Thursday, January 16, 2003

COPYRIGHTS

New York Times: 20-Year Extension of Existing Copyrights Is held

Die Mickey Mouse hat vor dem Obersten Gericht gewonnen und bleibt weitere 20 Jahre lang geschützt. Das Oberste Gericht hat aber in der Urteilsbegründung den US-Kongress stark kritisiert.
IRAK

New York Times: U.S. Resisting Calls for a 2nd U.N. Vote on a War With Iraq

The Bush administration resisted calls by other nations today that it secure the explicit blessing of the United Nations Security Council before going to war with Iraq. The White House further suggested that it could decide in favor of military action even if weapons inspectors do not turn up concrete new evidence against Saddam Hussein.


Spiegel: USA wollen schnelles Ende der Waffenkontrollen
USA

New York Times: President Faults Race Preferences as Admission Tool

Bush will die Affirmitive-Action Programme abschaffen.

President Bush offered a sweeping denunciation of direct preferences for racial minorities in university admissions today and said his administration would file a brief with the Supreme Court urging that the affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan be declared unconstitutional.

Ouote of the Day: "I strongly support diversity of all kinds, including racial diversity in higher education. But the method used by the University of Michigan to achieve this important goal is fundamentally flawed." George Bush Jr.
VENEZUELA

Vheadline: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan tells Venezuelans to respect the Constitution
"UN General Secretary Kofi Annan said that those who want change in Venezuela should respect the Constitution and work within the framework of Democracy which has been won with difficulty throughout Latin America. Annan said that he has viewed what's happening in Venezuela with growing concern."
ISRAEL

Independent: Israel closes Palestinian universities
Israel today shut down two West Bank universities as two Palestinians were killed in clashes and Israeli troops sealed the homes of four Jerusalem Arabs responsible for killing 35 people, including five Americans, in bombings

"Israel demolishes the homes of militants and suicide bombers in an attempt to deter other Palestinians from carrying out attacks on Israelis. "

official US definition takes "terrorism" to be "the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature...through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear.

"Das israelische Vorgehen müsste man demzufole (laut offizieller amerikanischer Definition) Terrorismus nennen."
VENEZUELA

Washington Post: A Split Screen In Strike-Torn Venezuela
Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot
has
recently returned from eight days in Caracas. His latest article on
Venezuela appeared in Sunday's Washington Post. He said today:
"Venezuela
is in turmoil primarily because the opposition refuses to accept the
results of democratic elections. President Chavez's government has won
five

elections since 1998, including the referendum on the country's 1999
constitution. Although the opposition can organize large
demonstrations,
they have been unable to put together an electoral majority. So they
have
tried to remove the government by extra-legal means. In April they
tried a
military coup; now they are trying to make the country ungovernable, by
crippling the economy with an oil strike. (Although there are numerous
references to a general strike, outside of the 30,000 employees on
strike
in the oil industry there are not many workers actually on strike; some
are

locked out because the business owners have shut down.) The Bush
administration shares the opposition's goals of overthrowing the
elected
government and has supported them, although lately it has had some
reservations about the cutoff of Venezuelan oil and gasoline, and the
effect of that on oil prices and markets, and the economy."

"Walking around Caracas late last month during Venezuela's ongoing protests, I was surprised by what I saw. My expectations had been shaped by persistent U.S. media coverage of the nationwide strike called by the opposition, which seeks President Hugo Chavez's ouster. Yet in most of the city, where poor and working-class people live, there were few signs of the strike. Streets were crowded with holiday shoppers, metro trains and buses were running normally, and shops were open for business. Only in the eastern, wealthier neighborhoods of the capital were businesses mostly closed.

This is clearly an oil strike, not a "general strike," as it is often described"
IRAK

Times: The United States of America has gone mad
America has entered one of its periods of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War.
The reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that have made America the envy of the world are being systematically eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the East Coast press
"How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America’s anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history. But they swung it. A recent poll tells us that one in two Americans now believe Saddam was responsible for the attack on the World Trade Centre. But the American public is not merely being misled. It is being browbeaten and kept in a state of ignorance and fear. The carefully orchestrated neurosis should carry Bush and his fellow conspirators nicely into the next election. "
VENEZUELA

VHeadline: Foreign Press Foundation condemns attempt to destabilize Venezuela
To the Ambassador, the US embassy,
CC. President George W. Bush

The Foreign Press Foundation in The Netherlands strongly condemns the attempt by right wing forces to destabilize Venezuela and overthrow the democratically-elected government of Hugo Chavez.


