USA
ZNET: POWER OUTAGE TRACED TO DIM BULB IN WHITE HOUSE by Greg Palast
The Tale of The Brits Who Swiped 800 Jobs From New York, Carted Off $90 Million, Then Tonight, Turned Off Our Lights
I can tell you all about the ne're-do-wells that put out our lights tonight. I came up against these characters -- the Niagara Mohawk Power Company -- some years back. You see, before I was a journalist, I worked for a living, as an investigator of corporate racketeers. In the 1980s, "NiMo" built a nuclear plant, Nine Mile Point, a brutally costly piece of hot junk for which NiMo and its partner companies charged billions to New York State's electricity ratepayers.
To pull off this grand theft by kilowatt, the NiMo-led consortium fabricated cost and schedule reports, then performed a Harry Potter job on the account books. In 1988, I showed a jury a memo from an executive from one partner, Long Island Lighting, giving a lesson to a NiMo honcho on how to lie to government regulators. The jury ordered LILCO to pay $4.3 billion and, ultimately, put them out of business.
And that's why, if you're in the Northeast, you're reading this by candlelight tonight. Here's what happened. After LILCO was hammered by the law, after government regulators slammed Niagara Mohawk and dozens of other book-cooking, document-doctoring utility companies all over America with fines and penalties totaling in the tens of billions of dollars, the industry leaders got together to swear never to break the regulations again. Their plan was not to follow the rules, but to ELIMINATE the rules. They called it "deregulation."
Monday, August 18, 2003
SCHWEIZ
Facts: Fatale Verwechslung
Die Genfer Polizei wendet weiter fragwürdige Fahndungsmethoden an. Pech, wer einem Täter gleicht.
Von Lisa Stadler
Kritik hin oder her: Die Genfer Polizei fahndet noch immer mit Fotos im Internet nach mutmasslichen G-8-Randalierern. Die Methode führt zu fragwürdigen Resultaten. Wie beim 24-jährigen Zürcher Studenten Simon, der am Sonntag, 1. Juni mit zwei Kollegen an die bewilligte Anti-G-8-Demo in Genf gefahren war. Erinnerungsfotos dokumentieren den Ausflug.
Sein Pech: Er gleicht einem Mann, der in der Internet-Fahndung an den Pranger gestellt war. Eine verhängnisvolle Ähnlichkeit: Letzte Woche wurde Simon verhaftet und in Handschellen nach Genf überführt. «Eine Verwechslung», ist er überzeugt. Demonstrieren ist zwar sein verfassungsmässiges Recht. Jetzt aber fühlt er sich kriminalisiert. «Die Internet-Fotos stellen kein genügendes Verdachtsmoment für eine Verhaftung dar», sagt Simons Anwalt Jean-Pierre Garbade. «Sonst könnte jeder seinen Nachbarn denunzieren.» Er wird für seinen Klienten Schadenersatz fordern.
"Da ich den armen Studenten kenne, weiss ich das er ganz bestimmt keine Sachbeschädigungen begangen hat"
Facts: Fatale Verwechslung
Die Genfer Polizei wendet weiter fragwürdige Fahndungsmethoden an. Pech, wer einem Täter gleicht.
Von Lisa Stadler
Kritik hin oder her: Die Genfer Polizei fahndet noch immer mit Fotos im Internet nach mutmasslichen G-8-Randalierern. Die Methode führt zu fragwürdigen Resultaten. Wie beim 24-jährigen Zürcher Studenten Simon, der am Sonntag, 1. Juni mit zwei Kollegen an die bewilligte Anti-G-8-Demo in Genf gefahren war. Erinnerungsfotos dokumentieren den Ausflug.
Sein Pech: Er gleicht einem Mann, der in der Internet-Fahndung an den Pranger gestellt war. Eine verhängnisvolle Ähnlichkeit: Letzte Woche wurde Simon verhaftet und in Handschellen nach Genf überführt. «Eine Verwechslung», ist er überzeugt. Demonstrieren ist zwar sein verfassungsmässiges Recht. Jetzt aber fühlt er sich kriminalisiert. «Die Internet-Fotos stellen kein genügendes Verdachtsmoment für eine Verhaftung dar», sagt Simons Anwalt Jean-Pierre Garbade. «Sonst könnte jeder seinen Nachbarn denunzieren.» Er wird für seinen Klienten Schadenersatz fordern.
"Da ich den armen Studenten kenne, weiss ich das er ganz bestimmt keine Sachbeschädigungen begangen hat"
Friday, August 15, 2003
USA
Spiegel: Blackout dauert an
Auch 18 Stunden nach Beginn des Stromausfalls im Norden der USA und in Kanada sind noch Millionen Menschen von der Energieversorgung abgeschnitten. In der Ostküstenmetropole New York liegt das Geschäftszentrum in Manhatten weiter lahm. Laut Bürgermeister Bloomberg wird es noch Stunden dauern, bis es dort wieder Strom gibt.
Independent: 50 million without power as huge blackout hits eastern US and Canada
Spiegel: Blackout dauert an
Auch 18 Stunden nach Beginn des Stromausfalls im Norden der USA und in Kanada sind noch Millionen Menschen von der Energieversorgung abgeschnitten. In der Ostküstenmetropole New York liegt das Geschäftszentrum in Manhatten weiter lahm. Laut Bürgermeister Bloomberg wird es noch Stunden dauern, bis es dort wieder Strom gibt.
Independent: 50 million without power as huge blackout hits eastern US and Canada
Thursday, August 14, 2003
USA: 2004 ELECTIONS
Spiegel: Bandenkrieg gegen Dr. Dean
Mit scharfen Attacken gegen George Bush, den Krieg und die "Feigheit" der eigenen Partei hat sich Howard Dean an die Spitze der demokratischen Pr?sidentschaftsbewerber gesetzt. Nun schl?gt das Partei-Establishment zurück
Seit ein paar Wochen gilt Dr. Dean, lange ein Nobody, als der ?berraschungsfavorit im Rennen um die Nominierung. Gerade prangte sein Gesicht zeitgleich auf den Titeln von "Time" und "Newsweek" - ein medialer Doppel-Coup. Für Dean reicht es nun nicht mehr, nur gegen Bush zu zürnen - er muss sich auch gegen die alte Garde der Demokraten verteidigen. Gegen Kongress-Veteranen wie Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt - und John Kerry, der sich wohl schon als Kandidat gesehen hatte.
Dean sei zu links, zu wütend, zu nah am Pazifismus, t?nt auch Senator Lieberman. Wer diesen Populisten nominiere, kaufe "eine Fahrkarte nach nirgendwo". Deans Ideen - eine offizielle Untersuchung der Kriegspropaganda, staatliche Gesundheitsversicherung für alle, ehe?hnliche Rechte für Schwule und Lesben - l?gen vielleicht demokratischen Parteiaktivisten am Herzen. Der Mainstream-W?hler werde sich abwenden.
"Oh Oh der Mr. Dean hat aber dunke Ideen...staatliche Gesundheitsversicherung für alle...der ist richtig Radikal, was sagt da bloss Corporate America dazu? Amerika gleicht sein System der Sowietunion an. Das es zwei Parteien gibt ist bloss ein Trick um dem Waehler vorzugaukeln er haette auch wirklich eine Wahl. Die Demokraten und die Republikaner koennten sich eigentlich auch gleich zusammen tun"
Time Magazine: The Dean Factor
He's got money, momentum, excitement. But is that enough to take him to the top?
Spiegel: Bandenkrieg gegen Dr. Dean
Mit scharfen Attacken gegen George Bush, den Krieg und die "Feigheit" der eigenen Partei hat sich Howard Dean an die Spitze der demokratischen Pr?sidentschaftsbewerber gesetzt. Nun schl?gt das Partei-Establishment zurück
Seit ein paar Wochen gilt Dr. Dean, lange ein Nobody, als der ?berraschungsfavorit im Rennen um die Nominierung. Gerade prangte sein Gesicht zeitgleich auf den Titeln von "Time" und "Newsweek" - ein medialer Doppel-Coup. Für Dean reicht es nun nicht mehr, nur gegen Bush zu zürnen - er muss sich auch gegen die alte Garde der Demokraten verteidigen. Gegen Kongress-Veteranen wie Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt - und John Kerry, der sich wohl schon als Kandidat gesehen hatte.
Dean sei zu links, zu wütend, zu nah am Pazifismus, t?nt auch Senator Lieberman. Wer diesen Populisten nominiere, kaufe "eine Fahrkarte nach nirgendwo". Deans Ideen - eine offizielle Untersuchung der Kriegspropaganda, staatliche Gesundheitsversicherung für alle, ehe?hnliche Rechte für Schwule und Lesben - l?gen vielleicht demokratischen Parteiaktivisten am Herzen. Der Mainstream-W?hler werde sich abwenden.
"Oh Oh der Mr. Dean hat aber dunke Ideen...staatliche Gesundheitsversicherung für alle...der ist richtig Radikal, was sagt da bloss Corporate America dazu? Amerika gleicht sein System der Sowietunion an. Das es zwei Parteien gibt ist bloss ein Trick um dem Waehler vorzugaukeln er haette auch wirklich eine Wahl. Die Demokraten und die Republikaner koennten sich eigentlich auch gleich zusammen tun"
Time Magazine: The Dean Factor
He's got money, momentum, excitement. But is that enough to take him to the top?
WEATHER
Spiegel: Experten sprechen von bis zu 3000 Toten
Die Lage sei sehr ernst, und die Todeszahlen "werden hoch, sogar sehr hoch sein", sagte der französische Gesundheitsminister Jean-François Mattei. Besonders in der Hauptstadt Paris nimmt die Zahl der Hitze-Toten erschreckende Ausmaße an.
Spiegel: Experten sprechen von bis zu 3000 Toten
Die Lage sei sehr ernst, und die Todeszahlen "werden hoch, sogar sehr hoch sein", sagte der französische Gesundheitsminister Jean-François Mattei. Besonders in der Hauptstadt Paris nimmt die Zahl der Hitze-Toten erschreckende Ausmaße an.
USA
Reuters: Bush to Sidestep Muslim Groups, Senate on Scholar
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Over objections from some Muslim American groups, President Bush plans to sidestep Congress and appoint a Middle East scholar who has been derided by critics as anti-Muslim to a federally funded think tank, congressional sources said on Tuesday.
Bush's expected recess appointment of Daniel Pipes could spark a backlash from some Muslim Americans and Democrats in Congress, who oppose his nomination to serve on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was created by Congress to promote peaceful solutions to world conflicts.
"link by Pedro"
MSNBC: Opposing Daniel Pipes
Bush’s nominee doesn’t belong at the U.S. Institute for Peace
Aug. 11 — When I read that Daniel Pipes had been nominated to the board of the United States Institute of Peace (a federally funded body whose members are proposed by the president and confirmed by the Senate), my first reaction was one of bafflement. Why did Pipes want the nomination? After all, USIP, a somewhat mild organization, is devoted to the peaceful resolution of conflict. For Pipes, this notion is a contradiction in terms.
I AM NOT myself a pacifist, and I believe that Islamic nihilism has to be combated with every weapon, intellectual and moral as well as military, which we possess or can acquire. But that is a position shared by a very wide spectrum of people. Pipes, however, uses this consensus to take a position somewhat to the right of Ariel Sharon, concerning a matter (the Israel-Palestine dispute) that actually can be settled by negotiation. And he employs the fears and insecurities created by Islamic extremism to slander or misrepresent those who disagree with him.
Reuters: Bush to Sidestep Muslim Groups, Senate on Scholar
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Over objections from some Muslim American groups, President Bush plans to sidestep Congress and appoint a Middle East scholar who has been derided by critics as anti-Muslim to a federally funded think tank, congressional sources said on Tuesday.
Bush's expected recess appointment of Daniel Pipes could spark a backlash from some Muslim Americans and Democrats in Congress, who oppose his nomination to serve on the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was created by Congress to promote peaceful solutions to world conflicts.
"link by Pedro"
MSNBC: Opposing Daniel Pipes
Bush’s nominee doesn’t belong at the U.S. Institute for Peace
Aug. 11 — When I read that Daniel Pipes had been nominated to the board of the United States Institute of Peace (a federally funded body whose members are proposed by the president and confirmed by the Senate), my first reaction was one of bafflement. Why did Pipes want the nomination? After all, USIP, a somewhat mild organization, is devoted to the peaceful resolution of conflict. For Pipes, this notion is a contradiction in terms.
I AM NOT myself a pacifist, and I believe that Islamic nihilism has to be combated with every weapon, intellectual and moral as well as military, which we possess or can acquire. But that is a position shared by a very wide spectrum of people. Pipes, however, uses this consensus to take a position somewhat to the right of Ariel Sharon, concerning a matter (the Israel-Palestine dispute) that actually can be settled by negotiation. And he employs the fears and insecurities created by Islamic extremism to slander or misrepresent those who disagree with him.
PSYCHOLOGIE
Guardian: Study of Bush's psyche touches a nerve
A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".
As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.
All of them "preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality".
Republicans are demanding to know why the psychologists behind the report, Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, received $1.2m in public funds for their research from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The authors also peer into the psyche of President George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case. The telltale signs are his preference for moral certainty and frequently expressed dislike of nuance.
"This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes," the authors argue in the Psychological Bulletin.
One of the psychologists behind the study, Jack Glaser, said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for "closure" could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
"Als hätten wir es nicht gewusst"
"Link provided by pedro"
Guardian: Study of Bush's psyche touches a nerve
A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".
As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.
All of them "preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality".
Republicans are demanding to know why the psychologists behind the report, Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition, received $1.2m in public funds for their research from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
The authors also peer into the psyche of President George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case. The telltale signs are his preference for moral certainty and frequently expressed dislike of nuance.
"This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes," the authors argue in the Psychological Bulletin.
One of the psychologists behind the study, Jack Glaser, said the aversion to shades of grey and the need for "closure" could explain the fact that the Bush administration ignored intelligence that contradicted its beliefs about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
"Als hätten wir es nicht gewusst"
"Link provided by pedro"
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Independent: British soldiers face wrath of Iraqis as hatred festers on streets of Basra
By Justin Huggler in Basra
Burnt tyres and stones that were thrown at British soldiers trying to contain riots by Iraqis infuriated by constant power cuts and a fuel crisis still littered the streets of Basra yesterday.
Calm had been restored to the city after two days in which at least one Iraqi protester was killed - who fired the bullet is still unclear - and a Nepalese former Gurkha soldier was shot dead when his UN car was ambushed in the street. But you get the sense the British are sitting on a pressure cooker.
How serious the riots were depends on whom you speak to. Ask the British occupation authority which runs the south of Iraq, and it was all a storm in a teacup. Ask the Iraqis on the streets of Basra, and you hear a different story. There is anger seething on the streets.
Independent: British soldiers face wrath of Iraqis as hatred festers on streets of Basra
By Justin Huggler in Basra
Burnt tyres and stones that were thrown at British soldiers trying to contain riots by Iraqis infuriated by constant power cuts and a fuel crisis still littered the streets of Basra yesterday.
Calm had been restored to the city after two days in which at least one Iraqi protester was killed - who fired the bullet is still unclear - and a Nepalese former Gurkha soldier was shot dead when his UN car was ambushed in the street. But you get the sense the British are sitting on a pressure cooker.
How serious the riots were depends on whom you speak to. Ask the British occupation authority which runs the south of Iraq, and it was all a storm in a teacup. Ask the Iraqis on the streets of Basra, and you hear a different story. There is anger seething on the streets.
IRAQ
WSWS.org: Spanish troops in Iraq to wear Christian badge
On first hearing that the new contingent of Spanish troops being sent to Iraq are wearing the Cruz de Santiago de Compostela (Cross of St. James of Compostela) on their arm badge, one could be forgiven for thinking the authorities in Spain had lost their minds. On reflection, however, and in the context of the prevailing world political atmosphere, more sinister conclusions can be drawn from this action.
The triangular top and arrow-like arms of the cross have become a symbol of the liquidation of the Muslims who were finally driven out of Spain after 800 years of fighting by the reconquest in 1492. This was also the start of the period of colonialist expansion by Spain’s Catholic monarchy.
WSWS.org: Spanish troops in Iraq to wear Christian badge
On first hearing that the new contingent of Spanish troops being sent to Iraq are wearing the Cruz de Santiago de Compostela (Cross of St. James of Compostela) on their arm badge, one could be forgiven for thinking the authorities in Spain had lost their minds. On reflection, however, and in the context of the prevailing world political atmosphere, more sinister conclusions can be drawn from this action.
The triangular top and arrow-like arms of the cross have become a symbol of the liquidation of the Muslims who were finally driven out of Spain after 800 years of fighting by the reconquest in 1492. This was also the start of the period of colonialist expansion by Spain’s Catholic monarchy.
IRAQ
AFP: US troops kill Iraqi police: witness
AFP - US soldiers in Baghdad on Saturday shot dead an Iraqi policeman they mistook for an attacker, killed another as he tried to surrender to them and beat a third, a survivor of the incident said.
The three Iraqi officers were firing from their unmarked car at a suspect vehicle they were chasing when the Americans opened fire on them in a western suburb of the capital, Sergeant Hamza Atiya Muhsen, who said he was driving the car, told AFP.
