From dtsang@lib.uci.edu Thu May 1 21:40:14 2003 From: dtsang@lib.uci.edu (Dan Tsang) Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 13:40:14 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Ethnicstudies] OC China; Saigon, USA Message-ID: Two articles in the OC Weeky just out: 1. About UCI MFA candidate Henry Tsang's Orange County installation: http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/03/35/art-ziegler.php The Simulated Simulacra Henry Tsangs visit to the other Orange County 2. My critical review of Saigon, USA (video): http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/03/35/film-tsang.php Sanitized for Your Consumption Saigon, USA white-washes local history dan From mhkanda@uci.edu Fri May 2 00:18:58 2003 From: mhkanda@uci.edu (Marcus H. Kanda) Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 16:18:58 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] PUBLIC FORUM: U.S. AND REGIME CHANGE Message-ID: <5.1.1.5.2.20030501161743.019b40d8@benfranklin.hnet.uci.edu>
The UCI Department of History & the History Undergraduate Student Association at UCI

present a public forum:

THE UNITED STATES AND REGIME CHANGE:
THE HISTORICAL LESSONS

A public forum on the United States record with regime change in different parts of the world: Cuba, USSR, China, Vietnam and the Middle East. 

CUBA            - Robert Duncan, Ph.D. History Lecturer
CHINA   - Kenneth Pomeranz, UCI Professor of History
MIDDLE EAST     - Mark Levine, UCI Asst. Professor of History
USSR            - Lynn Mally, UCI Professor of History
VIETNAM - Charles Wheeler, UCI Asst. Professor of History

Moderated by Steven Topik, UCI Professor of History

Tuesday, May 06, 2003
6:00 pm
Humanities Instructional Building 135

The discussion is free and open to the public.  For more information or for assistance with a disability, please contact the UCI Department of History at 949.824-4626 / mhkanda@uci.edu.



From jafujii@uci.edu Sat May 3 05:57:15 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 21:57:15 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: The Cuba Conundrum - Saul Landau Message-ID: <005001c31130$77c5cce0$99bac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_004D_01C310F5.CAD14490 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 4:26 PM Subject: The Cuba Conundrum - Saul Landau >From Radio Progreso May 1, 2003 www.rprogreso.com The Cuba Conundrum By Saul Landau "What is Fidel doing?" asks a Mexican American who has supported the = Cuban revolution for decades. While U.S. bombs and Cruise Missiles rained down on Iraqis and Bradley fighting vehicles blew away their opponents and lots of civilians, the = Cuban government tried 75 'dissidents' and sentenced them to long terms. After U.S. forces occupied Iraq and soldiers fired into crowds at Mosul, = killing 10 and wounding 100, the Cuban government arrested several boat = hijackers, summarily tried them and executed three of them. As a result of these two separate, yet judgmentally connected actions, = Cuba has lost more progressive intellectual friends than it has since the infamous 1971 case of Heberto Padilla, the Cuban poet detained for 38 = days for something he wrote, said, thought or who knows? On April 14, Nobel Prize winning novelist Jose Saramago of Portugal = wrote an open letter in El Pais which stated, "Cuba has won no victory by = executing these three men, but it has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, robbed = me of my illusions." Eduardo Galeano, the soul of Latin American = resistance, wrote in the April 18, La Jornada, that "Cuba hurts," describing his = feeling over the jailing of people for their ideas and lightning application of = the death penalty. When Cuba executed the boat-jackers on April 11, I felt = the kind of pain Galeano referred to. I cannot justify the death penalty. I cannot invent reasons for its swift application. Some U.S. leftists joined others around the world in petitions = criticizing Cuba's actions and in the April 20 Opinion section of the Los Angeles = Times the prestigious Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes reiterated his = opposition to Cuba's undemocratic government while opposing Bush at the same time. We should assume that most of the people on the left who have recently criticized Cuba have done so for noble motives. For many honest = progressive and revolutionaries, Cuba has represented one of the few sources of = hope, even at those times when Cuban leaders made judgments that we disagreed with. Because of the extraordinary accomplishments of the Cuban = revolution, including its leading role in affirming the mostly forgotten UN Covenant = on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, every progressive worth a salt has invested some part of his or her soul in that process. What Cuba has yet to do in the two separate causes (arrests and = executions) is present the pertinent facts and reasons for arresting and condemning people whose organizations it had penetrated and controlled and explain = why it had to execute with lightning speed the boat-jackers. Similarly, = those quick to condemn Cuba might study more carefully the facts of the cases = as well. The 'dissidents,' who defined themselves as economists, = journalists and human rights activists, did not face trial for expressing dissenting opinions, at least not formally. The Cuban government accused them of working with and taking money (or gifts and services) from the U.S. government in order, in the words of Cuba's Ambassador to Canada, "to destabilize the country, undermine and destroy Cuba's Constitutional = order, its Government, its independence and its Socialist society." Yes, Cuba has made it illegal to work with the United States to subvert = the Cuban government. Having affirmed that right of self defense, as would = any state in the world, Cuba should present all the necessary facts and analysis. We know that U.S. diplomats openly promoted the weakening of = the Cuban government. James Cason, the head of the U.S. Interest Section in Havana organized Cuban citizens and paid them small sums or gave them = gifts and services to promote "dissidence." So what's new? For 40-four plus years, Washington has tried every = criminal method short of direct military invasion to destroy Cuba's revolution. = The government has wreaked havoc on Cuba's social and economic order and = Cubans have every right to suspect the U.S. government of the most malicious motives. But why did the Cuban government bother to arrest and prosecute people = whose actions they monitored so closely? State security agents had not only infiltrated, but had actually set up some of the 'dissident' = organizations. The infiltrators had not only won the trust of Cason, but had gained = access to the U.S. Interest Section and to the homes of the leading U.S. = diplomats. So why bust these people whose national following did not amount to any significant public, whose internal reputation was a joke, and whose political coherence depended on handouts from the U.S. government or on ideas generated by Cuban agents, some of whose opinion pieces appeared = in The Miami Herald? Cuba has not answered these questions. I can imagine, however, that = Cuban leaders might claim that after Iraq, the imperialists now possess the = will to try to crush any country. And members of the policy elite have stated that they do not consider Cuba off limits for military attack. Suppose, six months before the 2004 election, the U.S. economy remains stalled and Republican planners decide that Bush needs another "win." = Given the enthusiasm of the Castro-hating Florida Cubans for such an idea, = Bush might well make the island his target -- if he saw even a shred of vulnerability in Cuba's defenses. For example, the 10,000 plus Cubans who signed a U.S.-backed "Varela Project" petition demanding basic reforms could become a dangerous = symbol under such conditions. Did Fidel fear that Washington would take the = veneer of "dissident" success as a sign of the revolution's weakness and then pursue a military course to provoke Cuban leaders to surface 12 of the agents they had masterfully planted inside the "dissident" = organizations? "See, 10,000 signatures collected in a totalitarian state. In addition = to their biological weapons, we now have evidence of deep-seated = discontent," Bush might say as a prelude to whipping up invasion spirit. After all, = he used such exaggerations to prepare the public for the invasion of Iraq. Indeed, Cuban officials may have feared that the dissidents, no matter = how well penetrated, could convert themselves into at least a symbolic = 'fifth column' on the island, while Washington tightened the embargo and travel = ban to create outside pressure on Cuba's weak economy. Also, buying = 'dissidents' with small amounts of money could end up corrupting a less manageable sector, enough perhaps to offer orchestrated TV cameras images of crowds welcoming U.S. marines. Cuban leaders must have sensed some overt threat before taking such = drastic steps. A new migration crisis that Bush could use as a pretext that Cuba = was encroaching on U.S. national security? A military provocation around Guantanamo? I await the revelation of the facts. Those in Washington who know the island's realities would discourage = such aggressive plans. But suppose Fidel worried that the Bushies might = believe in their own inventions? Fantasies that Cubans are defiantly rising in = the thousands (as one hears on some of the hysterical shows on Miami radio) could well lead to calls for serious invasion scenarios. In addition, = high level U.S. officials and Radio Marti have for months repeated the = baseless charge that Cuba has bio-terrorism weapons and harbors terrorists. Indeed, in Miami where anti-Castro terrorists walk proudly down the = streets or sit with the President on his platform, pro-war demonstrators carried placards equating Fidel with Saddam Hussein. Given the success of Bush's spin linking Saddam to 9/11, who knows what polls would show about percentages of gullible Americans falling for propaganda that promoted = "the invasion of Cuba as a way of securing the U.S. homeland." So, it's possible that Cuba's jailing and harsh sentencing of = "dissidents" and executing of hijackers derives from military crisis not normal = political thinking. As a result of the lessons taught by the sentences of the 'dissidents' and the hijackers, Cubans will less likely accept gifts = from dubious sources. If this analysis is correct, will Cubans try to repair the political = damage done in their military mode? Perhaps they might make public the basis = for their actions rather than repeat accusations and demand blind = solidarity. Such revelations would hardly justify their use of the death penalty, = but at least it would help explain their behavior to bewildered comrades = throughout the world. Many left critics of the procedural issues surrounding the 'dissidents' = case have not properly informed themselves of the intricacies of Cuba's legal system. For example, most of the accused did have the right to choose = their lawyers or received court appointed defense if they did not make a = choice. They did know exactly what charges Cuba leveled against them. Cuba did = not hold secret trials. Indeed, the relatives of the accused and other = observers sat through the proceedings. Yes, in accordance with Cuban law, the 'dissidents' received summary = trials. But this does not automatically deprive them of their procedural rights. = The Cuban defense lawyers work with the prosecutors on the indictment and if there are holes, the defense lawyers inform the judges, who should then dismiss the cases. The government had airtight cases that the accused = had taken money, goods and services from the arch enemy and had performed = anti government acts writing, speaking and publishing what the U.S. = government promoted. But to dismiss the 75 as simply traitors hardly suffices. Military = thinking produces absolutes that in turn lead to a serious political downside. As Galeano indicates, by trying and condemning them, Cuba turned "groups = which openly worked from James Cason's house, the representative of Bush's interests in Havana, into martyrs of freedom of expression." Indeed, as Cuba's security agents testified, with no refutation from the United = States, Cason actually established a political party (the youth section of = Liberal Cuban Party). By bagging these pathetic people, Galeano concludes that the "Cuban authorities have paid homage to them, and have granted them the prestige that prohibited thoughts acquire." The Uruguayan writer continues: "This 'democratic opposition ' has nothing to do with the genuine expectations = of honest Cubans. If the revolution hadn't done it the favor of repressing = it, and if in Cuba there was full freedom of press and of opinion, this so-called dissidence would disqualify itself. And it would get the punishment it deserves, the chastisement of loneliness, for its = notorious nostalgia of colonial times in a country which has chosen the way of national dignity." Even those defending the actions fail to answer the criticism. In the = April 12 La Jiribilla, Angel Guerra refers to "the Bush doctrine of = 'preemptive war' and the preparations for aggression against Iraq, justified with = any lie and invoking the right of the United State to bring about 'regime change' wherever and whenever it considered it necessary. Why not in = Cuba, which after all appears on all the inquisitional lists of the State Department, among them the list of countries that sponsor terrorism and, = of course, the countries that systematically violate human rights?" Guerra also cites "the Miami mafia, leading a mobilized mob last Sunday = in support of the intervention against Baghdad, which raised the cry, 'Iraq today, Cuba tomorrow.'" Four words that reveal the purpose that today determines their actions, as well as those of their satellites on the Island, even if they disguise themselves as independent journalists or = human rights defenders. "The issue would not deserve any comment," Guerra continues, "if it were = not for the extraordinary influence the terrorist group in Miami has in = defining Washington's political agenda toward the Island. These events are not fortuitous," he concludes, "but are the product of Bush administration complicity with the Miami mafia, determined to fish in troubled waters." Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, Cuba's Ambassador to Canada, wrote in the = April 10 Globe and Mail that Cuba's critics employed "double standards." True, = but this does not address what Cuba did. If Cuba's behavior derived from security fears, then Cuban officials should confront that issue and = explain their actions accordingly. He points correctly in his letter to "abuses of Afghans, Arabs and = citizens from different countries detained in Guantanamo base. in Cuba. No secret military trial like the ones established in the United States has been = nor can be carried out in Cuba. There do not exist thousands of detainees = still ignorant of the charges against them and whose names have not been = released in totality, as is happening in the United States since September 11, = 2001. None of the individuals tried in Cuba have been submitted to solitary confinement, to psychological torture or cruel separation from their families like the five Cuban unjustly suffering prison in the United States." True, but most of the leftists critics strongly opposed U.S. procedural violations in the very cases he cited. U.S. officials reach new heights = of hypocrisy when they try to smear Cuba's human rights record. Can one conceive of a more gross human rights violation than waging aggressive = war? Or compare the trials of the dissidents to that of the five Cubans tried = and sentenced in Florida (the five had infiltrated U.S.-based anti-Castro terrorist groups because the FBI did not stop their terrorism. The government charged them with espionage and sentenced them to long terms) = and you'll conclude that Cuba offered more procedural rights than the U.S. = did. As Fernandez de Cossio asserts, the five "are still waiting to read over = 50 per cent of the documentation used to incriminate them because it was declared secret." Critics on the left do not question Cuba's right to protect itself from = the U.S. monster. But in so behaving, it handed its enemies the public = relations chance of a decade: Cuba imprisons its dissenters and summarily executes people. As Galeano wrote, "Freedom and justice march together or they = don't march." When I first visited Cuba in 1960, I felt that the revolutionary spirit = had changed my life, provided me with reason and inspiration to seek = justice. I agree with Galeano that over the decades "the revolution has lost the = wind of spontaneity and freshness that has driven her from the start. I say = it with pain. Cuba hurts." Yet, after forty plus years, I still look to the island as a place from which superior, not inferior forms of human behavior will arise. I = dismiss the puerile criticisms of Cuba from U.S. government hacks who have made careers of creating dictators in the third world, and who possess the = moral authority of a flea. Speaking of moral fleas, George "Death Penalty" Bush as Governor of = Texas celebrated 152 executions. He can teach a "how to do it" course on that subject. So Cuba rightfully dismisses W's judgments, but it should not dismiss as enemies those progressives who felt appalled over the = execution of the boat-jackers. They are appealing to Cuba's conscience. Can the = death penalty coexist with a moral socialism? The critics may have signed petitions without possessing the necessary facts, but that in and of = itself is not sufficient reason to deride honest people who abhor the death = penalty and question trials of people whose crimes consisted of writing and = speaking no matter in whose interest or that they took money. George W. Bush's name may engrave itself in history's pages as the first fascist president. Fidel Castro has already entered the history books as = the man who led the Cuban people from the marginality of informal U.S. = colonial status to a heroic role in world history. The Cuban Revolution has made = its mark. It has no reason, no matter how real the threat, to turn its back = on friends and supporters who criticize specific actions from principled positions. Cuba may well be a viable target of the Bush fascists. In such circumstances, shouldn't revolutionary Cubans maintain dialogue with = honest progressives who disagree with jailing dissidents and carrying out the = death penalty? And shouldn't the progressives keep their lines open as well?=20 Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His new film, IRAQ: VOICES FROM THE STREETS, is available through The Cinema Guild. 1-800-723-5522 www.saullandau.net ------=_NextPart_000_004D_01C310F5.CAD14490 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 4:26 PM
Subject: The Cuba Conundrum - Saul Landau

From Radio Progreso May 1, 2003   www.rprogreso.com

The Cuba=20 Conundrum

By Saul Landau

"What is Fidel doing?" asks a = Mexican=20 American who has supported the Cuban
revolution for = decades.