IRAK

Spiegel: "Zwischen den Kriegen"
In seinem Beitrag für die Nachrichtenagentur dpa kritisiert Günter Grass die heuchlerische Irak-Politik der USA und ihrer Verbündeten. Den drohenden Krieg bezeichnet er als "gewollt", es gehe "wiederum ums Öl". SPIEGEL ONLINE dokumentiert den Essay des Literaturnobelpreisträgers.
USA

Spiegel: Bürgerrechtler warnen vor Überwachungsmonster
Führende US-Bürgerrechtler warnen in einer neuen Studie vor der Entwicklung ihres Landes zu einem monströsen "Big Brother Staat": Internetnutzer würden heimlich überwacht, Videokameras allerorten installiert, selbst Bücherein müssen Auskunft über die Lesegewohnheiten ihrer Kunden geben.
ITALIEN

Spiegel: Fahnder entdecken 50 Tonnen Material für Chemiewaffen

Eine erschreckende Entdeckung hat die Polizei im Hafen von Genua gemacht. In einigen Containern sollen sich tonnenweise Chemikalien für die Herstellung von Massenvernichtungswaffen befunden haben. Das gefährliche Material soll aus einer deutscher Fabrik stammen. Angebliches Ziel: Libyen.

"Die betreffenden Firmen in Brüssel und Tripolis freilich erklären, dass die "Ware" ordnungsgemäß deklariert worden sei. Es habe sich lediglich um Material zur Herstellung von Pestiziden gehandelt. Die Ermittler sind jedoch laut "La Repubblica" überzeugt, dass die Begleitdokumente gefälscht sind und es sich um waffenfähiges Material handelt"

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

WEF

Tagesanzeiger: WEF: Schmid erhält Auftrag zur Sicherung des Luftraums

Das Militär wird am Wef den Luftraum kontrollieren und Terroristen vom Himmel schiessen.
WAR ON IRAK

Los Angeles Times: Thousands Rally Against War in Iraq, Push Peace

Thousands of people protesting a looming U.S.-led war against Iraq marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, with many chanting, "We want peace!"

According to police, the crowd numbered between 5,000 and 7,000. Many wore their opinions, such as "No War" or "Don't Cut Medicare for Bombs and Missiles," on T-shirts, buttons and baseball caps. Organizers estimated the crowd at 15,000, said Karin Pally, who helped put on the event.

Bilder der Demonstration
BALI

Jakarta Post: Biggest Newspaper in Indonesia Denies Conventional Explosives Were Used in Bali