AFP: US troops kill Iraqi police: witness
AFP - US soldiers in Baghdad on Saturday shot dead an Iraqi policeman they mistook for an attacker, killed another as he tried to surrender to them and beat a third, a survivor of the incident said.
The three Iraqi officers were firing from their unmarked car at a suspect vehicle they were chasing when the Americans opened fire on them in a western suburb of the capital, Sergeant Hamza Atiya Muhsen, who said he was driving the car, told AFP.
USA
Asiatimes: Iran-Contra, amplified
WASHINGTON - A specter of the Iran-Contra affair is haunting Washington. Even some of the people and countries are the same. And the methods - particularly the pursuit by a network of well-placed individuals of a covert, parallel foreign policy that is at odds with official policy - are definitely the same.
Boiled down to its essentials, the Iran-Contra affair was about a small group of officials based in the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that ran an "off-the-books" operation to secretly sell arms to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon.
They used the proceeds over the following years to sustain the Nicaraguan Contras - US-sponsored rebels fighting Managua's left-wing government - in defiance of both a congressional ban and of official US policy as enunciated by the State Department and then president Ronald Reagan. It was never clear whether Reagan understood, let alone approved, the operation.
The picture emerging from the latest reports about the manipulation of intelligence in the drive to war with Iraq, as well as efforts by administration hawks to deliberately aggravate tensions with Syria, Iran, and North Korea in defiance of official State Department and US policy, suggest a similar but much more ambitious scheme at work.
Asiatimes: Iran-Contra, amplified
WASHINGTON - A specter of the Iran-Contra affair is haunting Washington. Even some of the people and countries are the same. And the methods - particularly the pursuit by a network of well-placed individuals of a covert, parallel foreign policy that is at odds with official policy - are definitely the same.
Boiled down to its essentials, the Iran-Contra affair was about a small group of officials based in the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that ran an "off-the-books" operation to secretly sell arms to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon.
They used the proceeds over the following years to sustain the Nicaraguan Contras - US-sponsored rebels fighting Managua's left-wing government - in defiance of both a congressional ban and of official US policy as enunciated by the State Department and then president Ronald Reagan. It was never clear whether Reagan understood, let alone approved, the operation.
The picture emerging from the latest reports about the manipulation of intelligence in the drive to war with Iraq, as well as efforts by administration hawks to deliberately aggravate tensions with Syria, Iran, and North Korea in defiance of official State Department and US policy, suggest a similar but much more ambitious scheme at work.
IRAQ
Dailytimes Pakistan: US tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblower
-“CIA people were supposed to be handling it. They had a special
‘black’ aircraft to fly it out. But none of that happened because the
regular US Army showed up, stumbled onto it and everyone involved had
to scramble...." -The problem became evident when “the operation in Iraq
involved 100 people, all of whom apparently are now dead, having
succumbed to so-called ‘friendly fire’. The scope of this operation included the
penetration of the Central Bank of Iraq, other large commercial banks
in Baghdad, the Iraqi National Museum and certain presidential palaces
where monies and bullion were secreted.”
According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander
and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush
administration’s assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to “plant”
WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower,
claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by
“friendly fire”, the Environmentalists Against War report.
Nelda Rogers is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the DoD. She has become
so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this
latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, “Ms
Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special
intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the
central debriefing office for the Department of Defense.”
Dailytimes Pakistan: US tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblower
-“CIA people were supposed to be handling it. They had a special
‘black’ aircraft to fly it out. But none of that happened because the
regular US Army showed up, stumbled onto it and everyone involved had
to scramble...." -The problem became evident when “the operation in Iraq
involved 100 people, all of whom apparently are now dead, having
succumbed to so-called ‘friendly fire’. The scope of this operation included the
penetration of the Central Bank of Iraq, other large commercial banks
in Baghdad, the Iraqi National Museum and certain presidential palaces
where monies and bullion were secreted.”
According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander
and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush
administration’s assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to “plant”
WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower,
claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by
“friendly fire”, the Environmentalists Against War report.
Nelda Rogers is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the DoD. She has become
so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this
latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, “Ms
Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special
intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the
central debriefing office for the Department of Defense.”
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
SITE OF THE DAY: STREETART
CHeck My Dog is Polite
Very nice Streetart and Graffiti Pics from Barcelona
CHECK IT
CHeck My Dog is Polite
Very nice Streetart and Graffiti Pics from Barcelona
CHECK IT
ENVIRONMENT
ZMAG: Sleepwalking To Extinction by George Monbiot
Something about the human mind appears to prevent us from grasping the reality of climate change
We live in a dreamworld. With a small, rational part of the brain, we recognise that our existence is governed by material realities, and that, as those realities change, so will our lives. But underlying this awareness is the deep semi-consciousness which absorbs the moment in which we live then generalises it, projecting our future lives as repeated instances of the present. This, not the superficial world of our reason, is our true reality. All that separates us from the indigenous people of Australia is that they recognise this and we do not.
Our dreaming will, as it has begun to do already, destroy the conditions necessary for human life on earth. Were we governed by reason, we would be on the barricades today, dragging the drivers of Range Rovers and Nissan Patrols out of their seats, occupying and shutting down the coal-burning power stations, bursting in upon the Blairs' retreat from reality in Barbados and demanding a reversal of economic life as dramatic as the one we bore when we went to war with Hitler. Instead, we whine about the heat and thumb through the brochures for holidays in Iceland. The future has been laid out before us, but the deep eye with which we place ourselves on earth will not see it.
Of course, we cannot say that the remarkable temperatures in Europe this week are the result of global warming. What we can say is that they correspond to the predictions made by climate scientists
"CHECK IT"
ZMAG: Sleepwalking To Extinction by George Monbiot
Something about the human mind appears to prevent us from grasping the reality of climate change
We live in a dreamworld. With a small, rational part of the brain, we recognise that our existence is governed by material realities, and that, as those realities change, so will our lives. But underlying this awareness is the deep semi-consciousness which absorbs the moment in which we live then generalises it, projecting our future lives as repeated instances of the present. This, not the superficial world of our reason, is our true reality. All that separates us from the indigenous people of Australia is that they recognise this and we do not.
Our dreaming will, as it has begun to do already, destroy the conditions necessary for human life on earth. Were we governed by reason, we would be on the barricades today, dragging the drivers of Range Rovers and Nissan Patrols out of their seats, occupying and shutting down the coal-burning power stations, bursting in upon the Blairs' retreat from reality in Barbados and demanding a reversal of economic life as dramatic as the one we bore when we went to war with Hitler. Instead, we whine about the heat and thumb through the brochures for holidays in Iceland. The future has been laid out before us, but the deep eye with which we place ourselves on earth will not see it.
Of course, we cannot say that the remarkable temperatures in Europe this week are the result of global warming. What we can say is that they correspond to the predictions made by climate scientists
"CHECK IT"
IRAQ
ZMAG: Preventive War 'the Supreme Crime' by Noam Chomsky
Iraq: invasion that will live in infamy
SEPTEMBER 2002 was marked by three events of considerable importance, closely related. The United States, the most powerful state in history, announced a new national security strategy asserting that it will maintain global hegemony permanently. Any challenge will be blocked by force, the dimension in which the US reigns supreme. At the same time, the war drums began to beat to mobilise the population for an invasion of Iraq. And the campaign opened for the mid-term congressional elections, which would determine whether the administration would be able to carry forward its radical international and domestic agenda.
CHECK IT! CHECK IT! CHECK IT!
ZMAG: Preventive War 'the Supreme Crime' by Noam Chomsky
Iraq: invasion that will live in infamy
SEPTEMBER 2002 was marked by three events of considerable importance, closely related. The United States, the most powerful state in history, announced a new national security strategy asserting that it will maintain global hegemony permanently. Any challenge will be blocked by force, the dimension in which the US reigns supreme. At the same time, the war drums began to beat to mobilise the population for an invasion of Iraq. And the campaign opened for the mid-term congressional elections, which would determine whether the administration would be able to carry forward its radical international and domestic agenda.
CHECK IT! CHECK IT! CHECK IT!
PRIVACY
ANONYMITY IS NOT A CRIME
JAP makes it possible to surf the internet anonymously and unobservably.
Without Anonymization, every computer in the internet communicates using a traceable Address. That means:
the website visited,
the internet service provider (ISP),
and any eavesdropper on the internet connection
can determine which websites the user of a specific computer visits. Even the information which the user calls up can be intercepted and seen if encryption is not used.
JAP uses a single static address which is shared by many JAP users. That way neither the visited website, nor an eavesdropper can determine which user visited which website
MORE INFO'S AND DOWNLOAD HERE
ANONYMITY IS NOT A CRIME
JAP makes it possible to surf the internet anonymously and unobservably.
Without Anonymization, every computer in the internet communicates using a traceable Address. That means:
the website visited,
the internet service provider (ISP),
and any eavesdropper on the internet connection
can determine which websites the user of a specific computer visits. Even the information which the user calls up can be intercepted and seen if encryption is not used.
JAP uses a single static address which is shared by many JAP users. That way neither the visited website, nor an eavesdropper can determine which user visited which website
MORE INFO'S AND DOWNLOAD HERE
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Tages Anzeiger: Erneut Anschläge im Irak
Bei einem Bombenanschlag in der irakischen Stadt Baakuba nordöstlich von Bagdad sind in der Nacht auf Montag ein US-Soldat getötet und zwei weitere verletzt worden.
Auch in der Hauptstadt Bagdad waren zuvor zwei Bomben detoniert, wie der arabische Fernsehsenders al-Arabija berichtete. Die Explosionen hätten sich in der Nähe der britischen Botschaft im Stadtteil Salhija ereignet.
Augenzeugen sagten, es habe kurz nach Mitternacht zwei Explosionen gegeben. Dabei sei ein Iraker verletzt worden. Die britische Botschaft sei aber nicht das Ziel gewesen.
Tages Anzeiger: Erneut Anschläge im Irak
Bei einem Bombenanschlag in der irakischen Stadt Baakuba nordöstlich von Bagdad sind in der Nacht auf Montag ein US-Soldat getötet und zwei weitere verletzt worden.
Auch in der Hauptstadt Bagdad waren zuvor zwei Bomben detoniert, wie der arabische Fernsehsenders al-Arabija berichtete. Die Explosionen hätten sich in der Nähe der britischen Botschaft im Stadtteil Salhija ereignet.
Augenzeugen sagten, es habe kurz nach Mitternacht zwei Explosionen gegeben. Dabei sei ein Iraker verletzt worden. Die britische Botschaft sei aber nicht das Ziel gewesen.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Spiegel: Hamas und Aksa-Brigaden bekennen sich zu Terroranschl?gen
Sowohl die radikalislamische Hamas als auch die Arafat-nahen Aksa-Brigaden haben sich zu den Selbstmordanschl?gen auf eine jüdische Siedlung im Westjordanland und ein Einkaufszentrum bei Tel Aviv bekannt. Israel hat unterdessen die Freilassung von 76 pal?stinensischen H?ftlingen verschoben.
Jerusalem - In der Internet-Erkl?rung r?umte die Hamas erstmals offiziell einen Bruch des am 29. Juni verkündeten Waffenstillstands ein. An der Einfahrt zur Siedlung Ariel hatte sich am Morgen ein Attent?ter an einer Bushaltestelle in die Luft gesprengt. Nach Angaben des Rettungsdienstes kam ein 18-j?hriger Israeli ums Leben, zwei weitere Personen wurden schwer verletzt. Nur eine Stunde zuvor war ein Selbstmordanschlag auf ein Einkaufszentrum im Tel Aviver Vorort Rosch Haajin verübt worden. Neben dem Attent?ter wurde ein Israeli get?tet, neun weitere wurden verletzt.
Independent: Suicide bombers rock Middle East ceasefire
Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in a shopping centre in Israel and a bus stop at a Jewish West Bank settlement today, killing at least two Israelis and raising doubts about the shaky Middle East ceasefire.
The bombings in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rosh Haayin and the West Bank settlement of Ariel, less than an hour apart, in which at least 10 people were also injured, marked the most serious violations of the truce called by the main militant groups at the end of June.
Spiegel: Hamas und Aksa-Brigaden bekennen sich zu Terroranschl?gen
Sowohl die radikalislamische Hamas als auch die Arafat-nahen Aksa-Brigaden haben sich zu den Selbstmordanschl?gen auf eine jüdische Siedlung im Westjordanland und ein Einkaufszentrum bei Tel Aviv bekannt. Israel hat unterdessen die Freilassung von 76 pal?stinensischen H?ftlingen verschoben.
Jerusalem - In der Internet-Erkl?rung r?umte die Hamas erstmals offiziell einen Bruch des am 29. Juni verkündeten Waffenstillstands ein. An der Einfahrt zur Siedlung Ariel hatte sich am Morgen ein Attent?ter an einer Bushaltestelle in die Luft gesprengt. Nach Angaben des Rettungsdienstes kam ein 18-j?hriger Israeli ums Leben, zwei weitere Personen wurden schwer verletzt. Nur eine Stunde zuvor war ein Selbstmordanschlag auf ein Einkaufszentrum im Tel Aviver Vorort Rosch Haajin verübt worden. Neben dem Attent?ter wurde ein Israeli get?tet, neun weitere wurden verletzt.
Independent: Suicide bombers rock Middle East ceasefire
Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up in a shopping centre in Israel and a bus stop at a Jewish West Bank settlement today, killing at least two Israelis and raising doubts about the shaky Middle East ceasefire.
The bombings in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rosh Haayin and the West Bank settlement of Ariel, less than an hour apart, in which at least 10 people were also injured, marked the most serious violations of the truce called by the main militant groups at the end of June.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
Haaretz: Cry, the beloved two-state solution
As negotiations with the Palestinians lurch forward and the separation wall snakes its way through the West Bank, two veteran leftists have reached a startling conclusion: There cannot be two states for two peoples in this land.
1. The groundwater
Meron Benvenisti and Haim Hanegbi did not exchange views.
Benvenisti lives in Jerusalem, on the edge of the desert, and
is trying to write a last book, a summing up. Hanegbi lives in
Ramat Aviv, not far from the sea, and is trying to formulate
a last, definitive, manifesto. Yet this summer both Benvenisti and Hanegbi reached an intriguing point in their conceptual development. They both reached
the conclusion that there is no longer any prospect of ending the conflict by means of a
two-state solution.
"CHECK IT"
Haaretz: Cry, the beloved two-state solution
As negotiations with the Palestinians lurch forward and the separation wall snakes its way through the West Bank, two veteran leftists have reached a startling conclusion: There cannot be two states for two peoples in this land.
1. The groundwater
Meron Benvenisti and Haim Hanegbi did not exchange views.
Benvenisti lives in Jerusalem, on the edge of the desert, and
is trying to write a last book, a summing up. Hanegbi lives in
Ramat Aviv, not far from the sea, and is trying to formulate
a last, definitive, manifesto. Yet this summer both Benvenisti and Hanegbi reached an intriguing point in their conceptual development. They both reached
the conclusion that there is no longer any prospect of ending the conflict by means of a
two-state solution.
"CHECK IT"
ISRAEL - LIBANON
Stuff: Israel hits back in Lebanon
SHLOMI: Israeli warplanes have bombed an anti-aircraft battery on the edge of a south Lebanon village in retaliation for shelling by Lebanese guerrillas that killed an Israeli teenager, the army says.
Israel called the air raids a "warning signal" after the 16-year-old Israeli was killed and four others were wounded when rockets fired by Hizbollah Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas hit a shopping centre in the northern border town of Shlomi.
It was the first fatality from Hizbollah shelling of northern Israel since the Jewish state withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation under daily guerrilla attacks by Hizbollah forces.
Stuff: Israel hits back in Lebanon
SHLOMI: Israeli warplanes have bombed an anti-aircraft battery on the edge of a south Lebanon village in retaliation for shelling by Lebanese guerrillas that killed an Israeli teenager, the army says.
Israel called the air raids a "warning signal" after the 16-year-old Israeli was killed and four others were wounded when rockets fired by Hizbollah Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas hit a shopping centre in the northern border town of Shlomi.
It was the first fatality from Hizbollah shelling of northern Israel since the Jewish state withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation under daily guerrilla attacks by Hizbollah forces.
USA
Zmag: Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Who's The Biggest Rogue Of All?
by Richard Du Boff
1. Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, 1996. Signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996 but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The US is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs. In November 2001, the US forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Treaty, and announced plans to resume nuclear testing for development of new short-range tactical nuclear weapons.
2. Antiballistic Missile Treaty, 1972. In December 2001, the US officially withdrew from the landmark agreement--the first time in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms control accord.
3. 4. 5......
"CHECK IT"
Zmag: Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Who's The Biggest Rogue Of All?
by Richard Du Boff
1. Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty, 1996. Signed by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996 but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The US is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs. In November 2001, the US forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Treaty, and announced plans to resume nuclear testing for development of new short-range tactical nuclear weapons.
2. Antiballistic Missile Treaty, 1972. In December 2001, the US officially withdrew from the landmark agreement--the first time in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms control accord.
3. 4. 5......