While=20 U.S. bombs and Cruise Missiles rained down on Iraqis and = Bradley
fighting=20 vehicles blew away their opponents and lots of civilians, the=20 Cuban
government tried 75 'dissidents' and sentenced them to long = terms.=20 After
U.S. forces occupied Iraq and soldiers fired into crowds at = Mosul,=20 killing
10 and wounding 100, the Cuban government arrested several = boat=20 hijackers,
summarily tried them and executed three of them.

As = a=20 result of these two separate, yet judgmentally connected actions, = Cuba
has=20 lost more progressive intellectual friends than it has since = the
infamous=20 1971 case of Heberto Padilla, the Cuban poet detained for 38 days
for = something he wrote, said, thought or who knows?

On April 14, = Nobel Prize=20 winning novelist Jose Saramago of Portugal wrote an
open letter in El = Pais=20 which stated, "Cuba has won no victory by executing
these three men, = but it=20 has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes, robbed me
of my illusions." = Eduardo=20 Galeano, the soul of Latin American resistance,
wrote in the April = 18, La=20 Jornada, that "Cuba hurts," describing his feeling
over the jailing = of people=20 for their ideas and lightning application of the
death penalty. When = Cuba=20 executed the boat-jackers on April 11, I felt the
kind of pain = Galeano=20 referred to. I cannot justify the death penalty. I
cannot invent = reasons for=20 its swift application.

Some U.S. leftists joined others around = the world=20 in petitions criticizing
Cuba's actions and in the April 20 Opinion = section=20 of the Los Angeles Times
the prestigious Mexican novelist Carlos = Fuentes=20 reiterated his opposition to
Cuba's undemocratic government while = opposing=20 Bush at the same time. We
should assume that most of the people on = the left=20 who have recently
criticized Cuba have done so for noble motives. For = many=20 honest progressive
and revolutionaries, Cuba has represented one of = the few=20 sources of hope,
even at those times when Cuban leaders made = judgments that=20 we disagreed
with. Because of the extraordinary accomplishments of = the Cuban=20 revolution,
including its leading role in affirming the mostly = forgotten UN=20 Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, every progressive = worth a=20 salt has
invested some part of his or her soul in that = process.

What=20 Cuba has yet to do in the two separate causes (arrests and = executions)
is=20 present the pertinent facts and reasons for arresting and = condemning
people=20 whose organizations it had penetrated and controlled and explain = why
it had=20 to execute with lightning speed the boat-jackers. Similarly, = those
quick to=20 condemn Cuba might study more carefully the facts of the cases = as
well. The=20 'dissidents,' who defined themselves as economists, journalists
and = human=20 rights activists, did not face trial for expressing = dissenting
opinions, at=20 least not formally. The Cuban government accused them of
working with = and=20 taking money (or gifts and services) from the U.S.
government in = order, in=20 the words of Cuba's Ambassador to Canada, "to
destabilize the = country,=20 undermine and destroy Cuba's Constitutional order,
its Government, = its=20 independence and its Socialist society."

Yes, Cuba has made it = illegal to=20 work with the United States to subvert the
Cuban government. Having = affirmed=20 that right of self defense, as would any
state in the world, Cuba = should=20 present all the necessary facts and
analysis. We know that U.S. = diplomats=20 openly promoted the weakening of the
Cuban government. James Cason, = the head=20 of the U.S. Interest Section in
Havana organized Cuban citizens and = paid them=20 small sums or gave them gifts
and services to promote = "dissidence."

So=20 what's new? For 40-four plus years, Washington has tried every=20 criminal
method short of direct military invasion to destroy Cuba's=20 revolution. The
government has wreaked havoc on Cuba's social and = economic=20 order and Cubans
have every right to suspect the U.S. government of = the most=20 malicious
motives.

But why did the Cuban government bother to = arrest=20 and prosecute people whose
actions they monitored so closely? State = security=20 agents had not only
infiltrated, but had actually set up some of the=20 'dissident' organizations.
The infiltrators had not only won the = trust of=20 Cason, but had gained access
to the U.S. Interest Section and to the = homes of=20 the leading U.S. diplomats.
So why bust these people whose national = following=20 did not amount to any
significant public, whose internal reputation = was a=20 joke, and whose
political coherence depended on handouts from the = U.S.=20 government or on
ideas generated by Cuban agents, some of whose = opinion=20 pieces appeared in
The Miami Herald?

Cuba has not answered = these=20 questions. I can imagine, however, that Cuban
leaders might claim = that after=20 Iraq, the imperialists now possess the will
to try to crush any = country. And=20 members of the policy elite have stated
that they do not consider = Cuba off=20 limits for military attack.

Suppose, six months before the 2004 = election,=20 the U.S. economy remains
stalled and Republican planners decide that = Bush=20 needs another "win." Given
the enthusiasm of the Castro-hating = Florida Cubans=20 for such an idea, Bush
might well make the island his target -- if he = saw=20 even a shred of
vulnerability in Cuba's defenses.

For example, = the=20 10,000 plus Cubans who signed a U.S.-backed "Varela
Project" petition = demanding basic reforms could become a dangerous symbol
under such=20 conditions. Did Fidel fear that Washington would take the veneer
of=20 "dissident" success as a sign of the revolution's weakness and = then
pursue a=20 military course to provoke Cuban leaders to surface 12 of the
agents = they had=20 masterfully planted inside the "dissident" organizations?

"See, = 10,000=20 signatures collected in a totalitarian state. In addition to
their = biological=20 weapons, we now have evidence of deep-seated discontent,"
Bush might = say as a=20 prelude to whipping up invasion spirit. After all, he
used such = exaggerations=20 to prepare the public for the invasion of Iraq.
Indeed, Cuban = officials may=20 have feared that the dissidents, no matter how
well penetrated, could = convert=20 themselves into at least a symbolic 'fifth
column' on the island, = while=20 Washington tightened the embargo and travel ban
to create outside = pressure on=20 Cuba's weak economy. Also, buying 'dissidents'
with small amounts of = money=20 could end up corrupting a less manageable
sector, enough perhaps to = offer=20 orchestrated TV cameras images of crowds
welcoming U.S. = marines.

Cuban=20 leaders must have sensed some overt threat before taking such = drastic
steps.=20 A new migration crisis that Bush could use as a pretext that Cuba=20 was
encroaching on U.S. national security? A military provocation=20 around
Guantanamo? I await the revelation of the facts.

Those = in=20 Washington who know the island's realities would discourage = such
aggressive=20 plans. But suppose Fidel worried that the Bushies might believe
in = their own=20 inventions? Fantasies that Cubans are defiantly rising in = the
thousands (as=20 one hears on some of the hysterical shows on Miami radio)
could well = lead to=20 calls for serious invasion scenarios. In addition, high
level U.S. = officials=20 and Radio Marti have for months repeated the baseless
charge that = Cuba has=20 bio-terrorism weapons and harbors terrorists.

Indeed, in Miami = where=20 anti-Castro terrorists walk proudly down the streets
or sit with the=20 President on his platform, pro-war demonstrators carried
placards = equating=20 Fidel with Saddam Hussein. Given the success of Bush's
spin linking = Saddam to=20 9/11, who knows what polls would show about
percentages of gullible = Americans=20 falling for propaganda that promoted "the
invasion of Cuba as a way = of=20 securing the U.S. homeland."

So, it's possible that Cuba's = jailing and=20 harsh sentencing of "dissidents"
and executing of hijackers derives = from=20 military crisis not normal political
thinking. As a result of the = lessons=20 taught by the sentences of the
'dissidents' and the hijackers, Cubans = will=20 less likely accept gifts from
dubious sources.

If this = analysis is=20 correct, will Cubans try to repair the political damage
done in their = military mode? Perhaps they might make public the basis for
their = actions=20 rather than repeat accusations and demand blind solidarity.
Such = revelations=20 would hardly justify their use of the death penalty, but at
least it = would=20 help explain their behavior to bewildered comrades throughout
the=20 world.

Many left critics of the procedural issues surrounding the = 'dissidents' case
have not properly informed themselves of the = intricacies of=20 Cuba's legal
system. For example, most of the accused did have the = right to=20 choose their
lawyers or received court appointed defense if they did = not make=20 a choice.
They did know exactly what charges Cuba leveled against = them. Cuba=20 did not
hold secret trials. Indeed, the relatives of the accused and = other=20 observers
sat through the proceedings.

Yes, in accordance with = Cuban=20 law, the 'dissidents' received summary trials.
But this does not=20 automatically deprive them of their procedural rights. The
Cuban = defense=20 lawyers work with the prosecutors on the indictment and if
there are = holes,=20 the defense lawyers inform the judges, who should then
dismiss the = cases. The=20 government had airtight cases that the accused had
taken money, goods = and=20 services from the arch enemy and had performed anti
government acts = writing,=20 speaking and publishing what the U.S. government
promoted.

But = to=20 dismiss the 75 as simply traitors hardly suffices. Military = thinking
produces=20 absolutes that in turn lead to a serious political downside. = As
Galeano=20 indicates, by trying and condemning them, Cuba turned "groups = which
openly=20 worked from James Cason's house, the representative of = Bush's
interests in=20 Havana, into martyrs of freedom of expression." Indeed, as
Cuba's = security=20 agents testified, with no refutation from the United States,
Cason = actually=20 established a political party (the youth section of Liberal
Cuban=20 Party).

By bagging these pathetic people, Galeano concludes that = the=20 "Cuban
authorities have paid homage to them, and have granted them = the=20 prestige
that prohibited thoughts acquire." The Uruguayan writer = continues:=20 "This
'democratic opposition ' has nothing to do with the genuine=20 expectations of
honest Cubans. If the revolution hadn't done it the = favor of=20 repressing it,
and if in Cuba there was full freedom of press and of = opinion,=20 this
so-called dissidence would disqualify itself. And it would get=20 the
punishment it deserves, the chastisement of loneliness, for its=20 notorious
nostalgia of colonial times in a country which has chosen = the way=20 of
national dignity."

Even those defending the actions fail to = answer=20 the criticism. In the April
12 La Jiribilla, Angel Guerra refers to = "the Bush=20 doctrine of 'preemptive
war' and the preparations for aggression = against=20 Iraq, justified with any
lie and invoking the right of the United = State to=20 bring about 'regime
change' wherever and whenever it considered it = necessary.=20 Why not in Cuba,
which after all appears on all the inquisitional = lists of=20 the State
Department, among them the list of countries that sponsor = terrorism=20 and, of
course, the countries that systematically violate human=20 rights?"

Guerra also cites "the Miami mafia, leading a mobilized = mob last=20 Sunday in
support of the intervention against Baghdad, which raised = the cry,=20 'Iraq
today, Cuba tomorrow.'" Four words that reveal the purpose that = today
determines their actions, as well as those of their satellites = on=20 the
Island, even if they disguise themselves as independent = journalists or=20 human
rights defenders.

"The issue would not deserve any = comment,"=20 Guerra continues, "if it were not
for the extraordinary influence the = terrorist group in Miami has in defining
Washington's political = agenda toward=20 the Island. These events are not
fortuitous," he concludes, "but are = the=20 product of Bush administration
complicity with the Miami mafia, = determined to=20 fish in troubled waters."

Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, Cuba's = Ambassador=20 to Canada, wrote in the April
10 Globe and Mail that Cuba's critics = employed=20 "double standards." True, but
this does not address what Cuba did. If = Cuba's=20 behavior derived from
security fears, then Cuban officials should = confront=20 that issue and explain
their actions accordingly.

He points = correctly=20 in his letter to "abuses of Afghans, Arabs and citizens
from = different=20 countries detained in Guantanamo base. in Cuba. No secret
military = trial like=20 the ones established in the United States has been nor
can be carried = out in=20 Cuba. There do not exist thousands of detainees still
ignorant of the = charges=20 against them and whose names have not been released
in totality, as = is=20 happening in the United States since September 11, 2001.
None of the=20 individuals tried in Cuba have been submitted to = solitary
confinement, to=20 psychological torture or cruel separation from their
families like = the five=20 Cuban unjustly suffering prison in the United
States."

True, = but most=20 of the leftists critics strongly opposed U.S. procedural
violations = in the=20 very cases he cited. U.S. officials reach new heights of
hypocrisy = when they=20 try to smear Cuba's human rights record. Can one
conceive of a more = gross=20 human rights violation than waging aggressive war?

Or compare the = trials=20 of the dissidents to that of the five Cubans tried and
sentenced in = Florida=20 (the five had infiltrated U.S.-based anti-Castro
terrorist groups = because the=20 FBI did not stop their terrorism. The
government charged them with = espionage=20 and sentenced them to long terms) and
you'll conclude that Cuba = offered more=20 procedural rights than the U.S. did.
As Fernandez de Cossio asserts, = the five=20 "are still waiting to read over 50
per cent of the documentation used = to=20 incriminate them because it was
declared secret."

Critics on = the left=20 do not question Cuba's right to protect itself from the
U.S. monster. = But in=20 so behaving, it handed its enemies the public relations
chance of a = decade:=20 Cuba imprisons its dissenters and summarily executes
people. As = Galeano=20 wrote, "Freedom and justice march together or they = don't
march."

When=20 I first visited Cuba in 1960, I felt that the revolutionary spirit=20 had
changed my life, provided me with reason and inspiration to seek = justice.=20 I
agree with Galeano that over the decades "the revolution has lost = the=20 wind
of spontaneity and freshness that has driven her from the start. = I say=20 it
with pain. Cuba hurts."