On October 12, 2002 the Indonesian island of Bali experienced a terrorist attack that rocked the world. It was unquestionably well-coordinated and executed, the largest in the country's history.
Investigators and forensics experts from both national and international teams that had quickly been assembled flocked to the crime scene, ostensibly to begin what should have been a long, drawn out exercise in forensics and investigative sleuthing to identify and capture the foot soldiers, coordinators and masterminds behind the attack that has left over 190 known dead, scores missing without a trace and hundreds more wounded It has turned out to be anything but that.
The Indonesian government immediately vowed to unite in the hunt for the bombers. The U.S. government along with the international community seized the opportunity to point the finger at the shadowy al-Qaeda group along with Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir as the culprits. In hindsight, it would appear that perhaps these individuals, given their apparent intimate knowledge of the perpetrators immediately following the bombing should have been included on the investigating team. Perhaps if they had we would know more than we do today, which is very little despite the volume of information (or disinformation) being vomited out by the spokesmen for the investigative teams on a daily basis.
A creeping sense of foreboding began soon after the forensics people and other investigators (inclusive of Insp. Gen. I Made Pastika and his army of hundreds of supposedly top-notch investigators with virtually unlimited resources at their disposal) announced after only a week and a half that they were wrapping up their on-site work and retreating to the labs to analyze their findings. Astounding work, as it must have set a world record for crime scene forensic analysis.
Given the scope of the bombing and the sheer size of the primary and secondary blast areas - where trace from a plethora of different explosive compounds were swabbed from - this was a feat that escaped even the vaunted investigators working the World Trade Center crime scene in New York, who spent nearly a year literally sifting by hand for evidence at the site. It would appear that the teams on Bali possessed far superior skills and techniques ... or was there something else responsible for their haste in wrapping up so quickly and then sending the rest of the evidence as quickly as possible to the bottom of the ocean off Bali?
At this point in their investigation National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar states for the record that "traces of a chemical powder used in the bomb" were found in the van allegedly used to transport the large device. What powder? Even a cursory examination of the crater and primary site immediately following the bombings would make this statement laughable were it not for the circumstances.
If indeed the Mitsubishi L300 van was used in the large blast, the five-foot deep by twenty-foot wide crater indicates that it would have been completely vaporized, including the engine block which they apparently found intact - along with the victims who instantly vanished. Indeed, this begs the question: Where did the investigators obtain this evidence in relation to the crater? Is it possible that if the van survived the large blast it was because it was parked at the edge of the primary blast zone, packed with small amounts of all the explosives - whose traces were found at the sites - in order to throw off independent investigators?
In addition, there is the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), allegedly signed jointly by the National Police and the international investigation team, specifically restricting the scope of the "investigation links" and prohibiting international inquiries. Could this at least partially explain why Pastika has continually stonewalled, intimidated and generally obstructed independent investigators during the course of their work?
During the first weeks of the investigation, notables such as State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Chief Hendropriyono, Susilo Yudhoyono, Assembly Speaker Amien Rais and Pastika focused or pretended to focus on foreigners - without specifying "which" foreigners - who they said were behind the attack. Somehow this twisting, turning trail dried up and disappeared into thin air without explanation, along with the former retired Air Force Officer who allegedly confessed to police his involvement in the bombing and was then released. To this day his whereabouts remain unknown and police investigators either cannot or will not release any information on this man, an officer who was allegedly trained in America in explosives and is an incredible lead that should have been followed-up on aggressively and thoroughly. Why was it not?
Are these the statements and actions of professional investigators - or the actions of individuals engaged in a cover-up? Let's look at the myriad of explosive traces found at the site and subsequently cited individually off and on by investigators and police as "the explosive" used in the bombings. First it was C-4, then RDX. These two are actually the same, the difference being nine percent mallable plastic used in C-4. So, which is more powerful? RDX - nine percent more powerful than C-4.
Day after day, investigators trotted out a different explosive and combinations of explosives purportedly responsible for the blasts. In addition to C-4 and RDX there was now TNT, Ammonium Nitrate, HMX, Semtex, PETN, Chlorate and napalm. Everything but the kitchen sink. Was this gross ineptitude? Or another ploy to throw independent investigators off the trail?
For example, had the originators of the napalm theory studied up on the material before opening their mouths they would have known that napalm leaves a sticky, smelly residue on everything, including victims. This was not in evidence at the blast site or at the Sanglah burn ward and morgue, where the burn victims were taken. Therefore, in the absence of any physical evidence, napalm must be excluded and the originators of this farce be awarded a grade of "F" in "explosives analysis."
In other words, if you are going to lie, be professional about it, at least know what you are lying about and have the mental capacity to remember what you said when you said it. This single evidentiary template could easily be applied and extended to the entire "official investigation" of the Bali bombings where deceit, obstruction and obfuscation are and have been the name of the game.
To put this in perspective, let us look at three of the explosives claimed by official investigators to have been used in the bombings, starting with the compound that has the lowest velocity of detonation in feet per second (FPS) which is Potassium Chlorate at 3,500 FPS; compared to 12,000 FPS for Ammonium Nitrate and diesel and finally 27,800 FPS for RDX. In simple terms, at any given distance from ground zero these different explosive compounds will exert pressure in pounds per square inch. Damage to people and structures are a result of this pressure in varying degrees depending on the velocity of detonation. Even if RDX were used, the amount needed to cause the level of destruction in evidence at the crime scene should have been in excess of anything available through even the military, who denied possession of the explosive. There is also the delivery of the device to be taken into account.
Each of the explosives cited by investigators (with the exception of napalm) have unique and individual characteristics that vary for usage, stability and explosive yeild. They require specific detonators for each in order to obtain maximum effect. Also now at the bottom of the ocean off Bali is the reinforcing bar (rebar) located more than fifty feet from ground zero that had been completely stripped of concrete as a result of the blast. Documented military estimates of the force required to accomplish this is roughly 1 million to 1.5 million pounds per square inch.
What kind of weapon or device could accomplish this? And for that matter leave a crater of that size? Why was it filled in? This arguably could have been one of the most important pieces of evidence available to investigators not only for the trace explosive in evidence, but from which also could have been determined (roughly) the size and composition of the device.
With the police claiming (off and on) that Amrozi, Mukhlas and Samudra (who allegedly at one point denied involvement in the Bali bombings) were the perpetrators of the blasts, then why do the official investigators not know EXACTLY the type of device used in the main bombing and its precise composition? To put it quite simply, how can we have a bomber or bombers in the absence of a bomb?
Why were Amrozi and Samudra so quick to confess and finger their "accomplices"? Were these the actions of dedicated, radical, Islamic fundamentalists? "Professionals"? Did they expect to further their cause by eviscerating their own organization? Does it make sense that they were willing to kill and maim hundreds of innocents - including many fellow Indonesians - and yet implicate their comrades to save their own skins?
Given this dismal investigative performance, exactly what role did the international investigating team play in this debacle? If indeed there is one thing that has been glaringly apparent throughout this investigation, it is that perhaps nothing close to the truth has been told as of today. It is also apparent that something is very, very wrong not only with the procedural aspects of this case, but also with the suppression and outright destruction of evidence. The international investigators bear a heavy responsibility for this, and should be held accountable