"CHECK IT"
WEATHER IN EUROPE
globeandmail: Glaciers melting in Europe
Castel Gandolfo, Italy — Britain sweltered through its hottest day on record Sunday and Alpine glaciers melted as the heat wave that has baked much of Europe for days sizzled on relentlessly.
"It is just miserable. You can't get any respite from it," says Londoner Ranald Davidson, squinting in the late afternoon sun as Britain surpassed 37.7 C for the first time.
The national weather service recorded 37.9 Celsius at Heathrow Airport, near a parched and baking London. Northern parts of the country were cooler, and torrential rain created problems in North Yorkshire.
Germans, too, have had record heat. In the Bavarian city of Roth, the temperature hit 40.4 C on Saturday. The previous record of 40.2 C was also in Bavaria, set in 1983
Independent: Heat threatens safety of nuclear reactors as France girds for
electricity rationing
The French government is considering national electricity rationing
after engineers warned that they can no longer guarantee the safety of the
country's 58 nuclear power reactors because the heatwave is defeating
efforts to cool them. A crisis meeting this morning at the Prime
Minister's office will be told that France - which depends more heavily
on atomic energy than any other European country - faces the prospect of
shutting down half its power grid.
globeandmail: Glaciers melting in Europe
Castel Gandolfo, Italy — Britain sweltered through its hottest day on record Sunday and Alpine glaciers melted as the heat wave that has baked much of Europe for days sizzled on relentlessly.
"It is just miserable. You can't get any respite from it," says Londoner Ranald Davidson, squinting in the late afternoon sun as Britain surpassed 37.7 C for the first time.
The national weather service recorded 37.9 Celsius at Heathrow Airport, near a parched and baking London. Northern parts of the country were cooler, and torrential rain created problems in North Yorkshire.
Germans, too, have had record heat. In the Bavarian city of Roth, the temperature hit 40.4 C on Saturday. The previous record of 40.2 C was also in Bavaria, set in 1983
Independent: Heat threatens safety of nuclear reactors as France girds for
electricity rationing
The French government is considering national electricity rationing
after engineers warned that they can no longer guarantee the safety of the
country's 58 nuclear power reactors because the heatwave is defeating
efforts to cool them. A crisis meeting this morning at the Prime
Minister's office will be told that France - which depends more heavily
on atomic energy than any other European country - faces the prospect of
shutting down half its power grid.
AUSTRIA
Sidney Morning Herald: Druid focuses Earth's energy on road toll
Druids have been brought in to reduce the number of accidents on Austria's worst stretch of autobahn.
The Druids have put up huge roadside monoliths to restore the natural flow of "earth energy". After the one tonne pillars of white quartz were erected beside a notorious stretch of road during a secret two-year trial, the number of fatal accidents fell from an average of six a year to zero.
Harald Dirnbacher, an engineer from the motorway authority, admitted that they turned to Mr Knobloch as a last resort.
"We had put up signs to reduce speed, renewed the road surface and made bends more secure but we still kept getting accidents," he said. "At that point we couldn't think of anything else to do and decided we might as well try anything.
"I admit when we first looked at it [energy lines] we were doubtful. We didn't want people to know in case they laughed at us, so we kept the trial secret and small-scale. But it was really an amazing turnaround."
Sidney Morning Herald: Druid focuses Earth's energy on road toll
Druids have been brought in to reduce the number of accidents on Austria's worst stretch of autobahn.
The Druids have put up huge roadside monoliths to restore the natural flow of "earth energy". After the one tonne pillars of white quartz were erected beside a notorious stretch of road during a secret two-year trial, the number of fatal accidents fell from an average of six a year to zero.
Harald Dirnbacher, an engineer from the motorway authority, admitted that they turned to Mr Knobloch as a last resort.
"We had put up signs to reduce speed, renewed the road surface and made bends more secure but we still kept getting accidents," he said. "At that point we couldn't think of anything else to do and decided we might as well try anything.
"I admit when we first looked at it [energy lines] we were doubtful. We didn't want people to know in case they laughed at us, so we kept the trial secret and small-scale. But it was really an amazing turnaround."
INDONESIA
Toronto Star: Jakarta oil offices on hit list
JAKARTA—The Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network, already accused of bombing nightclubs in Bali and the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, is suspected of planning attacks on U.S. oil companies and other targets in the Indonesian capital.
A confidential document reviewed by the Los Angeles Times indicated that among the targets on the group's list are the Jakarta headquarters of Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil and Unocal.
Toronto Star: Jakarta oil offices on hit list
JAKARTA—The Jemaah Islamiyah extremist network, already accused of bombing nightclubs in Bali and the Marriott hotel in Jakarta, is suspected of planning attacks on U.S. oil companies and other targets in the Indonesian capital.
A confidential document reviewed by the Los Angeles Times indicated that among the targets on the group's list are the Jakarta headquarters of Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil and Unocal.
IRAQ
unknownnews: Mystery pneumonia is being caused by America's weapons of mass destruction: A theory by Steve Hesske
Could America's mainstream media be any more perfidious and derelict in its so-called reporting of the current so-called pneumonia epidemic among U.S. service personnel in Iraq and a few nearby countries? A quick, informal survey of this week's coverage of the pneumonia story by our bastions of truth and enlightenment — CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post — shows that while all covered the story, none mentioned Gulf War Syndrome which befell maybe as much as 20% of the 700,000 Americans who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (PGW) or depleted uranium (DU) a radioactive weapon of mass destruction (WMD), outlawed by international treaty and world courts, that was used exclusively and extensively by the United States during the PGW and that was used by the U.S. during the recent invasion of Iraq at 10 times its PGW rate.
"CHECK IT"
unknownnews: Mystery pneumonia is being caused by America's weapons of mass destruction: A theory by Steve Hesske
Could America's mainstream media be any more perfidious and derelict in its so-called reporting of the current so-called pneumonia epidemic among U.S. service personnel in Iraq and a few nearby countries? A quick, informal survey of this week's coverage of the pneumonia story by our bastions of truth and enlightenment — CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post — shows that while all covered the story, none mentioned Gulf War Syndrome which befell maybe as much as 20% of the 700,000 Americans who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (PGW) or depleted uranium (DU) a radioactive weapon of mass destruction (WMD), outlawed by international treaty and world courts, that was used exclusively and extensively by the United States during the PGW and that was used by the U.S. during the recent invasion of Iraq at 10 times its PGW rate.
"CHECK IT"
IRAQI RESISTANCE
islamonline: Iraqi Group Vows Anti-U.S. Attacks, Denies Saddam Links
BAGHDAD, August 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Four masked men identifying themselves as Iraqi resistance group warned Sunday, August 10, of more anti-U.S. resistance operations in Iraq, while denying any link with Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
"This increasing resistance has no link with what remains of the former regime," said one of the four men pictured in a videotape broadcast by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite news channel.
"Because they have neither values nor principles, the ousted regime are not capable of taking part in anti-U.S. resistance and could not sacrifice their sons and wives; otherwise Baghdad would not have fallen with such easiness," he added.
"Iraqi resistance is legal and justified by all international laws and resolutions. How come that we should not resist as thousands of Iraqis are being detained, our land occupied and our honor violated" he said.
islamonline: Iraqi Group Vows Anti-U.S. Attacks, Denies Saddam Links
BAGHDAD, August 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Four masked men identifying themselves as Iraqi resistance group warned Sunday, August 10, of more anti-U.S. resistance operations in Iraq, while denying any link with Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
"This increasing resistance has no link with what remains of the former regime," said one of the four men pictured in a videotape broadcast by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite news channel.
"Because they have neither values nor principles, the ousted regime are not capable of taking part in anti-U.S. resistance and could not sacrifice their sons and wives; otherwise Baghdad would not have fallen with such easiness," he added.
"Iraqi resistance is legal and justified by all international laws and resolutions. How come that we should not resist as thousands of Iraqis are being detained, our land occupied and our honor violated" he said.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Sidney Morning Herald: Braced for an onslaught in Iraq
The United States-led administration in Iraq has received intelligence reports that hundreds of Islamic militants who fled Iraq during the war have returned and are planning terrorist attacks.
The top civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said fighters from Ansar al-Islam, a militant organisation that the US had sought to eliminate during the war, had escaped to Iran and then slipped back across the border. Hundreds of them were now in Iraq, preparing to attack the occupation forces or administration.
"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks here," he said. "So as long as we have, as I think we do, substantial numbers of Ansar terrorists around here, I think we have to be pretty alert to the fact that we may see more of this."
Sidney Morning Herald: Braced for an onslaught in Iraq
The United States-led administration in Iraq has received intelligence reports that hundreds of Islamic militants who fled Iraq during the war have returned and are planning terrorist attacks.
The top civilian administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, said fighters from Ansar al-Islam, a militant organisation that the US had sought to eliminate during the war, had escaped to Iran and then slipped back across the border. Hundreds of them were now in Iraq, preparing to attack the occupation forces or administration.
"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks here," he said. "So as long as we have, as I think we do, substantial numbers of Ansar terrorists around here, I think we have to be pretty alert to the fact that we may see more of this."
Monday, August 11, 2003
IRAQ BODYCOUNT
Islamonline: At Least 20,000 Iraqis Injured In War: Report
CAIRO, Aug 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 20,000 Iraqi civilians were injured in the U.S.-led war with 8,000 of these injuries reported in the Baghdad area alone, according to the first report of its kind prepared by an Anglo-American-European group of anti-war peace activists.
In its report entitled "Adding Indifference to Injury," the Iraq Body Count (IBC) underlined that the need to investigate and assess the war civilian deaths and injuries is urgent "for many of the injured may still be suffering and their condition may be improved if we act promptly."
CAIRO, Aug 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 20,000 Iraqi civilians were injured in the U.S.-led war with 8,000 of these injuries reported in the Baghdad area alone, according to the first report of its kind prepared by an Anglo-American-European group of anti-war peace activists.
In its report entitled "Adding Indifference to Injury," the Iraq Body Count (IBC) underlined that the need to investigate and assess the war civilian deaths and injuries is urgent "for many of the injured may still be suffering and their condition may be improved if we act promptly."
Islamonline: At Least 20,000 Iraqis Injured In War: Report
CAIRO, Aug 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 20,000 Iraqi civilians were injured in the U.S.-led war with 8,000 of these injuries reported in the Baghdad area alone, according to the first report of its kind prepared by an Anglo-American-European group of anti-war peace activists.
In its report entitled "Adding Indifference to Injury," the Iraq Body Count (IBC) underlined that the need to investigate and assess the war civilian deaths and injuries is urgent "for many of the injured may still be suffering and their condition may be improved if we act promptly."
CAIRO, Aug 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 20,000 Iraqi civilians were injured in the U.S.-led war with 8,000 of these injuries reported in the Baghdad area alone, according to the first report of its kind prepared by an Anglo-American-European group of anti-war peace activists.
In its report entitled "Adding Indifference to Injury," the Iraq Body Count (IBC) underlined that the need to investigate and assess the war civilian deaths and injuries is urgent "for many of the injured may still be suffering and their condition may be improved if we act promptly."
IRAQ SUMMARY
Independent: Iraq: 100 days of 'peace'
On 1 May, President Bush declared war over after six weeks. Mission accomplished?
The US Administrator: Paul Bremer, head of US-led civilian administration
"We believe that the attacks against the coalition forces are coming from a number of areas, some of which will be, I think, reduced if we can kill or capture Saddam. Those are attacks that are coming to us from desperados, from the Baathist party, the trained killers of the Fedayeen Saddam and the trained killers of many of the intelligence services which Saddam had.....
The Café Owner: Burhan Gharib, Baghdad
Many bad things have happened, such as the looting. There is no electricity, the security situation is unstable. If you compare them with Saddam Hussein, the Americans have done nothing for us. They came to Iraq and said, 'We came to protect you' but the only place they protected from the looters was the Ministry of Oil.....
The British Politician: Robin Cook MP
I'm astonished that the coalition have put little thought into what to do after the capture of Iraq. The military preparation was meticulous, but the preparations for how to reconstruct the country are being made up as we go along....
CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT
Independent: Iraq: 100 days of 'peace'
On 1 May, President Bush declared war over after six weeks. Mission accomplished?
The US Administrator: Paul Bremer, head of US-led civilian administration
"We believe that the attacks against the coalition forces are coming from a number of areas, some of which will be, I think, reduced if we can kill or capture Saddam. Those are attacks that are coming to us from desperados, from the Baathist party, the trained killers of the Fedayeen Saddam and the trained killers of many of the intelligence services which Saddam had.....
The Café Owner: Burhan Gharib, Baghdad
Many bad things have happened, such as the looting. There is no electricity, the security situation is unstable. If you compare them with Saddam Hussein, the Americans have done nothing for us. They came to Iraq and said, 'We came to protect you' but the only place they protected from the looters was the Ministry of Oil.....
The British Politician: Robin Cook MP
I'm astonished that the coalition have put little thought into what to do after the capture of Iraq. The military preparation was meticulous, but the preparations for how to reconstruct the country are being made up as we go along....
CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT CHECK IT
DAVID KELLY - DEATH MICROBIOLOGISTS
Rense: Dead Microbiologists Linked To Ethno-Specific BioWeapons
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
Hello, Jeff - Note the following exerpt from the article enclosed. I remember when I first read each news report about the death of separate microbiologists. Absolutely no one considered the fact that the deaths of the various microbiologists, especially the first five - Dr. Que, Wiley, Schwartz, Paschnek and Dr. Nguyen - were related. The press simply reported each death as it occurred and did not put the deaths together. In essence, no one connected the dots until you and I discussed the connection on your program.
It would appear that Dr. Kelly is related to the microbiologist deaths phonomenon. Please note the excerpt below. In the scheme of things, I wonder where Ken Alibek fits in? He is definitely one dot that I believe (allegedly) connects to, not only the microbiologist deaths, but the Anthrax attacks of 2001. I also believe that (allegedly) Don Rumsfeld is another dot.
If you remember, when we connected the dots i.e. put the deaths together, I discussed the possibility that each scientist had a "piece of the puzzle" in regard to a "target specific" bioweapon. I am wondering if SARS, somehow fits into the puzzle? Was SARS developed in China, or Israel? Does make one wonder.
Excerpt:
"The two American scientists he had worked with were Benito Que, 52, and Don Wiley, 57. Both microbiologists had been engaged in DNA sequencing that could provide "a genetic marker based on genetic profiling." The research could play an important role in developing weaponized pathogens to hit selected groups of humans"identifying them by race. Two years ago, both men were found dead, in circumstances never fully explained."
Rense: Dead Microbiologists Linked To Ethno-Specific BioWeapons
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
Hello, Jeff - Note the following exerpt from the article enclosed. I remember when I first read each news report about the death of separate microbiologists. Absolutely no one considered the fact that the deaths of the various microbiologists, especially the first five - Dr. Que, Wiley, Schwartz, Paschnek and Dr. Nguyen - were related. The press simply reported each death as it occurred and did not put the deaths together. In essence, no one connected the dots until you and I discussed the connection on your program.
It would appear that Dr. Kelly is related to the microbiologist deaths phonomenon. Please note the excerpt below. In the scheme of things, I wonder where Ken Alibek fits in? He is definitely one dot that I believe (allegedly) connects to, not only the microbiologist deaths, but the Anthrax attacks of 2001. I also believe that (allegedly) Don Rumsfeld is another dot.
If you remember, when we connected the dots i.e. put the deaths together, I discussed the possibility that each scientist had a "piece of the puzzle" in regard to a "target specific" bioweapon. I am wondering if SARS, somehow fits into the puzzle? Was SARS developed in China, or Israel? Does make one wonder.
Excerpt:
"The two American scientists he had worked with were Benito Que, 52, and Don Wiley, 57. Both microbiologists had been engaged in DNA sequencing that could provide "a genetic marker based on genetic profiling." The research could play an important role in developing weaponized pathogens to hit selected groups of humans"identifying them by race. Two years ago, both men were found dead, in circumstances never fully explained."
IRAQ
Washington Times: Bush documents progress in Iraq
One hundred days after he declared an end to major combat in Iraq,
President Bush yesterday said coalition forces have achieved great
progress toward improving security, restoring vital services and fostering
democracy in that nation. Citing the reopening of banks, a return of water and
electrical service to many parts of Iraq and a shifting mentality
toward democracy, the president said Iraq is well on its way to enjoying the
fruits of freedom.
"Believe whatever you like"
Washington Times: Bush documents progress in Iraq
One hundred days after he declared an end to major combat in Iraq,
President Bush yesterday said coalition forces have achieved great
progress toward improving security, restoring vital services and fostering
democracy in that nation. Citing the reopening of banks, a return of water and
electrical service to many parts of Iraq and a shifting mentality
toward democracy, the president said Iraq is well on its way to enjoying the
fruits of freedom.
"Believe whatever you like"
IRAQ
Sidney Morning Herald: New, improved and more lethal: son of napalm
The Pentagon no longer officially uses the brand-name 'Napalm', but a similar sticky, inflammable substance known as 'fuel-gel mixture', contained in weapons called Mark-77 fire bombs, was dropped on Iraqi troops near the Iraq-Kuwait border at the start of the war.
"I can confirm that Mark-77 fire bombs were used in that general area," Colonel Mike Daily of the US Marine Corps said.