Yet, after forty plus years, I = still look=20 to the island as a place from
which superior, not inferior forms of = human=20 behavior will arise. I dismiss
the puerile criticisms of Cuba from = U.S.=20 government hacks who have made
careers of creating dictators in the = third=20 world, and who possess the moral
authority of a flea.

Speaking = of=20 moral fleas, George "Death Penalty" Bush as Governor of = Texas
celebrated 152=20 executions. He can teach a "how to do it" course on that
subject. So = Cuba=20 rightfully dismisses W's judgments, but it should not
dismiss as = enemies=20 those progressives who felt appalled over the execution
of the = boat-jackers.=20 They are appealing to Cuba's conscience. Can the death
penalty = coexist with a=20 moral socialism? The critics may have signed
petitions without = possessing the=20 necessary facts, but that in and of itself
is not sufficient reason = to deride=20 honest people who abhor the death penalty
and question trials of = people whose=20 crimes consisted of writing and speaking
no matter in whose interest = or that=20 they took money.

George W. Bush's name may engrave itself in = history's=20 pages as the first
fascist president. Fidel Castro has already = entered the=20 history books as the
man who led the Cuban people from the = marginality of=20 informal U.S. colonial
status to a heroic role in world history. The = Cuban=20 Revolution has made its
mark. It has no reason, no matter how real = the=20 threat, to turn its back on
friends and supporters who criticize = specific=20 actions from principled
positions.

Cuba may well be a viable = target of=20 the Bush fascists. In such
circumstances, shouldn't revolutionary = Cubans=20 maintain dialogue with honest
progressives who disagree with jailing=20 dissidents and carrying out the death
penalty? And shouldn't the = progressives=20 keep their lines open as well?


Saul Landau is the Director = of=20 Digital Media and
International Outreach Programs for the College of=20 Letters,
Arts and Social Sciences, California State=20 Polytechnic
University, Pomona. His new film, IRAQ: VOICES FROM=20 THE
STREETS, is available through The Cinema=20 Guild.
1-800-723-5522

www.saullandau.net


------=_NextPart_000_004D_01C310F5.CAD14490-- From jafujii@uci.edu Sat May 3 06:01:39 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 22:01:39 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] There's only one way to check American Power Message-ID: <005c01c31131$15611720$99bac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0059_01C310F6.6867FAF0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 9:19 PM Subject: There's only one way to check American Power The Bottom Dollar There's only one way to check American Power and that is to support the euro George Monbiot Tuesday April 22, 2003 The Guardian The problem with American power is not that it's American. Most states = with the resources and opportunities the US possesses would have done far = worse. The problem is that one nation, effectively unchecked by any other, can, = if it chooses, now determine how the rest of the world will live. = Eventually, unless we stop it, it will use this power. So far, it has merely tested = its new muscles. The presidential elections next year might prevent an immediate = entanglement with another nation, but there is little doubt about the scope of the US government's ambitions. Already, it has begun to execute a slow but comprehensive coup against the international order, destroying or undermining the institutions that might have sought to restrain it. Two = weeks ago, James Woolsey, an influential hawk and formerly the director of the CIA, = argued for a war lasting for decades "to extend democracy" to the entire Arab = and Muslim world. Men who think like him - and there are plenty in Washington - are not monsters. They are simply responding to the opportunities that power = presents, just as British politicians once responded to the vulnerability of non-European = states and the weakness of their colonial competitors. America's threat to the = peace and stability of the rest of the world is likely to persist, whether George = Bush wins the next election or not. The critical question is how we stop it. Military means, of course, are useless. An economic boycott, of the kind suggested by many of the opponents of the war with Iraq, can never be = more than symbolic: US trade has penetrated the economies of almost all other nations to such an extent that to boycott its goods and services would = be to boycott our own. Until recently, as Bush's government sought = international approval for its illegal war, there appeared to be some opportunities = for restraint by diplomatic means. But now it has discovered that the United = Nations is unnecessary and most of its electors will approve its acts of aggression with or without a prior diplomatic mandate. Only one means of containing = the US remains. It is deadly and, if correctly deployed, insuperable. It rests within = the hands of the people of the U.K. Were it not for a monumental economic distortion, the US economy would, by now, have all but collapsed. It is not quite a West African basket = case, but the size of the deficits and debts incurred by its profligacy would, = by any conventional measure, suggest that it was in serious trouble. It = survives only because conventional measures do not apply: the rest of the world = has granted it an unnatural lease of life. Almost 70% of the world's currency reserves - the money that nations use = to finance international trade and protect themselves against financial speculators - takes the form of US dollars. The dollar is used for this = purpose because it is relatively stable, it is produced by a nation with a major share of = world trade, and certain commodities, in particular oil, are denominated in = it, which means that dollars are required to buy them. The US does very well from this arrangement. In order to earn dollars, = other nations must provide goods and services to the US. When commodities are valued in dollars, the US needs do no more than print pieces of green = paper to obtain them: it acquires them, in effect, for free. Once earned, = other nations' dollar reserves must be invested back into the American = economy. This inflow of money helps the US to finance its massive deficit. The only serious threat to the dollar's international dominance at the moment is the euro. Next year, when the European Union acquires 10 new = members, its gross domestic product will be roughly the same as that of the US, and = its population 60% bigger. If the euro is adopted by all the members of the union, which suffers from none of the major underlying crises afflicting = the US economy, it will begin to look like a more stable and more attractive = investment than the dollar. Only one further development would then be required to = unseat the dollar as the pre-eminent global currency:nations would need to start trading oil = in euros. Until last week, this was already beginning to happen. In November 2000, Saddam Hussein insisted that Iraq's oil be bought in euros. When the = value of the euro rose, the country's revenues increased accordingly. As the = analyst William Clark has suggested, the economic threat this represented might = have been one of the reasons why the US government was so anxious to evict Saddam. But it may be unable to resist the greater danger. Last year, Javad Yarjani, a senior official at Opec, the oil producers' cartel, put forward several compelling reasons why his members might one = day start selling their produce in euros. Europe is the Middle East's biggest = trading partner; it imports more oil and petrol products than the US; it has a = bigger share of global trade; and its external accounts are better balanced. One key = tipping point, he suggested, could be the adoption of the euro by Europe's two = principal oil producers: Norway and the United Kingdom, whose Brent crude is one = of the "markers" for international oil prices. "This might," Yarjani said, = "create a momentum to shift the oil pricing system to euros." If this happens, oil importing nations will no longer need dollar = reserves to buy oil. The demand for the dollar will fall, and its value is likely = to decline. As the dollar slips, central banks will start to move their = reserves into safer currencies such as the euro and possibly the yen and the yuan, = precipitating further slippage. The US economy, followed rapidly by US power, could then be expected to falter or collapse. The global justice movement, of which I consider myself a member, has, by and large, opposed accession to the euro, arguing that it accelerates = the concentration of economic and political power, reduces people's ability = to influence monetary policy and threatens employment in the poorest = nations and regions. Much of the movement will have drawn comfort from the new opinion polls suggesting that almost 70% of British voters now = oppose the single currency, and from the hints dropped by the Treasury last = week that British accession may be delayed until 2010. But the costs of integration are merely a new representation of the = paradox of sovereignty. Small states or unaffiliated tribes have, throughout history, found that the only way to prevent themselves from being = overrun by foreign powers was to surrender their autonomy and unite to fight their common enemy. To defend our sovereignty - and that of the rest of the world - = from the US, we must yield some of our sovereignty to Europe. That we have a moral duty to contest the developing power of the US is surely evident. That we can contest it by no other means is equally = obvious. Those of us who are concerned about American power must abandon our opposition to the euro. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Rent DVDs Online - Over 14,500 titles. No Late Fees & Free Shipping. Try Netflix for FREE! http://us.click.yahoo.com/YoVfrB/XP.FAA/uetFAA/sitolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> =20 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to = http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/=20 ------=_NextPart_000_0059_01C310F6.6867FAF0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 9:19 PM
Subject: There's only one way to check American = Power

The Bottom Dollar
There's only one way to check = American=20 Power
and that is to support the euro

George = Monbiot
Tuesday April=20 22, 2003
The Guardian

The problem with American power is not = that it's=20 American. Most states with
the resources and opportunities the US = possesses=20 would have done far worse.
The problem is that one nation, = effectively=20 unchecked by any other, can, if
it chooses, now determine how the = rest of the=20 world will live. Eventually,
unless we stop it, it will use this = power. So=20 far, it has merely tested its
new muscles.

The presidential = elections=20 next year might prevent an immediate entanglement
with another = nation, but=20 there is little doubt about the scope of the US
government's = ambitions.=20 Already, it has begun to execute a slow but
comprehensive coup = against the=20 international order, destroying or
undermining the institutions that = might=20 have sought to restrain it. Two weeks ago, James
Woolsey, an = influential hawk=20 and formerly the director of the CIA, argued
for a war lasting for = decades=20 "to extend democracy" to the entire Arab and Muslim
world.

Men = who=20 think like him - and there are plenty in Washington - are = not
monsters. =20 They are simply responding to the opportunities that power presents, = just=20 as
British politicians once responded to the vulnerability of = non-European=20 states and
the weakness of their colonial competitors. America's = threat to=20 the peace and
stability of the rest of the world is likely to = persist,=20 whether George Bush wins the
next election or not. The critical = question is=20 how we stop it.

Military means, of course, are useless. An = economic=20 boycott, of the kind
suggested by many of the opponents of the war = with Iraq,=20 can never be more
than symbolic: US trade has penetrated the = economies of=20 almost all other
nations to such an extent that to boycott its goods = and=20 services would be to
boycott our own. Until recently, as Bush's = government=20 sought international
approval for its illegal war, there appeared to = be some=20 opportunities for
restraint by diplomatic means. But now it has = discovered=20 that the United Nations is
unnecessary and most of its electors will = approve=20 its acts of aggression
with or without a prior diplomatic mandate. = Only one=20 means of containing the US
remains.
It is deadly and, if correctly = deployed, insuperable. It rests within the
hands of the people of the = U.K.

Were it not for a monumental economic distortion, the US = economy=20 would,
by now, have all but collapsed. It is not quite a West African = basket=20 case,
but the size of the deficits and debts incurred by its = profligacy=20 would, by any
conventional measure, suggest that it was in serious = trouble.=20 It survives
only because conventional measures do not apply: the rest = of the=20 world has
granted it an unnatural lease of life.

Almost 70% of = the=20 world's currency reserves - the money that nations use to
finance=20 international trade and protect themselves against = financial
speculators -=20 takes the form of US dollars. The dollar is used for this purpose = because=20 it
is relatively stable, it is produced by a nation with a major = share of=20 world
trade, and certain commodities, in particular oil, are = denominated in=20 it, which
means that dollars are required to buy them.

The US = does=20 very well from this arrangement. In order to earn dollars, = other
nations must=20 provide goods and services to the US. When commodities are
valued in = dollars,=20 the US needs do no more than print pieces of green paper
to obtain = them: it=20 acquires them, in effect, for free. Once earned, other
nations' = dollar=20 reserves must be invested back into the American economy. This = inflow
of=20 money helps the US to finance its massive deficit.

The only = serious=20 threat to the dollar's international dominance at the
moment is the = euro.=20 Next year, when the European Union acquires 10 new members, its
gross = domestic product will be roughly the same as that of the US, and=20 its
population 60% bigger. If the euro is adopted by all the members = of=20 the
union, which suffers from none of the major underlying crises = afflicting=20 the US
economy, it will begin to look like a more stable and more = attractive=20 investment than
the dollar.  Only one further development would = then be=20 required to unseat the dollar as
the pre-eminent global = currency:nations=20 would need to start trading oil in
euros.

Until last week, = this was=20 already beginning to happen. In November 2000,
Saddam Hussein = insisted that=20 Iraq's oil be bought in euros. When the value
of the euro rose, the = country's=20 revenues increased accordingly. As the analyst
William Clark has = suggested,=20 the economic threat this represented might have
been one of the = reasons why=20 the US government was so anxious to evict
Saddam.  But it may be = unable=20 to resist the greater danger.

Last year, Javad Yarjani, a senior = official=20 at Opec, the oil producers'
cartel, put forward several compelling = reasons=20 why his members might one day start
selling their produce in euros. = Europe is=20 the Middle East's biggest trading
partner; it imports more oil and = petrol=20 products than the US; it has a bigger share
of global trade; and its = external=20 accounts are better balanced. One key tipping
point, he suggested, = could be=20 the adoption of the euro by Europe's two principal
oil producers: = Norway and=20 the United Kingdom, whose Brent crude is one of the
"markers" for=20 international oil prices. "This might," Yarjani said, "create
a = momentum to=20 shift the oil pricing system to euros."

If this happens, oil = importing=20 nations will no longer need dollar reserves
to buy oil. The demand = for the=20 dollar will fall, and its value is likely to
decline.  As the = dollar=20 slips, central banks will start to move their reserves into
safer = currencies=20 such as the euro and possibly the yen and the yuan, = precipitating
further=20 slippage. The US economy, followed rapidly by US power, could
then be = expected to falter or collapse.

The global justice movement, of = which I=20 consider myself a member, has,
by and large, opposed accession to the = euro,=20 arguing that it accelerates the
concentration of economic and = political=20 power, reduces people's ability to
influence monetary policy and = threatens=20 employment in the poorest nations
and regions. Much of the movement = will have=20 drawn comfort from the
new opinion polls suggesting that almost 70% = of=20 British voters now oppose
the single currency, and from the hints = dropped by=20 the Treasury last week
that British accession may be delayed until=20 2010.

But the costs of integration are merely a new = representation of the=20 paradox
of sovereignty. Small states or unaffiliated tribes have,=20 throughout
history, found that the only way to prevent themselves = from being=20 overrun by foreign
powers was to surrender their autonomy and unite = to fight=20 their common
enemy.  To defend our sovereignty - and that of the = rest of=20 the world - from the US,
we must yield some of our sovereignty to=20 Europe.

That we have a moral duty to contest the developing power = of the=20 US is
surely evident. That we can contest it by no other means is = equally=20 obvious.
Those of us who are concerned about American power
must = abandon=20 our opposition to the euro.