Jakarta Post Editor Robert S. Finnegan is an internationally published investigative reporter with over two decades investigative experience. He currently holds an Alaska (U.S.) Private Investigator license.

Investigation: Bali Bombing

Wars eine Mini-Atombombe?
IRAK

Guardian: Allies speed up deployment to the Gulf
Troops ready for February conflict

"The United States, Britain and Australia have started to speed up the movement of troops and weapons to the Gulf to enable them to attack Iraq by mid-February.
At the weekend, the American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, authorised the deployment of another 62,000 US troops. About 150,000 US and British troops will be in the region by next month."

"Der Countdown läuft.."



IRAK

Washington Post: Bush Lies: Iraq-Attack Decided Awhile Back

U.S. Decision On Iraq Has Puzzling Past
Opponents of War Wonder When, How Policy Was Set
Sunday, January 12, 2003; Page A01

In July 2002, at a regular administrative meeting between the US
Department
of State's director of policy planning Richard Haass and National
Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice, he asked whether they should talk about the
pros
and cons of confronting Iraq. "Don't bother", Rice replied: "The
president
has made a decision." On September 17, 2001, six days after the attacks
on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush signed a
2½-page
document marked "TOP SECRET" that outlined the plan for going to war in
Afghanistan as part of a global campaign against terrorism.


TERROR

AP: Greenpeace protesters stage break-in at nuclear power plant

"LONDON (AP) _ Nineteen anti-nuclear protesters used ropes, ladders and wire-cutters to break into the central control building of a nuclear power station in eastern England on Monday, the environmental group Greenpeace said.

Suffolk Police said there was ``an incident'' at the Sizewell B plant but would not give details.

Greenpeace, which campaigns for an end to nuclear energy, said it staged the break-in to expose poor security at the Sizewell B plant and other nuclear facilities.

``It is a terrifying thought that if we can do this then anyone can,'' said Rob Gueterbock, one of the protesters occupying the plant's roof. ``We wouldn't do anything to interfere with the plant, but if terrorists targeted a nuclear power station it would be deadly"

PROPAGANDA

Alternet: A Lesson In U.S. Propaganda

Last week U.N. weapons inspectors swooped in to inspect the Iraqi
manufacturing plant that U.S. planes bombed in 1991. Iraq said the
plant made infant milk formula; the U.S. said it made biological
weapons. Mark Crispin Miller examines the evidence and concludes
that Iraq's version was correct. Nevertheless, "Iraq, in trying to
publicize the targeting of its civilian infrastructure, had engaged
in clumsy propaganda (which backfired in the West), while the US
counter-propaganda was apparently disinformation (which succeeded).
As we sit and wait for another war against Iraq, we should remember
this triumphant bit of spin - and all the other winning lies of
Operation Desert Storm."
PR

Holmesreport: Lessons Learned from the Top 10 Crises of 2002

Die Top 10 der PR-Desaster von 2002

"The year 2002 was a year in which individual companies suffered catastrophic crises, but it was also a year in which American business as a whole suffered a chronic crisis, as constituents—shareholders, employees, regulators, the public at large—began to question whether the entire American corporate system was hopelessly corrupt.

Ordinarily, such an epidemic of ill-considered corporate behavior would have elevated the role of the senior corporate communications executive to a permanent place in the CEO’s inner circle, and provided a bonanza of new business for public relations firms. But in 2002, those gains conspicuously failed to materialize.