Colonel Daily said that US stocks of Vietnam-era napalm had been phased out, but that the fuel-gel mixture in the Mark-77s had "similar destructive characteristics."
"Many folks (out of habit) refer to the Mark-77 as 'napalm' because its effect upon the target is remarkably similar," he said.
Napalm was banned by United Nations convention in 1980, but the US never signed the agreement. Use of Mark-77 fire bombs is considered legal by the US military.
Sidney Morning Herald: New, improved and more lethal: son of napalm
The Pentagon no longer officially uses the brand-name 'Napalm', but a similar sticky, inflammable substance known as 'fuel-gel mixture', contained in weapons called Mark-77 fire bombs, was dropped on Iraqi troops near the Iraq-Kuwait border at the start of the war.
"I can confirm that Mark-77 fire bombs were used in that general area," Colonel Mike Daily of the US Marine Corps said.
Colonel Daily said that US stocks of Vietnam-era napalm had been phased out, but that the fuel-gel mixture in the Mark-77s had "similar destructive characteristics."
"Many folks (out of habit) refer to the Mark-77 as 'napalm' because its effect upon the target is remarkably similar," he said.
Napalm was banned by United Nations convention in 1980, but the US never signed the agreement. Use of Mark-77 fire bombs is considered legal by the US military.
IRAQ
Guardian: Cheney firm's rival is forced to drop oil bid
One of the main bidders for the lucrative contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry has dropped out of the race, amid concerns that the tender process unfairly favours Halliburton, the company with close ties to the US vice-president, Dick Cheney.
The construction giant Bechtel, one of the biggest engineering companies in the world, now plans to sidestep Washington and apply directly to the Iraqi oil ministry for work.
The growing disquiet over cronyism in George Bush's administration was further stirred yesterday when it emerged that a friend of the president who helped his election campaign had been hired as the director of private development in Iraq.
Thomas Foley, 51, befriended Mr Bush when they attended Harvard. He will be in charge of 200 state-owned enterprises including mining, chemical, cement and tobacco production, and report directly to the top US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, was quietly awarded a contract without tendering in the spring to perform immediate repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure, and extinguish oil fires. The Army Corps of Engineers said the work, which could be worth up to $7bn (£4.3bn), was part of a wider contract signed last year.
Guardian: Cheney firm's rival is forced to drop oil bid
One of the main bidders for the lucrative contract to rebuild the Iraqi oil industry has dropped out of the race, amid concerns that the tender process unfairly favours Halliburton, the company with close ties to the US vice-president, Dick Cheney.
The construction giant Bechtel, one of the biggest engineering companies in the world, now plans to sidestep Washington and apply directly to the Iraqi oil ministry for work.
The growing disquiet over cronyism in George Bush's administration was further stirred yesterday when it emerged that a friend of the president who helped his election campaign had been hired as the director of private development in Iraq.
Thomas Foley, 51, befriended Mr Bush when they attended Harvard. He will be in charge of 200 state-owned enterprises including mining, chemical, cement and tobacco production, and report directly to the top US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, was quietly awarded a contract without tendering in the spring to perform immediate repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure, and extinguish oil fires. The Army Corps of Engineers said the work, which could be worth up to $7bn (£4.3bn), was part of a wider contract signed last year.
ANTI-WTO
Sidney Morning Herald: More than 100,000 join Bove at anti-WTO rally
More than 100,000 people have flocked to a rally to welcome the release from prison of French eco-warrior Jose Bove and to protest against the agenda for World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks next month, organisers said yesterday.
"We had already allocated lay-bys and campsites for 100,000 people, but we had to open up new ones during the night," said a spokesman for Bove's Small Farmers' Confederation.
Sidney Morning Herald: More than 100,000 join Bove at anti-WTO rally
More than 100,000 people have flocked to a rally to welcome the release from prison of French eco-warrior Jose Bove and to protest against the agenda for World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks next month, organisers said yesterday.
"We had already allocated lay-bys and campsites for 100,000 people, but we had to open up new ones during the night," said a spokesman for Bove's Small Farmers' Confederation.
IRAQ
The Nation: Member of an Islamic Terrorist Group Now Heads 'Liberated' Iraq!
Iraq has its first temporary president....Ibrahim Jafari. (He'll hold
the job for a month: It's a rotating presidency, handed off like a relay
baton between nine 'chairmen'....chosen by a USDA-approved 25-member
Governing Council.) Jafari hails from the Shiite fundamentalist party Al Dawa...
Would that be the same Dawa that carried out a series of Reagan-era
bombings in Kuwait of....the American and French embassies and the
residential housing of American Raytheon employees -- bombings that
killed five people and injured 80? The same Dawa that took inspiration from
the Iranian Islamic Revolution and the Ayatollah Khomenei? The same Dawa
that founded and set up Hezbollah... ? Why yes, it would. Only now, after
three decades of guerrilla and terrorist violence, they've surfaced to demand
a share of ruling post-Saddam Iraq...claiming they now believe in
democracy and rule of law. And we trust them on this because...well...who can
keep track of all these guys anyway?
The Nation: Member of an Islamic Terrorist Group Now Heads 'Liberated' Iraq!
Iraq has its first temporary president....Ibrahim Jafari. (He'll hold
the job for a month: It's a rotating presidency, handed off like a relay
baton between nine 'chairmen'....chosen by a USDA-approved 25-member
Governing Council.) Jafari hails from the Shiite fundamentalist party Al Dawa...
Would that be the same Dawa that carried out a series of Reagan-era
bombings in Kuwait of....the American and French embassies and the
residential housing of American Raytheon employees -- bombings that
killed five people and injured 80? The same Dawa that took inspiration from
the Iranian Islamic Revolution and the Ayatollah Khomenei? The same Dawa
that founded and set up Hezbollah... ? Why yes, it would. Only now, after
three decades of guerrilla and terrorist violence, they've surfaced to demand
a share of ruling post-Saddam Iraq...claiming they now believe in
democracy and rule of law. And we trust them on this because...well...who can
keep track of all these guys anyway?
IRAQ
Gulfwarvets.com: Bush Administration is Hiding the Truth about the 'Mystery
Pneumonia' Striking Troops in Iraq
Mark Neusche, father of US soldier Josh Neusche who died recently in
Iraq from "mystery pneumonia" says that while visiting his comatose son at
Landstuhl Hospital, he overheard the nurses say they were expecting
many sick troops to be brought in "all at one time. In fact, the father
actually witnessed approximately 55 other troops being received by the hospital
after they were transported by a military ambulance (bus)," according
to a report at the American Gulf War Veterans site... "[T]he transported
troops were exhibiting varying degrees of the illness. Some walked, some were
in wheelchairs and others were on respirators. In the commotion, a doctor
reported to the father that his son was suffering from a 'toxin.' No
mention of pneumonia was ever made to him, nor was it ever reported in
the medical record."
Gulfwarvets.com: Bush Administration is Hiding the Truth about the 'Mystery
Pneumonia' Striking Troops in Iraq
Mark Neusche, father of US soldier Josh Neusche who died recently in
Iraq from "mystery pneumonia" says that while visiting his comatose son at
Landstuhl Hospital, he overheard the nurses say they were expecting
many sick troops to be brought in "all at one time. In fact, the father
actually witnessed approximately 55 other troops being received by the hospital
after they were transported by a military ambulance (bus)," according
to a report at the American Gulf War Veterans site... "[T]he transported
troops were exhibiting varying degrees of the illness. Some walked, some were
in wheelchairs and others were on respirators. In the commotion, a doctor
reported to the father that his son was suffering from a 'toxin.' No
mention of pneumonia was ever made to him, nor was it ever reported in
the medical record."
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Pakistan Dawn: Anti-British riots break out in Basra
BASRA, Aug 9: Riots broke out on Saturday in the southern port of Basra as tensions exploded over the British control of Iraq's second largest city, leaving seven soldiers and four Iraqi civilians injured.
Residents hurled rocks and burned tires in all the city's main streets as Iraqis raged in the blistering summer heat over the tortoise-like pace of the coalition force's reconstruction efforts.
The rioting started minutes after witnesses said a grenade was hurled at a British military truck near a gasoline station, where fed-up Iraqis waited in a long line for fuel, angered by the fact they were queuing for hours in a country with the world's second largest oil reserves
Pakistan Dawn: Anti-British riots break out in Basra
BASRA, Aug 9: Riots broke out on Saturday in the southern port of Basra as tensions exploded over the British control of Iraq's second largest city, leaving seven soldiers and four Iraqi civilians injured.
Residents hurled rocks and burned tires in all the city's main streets as Iraqis raged in the blistering summer heat over the tortoise-like pace of the coalition force's reconstruction efforts.
The rioting started minutes after witnesses said a grenade was hurled at a British military truck near a gasoline station, where fed-up Iraqis waited in a long line for fuel, angered by the fact they were queuing for hours in a country with the world's second largest oil reserves
IRAQ
Independent: Family shot dead by panicking US troops
Firing blindly during a power cut, soldiers kill a father and three children in their car
The abd al-Kerim family didn't have a chance. American soldiers opened fire on their car with no warning and at close quarters. They killed the father and three of the children, one of them only eight years old. Now only the mother, Anwar, and a 13-year-old daughter are alive to tell how the bullets tore through the windscreen and how they screamed for the Americans to stop.
"We never did anything to the Americans and they just killed us," the heavily pregnant Ms abd al-Kerim said. "We were calling out to them 'Stop, stop, we are a family', but they kept on shooting
Doctors said the father and his two daughters would have survived if they had received treatment quicker. Instead, they were left to bleed to death because the Americans refused to allow anyone to take them to hospital.
Independent: Family shot dead by panicking US troops
Firing blindly during a power cut, soldiers kill a father and three children in their car
The abd al-Kerim family didn't have a chance. American soldiers opened fire on their car with no warning and at close quarters. They killed the father and three of the children, one of them only eight years old. Now only the mother, Anwar, and a 13-year-old daughter are alive to tell how the bullets tore through the windscreen and how they screamed for the Americans to stop.
"We never did anything to the Americans and they just killed us," the heavily pregnant Ms abd al-Kerim said. "We were calling out to them 'Stop, stop, we are a family', but they kept on shooting
Doctors said the father and his two daughters would have survived if they had received treatment quicker. Instead, they were left to bleed to death because the Americans refused to allow anyone to take them to hospital.
Friday, August 08, 2003
USA
Heise: Gegen milde Richter und Pornographie
Der christlich-fundamentalistische US-Justizminister Ashcroft will harte Strafen und ein keusches Amerika
Amerikas Justizminister John Ashcroft, der schon einmal inmitten seiner Mitarbeiter Kirchenlieder singt ( John Ashcroft l?sst den Adler segeln) oder nackte Statuen verhüllt ( USA führen Schleierzwang ein), geh?rt der radikalen christlichen Fraktion der Konservativen an ( Fliegendes Teleskop soll kosmischen Gral aufspüren). Mit seinem ?berwachungsplan TIPS, bei dem m?glichst alle Amerikaner ihre Nachbarn ausspitzeln sollten, ist der Justizminister gescheitert, bereitet aber klammheimlich schon einmal eine versch?rfte Version des Patriot-Gesetzes vor. Im Umgang mit den Gesetzen hatte sich Ashcroft stets als sehr flexibel erweisen, wenn es um angebliche Terrorverd?chtige ging ( Das Recht auf Willkür im Krieg). Jetzt will er aber zumindest st?rker gegen liberale Richter vorgehen, die für den Christen zu geringe Strafen verh?ngen und die Pornobranche eind?mmen
"Man werde weitere Anklagen vorbereiten, um Andere von abzuhalten, "obsz?nes Material herzustellen und verbreiten".
"Die Taliban haben sich neu formiert. Diesmal in Amerika"
Heise: Gegen milde Richter und Pornographie
Der christlich-fundamentalistische US-Justizminister Ashcroft will harte Strafen und ein keusches Amerika
Amerikas Justizminister John Ashcroft, der schon einmal inmitten seiner Mitarbeiter Kirchenlieder singt ( John Ashcroft l?sst den Adler segeln) oder nackte Statuen verhüllt ( USA führen Schleierzwang ein), geh?rt der radikalen christlichen Fraktion der Konservativen an ( Fliegendes Teleskop soll kosmischen Gral aufspüren). Mit seinem ?berwachungsplan TIPS, bei dem m?glichst alle Amerikaner ihre Nachbarn ausspitzeln sollten, ist der Justizminister gescheitert, bereitet aber klammheimlich schon einmal eine versch?rfte Version des Patriot-Gesetzes vor. Im Umgang mit den Gesetzen hatte sich Ashcroft stets als sehr flexibel erweisen, wenn es um angebliche Terrorverd?chtige ging ( Das Recht auf Willkür im Krieg). Jetzt will er aber zumindest st?rker gegen liberale Richter vorgehen, die für den Christen zu geringe Strafen verh?ngen und die Pornobranche eind?mmen
"Man werde weitere Anklagen vorbereiten, um Andere von abzuhalten, "obsz?nes Material herzustellen und verbreiten".
"Die Taliban haben sich neu formiert. Diesmal in Amerika"
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: ISRAEL BREAKS CEASE-FIRE
Tagesanzeiger: Hamas droht mit Ende der Waffenruhe
Nach einem Einsatz der israelischen Armee gegen die Hamas in Nablus im Westjordanland, hat die radikalislamische Organisation mit der Aufkündigung ihrer Waffenruhe gedroht.
Mit dem Einsatz zur Festnahme eines Hamas-Aktivisten im Flüchtlingslager von Askar in Nablus habe die Armee gegen den Waffenstillstand verstossen, sagte Hamas-Anführer Ismail Abu Schanab am Freitag der Nachrichtenagentur AFP in Gaza.
Angesichts eines solchen Angriffs werde seine Organisation «nicht schweigen», für die Hamas sei damit eine «rote Linie» überschritten. Die Hamas hatte Ende Juni eine dreimonatige Waffenruhe mit Israel verkündet.
Reuters: Hamas Man Killed in Israeli Raid in West Bank Camp
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers raided a West Bank refugee camp and killed a Hamas militant on Friday during fighting that rocked a month-old cease-fire.
Violence also erupted at the Israel-Lebanon border, where Hizbollah attacked for the first time in a year Israeli posts at Shebaa Farms, regarded by the guerrilla group as Lebanese territory and by the U.N. as Israeli-occupied Syrian land.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack, and Israeli warplanes responded with heavy airstrikes on the eastern and southern edges of the nearby Lebanese border village of Kfar Shouba, witnesses said.
The violence came six days after a Hizbollah official was killed in a car bombing in Beirut which the Shi'ite Muslim organization blamed on Israel.
Tagesanzeiger: Hamas droht mit Ende der Waffenruhe
Nach einem Einsatz der israelischen Armee gegen die Hamas in Nablus im Westjordanland, hat die radikalislamische Organisation mit der Aufkündigung ihrer Waffenruhe gedroht.
Mit dem Einsatz zur Festnahme eines Hamas-Aktivisten im Flüchtlingslager von Askar in Nablus habe die Armee gegen den Waffenstillstand verstossen, sagte Hamas-Anführer Ismail Abu Schanab am Freitag der Nachrichtenagentur AFP in Gaza.
Angesichts eines solchen Angriffs werde seine Organisation «nicht schweigen», für die Hamas sei damit eine «rote Linie» überschritten. Die Hamas hatte Ende Juni eine dreimonatige Waffenruhe mit Israel verkündet.
Reuters: Hamas Man Killed in Israeli Raid in West Bank Camp
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers raided a West Bank refugee camp and killed a Hamas militant on Friday during fighting that rocked a month-old cease-fire.
Violence also erupted at the Israel-Lebanon border, where Hizbollah attacked for the first time in a year Israeli posts at Shebaa Farms, regarded by the guerrilla group as Lebanese territory and by the U.N. as Israeli-occupied Syrian land.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack, and Israeli warplanes responded with heavy airstrikes on the eastern and southern edges of the nearby Lebanese border village of Kfar Shouba, witnesses said.
The violence came six days after a Hizbollah official was killed in a car bombing in Beirut which the Shi'ite Muslim organization blamed on Israel.
INDONESIA
Rense: Did US Have Advance Word On Indonesian Bombing?
8/5/03
US Embassy cancelled the booking of Marriott Hotel 4.5 hours before the explosion
Translation: US Embassy cancelled the booking of Marriott Hotel 4.5 hours before the explosion There was something interesting happened just hours before the explosion shocked the JW Marriott Hotel, Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta. The US Embassy cancelled the booking of 10-20 rooms in that hotel. The cancellation was on 8.00 West Indonesian Time, Tuesday, or only 4.5 hours before the explosion. This information is from employee of Marriot Hotel who refused to be identified. He explained that the booking was made several days ago. The US Embassy's guests were planned to stay for 3 days. And the ceremony was planned on Wednesday. For information, when there was the explosion, the security of US Embassy directly came to the Marriot Hotel in Mega Kuningan. JW Marriot Hotel is known to be used frequently by US Embassy. On 4 July 2003, the Independent Day of US was celebrated on this hotel. Last year, it was also celebrated there.
Translation from http://www.whatreallyhappened.com website
Rense: Did US Have Advance Word On Indonesian Bombing?