[Non-text portions of = this=20 message have been removed]


------------------------ Yahoo! = Groups=20 Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Rent DVDs Online - Over 14,500=20 titles.
No Late Fees & Free Shipping.
Try Netflix for = FREE!
http://= us.click.yahoo.com/YoVfrB/XP.FAA/uetFAA/sitolB/TM
----------------= -----------------------------------------------------~->

 =

Your=20 use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/ter= ms/=20
------=_NextPart_000_0059_01C310F6.6867FAF0-- From info@war-times.org Sun May 4 01:45:38 2003 From: info@war-times.org (War Times) Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 20:45:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Ethnicstudies] George W. Bush says the war is almost over . . . Message-ID: <20030504004538.66DAB3681E@m01.m1e.net> Except that it's not. The President is not about to give up the power he has claimed to wage preemptive war against whatever enemy he names. He is not giving up the power to occupy a devastated Iraq and ?privatize? its industries. He is not giving up the power to trash the promise of liberty under law for people in this country. And he is not giving up the power to toss his business cronies fat contracts to profit from the damage he causes with his wars. No, for most of the world, the war is not over. And the war most certainly cannot be over for the peace movement here in the US! WAR TIMES IS A FREE TOOL TO REACH OUT TO PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO QUESTION THE PERMANENT WAR! War Times provides simply-written bilingual (English-Spanish) anti-war news with a human face. Check out the last issue at www.war-times.org. The NEW MAY ISSUE will be off the press May 8. You can ORDER a bundle of War Times to use in your work for peace and justice (in multiples of 25 please). Send your address information to . We ask for a donation of $7.50 per 25 copies ordered, but if you cannot pay, do not hesitate to order what you can use to build the movement for peace and justice. Now more than ever, the world needs a strong movement for peace in the United States. Now more than ever, War Times needs your financial support. Please visit www.war-times.org to make a tax-deductible donation. Thank you! -- You are currently subscribed to this list as: ethnicstudies@uci.edu To unsubscribe, please click here: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?u=6107342,$1$kvm4R$K4DykdO5jXSCvSUT86V1x%2e If this message was forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe, please click here: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=05376w Email list management powered by http://MailerMailer.com From jafujii@uci.edu Sun May 4 19:43:51 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 11:43:51 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: Proud to be American? Message-ID: <001201c3126d$1c15c5b0$e1bac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C31232.6F1C8270 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 10:44 AM Subject: Proud to be American?=20 Published on Friday, May 2, 2003 by CommonDreams.org Proud to be American? Not While it Chooses Bombs Over Bread by Frida Berrigan Jay Garner wants us to be proud. The man in charge of rebuilding Iraq = was=20 quoted in the New York Times on Thursday saying, "We ought to look in = the=20 mirror and get proud, and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies = and=20 say, 'Damn, we're Americans.'" Well Jay, I am sorry to say that I am not feeling it. American soldiers=20 shooting unarmed Iraqi demonstrators and killing at least 17 in two = separate=20 incidents. American police officers firing rubber and wooden bullets at=20 unarmed American demonstrators outside of Oakland. Thousands of Iraqi=20 civilians killed in a so-called precision war for their liberation. A=20 multibillion dollar empire building effort underway in Iraq that is = masked=20 as a humanitarian reconstruction effort, while children are hungry, = seniors=20 are without medication, and education is less and less accessible right = here=20 in USA. There are people profiting from war- and Jay Garner the proud American = is=20 one of them. And there are those who are not. General Jay Garner the head of the Pentagon's new Office of = Reconstruction=20 and Humanitarian Assistance. In that capacity he is overseeing and=20 coordinating the relief and rebuilding efforts in Iraq. He is also a=20 personal friend of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He is also the president of SY Coleman, a subsidiary of L-3 = Communications,=20 a high tech defense contractor that specializes in missile-defense = systems=20 and makes the targeting systems for conventional weapons. He is not = retired=20 from that position, he is on "leave" or on "loan." And he is profiting = from=20 war. In February Garner's company announced that its revenue in the most = recent=20 quarter had soared to $1.3 billion-up from $705 million a year ago. They = attribute the windfall to a doubling of military communications and=20 electronics sales. Overall, the company expects a 20% increase in sales = and=20 earnings this year. This is good news for the company and its stockholders, but how can the=20 people of Iraq trust a man who has garnered millions making the = targeting=20 systems for missiles that destroyed their country? If the Bush administration were to consciously set out to pick a person = most=20 likely to raise questions about the legitimacy of the post-war = rebuilding=20 process, they could not have selected a better man for the job than Jay=20 Garner. As one observer noted, "If it's not a conflict of interest, it's = certainly being tone deaf." The weapons industry- companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon = and=20 Northrop Grumman- are also pretty tone deaf. With the country on a = permanent=20 war footing, the sky is literally the limit for America's second most=20 heavily subsidized industry. A new report from United for a Fair Economy, "More Bucks for the Bang: = CEO=20 Pay at Top Defense Contractors," found that the boys with the big guns=20 making the big bucks. Median CEO pay at the 37 largest defense contractors rose 79 percent = from=20 2001 to 2002, while overall CEO pay climbed only 6 percent. The typical = U.S.=20 CEO made $3.7 million in 2002, while the typical defense industry CEO = got=20 $5.4 million. The average Army private risking his or her life in Iraq is paid just=20 $19,585- just about the national poverty rate. The average defense CEO = made=20 577 times as much in 2002, or $11,297,548. So, we know who is benefiting from war- but who is on the losing side? = We=20 are. We are more insecure and more threatened than ever before. There is plenty of cash to pay for war and empire building in Iraq, but = when=20 it comes to meeting the American public's need for housing, health care, = food, education and other necessities, the cash drawer is empty. The Bush administration asked Congress to provide the Pentagon with = $399.1=20 billion for 2004. That is a huge amount of money. That is more than a=20 billion dollars a day. That is more than $12,000 a second- a year of = college=20 tuition. To put it in relationship to what other countries spend, the U.S. = military=20 budget is almost seven times larger than what the second largest = spender-=20 Russia budgets for defense. It is more than 26 times the combined = spending=20 of the seven countries the Pentagon identifies as enemies. The = Congressional=20 Budget Office estimates that military spending will continue to increase = at=20 an average of 8% a year through the end of the decade. Meaning that by = 2010,=20 the military budget will top out at almost $700 billion. The military budget does NOT include the costs of war in Iraq. The=20 administration has put those costs in a separate $75 billion "emergency=20 supplemental." The United States is spending more than a billion dollars a day on the=20 military, while a whole spectrum of domestic needs are severely=20 under-funded. As the Congress prepares to figure pay top dollar for war, = they are planning cuts in just about everything else, including veterans = benefits and education. House Republicans are suggesting $14.6 billion = in=20 cut to veterans programs, including money for disabilities caused by war = wounds, rehabilitation and health care, pensions for low income = veterans,=20 education and housing benefits, and even burial benefits. They are also=20 proposing to cut the education budget by 10.2 percent below the already=20 reduced level proposed by President Bush. We see the effects of budget cuts and neglect already. According to the=20 Children's Defense Fund, nearly one million black children live in dire = and=20 extreme poverty. In an alarming increase over 2000, the economic=20 circumstances of black children further deteriorated so that more = families=20 were living on just over $7,000 a year-- that is half the national = poverty=20 line of $14,100 for a family of three. I developed a factsheet for the War Resisters League that compares what = the=20 United States spends on war to the costs of educating and caring for=20 children. President Bush has asked Congress for $75 billion to pay the initial = costs=20 of the war in Iraq. For that same amount, we could hire 1,155,715 = Elementary=20 School Teachers to educate America's children. Five days of war in Iraq =3D Eliminate illiteracy world wide ($1.1 = billion)=20 ($5 billion, World Game Institute) 2.8 hours of war in Iraq =3D Nutrition supplements for 200,000 families = ($45.8=20 million per hour) ($130 million, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) 1 minute of war in Iraq =3D Headstart Education for 115 children = ($763,000 a=20 minute) ($6,633 per child, National Priorities Project) 1 second of war in Iraq =3D Twice what U.S. spends per year, per child=20 ($12,730 per second) in primary education ($6,043, Digest of Ed. Stats) We have a lot of work to undo the damage, repair the hurt and rectify = the=20 imbalances of the "bombs over bread" policies of the Bush = administration.=20 Until we do that it will be hard for me to take Jay Garner's pep talk=20 seriously. Frida Berrigan is a Senior Research Associate at the World Policy=20 Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center. She can be reached at=20 berrigaf@newschool.edu ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C31232.6F1C8270 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 10:44 AM
Subject: Proud to be American?

Published on = Friday, May=20 2, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Proud to be American? Not While it = Chooses Bombs=20 Over Bread
by Frida Berrigan

Jay Garner wants us to be proud. = The man=20 in charge of rebuilding Iraq was
quoted in the New York Times on = Thursday=20 saying, "We ought to look in the
mirror and get proud, and stick out = our=20 chests and suck in our bellies and
say, 'Damn, we're=20 Americans.'"

Well Jay, I am sorry to say that I am not feeling = it.=20 American soldiers
shooting unarmed Iraqi demonstrators and killing = at least=20 17 in two separate
incidents. American police officers firing rubber = and=20 wooden bullets at
unarmed American demonstrators outside of Oakland. = Thousands of Iraqi
civilians killed in a so-called precision war for = their=20 liberation. A
multibillion dollar empire building effort underway in = Iraq=20 that is masked
as a humanitarian reconstruction effort, while = children are=20 hungry, seniors
are without medication, and education is less and = less=20 accessible right here
in USA.

There are people profiting from = war-=20 and Jay Garner the proud American is
one of them. And there are = those who=20 are not.

General Jay Garner the head of the Pentagon's new Office = of=20 Reconstruction
and Humanitarian Assistance. In that capacity he is=20 overseeing and
coordinating the relief and rebuilding efforts in = Iraq. He is=20 also a
personal friend of Defense Secretary Donald = Rumsfeld.

He is=20 also the president of SY Coleman, a subsidiary of L-3 Communications, =
a high=20 tech defense contractor that specializes in missile-defense systems =
and=20 makes the targeting systems for conventional weapons. He is not retired =
from=20 that position, he is on "leave" or on "loan." And he is profiting from=20
war.

In February Garner's company announced that its revenue = in the=20 most recent
quarter had soared to $1.3 billion-up from $705 million = a year=20 ago. They
attribute the windfall to a doubling of military = communications=20 and
electronics sales. Overall, the company expects a 20% increase = in sales=20 and
earnings this year.

This is good news for the company and = its=20 stockholders, but how can the
people of Iraq trust a man who has = garnered=20 millions making the targeting
systems for missiles that destroyed = their=20 country?

If the Bush administration were to consciously set out = to pick a=20 person most
likely to raise questions about the legitimacy of the = post-war=20 rebuilding
process, they could not have selected a better man for = the job=20 than Jay
Garner. As one observer noted, "If it's not a conflict of = interest,=20 it's
certainly being tone deaf."

The weapons industry- = companies like=20 Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and
Northrop Grumman- are also = pretty tone=20 deaf. With the country on a permanent
war footing, the sky is = literally the=20 limit for America's second most
heavily subsidized = industry.

A new=20 report from United for a Fair Economy, "More Bucks for the Bang: CEO =
Pay at=20 Top Defense Contractors," found that the boys with the big guns =
making the=20 big bucks.

Median CEO pay at the 37 largest defense contractors = rose 79=20 percent from
2001 to 2002, while overall CEO pay climbed only 6 = percent. The=20 typical U.S.
CEO made $3.7 million in 2002, while the typical = defense=20 industry CEO got
$5.4 million.

The average Army private = risking his=20 or her life in Iraq is paid just
$19,585- just about the national = poverty=20 rate. The average defense CEO made
577 times as much in 2002, or=20 $11,297,548.

So, we know who is benefiting from war- but who is = on the=20 losing side? We
are. We are more insecure and more threatened than = ever=20 before.

There is plenty of cash to pay for war and empire = building in=20 Iraq, but when
it comes to meeting the American public's need for = housing,=20 health care,
food, education and other necessities, the cash drawer = is=20 empty.

The Bush administration asked Congress to provide the = Pentagon=20 with $399.1
billion for 2004. That is a huge amount of money. That = is more=20 than a
billion dollars a day. That is more than $12,000 a second- a = year of=20 college
tuition.

To put it in relationship to what other = countries=20 spend, the U.S. military
budget is almost seven times larger than = what the=20 second largest spender-
Russia budgets for defense. It is more than = 26 times=20 the combined spending
of the seven countries the Pentagon identifies = as=20 enemies. The Congressional
Budget Office estimates that military = spending=20 will continue to increase at
an average of 8% a year through the end = of the=20 decade. Meaning that by 2010,
the military budget will top out at = almost=20 $700 billion.

The military budget does NOT include the costs of = war in=20 Iraq. The
administration has put those costs in a separate $75 = billion=20 "emergency
supplemental."

The United States is spending more = than a=20 billion dollars a day on the
military, while a whole spectrum of = domestic=20 needs are severely
under-funded. As the Congress prepares to figure = pay top=20 dollar for war,
they are planning cuts in just about everything = else,=20 including veterans
benefits and education. House Republicans are = suggesting=20 $14.6 billion in
cut to veterans programs, including money for = disabilities=20 caused by war
wounds, rehabilitation and health care, pensions for = low=20 income veterans,
education and housing benefits, and even burial = benefits.=20 They are also
proposing to cut the education budget by 10.2 percent = below=20 the already
reduced level proposed by President Bush.

We see = the=20 effects of budget cuts and neglect already. According to the =
Children's=20 Defense Fund, nearly one million black children live in dire and =
extreme=20 poverty. In an alarming increase over 2000, the economic =
circumstances of=20 black children further deteriorated so that more families
were = living on=20 just over $7,000 a year-- that is half the national poverty
line of = $14,100=20 for a family of three.

I developed a factsheet for the War = Resisters=20 League that compares what the
United States spends on war to the = costs of=20 educating and caring for
children.


President Bush has = asked=20 Congress for $75 billion to pay the initial costs
of the war in = Iraq. For=20 that same amount, we could hire 1,155,715 Elementary
School Teachers = to=20 educate America's children.

Five days of war in Iraq =3D = Eliminate=20 illiteracy world wide ($1.1 billion)
($5 billion, World Game=20 Institute)

2.8 hours of war in Iraq =3D Nutrition supplements for = 200,000=20 families ($45.8
million per hour) ($130 million, Center on Budget = and Policy=20 Priorities)

1 minute of war in Iraq =3D Headstart Education for = 115=20 children ($763,000 a
minute) ($6,633 per child, National Priorities=20 Project)

1 second of war in Iraq =3D Twice what U.S. spends per = year, per=20 child
($12,730 per second) in primary education ($6,043, Digest of = Ed.=20 Stats)
We have a lot of work to undo the damage, repair the hurt and = rectify=20 the
imbalances of the "bombs over bread" policies of the Bush=20 administration.
Until we do that it will be hard for me to take Jay = Garner's=20 pep talk
seriously.