“The past year was filled with what seems like an unprecedented number of very widely publicized and unusually intriguing crises,” says Craig Martin, managing director of the Washington, D.C., office of Ruder Finn. “Corporate giants Enron, Tyco, and Worldcom tumbled, and cultural icons Martha Stewart, Jack Welch and Augusta National were humbled, albeit to varying degrees. "



GUERILLA MARKETING/PR WATCH

maisonneuve.org: Are You for Real?
Theater student Natalie Alvarez takes a close look at Jonathan
Ressler's "guerrilla advertising" company, Big Fat, Inc. In order
to bypass consumer skepticism about advertising, Ressler hires
"real people" to talk up his clients' products in bars, parks and
other public places. "We plant a group of people in a bar or other
public setting and instruct them to use a brand, perform a ritual,
repeat a sound bite, and involve others in the activity," Ressler
explains. As these "secret agents of capitalism" invade our daily
routines, Alvarez ponders the blurred boundaries between illusion
and reality, theater and life. "It's The Truman Show," says an
advertising executive. "Did your wife marry you because she loves
you, or because she wants you to buy a certain brand of soap?"


USA

"The Detroit Project by americans for fuel efficient cars" ist eine Anti-S.U.V Organisation die in den letzten Tagen mehrere TV-Commercials im US-Fernsehen geschaltet hat. Die Werbungen sind ziemlich lustig...so Ich hab ein SUV und es braucht soviel Benzin und vom Benzin Geld werden Terroristen unterstützt. Check it out, ist wirklich lustig!

TV Ads Say S.U.V. Owners Support Terrorists
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, NY Times 1/8/03
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — Ratcheting up the debate over sport utility vehicles, new television commercials suggest that people who buy the vehicles are supporting terrorists. The commercials are so provocative that some television stations are refusing to run them.Patterned after the commercials that try to discourage drug use by suggesting that profits from illegal drugs go to terrorists, the new commercials say that money for gas needed for S.U.V.'s goes to terrorists

checkt die Werbung hier: Talking Heads 30 sec. Realmedia File

George 30 sec. Realmedia File


New York Times: TV Ads Say S.U.V. Owners Support Terrorists
Ratcheting up the debate over sport utility vehicles, new television commercials suggest that people who buy the vehicles are supporting terrorists. The commercials are so provocative that some television stations are refusing to run them.

Patterned after the commercials that try to discourage drug use by suggesting that profits from illegal drugs go to terrorists, the new commercials say that money for gas needed for S.U.V.'s goes to terrorists.

"This is George," a girl's voice says of an oblivious man at a gas station. "This is the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The screen then shows a map of the Middle East. "These are the countries where the executives bought the oil that made the gas that George bought for his S.U.V." The picture switches to a scene of armed terrorists in a desert. "And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his S.U.V."


USA

San Francisco Gate: Supreme Court to take up Nike and free speech.S.F. activist sued, saying firm lied about working conditions

A San Francisco consumer activist's suit against Nike Inc. is headed for the Supreme Court and a ruling that could redraw the boundaries between free speech and regulated advertising.

The court agreed Friday to review an appeal by the world's largest athletic shoe manufacturer and decide whether a common form of public relations -- designed to promote a company's image by defending its record on controversial issues -- amounts to a sales pitch or an entry in the marketplace of ideas.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

USA

Heise: Asimovs Robotergesetze oder Jeffersons Bill of Rights?
Ende der 1990er log Nike in einer aufwändigen PR-Kampagne über die Arbeitsbedingungen, die bei der Herstellung ihrer Turnschuhe herrschen (vgl. König Fußball und die Kinderarbeit, Am Anfang war das Logo). Nicht jeder glaubte das. Und weil es in Kalifornien ein Gesetz gibt, welches das Ausmaß begrenzt, in dem Firmen ihre Kunden absichtlich täuschen dürfen, wurde die Firma vom Verbraucheraktivisten Marc Kasky verklagt.

"Man würde nun erwarten, dass ein Unternehmen auf solch eine Klage reagiert, indem es den Vorwurf der Lüge bestreitet. Doch offenbar war die Lüge hier zu frech oder man wollte bewusst einen Präzedenzfall zur Ausweitung der eigenen Rechte starten. Und so gaben Nikes Anwälte die Lüge offen zu, beriefen sich aber darauf, dass sie unter das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung falle. Vorigen Freitag nahm der Oberste Gerichtshof der USA den Fall zur Entscheidung an. "
WEF 2003

Indymedia.ch: smash it! wef-mördertreff zum letzten

der tragödie letzter akt, aufruf anti-wto koordination bern

4 sprachiger aufruf vom oltner bündnis [fr,de,it,eng]

smash the wef infrastructure

WIPE OUT WEF #02; zusammenstellung aufrufe, infos etc.