8/5/03
US Embassy cancelled the booking of Marriott Hotel 4.5 hours before the explosion
Translation: US Embassy cancelled the booking of Marriott Hotel 4.5 hours before the explosion There was something interesting happened just hours before the explosion shocked the JW Marriott Hotel, Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta. The US Embassy cancelled the booking of 10-20 rooms in that hotel. The cancellation was on 8.00 West Indonesian Time, Tuesday, or only 4.5 hours before the explosion. This information is from employee of Marriot Hotel who refused to be identified. He explained that the booking was made several days ago. The US Embassy's guests were planned to stay for 3 days. And the ceremony was planned on Wednesday. For information, when there was the explosion, the security of US Embassy directly came to the Marriot Hotel in Mega Kuningan. JW Marriot Hotel is known to be used frequently by US Embassy. On 4 July 2003, the Independent Day of US was celebrated on this hotel. Last year, it was also celebrated there.
Translation from http://www.whatreallyhappened.com website
UK: DAVID KELLY
the Guardian: Dr. Kelly & The Mysterious Chest Electrodes
Dr Kelly - the BBC's source for a report claiming the government altered the contents of a dossier about Iraq - had probably been wearing a 24-hour electro-cardiogram recorder, also known as a Holter monitor, medical experts said.
But it was odd that the pads that are connected to the device had not been removed by doctors and were left attached to his chest, they said.
"If I was in a morgue and his body was presented to me I would have thought it had come out of a coronary care unit or an operating theatre," said Professor Konrad Jamrozik, of Imperial College Hospital London.
"It would be unusual for someone to be walking around wearing these pads," he told the press association
the Guardian: Dr. Kelly & The Mysterious Chest Electrodes
Dr Kelly - the BBC's source for a report claiming the government altered the contents of a dossier about Iraq - had probably been wearing a 24-hour electro-cardiogram recorder, also known as a Holter monitor, medical experts said.
But it was odd that the pads that are connected to the device had not been removed by doctors and were left attached to his chest, they said.
"If I was in a morgue and his body was presented to me I would have thought it had come out of a coronary care unit or an operating theatre," said Professor Konrad Jamrozik, of Imperial College Hospital London.
"It would be unusual for someone to be walking around wearing these pads," he told the press association
1984 MIND CONTROL
Boston Globe: Defense Department funding brain-machine work
Even by Washington scandal standards, the "terrorism futures" scandal was strange and dramatic.
It started when two senators discovered an obscure military program designed to gauge the chances of various geopolitical developments, including terrorist attacks, by asking people to bet money on them. Within 48 hours -- or, more precisely, two news cycles -- the program was canceled and the man behind it, John Poindexter of Iran-contra fame, had tendered his resignation.
What most people don't know is that the Department of Defense is already funding a research program with far creepier implications.
The $24 million enterprise called Brain Machine Interfaces is developing technology that promises to directly read thoughts from a living brain -- and even instill thoughts as well.
The research, some of which is being done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is already surprisingly advanced. Monkeys in a laboratory can control the movement of a robotic arm using only their thoughts. And last year scientists in New York announced they could control the skittering motions of a rat by implanting electrodes in its brain, steering it around the lab floor as if it were a radio-controlled toy car
The terrorism futures idea, the subject of near hysterical media coverage, is rooted in well-established economic principles. The Brain Machine Interface program, which may well be next in the spotlight, could offer help to the paralyzed and is no more likely to bring about a virtual police state than technologies that already are available
"Enter the Matrix"
CHECK IT
Boston Globe: Defense Department funding brain-machine work
Even by Washington scandal standards, the "terrorism futures" scandal was strange and dramatic.
It started when two senators discovered an obscure military program designed to gauge the chances of various geopolitical developments, including terrorist attacks, by asking people to bet money on them. Within 48 hours -- or, more precisely, two news cycles -- the program was canceled and the man behind it, John Poindexter of Iran-contra fame, had tendered his resignation.
What most people don't know is that the Department of Defense is already funding a research program with far creepier implications.
The $24 million enterprise called Brain Machine Interfaces is developing technology that promises to directly read thoughts from a living brain -- and even instill thoughts as well.
The research, some of which is being done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is already surprisingly advanced. Monkeys in a laboratory can control the movement of a robotic arm using only their thoughts. And last year scientists in New York announced they could control the skittering motions of a rat by implanting electrodes in its brain, steering it around the lab floor as if it were a radio-controlled toy car
The terrorism futures idea, the subject of near hysterical media coverage, is rooted in well-established economic principles. The Brain Machine Interface program, which may well be next in the spotlight, could offer help to the paralyzed and is no more likely to bring about a virtual police state than technologies that already are available
"Enter the Matrix"
CHECK IT
IRAQ
Oregonlive: 'We don't feel like heroes anymore'
I am a private first class in the Army's 671st Engineer Company out of Portland. I just wanted to let you know a little bit of what we are up to, maybe so that you can have another opinion of what's going on over here in Iraq.
"A lot is being said about poor morale. That seems to be the case all over the place. It's hot, we've been here for a long time, it's dangerous, we haven't had any real down time in months and we don't know when we're going home.
I think a big aspect has been the people here. When the war had just ended, we were the liberators, and all the people loved us. Convoys were like one long parade. Somewhere down the line, we became an occupation force in their eyes. We don't feel like heroes anymore"
"The task is daunting, and the conditions are frightening. We can't help but think of "Black Hawk Down" when we're in Baghdad surrounded by swarms of people. Soldiers are being attacked, injured and killed every day. The rules of engagement are crippling. We are outnumbered. We are exhausted. We are in over our heads"
Oregonlive: 'We don't feel like heroes anymore'
I am a private first class in the Army's 671st Engineer Company out of Portland. I just wanted to let you know a little bit of what we are up to, maybe so that you can have another opinion of what's going on over here in Iraq.
"A lot is being said about poor morale. That seems to be the case all over the place. It's hot, we've been here for a long time, it's dangerous, we haven't had any real down time in months and we don't know when we're going home.
I think a big aspect has been the people here. When the war had just ended, we were the liberators, and all the people loved us. Convoys were like one long parade. Somewhere down the line, we became an occupation force in their eyes. We don't feel like heroes anymore"
"The task is daunting, and the conditions are frightening. We can't help but think of "Black Hawk Down" when we're in Baghdad surrounded by swarms of people. Soldiers are being attacked, injured and killed every day. The rules of engagement are crippling. We are outnumbered. We are exhausted. We are in over our heads"
IRAQ
Chicago Tribune: U.S. holding Iraqis at notorious prison
Families are barred from Abu Ghraib and very few inmates have been allowed to see lawyers
ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- Once one of Iraq's notorious prisons where Saddam Hussein had political prisoners tortured and hanged, Abu Ghraib has become a makeshift jail at the heart of the U.S. military's struggle to give Iraqis a new sense of justice.
About 500 Iraqis are detained here and, like detainees in U.S. prison camps across Iraq, none has been allowed family visits. Only one out of 10 has been allowed to see a lawyer.
The five compounds in the prison were ransacked after Hussein freed virtually all of Iraq's prisoners last October, so the detainees are penned in tents behind rolls of razor wire. On some days, the camp roasts under a midday sun that produces temperatures as high as 130 degrees
Chicago Tribune: U.S. holding Iraqis at notorious prison
Families are barred from Abu Ghraib and very few inmates have been allowed to see lawyers
ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- Once one of Iraq's notorious prisons where Saddam Hussein had political prisoners tortured and hanged, Abu Ghraib has become a makeshift jail at the heart of the U.S. military's struggle to give Iraqis a new sense of justice.
About 500 Iraqis are detained here and, like detainees in U.S. prison camps across Iraq, none has been allowed family visits. Only one out of 10 has been allowed to see a lawyer.
The five compounds in the prison were ransacked after Hussein freed virtually all of Iraq's prisoners last October, so the detainees are penned in tents behind rolls of razor wire. On some days, the camp roasts under a midday sun that produces temperatures as high as 130 degrees
INDONESIA
WSWS.org: Washington and Canberra seize on Jakarta bombing to further justify “war on terror”
At least 14 people are dead and almost 150 injured after the blast from a large car bomb ripped through the ground floor of the luxury JB Marriott Hotel and surrounding buildings in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta at lunchtime on Tuesday. Those killed include two taxi drivers, hotel employees and a Dutch businessman. Not all of the bodies, some of which were severely burnt, have been identified.
At this stage it is not clear who was responsible. But this brutal murder of innocent people is a profoundly reactionary act, which will be seized upon by Jakarta to bolster its repressive apparatus and by Washington and its allies as a pretext for the “global war on terrorism”.
Within 24 hours, the Indonesian government announced plans to step up security measures throughout the country. Their anti-democratic character was indicated by top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who declared on Tuesday that people should be prepared to accept drastic new limits on their civil rights. “The government will impose these restrictions as we are determined to prevent the deaths of more victims,” he said. “Their lives are worth more than the price of human rights.”
"CHECK IT"
WSWS.org: Washington and Canberra seize on Jakarta bombing to further justify “war on terror”
At least 14 people are dead and almost 150 injured after the blast from a large car bomb ripped through the ground floor of the luxury JB Marriott Hotel and surrounding buildings in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta at lunchtime on Tuesday. Those killed include two taxi drivers, hotel employees and a Dutch businessman. Not all of the bodies, some of which were severely burnt, have been identified.
At this stage it is not clear who was responsible. But this brutal murder of innocent people is a profoundly reactionary act, which will be seized upon by Jakarta to bolster its repressive apparatus and by Washington and its allies as a pretext for the “global war on terrorism”.
Within 24 hours, the Indonesian government announced plans to step up security measures throughout the country. Their anti-democratic character was indicated by top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who declared on Tuesday that people should be prepared to accept drastic new limits on their civil rights. “The government will impose these restrictions as we are determined to prevent the deaths of more victims,” he said. “Their lives are worth more than the price of human rights.”
"CHECK IT"
IRAQ
UPI: Army weighs vaccine link in troops' death
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Army will consider whether the anthrax
or other vaccine could be causing a cluster of pneumonia cases among
soldiers in Iraq and southwestern Asia, an official said Wednesday. Col. Robert
DeFraites of the Army Surgeon General's office told United Press
International that the Pentagon would look into whether vaccines, among
other factors, might have triggered the pneumonia that has killed two
soldiers and sickened 100. "Among all of the possible causes or
contributing factors, we are looking at the immunizations that the
soldiers received as well," DeFraites told UPI Wednesday. "It is premature to
say that there is any relationship at all."
UPI: Army weighs vaccine link in troops' death
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Army will consider whether the anthrax
or other vaccine could be causing a cluster of pneumonia cases among
soldiers in Iraq and southwestern Asia, an official said Wednesday. Col. Robert
DeFraites of the Army Surgeon General's office told United Press
International that the Pentagon would look into whether vaccines, among
other factors, might have triggered the pneumonia that has killed two
soldiers and sickened 100. "Among all of the possible causes or
contributing factors, we are looking at the immunizations that the
soldiers received as well," DeFraites told UPI Wednesday. "It is premature to
say that there is any relationship at all."
USA
Clearinghouse: Wolfowitz: Iraq Was Not Involved In 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, No Ties To Al-Qaeda
08/06/03: (Information Clearing House) Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, one of the main architects for the war in Iraq, admitted for the first time that Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks, contradicting public statements made by senior White House and Pentagon officials whose attempt to link Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization al-Qaeda was cited by the Bush administration as one of the main reasons for launching a preemptive strike in March against Iraq.
In an interview with conservative radio personality Laura Ingraham, Wolfowitz was asked when he first came to believe that Iraq was behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
“I’m not sure even now that I would say Iraq had something to do with it,” Wolfowitz said in the interview, aired Friday, a transcript of which can be found
Here
Clearinghouse: Wolfowitz: Iraq Was Not Involved In 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, No Ties To Al-Qaeda
08/06/03: (Information Clearing House) Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, one of the main architects for the war in Iraq, admitted for the first time that Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks, contradicting public statements made by senior White House and Pentagon officials whose attempt to link Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization al-Qaeda was cited by the Bush administration as one of the main reasons for launching a preemptive strike in March against Iraq.
In an interview with conservative radio personality Laura Ingraham, Wolfowitz was asked when he first came to believe that Iraq was behind the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
“I’m not sure even now that I would say Iraq had something to do with it,” Wolfowitz said in the interview, aired Friday, a transcript of which can be found
Here
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more
controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite,
unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert
almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain
up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the
citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieve/review
by the authorities." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, CFR member and founding
member of the TrilateralCommission, and National Security Advisor to five
presidents
"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more
controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite,
unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert
almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain
up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the
citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieve/review
by the authorities." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, CFR member and founding
member of the TrilateralCommission, and National Security Advisor to five
presidents
Thursday, August 07, 2003
SITES OF THE DAY
Check:
Friendster
Friendster has fucking exploded. As this goes to press, everyone you’ve ever known knows that it is simultaneously the most incredible communication invention since email (which was the most incredible thing since the telephone) and the most fun social Easter egg hunt since showing up at your own funeral as a ghost.
Find your friends, find old friends, new friends, enemies, people posing as famous people, and then communicate with them. Or just stare at them. Or send their profile to all your homies so everyone can stare and send messages back and forth about the person. And it’s free.
Onlyundiesclub
OnlyUndiesClub.com is TWO GREAT things. It is the best place on the Internet for cute young emo kids to hook up and be friends AND it is the best place on the Internet for voyeuristic aging punks with teenager fetishes and old fags who like lanky boys.
Check:
Friendster
Friendster has fucking exploded. As this goes to press, everyone you’ve ever known knows that it is simultaneously the most incredible communication invention since email (which was the most incredible thing since the telephone) and the most fun social Easter egg hunt since showing up at your own funeral as a ghost.
Find your friends, find old friends, new friends, enemies, people posing as famous people, and then communicate with them. Or just stare at them. Or send their profile to all your homies so everyone can stare and send messages back and forth about the person. And it’s free.
Onlyundiesclub
OnlyUndiesClub.com is TWO GREAT things. It is the best place on the Internet for cute young emo kids to hook up and be friends AND it is the best place on the Internet for voyeuristic aging punks with teenager fetishes and old fags who like lanky boys.
IRAQ
Guardian: Arab Group Won't Recognize Iraqi Council
Arab League members will not recognize Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council and instead will wait until post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is led by an elected government, league Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Tuesday.
``The Council is a start but it should pave the way for a legitimate government that can be recognized,'' Moussa said after a committee of league foreign ministers met to forge a unified stance on how to deal with Iraq after Saddam.
Guardian: Arab Group Won't Recognize Iraqi Council
Arab League members will not recognize Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council and instead will wait until post-Saddam Hussein Iraq is led by an elected government, league Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Tuesday.
``The Council is a start but it should pave the way for a legitimate government that can be recognized,'' Moussa said after a committee of league foreign ministers met to forge a unified stance on how to deal with Iraq after Saddam.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Telegraph: Iraqis flock to Mahdi's Shia army
A militia of mostly Shia men is growing in response to a call to arms made by a maverick young cleric. Harry de Quetteville in Baghdad reports on Muqtader al-Sadr's army against US occupation.
As evening falls in the poor Shia suburb of Baghdad once known as Saddam City, dozens of volunteers queue under the watchful gaze of a local imam to sign up for the army.
But this is not the new Iraqi army sponsored and approved by the American-led administration. These soldiers will receive no monthly salary of £40. Here, prospective warriors are ready to serve, and die, for nothing.
Call to arms: volunteers sign-up at the Al-Ahrar Mosque
This is "Mahdi's army", a growing militia of mostly Shia men who have responded to the fiery call to arms made by a maverick young cleric, Muqtader al-Sadr, two weeks ago in the Shia holy city of Najaf.
Since then al-Sadr has led anti-US demonstrations and encouraged worshippers to resist the US "invaders" and Iraq's "Zionist" governing council, appointed by the coalition.
Now the ranks of this religious army, named after an ancient imam who Shias believe will return to save the world, have swollen into tens of thousands, perhaps more.
"On the very first day after the call, up to 1 million people signed," claimed Sheikh Hassan al-Zurgani, a Baghdad representative of the Hawza, a Shia seminary based in Najaf.
Telegraph: Iraqis flock to Mahdi's Shia army
A militia of mostly Shia men is growing in response to a call to arms made by a maverick young cleric. Harry de Quetteville in Baghdad reports on Muqtader al-Sadr's army against US occupation.
As evening falls in the poor Shia suburb of Baghdad once known as Saddam City, dozens of volunteers queue under the watchful gaze of a local imam to sign up for the army.
But this is not the new Iraqi army sponsored and approved by the American-led administration. These soldiers will receive no monthly salary of £40. Here, prospective warriors are ready to serve, and die, for nothing.
Call to arms: volunteers sign-up at the Al-Ahrar Mosque
This is "Mahdi's army", a growing militia of mostly Shia men who have responded to the fiery call to arms made by a maverick young cleric, Muqtader al-Sadr, two weeks ago in the Shia holy city of Najaf.
Since then al-Sadr has led anti-US demonstrations and encouraged worshippers to resist the US "invaders" and Iraq's "Zionist" governing council, appointed by the coalition.