Frida Berrigan is a Senior Research = Associate at=20 the World Policy
Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center. She can be = reached=20 at =
berrigaf@newschool.edu




 ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C31232.6F1C8270-- From jafujii@uci.edu Sun May 4 19:48:51 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 11:48:51 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: Does The Pope Think GW Is The Anti-Christ Message-ID: <004201c3126d$ce73b2d0$e1bac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_003F_01C31233.2189D8E0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 11:02 AM Subject: Does The Pope Think GW Is The Anti-Christ=20 Does The Pope Think GW Is The Anti-Christ = http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042803_vatican.html [Wayne Madsen, Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist and = former intelligence officer with the National Security Agency drops some = big bombshells in George W. Bush's spiritual back yard. This highly = respected journalistic veteran quotes sources closest to the Vatican as = saying that Pope John Paul II suspects that the Bush administration had = foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks. He also points out the obvious: Bush = behavior and attitude are anything but Christian. - MCR] Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult Concerns Raised by the Vatican by WAYNE MADSEN (The following story was originally published by CounterPunch - = www.counterpunch.org -=20 on April 22, 2003. Reprinted with permission from the author) APRIL 28, 2003, 1700 hrs PDT (FTW) -- George W. Bush proclaims himself a = born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed = neo-Christians like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and = sports arena Book of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear = to wallow in a "Christian" blood lust cult when it comes to practicing = the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist form of = Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also = worrying the leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the = Pope. One only has to check out Bush's record as Governor of Texas to see his = own preference for death over life. During his tenure as Governor, Bush = presided over a record setting 152 executions, including the 1998 = execution of fellow born-again Christian Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted = murderer who later led a prison ministry. Forty of Bush's executions = were carried out in 2000, the year the Bush presidential campaign was = spotlighting their candidate's strong law enforcement record. The = Washington Post's Richard Cohen reported in October 2000 that one of the = execution chamber's "tie-down team" members, Fred Allen, had to prepare = so many people for lethal injections during 2000, he quit his job in = disgust. Bush mocked Tucker's appeal for clemency. In an interview with Talk = magazine, Bush imitated Tucker's appeal for him to spare her life - = pursing his lips, squinting his eyes, and in a squeaky voice saying, = "Please don't kill me." That went too far for former GOP presidential = candidate Gary Bauer, himself an evangelical Christian. "I think it is = nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running = for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to = put to death," said Bauer.=20 A former Texas Department of Public Safety officer, a devout Roman = Catholic, told this reporter that evidence to the contrary, Bush was = more than happy to ignore DNA data and documented cases of prosecutorial = misconduct to send innocent people to the Huntsville, Texas lethal = injection chamber. He said the number of executed mentally retarded, = African Americans, and those who committed capital crimes as minors was = proof that Bush was insensitive and a "phony Christian." When faced with = similar problems in Illinois, Governor George Ryan, a Republican, = commuted the death sentences of his state's death row inmates and = released others after discovering they were wrongfully convicted. Yet = the Republican Party is pillorying Ryan and John Ashcroft's Justice = Department continues to investigate the former Governor for political = malfeasance as if Bush and Ashcroft are without sin in such matters. = Hypocrisy certainly rules in the Republican Party. Bush's blood lust has been extended across the globe. He has given the = CIA authority to assassinate those deemed a threat to U.S. national = interests. Bush has virtually suspended Executive Orders 11905 (Gerald = Ford), 12306 (Jimmy Carter), and 12333 (Ronald Reagan) which prohibit = the assassination of foreign leaders. Bush's determination to kill = Saddam Hussein, his family, and his top leaders with precision-guided = missiles and tactical nuclear weapon-like Massive Ordnance Air Blast = (MOAB) bombs is yet another indication of Bush's disregard for his = Republican and Democratic predecessors. It now appears that in his zeal = to kill Hussein, innocent civilian patrons of a Baghdad restaurant were = killed by one of Bush's precision Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). = Like it or not, Saddam Hussein was recognized by over 100 nations as the = leader of Iraq -- a member state of the United Nations. Hussein, like = North Korea' Kim Jong Il, Syria's Bashir Assad, and Iran's Mohammed = Khatami, are covered by Executive Order 12333, which the Bush = mouthpieces claim is still in effect. Bush's "Christian" blood cult sees = no other option than death for those who become his enemies. This = doctrine is found no place in Christian theology. Bush has not once prayed for the innocent civilians who died as a result = of the U.S. attack on Iraq. He constantly "embeds" himself with the = military at Goebbels-like speech fests and makes constant references to = God when he refers to America's "victory" in Iraq, as if God endorses = his sordid killing spree. He makes no mention of the children, women, = and old men killed by America's "precision-guided" missiles and bombs = and trigger-happy U.S. troops. In fact, Bush revels in indiscriminate = blood letting. Since he never experienced such killing in Southeast = Asia, when he was AWOL from his Texas Air National Guard unit, Bush just = does not seem to understand the horror of a parent watching one's = children having their heads and limbs blown off in a sudden blast of = shrapnel or children witnessing their parents burning to death with = their own body fat nurturing the flames. Bush and his advisers, previously warned that Iraq's ancient artifacts = and collection of historical documents and books were in danger of being = looted or destroyed, instead, sat back while the Baghdad and Mosul = museums and Baghdad Library were ransacked and destroyed. Cult leaders = have historically attempted to destroy history in order to invent their = own. The Soviets tried to obliterate Russia's Orthodox traditions, = turning a number of churches into warehouses and animal barns. = Cambodia's Pol Pot tried to wipe out Buddhism's famed Angkor Wat shrine = in an attempt to stamp out his country's Buddhist history. In March = 2001, while they were negotiating with the Bush administration on a = natural gas pipeline, Afghanistan's Taliban blew up two massive = 1600-year old Buddhas in Bamiyan. The Bush administration, itself run by = fanatic religious cultists, barely made a fuss about the loss of the = relics. It would not be the first time the cultists within the Bush = administration ignored the pillaging of history's treasures. The ransacking of Iraq's historical treasures is explainable when one = considers what the blood cult Christians really think about Islam. = Franklin Graham, the heir to the empire built up by his anti-Semitic = father, Billy Graham, has decided being anti-Muslim is far more = financially rewarding than being anti-Jewish. Billy Graham, history = notes from the Nixon tapes, complained about the Jewish stranglehold on = the media and Jews being responsible for pornography.=20 Franklin Graham continues to enjoy his father's unfettered and = questionable access to the White House. But in the case of Bush, the = younger Graham has a fanatic adherent. Graham has called Islam a "very = evil and wicked" religion. He then announces he wants to go to Iraq. = Graham obviously sees an opportunity to convert Muslims and unrepentant = Eastern Christians, who owe their allegiance to Roman and Greek = prelates, to his perverted form of blood cult Christianity. Graham says = he is ready to send his Samaritan's Purse missionaries into Iraq to = provide assistance. Muslims and mainstream Christians are wary that = Graham wants to exchange food, water, and medicine for the baptism of = Iraqis into his intolerant brand of Christianity. In the last Gulf War, = Graham could not get away with his chicanery. The Desert Storm = Commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, stopped dead in the tracks = Graham's plan to send 30,000 Arabic language Bibles to U.S. troops in = Saudi Arabia. Today's Pentagon shows no such compunction to put a rein = on Graham. It invited him to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon = to the consternation of the Defense Department's Muslim employees. To = make matters worse, under Bush's "Faith Based Initiative," Graham's = Samaritan's Purse stands to receive U.S. government funds for its = proselytizing efforts in Iraq, something that should be an affront to = every American taxpayer. Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity (during one of the = presidential debates he said Jesus Christ was his favorite = "philosopher") and his constant reference to a new international = structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing = international treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman = Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that = Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly concerned about Bush's = ultimate intentions. The Pope has had experience with Bush's death = fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to spare the life of Karla Faye = Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of the world's mainstream = religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare Tucker from the World = Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 of the = world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's = own Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of = the World Council. Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his = constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout Catholic = leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of = Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid = these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health = to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person = prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world = was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as = foretold in the New Testament. Before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal = Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the face of the greatest = historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that = wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian = community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation = between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the = anti-Gospel." The Pope, who grew up facing the evils of Hitler and = Stalin, knows evil when he sees it. Although we can all endlessly argue = over the Pope's effectiveness in curtailing abuses within his Church, = his accomplishments external to Catholicism are impressive.=20 According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest = advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the = September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - = were known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By = permitting the attacks to take their course, there is a perception = within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was = implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial = powers to carry out their agenda. The Pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN = Security Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican = sources claim they had not seen the Pope more animated and determined = since he fell ill to Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the Pope did = convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, and Guinea to oppose = the U.S. resolution. If one were to believe in the Book of Revelations, = as the Pope fervently does, he can seek solace in scoring a symbolic = victory against the Bush administration. Whether Bush represents a = dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with = a neo-Christian blood cult (as I believe) or he is either the = anti-Christ or heralds one, the Pope should know he has fought the good = battle and has gained the respect and admiration of many non-Catholics = around the world.=20 -- Wayne Madsen is a Washington-based investigative journalist and = former naval officer assigned to the National Security Agency. He = testified before Cynthia McKinney's hearing on the genocide in the DRC = in May 2001 and has worked with Bob Barr on privacy legislation in the = past. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth. Madsen can be = reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com --------------------------------- Ron Mills "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To = change something, build a new model that makes the existing model = obsolete."- Buckminister Fuller --------------------------------- FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always = been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such = material available in an effort to advance understanding of = environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, = and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' = of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the = US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the = material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have = expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for = research and educational purposes. For more information go to: = http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use = copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go = beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. =20 Ron Mills Founder: Democratic Victory Network Learn Cyber Activism http://DemocraticVictory.net/101 Latest HeadLine News http://DemocraticVictory.net ------=_NextPart_000_003F_01C31233.2189D8E0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2003 11:02 AM
Subject: Does The Pope Think GW Is The Anti-Christ =

Does The Pope = Think GW Is=20 The Anti-Christ ht= tp://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042803_vatican.html

[Wayne=20 Madsen, Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist and former = intelligence=20 officer with the National Security Agency drops some big bombshells in = George W.=20 Bush's spiritual back yard. This highly respected journalistic veteran = quotes=20 sources closest to the Vatican as saying that Pope John Paul II suspects = that=20 the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the 9-11 attacks. He also = points=20 out the obvious: Bush behavior and attitude are anything but Christian. = -=20 MCR]

Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult

Concerns Raised by the=20 Vatican

by WAYNE MADSEN

(The following story was = originally=20 published by CounterPunch - www.counterpunch.org -
on April 22,=20 2003.
Reprinted with permission from the author)

APRIL 28, = 2003, 1700=20 hrs PDT (FTW) -- George W. Bush proclaims himself a born-again = Christian.=20 However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians like House = Majority Leader=20 Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book of Revelations carnival = hawker=20 Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a "Christian" blood lust cult when = it comes=20 to practicing the teachings of the founder of Christianity. This cultist = form of=20 Christianity, with its emphasis on death rather than life, is also = worrying the=20 leaders of mainstream Christian religions, particularly the = Pope.

One=20 only has to check out Bush's record as Governor of Texas to see his own=20 preference for death over life. During his tenure as Governor, Bush = presided=20 over a record setting 152 executions, including the 1998 execution of = fellow=20 born-again Christian Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who later = led a=20 prison ministry. Forty of Bush's executions were carried out in 2000, = the year=20 the Bush presidential campaign was spotlighting their candidate's strong = law=20 enforcement record. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen reported in = October 2000=20 that one of the execution chamber's "tie-down team" members, Fred Allen, = had to=20 prepare so many people for lethal injections during 2000, he quit his = job in=20 disgust.

Bush mocked Tucker's appeal for clemency. In an = interview with=20 Talk magazine, Bush imitated Tucker's appeal for him to spare her life - = pursing=20 his lips, squinting his eyes, and in a squeaky voice saying, "Please = don't kill=20 me." That went too far for former GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer, = himself=20 an evangelical Christian. "I think it is nothing short of unbelievable = that the=20 governor of a major state running for president thought it was = acceptable to=20 mock a woman he decided to put to death," said Bauer.

A former = Texas=20 Department of Public Safety officer, a devout Roman Catholic, told this = reporter=20 that evidence to the contrary, Bush was more than happy to ignore DNA = data and=20 documented cases of prosecutorial misconduct to send innocent people to = the=20 Huntsville, Texas lethal injection chamber. He said the number of = executed=20 mentally retarded, African Americans, and those who committed capital = crimes as=20 minors was proof that Bush was insensitive and a "phony Christian." When = faced=20 with similar problems in Illinois, Governor George Ryan, a Republican, = commuted=20 the death sentences of his state's death row inmates and released others = after=20 discovering they were wrongfully convicted. Yet the Republican Party is=20 pillorying Ryan and John Ashcroft's Justice Department continues to = investigate=20 the former Governor for political malfeasance as if Bush and Ashcroft = are=20 without sin in such matters. Hypocrisy certainly rules in the Republican = Party.

Bush's blood lust has been extended across the globe. He = has given=20 the CIA authority to assassinate those deemed a threat to U.S. national=20 interests. Bush has virtually suspended Executive Orders 11905 (Gerald = Ford),=20 12306 (Jimmy Carter), and 12333 (Ronald Reagan) which prohibit the = assassination=20 of foreign leaders. Bush's determination to kill Saddam Hussein, his = family, and=20 his top leaders with precision-guided missiles and tactical nuclear = weapon-like=20 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs is yet another indication of = Bush's=20 disregard for his Republican and Democratic predecessors. It now appears = that in=20 his zeal to kill Hussein, innocent civilian patrons of a Baghdad = restaurant were=20 killed by one of Bush's precision Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). = Like it=20 or not, Saddam Hussein was recognized by over 100 nations as the leader = of Iraq=20 -- a member state of the United Nations. Hussein, like North Korea' Kim = Jong Il,=20 Syria's Bashir Assad, and Iran's Mohammed Khatami, are covered by = Executive=20 Order 12333, which the Bush mouthpieces claim is still in effect. Bush's = "Christian" blood cult sees no other option than death for those who = become his=20 enemies. This doctrine is found no place in Christian = theology.

