a legal crop and therefore safe from state-backed eradication efforts. Farmers who have been forced off their land at gunpoint say that in many cases their banana groves and cattle grazing fields were turned into palm oil plantations. Luis Hernandez (not his real name) fled his 170-hectare plot outside the town of Mutata in Antioquia province nine years ago after his father-in-law and several neighbours were gunned down. When he and other survivors were able to return recently, they found the land was in the hands of a local palm producer. "The company tells me that it has legal papers for the land, but I don't know how that can be, as I have land titles dating back 20 years," said Mr Hernandez. He suspects palm companies collaborated with the paramilitaries. "I don't know if there was an official agreement between them, but a relationship of some sort definitely exists." A government investigation reportedly found irregularities in 80% of palm oil land titles in some areas. "If there have been abuses and the titles are shown to be false, then the land needs to be returned and all the weight of the law needs to be brought down on those that are responsible," said Dr Castro, of the producers' association. Christian Aid is funding an effort to protect peasants who are trying to reclaim land from the paramilitaries, said Dominic Nutt, who has visited the plantations. "It is the dark side of biofuel." The paramilitary groups, first formed in the 80s by businessmen, landowners and drug lords to fend off guerrillas, became a powerful illegal army which stole land, sold drugs and massacred civilians. Under a peace deal with the government they have officially disbanded but many observers say remnants remain active. Displacement continues, with an average of 200,000 cases registered every year over the past four years, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees, with most coming from palm oil-growing areas on the Caribbean coast. "We can't keep up, they just keep coming," said Ludiz Ruda, of the Hijos de Maria school in a shantytown outside the coastal city of Cartagena. Since opening last year it had been swamped with impoverished newcomers, she said. "More than 80% are refugees." Cocaine output rises regardless Coca production in Colombia has surged despite US-funded eradication efforts, according to an estimate that casts fresh doubt on Washington's "war on drugs". Satellite imagery collated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy survey suggests that cultivation of coca, the raw ingredient of cocaine, jumped 8% last year to 156,000 hectares. The estimate was made public before a trip to Washington this week by President Alvaro Uribe. If confirmed, it would be the third consecutive rise in production, and a blow to the US strategy of bolstering Colombia's security forces to help them destroy the crops. Under its Plan Colombia project, Washington has funnelled more than $5bn (#2.5bn) in mostly military aid to its South American ally since 2000 - its biggest aid project outside Afghanistan and the Middle East. The Democrats say the security forces are accused of human rights abuses and complicity with traffickers. Mr Uribe revealed the unpublished findings in an effort to get the bad news out of the way before he started lobbying Congress; the White House did not immediately respond. "They told me they were worried about revealing this number because of my upcoming trip to the United States - that the Americans should reveal it," he said. "But that's why I'm revealing it. We're not trying to put makeup on what is a serious matter." Plan Colombia began in 1999 and was supposed to halve production of coca within five years, using sprayer planes and officers on the ground. But the latest estimate suggests that since then it has risen 27%. Last month Mr Uribe trumpeted a UN report that said cultivation was down to 79,000 hectares. The conflicting figures were incomprehensible and disorienting, said the president: "Could it be we've worked in vain? That all our work hasn't produced the desired results?" From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:42:10 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:42:10 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] State Dept Interferes w/US-Cuba Hurricane Summit in Mexico Message-ID: <20070604234210.299f2bfd@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Louis Head via Jane Franklin - Jun 4, 2007 [The Hurricane Summit meeting took place May 23-26, 2007, in Monterrey, Mexico.] For Immediate Release - June 2, 2007 For further information, contact Randy Poindexter, 504-453-4827, rpoindexter at bellsouth.net US-CUBA HURRICANE SUMMIT: US State Dept. Interferes with Historic Event A historic meeting took place last week in Monterrey, Mexico as Cuban and US hurricane experts gathered to exchange ideas and information just as hurricane season began. However, one participant failed to appear, thanks to untimely interference by the US State Department. The US-Cuba Hurricane Summit was the first event of its kind. Wayne Smith of the Center for International Policy and co-coordinators Randy Poindexter of New Orleans and Jay Higgenbotham of Mobile assembled participants from along the hard-hit Gulf Coast region to attend the summit. They met with leading Cuban experts to discuss how the US could better prepare for hurricanes. Unable to attend the Summit was US meteorologist Lixion Avilia, from Miami, FL, who was detained in Dallas en route on his way to Monterrey, Mexico when he received a message from the US State Department ordering him not to attend the US-Cuba Hurricane Summit. The Summit proceeded as planned at the Technologico de Monterrey, hosted by Dr. Victor Lopez Villafane. Guest speakers included Pulitzer prize winning writers Jed Horne and Mark Schleifstein of the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, LSU Hurricane Center scientist and author Ivor Van Heerden, as well as the emergency management directors Walt Dickerson of Mobile Country in Alabama, Joe Spraggins of Harrison County in Mississippi and John Dosh of Pensacola, Florida. Former FEMA officials Phil Coogan and Morrie Goodman from Washington spoke, as did conference organizers Wayne Smith, Randy Poindexter and Jay Higgenbotham. Cuba was represented by Chief of the Cuban Interests Section in the US, Dagoberto Rodriguez as well as a delegation from the island, led by well-known Cuban meteorologist Jose Rubiera, who spoke about Cuba_s weather prognostications as well as their civil defenses efforts. Dr. Jose Borges Rodriguez, Dr. Daniel Loriet Andreu from the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade, both of whom hoped to go to New Orleans to offer assistance, and Norys de las Mercedes Maderas of the Ministry of Cuba_s Foreign Relations spoke of the offer of 1,600 medical doctors and 36 tons of medical supplies known as the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade that Cuba was prepared to send to the US in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and what kind of assistance Cuba might provide again in the future. The Henry Reeve Medical Brigade instead departed for Indonesia and Pakistan following major earthquakes. Participants shared experiences and knowledge of disaster management preparedness on this rare occasion under a special grant provided by the Ford Foundation. A grant from the Brownstone Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland provided for the Cubans to attend and avoid violation of the Helms-Burton law. Conclusions were drawn by all that the summit was a major success which must be repeated again next year, to include more emergency management directors. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:43:23 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:43:23 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuban Airport Doubles Passenger Capacity Message-ID: <20070604234323.11010464@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Cuban Airport Doubles Passenger Capacity HOLGUIN, June 4 (acn) The Frank Pais International Airport of the eastern Cuban city of Holguin, doubled its passenger capacity as a result of investments made by the Cuban government in that sector. The construction project involved the enlargement of passenger waiting areas and the setting up of new booths for immigration and customs control, in addition to improving the working condition of tour operators. Airport Director David Benitez told ACN that the airport increased its capacity from six to nine square meters per passenger, allowing it to process up to 1,200 passengers in an hour. Benitez said the airport was usually packed during the high tourism season, running from October through March, as Holguin is the third top tourist destination of the country. The Frank Pais International Airport was first opened in 1998 and currently has a staff of 600 workers. The stay time average is from 30 to 35 minutes, below international norms which top out at 45 minutes. The inauguration of the new facilities was presided over by Miguel Diaz-Canel, the first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in the province, and Rogelio Aevedo, president of the Civil Aeronautics Institute of Cuba. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:51:01 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:51:01 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuba, Venez Plan New Unwater Communications Cable Message-ID: <20070604235101.59c749f4@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Underwater Cable will Favor Caribbean Communications Havana, June 4 (acn) The first underwater cable of the Caribbean will be installed by a new joint venture between state run enterprises Telecom Venezuela and Transbit from Cuba. Ten times bigger than any cable in the region, this new device will allow cheaper and faster interconnection between Latin American countries. According to the President of Telecom Venezuela Julio Duran, the cable will stretch some 1, 600 kilometers from La Guaira, north of Venezuela, to Siboney, a coastal town on the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, reported the Bolivarian News Agency (ABN). It will have two forks, one close to Cuba and the other near Venezuela, to allow the interconnection with other Caribbean and Latin American nations at prices cheaper than those charged by private enterprises, explained Duran. Services will include some 26 thousand TV channels and Internet access, thus allowing broader cooperation and joint work in areas such as education, medicine, sports, and culture in the region. During the 12th International Convention on information technologies held in Havana on February, 2007, Telecom President said that the cable would allow 20 million simultaneous calls. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:51:56 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:51:56 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Fidel Castro will Make TV Appearance on Tuesday, June 5 Message-ID: <20070604235156.2ac86038@viola.tamara-b.org> Fidel Castro will Make TV Appearance on Tuesday Havana, June 5 (ACN) Cuban President Fidel Castro will speak June 5 on the prime time TV program The Round Table, which is broadcast on Cuban radio and television every day. In a video to be broadcast during the program, the Cuban Revolution Leader will be speaking about his recent meeting with the General Secretary of the Central Committee of Vietnam's Communist Party Nong Duc Manh, and other issues of interest, announced Randy Alonso, moderator of the popular TV program. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:55:08 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:55:08 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Protestors Abound at G8 Summit; Prague Bans anti-Bush March Message-ID: <20070604235508.20dfeb73@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Protesters Abound at German G-8 Summit Rostock, Germany, Jun 4(Prensa Latina) Thousands gathered in Rostock again Monday to protest the summit of the world?s eight wealthiest countries (G-8) to be held in the Baltic Heiligendamm resort 15 miles away, which has been completely closed this week. Police arrested some 50 of the demonstrators against globalization and for a better world, allegedly for refusing to remove balaclavas covering their faces. The march of some 300 organizations was proceeding peacefully until a group threw stones at police. Today?s demonstration is the third since Saturday, when about 80,000 pacifists held a march that ended with about 1,000 wounded, battles condemned by both organizers and authorities. hr ccs rma bts PL-47 *** Prague Forbids Anti-Bush March Prague, Jun 4 (Prensa Latina) The Czech Republic Interior Ministry forbade protests against US President George W. Bush at the Prague Castle Monday, so organizers called for the rally at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Bush arrives today for an official visit and numerous organizations, among them the Union of Young Communists, are taking part in demonstrations to reject his presence and US government plans to establish a radar station at Brdy Military Base, 37 miles from Prague. This installation will work in coordination with a rocket base in Poland, a project included in the anti-missile shield the US wants to set up in Europe. Alter visiting the Czech Republic, Bush will go to the Heiligendamm resort, in northwest Germany, where the Group of Eight Summit will take place Wednesday to Friday, and he also plans visits to Poland, Bulgaria and the Vatican, before returning to Washington. hr ccs tac por bts PL-30 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:56:30 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:56:30 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuba: US Needs Shift to Democracy Message-ID: <20070604235630.4cdadbe1@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba: US Needs Shift to Democracy Havana, Jun 4 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban newspaper "Granma" reported Monday that the United States needs a democratic transition and will fail in its attempt to build an international siege against the island. In an extensive article, the daily responded to statements against the Cuban Revolution by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her recent visit to Spain. Granma stated that, since Cuba was a priority issue on Rice s agenda with her counterpart Miguel Moratinos, we would have to ask if she tackled damages and suffering of the Cuban people due to the US blockade. Both officials analyzed the situation in the concentration camp located on the US naval base, illegally occupying part of the Cuban territory of Guantanamo. The article questions if the two foreign ministers discussed the CIA secret flights to Spain, kidnappings and tortures horrifying the European public opinion and the release in United States of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. sus iff jrr mf PL-12 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Mon Jun 4 23:57:58 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 23:57:58 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Bush Selling Missile Shield in Czech Republic Message-ID: <20070604235758.3499b832@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Bush Selling Missile Shield in Czech Republic Prague, Jun 4 (Prensa Latina) US President George W. Bush arrived to Prague on Monday, as part of his European tour, to discuss with Czech authorities his plan to deploy an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. He is expected to meet with President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek on Tuesday to discuss these plans which envisage the opening of a US radar base in Bohemia. Russia protested the possible establishment of the US shield near its borders, which it considers a threat, and threatened with aiming its missiles at Europe. Bush"s arrival comes little after a large demonstration against the possible installation of the US facility in Czech soil, with demonstrators demanding a referendum on the issue. More than 60 percent of the people reject these US aspirations, also including the installation of an anti-missile base in Poland. Also on Tuesday, the US president is expected to travel to Germany to attend the Summit of the group of the world"s eight most developed countries (G-8) plus Russia, to be held in the Baltic Heiligendamm resort on June 6-8. hr rma bts PL-55 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 00:19:05 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:19:05 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Supreme Ct Ending Term with Big Issues, Incl. "Faith" Challenge Message-ID: <20070605001905.4e7cad7b@viola.tamara-b.org> Los Angeles Times - June 2, 2007 http://http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na- scotus2jun02,1,5914692.story?coll=la-headlines-nation Supreme Court ending term with big issues School integration, campaign ads, Bush's faith-based initiative and more are on the divided justices' docket this last month. By David G. Savage Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court heads into the final month of its term next week, and is expected to deliver major decisions on the future of school integration, the role of corporate money in political campaign ads and a taxpayer challenge to President Bush's faith-based initiative. There will probably be more 5-4 rulings and sharply worded dissents as the justices hand down rulings in the 26 remaining cases by the end of June and then leave town for the summer. If new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had something of a honeymoon last year, it came to an end earlier this year. The deep divide between the conservative and liberal wings was apparent in rulings on abortion and global warming. Both were decided by 5-4 votes, with conservatives winning the abortion case and liberals carrying the global warming decision. Only Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was in the majority both times. Roberts and new Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. have lined up with veteran conservatives Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. They are opposed by a liberal contingent led by 87-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens, who is joined by Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. In the middle sits Kennedy. His vote often makes a 5-4 majority for one side or the other. In fact, in the court's 13 rulings decided by one vote this term, Kennedy is the only justice to have been in the majority each time. This month, the conservatives figure to prevail in three cases. Parents Involved in Community Schools vs. Seattle School District No. 1 will decide whether school officials can use racial guidelines to maintain integration. Parents from Seattle and Louisville are challenging the voluntary integration policies in those cities. Federal Election Commission vs. Wisconsin Right to Life will decide whether groups can use corporate money to sponsor broadcast ads just before an election -- which is now prohibited by the McCain-Feingold Act. A third case, Hein vs. Freedom From Religion Foundation, tests whether citizens can to go court to challenge Bush's faith-based initiative. Roberts and the other conservatives have suggested that these claims should be thrown out without a hearing because the taxpayers do not have standing to sue. A ruling along those lines could make it harder for advocates of church-state separation to go to court. On the business front, the court will decide whether to scrap a nearly 100-year-old rule that forbids manufacturers from fixing retail prices for their products. A Los Angeles maker of women's handbags is fighting this rule in Leegin Creative Leather Products vs. PSKS, and a win could reshape parts of the retail industry. It has already been a good term for business, and it's likely to get even better this month. Here are some additional major cases to be decided this month: High schools and free speech: Do students have a right to hold up signs at school-sponsored events that carry messages that offend the principal? A case from Alaska involves a student and his banner promoting "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," but a ruling could broadly rewrite the free-speech rules in schools across the country. (Morse vs. Frederick) Car searches: Is a passenger legally "seized" when police pull over the driver? No, said the California Supreme Court. The ruling in favor of the passenger from Northern California could be important for those charged with a crime who want to challenge the stop as illegal. (Brendlin vs. California) School recruiting: Do coaches have a free-speech right to contact student athletes from other schools, or do state athletic associations have the authority to penalize high school teams for recruiting? (Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Assn. vs. Brentwood Academy) Union fees: Does a teachers union have a right to use dues money for political purposes unless a teacher objects? (Washington vs. Washington Education Assn.) Home-care workers: Are the tens of thousands of employees who provide companionship services in the homes of the elderly and infirm entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay? (Long Island Care at Home vs. Coke) Credit reports: When must insurers notify consumers they were charged higher rates because of a poor credit rating? (Safeco vs. Burr) Investor suits: How much evidence of fraud is needed before investors can sue a company for their stock losses? Wall Street and the Bush administration want to make it harder for these suits to go forward. (Tellabs vs. Makor) Initial public offerings: Can 10 of the largest investment banks be sued under antitrust laws on allegations of rigging the price of stock offerings during the boom of the late 1990s? (Credit Suisse vs. Billing) *** AP via Los Angeles Times - June 1, 2007 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/scotus/wire/sns-ap- scotus-big-cases,1,5056982.story?coll=sns-ap-scotus-headlines Key Decisions Remain for Supreme Court By Mark Sherman Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON -- Important cases on race in schools, campaign finance and student speech rights are still to be decided before the Supreme Court adjourns for the summer. The outcome of those cases, as well as a dispute over President Bush's faith-based program, will help show how far to the right Bush's two nominees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, have moved the court. The justices have about 25 opinions to issue -- more than one-third of the 71 cases they have heard since October -- before they leave town at the end of June for teaching gigs, foreign travel and vacations. Challenges to the use of race in assigning students to public schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle were argued nearly six months ago. At the time, a majority of the justices appeared inclined to strike down one or both plans. The issue then seemed to be how far the court was prepared to go in limiting the use of race in fostering diversity in public schools. Nothing since the argument has dispelled the concerns of supporters of the school system plans, said Steven Shapiro, the ACLU's legal director. "Obviously, what matters in those cases is not only the result but how the court reaches it. If the court says the plans were not properly constructed, that's different from saying you can never take race into account," Shapiro said. Decisions in blockbuster cases often come in a term's final days, although the court already has issued opinions in abortion and global warming cases. The last argument of the term concerned the constitutionality of a federal ban on the airing of so-called issue ads that mention a candidate's name in the weeks before an election. The court previously upheld the ban, but now is being asked to overturn its earlier ruling or at least permit corporations and labor unions to air the ads in some circumstances. Among the more colorful pending matters is the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case, testing the limits on students' speech rights. Another First Amendment case asks whether taxpayers can go into federal court to challenge spending by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The justices also have to decide whether a Texas death row inmate is so mentally ill as to preclude his execution. Another criminal case involves whether passengers in private autos may challenge the constitutionality of traffic stops by police. The first full term of the new Roberts court has produced few surprises so far, with an anticipated tilt toward more conservative outcomes, several victories for business interests and a key role for Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's so-called swing vote. Kennedy has been the only justice in the majority in every one of the court's 13 5-4 decisions so far. In one of those 5-4 decisions, the court for the first time upheld a nationwide ban on an abortion procedure. The result almost certainly would have been different had Alito's predecessor, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, still been on the court. Yet, "it would be too much to say all the hot-button cases were decided on the conservative side," said Richard Garnett, a visiting professor at the University of Chicago law school. With Kennedy again providing the key vote in a 5-4 ruling, the court ordered the Bush administration to take another look at whether it should regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from new vehicles. It was the court's first global warming case. The number of closely divided decisions suggests that Roberts' goal of greater consensus on the court is "more theoretical than real," as Shapiro said. Or as Justice Antonin Scalia recently remarked when asked to assess the likelihood of fewer split decisions, "Lotsa luck." Retirements typically are announced at the end of the term, although there has been almost no speculation that anyone is planning to step down. Four justices, though, are at least 70. Justice John Paul Stevens is 87, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 74, Scalia is 71 and Kennedy is 70. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 00:20:56 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:20:56 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Behind the Protests over the Cancellation of RCTV Message-ID: <20070605002056.61d22110@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) - Jun 4, 2007 http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles What is Hidden Behind the Protests over the Cancellation of RCTV? By Angel Alvarez AIN Special Service Left with no real reasons for protest, the Venezuelan oligarchy and traditional leaders, are using the cancellation of RCTV's license as the excuse to support their plant to destabilize and topple the government of Hugo Chavez. It is the same old story that has been repeated over and over again in Latin America any time a progressive government appears with aspirations to improve the living conditions of the majority of the population, evenly distribute the country's resources and govern independently of Washington's. Three examples suffice to demonstrate this pattern. In the 1950s, in Guatemala, when the government of Jacobo Arbenz attempted an agrarian reform, the media, paid by the United Fruit Company and other powerful plantation owners, viciously attacked the government. A media campaign was organized from the US embassy and ended up playing an important role in the creation of conditions for a military invasion headed by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. Barely five years later, in Cuba, even before the adoption of the first measure of the people's court, when social transformations were only outlined in the speeches of the leaders, the campaign did not wait. But in Cuba, the powerful media elite, headed by the Diario de la Marina, the same paper which had applauded the death of Independence leader Antonio Maceo, 65 years earlier, abandoned their newspapers, and television and radio stations and fled to the United States, hopeful of returning some weeks later after the bayonets of US marines. More recently, in the 1970s the socialist government of Salvador Allende was victim of the mass media, especially the property of the Edwards family that was unconditionally put into the hands of the Chilean oligarchy. The mass media helped feed the events that ended in the bombing of the La Moneda Presidential Palace and the death of the legitimately elected president and the installation of a ferocious tyrant. Many of the mass media cowardly became silent before the assassination and the disappearance of thousands of young people. Now in Venezuela, as always, they are attempting to justify their actions under the guise of freedom of the press. In reality, it has more to do with the freedom of the businesses owned by the Cisneros and Capriles families among others, who hide their interest in preserving the old order of exploitation that for decades have pillaged the country's resources. President Hugo Chavez has been extremely tolerant before the openly subversive conduct of journalists, magazines, and television and radio boradcasts, which went as far as encouraging the kidnapping of the president and the coup d? etat on April 11, 2002. Legal and moral reasons are more than enough to justify Venezuela's decision to not renewal RCTV's license. Since Hugo Chavez became president, these entities forgot their social function of informing and have become no more than instruments used to carry plans to provoke chaos with a clear intention of destroying the government. During the two days that the coup lasted, while the president had allegedly resigned and disappeared and a new "government" took over while people filled the streets of Caracas, all this time, RCTV were transmitting movies and cartoons. How long, in the name of a false freedom of the press, should democratically elected be forced to stand the outrages of the private media, to the extend of even encouraging the assassination of the president and promoting destabilization? In Venezuela a colossal conspiracy is underway, for reasons that have nothing to do with the suspension of the local transmissions of RCTV. In the US embassy in Caracas, the Under Secretary for Latin America John Negroponte, should know well the real reasons of street protests and support offered beyond the borders of Venezuela. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 00:26:52 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:26:52 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Ortega: US fomenting anti-government protests in Venezuela Message-ID: <20070605002652.1333c00a@viola.tamara-b.org> AP via International Herald Tribune - June 4, 2007 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/04/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Nicaragua.php Ortega accuses US of fomenting anti-government protests in Venezuela The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused Washington on Sunday of fomenting student-led protests against a decision by President Hugo Chavez that forced an opposition-aligned television station off the air. Flanked by Chavez during a speech that all of Venezuela's TV channels were forced to broadcast, Ortega said his government supported his host's decision not to renew Radio Caracas Television's broadcast license and warned against "Yankee intervention" in Venezuela's affairs. "I see youngsters on the news marching and protesting, it's really sad. They've been injected with hate," said Ortega, referring to a series of recent street demonstrations by thousands of students who accuse Chavez of restricting freedom of expression. "In Nicaragua, the Yankees took control of the people and filled them with hate" during the 1980's amid a civil war pitting U.S.-backed Contra rebels against the Sandinista government, Ortega said. RCTV, was forced off the air May 27 after Chavez refused to renew its license, citing the channel's conduct during a failed coup in 2002 and alleged violations of broadcast laws. RCTV's executives deny any wrongdoing. They accuse Chavez of trying to muzzle his critics. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders have called the government's move a flagrant effort to silence criticism. The European Parliament and the U.S. Senate both passed resolutions condemning the decision. Although many of Venezuela's media outlets are privately owned and critical of Chavez, the RCTV case has raised significant concerns because it was the only opposition-sided TV station with nationwide reach. During Sunday's talks, Chavez and Ortega signed a agreement granting Nicaragua the right to broadcast Telesur, a new Latin American TV network meant to provide an alternative to CNN. Venezuela holds a 51 percent stake in Telesur, with smaller shares owned by Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and communist-led Cuba. Ortega ? a former leftist guerrilla leader ? also warned against a U.S. invasion of Venezuela. "Touching Venezuela is to touch Latin America and the Caribbean, and the struggle would be continental," Ortega said. Venezuela was Ortega's first stop on 10-day tour that will take him to Algeria, Libya, Iran and Italy. Chavez has promised Nicaragua a slew of aid and investment ? including cash, oil under preferential terms, a refinery and factories ? since Ortega took office in January. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 00:28:37 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:28:37 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Nicaraguan President to Visit Iran in Gaddafi's Jet Message-ID: <20070605002837.2a84da5f@viola.tamara-b.org> Reuters via The Washington Post - June 3, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/03/AR2007060301093.html Nicaragua president to visit Iran in Gaddafi's jet By Ivan Castro MANAGUA, Nicaragua (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who has raised eyebrows in Washington by forging ties with Iran, said on Sunday he will travel to the country aboard a jet on loan from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Ortega, a Cold War-era enemy of Washington who is an ally of U.S. antagonist Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, told reporters he was leaving for Caracas, the first stop in a 10-day tour that will take him to Iran, Algeria, Libya and Cuba. Ortega said longtime U.S. critic Gaddafi loaned him a jet to cut the cost of the trip. He said he would also make a stop in Italy, but did not reveal his itinerary. The Iran visit will focus in part on getting businessmen to invest in Nicaraguan factories that build tractors and other agricultural equipment, Ortega said. "We want to improve relations with Iran in all fields, in all areas," he said. A former Marxist guerrilla who fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels during his 1980s government, Ortega has reached out to Iran since recapturing the presidency this year. He has hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Managua. Ortega is seeking more aid from the United States, but he said Washington cannot stop him talking to anti-U.S. leaders. He played down any possible negative impact on U.S.