Now the ranks of this religious army, named after an ancient imam who Shias believe will return to save the world, have swollen into tens of thousands, perhaps more.
"On the very first day after the call, up to 1 million people signed," claimed Sheikh Hassan al-Zurgani, a Baghdad representative of the Hawza, a Shia seminary based in Najaf.
IRAQ
Guardian: Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
US discusses plan to pump fuel to its regional ally and solve energy headache at a stroke
Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad.
The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was re-directed to Syria.
Now, its resurrection would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke.
It would also create an end less and easily accessible source of cheap Iraqi oil for the US guaranteed by reliable allies other than Saudi Arabia - a keystone of US foreign policy for decades and especially since 11 September 2001.
US intelligence sources confirmed to The Observer that the project has been discussed. One former senior CIA official said: 'It has long been a dream of a powerful section of the people now driving this administration [of President George W. Bush] and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply as well as that of the United States.
James Akins, a former US ambassador to the region and one of America's leading Arabists, said: 'There would be a fee for transit rights through Jordan, just as there would be fees for Israel from those using what would be the Haifa terminal.
'After all, this is a new world order now. This is what things look like particularly if we wipe out Syria. It just goes to show that it is all about oil, for the United States and its ally.'
"I told you so"
Guardian: Israel seeks pipeline for Iraqi oil
US discusses plan to pump fuel to its regional ally and solve energy headache at a stroke
Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future government figures in Baghdad.
The plan envisages the reconstruction of an old pipeline, inactive since the end of the British mandate in Palestine in 1948, when the flow from Iraq's northern oilfields to Palestine was re-directed to Syria.
Now, its resurrection would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke.
It would also create an end less and easily accessible source of cheap Iraqi oil for the US guaranteed by reliable allies other than Saudi Arabia - a keystone of US foreign policy for decades and especially since 11 September 2001.
US intelligence sources confirmed to The Observer that the project has been discussed. One former senior CIA official said: 'It has long been a dream of a powerful section of the people now driving this administration [of President George W. Bush] and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply as well as that of the United States.
James Akins, a former US ambassador to the region and one of America's leading Arabists, said: 'There would be a fee for transit rights through Jordan, just as there would be fees for Israel from those using what would be the Haifa terminal.
'After all, this is a new world order now. This is what things look like particularly if we wipe out Syria. It just goes to show that it is all about oil, for the United States and its ally.'
"I told you so"
QUOTE OF THE DAY
6.8.1945 -- Japan: US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The B-29
Superfortress Enola Gay, eliminated 140,000 civilians from immediate effects of the
bombing; tens of thousands more in subsequent decades from radiation-
induced illnesses, including descendents. Nagasaki gets the same two
days from now.
""During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious
of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first
on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that
dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought
that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon
whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to
save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment,
attempting to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'. . . ." ".the
Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them
with that awful thing." -- General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"It always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the
Japanese were already on the verge of collapse." -- General Henry "Hap"
Arnold, Commanding General of the US Army Air Forces during World War II
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima
andNagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The
Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.. My own feeling
was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard
common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war
in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and
children.." -- Truman's Chief of Staff, Admiral William D. Leahy
6.8.1945 -- Japan: US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The B-29
Superfortress Enola Gay, eliminated 140,000 civilians from immediate effects of the
bombing; tens of thousands more in subsequent decades from radiation-
induced illnesses, including descendents. Nagasaki gets the same two
days from now.
""During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious
of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first
on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that
dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought
that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon
whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to
save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment,
attempting to surrender with a minimum loss of 'face'. . . ." ".the
Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them
with that awful thing." -- General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"It always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the
Japanese were already on the verge of collapse." -- General Henry "Hap"
Arnold, Commanding General of the US Army Air Forces during World War II
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima
andNagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The
Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender.. My own feeling
was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard
common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war
in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and
children.." -- Truman's Chief of Staff, Admiral William D. Leahy
IRAQ
Counterpunch: The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay by Robert Fisk
Still Haunting US Troops
The Americans have stripped the Iraqi flags from the graves of Uday and Qusay Hussein. The red, white and black banners were laid on the mounds of clay above their bodies at their funeral on Saturday, alongside the grave of Mustafa Hussein, Qusay's 14-year-old son, who also died when 200 American troops attacked the Mosul villa in which they were hiding two weeks ago. But the Americans have allowed only the child's remains to be honoured with his country's flag. Uday and Qusay have no memorial save for the footprints of US Army boots.
Even 34-year-old Felah Shemari who dug the graves was shocked, and he has no reason to love the brothers; he spent 10 years in prison on the orders of Saddam's half-brother for a murder he says he did not commit.
"When we dug the graves, we were told they were just for the brothers," he says. "But when the two ambulances arrived escorted by American Humvees, they took young Mustafa's body out of the second ambulance and we had to dig another grave in a hurry. Of course, we put our Iraqi flags over all three. This is a sign that they were martyred." But the Americans thought differently.
Counterpunch: The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay by Robert Fisk
Still Haunting US Troops
The Americans have stripped the Iraqi flags from the graves of Uday and Qusay Hussein. The red, white and black banners were laid on the mounds of clay above their bodies at their funeral on Saturday, alongside the grave of Mustafa Hussein, Qusay's 14-year-old son, who also died when 200 American troops attacked the Mosul villa in which they were hiding two weeks ago. But the Americans have allowed only the child's remains to be honoured with his country's flag. Uday and Qusay have no memorial save for the footprints of US Army boots.
Even 34-year-old Felah Shemari who dug the graves was shocked, and he has no reason to love the brothers; he spent 10 years in prison on the orders of Saddam's half-brother for a murder he says he did not commit.
"When we dug the graves, we were told they were just for the brothers," he says. "But when the two ambulances arrived escorted by American Humvees, they took young Mustafa's body out of the second ambulance and we had to dig another grave in a hurry. Of course, we put our Iraqi flags over all three. This is a sign that they were martyred." But the Americans thought differently.
BALI TERROR
Independent: 'Key player' in Bali bombings sentenced to death
An Indonesian court today convicted and sentenced to death a key player in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim was found guilty of planning and helping execute the bombings, the deadliest since the 9-11 attacks in the US.
"The accused is found guilty in a legal and convincing manner of carrying out an act of terrorism," said Judge I Made Karna.
After the verdict was read, Amrozi took off his Islamic skull cap, raised his arms and gave his lawyers the thumbs-up sign. Hundreds of people, including survivors of the bombings, cheered when the judge read the sentence.
As he was led out of the courtroom, Amrozi smiled broadly at Australian survivors, some of whom shouted back angrily. Australia lost 88 people in the attack.
Independent: 'Key player' in Bali bombings sentenced to death
An Indonesian court today convicted and sentenced to death a key player in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people.
Amrozi bin Nurhasyim was found guilty of planning and helping execute the bombings, the deadliest since the 9-11 attacks in the US.
"The accused is found guilty in a legal and convincing manner of carrying out an act of terrorism," said Judge I Made Karna.
After the verdict was read, Amrozi took off his Islamic skull cap, raised his arms and gave his lawyers the thumbs-up sign. Hundreds of people, including survivors of the bombings, cheered when the judge read the sentence.
As he was led out of the courtroom, Amrozi smiled broadly at Australian survivors, some of whom shouted back angrily. Australia lost 88 people in the attack.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Spiegel: Autobombe toetet zwoelf Menschen
Eine gewaltige Detonation vor der jordanischen Botschaft in Bagdad hat bis zu zw?lf Menschen in den Tod gerissen. 52 Personen wurden verletzt, einige von ihnen schwer. Aufgebrachte Iraker stürmten nach der Explosion in das Gebaeude und zerstoerten Bilder des jordanischen Herrscherhauses.
Zum ersten Mal seit Freitag wurden am Mittwochabend wieder zwei US-Soldaten in Irak get?tet. Nach Angaben des Zentralkommandos in Florida kamen sie bei einer Schie?erei in Bagdad ums Leben. Damit stieg die Zahl der von Guerillakaempfern getoeteten US-Soldaten auf 55. Am Mittwoch erschossen US-Soldaten einen Iraker, der sie mit einer Granate angreifen wollte.
Independent: 'Many dead' as blast rocks Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
Two American soldiers killed in gun battle in Iraqi capital
A massive bomb exploded outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad today. A nearby hospital said between seven and 12 people were killed, with more than 50 wounded, but paramedics said 12 bodies had been taken from the wreckage.
Spiegel: Autobombe toetet zwoelf Menschen
Eine gewaltige Detonation vor der jordanischen Botschaft in Bagdad hat bis zu zw?lf Menschen in den Tod gerissen. 52 Personen wurden verletzt, einige von ihnen schwer. Aufgebrachte Iraker stürmten nach der Explosion in das Gebaeude und zerstoerten Bilder des jordanischen Herrscherhauses.
Zum ersten Mal seit Freitag wurden am Mittwochabend wieder zwei US-Soldaten in Irak get?tet. Nach Angaben des Zentralkommandos in Florida kamen sie bei einer Schie?erei in Bagdad ums Leben. Damit stieg die Zahl der von Guerillakaempfern getoeteten US-Soldaten auf 55. Am Mittwoch erschossen US-Soldaten einen Iraker, der sie mit einer Granate angreifen wollte.
Independent: 'Many dead' as blast rocks Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
Two American soldiers killed in gun battle in Iraqi capital
A massive bomb exploded outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad today. A nearby hospital said between seven and 12 people were killed, with more than 50 wounded, but paramedics said 12 bodies had been taken from the wreckage.
FINANCE
Tages Anzeiger: "Der wirtschaftliche Aufschwung kommt bestimmt. In den USA sind davon alle überzeugt, seit letzte Woche bekannt geworden war, dass das Bruttoinlandprodukt zwischen April und Juni dieses Jahres um 2,4 Prozent gestiegen ist. Irgendwann wird die amerikanische Dynamik auch die Konjunktur in Europa beflügeln."
"Neuigkeiten aus der Finanzbranche: Die Massenmedien melden bereits wieder Aufschwung. Leider wird ausser Acht gelassen dass die Steigerung des Bruttoinlandproduktes von 2.4% zu zwei dritteln auf Staatliche Rüstungsauftraege die infolge des Irakkrieges vergeben wurden zurückzuführen ist. Darüberhinaus ben?tigen die USA mindestens eine Steigung von drei Prozent um neue Jobs zu schaffen. Vorsichtiger Optimismus ist angebracht"
Tages Anzeiger: "Der wirtschaftliche Aufschwung kommt bestimmt. In den USA sind davon alle überzeugt, seit letzte Woche bekannt geworden war, dass das Bruttoinlandprodukt zwischen April und Juni dieses Jahres um 2,4 Prozent gestiegen ist. Irgendwann wird die amerikanische Dynamik auch die Konjunktur in Europa beflügeln."
"Neuigkeiten aus der Finanzbranche: Die Massenmedien melden bereits wieder Aufschwung. Leider wird ausser Acht gelassen dass die Steigerung des Bruttoinlandproduktes von 2.4% zu zwei dritteln auf Staatliche Rüstungsauftraege die infolge des Irakkrieges vergeben wurden zurückzuführen ist. Darüberhinaus ben?tigen die USA mindestens eine Steigung von drei Prozent um neue Jobs zu schaffen. Vorsichtiger Optimismus ist angebracht"
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
911
Center for research on Globalisation: FBI acknowledges 9/11 was financed out of Pakistan
31 July Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs 2003
" The FBI conducted a detailed financial investigation/analysis of the19 hijackers and their support network, following the September 11th attacks. This investigation initially identified the Al Qa'ida funding sources of the 19 hijackers in the UAE and Germany. The financial investigation also provided the first links between Ramzi Binalshibh and the 9/11 operation. A continuing investigation, in coordination with the PENTTBOMB Team, has traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known Al Qa'ida operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the U.S. (Senate Committee Statement by FBI'S John Pistole, 31 July 2003.
Center for research on Globalisation: FBI acknowledges 9/11 was financed out of Pakistan
31 July Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs 2003
" The FBI conducted a detailed financial investigation/analysis of the19 hijackers and their support network, following the September 11th attacks. This investigation initially identified the Al Qa'ida funding sources of the 19 hijackers in the UAE and Germany. The financial investigation also provided the first links between Ramzi Binalshibh and the 9/11 operation. A continuing investigation, in coordination with the PENTTBOMB Team, has traced the origin of the funding of 9/11 back to financial accounts in Pakistan, where high-ranking and well-known Al Qa'ida operatives played a major role in moving the money forward, eventually into the hands of the hijackers located in the U.S. (Senate Committee Statement by FBI'S John Pistole, 31 July 2003.
DEMOCRACY IN AFGHANISTAN
Truth out/L.A Times: Afghans on Edge of Chaos
As opium production and banditry soar, the country is at risk of anarchy, some warn, and could allow a Taliban resurgence
WARDAK, Afghanistan - Two months after a gun attack, the bullet holes in the Datsun sedan have been patched and it runs beautifully. But water engineer Asil Kahn walks with a limp and he still has two bullets in his body, one of them half an inch from his spine.
The vehicle's humanitarian logo made him a victim in the battle for Afghanistan's future, where water engineers, mine-clearers and humanitarian workers - people the country needs most - are prime targets for militants trying to destabilize President Hamid Karzai's interim government.
Already the signs are there - a boom in opium production, rampant banditry and huge swaths of territory unsafe for Western aid workers. The central government has almost no power over regional warlords who control roads and extort money from truck drivers, choking commerce and trade.
If the country slips into anarchy, it risks becoming a haven for resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. And the point of U.S. military action here could be lost - a major setback in the war against terrorism.
Humanitarian agencies, calling for a big boost in international funds for security and reconstruction, contend that the commitment to Afghanistan is relatively low. A CARE International paper in January stated that postwar international aid spent in Bosnia-Herzegovina was $326 per capita, compared with $42 promised for Afghans up to 2006. For every peacekeeping soldier there were 48 Bosnians, compared with one for every 5,380 Afghans, the paper said. Yet Bosnia poses no appreciable terrorist threat.
Truth out/L.A Times: Afghans on Edge of Chaos
As opium production and banditry soar, the country is at risk of anarchy, some warn, and could allow a Taliban resurgence
WARDAK, Afghanistan - Two months after a gun attack, the bullet holes in the Datsun sedan have been patched and it runs beautifully. But water engineer Asil Kahn walks with a limp and he still has two bullets in his body, one of them half an inch from his spine.
The vehicle's humanitarian logo made him a victim in the battle for Afghanistan's future, where water engineers, mine-clearers and humanitarian workers - people the country needs most - are prime targets for militants trying to destabilize President Hamid Karzai's interim government.
Already the signs are there - a boom in opium production, rampant banditry and huge swaths of territory unsafe for Western aid workers. The central government has almost no power over regional warlords who control roads and extort money from truck drivers, choking commerce and trade.
If the country slips into anarchy, it risks becoming a haven for resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. And the point of U.S. military action here could be lost - a major setback in the war against terrorism.
Humanitarian agencies, calling for a big boost in international funds for security and reconstruction, contend that the commitment to Afghanistan is relatively low. A CARE International paper in January stated that postwar international aid spent in Bosnia-Herzegovina was $326 per capita, compared with $42 promised for Afghans up to 2006. For every peacekeeping soldier there were 48 Bosnians, compared with one for every 5,380 Afghans, the paper said. Yet Bosnia poses no appreciable terrorist threat.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Financial Times: Halliburton Employee Killed In Iraq
First US Government Contractor Killed In Iraq
An employee of Halliburton, the Houston-based oilfield service company, became the first US government contractor to be killed in Iraq on Tuesday when the truck he was riding in struck an anti-tank mine north of Tikrit.
The death highlighted the continued instability of Iraq and the dangers it poses for the civilian contractors the US military is relying on to rebuild the country and support its own operations.
Financial Times: Halliburton Employee Killed In Iraq
First US Government Contractor Killed In Iraq
An employee of Halliburton, the Houston-based oilfield service company, became the first US government contractor to be killed in Iraq on Tuesday when the truck he was riding in struck an anti-tank mine north of Tikrit.
The death highlighted the continued instability of Iraq and the dangers it poses for the civilian contractors the US military is relying on to rebuild the country and support its own operations.
911 THEY KNEW
Reuters: German Firm Probes Final
World Trade Center Deals
PIRMASENS, Germany (Reuters) - German computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center on September 11.
Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers?
Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert at the company, said illegal transfers of more than $100 million might have been made immediately before and during the disaster.
"There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million," Wagner said. ""They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the main frames were destroyed."
Reuters: German Firm Probes Final
World Trade Center Deals
PIRMASENS, Germany (Reuters) - German computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center on September 11.
Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers?
Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert at the company, said illegal transfers of more than $100 million might have been made immediately before and during the disaster.
"There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million," Wagner said. ""They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the main frames were destroyed."
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
electronicintifada: Is it a Fence? Is it a Wall? No, it's a Separation Barrier
Israel's Separation Barrier, dubbed the "Apartheid Wall" or "Berlin Wall" by Palestinians, has increasingly attracted international media attention, largely due to the hard-to-ignore scale of the project.