Bush has=20 not once prayed for the innocent civilians who died as a result of the = U.S.=20 attack on Iraq. He constantly "embeds" himself with the military at=20 Goebbels-like speech fests and makes constant references to God when he = refers=20 to America's "victory" in Iraq, as if God endorses his sordid killing = spree. He=20 makes no mention of the children, women, and old men killed by America's = "precision-guided" missiles and bombs and trigger-happy U.S. troops. In = fact,=20 Bush revels in indiscriminate blood letting. Since he never experienced = such=20 killing in Southeast Asia, when he was AWOL from his Texas Air National = Guard=20 unit, Bush just does not seem to understand the horror of a parent = watching=20 one's children having their heads and limbs blown off in a sudden blast = of=20 shrapnel or children witnessing their parents burning to death with = their own=20 body fat nurturing the flames.

Bush and his advisers, previously = warned=20 that Iraq's ancient artifacts and collection of historical documents and = books=20 were in danger of being looted or destroyed, instead, sat back while the = Baghdad=20 and Mosul museums and Baghdad Library were ransacked and destroyed. Cult = leaders=20 have historically attempted to destroy history in order to invent their = own. The=20 Soviets tried to obliterate Russia's Orthodox traditions, turning a = number of=20 churches into warehouses and animal barns. Cambodia's Pol Pot tried to = wipe out=20 Buddhism's famed Angkor Wat shrine in an attempt to stamp out his = country's=20 Buddhist history. In March 2001, while they were negotiating with the = Bush=20 administration on a natural gas pipeline, Afghanistan's Taliban blew up = two=20 massive 1600-year old Buddhas in Bamiyan. The Bush administration, = itself run by=20 fanatic religious cultists, barely made a fuss about the loss of the = relics. It=20 would not be the first time the cultists within the Bush administration = ignored=20 the pillaging of history's treasures.

The ransacking of Iraq's = historical=20 treasures is explainable when one considers what the blood cult = Christians=20 really think about Islam. Franklin Graham, the heir to the empire built = up by=20 his anti-Semitic father, Billy Graham, has decided being anti-Muslim is = far more=20 financially rewarding than being anti-Jewish. Billy Graham, history = notes from=20 the Nixon tapes, complained about the Jewish stranglehold on the media = and Jews=20 being responsible for pornography.

Franklin Graham continues to = enjoy=20 his father's unfettered and questionable access to the White House. But = in the=20 case of Bush, the younger Graham has a fanatic adherent. Graham has = called Islam=20 a "very evil and wicked" religion. He then announces he wants to go to = Iraq.=20 Graham obviously sees an opportunity to convert Muslims and unrepentant = Eastern=20 Christians, who owe their allegiance to Roman and Greek prelates, to his = perverted form of blood cult Christianity. Graham says he is ready to = send his=20 Samaritan's Purse missionaries into Iraq to provide assistance. Muslims = and=20 mainstream Christians are wary that Graham wants to exchange food, = water, and=20 medicine for the baptism of Iraqis into his intolerant brand of = Christianity. In=20 the last Gulf War, Graham could not get away with his chicanery. The = Desert=20 Storm Commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, stopped dead in the tracks = Graham's=20 plan to send 30,000 Arabic language Bibles to U.S. troops in Saudi = Arabia.=20 Today's Pentagon shows no such compunction to put a rein on Graham. It = invited=20 him to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon to the consternation of = the=20 Defense Department's Muslim employees. To make matters worse, under = Bush's=20 "Faith Based Initiative," Graham's Samaritan's Purse stands to receive = U.S.=20 government funds for its proselytizing efforts in Iraq, something that = should be=20 an affront to every American taxpayer.

Bush's self-proclaimed = adherence=20 to Christianity (during one of the presidential debates he said Jesus = Christ was=20 his favorite "philosopher") and his constant reference to a new = international=20 structure bypassing the United Nations system and long-standing = international=20 treaties are worrying the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.=20 Well-informed sources close to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II = is=20 growing increasingly concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions. The = Pope has=20 had experience with Bush's death fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to = spare=20 the life of Karla Faye Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of = the=20 world's mainstream religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare = Tucker from=20 the World Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 = of the=20 world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's = own=20 Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of the = World=20 Council.

Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian = beliefs,=20 and his constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout = Catholic=20 leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of=20 Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid = these=20 concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to = confront the=20 possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in = Revelations. John=20 Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final=20 confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament. = Before he=20 became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now standing in the = face of=20 the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do = not think=20 that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the = Christian=20 community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation = between=20 the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel." = The Pope,=20 who grew up facing the evils of Hitler and Stalin, knows evil when he = sees it.=20 Although we can all endlessly argue over the Pope's effectiveness in = curtailing=20 abuses within his Church, his accomplishments external to Catholicism = are=20 impressive.

According to journalists close to the Vatican, the = Pope and=20 his closest advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - = the=20 September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - = were=20 known in advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting = the=20 attacks to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman = Catholic=20 Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush = and his=20 leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda.

The = Pope=20 worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security = Council to=20 oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they had not = seen=20 the Pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to Parkinson's = Disease.=20 In the end, the Pope did convince the leaders of Mexico, Chile, = Cameroon, and=20 Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution. If one were to believe in the Book = of=20 Revelations, as the Pope fervently does, he can seek solace in scoring a = symbolic victory against the Bush administration. Whether Bush = represents a=20 dangerous right-wing ideologue who couples his political fanaticism with = a=20 neo-Christian blood cult (as I believe) or he is either the anti-Christ = or=20 heralds one, the Pope should know he has fought the good battle and has = gained=20 the respect and admiration of many non-Catholics around the world. =

--=20 Wayne Madsen is a Washington-based investigative journalist and former = naval=20 officer assigned to the National Security Agency. He testified before = Cynthia=20 McKinney's hearing on the genocide in the DRC in May 2001 and has worked = with=20 Bob Barr on privacy legislation in the past. He wrote the introduction = to=20 Forbidden Truth. Madsen can be reached at:=20 WMadsen777@aol.com

---------------------------------
Ron = Mills =20 "You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change = something,=20 build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."- Buckminister = Fuller
---------------------------------
  FAIR USE = NOTICE:
This=20 site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been=20 specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such = material=20 available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, = political,=20 human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice = issues, etc.=20 We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted = material as=20 provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with = Title 17=20 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without = profit to=20 those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included = information=20 for research and educational purposes. For more information go to:=20 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml  If you wish to use=20 copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go = beyond=20 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright=20 owner.
    

Ron = Mills
Founder:
Democratic=20 Victory Network
Learn Cyber=20 Activism
http://DemocraticVictory.net/101
Latest HeadLine=20 News
http://DemocraticVictory.net

 ------=_NextPart_000_003F_01C31233.2189D8E0-- From jafujii@uci.edu Tue May 6 04:43:16 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 20:43:16 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: ACLU-Labor Coalition - "Upton Sinclair" Awards Pageant and Reception in San Pedro this Friday Evening, May 9th Message-ID: <001d01c31381$a1324100$40bbc380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_001A_01C31346.F438FDC0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 3:11 PM Subject: ACLU-Labor Coalition - "Upton Sinclair" Awards Pageant and = Reception in San Pedro this Friday Evening, May 9th At last the non-profit progressives and the labor unions are working = together! This may build a new coalition. ACLU-Labor Coalition: the Upton Sinclair Awards Pageant, May 9=20 The Upton Sinclair Awards Pageant commemorates Sinclair's arrest for = reading the US Constitution on behalf of striking Marine Transport = workers in 1923. There will be theatre, music and literature tables for = labor unions and non-profit groups to build a local coalition. Speakers include: Sonali Kolhatkar and Ramona Ripston;=20 Speaker-honorees include:=20 David Barsamian, Sheila Kuehl, Normon Solomon, Barbara Lee and Stephen = Rohde; Date: Friday May 9, 2003; 7 pm for program, 6 pm for reception and = buffet.=20 Location: Port of LA Boys & Girls Club, 100 W. 5th St, at Harbor Bl, = San Pedro.=20 Tickets: Gen'l admission, $5 donation at the door; free literature tables; = Reception and buffet, $30.=20 For dinner reservations or your group's public endorsement, and info: = Dan Pasley; dan@c-spam.net; 310 519-1500 or to ACLU Chapter pres: Ruth = MCGrew: remcgrew@juno.com 310 375-3407. =20 Sponsor: South Bay Chapter of the ACLU; Co-sponsors include: = Councilwoman Janice Hahn, 15th District, The Harry Bridges Institute, = ILWU Local 13, ILWU So. Cal. Pensioners Group, KPFK-FM 90.7, PACE = Local 8-675, Port of LA Boys & Girls Club, The Chapter Council of the = ACLU of So. Calif, Random Lengths News, San Pedro Alternative Media = Council, SEIU 434 Addicted To War will have a table at this event! ------=_NextPart_000_001A_01C31346.F438FDC0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 3:11 PM
Subject: ACLU-Labor Coalition - "Upton Sinclair" Awards = Pageant and=20 Reception in San Pedro this Friday Evening, May 9th

At=20 last the non-profit progressives and the labor unions are working = together!=20  This may build a new coalition.

ACLU-Labor Coalition: = the Upton=20 Sinclair Awards Pageant, May 9

The=20 Upton=20 Sinclair Awards Pageant commemorates Sinclair's arrest for reading the = US=20 Constitution on behalf of striking Marine Transport workers in 1923. = There will=20 be theatre, music and literature tables for labor unions and non-profit = groups=20 to build a local coalition.

Speakers include: = Sonali=20 Kolhatkar and Ramona Ripston;

Speaker-honorees include: =

David=20 Barsamian, Sheila Kuehl, Normon Solomon, Barbara Lee and Stephen=20 Rohde;

Date:  Friday May 9, 2003; 7 pm  for program,=20 6=20 pm  for reception = and=20 buffet.

Location:  = Port=20 of LA=20 Boys & Girls Club, 100 W. 5th=20 St, at Harbor Bl, San = Pedro.=20

Tickets:
Gen'l admission, $5 donation at the door; free = literature=20 tables; Reception and buffet, $30.

For dinner reservations or = your=20 group's public endorsement, and info: Dan Pasley; dan@c-spam.net; 310 519-1500 or to = ACLU Chapter=20 pres: Ruth MCGrew: remcgrew@juno.com=20 310  375-3407.  

Sponsor: South Bay Chapter of the = ACLU;=20 Co-sponsors include: Councilwoman Janice Hahn, 15th District, The Harry = Bridges=20 Institute, ILWU Local 13, ILWU So. = Cal.  Pensioners = Group,=20 KPFK-FM 90.7,  PACE Local 8-675, Port of LA  Boys & Girls = Club,=20 The Chapter Council of the ACLU of So. = Calif,=20 Random Lengths News, San Pedro Alternative Media Council, SEIU 434

Addicted=20 To War  = will have a = table at=20 this event!

<= /HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_001A_01C31346.F438FDC0-- From jafujii@uci.edu Tue May 6 04:45:02 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 20:45:02 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: To the conscience of the world Message-ID: <003601c31381$e08d2040$40bbc380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0033_01C31347.33958AB0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 4:21 PM Subject: To the conscience of the world http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=3D54&ItemID=3D3556 Mexico City, May Day 2003 To the conscience of the world The international order has been violated as a consequence of the = invasion=20 against Iraq. A single power is inflicting grave damage to the norms of understanding, debate and mediation amongst countries. This power has invoked a series of unverified reasons in order to justify its invasion. =20 Unilateral action has led to massive loss of civilian life an = devastation of one of the cultural patrimonies of humanity. We only possess our moral authority, with which we appeal to world conscience in order to avoid a new violation of the principles, which = inform and guide the global community of nations. At this very moment, a strong campaign of destabilization against a Latin American nation has been unleashed. The harassment against Cuba could serve as a pretext for an=20 invasion. Therefore, we call upon citizens and policy makers to uphold = the universal principles of national sovereignity, respect of territorial=20 integrity and self-determination, essential to just and peaceful co-existence among nations. =20 Signed Initially By: Leopoldo Zea Adolfo S=E1nchez V=E1zquez Miguel Le=F3n Portilla Andr=E9s Henestrosa Mar=EDa Rojo Jaime Labastida V=EDctor Flores Olea Federico =C1lvarez Gilberto L=F3pez y Rivas Pablo Gonz=E1lez Casanova Signed afterwards by the Nobel Prize Winners: Rigoberta Mench=FA Nadine Gordimer Adolfo P=E9rez Esquivel Gabriel Garc=EDa M=E1rquez Signed also by ZNet Associated Writers and Friends =20 Michael Albert Noam Chomsky James Petras Tariq Ali Eduardo Galeano Edward S. Herman Richard B. Du Boff Nikos Raptis William Blum David Barsamian Leslie Cagan Tanya Reinhart Katha Pollitt Robert Jensen Saul Landau Patrick Bond Will Doherty Adele Oliveri Suren Moodliar Danny Glover Marta Harnecker William Blum And signed also by:=20 Mario Benedetti Ernesto Cardenal Oscar Niemeyer Harry Bellafonte Antonio Gades Volodia Teitelboim Jos=E9 Balmes Jorge Enrique Adoum Thiago de Melo Daniel Viglietti Pino Solanas Jorge Sanjin=E9s Luisa Valenzuela Luis Sep=FAlveda Abelardo Castillo Sylvia Iparraguirre Fernando Garc=EDa Eduardo Mignogna Tristan Bauer Eduardo Pavlovsky Norman Brisky No=E9 Jitrik Mempo Giardinelli Miguel Bonasso Andr=E9s Rivera Emir Sader Atilio Bor=F3n Arcira Argumedo Gianni Min=E1 Claude Couffon Roy Brown Paul Estrade Hebe de Bonafini Santiago Garc=EDa Ariel Dorfman Claudia Korol Nelson Osorio Hildebrando P=E9rez Giulio Girardi Piero Vivarelli Juan Antonio Hormig=F3n Rosa Vicente Deonisio da Silva Henri Alleg Fernando A=EDnsa Danny Rivera Pablo Marcano Armando Gnisci Margaret Randall Heinz Dietrich Steffan Angela Correa Miguel Vayo Horacio Gonz=E1lez Liliana Herrero Dolly Oussi Rodolfo Hermina Jane Franklin Mamani Mamani N=E9stor Cohen Manuel Cabieses Donoso Claufe Rodrigues Alessandra Riccio Rosa Mar=EDa Robles Mayt=E9 Pinero Bia Falbo Tony Ryan Brian Willson Jorge Pixley Ivana Jinkings Evaristo Villar Miguel Urbano Joao Pedro Stedile Ana Esther Cece=F1a Rosy Z=FA=F1iga Stefaan Declercq Ricardo Gebrim Ra=FAl Zibechi Mar=EDa Poumier Rosalyn Baxandall Nancy Rice Louis Segal V=EDctor Heredia Beth Carvalho Vera de Abreu Figuereido Nelson Rodrigues Filho Marilia Barbosa Mauricio Figueredo Mar=EDa Jos=E9 Zack Arthur Poerner Rodolfo Livingston James D. Cockcroft Teotonio Dos Santos Jean Carey Bond Abelardo Castillo N=E9stor Kohan Roxanne Dumbar Ortiz Eduardo Auer Alberto Pablo Ruiz Alejandra Beatriz Camba Rosa Ma. D=B4 Alesio de Velarde Mat=EDas Scaglione Ana de Mario Cuauhtemoc Amescua Beatriz Palacios Carlos Carvajal Patricia Barbieri H=E9ctor Celano Francisco de Alentar Beatriz Kajt Julio Carabeli Lita Stantic Chude Allen David Barkham Fernando Quilodr=E1n Daniel Randazo Francisco Alday Torre Alicia Jrapko Peter Ranis Gerardo D. Etcheverry Michael Gasser Diego Mu=F1oz Gervasio Espinosa Jos=E9 L. Ronconi Mart=EDn de Mauro Rina Bertacani Roberto Curie In=E9s Izaguirre Austin Hingey Diego Mu=F1oz Abelardo Castillo Sylvia Ipaguirre Carlos Zamorano Graciela Rosenblum Enrique Rajchenberg Gudrun Lekensdorf Carlos Lekensdor Alicia Pelliza Carlos Sbriller Anna Escudero Baltasar Patricio A Brodsky Francisco Calder=F3n S=E1nchez de Roja Cristina Barros Valero Marco Buenrrostro Veitia Iddia Cecilia Fridman Leslie Hoag Hope Cori=FAn Aharonian Alfonso Sastre Uzma Aslam Khan Tununa Mercado Alicia Castellanos Guerrero Mario Casartelli Sim=F3n J. Ortiz Alejandro Stuart Josefina Morales Ram=EDrez Renato Prada Oropeza Felipe Lampero Fernando Butazzoni Ra=FAl Ariza =20 Ren=E9 Benedicto ------=_NextPart_000_0033_01C31347.33958AB0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 4:21 PM
Subject: To the conscience of the world