-Nicaragua relations from his visit to Iran, which is at loggerheads with Washington over its atomic program and its detention of American citizens. "We are not asking permission from any country, from any president about who we meet, when we meet or what we talk about," he said. "It is a sovereign decision and the North American government understands that very well." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 00:36:47 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 00:36:47 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Much Ado over RCTV Continues in Venezuela and Abroad Message-ID: <20070605003647.395658fa@viola.tamara-b.org> excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - June 4, 2007. Summary [Protests in Caracas continued over the weekend, and with record participation from students in the capital city. The Associated Press reports raises questions about the durability of the student movement, and notes that rallies in support of RCTV often draw participation from middle- and upper-middle class students at private schools. While some youth argue that they are mobilizing for free speech, others warn that they are simply -- and perhaps unknowingly -- protecting corporate interests in the media. Bloomberg reports that rallies on Saturday in support of the government decision not to renew RCTV brought memories of the attempted coup: Communication Minister Willian Lara told reporters, ``The same people who were behind an attempt to overthrow President Chavez in 2002 are now masterminding these demonstrations using students as a cover... We will not permit that again.'' U.S. media coverage of the controversy surrounding RCTV often omits at least three important points, according to an article in Common Dreams last Friday. The article highlights these facts: many governments worldwide control radio and TV licensing; Venezuela is a constitutional republic governed by a president who enjoys strong legitimacy; and Venezuela's majority private, opposition-affiliated media enjoys constitutional protections that protect it from censorship. Frequent reports of RCTV's "alleged" involvement in the 2002 coup and related "accusations" obscure the station's proven role in helping mobilize and justify the coup, then blacking out news coverage when popular support for the government reinstalled the elected president. The article also suggests that opposition to the RCTV decision in the U.S. does not demonstrate a steadfast commitment to freedom of expression, but rather, a foreign policy program in need of more scrutiny, the article suggests. An op-ed by a Witness for Peace delegate appearing in Maine's Bangor Daily News Friday is similarly critical of the condemnations of President Chavez that are so common in the U.S. press. Chavez's commitment to reducing poverty is described, along with the social programs in medicine and education that have become emblematic of this fight. Because Chavez is the subject of both criticism and accolade within Venezuela, the op-ed piece urges, we in the U.S. should remain neutral observers of the political, social, and economic processes that are happening within that country. It reads: "Venezuela is going through an experiment in government for the benefit of the poor. We should wish it well, and leave it alone." Finally, a summit of the Organization of American States began over the weekend, an event which many expected to feature discussion of the RCTV case. However, the Financial Times reported yesterday that the international organization has yet to come out either against or in support of the RCTV decision. OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza has stated that media licensing in Venezuela should remain an internal matter. -VIO] *** CommonDreams.org - June 1, 2007 http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/01/1607/ Venezuela and the Media: Fact and Fiction by Robert W. McChesney & Mark Weisbrot To read and view the U.S. news media over the past week, there is an episode of grand tyranny unfolding, one repugnant to all who cherish democratic freedoms. The Venezuelan government under "strongman" Hugo Chavez refused to renew the 20-year broadcast license for RCTV, because that medium had the temerity to be critical of his regime. It is a familiar story. And in this case it is wrong. Regrettably, the US media coverage of Venezuela's RCTV controversy says more about the deficiencies of our own news media that it does about Venezuela. It demonstrates again, as with the invasion of Iraq, how our news media are far too willing to carry water for Washington than to ascertain and report the truth of the matter. Here are some of the facts and some of the context that the media have omitted or buried: 1. All nations license radio and TV stations because the airwaves can only accommodate a small number of broadcasters, far fewer than the number who would like to have the privilege to broadcast. In democratic nations the license is given for a specific term, subject to renewal. In the United States it is eight years; in Venezuela it is 20 years. 2. Venezuela is a constitutional republic. Chavez has won landslide victories that would be the envy of almost any elected leader in the world, in internationally monitored elections. 3. The vast majority of Venezuela's media are not only in private hands, they are constitutionally protected, uncensored, and dominated by the opposition. RCTV's owners can expand their cable and satellite programming, or take their capital and launch a print empire forthwith. Aggressive unqualified political dissent is alive and well in the Venezuelan mainstream media, in a manner few other democratic nations have ever known, including our own. Now consider the specific facts of RCTV as it applied to have its broadcast license renewed. The media here report that President Chavez "accuses RCTV of having supported a coup" against him. This is a common means of distorting the news: a fact is reported as accusation, and then attributed to a source that the press has done everything to discredit. In fact, RCTV - along with other broadcast news outlets - played such a leading role in the April 2002 military coup against Venezuela's democratically elected government, that it is often described as "the world's first media coup." In the prelude to the coup, RCTV helped mobilize people to the streets against the government, and used false reporting to justify the coup. One of their most infamous and effective falsifications was to mix footage of pro-Chavez people firing pistols from an overpass in Caracas with gory scenes of demonstrators being shot and killed. This created the impression that the pro-Chavez gunmen actually shot these people, when in fact the victims were nowhere near them. These falsified but horrifying images were repeated incessantly, and served as a major justification for the coup. RCTV then banned any pro-government reporting during the coup. When Chavez returned to office, this too was blacked out of the news. Later the same year, RCTV once again made all-day-long appeals to Venezuelans to help topple the government during a crippling national oil strike. If RCTV were broadcasting in the United States, its license would have been revoked years ago. In fact its owners would likely have been tried for criminal offenses, including treason. RCTV's broadcast frequency has been turned over to a new national public access channel that promises to provide programming from thousands of independent producers. It is an effort to let millions of Venezuelans who have never had a viable chance to participate in the media do so, without government censorship. The Bush Administration opposes the Chavez government for reasons that have nothing to do with democracy, or else there would be a long list of governments for us to subvert or overthrow before it would get close to targeting Venezuela. Regrettably, our press coverage has done little to shed light on that subject. Our news media should learn the lesson of Iraq and regard our own government's claims with the same skepticism they properly apply to foreign leaders. Then Americans might begin to get a more accurate picture of the world, and be able to effectively participate in our foreign policy. Robert W. McChesney is a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. (www.cepr.net). *** The Bangor Daily News - June 1, 2007 http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=150469&zoneid=35 Op-Ed: Devil or angel, we should give Chavez a chance By Rufus Wanning "Chavez is a miracle!" "Someone should shoot Chavez in the head!" We heard both these opinions on a single day during a recent trip to Venezuela to check out the revolution there. Our group was a delegation of Witness for Peace, an organization that has sent fact-finding missions to Latin America for 23 years. What we found both exhilarated and worried me. Venezuela is wealthy, a major oil exporter, and yet, before Chavez, the majority of the people were very poor; there was more poverty than in most of the rest of South America. Chavez is dedicated to ending poverty in Venezuela, and is spending oil money chiefly on the poor. The poor, in return, support him: They have elected him four times: in 1998, 2000, 2004 (the recall election), and 2006. They stuck with him from 1999 to 2002, when oil prices were low and Chavez could not do much for them. They supported him against the 2002 coup and defeated it. They suffered through the opposition oil strike of 2002-2003 and the lean years of recovery in 2003 and 2004, and still supported him. In the latest election, Chavez got 63 percent of the vote, with 75 percent voting. The oldest and most successful of Chavez's programs for the poor is the medical mission. Staffed mainly by Cuban doctors, it has opened clinics all over the country. We visited one such clinic in a poor area of Caracas. It had well-equipped examining rooms, x-ray and other treatment rooms, and the patients were satisfied. An effort has been made in education. In La Magdalena, a poor community outside of Caracas, we heard people speak with enthusiasm about the improvements. The primary school, which had operated half days, was now operating from 8 to 4, and serving breakfast, lunch and a snack. Afternoons were mostly devoted to arts, crafts, music and physical education. We talked to Carolina, the arts and crafts teacher at the school, who had blossomed with the new support for education. Evenings, she was taking college courses, and teaching adult literacy as a volunteer. Eradicating illiteracy is one of the major aims of the government. The government also helps out with food. They have established an extensive network of food markets, called Mercals, where people can shop for the basics at 40 percent to 45 percent off regular prices. These programs are available to people of any income or politics. Another aim of the government is decent housing. Money for new housing, as well as for rebuilding, comes half as grants, and half as loans under generous terms: 0 percent interest with a two-year grace period. We were shown two new houses by their proud owners in Piar, a poor village near the coast. But this program lags; the need is too great. In this community, 85 percent to 90 percent supported Chavez. Could opponents have received houses or government jobs? "Yes," said the supporters. "No" said opponents ? and we talked to many opponents. More than 3 million Venezuelans signed the petition to remove Chavez as president, and the government has that list. So far as houses were concerned, we were never able to answer the question. So far as government jobs were concerned, we heard some pretty convincing evidence that being on the list hurts. Central to Chavez's economic vision, which he calls "Bolivarian socialism", are workers' cooperatives. The government gives training, and offers 0 percent interest loans. Co-ops have been a great source of hope and pride for the workers. Nellys, a baker in La Magdalena, told us, "I would give my life for Chavez". Unfortunately, her co-op's bakery and cafe was seeing little business. We had to wonder how many of these co-ops will last long enough to repay their loans. We did see more successful co-ops in Caracas. At the same time, the traditional capitalist part of the economy is booming. GDP has been growing at close to 10 percent per year for several years, unemployment is down, and inflation, though high, is not as high as it was. There is currently a controversy over freedom of the press, and Chavez's decision not to renew the license of RCTV, the only opposition TV station broadcasting over the airwaves in Caracas. The government claims that RCTV has failed in its public duty under the broadcast licensing law. During the coup, they gave blanket coverage to demonstrations against Chavez, and zero coverage to demonstrations for Chavez. They also falsified their coverage. In spite of that, the government did not move against RCTV for five years, when their broadcast license ran out, and RCTV will still be permitted on cable and satellite. In the end, I decided that it is not my job to pass judgement on Chavez or his Bolivarian Revolution. Our country should stay neutral as well. We should neither support nor attack Chavez, but allow the process in Venezuela to work itself out. Any pressure against Chavez will encourage him to become more militant, to further centralize power, to identify domestic opponents with the United States, and to militarize in self-defense. American pressure is on, and these things are beginning to happen: There is a Draconian press law (so far unenforced), and last year, Venezuela bought 100,000 AK-47s from Russia. Venezuela is going through an experiment in government for the benefit of the poor. We should wish it well, and leave it alone. *** AP via The Washington Post - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060400216.html Venezuela Students Clamor Against Chavez By Elizabeth M. Nunez The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela -- University students have held a week of protests against President Hugo Chavez's decision to force a popular TV station off the air, and their emergence could be the birth of a new opposition movement. Unlike protests of past years by opposition parties, the student marches have been dominated by a new generation that for the first time is taking to the streets by the thousands in a coordinated challenge to Chavez. Student leaders are holding daily meetings to plan marches, and then spread the word through text messages. They plan to hold another demonstration Monday. "The great achievement is to have awakened the students," said protest organizer Yon Goicoechea while other students prepared for a march Friday by painting their faces yellow, blue and red _ the colors of the Venezuelan flag. The 22-year-old law student at Caracas' Andres Bello Catholic University said the student movement has sought to keep its distance from the old-guard parties that Chavez has repeatedly defeated at the ballot box. Although students have been approached by opposition politicians, he said, "we've asked them to stay on the sidelines." It remains unclear whether their protests will maintain momentum, or whether they will coalesce into a major political force. Chavez said Saturday that the students are "victims of manipulation" who are representing the interests of U.S. "imperialism." "When the press comes, they go running and get on their knees in front of police who aren't doing anything to them. They get on their knees and raise their hands. It's a show," Chavez said. While some rock-throwing protesters have clashed with riot police, student leaders have called for nonviolence. Many students have painted their palms white and raised them as a sign of peace when met by crowds of pro-Chavez demonstrators. Protests surfaced at most of Caracas' public and private universities since the opposition-aligned channel RCTV was forced off the air May 27 by Chavez's decision not renew its license. The demonstrations have spread to other universities nationwide. "We're protesting not only for one channel, but for what it represents _ for free speech," said Charlotte Alagna, a 25-year-old student at Central University of Venezuela. She said she is concerned about eroding freedoms _ and that Chavez could threaten the academic autonomy of public universities like hers. While most student protesters are from middle-class and wealthier families, others such as Alagna come from working-class areas. The students have spent much of their formative years during the presidency of Chavez, who took office in 1999 and remains popular, especially among the poor. Many students were still in high school when Chavez was briefly ousted in a failed 2002 coup. Ever since, Chavez has accused opposition politicians of backing attempts to overthrow his government. Chavez's former vice president Jose Vicente Rangel, however, said he does not believe the students are "engaged in coup-plotting." "That student opposition must be differentiated from the old politics of the opposition ... the terrorist and coup-mongering opposition," Rangel said. Chavez also has supporters on campus. Jorge Cordero, an 18-year-old at Central University, said the protesters seem to be defending the interests of media companies. "They aren't talking about the people's freedom of expression," he said, echoing Chavez's view that Venezuela is democratizing the airwaves by turning over RCTV's signal to a new state-supported public channel. *** AP via The Washington Post - June 3, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/03/AR2007060300682.html Thousands of Venezuelans Protest Chavez By Elizabeth M. Nunez The Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela -- Thousands of government opponents waving Venezuelan flags marched through the capital on Sunday to protest a decision by President Hugo Chavez to pull the plug on an opposition-aligned TV station. Demonstrators made their way to the offices of the People's Defender, a government official in charge of monitoring human rights, and presented a document saying that Chavez is restricting freedom of expression by not renewing Radio Caracas Television's broadcast license. "We are marching for a free country," said preschool teacher Cecilia de Becerra, as hundreds of police in riot gear stood outside the government building. "We have faith that things can change." Hundreds of other protesters gathered outside the studios of Venevision to condemn the privately owned television channel for recently curbing its criticism of the government. Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, was forced off the air May 27 after Chavez refused to renew its license, citing the channel's conduct during a failed coup in 2002 and alleged violations of broadcast laws. RCTV's executives deny any wrongdoing. They accuse Chavez, who threatened on Saturday to yank the broadcast licenses of other private media outlets he accuses of sowing unrest, of trying to muzzle his most outspoken critics. In Panama, Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States, Jorge Valero, defended the government's decision not to renew RCTV's license, saying the station had "infringed" on democratic principles. Venezuela "is at the forefront of the defense of freedom of expression," Valero told diplomats and human rights organizations in Pamana, where the OAS is holding a general assembly meeting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to address freedom of expression issues in the region when she attends the meeting on Monday, the State Department said. Although many of Venezuela's media outlets are still privately owned and critical of Chavez, the RCTV case has raised concerns because it was the only opposition-sided TV station with nationwide reach. *** Bloomberg - June 2, 2007 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aAtilfvKvfzY Chavez Backers March in Caracas to Counter Student Protests By Guillermo Parra-Bernal Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took to the streets of Caracas today to counter a week of student protests against the government's decision to shut down television station Radio Caracas Television. The pro-Chavez demonstrators, led in some cases by government ministers, tried to link the student protests to leaders of a 2002 coup attempt against Chavez. Student leaders denied any links to the failed coup, which Chavez has also blamed on the U.S. government. ``The same people who were behind an attempt to overthrow President Chavez in 2002 are now masterminding these demonstrations using students as a cover,'' Communication and Information Minister Willian Lara told reporters in Caracas's East Park. ``We will not permit that again.'' Lara was among the government officials marching alongside hundreds of government backers wearing red shirts and baseball caps. Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez led a march from state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA offices in eastern Caracas to Avenida Bolivar, where Chavez addressed rallies during last year's presidential campaign. The student demonstrations mark the biggest public outcry since March 2004, when protesters demanded a recall vote against Chavez. The protests are denting the president's popularity, said Oscar Schemel, general manager of Caracas-based polling organization Hinterlaces. Opinion Poll A May 20-30 survey by Hinterlaces showed that Chavez has lost support in the wake of the May 27 closure of Radio Caracas. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed said they had a ``negative'' opinion of Chavez after the closure. Support for Chavez dropped to 40 percent last month from 47 percent in March. The survey of 900 people had a margin of error was of plus or minus 4.7 percent. Chavez has control of the courts and oversight agencies and of all but two of Venezuela's 23 state governments. He won control of the 167-seat Congress in December 2005, when the opposition pulled out of the elections citing the lack of guarantees for the vote. The European Parliament, Brazilian lawmakers, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Chilean Senate and Reporters Without Borders all have voiced concerns about the closure of the television station. *** The Financial Times - June 3, 2007 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/949efca6-1202-11dc-b963-000b5df10621.html OAS silent on Ch?vez move By Richard Lapper By choosing not to discuss last month's controversial closure of Venezuela's largest and oldest terrestrial television broadcaster at its general assembly meeting, the Organisation of American States has ducked an important issue. Admittedly, energy is a good subject to talk about at the three-day session that opened on Sunday in Panama City. Even so, it is surprising that there is - on the formal agenda at least - no mention of the RCTV affair, which has been the cause of heated opposition protests in Venezuela and some strong international condemnation. The OAS's silence is remarkable given the fact that as recently as January, Jos? Miguel Insulza, its combative secretary general, criticised the way President Hugo Ch?vez had simply announced the end of RCTV license. In addition, privately at least, officials at the OAS privately recognise the Venezuelan government's action could be seen as violating the spirit of article four, paragraph one of the Democratic Charter, which insists that "transparency in government activities, probity, responsible public administration on the part of governments, respect for social rights, and freedom of expression and of the press are essential components of the exercise of democracy." Despite this, President Hugo Ch?vez and his diplomatic corps seem to have been able to suppress discussion of the issue. That will give succour to other leaders who feel similarly inclined to take a hard-line against press critics. It is worrying in this context in recent weeks that two of Mr Ch?vez' allies - Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Bolivia's Evo Morales - have been threatening a clampdown on hostile media. Regional leaders seem to be quite happy to see the OAS spend hours discussing issues over which it has precious little - if any leverage - Bolivia's access to the sea, Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands and the human rights of migrant workers all figure on the formal agenda. But they will avoid controversy at all costs. That cannot be good for democracy in the region. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 01:50:59 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 01:50:59 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Germany deploys 16, 000 Cops to "Halt Violence" at G8 Protests Message-ID: <20070605015059.1e359e3b@viola.tamara-b.org> [Great Photo of a clown with a bunch of SWAT-clad cops here: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/06/04/rostock10b.jpg An anti-G8 protester dressed as a clown stands amid German riot police during a demonstration in the northern German city of Rostock. Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters] The Guardian - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/story/0,,2095625,00.html 16,000 police deployed to halt violence by Patrick Barkham in Heiligendamm A multinational coalition of protesters will today begin their bid to physically prevent world leaders from gathering at the G8 summit despite widespread criticism of violent tactics during growing demonstrations in Germany. Water cannons, riot vans and 16,000 police officers - one per protester - last night fanned out around the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm to end the protests. More than 1,000 people were injured on Saturday in Rostock, the nearest city, in some of the most violent protests seen in postwar Germany. The authorities are desperate to avoid a repeat of the violence that marred the 2001 G8 in Genoa, where a student was shot dead by police. Article continues As 8,500 people yesterday marched in Rostock in favour of "global freedom of movement and equal rights" - one of a series of themed protest days in the run up to the summit's opening tomorrow - hundreds more were in camps just outside the seven miles of steel and barbed wire fencing guarding the G8 venue. Four miles from the fence, protesters set up their own security around a 4,000-strong camp in the village of Reddelich. A wooden watchtower has been built to survey the tents and police beyond. While the atmosphere in the camp was relaxed, with bratwurst and beer on sale, a children's playground and bands and cabaret in the evening, groups also got to work practising how to evade capture and arrest by the police. German police, newspapers and even some protesters have voiced doubts about the violent tactics during the weekend protests but organisers insisted their aim remained to shut down the G8 and their methods would be forceful. Police said more than 400 officers and 520 demonstrators were hurt after a peaceful rally turned violent in Rostock on Saturday night. Officers blamed the violence on 2,000 militants known as the "black block" - black-clad hooded and masked youths who attacked police lines. Forty-nine people were arrested yesterday. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:16:35 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:16:35 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuba to Haunt Bush Clan on Posada Message-ID: <20070605161635.63c330a6@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba to Haunt Bush Clan on Posada Beijing, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon reiterated on Tuesday that as long as there is no justice in the case of terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, Cuba will continue accusing the Bush administration. # Cuba-China Ties Excellent "Our accusation will follow Bush senior, Bush junior and all descendants of terrorism sponsors, until justice is done," the Cuban legislative leader said at a news conference in Beijing. Alarcon insisted that US spokespeople try to distort reality and present the Posada Carriles case as a bilateral dispute between Washington and Havana or Washington and Caracas. But after midair explosion of the Cuban airplane in 1976, Trinidad-Tobago, which had captured the masterminds of the crime, convened an international meeting with the presence of Barbados, Cuba, Venezuela, Trinidad-Tobago and Guyana, the legislator recalled. This encounter took place after a serious and impartial investigation by sovereign governments of Trinidad and Barbados, which exhorted all countries to cooperate in this legal process to be run in Venezuela, but United States did not participate, he said. Washington only has now two legal possibilities: extradite Posada Carriles to Venezuela or try him in that territory, by virtue of the Montreal Convention in its paragraph on Terrorism and aviation, the island s head of parliament explained to journalists from 27 Chinese and Spanish-speaking mass media. "Its denial is an insult to all Caribbean nations and those who have been victims of terrorism," the legislator stated. "No matter the rhetoric, Bush and his gang are like the terrorists they claim to fight," Alarcon concluded. sus iff jhb mf PL-5 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:18:53 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:18:53 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Nica Regrets Colombia Rejecting The Hague for Resolving Dispute Message-ID: <20070605161853.3ba9c6a0@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Nica Regrets Colombia Rejecting The Hague for Resolving Dispute Managua, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) Nicaragua lamented Colombia's decision to reject presenting its position to the International Court in the Hague, considering that institution ideal to solve an old border dispute between both nations. In a Foreign Affairs Ministry release, Nicaragua said The Hague is the most fair and effective place to resolve this controversy, and Nicaragua s suit there is a sign of its peaceful spirit. Nicaragua is demanding over 19,000 square miles in the Caribbean, contesting Colombia s claim under a 1920 treaty because it was signed when Nicaragua was occupied by US troops. Nicaraguan attorneys are presenting their arguments at court today and Foreign Minister Samuel Santos is expected to me there to meet with the law team Thursday and attend Friday s hearings. ef ccs iff nm PL-34 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:21:47 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:21:47 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Rescuing Nicaraguan Post Offices Message-ID: <20070605162147.072f50fa@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Rescuing Nicaraguan Post Offices Managua, Jun 5(Prensa Latina) Rescuing Nicaragua's Post Offices, the state company that previous administrations used as a piggybank to pay for electoral campaigns and other under-the-table expenses, is a serious task for the new sector authorities. "There are so many problems that I sometimes wonder if I am being punished here," jokes sociologist Ana Lazo, who President Daniel Ortega assigned when the Sandinistas returned to power in January. In her interview with Prensa Latina the official explained that the institution had a deficit of 2.7 million dollars as result of mismanagement. "It's a paradox," she said, "that despite rendering a social service for modest prices, Nicaragua's post offices do not receive money from the state budget, according to Law 200 that regulates telecommunications in the country." "Our hope is to change that legislation, Lazo says, speaking about the difficulties raising money each month to pay the 600 postal employees." Meanwhile, they have recently begun issuing commemorative stamps, practically stopped in previous administrations, and are trying to insert the company in the sector of family remittances. ef ccs mgs nm PL-32 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:24:22 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:24:22 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuba Promoting a Culture of Environmental Preservation Message-ID: <20070605162422.09a767ff@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY: Cuba Promoting a Culture of Environmental Preservation Havana, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) An extensive technical-scientific and social program is being developed in Havana's Metropolitan Park, part of Cuba s current efforts to promote a culture of environmental preservation. On World Environment Day, chemical engineer Yosiel Marrero explained to Prensa Latina that the project is coming to fruition thanks to an integration of work on the environment and community education. An interesting offshoot of the plan s research results has been solutions to local problems like neighbourhood sewage treatment, he noted. The creation of urban habitat areas have allowed for the arrival of bird and reptile species that had not been seen around the city in years, Marrero pointed out. "Plus, the extensive repercussion of our experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean has facilitated signing work contracts with green organizations, universities, and mayoralties," he said. ef ccs dig joe PL-31 *** From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:26:08 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:26:08 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] World Environment Day: Melting Ice a Hot Topic Message-ID: <20070605162608.275ae386@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com On World Environment Day, Melting Ice a Hot Topic Nairobi, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) Ice melting, a hot topic, is the slogan on World Environment Day and summarizes global concern with the issue. Declining surfaces of glaciers, rivers, lakes, mountains and their consequences for humanity are contained in the UN Environment Program issued in Tromso, Norway. The report "Global Perspective for Ice and Snow" warns that the future of millions of people is threatened by the loss of iced surface resulting from global warming. Other aftermath include dramatic change in water supply for human consumption and agriculture, and a rising sea level. There will also be further global warming due to greater sun demand from soil and sea and further release of methane into the atmosphere. With such an outlook the world celebrates Environment Day, stressing on awareness of such threats and promoting environmental protection. The celebration involves events at the Polar Research Center, in Tromso, Norway, plus environmental theme displays and a UNEP-sponsored children s painting contest. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said the effects are already seen in food security, human health, agriculture, energy, transportation and industry and threaten the Millennium Development Goals. sus emw mor ir PL-20 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:27:30 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:27:30 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuba takes Action to Protect Manatee Message-ID: <20070605162730.400f8699@viola.tamara-b.org> Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Cuba takes Action to Protect Manatee Havana, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) Manatees, those shy and harmless water mammals, live in 57 points along the coasts of the Cuban archipelago, and Cuba is set on protecting them, a report from a Villa Clara workshop with specialists from 14 provinces informed. Measures undertaken include a diagnosis of the present situation of the populations and identification of environmental, biological and human factors that constitute a threat to them. The specialists agreed it is necessary to compare the animal's historic record with the present, and involve the coastal population in the recognition of problems that could harm them. The manatee has no natural enemy, but some of the dangers to them include trawling fish nets, which also damage the sea bottom and its food source, hunting and contamination of the waters. Manatees are in danger of extinction in the world from these and other factors, like their slow reproduction - a pregnancy of 13 months. ef ccs abo PL-33 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:48:15 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:48:15 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US Botches Attempt to Isolate Venezuela at OAS Message-ID: <20070605164815.7285749a@viola.tamara-b.org> [Mainstream press coverage follows the Cuban articles below.-NYTr] Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Media Highlight US Botch at OAS Caracas, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) Attention on the US failure to have Venezuela condemned at the OAS General Assembly in Panama was focused by media. The front page of the country's main newspapers and the special spaces of TV and radio emphasized that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remained isolated in this forum of foreign ministers. Rice attacked Caracas, demanding an analysis of Venezuela authorities' recent decision to not renew the license of private TV channel Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro immediately accused the US delegation of distorting the meeting's agenda. He said his country "has taken a democratic, legal and constitutional decision of founding a new TV channel of public service to break up monopoly and the old news coverage and open new possibilities for those previously excluded." Headlines in Venezuela today included "US Defeated at OAS," and "Freedom of expression leads OAS General Assembly." ef abo vc mf PL-28 *** US-Venezuela Skirmish at OAS Panama, Jun 5 (Prensa Latina) Marked by Venezuela s energetic accusations of Washington's destabilizing plans and crimes, the 37th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) winds up in this capital Tuesday. The issue of the summit "Energy for Sustainable Development" was marred due to a sour exchange of words between Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Maduro had rejected on Monday Rice's statements, which he considered interference in his country s internal affairs, on the non-renewal of RCTV channel concession. "Venezuela is a free and independent nation, and we don't accept conditions, even less by Washington, whose administration has participated in all destabilizing plans against our government," the Venezuelan minister said to Rice. Maduro called to analyze the situation in the border between United States and Mexico, where thousands of immigrants are pursued and murdered, and advocated creating a commission to visit the jail located in the illegal naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba. Parallel to the OAS meeting was the two-day social alternative summit that finished Monday in Panama University. That encounter ended with a demonstration in the area around the ATLAPA Conference Center, attended by Panamanian grassroots, union and student groups. They rejected the OAS conclave and Washington's actions, making evident their support for Venezuela. sus iff rob mf PL-11 *** excerpted from VIO Venezuelan News Roundup - Jun 5, 2007 [At a gathering of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States held yesterday in Panama City, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced off with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro on the subject of RCTV. Rice criticized the non-renewal that took place on May 27th as "antidemocratic," and a blow to free speech. Maduro, on the other hand, brought up human rights violations committed by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, where 380 prisoners deemed "enemy combatants" are being held indefinitely. When Rice angrily requested that the OAS Secretary General himself should investigate the matter of RCTV in Venezuela, Maduro suggested an OAS investigation into the Guantanamo detainment camp. Despite diplomatic clashes like this one, which dominated yesterday's meeting, the OAS has witheld judgment on RCTV, deeming it an internal matter to be decided by the Venezuelan government.VIO] Reuters via The Washington Post - June 4, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060401071.html U.S., Venezuela trade barbs over media freedom, rights By Arshad Mohammed and Brian Harris PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The United States called Venezuela "anti-democratic" on Monday for closing an opposition TV station and Venezuela compared the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay to Nazi Germany in a public spat over human rights. The testy exchanges erupted at a regional meeting that was supposed to be about energy but was marked by dueling speeches by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Rice fired the first shot by telling reporters as she flew to Panama, "I do not see how closing down an opposition (TV station), literally because they have taken you on and taken on your policies, can be seen as anything but anti-democratic." She later told officials at the meeting of the Organization of American States, or OAS, "The unfettered public discussion of ideas is the greatest guarantee for the rule of law and the surest protection against the whims of rulers." Rice singled out Venezuela by name and urged the head of the OAS to visit the country to investigate the matter. Maduro compared the U.S. imprisonment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to "the era of Hitler" and accused Washington of meddling in his country's affairs. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took RCTV off the air on May 27, silencing what had been a major opponent to reforms that gave the leftist leader greater control over the judiciary, the military and the oil sector of the OPEC member. Two days later, he called news channel Globovision -- the last main opposition media in Venezuela, although it does not have nationwide coverage -- an enemy of the state and said he would do what was necessary to stop it from inciting violence. DUELING ACCUSATIONS Maduro responded to Rice by accusing the United States of violating human rights at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, where it holds 380 prisoners, and suggesting that an OAS commission investigate the prison. He also accused the United States of trying to destabilize Chavez, saying: "The speech by the representative of the United States of America constitutes an unacceptable interventionism ... and we reject it." Rice then demanded the floor to respond. "It would be difficult for any commission to debate more fully, to investigate more fully, to criticize more fully the policies of the United States government than is done every night on CNN, on ABC, on CBS, on NBC," she said. "That is the point of press freedom -- that in a democracy the citizens of a country should have the assurance that the policies of their government will be held up for criticism by a free and independent press without the interference of their government," she said. "The citizens of the United States have that assurance. I sincerely hope that the citizens of Venezuela will have that assurance as well," she added, standing up from the table, turning on her heel and walking away. In response, Maduro said, "It is a monstrous thing, comparable only to the era of Hitler, that in this day and age there are clandestine prisons with faceless prisoners and nameless prisoners." He also called for the United States to allow the Venezuelan state-run broadcaster that has replaced RCTV into Guantanamo Bay to interview its inmates. While RCTV's closure has sparked some criticism in Latin America, officials at the OAS meeting have largely avoided comment on the matter. Panama's national journalism council, which includes its major media outlets, ran full-page advertisements in local newspapers saying "Without speech, no freedom, neither in Venezuela nor in the rest of the world." *** AP via The Washington Post - June 5, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060401852.html Rice, Venezuelan Envoy Trade Barbs By Matthew Lee The Associated Press PANAMA CITY, June 4 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Venezuela's foreign minister on Monday fired verbal broadsides at each other here over the closure of a television station in Venezuela that has been critical of the government. Rice said the decision by Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez not to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, was his "sharpest and most acute" move yet against democracy. Venezuela's top diplomat, Nicol?s Maduro, then accused Rice of hypocrisy and unacceptable meddling in his nation's affairs. He compared the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret prisons elsewhere to something not seen since "the time of Hitler." The dispute between Washington and Caracas took center stage at a gathering of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States, a meeting intended to focus on environment and development issues. Rice urged the OAS to send its secretary general, Jos? Miguel Insulza, to Venezuela to look into the closing of the station and deliver a full report on his findings. "Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government," Rice told the ministers. "Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy." The Venezuelan government has said RCTV, which was aligned with the opposition, supported a short-lived coup against Ch?vez in 2002 and consistently violated telecommunications regulations. It was unclear whether the OAS meeting would produce a statement of support for freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala and Chile have previously expressed support for RCTV. On Monday in Panama, newspapers and a consortium of media groups published ads saying, "Without freedom of expression, there is no liberty, not in Venezuela or any other part of the world." *** Miami Herald - June 4, 2007 http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/128373.html Rice calls for OAS action on Venezuela By Pablo Bachelet PANAMA CITY, Panama -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday urged the Organization of American States to investigate the Venezuelan government's shutdown of an opposition TV station, triggering an angry rebuttal by Venezuela. Rice also said that Cuba is in ''a process of change'' and that the 34-member nation OAS had to be ``ready to help the Cuban people realize their aspirations and freedoms.'' Rice dedicated about half of her speech at the OAS' 37th General Assembly to energy issues, the main item on the official agenda. Then she engaged in a rare confrontational exchange with her Venezuelan counterpart, Nicol?s Maduro. ''Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government,'' Rice said, referring to leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of RCTV, an opposition station. ``They are the beginning of justice in every society.'' Citing Article 18, of the 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter, she said OAS Secretary General Jos? Miguel Insulza should ''go to Venezuela to consult in good faith with all interested parties and to present a full report'' to the OAS. Under the article, the OAS can only intervene if the host government agrees. ''Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially in a democracy,'' she said. Rice's speech drew an angry response from Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicol?s Maduro, who defended the RCTV takeover as a ''democratic, legal, just and constitutional'' way of breaking a monopoly. ''Venezuela demands respect for its sovereignty,'' he said, adding that the OAS should instead dispatch a commission to investigate whether the rights of prisoners at the Guant?namo Naval Base in Cuba are being respected. He called the proposed U.S.-Mexico border fence to keep out illegal migrants ``the wall of indignity.'' Rice asked to speak again. She said ''issues of democracy and defense of democracy are never inappropriate'' on an agenda of the OAS. ``As to issues in the United States of human rights, of how we fight the war on terror, the detention of unlawful combatants at Guant?namo, on immigration policy, on any issue, I am quite certain that it would be difficult for any commission to debate more fully, to investigate more fully, to criticize the policies of the United States government then is done every night on CNN, on ABC, on CBS, on NBC and on any number of smaller channels in the United States.'' ''That is the point of press freedom,'' she added, ``that in a democracy, the citizens of a country should have the assurance that the policies of their government will be held up for criticism by a free and independent press, without the interference of their government. The citizens of the United States have that assurance. I sincerely hope the citizens of Venezuela will have that assurance as well.'' As she was leaving the hall, Maduro said he regretted Rice would not hear his rebuttal. He said Guant?namo was ``something monstrous, only comparable to the Hitler era.'' He said the United States should allow the cameras of the new network, TVES, into the Guant?namo jail. TVES is being created to replace RCTV. ''The United States and its government, sooner or later, will have to respect the sovereignty of our government and our people,'' he said, raising his voice. On Cuba, Rice reiterated Cuba's political and economic future would be charted by the Cubans themselves, ``in Cuba.'' ``It is our responsibility as American democracies to help the Cuban people chart whatever course they freely desire.'' From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 16:54:04 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:54:04 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] USA's Shannon: RCTV Issue Goes Beyond US-Venezuela Relations Message-ID: <20070605165404.4cc906f9@viola.tamara-b.org> el Universal - Jun 5, 2007 http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/06/05/en_pol_art_shannon:-rctv-case-i_05A880201.shtml USA's Shannon: RCTV case is beyond US-Venezuela relations The Venezuelan government decision not to renew a broadcast license for private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisi?n (RCTV) is beyond a bilateral issue with the United States, said Tom Shannon, US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Shannon expected that the member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS) would include this item in their agenda. "As far as we are concerned, thinking that two countries have a quarrel is a mistake. On the contrary, it has nothing to do with bilateral relations; it is linked with a much bigger issue," Shannon told reporters on the occasion of the 37th Meeting of the OAS General Assembly held in Panama. "It is important to understand that the point at issue is not between the United States and Venezuela. It is an internal affair of Venezuela that has attracted the attention, not only of the countries in the Americas, but also Spain, the European Union (EU), and many non-governmental organizations, such as Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International." "What we are proposing then, is to give OAS and the Secretary-General the opportunity to consult and report, and based on this information, to reach a better understanding (about the RCTV case) among OAS member states, but also of all other countries and organizations concerned," Shannon said in Spanish. *** el Universal - Jun 5, 2007 http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/06/05/en_pol_art_bush:-venezuelan-gov_05A879999.shtml Bush: Venezuelan government is dismantling democracy The United States President George W. Bush Tuesday accused the government of Venezuela of making moves towards dismantling of democracy. "In Venezuela, elected leaders have resorted to shallow populism to dismantle democratic institutions and strengthen control of power," Bush said in a conference about democracy held in Prague. Regarding Cuba, Bush said he would insist in asking for respect for Cubans' human rights during the "transition period that is starting," Efe reported. *** AP via The International Herald Tribune - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/05/america/LA-GEN-OAS-Venezuela.php OAS struggles with US request to investigate closure of Venezuela's RCTV The Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Panama: The Organization of American States was struggling Tuesday with a U.S. request to investigate Venezuela's decision to push an opposition television station off the air. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged a meeting of OAS foreign ministers in Panama on Monday to send the group's secretary-general, Jose Miguel Insulza, to Venezuela to look into the government's refusal to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, and report on his findings. "Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government," Rice told the ministers. "Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy." But Venezuela's top diplomat, Nicolas Maduro, reacted angrily to the request, saying her comments were an "unacceptable intervention is the internal affairs of a nation." "Venezuela is asking for respect," he said. "We demand respect for our sovereignty." That has forced the rest of the nations attending the OAS gathering to choose between the two adversaries, balancing the OAS principle of not intervening in member states with their desire to defend a free press and avoid offending the United States. It was not clear if the issue would be mentioned in the meeting's final resolution on Tuesday. Many in Latin America have criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's refusal to renew the station's license, and protests throughout the region have called on the Venezuelan leader to change his mind. Many foreign ministers at the OAS meeting spoke of the general need to protect freedom of expression, while but did not mention Chavez's decision. Chavez would likely reject any OAS mission. In January, he called OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza an "idiot" and said he should resign after the secretary-general warned that failing to allow RCTV to continue broadcasting "would be seen as a form of censorship against freedom of expression." Insulza has avoided the topic during the meeting this week in Panama, saying he didn't think the OAS needed to keep making statements on the issue. If the OAS refuses to act on the U.S. request, it would be a "huge mistake," said Ricardo Arias Calderon, a founder of Panama's ruling party who was watching the meeting from the sidelines. "I hope the continent's foreign ministers don't end up responsible for the sinking of Venezuela, for the subversion of democracies in our region," he said. _ On the Net: http://www.oas.org From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:01:10 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:01:10 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Media: RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela Message-ID: <20070605170110.3d1a2964@viola.tamara-b.org> Venezuelanalysis - Jun 2, 2007 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=2059 republished by Counterpunch - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/wilpert06042007.html Censorship or Democratization? RCTV and Freedom of Speech in Venezuela By GREGORY WILPERT As far as world public opinion is concerned, as reflected in the international media, the pronouncements of freedom of expression groups, and of miscellaneous governments, Venezuela has finally taken the ultimate step to prove its opposition right: that Venezuela is heading towards a dictatorship. Judging by these pronouncements, freedom of speech is becoming ever more restricted in Venezuela as a result of the non-renewal of the broadcast license of the oppositional TV network RCTV. With RCTV going off the air at midnight of May 27th, the country's most powerful opposition voice has supposedly been silenced. It is generally taken for granted that any silencing of opposition voices is anti-freedom of speech. But is an opposition voice really being silenced? Is this the correct metaphor? Is the director of RCTV, Marcel Granier, actually being silenced? No, a better metaphor is that the megaphone that Granier (and others) used for the exercise of his free speech is being returned to its actual owners--a megaphone that he had borrowed, but never owned. Not only that, he is still allowed to use a smaller megaphone (cable & satellite). In other words, the radio frequency that RCTV used for over half a century is being returned to its original owners-the Venezuelan people-under the management of its democratically elected leadership. Still, while the decision about how to use the airwaves might be the prerogative of the government (as many critics concede), critics of the move have a point when they complain that the freedom to use the airwaves cannot be solely a matter of majority rule. After all, shouldn't minorities (in this case a mostly relatively wealthy minority) also have access to the megaphone, so it may use it to convince the majority of its point-of-view? At least, progressives who defend the rights of traditionally disenfranchised minorities would argue that minorities should always have access to the media. [1] Even though Marcel Granier and his friends cannot be considered to be a disenfranchised minority, surely this minority deserves to be heard in the media, at least a little bit, in the name of pluralism. Chavez supporters concede the validity of this argument in that they counter by pointing out that the opposition still has plenty of broadcast frequencies to present its point-of-view. Their argument for the justness of the decision to let RCTV's license expire for good is that, first, the opposition still has plenty of other media outlets to broadcast its views, second, RCTV is a subversive and law-breaking broadcaster (because it participated in the coup and oil industry shutdown, among other things), and third, it needs to make way for a new public service television channel that is mandated by the constitution. Let us briefly examine each of these arguments, starting with Venezuela's media landscape. Venezuela's Media Landscape As with most questions about Venezuela, there is almost complete disagreement about what Venezuela's media landscape looks like. According to the opposition, Chavez already controls most of the broadcast media, either directly, though state ownership or sponsorship, or indirectly, via supposedly repressive media laws. According to Chavez supporters, though, the opposition controls 95% of all media. The problem is, there are several different angles from which one can examine a media landscape, which is why one can reach quite different conclusions about what this landscape actually looks like. First, one could examine it solely from the perspective of who owns or controls different media outlets. Second, one can look at which types of media outlets reach the population. And, third, one can look at what people end up watching or listening to. In the first case, of who owns the media outlets-an analysis Chavez supporters tend to use-it is quite clear that a vast majority of television stations, radio stations, and newspapers are privately owned. Here, indeed, Chavez supporters are correct when they say that 95% of all media outlets (TV, radio, and print) are privately owned and that a significant majority of these are more sympathetic with the opposition than with Chavez and his government. [2] In the second type of analysis, which opposition sympathizers tend to prefer, we look at which types of stations have the most potential to reach Venezuelans. Here it is generally said that the two stations with the largest national reach are channel 2 (formerly RCTV now TVes) and channel 8 (the government controlled VTV). The private national stations Venevisi?n, Televen, and Globovisi?n have a far more limited range, since they are broadcast mainly in larger population centers.[3] Obviously, private local channels and community channels don't reach beyond their locality, but community TV stations are beginning to rival private TV stations in number. Looked at this way, it would seem that in terms of television broadcasting the government has acquired the definitive upper hand, with RCTV going off the air, its replacement by TVes, the strength of the government station, and the two dozen or so community television channels that for the most part sympathize with the government. This picture shifts significantly, though, if we examine what people actually watch. According to studies that examine the audience share of the different types of television channels, only about five TV stations, a handful of radio stations, and a few newspapers are viewed, listened to, or read by most Venezuelans. That is, in television, RCTV and Venevisi?n are watched by about 60% of the viewing audience (RCTV about 35-40% and Venevisi?n about 20-25%). The remaining 40% are shared among the government station VTV (about 15-20%), Televen (around 10%), Globovisi?n (around 10%), cable channels, and various local channels.[4] Given the political positions and the relative audience shares of the different media outlets, we can divide Venezuela's media landscape into three categories of opposition, neutral or balanced, and pro-government. Before RCTV's demise it looked as follows: Opposition: 50-55% RCTV: 35-40% Globovisi?n: 10% Private local: 5% Neutral or balanced: 30-40% Venevisi?n: 20-25% Televen: 10-15% Pro-government: 20-25% VTV: 15-20% Other (Telesur, Vive, Community): 5% Now, in the post-RCTV era there is indeed a significant shift, so that the media landscape could look as follows, if, as promised, TVes (RCTV's replacement) does not become a pro-government channel, but is neutral. Opposition: 15% Globovisi?n: 10% Private Local: 5% Neutral/balanced: 30-40% or more Venevisi?n: 20-25% Televen: 10-15% TVes: ??% Pro-government: 20-25% VTV: 15-20% Other: 5% In other words, the ratio of opposition-oriented to government-oriented television changed from about 50:25 (or 2:1) in favor of the opposition to 15:25 (or 1:1.7) in favor of the government in terms of audience share. In most countries in the world, where the media is not democratically controlled, any opposition would be overjoyed by having such a ratio. In Venezuela, of course, where the opposition is used to having ruled the country for four decades, such a disadvantage is an intolerable encroachment on their "freedom of speech." However, there are three unknowns that could change the ratio in favor of the opposition. First, those who used to watch RCTV might very well watch more Globovisi?n, thus increasing their share of the audience. Second, Venevisi?n could very well become more oppositional, now that many opposition supporters are looking for a new home. There are already first indications that this will happen, according to a recent news report in the weekly newspaper Quinto Dia. [5] And third, many lovers of RCTV who want to continue watching it but did not have cable access, might, if they can afford it, switch to cable to watch RCTV. Thus, if Globovisi?n's audience share increases, if Venevisi?n moves back into the oppositional column, and if RCTV continues to attract a large audience on cable, [6] then the opposition to pro-government balance in the Television media could easily swing to at last 1:1. If you look at audience shares in the newspaper market or in radio, it is still far more favorable for the opposition than for the government. Many Chavez supporters say that the country's largest newspaper, ?ltimas Noticias, is a Chavista newspaper, but if you look at the newspaper's content and at its columnists, it is actually the most balanced newspaper in Venezuela, with government criticism and praise equally present. The second and third largest newspapers (El Universal and El Nacional), plus a good majority of smaller ones are all solidly in the opposition camp. The situation is even more lopsided among radio stations, where the pro-government share of radio audience (RNV, YVKE, and community radio) makes up a far smaller share than the opposition-oriented radio stations. Thus, to argue that pluralism of views in Venezuela has been diminished by RCTV's going off the air completely misses the reality of Venezuela's media landscape. More than that, by defending the right of RCTV to broadcast, one is actually just defending the right of the country's minority to continue its privileged place in the media landscape. RCTV's Rights and Responsibilities Now that we have examined the arguments about whether RCTV's going off the air represents a threat to media pluralism and thus to freedom of expression, we can turn to the other two arguments for and against RCTV: that RCTV deserves to lose its license due to its past actions and that it needs to make room for a new public Television Channel. This is not the place to detail the numerous accusations against RCTV that the government has made, such as RCTV's participation in the 2002 coup attempt, in the 2002-3 oil industry shutdown, and its violations of the country's broadcasting regulations. [7] These facts are generally uncontested. Rather, what is contested is that these acts can justify the non-renewal of a broadcast license when another broadcaster, such as Venevisi?n, committed the same violations, but whose license was renewed on May 27th. In other words, on what legal grounds was RCTV's license not renewed, but Venevisi?n's license was, if they committed the same violations? According to RCTV, political discrimination is the only answer because RCTV's hard-line opposition to the government continued, while Venevisi?n became neutral in Venezuela's political conflict. [8] To fend off this accusation of discrimination and that RCTV is being punished for crimes that have never been proven in court, the government argues that RCTV's non-renewal is not a punishment at all. Rather, RCTV's license expiration provides an excellent opportunity for the government to launch a public service television station, in compliance with a constitutional mandate. [9] At a later point Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chac?n explained that RCTV (and not Venevisi?n) was chosen for non-renewal because RCTV's VHF channel 2 is better suited for public service TV because channel 2 has the better reception throughout the country. In theory, though, it might still be possible for RCTV to reverse the license renewal once the full Supreme Court trial concludes with a decision in favor of RCTV, on the basis that either discrimination or that due process were violated. If this is the case, then the government might have to hold public hearings in which an objective analysis is made as to which of the three channels that are up for license renewal (RCTV, Venevisi?n, and VTV) needs to make room for TVes. In any case, RCTV and the opposition have once again bungled the political situation. Instead of challenging Chavez in the political arena, they focused exclusively on legal challenges, international appeals, and confrontation. They could have organized a consultative (non-binding) referendum back in January, right after it was clear that Chavez would not renew RCTV's license. Polls indicated that the up to 70% of Venezuelans did not want RCTV to go off the air. With only 10% of registered voters' signatures the Electoral Council would have been forced to convoke a referendum on the issue. If the polls are accurate, the opposition would have won that referendum easily, thereby embarrassing Chavez and perhaps forcing him to renew RCTV's license. Maybe this course of action did not occur to anyone in the opposition, but more likely is that they prefer to challenge Chavez in the legal and international arenas and on the streets than politically because actions that use Venezuela's democratic processes would legitimate a political system that the opposition continuously decries as a dictatorship and whose ultimate goal it is to de-legitimate. Diversification and Democratization of the Media? While the legal challenge to the non-renewal of RCTV's license could have some merit, particularly the charge that RCTV is being discriminated against vis-?