The most obvious historical parallel to the barrier is the Berlin Wall, which was 96 miles long (155 kilometers). Israel's barrier, still under construction, is expected to reach at least 403 miles in length (650 kilometers). The average height of the Berlin Wall was 11.8 feet (3.6 metres), compared with the maximum* current height of Israel's Wall -- 25 feet (8 metres).
[*it is not clear whether the shorter fence sections, about 6 meters in height, are first or final stages in Israel's construction of the barrier.]
Israel's barrier is therefore planned to be four times as long and in places twice as high as the Berlin Wall.
electronicintifada: Is it a Fence? Is it a Wall? No, it's a Separation Barrier
Israel's Separation Barrier, dubbed the "Apartheid Wall" or "Berlin Wall" by Palestinians, has increasingly attracted international media attention, largely due to the hard-to-ignore scale of the project.
The most obvious historical parallel to the barrier is the Berlin Wall, which was 96 miles long (155 kilometers). Israel's barrier, still under construction, is expected to reach at least 403 miles in length (650 kilometers). The average height of the Berlin Wall was 11.8 feet (3.6 metres), compared with the maximum* current height of Israel's Wall -- 25 feet (8 metres).
[*it is not clear whether the shorter fence sections, about 6 meters in height, are first or final stages in Israel's construction of the barrier.]
Israel's barrier is therefore planned to be four times as long and in places twice as high as the Berlin Wall.
1984
Spiegel: Gefangen in der Matrix
In der Folge der Terroranschläge des 11. September 2001 ging der Datenschutz zum Teufel. Heute wird im "land of the free" hemmungslos gelauscht und überwacht. Jetzt soll eine neue gigantische Datenbank mit Informationen über Millionen von Amerikanern gefüttert werden. Ihr Name: Die Matrix.
Das erklärte Ziel der "Matrix" ist das schnelle Erkennen von Verhaltensmustern und Querverbindungen zwischen Menschen. Damit ähnelt es frappierend dem vom Senat ausgebremsten "Terrorism Information Awareness"-Programm - auch wenn es in kleinerem Maßstab, nämlich nicht weltweit, operieren soll.
Die Geschwindigkeit und Leichtigkeit, mit der die "Matrix" Informationen über alle möglichen Personen zugänglich macht, löste nicht nur Proteste von Bürgerrechtsgruppen aus, sondern sorgt selbst unter Beamten für Unbehagen. Ein ranghoher Regierungsmitarbeiter, der die Entwicklung des Systems begleitet, räumte gegenüber der "Washington Post" ein, dass die "Matrix" tief in die Privatsphäre der Bürger eindringen könnte. "Ich kann alles über jemanden herausfinden", sagte Phil Ramer, Geheimdienstler in Florida. "Es ist beängstigend, und es könnte missbraucht werden." Das größte Problem sei derzeit, dass "jeder, der davon hört, das System haben will".
Spiegel: Gefangen in der Matrix
In der Folge der Terroranschläge des 11. September 2001 ging der Datenschutz zum Teufel. Heute wird im "land of the free" hemmungslos gelauscht und überwacht. Jetzt soll eine neue gigantische Datenbank mit Informationen über Millionen von Amerikanern gefüttert werden. Ihr Name: Die Matrix.
Das erklärte Ziel der "Matrix" ist das schnelle Erkennen von Verhaltensmustern und Querverbindungen zwischen Menschen. Damit ähnelt es frappierend dem vom Senat ausgebremsten "Terrorism Information Awareness"-Programm - auch wenn es in kleinerem Maßstab, nämlich nicht weltweit, operieren soll.
Die Geschwindigkeit und Leichtigkeit, mit der die "Matrix" Informationen über alle möglichen Personen zugänglich macht, löste nicht nur Proteste von Bürgerrechtsgruppen aus, sondern sorgt selbst unter Beamten für Unbehagen. Ein ranghoher Regierungsmitarbeiter, der die Entwicklung des Systems begleitet, räumte gegenüber der "Washington Post" ein, dass die "Matrix" tief in die Privatsphäre der Bürger eindringen könnte. "Ich kann alles über jemanden herausfinden", sagte Phil Ramer, Geheimdienstler in Florida. "Es ist beängstigend, und es könnte missbraucht werden." Das größte Problem sei derzeit, dass "jeder, der davon hört, das System haben will".
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Spiegel: "Die Liste ist ein Witz"
15.000 Palästinenser hat Israel während der Intifada in Gefängnisse gesperrt. 1500 warten noch heute auf einen Prozess. Jetzt kommen rund 330 Gefangene frei. Doch die Palästinenser fühlen sich betrogen: Israel entlässt nur die ganz kleinen Fische
Fast 6000 Palästinenser sitzen derzeit noch in israelischer Haft. Die meisten von ihnen wurden bei groß angelegten Militärrazzien während der Intifada im vergangenen Jahr verhaftet - darunter auch 350 Minderjährige. Ingesamt über 15.000 Palästinenser hatten die Iraelis in ihrem Kampf gegen den palästinensischen Terror festgesetzt unter dem Verdacht, sich an Gewalttaten gegen Israel beteiligt zu haben. Mitunter genügte es für eine Festnahme, ein Mann unter 50 zu sein. Bisweilen wurden halbe Dörfer abgeführt - mit Augenbinde und auf dem Rücken gefesselten Händen.
Dem Palästinenser-Premier, der dringend darauf angewiesen ist, der Bevölkerung Fortschritte vorweisen zu können, erschwert Israel den Job jedenfalls gefährlich. Derzeit verhandelt er mit den Terrorgruppen über eine Verlängerung des Waffenstillstandes. Sie präsentierten ihm eine einfache Rechnung: Seit dem Beginn der Waffenruhe vor mehr als einem Monat hat Israel fast so viele Palästinenser festgenommen, wie jetzt freikommen.
Spiegel: "Die Liste ist ein Witz"
15.000 Palästinenser hat Israel während der Intifada in Gefängnisse gesperrt. 1500 warten noch heute auf einen Prozess. Jetzt kommen rund 330 Gefangene frei. Doch die Palästinenser fühlen sich betrogen: Israel entlässt nur die ganz kleinen Fische
Fast 6000 Palästinenser sitzen derzeit noch in israelischer Haft. Die meisten von ihnen wurden bei groß angelegten Militärrazzien während der Intifada im vergangenen Jahr verhaftet - darunter auch 350 Minderjährige. Ingesamt über 15.000 Palästinenser hatten die Iraelis in ihrem Kampf gegen den palästinensischen Terror festgesetzt unter dem Verdacht, sich an Gewalttaten gegen Israel beteiligt zu haben. Mitunter genügte es für eine Festnahme, ein Mann unter 50 zu sein. Bisweilen wurden halbe Dörfer abgeführt - mit Augenbinde und auf dem Rücken gefesselten Händen.
Dem Palästinenser-Premier, der dringend darauf angewiesen ist, der Bevölkerung Fortschritte vorweisen zu können, erschwert Israel den Job jedenfalls gefährlich. Derzeit verhandelt er mit den Terrorgruppen über eine Verlängerung des Waffenstillstandes. Sie präsentierten ihm eine einfache Rechnung: Seit dem Beginn der Waffenruhe vor mehr als einem Monat hat Israel fast so viele Palästinenser festgenommen, wie jetzt freikommen.
IRAQI RESISTANCE
Spiegel: "Schiesst auf mich, damit ich nach Hause komme!"
Selbstgebastelte Bomben in Getr?nkedosen, im Schleier versteckte Granaten, Angriffe aus Krankenh?usern und Schulen: Die US-Soldaten im Irak fürchten t?glich um ihr Leben. Sie fühlen sich verraten und verkauft. Ihre Wut richtet sich gen Washington.
Ein Soldat, der seinen Namen nicht bekannt geben wollte, sagte den Reportern von ABC unter Verweis auf die an die Soldaten ausgeh?ndigten Kartenstapel, die die Bilder der am meistgesuchten irakischen Führer enthalten, dass "ich meine eigene 'Liste der Meistgesuchten' habe. In meinem Kartenstapel sind Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush und Paul Wolfowitz die Asse."
Spiegel: "Schiesst auf mich, damit ich nach Hause komme!"
Selbstgebastelte Bomben in Getr?nkedosen, im Schleier versteckte Granaten, Angriffe aus Krankenh?usern und Schulen: Die US-Soldaten im Irak fürchten t?glich um ihr Leben. Sie fühlen sich verraten und verkauft. Ihre Wut richtet sich gen Washington.
Ein Soldat, der seinen Namen nicht bekannt geben wollte, sagte den Reportern von ABC unter Verweis auf die an die Soldaten ausgeh?ndigten Kartenstapel, die die Bilder der am meistgesuchten irakischen Führer enthalten, dass "ich meine eigene 'Liste der Meistgesuchten' habe. In meinem Kartenstapel sind Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush und Paul Wolfowitz die Asse."
PR WATCH
Guardian: A matter of life and death
The Uday and Qusay Hussein photograph incident, planned as a surgical media strike, has backfired because no one had the sense to think through the PR implications
Guardian: A matter of life and death
The Uday and Qusay Hussein photograph incident, planned as a surgical media strike, has backfired because no one had the sense to think through the PR implications
PR WATCH/911
New Republic: 28 Pages
Since the joint congressional committee investigating September 11 issued a censored version of its report on July 24, there's been considerable speculation about the 28 pages blanked out from the section entitled "Certain Sensitive National Security Matters." The section cites "specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers," which most commentators have interpreted to mean Saudi contributions to Al Qaeda-linked charities. But an official who has read the report tells The New Republic that the support described in the report goes well beyond that: It involves connections between the hijacking plot and the very top levels of the Saudi royal family.
This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal flew to Washington for a hastily convened meeting with President Bush. Faisal publicly demanded that the 28 pages be declassified, but he had to have known in advance, and welcomed the fact, that his request would be denied--ostensibly friendly nations don't normally send their foreign ministers to meetings halfway around the world to be surprised
The official who read the 28 pages tells The New Republic, "If the people in the administration trying to link Iraq to Al Qaeda had one-one-thousandth of the stuff that the 28 pages has linking a foreign government to Al Qaeda, they would have been in good shape." He adds: "If the 28 pages were to be made public, I have no question that the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia would change overnight."
New Republic: 28 Pages
Since the joint congressional committee investigating September 11 issued a censored version of its report on July 24, there's been considerable speculation about the 28 pages blanked out from the section entitled "Certain Sensitive National Security Matters." The section cites "specific sources of foreign support for some of the September 11 hijackers," which most commentators have interpreted to mean Saudi contributions to Al Qaeda-linked charities. But an official who has read the report tells The New Republic that the support described in the report goes well beyond that: It involves connections between the hijacking plot and the very top levels of the Saudi royal family.
This week, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal flew to Washington for a hastily convened meeting with President Bush. Faisal publicly demanded that the 28 pages be declassified, but he had to have known in advance, and welcomed the fact, that his request would be denied--ostensibly friendly nations don't normally send their foreign ministers to meetings halfway around the world to be surprised
The official who read the 28 pages tells The New Republic, "If the people in the administration trying to link Iraq to Al Qaeda had one-one-thousandth of the stuff that the 28 pages has linking a foreign government to Al Qaeda, they would have been in good shape." He adds: "If the 28 pages were to be made public, I have no question that the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia would change overnight."
PR WATCH
Statesman: White House: Better PR can reverse anti-American sentiment
WASHINGTON — With anti-American sentiment rising worldwide, Bush administration officials say they are stepping up efforts to market America throughout the world.
Polls indicate that international opinion of the United States has plummeted in the last year, and worldwide sympathy for the United States after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has all but dissipated.
The Bush administration spent more than $70 million after the attacks to expand broadcasts of U.S.-sponsored international news services, but such expenditures have returned to previous levels and critics say they are not enough to counter the growing tide of anti-American sentiment
"Clearly the Arab world is so wrought up I can't imagine any kind of public diplomacy-making that palatable," Silverman said, adding that the United States' recent Madison Avenue branding techniques are too simplistic to be effective in other cultures.
Statesman: White House: Better PR can reverse anti-American sentiment
WASHINGTON — With anti-American sentiment rising worldwide, Bush administration officials say they are stepping up efforts to market America throughout the world.
Polls indicate that international opinion of the United States has plummeted in the last year, and worldwide sympathy for the United States after Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has all but dissipated.
The Bush administration spent more than $70 million after the attacks to expand broadcasts of U.S.-sponsored international news services, but such expenditures have returned to previous levels and critics say they are not enough to counter the growing tide of anti-American sentiment
"Clearly the Arab world is so wrought up I can't imagine any kind of public diplomacy-making that palatable," Silverman said, adding that the United States' recent Madison Avenue branding techniques are too simplistic to be effective in other cultures.
PR WATCH
Daily Telegraph: MoD tried to burn Kelly 'media plan'
Ministry of Defence officials were preparing to destroy a "media plan" about Dr David Kelly three days after his death, The Telegraph learned yesterday.
It is not clear whether the papers were burned, but MoD officials admitted last night that ministry security guards called the police after finding the "media plan" relating to the Kelly affair in a sack of classified waste being prepared for incineration.
Officially, the MoD continued to insist last night that it was an insignificant document that had no importance for the inquiry and that security guards had "over-reacted" in calling the police.
Das ist ja wie bei der UBS mit dem Meili
Daily Telegraph: MoD tried to burn Kelly 'media plan'
Ministry of Defence officials were preparing to destroy a "media plan" about Dr David Kelly three days after his death, The Telegraph learned yesterday.
It is not clear whether the papers were burned, but MoD officials admitted last night that ministry security guards called the police after finding the "media plan" relating to the Kelly affair in a sack of classified waste being prepared for incineration.
Officially, the MoD continued to insist last night that it was an insignificant document that had no importance for the inquiry and that security guards had "over-reacted" in calling the police.
Das ist ja wie bei der UBS mit dem Meili
PR WATCH
PR Week: Pentagon makes moves to contain complaints from US troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON: After several troops made some highly publicized negative comments to the media about the war effort in Iraq, the Pentagon has taken steps to keep the frustrations of both soldiers and their families out of reports.
According to a story in the July 25 edition of Stars and Stripes, the military appears to be curtailing its much-touted embedded-journalist program, which has allowed reporters almost unfettered access to military units throughout the war and occupation.
The 3rd Infantry Division, from where many complaints have arisen, has expelled many of its embedded reporters, and its troops are no longer allowed to talk to the media outside of pre-approved news features.
PR Week: Pentagon makes moves to contain complaints from US troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON: After several troops made some highly publicized negative comments to the media about the war effort in Iraq, the Pentagon has taken steps to keep the frustrations of both soldiers and their families out of reports.
According to a story in the July 25 edition of Stars and Stripes, the military appears to be curtailing its much-touted embedded-journalist program, which has allowed reporters almost unfettered access to military units throughout the war and occupation.
The 3rd Infantry Division, from where many complaints have arisen, has expelled many of its embedded reporters, and its troops are no longer allowed to talk to the media outside of pre-approved news features.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
TERROR
Spiegel: Der Terror ist zurück
Vor dem Marriott-Hotel in Jakarta riss eine gewaltige Bombenexplosion mindestens 14 Menschen in den Tod - darunter einen Holländer. 149 Personen wurden verletzt, viele von ihnen schwer. Der Bombenanschlag weckt schreckliche Erinnerungen an den Terroranschlag auf Bali, bei dem 202 Menschen getötet wurden.
Spiegel: Der Terror ist zurück
Vor dem Marriott-Hotel in Jakarta riss eine gewaltige Bombenexplosion mindestens 14 Menschen in den Tod - darunter einen Holländer. 149 Personen wurden verletzt, viele von ihnen schwer. Der Bombenanschlag weckt schreckliche Erinnerungen an den Terroranschlag auf Bali, bei dem 202 Menschen getötet wurden.
ISRAEL
Independent: Israel Imposes 'Racist' Marriage Law
JERUSALEM -- Israel's Parliament has passed a law preventing Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in Israel. The move was denounced by human rights organisations as racist, undemocratic and discriminatory.
Under the new law, rushed through yesterday, Palestinians alone will be excluded from obtaining citizenship or residency. Anyone else who marries an Israeli will be entitled to Israeli citizenship.
"Israel, die einzige "Demokratie" des Nahen Ostens"
AFP: US Struggles Over Israeli
Marriage Law As Discriminatory
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Monday struggled to express its opposition to a new Israeli law that blocks Palestinians from acquiring Israeli citizenship through marriage, describing the legislation as discriminatory in all but name.
State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said the law, adopted by parliament on July 31, clearly applied "only to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank and Gaza, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian." "In this regard, the new law singles out one group for different treatment than others," he told reporters.
Despite that assessment -- which appears to match the dictionary definition of "discriminatory" -- Reeker declined to use the word, noting that an Israeli human rights group was mounting a court challenge to the legality of the law.
Independent: Israel Imposes 'Racist' Marriage Law
JERUSALEM -- Israel's Parliament has passed a law preventing Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in Israel. The move was denounced by human rights organisations as racist, undemocratic and discriminatory.
Under the new law, rushed through yesterday, Palestinians alone will be excluded from obtaining citizenship or residency. Anyone else who marries an Israeli will be entitled to Israeli citizenship.