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=3D54&a= mp;ItemID=3D3556

Mexico=20 City, May Day 2003

To the conscience of the world

The=20 international order has been violated as a consequence of the invasion=20
against Iraq. A single power is inflicting grave damage to the norms = of
understanding, debate and mediation amongst countries. This power=20 has
invoked a series of unverified reasons in order to justify its=20 invasion.
 
Unilateral action has led to massive loss of = civilian=20 life an devastation of
one of the cultural patrimonies of = humanity.

We=20 only possess our moral authority, with which we appeal to = world
conscience in=20 order to avoid a new violation of the principles, which inform
and = guide the=20 global community of nations. At this very moment, a strong
campaign = of=20 destabilization against a Latin American nation has been
unleashed. = The=20 harassment against Cuba could serve as a pretext for an
invasion. = Therefore,=20 we call upon citizens and policy makers to uphold the
universal = principles of=20 national sovereignity, respect of territorial
integrity and=20 self-determination, essential to just and peaceful
co-existence among = nations.
 
Signed Initially By:

Leopoldo Zea
Adolfo = S=E1nchez=20 V=E1zquez
Miguel Le=F3n Portilla
Andr=E9s Henestrosa
Mar=EDa = Rojo
Jaime=20 Labastida
V=EDctor Flores Olea
Federico =C1lvarez
Gilberto = L=F3pez y=20 Rivas
Pablo Gonz=E1lez Casanova

Signed afterwards by the Nobel = Prize=20 Winners:

Rigoberta Mench=FA
Nadine Gordimer
Adolfo P=E9rez=20 Esquivel
Gabriel Garc=EDa M=E1rquez

Signed also by ZNet = Associated Writers=20 and Friends
 
Michael Albert
Noam Chomsky
James = Petras
Tariq=20 Ali
Eduardo Galeano
Edward S. Herman
Richard B. Du = Boff
Nikos=20 Raptis
William Blum
David Barsamian
Leslie Cagan
Tanya=20 Reinhart
Katha Pollitt
Robert Jensen
Saul Landau
Patrick=20 Bond
Will Doherty
Adele Oliveri
Suren Moodliar
Danny = Glover
Marta=20 Harnecker
William Blum

And signed also by:

Mario=20 Benedetti
Ernesto Cardenal
Oscar Niemeyer
Harry = Bellafonte
Antonio=20 Gades
Volodia Teitelboim
Jos=E9 Balmes
Jorge Enrique = Adoum
Thiago de=20 Melo
Daniel Viglietti
Pino Solanas
Jorge Sanjin=E9s
Luisa=20 Valenzuela
Luis Sep=FAlveda
Abelardo Castillo
Sylvia=20 Iparraguirre
Fernando Garc=EDa
Eduardo Mignogna
Tristan = Bauer
Eduardo=20 Pavlovsky
Norman Brisky
No=E9 Jitrik
Mempo = Giardinelli
Miguel=20 Bonasso
Andr=E9s Rivera
Emir Sader
Atilio Bor=F3n
Arcira=20 Argumedo
Gianni Min=E1
Claude Couffon
Roy Brown
Paul = Estrade
Hebe=20 de Bonafini
Santiago Garc=EDa
Ariel Dorfman
Claudia = Korol
Nelson=20 Osorio
Hildebrando P=E9rez
Giulio Girardi
Piero = Vivarelli
Juan Antonio=20 Hormig=F3n
Rosa Vicente
Deonisio da Silva
Henri = Alleg
Fernando=20 A=EDnsa
Danny Rivera
Pablo Marcano
Armando Gnisci
Margaret=20 Randall
Heinz Dietrich Steffan
Angela Correa
Miguel = Vayo
Horacio=20 Gonz=E1lez
Liliana Herrero
Dolly Oussi
Rodolfo Hermina
Jane=20 Franklin
Mamani Mamani
N=E9stor Cohen
Manuel Cabieses = Donoso
Claufe=20 Rodrigues
Alessandra Riccio
Rosa Mar=EDa Robles
Mayt=E9 = Pinero
Bia=20 Falbo
Tony Ryan
Brian Willson
Jorge Pixley
Ivana=20 Jinkings
Evaristo Villar
Miguel Urbano
Joao Pedro = Stedile
Ana Esther=20 Cece=F1a
Rosy Z=FA=F1iga
Stefaan Declercq
Ricardo = Gebrim
Ra=FAl=20 Zibechi
Mar=EDa Poumier
Rosalyn Baxandall
Nancy Rice
Louis=20 Segal
V=EDctor Heredia
Beth Carvalho
Vera de Abreu = Figuereido
Nelson=20 Rodrigues Filho
Marilia Barbosa
Mauricio Figueredo
Mar=EDa = Jos=E9=20 Zack
Arthur Poerner
Rodolfo Livingston
James D. = Cockcroft
Teotonio=20 Dos Santos
Jean Carey Bond
Abelardo Castillo
N=E9stor = Kohan
Roxanne=20 Dumbar Ortiz
Eduardo Auer
Alberto Pablo Ruiz
Alejandra Beatriz=20 Camba
Rosa Ma. D=B4 Alesio de Velarde
Mat=EDas Scaglione
Ana de = Mario
Cuauhtemoc Amescua
Beatriz Palacios
Carlos = Carvajal
Patricia=20 Barbieri
H=E9ctor Celano
Francisco de Alentar
Beatriz = Kajt
Julio=20 Carabeli
Lita Stantic
Chude Allen
David Barkham
Fernando=20 Quilodr=E1n
Daniel Randazo
Francisco Alday Torre
Alicia = Jrapko
Peter=20 Ranis
Gerardo D. Etcheverry
Michael Gasser
Diego = Mu=F1oz
Gervasio=20 Espinosa
Jos=E9 L. Ronconi
Mart=EDn de Mauro
Rina = Bertacani
Roberto=20 Curie
In=E9s Izaguirre
Austin Hingey
Diego Mu=F1oz
Abelardo=20 Castillo
Sylvia Ipaguirre
Carlos Zamorano
Graciela = Rosenblum
Enrique=20 Rajchenberg
Gudrun Lekensdorf
Carlos Lekensdor
Alicia = Pelliza
Carlos=20 Sbriller
Anna Escudero Baltasar
Patricio A Brodsky
Francisco = Calder=F3n=20 S=E1nchez de Roja
Cristina Barros Valero
Marco = Buenrrostro
Veitia=20 Iddia
Cecilia Fridman
Leslie Hoag Hope
Cori=FAn = Aharonian
Alfonso=20 Sastre
Uzma Aslam Khan
Tununa Mercado
Alicia Castellanos=20 Guerrero
Mario Casartelli
Sim=F3n J. Ortiz
Alejandro = Stuart
Josefina=20 Morales Ram=EDrez
Renato Prada Oropeza
Felipe Lampero
Fernando=20 Butazzoni
Ra=FAl Ariza 
Ren=E9 = Benedicto

------=_NextPart_000_0033_01C31347.33958AB0-- From jafujii@uci.edu Fri May 9 08:27:28 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 00:27:28 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: TV Not Concerned by Cluster Bombs, DU Message-ID: <005401c315fc$733682c0$55bbc380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0051_01C315C1.C5613760 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 3:52 PM Subject: TV Not Concerned by Cluster Bombs, DU FAIR-L Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting Media analysis, critiques and activism ACTION ALERT: TV Not Concerned by Cluster Bombs, DU:=20 "That's just the way life is in Iraq" May 6, 2003 Media have been quick to declare the U.S. war against Iraq a success, = but in-depth investigative reporting about the war's likely health and environmental consequences has been scarce. Two important issues = getting shortchanged in the press are the U.S.'s controversial use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons. According to a May 5 search of the Nexis database, there have been no in-depth reports about cluster bombs on ABC, CBS or NBC's nightly news programs since the start of the war. There have been, however, a few passing mentions of cluster bombs-- enough so that viewers may be aware = of their existence. Not so with depleted uranium. Since the beginning of the year, the words "depleted uranium" have not been uttered once on ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News or NBC Nightly News, according to Nexis. Depleted uranium is a dense metal used in various U.S. and British munitions as ballast and to cut through tank armor. The U.S. military insists it is not a major health threat, but many link it to Gulf War Syndrome and to increased cancers and birth defects in Iraq. As = explained in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (11/12/02)-- one of the few mainstream outlets to seriously investigate the issue-- DU is radioactive and = remains so for billions of years. What's more, when a DU weapon hits its = target, "an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust" is created "that can be spread = by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by = plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain." According to the London newspaper the Guardian (4/25/03), it's unclear exactly how much DU was used in the most recent Iraq war, but some experts estimate 1,000 to = 2,000 tons-- roughly three to six times the amount of DU dropped in the 1991 Gulf War. Cluster bombs are another widely criticized weapon favored by the U.S. = As a recent Time magazine article (5/12/03) explained, cluster bombs "split in midair and rain as many as hundreds of grenade-like bomblets," some = of which "remain, like leftover land mines, as a deadly postwar risk to civilians." According to Human Rights Watch (3/03), a minimum of 14 to = 16 percent of cluster bomblets become "de facto antipersonnel landmines"; = the group has called for "a global moratorium" on their use. Amnesty International has called the U.S.'s use of cluster bombs in civilian = areas of Iraq "a grave violation of international humanitarian law" (4/2/03). When cluster bombs have come up on the major network newscasts, little background information has been provided. ABC's World News Tonight reported (4/1/03) Iraqi officials' claim that nine children had been killed by cluster bombs, but did not elaborate. In another report = (World News Tonight Saturday, 4/19/03), anchor Terry Moran introduced a segment by saying, "Four soldiers were hurt today when a little Iraqi girl = handed them part of a cluster bomb," adding, bizarrely, "That's just the way = life is in Iraq right now." Later, Moran noted that the little girl was injured, too. The report Moran was introducing examined the dangers posed to civilians by the large amounts of military ordnance around the country, including both weapons stockpiles left behind by Saddam Hussein's regime and = cluster bombs dropped by the U.S. and British. ABC focused on the efforts U.S. Marines were making to dispose of the weaponry, and concluded that "the Marines did not create this problem, but Iraqis are sure now looking to them for answers." True, U.S. Marines and soldiers did not create the problem of Iraqi ammunition stockpiles, but they-- or, more to the = point, their commanders-- did create the problem of cluster bombs. Apart from one passing mention (3/21/03), NBC Nightly News' only substantive reference to cluster bombs was when Pentagon correspondent = Jim Miklaszewski reported (4/2/03) the use of "a new, more deadly cluster bomb, designed to take out entire columns of enemy armor and troops." = But the report included no discussion of whether the bombs were being used near civilians, or what their long-term impact might be. As for CBS's Evening News, it mentioned cluster bombs only once, almost inadvertently (4/16/03). The main source for the story was the Army's Gen. Buford Blount, who Dan Rather interviewed about the "enormous job" the U.S. military "has taken on in trying to get Iraq up and running again." At one point, apparently to illustrate the difficult requests = the Army receives very day, the report featured a clip of an Iraqi doctor asking that the U.S. clean up cluster bombs. Rather let the substance = of the comment pass without remark, ending the report by saying that the Blount "remains convinced that his soldiers have made good progress." Interestingly, CBS aired what seemed to be an expanded version of = Rather's report later that night, on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes II. Even in the longer story, the focus was on Blount and his struggles to "bring order out of chaos" in Baghdad, but Rather did pursue the question the doctor raised: "What about the cluster bomb problem?" Blount answered that "we didn't use that many of them, but there are evidently some areas where they-- you know, they've got some-- some areas," and claimed that though the Air Force may have dropped more, he, as an Army officer, didn't know where those would be. The report then showed footage from Rather's visit to a hospital where = he met children gruesomely injured by cluster bombs, including one boy who lost both eyes and sustained a potentially fatal head wound. "All his mother can do is weep and try to ease his pain," said Rather. Clearly, Rather was trying to convey the horrific damage inflicted by cluster bombs-- something too few mainstream reporters have done-- but his = report stopped short of providing specifics about the extent of "the cluster = bomb problem": Was Blount telling the truth when he said "we didn't use that many"? How many remain unexploded? Does their use violate = international law? Contrast TV's lack of curiosity to the noteworthy May 12 Time magazine story cited above, in which reporter Michael Weisskopf highlighted the discrepancy between Pentagon claims-- that "only 26 cluster bombs had landed in civilian areas, resulting in one casualty"--with the reality = on the ground, where in Karbala alone, local clean-up crews "are harvesting about 1,000 cluster bombs a day." Human Rights Watch-- which warned for months of the danger and possible illegality of using cluster bombs near populated areas-- has likewise argued (4/25/03) that "U.S. claims that cluster munitions have not = caused significant damage to civilians in Iraq are highly misleading." The = group has criticized the U.S. and Britain for failing to "come clean" about = how many cluster bombs were dropped and where, so that civilians can be protected (4/29/03). The repercussions of the U.S. and British use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons will be felt in Iraq for a long time to come. = It is essential that U.S. media push for a full accounting on these issues from the Pentagon. ACTION: Please ask ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly news to seriously investigate the U.S.'s use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium in Iraq. ABC's World News Tonight Phone: 212-456-4040 mailto:PeterJennings@abcnews.com CBS Evening News Phone: 212-975-3691 mailto:evening@cbsnews.com NBC Nightly News Phone: 212-664-4971 mailto:nightly@nbc.com As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously = if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence. For more information, see: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, " Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S. depleted uranium": http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml Human Rights Watch's resources about cluster bombs: http://www.hrw.org/arms/clusterbombs.php ---------- To make a donation to FAIR: http://www.fair.org/donate.html Please support FAIR by subscribing to our bimonthly magazine, Extra! For = more information, go to: http://www.fair.org/extra/subscribe.html . Or = call 1-800-847-3993. FAIR SHIRTS: Get your "Don't Trust the Corporate Media" shirt today at = FAIR's online store: http://www.merchantamerica.com/fair/ FAIR produces CounterSpin, a weekly radio show heard on over 130 = stations in the U.S. and Canada. To find the CounterSpin station nearest = you, visit http://www.fair.org/counterspin/stations.html . FAIR's INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: FAIR accepts internship applications for its = New York office on a rolling basis. For more information, see: = http://www.fair.org/internships.html Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair@fair.org ). We can't reply to = everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate = documented examples of media bias or censorship. And please send copies = of your email correspondence with media outlets, including any = responses, to fair@fair.org . You can subscribe to FAIR-L at our web site: http://www.fair.org . Our = subscriber list is kept confidential. FAIR (212) 633-6700 http://www.fair.org/ E-mail: fair@fair.org --- You are currently subscribed to fair-l as: EOflynn@aol.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to: leave-fair-l@comet.sparklist.com NOTE: To change your address, simply unsubscribe your old address, and = re-subscribe with your new address.=20 ------=_NextPart_000_0051_01C315C1.C5613760 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 3:52 PM
Subject: TV Not Concerned by Cluster Bombs, DU