-vis Venevisi?n, what about the government's goal of diversifying and democratizing the country's media landscape? Do the government's media policies contribute to diversification and democratization of the media? With regard to diversification and democratization, the Chavez government has arguably done more than any government in Venezuelan history or in the history of most countries of the world. Enabling hundreds of community radio stations and of dozens of community television stations gives ordinary citizens access to the media in an unprecedented manner. The opposition, of course, calls these community media outlets "Chavez controlled," but there is no evidence for this. Indeed, most of these media outlets (by no means all) are located in poor neighborhoods, where Chavez support is strong. However, criticism of national, state, and local governments is very common and these outlets provide a form of citizen accountability that can contribute to better governance. Also, the creation of several new, certainly pro-government, Television outlets contributes to a diversification of the media landscape. Important in this regard is the launch of Vive TV, which focuses on communal issues and problems throughout the country, and of ANTV, the television channel of the National Assembly. ANTV allows Venezuelans (who receive cable) to observe the debates in the National Assembly, thus further enhancing democratic oversight over the country's political processes. Venezuela's Law on Social Responsibility in Television and Radio has, despite opposition criticism, also contributed to the diversification of the media landscape, in that it mandates that five hours per day (between 5am and 11pm) be produced by independent national producers, with no single producer contributing more than 20% of this. [10] Thousands of independent producers have already registered with a national registry for their participation in this requirement. Opposition critics say that the social responsibility law limits freedom of expression because it punishes the broadcasting of messages that are discriminatory, promote violence, promote the breaking of laws, or of "secret messages." [11] However, despite all of the anti-government broadcasting that has taken place since this law went into effect, no broadcaster has been called to task for violating these provisions. Also, most of these provisions are standard broadcast regulations in most countries in the world. Finally, the government's most recent measure of creating Venezuelan Social Television (TVes, pronounced "te ves" or "you see yourself") could indeed be a move towards democratizing and diversifying Venezuelan broadcast media, if the channel is truly independent of the government. So far, though, the board of directors has been named by the president and the channel's funding comes from the central government. Even if the board does not receive any direction from the president, as long as it is named by the president, it cannot be considered independent. The government has promised, though, that this is merely a temporary arrangement and that later on the board and the financing of the channel will become truly independent. This issue notwithstanding, Venezuela's independent television producers have applauded the new channel because it will broadcast almost entirely independent national productions--an important move that gives far more opportunity to Venezuelans to be heard on a national level than any other television channel provides. Conclusion While the decision not to renew RCTV's license is still being challenged in court, [12] due to a possible violation of due process and equal treatment under the law, it is clear that the decision is legal to the extent that it is the prerogative of the state to decide which broadcasters are to receive licenses to use the airwaves, maintains pluralism in Venezuela's media landscape, does not violate principles of freedom of speech for Venezuelans, and contributes to the democratization of the country's airwaves by granting more Venezuelans access to these than before, via the new television channel TVes. It is thus very disappointing to see international human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, the Washington Office on Latin America, the Carter Center, and the Committee to Protect Journalists condemn the government's decision. These groups, just as Venezuela's opposition, claim that the decision sends a chilling effect on freedom of speech. This supposed chilling effect, though, has been invoked over and over again by the government's critics, but they have yet to point to a single instance of a story or a criticism that has not been aired due to this supposed effect. Globovisi?n continues to be as critical of the government as ever, just as the country's most important newspapers and radio programs--arguably some of the most critical in the western hemisphere. RCTV, when it comes back via cable, will, no doubt, also continue to be as critical as ever. In effect, the groups that condemn Venezuela's sovereign decision to change the way its airwaves are used are defending the right of corporate media to use the airwaves, to the detriment of the poor majority, who prior to Chavez have never had access to the country's corporate-controlled media complex. Ideally, all broadcast frequencies should be under collective democratic and not private control. That, however, will take more time and will receive far more condemnation by the world's establishment. Appendix: Who Controls Which Channel and What they Show Looking only at the channels that significant numbers of people watch, it makes sense to examine the political orientations of the most widely watched outlets. RCTV clearly is/was the most popular and also one of the most anti-Chavez TV stations. In the days leading up to and during the 2002 coup, the 2002-3 oil industry shutdown, and the August 2004 recall referendum RCTV had nearly constant anti-Chavez news coverage and advertisements. However, between these periods and following the recall referendum, RCTV focused on its core business, which is entertainment programming, both from Hollywood and from Venezuela (mostly game shows and soaps). Its explicitly political programming was limited to its nightly news programs and one morning political talk show (La Entrevista with Miguel Angel Rodriguez). RCTV is clearly part of Venezuela's old elite, owned by one of the country's richest families, the Phelps family, which also owns soap and food production and construction companies. Eliado Lares, the president of RCTV, is related to Henry Ramos Allup, the Secretary General of the former governing party Acci?n Democr?tica (AD). Lares played an important role in ensuring that RCTV's concession was renewed in 1987, when it almost lost its license during the presidency of Jaime Lusinchi, due to RCTV director Marcel Granier's fights with Lusinchi. Granier himself came into directing RCTV and its parent company 1BC, due to his marriage with Dorothy Phelps, one of the heirs to the Phelps fortune. [13] The second-most watched channel is Venevisi?n, which belongs to Gustavo Cisneros, the Cuban-Venezuelan media mogul, who is one of the world's richest men and owns about 70 media outlets in 39 countries, including the Spanish-language network Univisi?n in the U.S. Also, he owns countless food distribution companies. There has always been a strong rivalry between Granier and Cisneros, since both are said to have presidential aspirations. Ironically, their two families are closely linked via marriage, because Cisneros is married to Patricia Phelps, the sister of Granier's wife Dorothy. Venevisi?n itself was just as, if not more, involved in the April 2002 coup attempt because it had exclusive interviews with coup plotters and actually filmed some of the key footage that was later used to falsely claim that Chavez supporters were shooting at unarmed opposition demonstrators. It was also actively involved in the oil industry shutdown, urging people to participate in a general strike via thousands of public service announcements, just as RCTV did. However, this channel changed its tune in June 2004, two months before the August 15, 2004 recall referendum against Chavez, in which Chavez and Cisneros agreed to a media cease-fire between the two that was brokered by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Officially, the two agreed to "honor constitutional processes and to support future conversations between the government of Venezuela and the media" [14] According to some reports, Cisneros had actually agreed to tone down his anti-Chavez propaganda in return for Chavez's help with introducing Cisneros to Brazil's President Lula. [15] Chavez, though, denied that any kind of pact had been made other than what was in the official statement. Still, Venevisi?n removed its political talk show "24" with Napoleon Bravo, one of the most strident anti-Chavistas on Television and its news programs became more balanced. The next most important channel, in terms of reaching the population, is the government's VTV station, which has been a state channel for most of Venezuela's democratic history. Its programming is controlled quite directly by the executive, which names its director. As such, it is not a public broadcasting channel as in many European countries, which tend to be more independent of the government. Most of VTV's programming is quite political, with many pro-government public service announcements and political talk shows in which government representatives or supporters predominate. Televen, is one of the country's newer channels, broadcasting since 1988. Unlike most of the other channels, it has always been slightly more neutral in Venezuela's media wars, except that it once employed Marta Colomina for its morning talk show, one of the country's most strident anti-Chavistas after Napoleon Bravo. Her program was taken off the air, though, following the 2004 recall referendum and the channel became far more balanced and now strives to invite as many government supporters as opponents for its political talk shows. Its economic interests are not as well defined as those of RCTV, Venevisi?n, and Globovisi?n because, unlike the other three, it is not affiliated with quite as large private economic interest groups. Finally, there is Globovisi?n, which, as a 24-hour news and opinion channel has a political importance that far exceeds the size of its audience and its potential broadcasting reach. One of Venezuela's newest channels, it was founded in 1994 by Alberto Federico Ravell (its director), Guillermo Zuloaga, and Nelson Mezerhane, who all belong to Venezuela's upper crust, with Zuloaga coming from one of Venezuela's richest families (who is also related to Ana corina Machado, one of the directors of the opposition NGO S?mate). While Globovisi?n's UHF reach is limited, covering only three major cities, it does have cooperation agreements with numerous local private stations, so that it does reach most larger population centers over the airwaves. Politically, Globovisi?n is as opposition-oriented as a Television station could possibly be, broadcasting anti-government opinions and analysis 24 hours a day. The other pro-government channels, such as most (but by no means all) community television stations, Vive, Telesur, and ANTV (National Assembly Television) all have extremely limited viewership according to the rating studies, so that these can be safely dismissed for the purposes of this analysis. The same goes for the opposition-oriented private local stations. End Notes [1] Although, many progressives would argue that extreme right-wing views, which are racist or fascist, should not have access to the airwaves, even if a majority were to hold them. In many places it is actually illegal for such views to be broadcast under any circumstances. This is one of the reasons some say RCTV does not deserve a license. 2] More specifically, only three or TV channels broadcast via antenna out of over 200 are state owned (VTV, Vive, and Avila TV), only two out of 426 radio stations, and no daily newspapers. In each category, the privately owned outlets are overwhelmingly (perhaps around 80%) pro-opposition and anti-Chavez. [3] Also, there are a few national specialty broadcasters, such as Vale TV, an educational channel, Meridiano, a sports channel, Puma, a music channel, and La Tele, an entertainment channel. [4] Audience shares found in an El Nacional article of May 27, 2007. The percentages are given in ranges because different studies have slightly different results. [5] "This happened with journalists and actors [of Venevisi?n]. They decided to complain about the editorial line of the Cisneros channel and got authorization to not just attend the demonstrations or to express their solidarity [with RCTV employees] in any other channel, but could now do it from their own screen." J.A. Almenar, "Exclusivas de ?ltima pagina," Quinto D?a, June 1-8, 2007. [6] Information on how many households receive cable or satellite TV is difficult to come by, but judging by the number of illegal cable connections that are said to exist and the number of DirecTV dishes (many with illegal decoders) in the barrios, it could be safe to guess that nearly half of Venezuelan households receive cable or satellite TV. [7] For information on these acts of RCTV, see: Cartoon Coup D'Etat , Venezuela, RCTV, And Media Freedom: Just The Facts, Please , and the Libro Blanco (Spanish PDF) published by the Ministry of Communication and Information 8] The May 23rd decision of Venezuela's Supreme Court, in which RCTV's court injunction against the license non-renewal was rejected, but a trial about the issue was allowed, could leave a challenge open in this regard. The court merely states that RCTV failed to provide evidence for unequal treatment, but does not say that there was no unequal treatment. See: Supreme Tribunal of Justice Decision of May 23, 2007 (in Spanish) or Supreme Court Allows RCTV Case to Proceed, but Station Must Go off Air for a summary of the decision. [9] See section IV, No. 2 of the May 23rd Supreme Court decision (in Spanish) [10] Article 14, Ley de responsabilidad social en radio y televisi?n (Resorte) [11] Article 28, No. 4 u-z, Ley Resorte [12] The decision is being challenged not only in Venezuela's Supreme Tribunal of Justice, but will also be tried by the Inter-American Court for Human Rights. [13] See: http://www.aporrea.org/medios/a34490.html [14] According to the Carter Center statement released after the meeting. http://www.aporrealos.org/actualidad/n17674.html [15] See: "Venezuela's Murdoch" by Richard Gott, New Left Review, May-June 2006 [Gregory Wilpert is a freelance writer and editor of Venezuelanalysis.com. He is also the author of the forthcoming book, Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The Policies of the Chavez Presidency, Verso Books, September 2007] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:03:49 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:03:49 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Gitmo Gulag Charges Collapse: Judge Tosses Case Against 2 Captives Message-ID: <20070605170349.00938393@viola.tamara-b.org> BBC News - Jun 5, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6720315.stm Guantanamo pair's charges dropped A US military judge has thrown out charges against two Guantanamo Bay detainees, casting fresh doubt on efforts to try foreign terror suspects. Both cases collapsed because military authorities had failed to designate the men as "unlawful" enemy combatants. In one case a Canadian man, Omar Khadr, was accused of killing a US soldier in Afghanistan with a grenade. Charges were also dropped against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of being Osama Bin Laden's driver and bodyguard. The BBC's James Westhead in Washington says the rulings deal a stunning blow to the Bush administration's attempt to bring its detainees at Guantanamo Bay to trial. Under a new system of military justice approved by Congress last year, detainees facing trial must be designated "unlawful enemy combatants". When they were assessed years earlier they were described only as "enemy combatants". The word "unlawful" did not appear, giving the new tribunals no jurisdiction. It seems the same may apply to all the other 380 detainees, leaving the tribunal system in legal limbo while Bush administration lawyers race to clarify the situation. The US government has basically three options, our correspondent says: * throw the whole system out and start again, which would be very embarrassing for the Bush administration * redesignate all the detainees as "unlawful enemy combatants", which would require a separate administrative hearing * appeal against the ruling - but this would need to be handled by an appeals court, the military commissions review, which has not yet been established Tribunal issue Defendant Omar Khadr, 20, appeared in court on Monday wearing a prison uniform, light sandals and a straggly beard. He was just 15 years old when he was captured in Afghanistan, and was accused of killing a US soldier during a battle at a suspected al-Qaeda base in 2002. He appeared in court charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and providing support for terrorism. The judge left open the possibility that Mr Khadr could be re-charged if he appeared before an official review panel and was formally classified as an "unlawful" enemy combatant. He said prosecutors could lodge an appeal within 72 hours, although it was not immediately clear who they could appeal to. Prosecutors have indicated they intend to appeal. All charges were dropped in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, accused of serving both as chauffeur and bodyguard to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Lawyers for Mr Hamdan said: "It was a victory for the rule of law and the law of war." Legal limbo The tribunal's chief defence counsel, Marine Colonel Dwight Sullivan, said the rulings were not a technicality, but another demonstration that the system did not work. Senator Chris Dodd, a Democratic presidential candidate, said the system was corroding America's foundation of freedom. Senator Arlen Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the New York Times that Monday's ruling could prompt Congress to re-evaluate the legal rights of detainees. "The sense I have is that there's an unease, an uncomfortable sense about the whole Guantanamo milieu. There's just a sense of too many shortcuts in the whole process," he said. The Guantanamo Bay facility was set up by the US in January 2002 to detain foreign prisoners suspected of links with al-Qaeda or the Taliban. About 770 inmates - many from the conflict in Afghanistan - have been at the camp on Cuba, which is not subject to normal US court rules. Only one person - Australian David Hicks - has been convicted at Guantanamo. He was jailed for nine months in March 2007, and is now serving the sentence in Adelaide. ? BBC MMVII From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:04:42 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:04:42 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Judges at Guantanamo Throw Out 2 Cases Message-ID: <20070605170442.54a32830@viola.tamara-b.org> AP - Jun 5, 2007 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUANTANAMO_TRIALS?SITE=TXKER&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Judges at Guantanamo Throw Out 2 Cases By ANDREW O. SELSKY Associated Press Writer GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- With one word - "unlawful" - the only two war-crimes trials against Guantanamo detainees fell apart in a single day, marking a stunning setback to Washington's attempts to try dozens of detainees in military court. Two military judges dismissed charges Monday against a Guantanamo detainee accused of chauffeuring Osama bin Laden and another who allegedly killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen and Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was arrested on an Afghan battlefield, were the only two of the roughly 380 prisoners at Guantanamo charged with crimes under a reconstituted military trial system. Monday's rulings stand to complicate efforts by the United States to try other suspected al-Qaida and Taliban figures in military courts. Defense attorneys and legal experts blamed the rush by Congress and President Bush last year to restore the war-crimes trials after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the previous system, declaring it unconstitutional. In a remarkable coincidence, it was Hamdan's lawsuit that wound up in the Supreme Court. In both of Monday's cases, the judges ruled that the new legislation says only "unlawful enemy combatants" can be tried by the military trials, known as commissions. But Khadr and Hamdan previously had been identified by military panels here only as enemy combatants, lacking the critical "unlawful" designation. "The fundamental problem is that the law was not carefully written," said Madeline Morris, a Duke University law professor. "It was rushed through in a flurry of political pressure from the White House ... and it is quite riddled with internal contradictions and anomalies." Prosecuting attorneys in both cases indicated they would appeal the dismissals. But the court designated to hear the appeals - known as the court of military commissions review - doesn't even exist yet, said Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay. Army Maj. Beth Kubala, spokeswoman for the Office of Military Commissions that organizes the trials, said "the public should make no assumption about the future of military commissions." She said they will continue to operate openly and fairly and added that dismissals of the charges "reflect that the military judges operate independently." She declined to comment on how the Office of Military Commissions planned to respond to the setbacks, saying she didn't want to speculate. Military prosecutors declined to appear before reporters after their cases collapsed. The distinction between classifications of enemy combatants is important because if they were "lawful," they would be entitled to prisoner of war status under the Geneva Conventions. A Pentagon spokesman said the issue was little more than semantics. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said the entire Guantanamo system deals with people who act as "unlawful enemy combatants," operating outside any internationally recognized military, without uniforms or other things that make them party to the Geneva Conventions. "It is our belief that the concept was implicit that all the Guantanamo detainees who were designated as 'enemy combatants' ... were in fact unlawful," Gordon said. But Morris said the Military Commissions Act defines a lawful enemy combatant, in addition to a uniformed fighter belonging to a regular force - as "a member of a militia, volunteer corps or organized resistance movement belonging to a state party engaged in such hostilities and who meets four additional criteria." The dismissals of the cases do not spell freedom for Khadr or Hamdan. "It is very difficult when practical conditions for him don't change," said Joseph McMillan, one of Hamdan's attorneys. Still, Hamdan's military attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, said his client "is relieved" by Allred's ruling. "He hopes he gets a fair trial and, like the rest of us, is patiently waiting for it," Swift told reporters. Sullivan, the chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, said the dismissal of Khadr's case could spell the end of the war-crimes trial system. He said none of the detainees held at this isolated military base in southeast Cuba has been found to be an "unlawful" enemy combatant. "It is not just a technicality; it's the latest demonstration that this newest system just does not work," Sullivan told journalists. "It is a system of justice that does not comport with American values." Sullivan said reclassifying detainees as "unlawful" would require a time-consuming overhaul of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals that first classified them as enemy combatants. But Gregory McNeal, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University, said nothing prevents the Defense Department from reconvening the hearings for detainees headed to trial and declaring them to be "unlawful" combatants. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said a retrial is possible because Brownback dismissed Khadr's case without prejudice. Hamdan's case also was dismissed without prejudice. U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said he plans to hold hearings on the Military Commissions Act, which he said is "riddled with problems and created a process that operates outside the rule of law - it has crippled our ability to deal with the real criminals still being held at Guantanamo." The only other detainee charged under the new system, Australian David Hicks, pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to al-Qaida and is serving a nine-month sentence in Australia. Sullivan said the dismissal of the Khadr case raised questions about the legitimacy of Hicks' conviction. But Hicks' lawyer, David McLeod, said Tuesday that his client was unlikely to challenge his conviction now that he had the certainty of a release date. "I don't think it's helpful to go down that path at the moment for David," McLeod told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "He has chose a route and he proposes to continue down that route." Hicks' father Terry Hicks agreed with the lawyer, adding that his son could he ordered to serve the suspended six years and three months balance of his sentence if he appealed and lost. Associated Press Writer Michael Warren in Mexico City contributed to this report. ? 2007 The Associated Press. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:05:39 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:05:39 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Bush's Tribunal System Stumbles Again, Remains in Chaos Message-ID: <20070605170539.23a392b9@viola.tamara-b.org> The New York Times - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/washington/05combatant.html Tribunal System, Newly Righted, Stumbles Again By ADAM LIPTAK The Bush administration?s attempt to create an alternative justice system for terrorism suspects, in the works for more than five years, has yet to complete a single trial. After an earlier version of the system was rejected by the Supreme Court last year, the administration and Congress went back to the drawing board. The result was the Military Commissions Act, which was meant to settle a host of difficult questions once and for all. But the system took two more blows yesterday, when, in separate proceedings, military judges dismissed charges against prisoners held at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, on the ground that the administration had not managed to comply with the new law it pushed through Congress just last fall. Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert in Washington, said the development was but the latest in a long series of missteps. ?This system, which the administration has had more than ample opportunity to get up and running properly,? Mr. Fidell said, ?is continuing to bounce down the tracks.? No one will go free as a consequence of the decisions, and the administration has a variety of ways, yet again, to try to fix the system. It is likely to appeal the decisions to another new body, the Court of Military Commission Review. Further appeals, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, are also possible. Several legal experts said military prosecutors had substantial arguments for reversal. And even if the decisions are sustained, the problems they identified can be remedied by amending Defense Department regulations or the Military Commissions Act. David B. Rivkin, a lawyer in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush, said the day?s developments brought good and bad news. ?The good news,? Mr. Rivkin said, ?is that it shows you that the military commissions are not pliant or tame tools of the states.? ?On the other hand,? he added, ?this an aberrant and bad decision.? (He spoke on Monday afternoon before the second judge?s ruling, which seemed to deal the administration an even more decisive rebuke.) The question at the heart of the cases is a jurisdictional one arising from the fact that there are two kinds of tribunals at Guant?namo. One, the Combatant Status Review Tribunal, created by Pentagon regulations, makes a threshold determination about whether detainees were properly designated ?enemy combatants? and are therefore eligible to be held at Guant?namo. That tribunal has not ? and this turns out to be important ? made determinations about whether those same people are ?unlawful? enemy combatants. There have been 558 of those reviews; they are quite cursory. The second kind of tribunal is the military commissions. They are intended to hear war crimes cases, and resemble conventional courts. There have been no completed trials before a military commission at Guant?namo. Yesterday?s decisions mean there are not likely to be any soon. The Military Commissions Act said the commissions could hear only war crimes cases involving violations of the laws of war ?by an alien unlawful enemy combatant.? It added that the commissions ?shall not have jurisdiction over lawful enemy combatants.? The distinction is an important one, said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. ?It?s not a crime to be an enemy combatant,? he said. Lawful enemy combatants are, broadly speaking, uniformed soldiers fighting for a government. Unlawful enemy combatants, according to the Military Commissions Act, are everyone else who has engaged in or supported hostilities against the United States, including members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The question in yesterday?s decisions was which tribunal has to make the determination concerning ?unlawful enemy combatants.? Under one reading of the new law, only the combatant status tribunal can make it. Under another, the military commissions themselves can decide whether they have jurisdiction. The two decisions yesterday indicated that Congress had contemplated a two-step process, with the status review tribunal making the initial determination and the military commission trying the criminal case. The Military Commissions Act certainly required either the status review tribunal or, in its words, ?another competent tribunal? to make the determination. Several experts said that other tribunal could be the military commission. If the decisions are upheld, either the Defense Department regulations governing the status review tribunals or the Military Commissions Act will have to be amended to allow the trials to go forward. That second option would be a welcome development, Mr. Specter said. ?This may be an avenue for Congress to re-examine the whole procedure,? he said, ?including habeas corpus.? More broadly, critics asked whether a separate justice system was needed at all. ?This just reinforces the notion that the system is in chaos and that they?re making it up on the fly,? said Steven R. Shapiro, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. ?The time is long overdue for all these cases to be transferred to military courts-martial or civilian courts.? From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:06:24 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:06:24 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Bush regime disagrees with Guantanamo trial ruling Message-ID: <20070605170624.47f5c1f6@viola.tamara-b.org> Reuters - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0528272420070605?feedType=RSS White House disagrees with Guantanamo trial ruling PRAGUE (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday said it disagreed with rulings by U.S. military judges to drop all war crimes charges against two Guantanamo prisoners facing trial, and that the Defense Department was considering whether to appeal. "We don't agree with the ruling on the military commissions," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters in Prague where President George W. Bush is meeting with leaders of the Czech Republic. The judges on Monday said they lacked jurisdiction under the strict definition of those eligible for trial by military tribunal under a law enacted last year. The Defense Department "will make a determination as to whether it's appropriate to file an appeal or not," Fratto said. "It does show that the system is taking great care to be within the letter of the law." On Monday, the military judges at Guantanamo gave the government 72 hours to decide whether to appeal. However the court authorized to hear appeals under last year's Military Commissions Act has not yet been created, said the chief defense counsel for the tribunals, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan. The government may appeal but would have to assemble an appeals court quickly. The rulings did not affect U.S. authority to indefinitely hold the 380 foreign terrorism suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in southeast Cuba. But it was the latest setback for the Bush administration's efforts to put the Guantanamo captives through some form of judicial process. "In no way does this decision affect the appropriateness of the military commission system," Fratto said. Many military lawyers have argued for years that the United States should scrap the tribunals and conduct the trials in the court-martial system, where the rules are clear and legal landmarks are long-established. "The military judges are capable of doing good work if we go back to the system that's tried and true, the court-martial, and get on with deciding who's guilty and who's innocent rather than playing these procedural games," said Hamdan's military lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift. He said on Monday night he was surprised the government had not noticed the flaw the judges found. "The government should have seen that argument coming a long way away," Swift said. "That shows what happens when you throw together legislation, throwing out all the past precedents and try to get it done quick and dirty." ? Reuters 2006. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:11:38 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:11:38 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Chavez, Supported by Marchers, Dismisses Fuss over Media Policy Message-ID: <20070605171138.57912262@viola.tamara-b.org> Venezuelanalysis - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2317 Hundreds of Thousands March in Support of Chavez Chavez Dismisses International Disapproval of Venezuela?s Media Policy By Gregory Wilpert Caracas, June 4, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)? As several hundred thousand Chavez supporters rallied in Venezuela?s largest avenue on Saturday, President Chavez rejected all international interference with his decision not to renew a television station?s broadcast license. Referring to the Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci, Chavez also spoke at length about how private media maintains a cultural hegemony that must be broken. ?Go to hell, representatives of the global oligarchy, we are a free country!? said Chavez to wild applause, once marchers reached the Avenida Bolivar in the center of Caracas. The demonstration converged on the avenue from two starting points, one in the east of the city and the other towards the city?s south. Unofficial estimates of the number of demonstrators ranged from 300,000 to 500,000. Chavez said he did not care that the world media was presenting him as a new Hitler or Mussolini. ?What I do care about,? said Chavez, ?is the sovereignty of the Venezuelan homeland.? ?The international elite are worried, they fear that the example of Venezuela will extend to other countries where they believe that they are the masters of everything,? continued Chavez during his relatively short one and a half hour speech. Every destabilization plan, warned Chavez, will be ?responded with a new revolutionary offensive.? Chavez also said it was sad that university students have been demonstrating in support of RCTV. ?It continues to be sad that some students take to the streets ? to defend what? ? On whose side will they place themselves, on the side of the people or of the oligarchy, of the homeland or of the North American empire?? adding that the vast majority of students are on the side of the people. The images of student protests are just part of a ?giant manipulation, a gross media spectacle.? For Chavez, what is happening in Venezuela is very similar to what the U.S. has helped organize in eastern European countries, in the so-called ?colored revolutions,? such as in Ukraine, where demonstrators succeeded in overthrowing the government. Chavez also reminded his supporters that his reelection on December 3rd was merely the beginning of a new phase in his presidency, of creating socialism and that so far much had been achieved. Chavez mentioned that the ?re-nationalization? of the oil industry had been finalized and that the new Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has been launched and announced that until now 4,735,000 Venezuelans have been registered as applicants to be activists in the new party. Antonio Gramsci as Key for Understanding Events in Venezuela The thought of the Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci is fundamental, according to Chavez, for making sense of what is happening in Venezuela today. ?I want to refer to the thought of Gramsci, to use his ideas, using the light of his thought, every day we understand better what is happening here today in Venezuela.? Thus Chavez launched into one his longest and most detailed talks on the thought of Gramsci, explaining Gamsci?s concept of ?historical blocs,? in which a particular class manages to acquire hegemony that is expressed in structures and super-structures. The super-structure, explained Chavez, consists of two levels, of the institutions of the state and of the civil society. The civil society, according to Chavez?s explanation of Gramsci, consists of economic and private institutions, through which the dominant class spreads its ideology. The conflict in Venezuela can thus be understood as one between the institutions of the state, which used to be controlled by this civil society, but no longer is, and the old civil society. To this old civil society, according to Gramsci, belong the Catholic Church hierarchy, the mass media, and the education system as the principal institutions. The dominant classes use these institutions to disseminate their ideologies, explained Chavez. This ideology of the dominant classes is disseminated in a variety of levels of abstraction, with philosophy being the most abstract. Below this level are belief systems such a neo-liberalism, the free market, the thesis of freedom of expression, of bourgeois democracy, of division of powers, representation as foundation of democracy. These are ?Big lies!? exclaimed Chavez, with which for over a 100 years hegemony has been exercised. On a third level is common sense, which is ?the product of being bathed in the dominant philosophy and of the ideology in different forms, via soap operas, movies, songs, propaganda, billboards?? said Chavez. The fourth level is ?folklore,? whereby people simply express a preference as a result of manipulation, without knowing why. According to Chavez, the Bolivarian movement has been ?liberating? the state, including the judiciary, the legislature, the state-owned enterprises, from the control of this hegemonic ?bourgeois civil society.? Now this civil society is using its last remaining resources to fight for power, the Church, the mass media, and the universities. ?From there is the importance of understanding the layout of the battle,? said Chavez. Chavez also clarified that Venezuela?s oligarchy could live with the Bolivarian Revolution, because ?we have no plan to eliminate the oligarchy, Venezuela?s bourgeoisie. We have demonstrated this sufficiently in over eight years,? said Chavez. ?But, if the oligarchy does not understand this, if it does not accept the call to peace, to live with us, that the great revolutionary majority is making, if the Venezuelan bourgeoisie continues to desperately assault, using the refuges it has remaining, well then the Venezuelan bourgeoisie will continue to lose, one by one, the refuges it has remaining,? declared Chavez. Directed to Venezuela?s bourgeoisie, Chavez said, ?We respect you as Venezuelans, you [should] respect Venezuela, respect the homeland, respect our constitution, respect our laws. If you do not, you will regret it, if you do not, we will make you obey Venezuela?s laws.? The gathered crowd chanted, ?This is how one governs!? From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:13:53 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:13:53 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuban Youth Hold Forum on Environmental Protection Message-ID: <20070605171353.79687cd7@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Cuban Youth Hold Forum on Environmental Protection Havana, June 5 (acn) A forum entitled "Energy or hunger?: The future after biofuels" is taking place in Havana under the auspices of the Youth Environmental Network. The meeting, organized by the Communist Youth League of Cuba, is being attended by children, high school and university students, and young workers, reported Juventud Rebelde newspaper. On Tuesday morning, experts from scientific institutions and representatives from Cuban NGOs will answer questions posted on the web page https://foro.jovenclub.cu by websufers. Cuban specialists will also talk about the impact of the use of biofuels on the environment and on world food reserves. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:15:22 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:15:22 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Forest Fire Damages Zapata Biosphere Reserve in Cuba Message-ID: <20070605171522.3adc4586@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Forest Fire Damages Zapata Biosphere Reserve in Cuba Havana, June 5 (acn) Incidental fire did away with some four thousand hectares of the Zapata swamps on the south coast of Matanzas province, the largest wetlands in the Caribbean. The catastrophe went on for almost two months and only ceased after several days of continued rainfall. According to the local forest ranger department, the work of some 160 men with technical support every day since March 30 could not fully extinguish the fire, which also partially damaged 800 other hectares, PL News Agency reports. Dry branches and fallen trees brought down by hurricane Dennis two years ago got the fire going. Experts agreed that it was started near a pond visited by poaching hunters and fishermen and was the consequence of a neglectful action in the first place. Fortunately, the fire did not reach the east part of the wetlands, where there is the crocodile breeding center, the flower reserves, and some bird watch points, although the full impact on ecology has not yet being determined, commented CubAhora magazine. The Zapata swamps have been declared a biosphere reserve and a natural park in Cuba. They are permanent habitat to three kinds of endemic jutias, all species of Cuban mammals and most reptiles. Neglect in the first place and then climatic changes, are responsible for most fires in Cuba - disasters that amount to millions of dollars in losses every year. In 2006 alone, 180 forest fires were reported in Cuba. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:16:54 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:16:54 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cuba: Int'l Symposium on Chemistry Begins in Villa Clara Message-ID: <20070605171654.56dfdb35@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles International Symposium on Chemistry Begins in Villa Clara Havana, June 5 (acn) - The third edition of the International Symposium on Chemistry begins on Tuesday at the Central University of Las Villas, in Santa Clara, capital of the central Villa Clara province, with the participation of national and foreign researchers, professors and other professionals of the sector. The scientific program of the meeting includes several events such as workshops on the development of medicines, chemistry of natural products, design of chemical plants and environmental technological security. Special attention will be drawn by an Iberoamerican workshop on new technologies to produce bio-fuels without harming food supply for the peoples, and another one in which participants will analyze the use of sugar cane as a source of energy and chemical products. Another topic to be analyzed during the meeting is the teaching of chemistry and the environmental curricular strategy used in the syllabuses for the training of chemists. The symposium, organized by the Cuban Society of Chemistry and the Faculty of Chemistry of the Central University of Las Villas, will conclude next Friday and will also include conferences, discussions and an exhibition of posters. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:17:58 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:17:58 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] President of Cuban Parliament Meets Chinese Counterpart in Beijing Message-ID: <20070605171758.02b0a122@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles President of Cuban Parliament Meets Chinese Counterpart in Beijing Havana, June 5 (acn)- The President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarc?n de Quesada, met with his Chinese counterpart, Wu Bangguo, in Beijing on Monday during an official visit to the Asian nation. Wu Bangguo, who is also a member of the Permanent Committee of the Political Bureau of China's Communist Party, said that the visit will serve to further strengthen bilateral relations between the peoples and parliaments of both countries. According to Prensa Latina news agency, the Cuban high-ranking official on Monday also met with the head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Wang Jiarui, and with the vice-president of the Political Consultative Conference of the Chinese People. Also on Monday, Alarc?n and his delegation visited the scale model of the Olympic Park and the area where some new sports facilities are being built for the Beijing Olympic Games next year. China is the first stop of an Asian tour that will also take Alarc?n and his accompanying delegation to Vietnam and Laos. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:28:11 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:28:11 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Welcome Back to Reality, Cindy Message-ID: <20070605172811.6551c2d3@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by mart Swans Commentary - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.swans.com/library/art13/ga231.html Welcome Back to Reality, Cindy by Gilles d'Aymery (Swans - June 4, 2007) Lately, we have been hearing lots of whines and howls from the Lib-Labs in the Pwogosphere regarding the $100 billion funding-the-troops supplemental bill that the Democrats sent to the president -- who signed it into law -- with a $20 billion pork-barrel payoff which purpose was to buy the votes of a few Democrats who were reluctant to approve the original bill that included benchmarks and timetables. (The benchmarks and timetables were scratched from the final bill, but the pork stayed!) The pwogs, like Norman Solomon, Atrios, the folks at MoveOn.org, the Daily Kos, et al. (and they are aplenty!) have been seething in discontent. They've felt betrayed by the Democratic leadership. They've accused them of "caving in" to the war party. The left-center-right Libertarians (depending on the winds of the day) that inhabit Counterpunch and their more consistent right-wing alter ego at Antiwar.com, were dismayed too. With a mix of usual muckraking sarcasm (Counterpunch) and gloomy end-of-the-Republic tirades (Antiwar), they all vilified the Democrats for their spineless surrender to the White House and the so-called War Party. They all believe, repeat, believe, that the "antiwar movement" (placed between quotes, for it hardly exists) had been instrumental in the Democrats winning the sweepstakes in the November 2006 mid-term elections (even though the Senate majority still hangs on the recovery of a disabled senator). They believe that not only they, but the majority of the American people, voted against the war and brought that new slim majority to power to end the war and bring the troops home. Belief, a commonly held thought process that can be rationalized but which defies reason, is not the preserve of the faith-based community in the U.S. It's a countrywide pursuit. The electorate (half of the potential voters who have not yet given up on the broken system of governance), however, voted -- pick and choose -- against the war, the sexual and corruption scandals beleaguering the Republican Party, the incompetence of the administration, economic concerns (think particularly of gas prices), and sheer tiredness of business as usual -- call it a mild malaise that Pepto-Bismol cannot cure -- and asked for change -- meaning, "please, let's go back to where we were, once upon a time...where change meant same old same old." When fatigue sets in one falls asleep hoping that as the sunrise signals the dawn of a new day, it will all have been a bad dream -- that the nightmarish conditions that brought repeated disillusionment over time, hence the fatigue, had never taken place -- and one was happily back to the times that preceded the objects of scorn. One thing they did not vote for, with the exception of a tiny minority, was de-funding the war effort. Cindy Sheehan is one of those admirable souls who believed that were the Democrats back in power they would act upon the demands of the antiwar and peace activists who had tirelessly worked on their behalf, all the while demonizing the Bush administration. One should feel sorry for Mrs. Sheehan who, beginning in July 2004, gave so much to the cause of stopping madness -- her time, her energy, her savings, even her mental and physical health, all for a just and moral cause: ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home. There is no other individual that has done so much to raise these issues to the fore. She's owed tons of gratitude and respect. Yet, she became, like the vast majority of the antiwar movement, an instrument of the Democratic Party. While these people may sincerely believe they can affect the politics of the Democratic Party they are either na?ve or ignorant of that party's history. Have the Democrats ever found a war they did not like or cheer for? Has there been one time ever when the antiwar movement managed to stop an American war? Antiwar and peace activists have long been co-opted by the Democrats through myriad non-profit organizations and celebrity dissenters (Bill Moyers, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, Amy Goodman, Laura Flanders, Phil Donahue, Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore, Helen Thomas, Dennis Kucinich, Martin Sheen, etc.) whose only purpose is to confine activists within the boundaries of political acceptability, to funnel the flow of resistance and dissent toward the Democrats. In due respect to Mrs. Sheehan, she seems to have sensed the bogus but well-oiled strategy in the summer of 2006. Earlier this year, in the wake of the last antiwar demonstration in Washington D.C., she certainly must have noticed that one of the celebrity dissenters with whom she shared the stage, Jane Fonda, flew to Los Angeles to help organize a fund-raising party for no one else but Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nevertheless, she played the Democratic card, supposedly again believing like so many tender souls that the party could be reformed from the inside. She started to confront the Democrats more directly by the spring of 2007 and the reaction was not long in coming. After having been vilified by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News clowns -- insults she took in stride -- she began feeling the arrows of her own allies; and allies they were of her own choosing. She had joined the board of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), a board filled with the who's who of the antiwar movement -- e.g., Medea Benjamin (CodePink), Jeff Cohen (co-founder of FAIR), John Conyers (D-MI), Jodie Evans (CodePink), Tom Hayden, Thom Hartmann (Air America), Barbara Lee (D-CA), David Swanson (more on him below), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Diane Watson (D-CA), Lyle Wing (Rainbow PUSH Coalition), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), etc. She was lauded by all these organizations (CodePink, MoveOn.org, Daily Kos, UFPJ, and the like) till she set in motion her second thoughts. That's when they dropped her cold (cf. Medea Benjamin). She had served them well -- keep in mind that the first ad that launched her meteorite rise to antiwar stardom was paid for by MoveOn.org, a Clintonian-DLC outfit par excellence -- but had overstayed her welcome and was subsequently being ditched through thousands of little cuts. David Swanson deserves a special mention in the annals of antiwar triangulation in favor of the Democrats. Here's a man who drinks at all the troughs of the Democratic spigots, all the while advancing his career. The ubiquitous Swanson is a director of democrats.com (the "Aggressive Democrats!" no less) and of impeachPAC.org ("Electing a Congress to impeach Bush and Cheney"); he created MeetWithCindy.org and is on the board of PDA; he co-founded afterdowningstreet.org (another pro-impeachment site); he was the press secretary for the 2004 Kucinich presidential campaign (recall that Kucinich delivered all his delegates, with one exception, to the Kerry-Edwards ticket); he worked for the International Labor Communications Association (an AFL-CIO outfit that is a clear Democratic storefront). His entire professional journey is that of a Democratic Party backbencher. As a smooth and smart operator, he even contributes regularly to Counterpunch, delivering scathing criticisms against a party he fully supports and assisting in neutralizing (if not wholly neutering) the antiwar movement. If that were not enough, David Swanson also advocates strong challenges from Green candidates, thus demonstrating that the Demgreen foxes remain entrenched in the Green chicken house. Interestingly, however, only Cindy Sheehan has been accused of being a "whore" by that crowd. Remarkable achievement... These Democratic operatives work mostly in tandem within myriad organizations. Medea Benjamin moves effortlessly from CodePink to Global Exchange, United for Peace and Justice, PDA, and other groups. Tim Carpenter, the national director of PDA, is a co-founder of afterdowningstreet.org. He also delivered a speech at the 1992 Democratic National Convention and was on the staff of Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign, which might suggest that progressive politics lay in the eyes of the beholder. One could jump to the conclusion -- and quite a few do -- that these professional anti-warriors who make a career out of their credentials are surreptitiously devoted to controlling dissent and dividing dissidents; that they are supported and financed by the powers that be in order to do their betting. It may be partly true. Indeed, these people make a living out of donations from foundations that are deeply aligned with the status quo. They also struggle for a share of the financial bonanza that these foundations grant to keep dissent within the family. It's also true that competition for those funds -- and a decent living -- is a sine qua non proposition if one wants to remain in this line of business. It's finally also factual that egos are in play within that crowd (is there any activity in American life where egos are not at play somewhat, somehow?). Yet, how would one accuse Rep. Barbara Lee or Lynn Woolsey, for example, of being traitors to the cause that Cindy Sheehan has espoused so wholeheartedly in the past three years? They have walked deep into the trenches of the peace and justice movement, long before Casey Sheehan died in Iraq and his mother got involved with much anger and idealism into that struggle. To think of Barbara Lee as a turncoat or a double agent would be an insult to reality and a slander against this most respected US Representative. To attack Bill Moyers or the other celebrity dissenters misses the point: These people do believe in the Democratic Party. That's all they know and they have no reason to think otherwise. Is there a viable independent movement, away from the duopoly -- in America? No, there is none. So, they keep functioning within the realm of possibilities, even though they have been proven incorrect time and again in regard to their influence on the leadership of their party, which like their Republican counterparts directly profits from war (e.g., Sen. Dianne Feinstein). But, and it is a big BUT, they are correct in regard to the absence of any alternatives. The House Out of Iraq Caucus, with its 73 members, serves as a fa?ade of sanity within a delusory body politic that remains in total denial. Sadly, this miserable war will linger on for the foreseeable future and end like the Vietnam War did, when the US military breaks down and the financial costs become unbearable, thus forcing the elites to abandon their latest imperial adventure. Cindy Sheehan, a political neophyte originally, a grieving mother who became the face of hope for millions of people opposed to that folly, admits that she is disillusioned. As well she should be, for she has learned much in the past three years, like many of us, about the politics of the antiwar movement and its entanglement with the neoliberal establishment, leading her to finally leave that faith-based community, secular or otherwise, and rejoin the reality-based mindset. She wants to take a breather and come back into the arena. She will advocate humanitarian work (whatever that means) and will look forward to a third party -- or a second party if one considers that the Democratic and Republican parties are the two branches of corporatism. She's right. To do so, she will have to estrange herself from the people and organizations named above and find new friends and allies among all the little people that struggle with great obstinacy for a saner and reasoned world -- these wonderful little people who do the real walking and talking. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:29:21 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:29:21 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] The Progressive: Is Martial Law Coming? Message-ID: <20070605172921.30333624@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Rich Winkel (activ-l) The Progressive - May 29, 2007 http://www.progressive.org/mag_wx0529b07 Is Martial Law Coming? By Matthew Rothschild A note of caution since I wrote about Bushs plans to anoint himself the insurer of constitutional government in the event of emergency. I decided to see what the American Civil Liberties Union thought of the May 9 release of the National Security Presidential Directive, and to my surprise, the ACLU did not seem that concerned about it. These presidential directives on the continuity of government have existed for a long time, says Mike German, ACLU policy counsel. All it does is establish that they should have a policy and coordinate that policy with legislative and judiciary. It doesnt change the order of succession, or anything like that. Plus, he praised the Bush Administration for making the document public, since previous ones have remained classified. Im glad they made it public, he says. The fact that this was done in an open and transparent manner should be applauded. As to the substance of the document: Its impossible to know whether this is an attempt to usurp some authority that had otherwise not been contemplated by law, German says. It certainly is curious as to why the Bush Administration released the document. The last paragraph is entitled Security, and it states: This directive and the information contained herein shall be protected form unauthorized disclosure, provided that, except for Annex A, the Annexs attached to this directive are classified. But whatever the reason for the disclosure, the document is not reassuring, especially given Bushs demonstrated disdain for the Constitution. Take his approval of warrantless NSA domestic spying. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that it undisputedly violates the Fourth Amendment, undisputedly violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, violates the First Amendment, and violates the separation of powers. Not mincing any words, she added: The Constitution itself has been violated. Or take his policy of denying U.S. citizens due process. Justice Sandra Day OConnor, writing for the Supreme Court in the Hamdi case, said the President does not have a blank check in times of war. We necessarily reject the Governments assertion that separation of powers principles mandate a heavily circumscribed role for the courts, OConnor wrote. And she explicitly warned about an Executive Branch approach that serves only to condense power into a single branch of government. Condensing power into a single branch is precisely what concerns me about Bushs new directive. The directive also uses fudge words that President Bush was fond of while he was trying to find ways to justify torture. The continuity of government directive says it will be implemented in a manner consistent with the Constitution and consistent with applicable law. Compare that with Bushs February 7, 2002, order governing the treatment of detainees: The war against terrorism ushers in a new paradigm. . . . Our nation recognizes that this new paradigmushered in not by us, but by terroristsrequires new thinking in the law of war, but thinking that should nevertheless be consistent with the principles of Geneva. In that context, Bush used the phrase consistent with to justify actions that were antithetical to the Geneva Conventions. You have to wonder whether hes using that phrase in a similar way when it comes to the Constitution in times of an emergency. Whats more, there are the comments by former high-ranking officials in the Bush Administration who have said that martial law is coming if were attacked again. Wayne Downing was Bushs deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism under Condoleezza Rice early in the first term. On December 24, 2002, six months after he retired, he told The Washington Post: The United States may have to declare martial law someday in the case of a devastating attack with weapons of mass destruction causing tens of thousands of casualties. This could mean that the military would be given the authority to impose curfews, protect businesses and communities, even make arrests. General Tommy Franks, who led the Iraq invasion, told Cigar Aficionado in December 2003 that if terrorists attack us again, this time with a weapon of mass destruction, it will cause the population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass-casualty-producing event. Which, in fact, then begins to potentially unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Downing and Franks arent the only former officials talking about martial law. On April 7, 2004, Ted Koppel hosted a Nightline program on the very subject. He said if Washington, D.C., is attacked, Arent we left for at least the foreseeable future with some sort of martial law anyway? Kenneth Duberstein, Reagans chief of staff, responded: You have to suspend rights. Richard Clarke, who was Clintons counterterrorism expert and was in the Bush Administration on 9/11, responded: There would be a period of, for lack of a better term, something like martial law. One month later, Koppel spoke at the University of California-Berkeley commencement and again addressed the martial law issue quite frankly: Do not doubt for a moment that, at some point, during the next few years, one or the other of those weapons [chemical, biological, or nuclear] will almost certainly be used in an act of terrorism against the United States . . . in the United States. Then the time for discussing our civil liberties will be over. More than likely, the use of a chemical or biological weapon in a terrorist attack against the U.S. homeland would lead to the imposition of martial law. For how long and under what circumstances it would be lifted again has, to the best of my knowledge, never even been publicly addressed. But understand that the most implacable enemy of our civil liberties is fear. What we will do after the next terrorist attack is not a conversation that should be deferred. So why is it being deferred? Why is Congress not taking up the urgent need to hold hearings on this very subject? Here are two more reasons to be worried. The Northern Command, Northcom, created by Bush, already has plans to militarize the United States in the event of an attack. The new plans provide for what several senior officers acknowledged is the likelihood that the military will have to take charge in some situations, especially when dealing with mass-casualty attacks, Bradley Graham wrote in The Washington Post on August 8, 2005. Then there is the revision to the Posse Comitatus Act, which Bush whisked through last October. In an editorial on February 19 of this year, aptly entitled Making Martial Law Easier, The New York Times wrote: Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the President may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack, or to any other condition. Changes of this magnitude should be made only after a thorough public airing. But these new Presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. Interestingly, some in the Bush Justice Department didnt believe this Congressional change was even necessary. On October 23, 2001, then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo and Robert J. Delahunty, then-special counsel in the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote a memo to Alberto Gonzales, then-White House Counsel, and William Haynes II, then-general counsel for the Pentagon: We recently opined that the Posse Comitatus Act, 18 USCs.1385 (1994), which generally prohibits the use of Armed Forces for law enforcement purposes absent constitutional or statutory authority to do so, does not forbid the use of military force for the military purpose of preventing and deterring terrorism within the United States. Now Congress has given Bush and the Pentagon this power anyway. I hope the ACLU is correct, and that Bushs May 9 directive is nothing to worry about. But given all that we know about the Bush Administration, I, for one, am not convinced. What I am convinced of, however, is the need for Congressional hearings on this subjectbefore its too late. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:33:43 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:33:43 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Cheney Pal Lewis "Scooter" Libby goes to jail Message-ID: <20070605173343.02e93279@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Marcus (activ-l) BBC News - Jun 5, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6723915.stm Jail sentence for ex-Cheney aide A US judge has sentenced former key White House official Lewis Libby to 30 months in prison. Libby was found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury in March over the investigation into the unmasking of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Libby was the former chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney. Nobody has ever been charged with the offence of leaking the name of Valerie Plame, whose husband had criticised the war in Iraq. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:35:46 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:35:46 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] George W. Bush: A "Ficeist" Leader Makes Il Duce Look Like a Piker Message-ID: <20070605173546.547ff36f@viola.tamara-b.org> Counterpunch - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/strickler06042007.html George W. Bush: a "Ficeist" Leader Making Il Duce Look Like a Piker By KARYN STRICKLER As we finally enter the cool, breezy era where we are no longer actually living the Bush Presidential nightmare, but contemplating his legacy, you may be wondering how to articulate the tragedy that was America under George W. Bush. It's tempting to call Bush and his Administration "fascists" as many have. But we should not be tempted to refer to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their crooked cohorts as fascists, because it's not quite historically accurate. Bush's mix of authoritarianism and militarism -- waging an imperial oil war, torturing prisoners of that war, wasting the lives of young American soldiers on false pretenses -- does not quite add up to fascism. Nazi's committed mass murder based on race and religion, but the killing of 654,965* Iraqis in the Bush/Cheney quest for corporate domination of the Middle East, is not quite the same as fascism, since it was done under the cover of war, without being explicitly about sect or ethnicity. Allowing victims of Hurricane Katrina to die and rot in their own waste and neglecting those who survived, doesn't quite rise to the historic level required for the term fascist because it was, historians say, more passive than active. Rigging elections, corrupting the justice system, spying on and lying to Americans, twisting and falsifying the results of scientific research don't quite add up to the total elimination of elections, civil liberties and intellectual freedom under Hitler. Bush ignored the global warming emergency for six years and now in his unique, Orwellian way, is posturing to change the historical record, as though he's been a leader in finding solutions to the challenges presented by climate change. Global warming may change or destroy life on the planet for most of its inhabitants, still it's not fascism. It may turn out to be worse. Hitler's brand was a populist sort of fascism where he involved the German people in the killing of their own Jewish countrypeople and other "undesirables." Bush, by contrast, has a more international approach. He has not involved Americans in killing each other directly one-on-one, like old Adolph. Rather George W. Bush has put us all at the mercy of giant corporations who pollute our air and water and destroy biodiversity, leaving us to deal with the resulting degradation, illness and disease. Those wealthy corporations can now take individual's private property for "economic" development, outsource our jobs, avoid paying Americans a living wage, benefit financially from war, and gouge us at the gas pump. These corporations reap record-breaking profits, exclusively for the benefit of the very few. Meanwhile the little gal and guy struggle to live, breathe, work, put food and clean water on the table, pay the electric bill, get an education, and find health care. Few Americans are still fooled by Bush's more bumbling, "Oops, I'm just a simple cowboy" kinds of atrocities, devoid of the obviously deliberate nature of a Hitler. So really, if Bush is not a fascist, then there is no term in existence that accurately reflects the despotic-hybrid that is George W. Bush. The term neo-con, just doesn't cut it. Look-up the term "Nazi," in the dictionary and the antonym is "conservative" ? neo or otherwise. "Neo-con" lets Bush off too easy. "Compassionate conservative?" Every second of his term in office says otherwise. The spell-check on my computer will not yet allow me license with the term, because I just invented it. The term is Ficeist. Since it's close, but not exact, it sounds like fascist, with an "i" -- Ficeist. It is pronounced: like fish with a long "i" and an "ist" ending. The term is actually an acronym-turned-word. The pieces of the acronym add up to the unique, crossbreed that Americans have called President for the past 7 years. Fascist (but not exactly) Imperialist Corporatist Elitist -- plus "ist" -- equals Ficeist, equals George W. Bush and his Administration. Given some history and use on Bush-type leaders, Ficeist will come to reverberate with the kind of semi-democratic dictatorship that has been G.W. Bush's Administration. Ficeist, while not exactly a fascist, will denote a militarist who violates all historic rules of war and kills hundreds of thousands in other countries and blames it on an unrelated, domestic event, as Bush still does with the Iraq war and 9-1-1. The Ficeist leader will belong to a country powerful enough that he cannot be seized by another country and put on trial for crimes against humanity, even when warranted. Ficeists are masters of Orwellian double speak. They pose as virtuous environmentalists and propose legislation like the "Healthy Forest Initiative," while winking and nodding to their wealthy, corporate pals and whispering in the back room, "That really means that you can cut down all of the remaining 5 percent of ancient forests on public lands. Forests are for profit, right? Don't worry about the expense of making all that profit, American tax-payers will pay for it." Ficeist citizens are intelligent, but ill-informed because they get most of their "news" from corporate-controlled media similar to the complicit Fox News. The citizens of the Ficeist nation are too comfortable to rock the boat. The pseudo-freewoman and man of the Ficeist nation will not show up at the doors of their high court on the day that the Ficeist is appointed by that court to lead their nation and refuse to go home, until all votes are counted, as Americans did not in the 2000 Presidential election. Despite being a nation born of protest and revolution, complacent citizens won't demonstrate en mass when 3,500 of their fellow citizens die in a Ficeist, corporate-driven, meaningless war. They won't revolt when hundreds of billions of their tax dollars are wasted on the boondoggle or even blink when 9 billion dollars are lost -- just lost -- on its way to the corporations that occupy the invaded country. The Ficeist nation may be a multi-party state, but both parties will be controlled by wealthy corporations and more concerned about re-election and maintaining power for its own sake, than solving the nation's challenges. Voters may exercise their franchise in a mid-term election and elect the opposition party in a landslide with as clear a mandate as was ever given -- GET U.S. OUT OF THE IRAQ WAR. But the opposition party will eventually fold to the Ficeist and, contrary to the clear demands of the voters, they will actually provide MORE funding to INCREASE the troop levels, instead of supporting the troops by bringing them home. Maybe all of these concepts are unique to the living hell of the Bush/Cheney Administration and America today. In that case, let's hope the word Ficeist does not catch-on, since that would mean the world would have to endure another American-style President like George W. Bush, virtually unchallenged within the nation or from around the world. * According to a Johns Hopkins University study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health which estimated that 654,965 additional deaths occurred in Iraq between March 2003 and July 2006. Between March '03 and July '06, households attributed 31 percent of deaths or 203,039 deaths to the coalition. [Karyn Strickler, political scientist, activist and writer can be reached at fiftyplusone at earthlink.net ] ? 2007, Karyn Strickler. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:36:42 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:36:42 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] The Right of Return to New Orleans Message-ID: <20070605173642.0382bcc1@viola.tamara-b.org> Counterpunch - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/ward06042007.html Let the People Come Home The Right of Return to New Orleans By RICHARD WARD Two weeks away from my home in Albuquerque volunteering with the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans gave me a pretty good snapshot of what's going on in that grievously wounded city, and it's not a pretty picture. Most striking of course is the devastation of the Lower 9th Ward, where I worked, as well as the ghostlike emptiness of so many neighborhoods, including the fortress-like projects, all of which stand as silent testimony to an ugly truth about the nature of the world we live in these days, the increasingly vicious war against the poor. It is one thing to see the Lower 9th Ward, to experience the despair and anger of the people who remain, struggling against all odds to rebuild their shattered lives, homes and community, but it is something else altogether to see the projects, massive brick structures built (unlike the levees) to withstand catastrophic storms, where damage is minimal, surrounded by fences, doors and windows covered with steel barriers to make absolutely certain that none of the former, legal, rent-paying residents returns to their homes. Here the message is unmistakable, as unequivocal as Israel's separation wall in Palestine: We don't want you. Keep out. Don't come back. Along with this of course is the issue of land. Once the poor are eliminated the reigning powers are free to exercise their dominion, to tear down the projects and build "mixed income" housing (a percentage of units for project residents, but not all-those left out are on their own), WalMarts (as in the case of the razed St. Thomas project), or anything else deemed acceptable, which is another way of saying profitable. In the eyes of the movers and shakers of the new world order, the projects, like Social Security, are tantalizing opportunities to turn "nonproductive" public institutions into profit-making enterprises. The fact that there are about 4,000 families waiting to return to their homes in the projects makes no difference. It would take a matter of a few months to refurbish these dwellings, but HUD remains adamant, proclaiming them "unsafe." What makes this outrageous situation even more despicable is the quiet complicity of good New Orleanians, black and white (though for undoubtedly different reasons), in preventing poor, overwhelmingly black, citizens from returning to their city. A good friend of mine, who is black, and in whose FEMA trailer I stayed for the two weeks, tells me that many in the black middle class speak openly about not wanting the poor to return. Whites, at least white officialdom, couch their objections in the opaque dialects of bureaucracy, legalese and fine print. In general, crime, drugs and dysfunction are cited as reasons why the projects should be torn down, but the reality doesn't fit the stereotype. To be sure, there were serious problems, but the great majority of people living in the projects were responsible, decent, hard-working folks. I heard this said many times during my stay. Shockingly, some of the most ignorant comments I've heard have come from a few progressive acquaintances who have said that though the poor may be prevented from returning to their homes at least conditions in other places are better than they were in New Orleans. This is nothing but a kinder, gentler version of Barbara Bush's infamous remark. How difficult is it to understand that people want to go back to their homes? One of the few positive things to come out of Katrina is the opening up of a dialogue about class. There's a kind of quantifying game that's played now when trying to understand the reasons for the criminal neglect of people, again mostly black, stranded in their homes and in the horrifying cauldrons of the Convention Center, Superdome and overpasses after the levees gave way. Race and class are running neck and neck but the fact that class has entered seriously into the conversation is significant. A third element also universally discussed and with equal bitterness concerns the gross incompetence of the federal response and the political confusion, posturing and infighting at all levels during and after the hurricane. A lot has been said about the importance of New Orleans as a world cultural treasure, and this is certainly true. People everywhere speak lovingly, almost rapturously, about the food, music and ambience of the Crescent City. Before my last trip I had visited many times, not, strictly speaking, as a tourist, but still removed from the reality of ordinary life. What struck me most powerfully then however, and still does, is not the food, the music, the city's various charms, but rather the blackness of its population and its culture. Though the hapless Nagin was excoriated for his "chocolate city" remark he was absolutely dead-on. New Orleans is most definitely a chocolate city, and all the better for it. Or was. With over half the city's black population missing, the character, the vitality, the matrix that created and nurtured this marvelous culture, is gone. Human beings make a culture, not restaurants, music festivals or second line photo-ops for tourists. I used to love spending a day in the French Quarter. This time it turned my stomach. It was too clean, and of course jammed to the gills with gawking, clueless people who can't be blamed. How can they understand, or even care, that the French Quarter has nothing to do any more with the reality that surrounds it? As the rich and powerful battle for control of dwindling resources while the world's population expands towards unsustainable numbers, the poor are marginalized more than ever, pushed to the edges of survival and, as in the case of New Orleans, to the point of virtual non-existence. This is not just their problem. None is immune to disaster or displacement. Assuring that the rights of the poor are protected benefits everyone. In this sense we are all New Orleanians. The people must return. [Richard Ward lives in New Mexico. He can be reached at: cjward at osogrande.com ] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:37:40 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:37:40 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Poll: US discontent over Iraq and Democrats rising Message-ID: <20070605173740.7c3624b3@viola.tamara-b.org> Reuters - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0521635620070605?feedType=RSS U.S. discontent over Iraq, Democrats rising: poll WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans are becoming more discontented over the situation in Iraq and more unhappy with Democrats who won control of Congress last November largely because voters want to see an end to the war, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll. Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April. Approval of congressional Democrats dropped to 44 percent from 54 percent, according to the poll results. Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of congressional Democrats among strong opponents of the Iraq war, independents and liberal Democrats, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. In April, Americans, by a 25-point margin, trusted the Democrats over U.S. President George W. Bush to handle the situation in Iraq. In the new poll, Democrats held their advantage but only by 16 points, the Post reported Bush's job-approval rating stands at 35 percent, unchanged from April. Deep public skepticism about Iraq, concerns about the Democrats and Bush, and near-record-high gasoline prices appear to have combined to sour the overall mood in the country, the Post said. Seventy-three percent of Americans said the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, the newspaper said. Overall, 61 percent said the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, and nearly two-thirds said the United States is not making significant progress restoring civil order in Iraq, the Post said. Fifty-five percent, a new high, said the number of U.S. military forces in Iraq should be decreased, but only 15 percent called for an immediate withdrawal, the report said newspaper. The telephone poll of 1,205 adults was conducted May 29 to June 1 and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. ?Reuters 2006. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:39:31 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:39:31 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Overcoming Amerikan Gluttony Message-ID: <20070605173931.2141c2d1@viola.tamara-b.org> Smirking Chimp via Alternet - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/story/53052 Overcoming American Gluttony By Alan Bisbort Smirking Chimp Americans make the biggest environmental footprint on the planet but we have hundreds of excuses for never changing our behavior. Number one is that we are Americans. An economic expert recently claimed that if every American driver pledged to save one gallon of gas per week, the prices at the pump would plunge. Tom Kloza, analyst for the New Jersey-based Oil Price Information Service, said that a 1-percent dip in demand could shave as much as 50 cents a gallon off the price of gas. As the narrator in Bang the Drum Slowly would say, this hands me a laugh. What country does this expert live in? More to the point, what planet is he from? Kloza ... that sounds vaguely foreign, maybe al-Qaeda, to me. Surely this guy's a terrorist to suggest Americans sacrifice one gallon per week! Either that or he's an extraterrestrial. Though I agree with Mr. Kloza that this would be a good idea, I'd go much further: Americans should be required to drive vehicles that get no less than 30 miles per gallon and tax breaks should be given, on an upwardly prorated scale to all drivers who get at least 40 miles per gallon. Those who get more than 50 mpg should be exempt from sales tax on gas. Americans should not be allowed to pump more than 10 gallons into their tanks per trip to the station. Americans should this, Americans should that. But Mr. Kloza ... can I call you Tom? ... Tom, you've been reading too many Brokaw books, listening to too many Hallmark homilies from Monsignor Tim Russert. This is not the America of the Greatest Generation. This is not even the America of the Second Greatest Generation. We're in with the Also-Ran Generation or, at best, the Honorable Mention Generation. Americans feel entitled -- yes, there's that word we love to toss derisively at Welfare moms -- to be gluttons. We feel we're entitled to expand any where or any way we can. We just passed 300 million in population and are cruising in on an average weight of 300 pounds. We have 300 nuclear warheads aimed at 300 different places around the globe and we have a Global Warming Denier in control ready to stir up another hornet's nest in Iran. We have 300 excuses never to change our behavior. Number one is that we are Americans. America had a rare opportunity on Sept. 12, 2001, a chance to show the world that we could lead, could move the planet away from terrorism and fundamentalist hate mongering. Had there been a leader in the White House instead of a misleader, we could have turned one of the most tragic moments in our nation's history into a powerful ally for world change. But America never changed after 9/11. America is still the same glutton it always was, only more obnoxiously so now, given what we know about global warming and finite supplies of fossil fuels. So, thanks for handing us a laugh, Mr. Kloza. God knows we could use one. According to figures from our Department of Energy, each person in the U.S. consumes as much energy as 2.1 Germans, 12.1 Columbians, 28.9 citizens of India, 127 Haitians and 395 Ethiopians. As a nation, we lead the world in carbon dioxide emissions, nearly twice the amount of second-place China (which has one billion people). We lead the world, by far, in water and oil consumption. We have the largest houses in the world. Each year, the average American generates 189 pounds of food waste, 183 pounds of plastic trash, 570 pounds of paper trash, 86 pounds of glass trash, and so on. In short, Americans make the biggest environmental footprint on the planet. If one views the earth's resources as one common stash, we're the guys hogging all the supplies. If the kneejerk "Me First" crowd interpret the above statistics as blatant America-bashing -- rather than as grounds to change behavior -- then they've proven my point. Once again. For more information, go to http://www.populationeducation.org. [Alan Bisbort is a columnist for the Hartford Advocate. His more recent book is "Famous Last Words" (Pomegranate). ] ? 2007 Independent Media Institute. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:41:55 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:41:55 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Desert Autonomous Zone: Survivalism Meets Counterculture Message-ID: <20070605174155.2421a25d@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Dan Clore (activ-l) [Note: This article intentionally fails to reveal the location of this community, as its members wish to avoid attracting tourists and troublemakers.--DC] Reason Magazine - Jun 1, 2007 http://www.reason.com/news/show/120512.html Desert Autonomous Zone Survivalism meets the counterculture in a riveting new documentary. by Jesse Walker Somewhere in the northern New Mexico desert, a grizzled gardener called Robbie is praising the prickliness of his home. "The cops don't like to come out here," he says proudly, "and this place is built on being left alone by the authorities. People say to the government, 'Fuck you. Chinga tu madre. We don't want your government, and you can get out of here.'" Robbie is a folksinger, a self-described "middle-aged hippie," and one of the rich cast of characters who populate Off the Grid, a film now playing the festival circuit that will make its New York debut at Lincoln Center on August 16. Jeremy and Randy Stulberg, a brother and sister team, originally set out to make a documentary about U.S. citizens living abroad. Then they discovered a tribe of expatriates here at home, fleeing the American mainstream in a way that only deepened their American identity. The Stulbergs filmed them instead, with riveting results. In 15 square miles of abandoned land, about 400 misfits -- aging hippies, disillusioned veterans, teenage runaways -- have built a community where no one cares if you smoke pot, fire your rifle all day, let your kids drive your car, or walk around naked in the desert heat. It's a landscape of beat-up old trailers, shacks jerry-rigged from recycled materials, solar panels, little farms, greenhouses, and at least one tipi. "Where I live is the last remaining land of America that is left," says Dreadie Jeff, another Mesa resident. "You can do what you fucking want there." The local culture defies easy stereotypes. "Going into this community with this traditional mainstream liberal ideology," Jeremy says, "we realized all our preconceived notions were bullshit. These people were extremely into their Second Amendment rights, and they were also into marijuana legalization. They don't fit into these molds." There's a touch of madness to the place as well. Mama Phyllis, a Mesa woman who used to be a psychiatric nurse ("I couldn't do that anymore," she says, and leaves it at that), calls it "the largest outdoor insane asylum." The governing philosophy is a mix of anarchism, patriotism, New Age stoner wisdom, and a militia-style distrust of the state. Early in the film Dreadie Jeff, a veteran of the first Gulf War, exclaims that his military oath was not "to defend this land, it's not to defend the people, it's not to defend the motherfucking asshole president of the United States. My military oath goes, 'I solemnly swear to defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign and domestic.'" The Constitution's "biggest enemy," he adds, is "this fucking government that is in place right now." The government in question mostly keeps out of his way. Hardly anyone seems to want the Mesa people's land -- the Stulbergs heard several mutually exclusive explanations for who, if anyone, technically owns it -- and the citizens of the closest town, 25 miles away, seem willing to stay out of the Mesa's hair if the desert folk will stay out of theirs. But the authorities do fly helicopters over the area, scouting for marijuana growers, and if they think they spot some pot they'll send in the cops. According to Dreadie Jeff, they don't always bring warrants. A more intimate enemy soon emerged as well. Shortly before the filmmakers arrived, a cultish group of runaways called the Nowhere Kids settled in. "They were extremists," remembers Randy. "They were stockpiling weapons. They had X's tattooed across their face." The new kids' brand of anarchy didn't sit well with the other desert dropouts. "They act like a bunch of revolutionists," snarls one, a pig farmer who frequently takes in teen runaways. "They cuss the system, and yet they've got their hand out . . . for everything they can get." Before long, the Nowhere Kids were stealing food from their neighbors. "We don't want to call the cops," Robbie tells the Stulbergs. "But we've got to do something about this. Some people already got their guns." The film cuts to Moonbow, a man who sees no contradiction in talking like a vigilante while wearing a tie-dye. "If you're not a good neighbor," he says, "then we'll band together and chase you out of here." The rhetoric escalates. The Nowhere Kids declare that they have a right to take anything they please as long as no one is using it at the moment. They also refuse to be filmed, telling the Stulbergs they'll "put bullets" in their heads if they don't keep their cameras off. The other Mesa residents start counting their bullets as well. An informal group of local leaders meets to plan a response to the thefts. At this point, a cynic might accuse the Mesa anarchists of forming a regime of their own. But a funny thing happens: The standoff ends with no shootout, no bloodshed, and no new government. The desert residents may approve of vigilantism in principle -- "we don't dial 911," says one, "we dial .357" -- but they prefered to address the conflict by sending a delegation of unarmed women to reason with the runaways. The Nowhere Kids backed down, and so far the peace has held. The Mesa, says Randy, represents "everything about America we loved and feared." The love, in her brother's words, is for "that pure sense of American democracy. Even though they were disillusioned with the government, they still loved the concept of America." The fear reflected the constant potential for violence, which at one point led the filmmakers themselves to think about getting armed. (In the end, Jeremy says, they decided their "camera was enough of a weapon.") It's telling, though, that the movie's big confrontation is resolved nonviolently. For all their fearsome rhetoric, the Mesa men aren't nearly as violent as, say, the visitors from the drug squad. Even as it melds different subcultures -- "it's the crossroads," Jeremy says, "between utopian idealism and a post-apocalyptic world" -- the Mesa also represents a subculture of its own. At the end of the picture there's a hint of a larger network hidden somewhere in the folds of the map: One of the film's characters, we learn, has moved to a similar community in Hawaii. "There's a circuit," says Randy. "There's a whole off-grid underground." The members of that world range from relatively wealthy environmentalists trying to make a statement about sustainability to poorer people in places like the Mesa, people whose central interest isn't going off the grid so much as it's getting off the radar. (Some of them really aren't off the grid. There's a group of Mesa residents who regularly drive to town, get produce from local food banks, and distribute the goods to neighbors who aren't able to fend for themselves.) But whether it's liberty or ecology that drives them, all those little villages have something in common, something they share with brotherhoods ranging from monasteries to biker gangs to suburban subdivisions. They are what John Stuart Mill called "experiments of living," what Robert Nozick called "a wide and diverse range of communities which people can enter if they are admitted, leave if they wish to, shape according to their wishes." The Mesa merely stands at the far end of a spectrum, rejecting almost any attempt to impose an order on it. It isn't the only American place that eschews formal rules. The watermen of Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay, for example, have lived for three centuries with no cops, jails, or local taxes. But the Mesa is not a close-knit community bound by history, custom, and religious faith. It stands at the extreme end of the American voluntary tradition: a transient society of misfits and madmen, united only by their desire to be left alone. In the desert, Dreadie Jeff tells us, "I feel like I'm really in America. There's a real sense of freedom out there." [Jesse Walker is Reason's managing editor.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:42:46 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:42:46 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] FAS Secrecy News - 06/05/2007 Message-ID: <20070605174246.1c2a9a33@viola.tamara-b.org> SECRECY NEWS from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy Volume 2007, Issue No. 58 June 5, 2007 Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/ Support Secrecy News: http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp ** ODNI DOCUMENT SUGGESTS A LARGER INTELLIGENCE BUDGET ** ODNI FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT POLICY ** LETTERS ON SCOOTER LIBBY RELEASED BY COURT ODNI DOCUMENT SUGGESTS A LARGER INTELLIGENCE BUDGET Classified budget numbers concealed in an unclassified PowerPoint document suggest that total U.S. intelligence spending is significantly larger than generally assumed, perhaps around $60 billion annually. The briefing document, prepared by Terri Everett of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), was first obtained by Tim Shorrock of Salon, who wrote a probing account of the growing prominence of contractors in U.S. intelligence agencies, who now consume 70% of the total intelligence community budget. See "The corporate takeover of U.S. intelligence," Salon, June 1, 2007: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/01/intel_contractors/ Annual intelligence contract awards were illustrated in a bar chart in Ms. Everett's briefing document, without dollar figures attached. But by using the edit function in Power Point, it is possible to discern the classified figures that were used to prepare the bar chart. R.J. Hillhouse, an author and former intelligence officer who writes on intelligence and outsourcing, explained how to retrieve the concealed data in her blog The Spy Who Billed Me. See "Office of Nation's Top Spy Inadvertently Reveals Key to Classified National Intel Budget," June 3: http://www.thespywhobilledme.com/the_spy_who_billed_me/ The data appear to indicate that $42 billion was awarded to contractors in FY 2005. If so, and if that represented 70% of the total budget, as stated in the preceding Power Point slide, it would follow that the total is $60 billion, rather than the $45 or $48 billion usually cited. Intelligence officials were not available to comment on the disclosure, and a certain amount of deliberate obfuscation surrounds the subject such that it is hard to draw a firm numerical conclusion regarding overall spending. The new budget figures on contractor awards do not distinguish, for example, between "national" and military or tactical intelligence, nor is it clear whether they account for supplemental appropriations. The Everett briefing document, which had been publicly available on the Defense Intelligence Agency web site, was withdrawn yesterday. But a copy has been posted here (see slide 11): http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/everett.ppt ODNI FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT POLICY The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has issued a proposed regulation for public comment on implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. "The proposed regulations address all aspects of FOIA processing, including how and where to submit FOIA requests, fees for record services, procedures for handling business information, requests for expedited processing and the right to appeal denials of information," according to the notice published in the June 4 Federal Register. See: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/06/fr060407.html The ODNI FOIA case log, listing the subjects of all FOIA requests submitted to the ODNI through April 2007, is available here (courtesy of James Klotz and Michael Ravnitzky): http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/foia2007.pdf Naturally, the fact that an item was requested does not necessarily mean that it will be released. LETTERS ON SCOOTER LIBBY RELEASED BY COURT Letters sent to Judge Reggie B. Walton regarding the sentencing of vice presidential aide Lewis I. "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of obstruction of justice, were released by the court today. Several of them touched on matters of secrecy and national security policy. "If there is anyone who fully understands our 'system' for protecting classified information, I have yet to meet him," wrote John R. Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations, implying that infractions of classification rules are to be expected. Former CIA officer Fritz Ermarth recalled that Mr. Libby had assisted him "in a matter, although less grave, somewhat similar to that which put him on trial. It concerned official secrecy and classification, its definition and interpretation, varying recollections of who behaved how with respect to it, and aspects of abuse by authorities." "Mr. Libby has done more to enable the United States to address the challenges of bioterrorism than any other single person," ventured Seth Carus of National Defense University. "Scooter worried that liberties restricted during times of danger do not always get restored when the danger passes," wrote Doug Feith, the controversial former Pentagon official. "A major part of the terrorist threat, he and I agreed, was the danger that a series of 9/11-type attacks could fundamentally alter -- perhaps permanently -- the state of civil liberties in America." Somewhat ironically, Mr. Libby once undertook "to persuade a newspaper not to publish information that would have endangered the life of a covert CIA agent working overseas," wrote former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz. "Late into the evening, long after most others had left the matter to be dealt with the next day, Mr. Libby worked to collect the information that was needed to persuade the editor not to run the story." Most of the letters favor clemency for Mr. Libby. Many of them are poignant and heartfelt. Quite a few others are pompous and self-aggrandizing. An angry minority demand the maximum possible sentence. The full set of letters in alphabetical order by author may be found here (373 pages in an 18 MB PDF file): http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/libby/letters.pdf Mr. Libby was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined $250,000. _______________________________________________ Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists. The Secrecy News Blog is at: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/ To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/subscribe.html To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/unsubscribe.html OR email your request to saftergood at fas.org Secrecy News is archived at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html SUPPORT Secrecy News with a donation here: http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp _______________________ Steven Aftergood Project on Government Secrecy Federation of American Scientists web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html email: saftergood at fas.org voice: (202) 454-4691 From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:45:34 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:45:34 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Bush Trying to Kill Kyoto Protocol Once and for All Message-ID: <20070605174534.45612f7b@viola.tamara-b.org> Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.stratfor.com The End of the Kyoto Protocol By Peter Zeihan and Bart Mongoven European leaders have expressed dismay over U.S. President George W. Bush's June 1 call for the creation of a long-term dialogue among the 15 largest greenhouse gas-emitting countries. The plan, they say, is another stall tactic designed to allow the Bush administration to appear as though it is trying to work with the international community on climate issues, when in reality it is not. Such action, they say, would take time and attention away from the difficult work being done on the issue via the Kyoto Protocol process. In reality, however, the Bush plan signals the end of Kyoto -- and the beginning of a new international consensus that relieves Kyoto's pressures on governments. The United States, China, India, Canada and Australia produce more than half of the world's greenhouse gas emissions -- and those emissions are growing. To be effective, then, any climate regime that endeavors to make real cuts in emissions must include these countries. By bringing the Pacific Rim countries into alignment on the issue, Bush has brought the United States far more power over global greenhouse gas emissions policy than Europe ever has had. With this, Bush takes from Europe its one global foreign policy success story. The Regime Signed in 1997 by more than 75 countries, the Kyoto Protocol is the recognized international regime on climate change. The protocol is an addendum to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, in which parties agreed essentially to cut greenhouse gas emissions if it was convenient for them. Since cutting those emissions is highly inconvenient, very few followed through, making the protocol necessary. Under Kyoto, each party agreed to cut its emissions by a specific amount from 1990 levels by 201. (The European Union signed up for an 8 percent cut, the United States for 7 percent and Japan for 6 percent.) But the agreement expires in 2012, at which point all participants are once again legally free from the deal. Moreover, the protocol imposed no emission restrictions on developing countries -- including China and India -- which explains why poorer countries so strongly support it. Though from a U.S. perspective Kyoto was flawed in many ways, it was this lack of restrictions on developing countries that rendered ratification a nonstarter in the United States. Despite the tone of the current political conversation in the United States, in a 1997 vote both Republicans and Democrats unanimously vowed to reject any climate treaty that did not include commitments from developing countries. Sens. John Kerry, Paul Wellstone, Barbara Boxer and many of the climate issue's current champions were among those who essentially declared Kyoto dead on arrival. Within four months of taking office, Bush did the same, saying the United States would take no part in talks regarding a treaty it had no interest in joining. Amazingly, the global reaction to Bush's announcement was shock. Bush became an environmental pariah at home and around the world, with Greenpeace dubbing him the "Toxic Texan" and European leaders pleading for the United States to reconsider. European Logic >From the European standpoint, simply bringing the United States into the climate change conversation is far more important than forcing it to cut its emissions by 2012. Given that the United States is the world's single-largest source of carbon emissions, any deal that does not have explicit American buy-in simply cannot achieve the ultimate end goal: reducing global emissions to the point of heading off the worst-case scenario of global warming. To get the United States into the talks, then, G-8 leaders agreed in 2005 in Gleneagles, Scotland, to stop pressing for U.S. adherence to Kyoto if Washington agreed to take part in international discussions on the issue. European leaders hoped this would bring the United States into the fold for the more important negotiations on a broad and binding treaty that would address what happens after Kyoto expires in 2012. U.S. activists fit their tactics into this broad European strategy. Kyoto proponents in the United States considered it a foregone conclusion that, under Bush, the United States would not pass a greenhouse gas-emissions-reducing policy on environmental grounds. The trick, then, was to get Bush to budge for other reasons. Environmental groups thought that if industry were faced with a maze of climate-related regulations at the state and local levels, then business -- normally hostile to greenhouse gas-related policies -- would appeal to the administration for harmonization. This, the environmentalists believed, would sneak in a U.S. greenhouse gas policy via the back door. The environmentalists' key insights were simple: One of the few things businesses dislike more than patchwork regulation is uncertainty -- and having dozens of constantly changing competing regimes is about as uncertain as one can get. Therefore, the environmentalists believed industry would be more successful than they had been in lobbying the administration for a unified national policy on greenhouse gases. The strategy was a sound one, and local/state directives have proliferated, with laws in 15 states now forcing some climate change-related action or accounting on industry -- laws the Supreme Court already has ruled constitutional. In the end, however, both U.S. environmental groups and European governments miscalculated. The former mistakenly assumed industry's desire for a single standard would lead industry to Kyoto; it only led industry to Washington. The latter assumed that dropping discussion of Kyoto I would lead Washington to participate in Kyoto II; instead, it led Washington to the Pacific. American Counterpoint History will remember 2007 as the year the United States lost its infamous position as the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases to China, an event that has been inevitable for years. From the U.S. point of view, therefore, any successful greenhouse gas-limiting agreement is not dependent upon Washington's participation, but on Beijing's. As such, Bush has engaged China, India, Australia, Canada and even a discontented Japan -- birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol -- in separate negotiations outside the Kyoto system. Called the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, this strategy eschews firm caps on emissions -- which the Americans, Chinese and Indians oppose and which have thus far proved impossible to align with Australian and Canadian resource policy. It instead focuses on sharing technology that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in developing countries; it also offers companies that are developing efficiency-related technologies an expanded market for their products. Key among such technologies are clean coal, nuclear, carbon capture/sequestration and fuel cells. The Europeans at first saw this "Pacific direction" as a stall tactic, but deemed it acceptable as long as the goal remained intact -- that the United States would eventually join Kyoto. That too was a miscalculation. Ultimately, U.S. industry and the Bush administration believe joining an international regime only brings more uncertainty, as both the ideological and practical design of such regulations not only originates in but also is designed explicitly for Europe. As the train of thought runs, the only way U.S. industry can rest assured that the regulatory environment is not going to change constantly -- punishing U.S. investments and rewarding European companies at their expense -- is not simply to take part in a climate regime, but to design one at home. That means abandoning Kyoto in every form imaginable, and launching a fundamentally new program. The U.S. business community needed Bush to present a climate policy that provides clarity and certainty. A week ago, the only "certainty" was that the United States eventually would accept some new version of Kyoto, and that the climate change issue was locked into European leadership. Bush's June 1 announcement flipped that conventional wisdom on its head. Bush has killed Kyoto and assured businesses regulatory clarity by launching an international system that the United States will heavily influence, if not control outright. For the Europeans, the key concern so far is that the expected laxness of the Pacific plan will enamor not just the Americans, but all of the major Pacific Rim economies. Compared to the strict expectations for any Kyoto successor -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 -- Chinese and Indian preference for the Pacific plan is a shoo-in. In fact, a Chinese environmental white paper released June 4 dovetails seamlessly with the Bush plan -- and almost ignores Kyoto's existence. With Australia and Canada unwilling to divorce their climate plans from that of the United States, the likely membership in any Kyoto II would be limited to Europe alone. (Europe is the only significant signatory that actually has put the current Kyoto Protocol into practice.) But this time there will be a clear alternative, which will constantly raise the question: Why doesn't Europe get with the program? Life after Kyoto Bush's next job is simple: Wait until the Europeans declare Kyoto and Kyoto II dead (the protocol was mortally wounded at the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland) and then present U.S. industry with a policy based on the results of negotiations with the other 14 major emitters by the end of 2008. This policy will not reflect Kyoto and will not force action by other countries. Of course, there also is the little detail that if the Bush administration does hammer out a deal before 2009, then the next U.S. president -- regardless of party affiliation -- will take office with an internationally acceptable deal already in place. Even a Democratic president whose heart lies with Kyoto will be loathe to walk away from an agreement that puts the United States in the driver's seat and all of Asia riding shotgun. (Bush already has won support from Boxer, the Democratic senator from California, who is not exactly wed to the Bush party line.) Ultimately, the Europeans are looking not just at a policy defeat, but also at the union's strategic failure to have any joint foreign policy. Kyoto/environmental issues have long been the only significant program in which the union has managed to make its voice heard globally. Should Europe continue to champion Kyoto now, it not only will be left out in the cold, but it also will face sharp internal debate about the reasons for deeply cutting emissions when no one else is. Several European governments already are suing the European Commission over climate-related regulations they consider too restrictive, while a newfound Polish bellicosity has led Warsaw to threaten vetoes over this and a wide raft of issues. For those who believe that nothing but firm caps, as in the Kyoto Protocol, will forestall global warming, this is an unmitigated disaster. Those who feel that any successful global policy has to include the major non-European emitters, however, will see this is a successful first step in a way that Kyoto never was. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:47:43 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:47:43 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US warship bombs targets in northeastern Somalia Message-ID: <20070605174743.60a15581@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Dave Muller (southnews) - Jun 5, 2007 AFP - Jun 2, 2007 US warship bombs targets in northeastern Somalia MOGADISHU (AFP) - A US warship bombed targets in northeastern Somalia after Islamist fighters clashed with troops from the country's semi-autonomous region of Puntland, witnesses and officials said Saturday. "We cannot yet tell you the casuality figures, but what I can confirm is that the American warship bombed several targets in the surroundings of Bargal" late Friday, Mohamoud Salah, a resident in the area told AFP by satellite phone. "The heavy bombardment continued about three hours around the coastal area and the mountainous sites where the Islamists had their trenches," he said. CNN reported that a US Navy destroyer was targeting a suspected Al-Qaeda operative believed to have been involved in the 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, mostly Africans. A Puntland military official confirmed the bombing that came three days after authorities there reported the entry of Islamist fighters and foreigners of Arab origin into Bargal, about 1250 kilometres (781 miles) northeast of the Somali capital Mogadishu. "Our forces have fought with Islamic fighters, including foreigners linked to Al Qaeda," said the official, who requested anonymity. ADVERTISEMENT "After the fighting a US Navy ship bombed three targets in the outskirts of Bargal in the mountanious area," he said. "We cannot get information on casualities, but the bombardment continued for hours.... The Puntland troops are still chasing Islamic fighters in the mountainous area," he added. On Wednesday, Puntland said its troops had killed at least two foreign fighters who were accompanied by heavily-armed Somali gunmen who had sailed into Bargal in two boats. Earlier this year, a US gunship bombed positions in southern Somalia after Ethiopia-backed Somali government forces ousted a powerful Islamist movement from the country's southern and central regions. Local elders said more than 100 civilians were killed. The bombardment was targeting suspected Al Qaeda operatives that were blamed for the 1998 US embassies bombings as well as the 2002 attack of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombasa that killed 15 people and three presumed suicide bombers. US intelligence said Al Qeada has stepped up operations in Somalia, a nation of about 10 million people that has been wracked by lawlessness since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Puntland president Adde Mussa said there were Al Qaeda operatives who planned to carry out attacks in northern Somalia, which had been spared the recent heavy fighting between Somali government forces and Islamist and clan insurgents. "And now they have headed towards north Somalia to carry on their terrorist fighting," Mussa told local Shabelle media. Northern Somalia is home to two enclaves -- Puntland and neighboring Somaliland -- that broke away from Somalia proper and declared a form of autonomy. The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:50:48 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:50:48 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Russia Responds to US Anti-Missile Shield Message-ID: <20070605175048.1bcc9d5b@viola.tamara-b.org> Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Russia Responds to US Anti-Missile Shield Havana, June 5 (acn) Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that his country is obliged to respond to plans for the location of a US anti-missile shield in Europe, which will disturb the strategic balance of the region. "We are forced to create a better anti-missile defense system than that of the US to re-establish the balance, and that is what we are doing now," explained the Russian leader in statements to journalists from G-8 countries. He said he does not rule out the possibility of the American partners revising their decision, in reference to the arguments raised by Russia against the location of strategic components of the Pentagon in Europe. Just two days prior to the G-8 Summit in Germany, Putin has made Washington responsible for counter measures taken by Russia to the antimissile shield, reports Granma newspaper. "We are the ones initiating a new arms race in Europe," declared Putin. The Russian president pointed out that the US shield (DAM) is not just an anti-missile defense system, but also includes whole nuclear potential of US, destroying the global balance of security. Putin also referred concerns raised by Russian experts over the DAM system. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:53:19 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:53:19 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] The corporate takeover of US intelligence Message-ID: <20070605175319.3b9e74fd@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Tim Murphy (activ-l) Salon via Global Research June 1, 2007 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SHO20070603&articleId=5868 The corporate takeover of U.S. intelligence by Tim Shorrock The U.S. government now outsources a vast portion of its spying operations to private firms -- with zero public accountability. More than five years into the global "war on terror," spying has become one of the fastest-growing private industries in the United States. The federal government relies more than ever on outsourcing for some of its most sensitive work, though it has kept details about its use of private contractors a closely guarded secret. Intelligence experts, and even the government itself, have warned of a critical lack of oversight for the booming intelligence business. On May 14, at an industry conference in Colorado sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. government revealed for the first time how much of its classified intelligence budget is spent on private contracts: a whopping 70 percent. Based on this years estimated budget of at least $48 billion, that would come to at least $34 billion in contracts. The figure was disclosed by Terri Everett, a senior procurement executive in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the agency established by Congress in 2004 to oversee the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence infrastructure. A copy of Everett's unclassified PowerPoint slide presentation, titled "Procuring the Future" and dated May 25, was obtained by Salon. (It has since become available on the DIA's Web site.) "We can't spy ... If we can't buy!" one of the slides proclaims, underscoring the enormous dependence of U.S. intelligence agencies on private sector contracts. The DNI figures show that the aggregate number of private contracts awarded by intelligence agencies rose by about 38 percent from the mid-1990s to 2005. But the surge in outsourcing has been far more dramatic measured in dollars: Over the same period of time, the total value of intelligence contracts more than doubled, from about $18 billion in 1995 to about $42 billion in 2005. "Those numbers are startling," said Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists and an expert on the U.S. intelligence budget. "They represent a transformation of the Cold War intelligence bureaucracy into something new and different that is literally dominated by contractor interests." Because of the cloak of secrecy thrown over the intelligence budgets, there is no way for the American public, or even much of Congress, to know how those contractors are getting the money, what they are doing with it, or how effectively they are using it. The explosion in outsourcing has taken place against a backdrop of intelligence failures for which the Bush administration has been hammered by critics, from Saddam Hussein's fictional weapons of mass destruction to abusive interrogations that have involved employees of private contractors operating in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Aftergood and other experts also warn that the lack of transparency creates conditions ripe for corruption. Trey Brown, a DNI press officer, told Salon that the 70 percent figure disclosed by Everett refers to everything that U.S. intelligence agencies buy, from pencils to buildings to "whatever devices we use to collect intelligence." Asked how much of the money doled out goes toward big-ticket items like military spy satellites, he replied, "We can't really talk about those kinds of things." The media has reported on some contracting figures for individual agencies, but never before for the entire U.S. intelligence enterprise. In 2006, the Washington Post reported that a "significant majority" of the employees at two key agencies, the National Counterterrrorism Center and the Pentagon's Counter-Intelligence Field Activity office, were contractors (at CIFA, the number was more than 70 percent). More recently, former officers with the Central Intelligence Agency have said the CIA's workforce is about 60 percent contractors. But the statistics alone don't even show the degree to which outsourcing has penetrated U.S. intelligence -- many tasks and services once reserved exclusively for government employees are being handled by civilians. For example, private contractors analyze much of the intelligence collected by satellites and low-flying unmanned aerial vehicles, and they write reports that are passed up to the line to high-ranking government officials. They supply and maintain software programs that can manipulate and depict data used to track terrorist suspects, both at home and abroad, and determine what targets to hit in hot spots in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such data is also at the heart of the National Security Agency's massive eavesdropping programs and may be one reason the DNI is pushing Congress to grant immunity to corporations that may have cooperated with the NSA over the past five years. Contractors also provide collaboration tools to help individual agencies communicate with each other, and they supply security tools to protect intelligence networks from outside tampering. Outsourcing has also spread into the realm of human intelligence. At the CIA, contractors help staff overseas stations and provide disguises used by agents working under cover. According to Robert Baer, the former CIA officer who was the inspiration for the character played by George Clooney in the film "Syriana," a contractor stationed in Iraq even supervises where CIA agents go in Baghdad and whom they meet. "It's a completely different culture from the way the CIA used to be run, when a case officer determined where and when agents would go," he told me in a recent interview. "Everyone I know in the CIA is leaving and going into contracting whether they're retired or not." The DNI itself has voiced doubts about the efficiency and effectiveness of outsourcing. In a public report released last fall, the agency said the intelligence community increasingly "finds itself in competition with its contractors for our own employees." Faced with arbitrary staffing limits and uncertain funding, the report said, intelligence agencies are forced "to use contractors for work that may be borderline 'inherently governmental'" -- meaning the agencies have no clear idea about what work should remain exclusively inside the government versus work that can be done by civilians working for private firms. The DNI also found that "those same contractors recruit our own employees, already cleared and trained at government expense, and then 'lease' them back to us at considerably greater expense." A Senate Intelligence Committee report released on Thursday spells out the costs to taxpayers. It estimates that the average annual cost for a government intelligence officer is $126,500, compared to the average $250,000 (including overhead) paid by the government for an intelligence contractor. "Given this cost disparity," the report concluded, "the Committee believes that the Intelligence Community should strive in the long-term to reduce its dependence upon contractors." The DNI began an intensive study of contracting last year, but when its "IC Core Contractor Inventory" report was sent to Congress in April, DNI officials refused to release its findings to the public, citing risks to national security. The next month, a report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence rebuked the DNI in unusually strong language, concluding that U.S. officials "do not have an adequate understanding of the size and composition of the contractor work force, a consistent and well-articulated method for assessing contractor performance, or strategies for managing a combined staff-contractor workforce." U.S. intelligence budgets are classified, and all discussions about them in Congress are held in secret. Much of the information, however, is available to intelligence contractors, who are at liberty to lobby members of Congress about the budgets, potentially skewing policy in favor of the contractors. For example, Science Applications International Corp., one of the nation's largest intelligence contractors, spent $1,330,000 in their congressional lobbying efforts in 2006, which included a focus on the intelligence and defense budgets, according to records filed with the Senate's Office of Public Records. The public, of course, is completely excluded from these discussions. "It's not like a debate when someone loses," said Aftergood. "There is no debate. And the more work that migrates to the private sector, the less effective congressional oversight is going to be." From that secretive process, he added, "there's only a short distance to the Duke Cunninghams of the world and the corruption of the process in the interest of private corporations." In March 2006, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., who had resigned from Congress several months earlier, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of accepting more than $2 million in bribes from executives with MZM, a prominent San Diego defense contractor. In return for the bribes, Cunningham used his position on the House appropriations and intelligence committees to win tens of millions of dollars' worth of contracts for MZM at the CIA and the Pentagon's CIFA office, which has been criticized by Congress for spying on American citizens. The MZM case deepened earlier this month when Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the former deputy director of the CIA, was indicted for conspiring with former MZM CEO Brent Wilkes to steer contracts toward the company. U.S. intelligence agencies have always relied on private companies for technology and hardware. Lockheed built the famous U-2 spy plane under specifications from the CIA, and dozens of companies, from TRW to Polaroid to Raytheon, helped develop the high-resolution cameras and satellites that beamed information back to Washington about the Soviet Union and its military and missile installations. The National Security Agency, which was founded in the early 1950s to monitor foreign communications and telephone calls, hired IBM, Cray and other companies to make the supercomputers that helped the agency break encryption codes and transform millions of bits of data into meaningful intelligence. By the 1990s, however, commercial developments in encryption, information technology, imagery and satellites had outpaced the government's ability to keep up, and intelligence agencies began to turn to the private sector for technologies they once made in-house. Agencies also turned to outsourcing after Congress, as part of the "peace dividend" that followed the end of the Cold War, cut defense and intelligence budgets by about 30 percent. When the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was created in 1995 as the primary collection agency for imagery and mapping, for example, it immediately began buying its software and much of its satellite imagery from commercial vendors; today, half of its 14,000 workers are full-time equivalent contractors who work inside NGA facilities but collect their paychecks from companies like Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Martin. In the late 1990s, the NSA began outsourcing its internal telecommunications and even some of its signals analysis to private companies, such as Computer Services Corp. and SAIC. Outsourcing increased dramatically after 9/11. The Bush administration and Congress, determined to prevent further terrorist attacks, ordered a major increase in intelligence spending and organized new institutions to fight the war on terror, such as the National Counterterrorism Center. To beef up these organizations, the CIA and other agencies were authorized to hire thousands of analysts and human intelligence specialists. Partly because of the big cuts of the 1990s, however, many of the people with the skills and security clearances to do that work were working in the private sector. As a result, contracting grew quickly as intelligence agencies rushed to fill the gap. That increase can be seen in the DNI documents showing contract award dollars: Contract spending, based on the DNI data and estimates from this period, remained fairly steady from 1995 to 2001, at about $20 billion a year. In 2002, the first year after the attacks on New York and Washington, contracts jumped to about $32 billion. In 2003 they jumped again, reaching about $42 billion. They have remained steady since then through 2006 (the DNI data is current as of last August). Because nearly 90 percent of intelligence contracts are classified and the budgets kept secret, it's difficult to draw up a list of top contractors and their revenues derived from intelligence work. Based on publicly available information, including filings from publicly traded companies with the Securities and Exchange Commission and company press releases and Web sites, the current top five intelligence contractors appear to be Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, General Dynamics and L-3 Communications. Other major contractors include Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International, DRS Technologies and Mantech International. The industry's growth and dependence on government budgets has made intelligence contracting an attractive market for former high-ranking national security officials, like former CIA director George Tenet, who now earns millions of dollars working as a director and advisor to four companies that hold contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and do big business in Iraq and elsewhere. Congress, meanwhile, is beginning to ask serious questions about intelligence outsourcing and how lawmakers influence the intelligence budget process. Some of that interest has been generated by the Cunningham scandal. In another recent case, Rep. Rick Renzi, a Republican from Arizona, resigned from the House Intelligence Committee in April because he is under federal investigation for introducing legislation that may have benefited Mantech International, a major intelligence contractor where Renzi's father works in a senior executive position. In the Cunningham case, many of MZM's illegal contracts were funded by "earmarks" that he inserted in intelligence bills. Earmarks, typically budget items placed by lawmakers to benefit projects or companies in their district, are often difficult to find amid the dense verbiage of legislation -- and in the "black" intelligence budgets, they are even harder to find. In its recent budget report, the House Intelligence Committee listed 26 separate earmarks for intelligence contracts, along with the sponsor's name and the dollar amount of the contract. The names of the contractors, however, were not included in the list. Both the House and Senate are now considering intelligence spending bills that require the DNI, starting next year, to provide extensive information on contractors. The House version requires an annual report on contractors that might be committing waste and fraud, as well as reviews on its "accountability mechanisms" for contractors and the effect of contractors on the intelligence workforce. The amendment was drafted by Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who introduced a similar bill last year that passed the House but was quashed by the Senate. In a statement on the House floor on May 10, Price explained that he was seeking answers to several simple questions: "Should (contractors) be involved in intelligence collection? Should they be involved in analysis? What about interrogations or covert operations? Are there some activities that are so sensitive they should only be performed by highly trained Intelligence Community professionals?" If either of the House or Senate intelligence bills pass in their present form, the overall U.S. intelligence budget will be made public. Such transparency is critical as contracting continues to expand, said Paul Cox, Price's press secretary. "As a nation," he said, "we really need to take a look and decide what's appropriate to contract and what's inherently governmental." From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:56:06 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:56:06 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Over Hill, Over Dale: The Militarization of Culture Message-ID: <20070605175606.2dd28b40@viola.tamara-b.org> Information Clearing House - Jun 4, 2007 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17822.htm Over Hill, Over Dale: The Militarization of Culture By Charles Sullivan A very disturbing commercial is being shown on network television in the United States with alarming regularity. I have seen it frequently during the past few weeks on an NBC station that broadcasts