"Israel, die einzige "Demokratie" des Nahen Ostens"
AFP: US Struggles Over Israeli
Marriage Law As Discriminatory
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Monday struggled to express its opposition to a new Israeli law that blocks Palestinians from acquiring Israeli citizenship through marriage, describing the legislation as discriminatory in all but name.
State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said the law, adopted by parliament on July 31, clearly applied "only to non-Israeli residents of the West Bank and Gaza, the vast majority of whom are Palestinian." "In this regard, the new law singles out one group for different treatment than others," he told reporters.
Despite that assessment -- which appears to match the dictionary definition of "discriminatory" -- Reeker declined to use the word, noting that an Israeli human rights group was mounting a court challenge to the legality of the law.
GULD WAR 1
Rense: The Gulf War Story
No One Would Publish
Operation Black Dog
It was a sunny day and our encounter was in a seamy pub somewhere in the countryside of England. I had watched my back the entire journey - just in case. The meeting followed a story I had written on Gulf War Illness, when I had cautiously been told about a top secret US mission known as "Black Cat." This, I was told, involved a "black" US B52 bomber launching from Offut AFB in Nebraksa, and flying a round-trip to the Persian Gulf.
The hulking bomber carried one bomb packed with VX nerve agent, the most potent chemical weapon in the US CW armoury. The bomb was dropped on elements of the Republican Guard in Southern Iraq, I was informed. Heavy casualties apparently resulted. The operation, directed by the Central Intelligence Agency, was a counter-strike, following an Iraqi Scud that fell on Israel. The missile had contained Sarin and drove the Israeli government almost apoplectic with rage. Fuming, the Israeli's had readied to detonate a nuclear warhead high above Baghdad. Only the swift intervention of President George Bush forestalled what would have been a cataclysmic move destined to unravel the carefully wrought Arab backed Coalition lined-up against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"CHECK IT"
Rense: The Gulf War Story
No One Would Publish
Operation Black Dog
It was a sunny day and our encounter was in a seamy pub somewhere in the countryside of England. I had watched my back the entire journey - just in case. The meeting followed a story I had written on Gulf War Illness, when I had cautiously been told about a top secret US mission known as "Black Cat." This, I was told, involved a "black" US B52 bomber launching from Offut AFB in Nebraksa, and flying a round-trip to the Persian Gulf.
The hulking bomber carried one bomb packed with VX nerve agent, the most potent chemical weapon in the US CW armoury. The bomb was dropped on elements of the Republican Guard in Southern Iraq, I was informed. Heavy casualties apparently resulted. The operation, directed by the Central Intelligence Agency, was a counter-strike, following an Iraqi Scud that fell on Israel. The missile had contained Sarin and drove the Israeli government almost apoplectic with rage. Fuming, the Israeli's had readied to detonate a nuclear warhead high above Baghdad. Only the swift intervention of President George Bush forestalled what would have been a cataclysmic move destined to unravel the carefully wrought Arab backed Coalition lined-up against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
"CHECK IT"
ISLAM VS WEST
Gulfnews: U.S. officials see deep rift between Islam and West
A former U.S. White House official and two other Western scholars have concluded a deep rift exists between Islam and the West because of Western misunderstanding of the religion, and argued dialogue and joint research are needed to bridge the gap.
What compounds the problem is that policy makers in the West have been influenced in their dealing with Muslims by anti-Islam ideas presented by Western intellectuals despite widespread endeavours by some Muslim scholars to present the real face of Islam, said Abdul Aziz Said, a member of the White House Commission on the Islamic World during the Administration of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Gulfnews: U.S. officials see deep rift between Islam and West
A former U.S. White House official and two other Western scholars have concluded a deep rift exists between Islam and the West because of Western misunderstanding of the religion, and argued dialogue and joint research are needed to bridge the gap.
What compounds the problem is that policy makers in the West have been influenced in their dealing with Muslims by anti-Islam ideas presented by Western intellectuals despite widespread endeavours by some Muslim scholars to present the real face of Islam, said Abdul Aziz Said, a member of the White House Commission on the Islamic World during the Administration of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
GM FOOD
Guardian: World hunger needs a simple solution rather than hi-tech GM food
The sound of one hand clapping should greet the behaviour of "rational" scientists, businessmen and politicians in the debate on the future of genetically modified food.
One member of the government's review panel resigned because of the its "naive" and unbalanced approach. Another formally complained that he was threatened with the loss of research funding if he was critical of GM technology. In the most staggering example of a conflict of interest in recent times, a Monsanto employee was reportedly commissioned to write the first draft of the panel's report concerning GM safety issues
Guardian: World hunger needs a simple solution rather than hi-tech GM food
The sound of one hand clapping should greet the behaviour of "rational" scientists, businessmen and politicians in the debate on the future of genetically modified food.
One member of the government's review panel resigned because of the its "naive" and unbalanced approach. Another formally complained that he was threatened with the loss of research funding if he was critical of GM technology. In the most staggering example of a conflict of interest in recent times, a Monsanto employee was reportedly commissioned to write the first draft of the panel's report concerning GM safety issues
IRAQ
Sidyney Morning Herald: Bloody retribution
The shame of the father ... tribal sheiks forced Salem Kerbul, above, to kill his son Sabah, whom they accused of collaborating with the Americans. Photo: Jason South
The thousands of Iraqis working for the US administration have been declared collaborators. When they're caught by the resistance, the punishment is unthinkable. Paul McGeough reports.
Sabah Kerbul's executioners were his father and his brother. Most were in their beds when he was killed. But all members of the 27-year-old's extended family, living in adjoining properties on this remote bend in the Tigris, 120 kilometres north of Baghdad, knew the hideous tribal drama unfolding in a corner of their orange grove when they heard five sharp shots being fired from AK47s shortly after 2am.
Sidyney Morning Herald: Bloody retribution
The shame of the father ... tribal sheiks forced Salem Kerbul, above, to kill his son Sabah, whom they accused of collaborating with the Americans. Photo: Jason South
The thousands of Iraqis working for the US administration have been declared collaborators. When they're caught by the resistance, the punishment is unthinkable. Paul McGeough reports.
Sabah Kerbul's executioners were his father and his brother. Most were in their beds when he was killed. But all members of the 27-year-old's extended family, living in adjoining properties on this remote bend in the Tigris, 120 kilometres north of Baghdad, knew the hideous tribal drama unfolding in a corner of their orange grove when they heard five sharp shots being fired from AK47s shortly after 2am.
IRAQ
Sidney Morning Herald: US baffled as troops in Iraq hit by killer virus
The United States Army has dispatched a team of medical experts to Iraq to investigate a serious outbreak of pneumonia among US troops, with two dead and more than 100 ill.
Lieutenant-General James Peake, the army's surgeon general, has sent a team of six to Iraq and two more doctors to Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, where some of the troops were treated after being flown from Iraq, officials said on Friday.
Army Medical Command spokeswoman Lyn Kukral said: "It is pneumonia. The question is: what is the cause?"
"You've got a healthy population and a young population [of US troops], and you have two soldiers who have died, and that's a concern."
Sidney Morning Herald: US baffled as troops in Iraq hit by killer virus
The United States Army has dispatched a team of medical experts to Iraq to investigate a serious outbreak of pneumonia among US troops, with two dead and more than 100 ill.
Lieutenant-General James Peake, the army's surgeon general, has sent a team of six to Iraq and two more doctors to Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre in Germany, where some of the troops were treated after being flown from Iraq, officials said on Friday.
Army Medical Command spokeswoman Lyn Kukral said: "It is pneumonia. The question is: what is the cause?"
"You've got a healthy population and a young population [of US troops], and you have two soldiers who have died, and that's a concern."
ANTI GM-FOOD
Globeandmail: French anti-GMO militant gets early release
Villeneuve-les-Maguelone, France — French anti-globalization activist José Bové walked free from prison Saturday several months ahead of schedule, after a court replaced his term for destroying genetically modified crops with community service.
To the cheers of supporters waiting outside the prison in southern France, Mr. Bové declared himself unrepentant.
"Being in prison has not changed my convictions," he told reporters. "For me, it is clear that the fight must continue."
Globeandmail: French anti-GMO militant gets early release
Villeneuve-les-Maguelone, France — French anti-globalization activist José Bové walked free from prison Saturday several months ahead of schedule, after a court replaced his term for destroying genetically modified crops with community service.
To the cheers of supporters waiting outside the prison in southern France, Mr. Bové declared himself unrepentant.
"Being in prison has not changed my convictions," he told reporters. "For me, it is clear that the fight must continue."
IRAQ: LIES LIES LIES
Independent: Blair and Bush join forces to spin away weapons issue
The British and US governments are drawing up a controversial new strategy to convince the public that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction - an admission that they have so far failed to make a convincing case.
The "big impact" plan is designed to overwhelm and silence critics who have sought to put pressure on Tony Blair and George Bush. At the same time both men are working to lower the burden of proof - from finding weapons to finding evidence that there were programmes to develop them, even if they lay dormant since the 1980s.
Independent: Blair and Bush join forces to spin away weapons issue
The British and US governments are drawing up a controversial new strategy to convince the public that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction - an admission that they have so far failed to make a convincing case.
The "big impact" plan is designed to overwhelm and silence critics who have sought to put pressure on Tony Blair and George Bush. At the same time both men are working to lower the burden of proof - from finding weapons to finding evidence that there were programmes to develop them, even if they lay dormant since the 1980s.
IRAQI WMD
Independent: Whistleblower on Niger uranium claim accuses White House of launching 'dirty-tricks campaign'
The former American diplomat who exposed false claims that Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Niger has accused members of the Bush administration of a dirty tricks campaign against him.
The revelation of Joseph Wilson's investigation in the African state forced President George Bush to retract claims about Iraq's attempts to buy uranium made in his State of the Union speech two months before the war began.
The Administration is alleged to have leaked the name of Mr Wilson's wife, an undercover CIA operative in the field of weapons of mass destruction, with the aim of discrediting him. It is said that Mr Wilson was selected to go on the trip to Niger last year only after his wife, Valerie Plame, suggested him.
US intelligence officials and the Democrats are furious about the move, arguing that it jeopardises Ms Plame's work and undermines her husband. They have called for an inquiry
Independent: Whistleblower on Niger uranium claim accuses White House of launching 'dirty-tricks campaign'
The former American diplomat who exposed false claims that Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Niger has accused members of the Bush administration of a dirty tricks campaign against him.
The revelation of Joseph Wilson's investigation in the African state forced President George Bush to retract claims about Iraq's attempts to buy uranium made in his State of the Union speech two months before the war began.
The Administration is alleged to have leaked the name of Mr Wilson's wife, an undercover CIA operative in the field of weapons of mass destruction, with the aim of discrediting him. It is said that Mr Wilson was selected to go on the trip to Niger last year only after his wife, Valerie Plame, suggested him.
US intelligence officials and the Democrats are furious about the move, arguing that it jeopardises Ms Plame's work and undermines her husband. They have called for an inquiry
IRAQ
Guardian: The unreported cost of war: at least 827 American wounded
US military casualties from the occupation of Iraq have been more than twice the number most Americans have been led to believe because of an extraordinarily high number of accidents, suicides and other non-combat deaths in the ranks that have gone largely unreported in the media.
Since May 1, when President George Bush declared the end of major combat operations, 52 American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire, according to Pentagon figures quoted in almost all the war coverage. But the total number of US deaths from all causes is much higher: 112.
Guardian: The unreported cost of war: at least 827 American wounded
US military casualties from the occupation of Iraq have been more than twice the number most Americans have been led to believe because of an extraordinarily high number of accidents, suicides and other non-combat deaths in the ranks that have gone largely unreported in the media.
Since May 1, when President George Bush declared the end of major combat operations, 52 American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire, according to Pentagon figures quoted in almost all the war coverage. But the total number of US deaths from all causes is much higher: 112.
IRAQ
SF Gate: Iraq buries Hussein brothers
Funeral ignites anti-American frenzy among mourners, calls for Saddam's return
Al-Uja, Iraq -- The brothers Hussein were buried on Saturday here in their hometown 11 days after they were killed by U.S. soldiers. The funeral touched off an outpouring of nostalgia for their fugitive father and was filled with angry calls to rid Iraq of its U.S. occupiers.
SF Gate: Iraq buries Hussein brothers
Funeral ignites anti-American frenzy among mourners, calls for Saddam's return
Al-Uja, Iraq -- The brothers Hussein were buried on Saturday here in their hometown 11 days after they were killed by U.S. soldiers. The funeral touched off an outpouring of nostalgia for their fugitive father and was filled with angry calls to rid Iraq of its U.S. occupiers.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to
the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the
establishment; they like nothing better than love & nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high
window." -- William Burroughs
"The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to
the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the
establishment; they like nothing better than love & nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high
window." -- William Burroughs
Monday, August 04, 2003
IRAQ
New Zealand News: Robert Fisk: US fostering sinister sort of democracy
Paul Bremer's taste in clothes symbolises "the new Iraq" well. He wears a business suit and combat boots. As the pro-consul of Iraq, you might have thought he'd have more taste.
The result? Iraq, with the world's second-highest reserves of oil, is now importing fuel.
Then comes Baghdad airport. Sure, it's going to reopen. But it just happens that the airport, with its huge American military base and brutal US prison camp, comes under nightly grenade and mortar attack.
No major airline would dream of flying its aircraft into the facility in these circumstances.
The Iraqis are told, for example, that the first flights will be run by "Transcontinental Airlines" (a name oddly similar to the CIA's transport airline in Vietnam), which is reported to be a subsidiary of "US Airlines", and the only flight will be between Baghdad and - wait for it - the old East Berlin airport of Schonefeld.
Health services? Well, yes, the new Iraqi health service is being encouraged to rehabilitate the country's hospitals and clinics. But a mysterious American company called Abt Associates has turned up in Baghdad to give "Ministry of Health Technical Assistance" support to the US Agency for International Development and "rapid response grants to address health needs in-country".
It has decreed that all medical equipment must accord with US technical standards and modifications - which means that all new hospital equipment must come from America, not from Europe.
Inevitably, it has been one of the American commentators from the same failed lunatic right as Wolfowitz - Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum think tank, which promotes American interests in the region - to express this in its most chilling form.
He now argues that "democratic-minded autocrats can guide [Iraq] to full democracy better than snap elections". What Iraq needs, he says, is "a democratically minded [sic] strongman who has real authority", who would be "politically moderate" but "operationally tough" (sic again).
Of course, it's difficult to resist a cynical smile at such double standards, although their meaning is frightening enough. What does "operationally tough" mean, other than secret policemen, interrogation rooms and torturers to keep the people in order - which is exactly what Saddam set up when he took power, supported as he was at the time by the US and Britain?
What does "strongman" mean other than a total reversal of the promise of "democracy" which Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair made to the Iraqi people?
Democracies are not led by autocrats, and autocrats are not led by anyone but themselves.
CHECK IT CHECK IT
New Zealand News: Robert Fisk: US fostering sinister sort of democracy
Paul Bremer's taste in clothes symbolises "the new Iraq" well. He wears a business suit and combat boots. As the pro-consul of Iraq, you might have thought he'd have more taste.
The result? Iraq, with the world's second-highest reserves of oil, is now importing fuel.
Then comes Baghdad airport. Sure, it's going to reopen. But it just happens that the airport, with its huge American military base and brutal US prison camp, comes under nightly grenade and mortar attack.
No major airline would dream of flying its aircraft into the facility in these circumstances.
The Iraqis are told, for example, that the first flights will be run by "Transcontinental Airlines" (a name oddly similar to the CIA's transport airline in Vietnam), which is reported to be a subsidiary of "US Airlines", and the only flight will be between Baghdad and - wait for it - the old East Berlin airport of Schonefeld.
Health services? Well, yes, the new Iraqi health service is being encouraged to rehabilitate the country's hospitals and clinics. But a mysterious American company called Abt Associates has turned up in Baghdad to give "Ministry of Health Technical Assistance" support to the US Agency for International Development and "rapid response grants to address health needs in-country".
It has decreed that all medical equipment must accord with US technical standards and modifications - which means that all new hospital equipment must come from America, not from Europe.
Inevitably, it has been one of the American commentators from the same failed lunatic right as Wolfowitz - Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum think tank, which promotes American interests in the region - to express this in its most chilling form.
He now argues that "democratic-minded autocrats can guide [Iraq] to full democracy better than snap elections". What Iraq needs, he says, is "a democratically minded [sic] strongman who has real authority", who would be "politically moderate" but "operationally tough" (sic again).
Of course, it's difficult to resist a cynical smile at such double standards, although their meaning is frightening enough. What does "operationally tough" mean, other than secret policemen, interrogation rooms and torturers to keep the people in order - which is exactly what Saddam set up when he took power, supported as he was at the time by the US and Britain?
What does "strongman" mean other than a total reversal of the promise of "democracy" which Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair made to the Iraqi people?
Democracies are not led by autocrats, and autocrats are not led by anyone but themselves.
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FAHRENHEIT451 update @ Ekosystem
FH451 is also covered in Print in the August Issue of Juice Magazine
FAHRENHEIT451 update @ Ekosystem
FH451 is also covered in Print in the August Issue of Juice Magazine
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