USA

Indymedia: Tens of Thousands Oppose Bush's Wars in LA, Twin Cities, Chicago

The march and rally on Saturday, January 11 in Los Angeles was the largest anti-war demonstration in Southern California in decades. Non-LAPD crowd estimates range from 15,000 to as high as 45,000. The mid-day march stretched ten city blocks in downtown LA.

In sharp contrast to Northern California, the Los Angeles area has never been known as one of the centers of American activism. While this has begun to change in recent years (e.g., the Justice for Janitors struggle in the late 1990s, and then the D2K mobilizations), SoCal still lags behind its northen neighbors. Thus Saturday's massive demo, the largest in the US since October 26, suggests the movement to stop the war on Iraq is growing exponentially.


Two thousands miles away, smashing organizer's expectations, over 2400 people attended the anti-war rally held in Uptown Minneapolis, while another 2000 persons protested against war in Chicago's Federal Plaza.


GRAFFITI

Cityfox hat ein Train Update und bei MONTANA gibts ein neues
Bombing-Spiel das ziemlich cool gemacht worden ist.
IRAK

Spiegel: "Ich habe Saddams Spiele satt"

Zwei amerikanische Flottenverbände und weitere Kriegsschiffe sind in die Golf-Region unterwegs. Die US-Marine bereitet sich intensiv auf einen Einsatz am Golf vor. US-Präsident George W. Bush warnte Saddam Hussein einmal mehr.

IRAK

Yahoo News OP/ED: IRAQ: ANOTHER FAKE LIBERATION


"The Defense Department claims 12 nations with nuclear weapons programs, 13 with biological weapons, 16 with chemical weapons, and 28 with ballistic missiles as existing and emerging threats to the United States. But only one of those countries sits atop the second largest oil reserves in the world."



Charles Peña, Senior Defense Policy Fellow of the Cato Institute, for The Chicago Tribune

NEW YORK--The American invasion of Iraq promises to be a blockbuster. They've designed the logos, focus-grouped the test audiences, and run the trailers. At this late date Bush wouldn't dare disappoint us with a boring old peace agreement. There's just one thing still missing from the script: the happy ending.

ISRAEL

palestinemonitor.org: Three Israeli political parties call for transfer of Palestinians

In a recent announcement published in Israel, three Israeli political parties called upon Palestinians to move from Israel to Jordan or other Arab countries. This “transfer” is, according to Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, “nothing more than a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.”

"Drei Israelische Parteien rufen öffentlich zu "Ethnischen-Säuberungen" auf. Das nennt man dann "Demokratie". Im Westen gab es in den Medien bisher keine Reaktionen darauf. Was würden die westlichen Medien wohl schreiben wenn Arabische Staaten einen Transfer von Israelis fordern würden?"
AFGHANISTAN

Globalresearch: The Getaway
Article published in THE NEW YORKER 21.02.2002

Washington Behind Indo-Pakistan Conflict: How American Special Forces organised the evacuation of Al Qaeda and Pakistan ISI Forces to Kashmir.
In interviews, however, American intelligence officials and high-ranking military officers said that Pakistanis were indeed flown to safety, in a series of nighttime airlifts that were approved by the Bush Administration. The Americans also said that what was supposed to be a limited evacuation apparently slipped out of control, and, as an unintended consequence, an unknown number of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters managed to join in the exodus.the Administration ordered the United States Central Command to set up a special air corridor to help insure the safety of the Pakistani rescue flights from Kunduz to the northwest corner of Pakistan... [According to] an Indian assessment, thirtythree hundred prisoners surrendered... A few hundred Taliban were also turned over to other tribal leaders... That left between four and five thousand men unaccounted for. "Where are the balance?" ... None of the American intelligence officials I spoke with were able to say with certainty how many Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters were flown to safety, or may have escaped from Kunduz by other means. India, wary of antagonizing the Bush Administration, chose not to denounce the airlift at the time....Diplomatic notes protesting the airlift were sent to Britain and the United States. Neither responded... Indian intelligence was convinced that many of the airlifted fighters would soon be infiltrated into Kashmir. There was a precedent for this... Our reading is that the fighters can go only to Kashmir."

911

Baltimore Chronicle: How Did those WTC Buildings Collapse?