from the nation?s capital, Washington, DC. It opens with a male chorus?perhaps a military choir--singing: ?Over hill, over dale; we have hit the dusty trail.? The song has the cadence of a forced march. In muted light soldiers are seen wading through fetid water with weapons aloft, while well coordinated precision military operations are unfolding all around, like a Rogers and Hammerstein musical. We are supposed to be impressed with the military and technological prowess on display, awed into admiration for it; awed into submission to it, the oracle of our times. As a montage of war images flicker across the screen, each of them portraying military operations (none of them showing the real horrors of war); a male voice extols the virtues of technological warfare and the unification of all military branches. Air force. Navy. Marines. Army. One force. The commercial ends with the statement, ?Northrop Grumman: Defining the future.? The infomercial clearly targets a male audience. Northrop Grumman and other defense contractors are realizing staggering profits from U.S. imperial policy in the Middle East and around the globe. The social and environmental costs, as always, are born by others. This is corporate welfare in its most hideous form?socialized costs and privatized profits. It is parasitic capitalism in its most malignant incarnation. It is the kind of propaganda Americans are exposed to their every waking moment. No one who views the advertisement is going to run out and buy an advanced weapons system from Northrop Grumman. Thus one must ponder the real purpose of the ad. The message is not designed to sell weapons systems; it was created to sell the American people on the notion of superior technological prowess, perpetual warfare and war profiteering that guarantees, for a little while longer, at least, an unsustainable way of life: ideas that have already won widespread acceptance among the slumbering masses and the willfully ignorant. We are supposed to believe that the Military Industrial Complex, a conglomeration of defense contractors with its long poisonous tentacles firmly lodged in the gangrened flesh of government, is protecting us and our way of life from a hostile world intent on destroying both. We are supposed to see perpetual war in Orwellian terms of peace; ignorance as strength, evil as good. Destruction of the commons and our civil liberties by fascist corporatism is supposedly good for the country because it is good for the war profiteers in government and Northrop Grumman?which is only the tip of a much larger malignancy rooted deeply in the cadaverous flesh of American society. If Northrop Grumman is indeed defining the future, America?and the world?are in deep trouble. We are witnessing the blatant militarization of our culture by the forces of darkness, the machines of misery and death. Hummers, a military vehicle, populate the roads and highways of America, even as the last drops of cheap oil are being sucked from the sands of the occupied territories. The human costs of war that sustain patterns of conspicuous consumption and waste never enter the minds of consumers. After all we are an exceptional people. The costs are born by others and kept hidden from view. The glorification of war is nearly ubiquitous in the culture. You see it in the vehicles we drive, aggressive behavior, excessive national pride, flag waving, military style clothing, movies, video games; and now?television commercials. The American consumer is essentially becoming a piece of computer hardware programmed to download propaganda and to execute its commands without thinking. It does what it is programmed to do. Northrop Grumman, the neocons, and their timorous accomplices in Congress are all peddling the same bogus image to the American people. Like the forces portrayed in the television ad, they are a well financed, well organized array of seemingly disparate forces fighting as one. Who are they fighting? We the people. Democracy. Truth. Peace. Organized labor. Working class people the world over. [Charles Sullivan is an architectural woodworker, photographer, and social activist residing in the Ridge and Valley Province of West Virginia. He welcomes your thoughts and comments at cesullivan at phreego.com.] From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:59:36 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:59:36 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] US Bombs Somalia; "Foreign Fighters" Killed Message-ID: <20070605175936.59b42e40@viola.tamara-b.org> Al Jazeera - Jun 2, 2007 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E4193DE4-8E20-48D3-AF48-0162EBF0E560.htm Somalis say foreign fighters killed The US warship's targets are believed to be the perpetrators of the 1998 embassy bombings Eight foreign Muslim fighters have been killed during fighting with government forces in Puntland, a remote, mountainous northeastern Somali area, according to a senior official. Hassan Dahir Mohamoud, Puntland's vice-president, said on Saturday that there were no civilian casualties because the area is uninhabited. At least one US warship late on Friday shelled the area where the fighters had set up a base after they clashed with government forces. Speaking from Garowe, Puntland's capital, Mohamoud said security forces are pursuing another five foreign Muslim fighters. He said the government knew the nationalities of five of the foreigners: Britain, Eritrea, Sweden, US and Yemen. He said security forces identified them from their passports. Mohamoud said: "We have successfully completed the operation against the terrorists who came here and we are chasing the other five." He said the total number of fighters was 13, but earlier government officials reported they were as many as 35. By speedboat Earlier, Mohamed Abdulrahman Banga, Puntland's minister of information, said that the armed members of the Islamic Courts Union arrived in two fishing boats from southern Somalia, which they controlled for six months last year before being routed by Ethiopian troops sent to prop up a faltering interim government. "They had their own small boats and guns. We do not know exactly where they came from - maybe from Ras Kamboni, where they were cornered in January," he said. Fishermen said about a dozen fighters arrived on Wednesday, but Puntland officials said the number could be as high as 35. Muse Gelle, the regional governor, said that area where the fighters arrived on Wednesday - the port of Bargaal - is a dense thicket, making it difficult for Puntland security forces to intervene on their own. A radio station quoted Ade Muse, Puntland's leader, as saying that his forces had battled with the group for hours before the US ships arrived and used their cannons. Muse said five of his soldiers were wounded, but that he had no information about casualties among the fighters. Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow said that members of the Islamic Courts Union were believed to be hiding out in the region since they were beaten in early January. Al-Qaeda suspect The target was reportedly a suspect in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The destroyer's guns appeared to be targeting a single person, perhaps moving in a convoy, according to the CNN report. The US launched air strikes in Somalia in January targeting three alleged al-Qaeda members but killing their allies instead, US officials have said. Those suspects also were wanted for the embassy bombings, which killed 240 people. Source: Agencies From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 18:03:56 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:03:56 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Thousands of Filipino children die yearly courtesy of formula milk Message-ID: <20070605180356.7a66b293@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Tim Murphy (activ-l) The Guardian - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2095677,00.html Don't listen to what the rich world's leaders say - look at what they do Take the thousands of Filipino children who die every year courtesy of the formula milk corporates, backed by US lobbying By George Monbiot www.monbiot.com It is time once again for that touching annual ritual, in which the world's most powerful people move themselves to tears. At Heiligendamm they will emote with the wretched of the earth. They will beat their breasts and say many worthy and necessary things - about climate change, Africa, poverty, trade - but one word will not leave their lips. Power. Amid the patrician goodwill, there will be no acknowledgement that the power they wield over other nations destroys everything they claim to stand for. The leaders of the G8 nations present themselves as a force for unmitigated good. Sometimes they fail, but they seek only to make the world a kinder place. Bob Geldof and Bono give oxygen to this deception, speaking of the good works the leaders might perform, or of the good works they have failed to perform - but not mentioning the active harm. They refuse to acknowledge that what the rich nations give with one finger they take with both hands. Look at what is happening, right now, in the Philippines. This country has many problems, but one stands out: just 16% of children between four and five months old are exclusively breastfed. This is one of the lowest documented rates on earth, and it has fallen by a third since 1998. As 70% of Filipinos have inadequate access to clean water, the result is a public health disaster. Every year, according to the World Health Organisation, some 16,000 Filipino children die as a result of "inappropriate feeding practices". These are the deaths caused only by acute results of feeding children with substitutes for breastmilk. A summary of peer-reviewed studies compiled by the campaigning groups Infact and Ibfan suggests that breastfeeding also reduces the incidence of asthma, allergies, childhood cancers, diabetes, coeliac disease, Crohn's, colitis, poor cognitive development, obesity, cardiovascular disease, ear infections and poor dentition. Switching from bottle to breast could prevent 13% of all childhood deaths - a greater impact than any other measure. Panaceas are rare in medicine, but the mammary gland is one. Both the government of the Philippines and the UN blame the manufacturers of baby formula for much of the decline in breastfeeding. These companies spend over $100m a year on advertising breastmilk substitutes in the Philippines, which equates to more than half the department of health's annual budget. Those who appear most susceptible to this advertising are the poor, who are also the most likely to be using contaminated water to make up the feed. Some spend as much as one third of their household income on formula. Powdered milk now accounts for more sales than any other consumer product in the Philippines. Almost all of it is produced by companies based in the rich nations. Since Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, the government of the Philippines has been trying to stand between these corporations and vulnerable mothers. It has failed. It plugs one loophole; the formula companies find another. Baby Milk Action, one of the world's most impressive public health campaigns, has compiled a dossier of breaches of the marketing code drawn up by the World Health Organisation. Formula companies have been dispensing gifts to both health workers and mothers, running promotional classes and meetings and advertising their wares on television and in magazines and papers. These practices, though mostly legal in the Philippines, are all discouraged by the code. In February this year, the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (Phap), which represents multinational companies, ran a series of advertisements expressing concern for women unable to breastfeed their children. The campaign was described by Jean Ziegler, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food, as "misleading, deceptive, and malicious in intent". He claimed the adverts "manipulate data emanating from UN specialised agencies such as WHO and Unicef ... with the sole purpose to protect the milk companies' huge profits, regardless of the best interest of Filipino mothers and children". Last year, in the hope of arresting this public health disaster, the Philippines' department of health drew up a new set of rules. It prohibited all advertising and promotion of infant formula for children up to two years old. It forbade the formula companies from giving away gifts or samples, and from providing assistance to health workers or classes to mothers. The new rules seem stiff, but they all come straight from the WHO's code. Phap, whose members include most of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, went to the supreme court to try to obtain a restraining order. When it failed the big guns arrived. The US embassy and the US regional trade representative started lobbying the Philippines government. Then the chief executive of the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington - which represents 3m businesses - wrote a letter to the president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo. The new rules, he claimed, would have "unintended negative consequences for investors' confidence". The country's reputation "as a stable and viable destination for investment is at risk". Four days later, the supreme court reversed its decision and imposed the restraining order Phap had requested. It remains in force today. The government is currently unable to prevent companies from breaking the international code. So the department of health asked a senior government lawyer, Nestor Ballocillo, to contest the order. In December Ballocillo and his son were shot dead while walking from their home. The case remains unsolved; Ballocillo was working on several contentious cases at the time. Last month the US regional trade representative paid another visit to the Philippines government. The department of health appears to be wavering. In two weeks the campaigners promoting breastfeeding will present their arguments to the supreme court to try to get the order lifted, and the formula companies will try to stop them. If the companies win, thousands of children will continue to die of preventable diseases. The pressure to which the US government and the US Chamber of Commerce has subjected the government of the Philippines is at odds with almost everything the G8 now claims to stand for: the millennium health and education goals, the eradication of poverty, fair terms of trade. But the G8 nations will pursue their stated objectives only to the point at which they collide with their own interests. Away from their sentimental summits, they pull down everything they claim to be building. The G8 demands action on climate change; the World Bank, controlled by the G8 nations, funds coal burning power stations and deforestation projects. The G8 requests better terms of trade for Africa; Europe and the United States use the world trade talks to make sure this doesn't happen. The G8 leaders call for the debt to be reduced; the IMF demands that poor nations remove barriers to the capital flows that leave them in hock. The G8 leaders simultaneously wring their hands and wash their hands: we have done what we can; if we have failed, it is only because of the corruption of third world elites. The question is no longer whether the undemocratic power the G8 nations exert over the rest of the world can be used for good or ill. The question is whether it will cease to be used. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 18:06:30 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:06:30 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Filipino Teachers' salaries don't keep up with high cost of living Message-ID: <20070605180630.061f1cc5@viola.tamara-b.org> IBON Foundation - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.ibon.org MEDIA RELEASE - June 5, 2007 IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Ave., Quezon City, Philippines Tel. (632) 927-7060 * Fax (632) 929-2496 * E-mail: media at ibon.org * web: www.ibon.org TEACHERS SALARIES UNABLE TO KEEP UP WITH HIGH COST OF LIVING The crisis of the countrys educational system is reflected in the dire plight of its public school teachers, whose salaries are not even enough to keep up with the high cost of living, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation. Comparing the basic salary of the lowest paid public school teacher (P9,939 a month) with the monthly cost of living in the National Capital Region of P20,454.61 means there is a monthly gap of P10,515.61. The last time public school teachers received a salary increase was in 2001. Moreover, teachers actually receive only less than half their salaries in their pay checks due to deductions of 30 to 50 items, including contributions to the Government Services Insurance System and withholding tax. In addition, having to service loans at usurious rates further depletes many teachers pay checks. Teachers also have to work longer hours because of the lack of classrooms and teachers. During school year 2005-2006, pupil-teacher ratio for the elementary level reached 1:35 while the secondary level had a ratio of 1:39. The plight of the countrys public school teachers reflects how severe the crisis besetting the countrys public educational system has become under the Arroyo administration. (end) IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 18:08:49 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:08:49 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] NY Times Catches Up with Hillary's Union-Busting Campaign Aide Message-ID: <20070605180849.2d4ad9e3@viola.tamara-b.org> The New York Times - Jun 5, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/us/politics/05labor.html A Top Clinton Aide Draws Criticism from Unions By Steven Greenhouse The presidents of two large labor unions have written to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain that Mark Penn, her pollster and chief strategist, is chief executive of a public relations firm that is helping a company fight a unionization drive. In the letter sent Friday, which a labor official released yesterday, James P. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, and Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, wrote that they did not want to see Mrs. Clinton or the Democratic Party embarrassed by the anti-union activities of Mr. Penn's firm, Burson-Marsteller, one of the nation's leading public relations companies. "If Hillary is pro-worker and pro-union, she will certainly take steps to rein in Mr. Penn," Mr. Hoffa said in an interview. "He cannot serve two masters, working for a pro-union candidate and working for anti-union companies." In the letter, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor said, "It is with distress that we write you today," adding that they valued Mrs. Clinton's positions on many worker-related issues. They said the public relations firm's "activities in the effort to undermine workers' right to organize at Cintas, a campaign our unions are involved in, is particularly disheartening." Four years ago, the two unions began a major drive to unionize 17,000 workers at the Cintas Corporation, the nation's largest uniform rental company. Cintas, helped by Burson-Marsteller, has responded with a vigorous - and thus far successful - effort to resist unionization. Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor, whose union represents apparel, hotel and restaurant workers, noted that they had learned of Burson-Marsteller's anti-union activities in an article last week in The Nation magazine. Their action comes as Mrs. Clinton prepares to speak at an A.F.L.-C.I.O. forum on Saturday in Detroit. Mr. Penn did polling for Bill Clinton when he was president and has long been a top adviser to Mrs. Clinton. Thirty years ago, Mr. Penn founded a prominent polling firm, now known as Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates. In December 2005, he was named chief executive of Burson-Marsteller. In interviews, Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Raynor stopped short of calling on Mrs. Clinton to disassociate herself from Mr. Penn. Mr. Raynor said, "She ought to send a clear message to this guy Penn that she is unhappy about this union-busting stuff and that he shouldn't be associated with it." Mr. Penn, speaking for himself and for the Clinton presidential campaign, said: "Senator Clinton's well-documented support for pro-union causes would not in any way be affected by some clients in a firm related to the corporate network of one of her advisers. There is no connection whatsoever with her pro-union record." Mr. Penn said that he had worked for Democratic candidates for 30 years and that Burson-Marsteller worked for Democrats and Republicans. As for Cintas, he said, "I personally had zero involvement in any of the work related to Cintas." He said Burson-Marsteller had begun representing Cintas well before he joined the firm. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 18:10:55 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:10:55 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Darfur & the Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency Message-ID: <20070605181055.0d26dd50@viola.tamara-b.org> sent by Steven Robinson (activ-l) Democracy Now! - June 4, 2007 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/04/1334230 Mahmood Mamdani on Darfur: "The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency" AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Darfur. President Bush has ordered new sanctions to be placed on the Sudanese government for its role in the violence in Darfur. Last week's announcement blocks thirty-one companies tied to the Sudanese government from using the US banking system. The sanctions were seen as a victory for the Save Darfur Coalition, a US group leading a vocal campaign pressuring the White House to take action. But the New York Times reported Saturday some of Save Darfur's public efforts have angered aid groups working on the ground in Sudan. The aid groups say Save Darfur's call for imposing a no-flight zone could lead to a halt in aid flights and put their workers at risk. Aid groups have also criticized Save Darfur for not spending its multi-million dollar budget on aid to Darfur's refugees. Mahmood Mamdani is one of the world's most prominent Africa scholars. Earlier this year, he wrote a major piece for the London Review of Books called "The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency." He was born in Uganda and now splits his time between Uganda and New York, where he is a professor at Columbia University. Mahmood Mamdani stopped by our firehouse studio Friday. I began by asking him about the name of his article, "The Politics of Naming." MAHMOOD MAMDANI: I think the larger question is the names -- genocide, in particular -- come into being against a background of the twentieth century and mass slaughter of the twentieth century, and particularly the Holocaust. And against that background, Lemkin convinced the international community, and particularly states in the international community, have an obligation to intervene when there is genocide. He's successful in getting the international community to adopt a resolution on this. Then follows the politics around genocide. And the politics around genocide is, when is the slaughter of civilians a genocide or not? Which particular slaughter is going to be named genocide, and which one is not going to be named genocide? So if you look at the last ten years and take some examples of mass slaughter -- for example, the mass slaughter in Iraq, which is -- in terms of numbers, at least -- no less than what is going on in Sudan; or the mass slaughter in Congo, which, in terms of numbers, is probably ten times what happened, what has been happening in Darfur. But none of these have been named as genocide. Only the slaughter in Darfur has been named as genocide. So there is obviously a politics around this naming, and that's the politics that I was interested in. AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think this politics is? MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, I think that what's happening is that genocide is being instrumentalized by the biggest power on the earth today, which is the United States. It is being instrumentalized in a way that mass slaughters which implicate its adversaries are being named as genocide and those which implicate its friends or its proxies are not being named as genocide. And that is not what Lemkin had in mind. AMY GOODMAN: The simplifying of the conflict by the US media, you write extensively about this, who the sides are. MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, I was struck by the fact -- because I live nine months in New York and three months in Kampala, and every morning I open the New York Times, and I read about sort of violence against civilians, atrocities against civilians, and there are two places that I read about -- one is Iraq, and the other is Darfur -- sort of constantly, day after day, and week after week. And I'm struck by the fact that the largest political movement against mass violence on US campuses is on Darfur and not on Iraq. And it puzzles me, because most of these students, almost all of these students, are American citizens, and I had always thought that they should have greater responsibility, they should feel responsibility, for mass violence which is the result of their own government's policies. And I ask myself, "Why not?" I ask myself, "How do they discuss mass violence in Iraq and options in Iraq?" And they discuss it by asking -- agonizing over what would happen if American troops withdrew from Iraq. Would there be more violence? Less violence? But there is no such agonizing over Darfur, because Darfur is a place without history, Darfur is a place without politics. Darfur is simply a dot on the map. It is simply a place, a site, where perpetrator confronts victim. And the perpetrator's name is Arab, and the victim's name is African. And it is easy to demonize. It is easy to hold a moral position which is emptied of its political content. This bothered me, and so I wrote about it. AMY GOODMAN: Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani. We'll be back with him in a minute. [break] AMY GOODMAN: We return to our conversation with Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani, one of the world's most prominent Africa scholars, speaking about Darfur in relation to other conflicts around the world. MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, let's begin with the numbers of the dead, OK? The only group in a position to estimate how many people have died in Darfur is UNICEF, because UNICEF is the only one that did a comprehensive survey in 2005 in Darfur. Everybody else only knows the piece of ground on which they work and will then extrapolate from it, like any other NGO, like Oxfam or Medecins Sans Frontieres or World Food Program. The WFP estimate was 200,000. Out of these 200,000, the WPF report tells you that roughly about 20% died of actually being killed, of violence, and 80% died mainly from starvation and from diseases. And normally in our understanding of genocide, we put both those together and look at them as a result of the violence, because the violence prevents the medicine going in, etc., except in the case of Darfur, it's not a single-cause situation. Darfur is also the place which has been hit hard by global warming. The UN commission which sat on global warming very recently spoke of Darfur as the first major crisis of global warming. In other words, from the late 1970s you have had a significant desertification, and you've been having in the north of Darfur basically a situation where people's simply entire livelihoods are destroyed, and which has been one of the elements, because it has driven the nomadic population in the north down into the south. So how many people are dying from desertification? How many people are dying from the violence that has been unleashed through this civil war in Darfur? Second element in this is that there's a civil war going on in Darfur. There are two rebel movements, and both rebel movements were born in the aftermath of the peace in the south. And those who were unwilling to accept the peace in the south, who thought the peace in the south should have included a resolution for all of Sudan, particularly for Darfur and not simply for the south, they were the inspiration behind the two movements that developed. One movement, the Sudan Liberation Army, was a movement strongly connected with the SPLA in the south, especially with those sections of the SPLA who were not happy with the partial nature of the settlement in the south. And the other movement -- AMY GOODMAN: The SPLA is.? MAHMOOD MAMDANI: The SPLA, sorry, is the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which had organized and led the guerrilla war in the south for several decades under John Garang. The second movement was the Justice and Equality Movement. The Justice and Equality Movement, unlike the SLA, which is a secular movement, Justice and Equality is an Islamist movement. And it was a break-off from the regime in the Sudan. It was a break-off between two sections of the regime, the military and the civilian section, and particularly the section led by the chief ideologue, Hassan al-Turabi, who split from the military wing and was the inspiration behind the formation of the Justice and Equality Movement. So you have, in a way, a very strong Islamist rebel movement and you have a strong secular rebel movement, and these two began their operations in 2003. The government's response -- and I saw the ambassador's response there, which was as disingenuous as Bush's response, in a sense, because he's claiming that it's just a civil war inside, the government has nothing to do with it. It's not true. The government's response was to pick a proxy and arm it. And the government was, in a way, smart enough to pick those who were the worst victims of the desertification and the drought. It picked the poorest of the nomads from the north whose livelihoods had been entirely destroyed and who had simply no survival strategy at hand and gave them weapons. And these guys went down south, and their object was not to kill the peasants in the south, but to drive them off their land. The government's response was also to pick a second group, and that second group are the nomads from Chad who have come into Darfur. And to understand that, one has to look at the third dimension of the conflict, which is that over the last twenty-five, thirty years there has been a civil war going on in Chad. Chad, during the Cold War, was a bone of contention, first and foremost between the US and France, and both had their allies in the region. France allied with Libya. The US allied with the military dictatorship in Sudan, with the Numeri dictatorship in Sudan. And every oppositional movement in Chad had a base in Darfur, and they armed themselves, organized themselves in Darfur. So Darfur was awash with weapons for two decades, OK. And those who ran away from the civil war in Chad came into Darfur. So the other wing of those who were armed, whether by the government or whether by this weaponry which was awash, were the Chad refugees in Darfur. So what we call the Janjaweed are two groups. They are the Chad refugees in Darfur, and they are the poorest of the northern camel -- the pastoralists divide into two: the camel pastoralists and the cattle pastoralists. And the camel pastoralists, because the camel is the only game which will survive in the worst conditions where even cattle will not survive, they are the poorest of the poor. So these are what are called the Janjaweed. From nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com Tue Jun 5 17:49:09 2007 From: nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com (nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com) Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:49:09 -0400 Subject: [NYTr] Media: CBS Silences General Dissent Message-ID: <20070605174909.7ff4b9b6@viola.tamara-b.org> Alternet - May 30, 2007 http://www.alternet.org/story/52665 CBS Silences General Dissent By Amy Goodman King Features Syndicate Listening to retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, you sense his intense loyalty to the military. He commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, capping a 31-year Army career. So why did CBS News fire him as a paid news consultant? A straight answer from CBS seems as elusive as those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The short answer: Batiste appeared in a television advertisement sponsored by VoteVets.org, a nonpartisan group that advocates for veterans. In the 30-second spot, he said, in part: "Mr. President, you did not listen. You continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our great Army and Marine Corps. I left the Army in protest in order to speak out. Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril." Batiste is one of the six retired generals who called for the resignation of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the spring of 2006. Of those generals, he alone both served at a high level in the Pentagon and commanded 22,000 troops in Iraq. Despite a promised promotion to three-star general, which would have made him the second-highest-ranking officer in Iraq, Batiste made the difficult decision to retire and speak out. In his book and documentary "War Made Easy," media critic Norman Solomon explains the impact these retired TV generals have on the national debate: In the run-up to the war in Iraq, the failure of mainstream news organizations to raise legitimate questions about the government's rush to war was compounded by the networks' deliberate decision to stress military perspectives before any fighting had even begun. CNN's use of retired generals as supposedly independent experts reinforced the decidedly military mind-set even as serious questions remained about the wisdom and necessity about going to war. In 1999, when the U.S. was bombing Yugoslavia, I asked Frank Sesno, vice president of CNN: "Why pay these generals? And have you ever considered putting peace activists on the payroll? Or inviting them into the studio to respond to the drumbeat for war?" He replied: "We've talked about this. But no, we wouldn't do that. Becaus