The Washington Post recently (and casually) reported (1/3/03) that the ownership of our nation’s media and entertainment industries is becoming more even more consolidated than they are today. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is determined to relax the restrictions which control how much investment in media and information immense corporations like AOL-Time-Warner can make within individual markets. It has long been the opinion of this writer that media concentration is the Number One problem facing this country. People who dispute this idea always point out that the Internet is a source of information for those who (rightly) avoid the mainstream. However, the Bush right-wing faction (as opposed to the right wing faction that deplores government interference with liberties) is planning an attack on the freedom many of us associate with the “information superhighway” as you read these words.
USA

John Pilger: Pilger - They said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor".
Two years ago a project set up by the men who now surround George W Bush said what America needed was "a new Pearl Harbor". Its published aims have, alarmingly, come true

"The threat posed by US terrorism to the security of nations and individuals was outlined in prophetic detail in a document written more than two years ago and disclosed only recently. What was needed for America to dominate much of humanity and the world's resources, it said, was "some catastrophic and catalysing event - like a new Pearl Harbor". The attacks of 11 September 2001 provided the "new Pearl Harbor", described as "the opportunity of ages". The extremists who have since exploited 11 September come from the era of Ronald Reagan, when far-right groups and "think-tanks" were established to avenge the American "defeat" in Vietnam. In the 1990s, there was an added agenda: to justify the denial of a "peace dividend" following the cold war. The Project for the New American Century was formed, along with the American Enterprise Institute, the Hudson Institute and others that have since merged the ambitions of the Reagan administration with those of the current Bush regime."

"One of George W Bush's "thinkers" is Richard Perle. I interviewed Perle when he was advising Reagan; and when he spoke about "total war", I mistakenly dismissed him as mad. He recently used the term again in describing America's "war on terror". "No stages," he said. "This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq... this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war... our children will sing great songs about us years from now.""

"On the morning of 12 September 2001, without any evidence of who the hijackers were, Rumsfeld demanded that the US attack Iraq. According to Woodward, Rumsfeld told a cabinet meeting that Iraq should be "a principal target of the first round in the war against terrorism". Iraq was temporarily spared only because Colin Powell, the secretary of state, persuaded Bush that "public opinion has to be prepared before a move against Iraq is possible". Afghanistan was chosen as the softer option. If Jonathan Steele's estimate in the Guardian is correct, some 20,000 people in Afghanistan paid the price of this debate with their lives."

USA

Counterpunch: Monsters Inc.
The Pentagon Plan to Create Mutant "Super-Soldiers"

"Pentagon dark lord Donald Rumsfeld is shoveling billions of tax dollars into the research furnaces of federal laboratories and private universities across the land in the wide-ranging effort to spawn "super soldiers," fired by drugs and electromagnetic "brain zaps" to fight without ceasing for days on end. The work is being directed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)--yes, the same outfit now laboring under convicted terrorist-conspirator John Poindexter to build the "Total Information Awareness" network that will allow the government to monitor the electronic records and communications of every citizen"

"And the term "creation" is not just fanciful rhetoric: some of the research now underway involves actually altering the genetic code of soldiers, modifying bits of DNA to fashion a new type of human specimen, one that functions like a machine, killing tirelessly for days and nights on end. These mutations will "revolutionize the contemporary order of battle" and guarantee "operational dominance across the whole range of potential U.S. military employments," the DARPA wizards enthuse."
USA FREEDOM OF SPEACH

NY Times: Old Words on War Stirring a New Dispute at Berkeley

"In an unusual showdown over freedom of expression, university officials have refused to allow a fund-raising appeal for the Emma Goldman Papers Project to be mailed because it quoted Goldman on the subjects of suppression of free speech and her opposition to war. The university deemed the topics too political as the country prepares for possible military action against Iraq"

In one of the quotations, from 1915, Goldman called on people "not yet overcome by war madness to raise their voice of protest, to call the attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be perpetrated on them." In the other, from 1902, she warned that free-speech advocates "shall soon be obliged to meet in cellars, or in darkened rooms with closed doors, and speak in whispers lest our next-door neighbors should hear that free-born citizens dare not speak in the open."
USA

Spiegel: Bush verliert an Boden

US-Präsident George W. Bush verliert in der Bevölkerung deutlich an Rückhalt: Einer aktuellen Umfrage zufolge sank die Zustimmung zu seiner Politik erstmals seit den Terroranschlägen vom 11. September unter 60 Prozent.
IRAK

Spiegel: Briten drohen mit Angriff - auch ohne Uno-Mandat
Nach zwischenzeitlicher Mäßigung rührt die britische Regierung wieder die Kriegstrommeln: Außenminister Jack Straw betonte, dass sein Land als Hauptverbündeter der USA auch ohne ausdrückliches Uno-Mandat den Irak angreifen könnte.

Tagesanzeiger: Grossbritannien behält sich nach den Worten des Aussenministers Jack Straw vor, gegen Irak auch ohne eine weitere Uno-Resolution vorzugehen. Dies sagte Straw am Dienstag im Radiosender BBC
USA

Weltwoche: «Es gibt Leute im Weissen Haus, die den atomaren Erstschlag wollen»

Interview

Während des Vietnamkriegs veröffentlichte Daniel Ellsberg die geheimen Pentagon Papers und verursachte einen der grössten Regierungsskandale der USA. Heute äussert sich der Nuklearexperte düster über die Vorgänge im Irak.

"Im Unterschied zu Johnson lügt Bush uns nicht vor, er wolle keinen Krieg. Aber die Gründe, die er dafür angibt, sind alle erlogen. Das ist nicht ungewöhnlich, sondern typisch. Die meisten Leute denken, die Regierung lüge manchmal. Das ist nicht so. Regierungsbeamte lügen jedes Mal, wenn sie den Mund aufmachen. Wenn man eine gewisse Zeit in dem Apparat gearbeitet hat, vergisst man, dass das den Leuten draussen nicht bewusst ist. Als ich in meinem Buch darüber schrieb, dachte ich keinen Moment daran, dass das die Leute schockieren könnte, so normal schien es mir. Wenn ich geahnt hätte, dass nur Insider wissen, dass immer gelogen wird, hätte ich allein darüber ein ganzes Buch schreiben können."

ISRAEL

Weltwoche: «Palästinenser sind Tiere»

Mit Bulldozern, Tränengas und Betonmischern ist Israel daran, aus dem Westjordanland das grösste Freiluftgefängnis der Welt zu machen. Zwei Millionen Palästinenser werden eingemauert. Eine Visite.

Monday, January 13, 2003

USA

Guardian: Bushwhacked

"With war looming it is no good the American public looking to its newspapers for an independent voice. For, says Matthew Engel, the press have now become the president's men"


It is more than 30 years ago now, though it seems like yesterday. A Republican president, much derided by liberals, was in the White House and his opponents were being lashed by the rightwing attack dogs, led then by the vice-president, Spiro Agnew.

The elite East Coast press, exemplified by the New York Times and the Washington Post, were the special targets of his scorn: "pointy-headed liberals," he called them, and "the nattering nabobs of negativism".
NORTHKOREA

Guardian: US softens line in North Korea dispute

The US today appeared to soften its stance in a tense standoff with the reclusive North Korean government, offering to restore much-needed energy aid if North Korea abandoned its nuclear programme.
At a meeting with South Korea's president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, the assistant US secretary of state, James Kelly, today seemed to reverse the US position that it would not reward North Korea for dismantling its nuclear programmes.

Es scheint als sei Diplomatie möglich solange es nicht um Öl geht....
ENGLAND

Guardian: Blair ready to act without new UN resolution

The prime minister, Tony Blair, said today that he believed "passionately" that Saddam Hussein must be stripped of his weapons of mass destruction, with or without a new UN resolution.
IRAK

Spiegel: Uno-Inspektionen dauern ein ganzes Jahr

Schlechte Nachrichten für die Falken im Pentagon, die einen schnellen Angriff auf den Irak befürworten. Ein abschließendes Urteil der Uno-Experten über die irakischen Waffensysteme wird offenbar erst Ende des Jahres vorliegen. Mit einem Angriffsbefehl vor Abschluss der Uno-Inspektionen würde US-Präsident Bush die gesamte Weltgemeinschaft verprellen.
PR WATCH

prwatch.org: War Is Sell

"From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August," White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. told the New York Times in September. Card was explaining what the Times characterized as a "meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress, and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein."

"We're getting the band together," said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett in September. The "band," explained Newsweek's Martha Brant, refers to "the people who brought you the war in Afghanistan--or at least the accompanying public-relations campaign. ... Now they're back for a reunion tour on Iraq."
A group of young White House up-and-comers, the "band" was meeting daily on a morning conference call to plan media strategy with the aim of controlling "the message within the administration so no one--not even Vice President Dick Cheney--freelances on Iraq," Brant wrote.