         &nbs= p;            = ;          =20 FAIR-L
          &nb= sp;        =20 Fairness & Accuracy In=20 Reporting
          =     =20 Media analysis, critiques and activism

ACTION ALERT:
TV Not = Concerned=20 by Cluster Bombs, DU:
"That's just the way life is in = Iraq"

May 6,=20 2003

Media have been quick to declare the U.S. war against Iraq a = success, but
in-depth investigative reporting about the war's likely = health=20 and
environmental consequences has been scarce.  Two important = issues=20 getting
shortchanged in the press are the U.S.'s controversial use of = cluster
bombs and depleted uranium weapons.

According to a May = 5=20 search of the Nexis database, there have been no
in-depth reports = about=20 cluster bombs on ABC, CBS or NBC's nightly news
programs since the = start of=20 the war.  There have been, however, a few
passing mentions of = cluster=20 bombs-- enough so that viewers may be aware of
their existence.  = Not so=20 with depleted uranium.  Since the beginning of
the year, the = words=20 "depleted uranium" have not been uttered once on ABC
World News = Tonight, CBS=20 Evening News or NBC Nightly News, according to
Nexis.

Depleted = uranium=20 is a dense metal used in various U.S. and British
munitions as = ballast and to=20 cut through tank armor.  The U.S. military
insists it is not a = major=20 health threat, but many link it to Gulf War
Syndrome and to increased = cancers=20 and birth defects in Iraq.  As explained
in the Seattle=20 Post-Intelligencer (11/12/02)-- one of the few mainstream
outlets to=20 seriously investigate the issue-- DU is radioactive and remains
so = for=20 billions of years.  What's more, when a DU weapon hits its = target,
"an=20 extremely fine ceramic uranium dust" is created "that can be spread = by
the=20 wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by = plants
and=20 animals, becoming part of the food chain."  According to the=20 London
newspaper the Guardian (4/25/03), it's unclear exactly how = much DU=20 was
used in the most recent Iraq war, but some experts estimate 1,000 = to=20 2,000
tons-- roughly three to six times the amount of DU dropped in = the=20 1991
Gulf War.

Cluster bombs are another widely criticized = weapon=20 favored by the U.S. As
a recent Time magazine article (5/12/03) = explained,=20 cluster bombs "split
in midair and rain as many as hundreds of = grenade-like=20 bomblets," some of
which "remain, like leftover land mines, as a = deadly=20 postwar risk to
civilians."  According to Human Rights Watch = (3/03), a=20 minimum of 14 to 16
percent of cluster bomblets become "de facto=20 antipersonnel landmines"; the
group has called for "a global = moratorium" on=20 their use.  Amnesty
International has called the U.S.'s use of = cluster=20 bombs in civilian areas
of Iraq "a grave violation of international=20 humanitarian law" (4/2/03).

When cluster bombs have come up on = the major=20 network newscasts, little
background information has been = provided. =20 ABC's World News Tonight
reported (4/1/03) Iraqi officials' claim = that nine=20 children had been
killed by cluster bombs, but did not = elaborate.  In=20 another report (World
News Tonight Saturday, 4/19/03), anchor Terry = Moran=20 introduced a segment
by saying, "Four soldiers were hurt today when a = little=20 Iraqi girl handed
them part of a cluster bomb," adding, bizarrely, = "That's=20 just the way life
is in Iraq right now." Later, Moran noted that the = little=20 girl was
injured, too.

The report Moran was introducing = examined the=20 dangers posed to civilians
by the large amounts of military ordnance = around=20 the country, including
both weapons stockpiles left behind by Saddam=20 Hussein's regime and cluster
bombs dropped by the U.S. and = British.  ABC=20 focused on the efforts U.S.
Marines were making to dispose of the = weaponry,=20 and concluded that "the
Marines did not create this problem, but = Iraqis are=20 sure now looking to
them for answers."  True, U.S. Marines and = soldiers=20 did not create the
problem of Iraqi ammunition stockpiles, but they-- = or,=20 more to the point,
their commanders-- did create the problem of = cluster=20 bombs.

Apart from one passing mention (3/21/03), NBC Nightly = News'=20 only
substantive reference to cluster bombs was when Pentagon = correspondent=20 Jim
Miklaszewski reported (4/2/03) the use of "a new, more deadly=20 cluster
bomb, designed to take out entire columns of enemy armor and=20 troops."  But
the report included no discussion of whether the = bombs=20 were being used
near civilians, or what their long-term impact might=20 be.

As for CBS's Evening News, it mentioned cluster bombs only = once,=20 almost
inadvertently (4/16/03).  The main source for the story = was the=20 Army's
Gen. Buford Blount, who Dan Rather interviewed about the = "enormous=20 job"
the U.S. military "has taken on in trying to get Iraq up and=20 running
again."  At one point, apparently to illustrate the = difficult=20 requests the
Army receives very day, the report featured a clip of an = Iraqi=20 doctor
asking that the U.S. clean up cluster bombs.  Rather let = the=20 substance of
the comment pass without remark, ending the report by = saying=20 that the
Blount "remains convinced that his soldiers have made good=20 progress."

Interestingly, CBS aired what seemed to be an expanded = version=20 of Rather's
report later that night, on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes = II. =20 Even in the
longer story, the focus was on Blount and his struggles = to "bring=20 order
out of chaos" in Baghdad, but Rather did pursue the question = the=20 doctor
raised: "What about the cluster bomb problem?"  Blount = answered=20 that "we
didn't use that many of them, but there are evidently some = areas=20 where
they-- you know, they've got some-- some areas," and claimed = that=20 though
the Air Force may have dropped more, he, as an Army officer, = didn't=20 know
where those would be.

The report then showed footage from = Rather's visit to a hospital where he
met children gruesomely injured = by=20 cluster bombs, including one boy who
lost both eyes and sustained a=20 potentially fatal head wound.  "All his
mother can do is weep = and try to=20 ease his pain," said Rather.  Clearly,
Rather was trying to = convey the=20 horrific damage inflicted by cluster
bombs-- something too few = mainstream=20 reporters have done-- but his report
stopped short of providing = specifics=20 about the extent of "the cluster bomb
problem": Was Blount telling = the truth=20 when he said "we didn't use that
many"?  How many remain=20 unexploded?  Does their use violate = international
law?

Contrast=20 TV's lack of curiosity to the noteworthy May 12 Time magazine
story = cited=20 above, in which reporter Michael Weisskopf highlighted = the
discrepancy=20 between Pentagon claims-- that "only 26 cluster bombs had
landed in = civilian=20 areas, resulting in one casualty"--with the reality on
the ground, = where in=20 Karbala alone, local clean-up crews "are harvesting
about 1,000 = cluster bombs=20 a day."

Human Rights Watch-- which warned for months of the = danger and=20 possible
illegality of using cluster bombs near populated areas-- has = likewise
argued (4/25/03) that "U.S. claims that cluster munitions = have not=20 caused
significant damage to civilians in Iraq are highly = misleading." =20 The group
has criticized the U.S. and Britain for failing to "come = clean"=20 about how
many cluster bombs were dropped and where, so that = civilians can=20 be
protected (4/29/03).

The repercussions of the U.S. and = British use=20 of cluster bombs and
depleted uranium weapons will be felt in Iraq = for a long=20 time to come.  It
is essential that U.S. media push for a full=20 accounting on these issues
from the = Pentagon.

ACTION:
Please ask=20 ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly news
to = seriously=20 investigate the U.S.'s use of cluster bombs and depleted
uranium in=20 Iraq.

ABC's World News Tonight
Phone: 212-456-4040
mailto:PeterJennings@abcnews.co= m

CBS=20 Evening News
Phone: 212-975-3691
mailto:evening@cbsnews.com
NBC=20 Nightly News
Phone: 212-664-4971
mailto:nightly@nbc.com

As = always,=20 please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if
you = maintain a=20 polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with=20 your
correspondence.

For more information, see:
The Seattle = Post-Intelligencer, " Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on
U.S. = depleted=20 uranium":
http://s= eattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml

Human=20 Rights Watch's resources about cluster bombs:
http://www.hrw.org/arms= /clusterbombs.php

     =20 ----------
To make a donation to FAIR:
http://www.fair.org/donate.html<= /A>

Please=20 support FAIR by subscribing to our bimonthly magazine, Extra! For more=20 information, go to: http://www.fair.org/ext= ra/subscribe.html=20 . Or call 1-800-847-3993.

FAIR SHIRTS: Get your "Don't Trust the=20 Corporate Media" shirt today at FAIR's online store:
http://www.merchantamerica.= com/fair/

FAIR=20 produces CounterSpin, a weekly radio show heard on over 130 stations in = the U.S.=20 and Canada. To find the CounterSpin station nearest you, visit http://www.fair.or= g/counterspin/stations.html=20 .

FAIR's INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: FAIR accepts internship applications = for its=20 New York office on a rolling basis. For more information, see: http://www.fair.org/interns= hips.html

Feel=20 free to respond to FAIR ( fair@fair.org ). We=20 can't reply to everything, but we will look at each message. We = especially=20 appreciate documented examples of media bias or censorship. And please = send=20 copies of your email correspondence with media outlets, including any = responses,=20 to fair@fair.org .

You can = subscribe=20 to FAIR-L at our web site: http://www.fair.org=20 . Our subscriber list is kept=20 confidential.
         &n= bsp;           &nb= sp;           =20 FAIR
           = ;            =      =20 (212)=20 633-6700
          &= nbsp;           &n= bsp;  =20 http://www.fair.org/
  &nb= sp;           &nbs= p;          =20 E-mail: fair@fair.org

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To unsubscribe = send a blank=20 email to:
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NOTE:=20 To change your address, simply unsubscribe your old address, and = re-subscribe=20 with your new address.
------=_NextPart_000_0051_01C315C1.C5613760-- From jafujii@uci.edu Thu May 15 04:29:37 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 20:29:37 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: Bombed firm was 'cover for CIA' Message-ID: <004b01c31a92$36ba9210$35bbc380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0048_01C31A57.89ABF210 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 4:25 PM Subject: Bombed firm was 'cover for CIA' http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/14/1052885292950.html The Age May 15 2003=20 Al-Qaeda hated corporation=20 By Marian Wilkinson Washington - The bloody attacks in Riyadh are telling because of their targets, in particular the Vinnell Corporation. The residential compound = and the offices used by Vinnell were hit, killing nine of the company's employees and injuring several others, two critically. Al-Qaeda has a particular hatred for the US Vinnell Corporation because = it trains the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the country's internal security force and an integral part of the Saudi military forces.=20 Vinnell, under contract to the US Army, employs about 800 people in = Saudi Arabia including 300 Americans. Vinnell recently came under the = financial control of giant US defence contractor Northrop. Vinnell's relationship with Saudi Arabia over nearly three decades has = been intriguing and controversial. For five years until 1997 it was owned by = the Carlyle group, a defence and investment house close to the Bush family. Several former Republican cabinet ministers sat on Carlyle's board.=20 In 1975 the Pentagon hired Vinnell on a $US77 million ($A118.8 million) contract to train Saudi troops to protect the country's oilfields. About 1000 US Special Forces were recruited, says Dan Briody, author of a new = book on the Carlyle group. In 1992 Vinnell was taken over by the Carlyle group, whose chairman was Ronald Reagan's former defence secretary, Frank Carlucci. George Bush = snr would later act on behalf of Carlyle and in 1993 Mr Bush snr's former secretary of state, James Baker, joined the company. By then, Vinnell had trained the Saudi National Guard, and had worked alongside them during the first Gulf War launched while Mr Bush snr and = Mr Baker were in office. Indeed Vinnell, says Briody, "paved the way for co-operation between the United States and Saudi Arabia during the (first) Gulf War". It was this co-operation that infuriated Osama bin Laden. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-679768,00.html The Times May 14, 2003 Firm was 'cover for CIA' By Ian Cobain As befits a company that has been accused of being a CIA front, of recruiting "executive mercenaries" and attempting to overthrow the Prime Minister of a Commonwealth state, the Vinnell Corporation kept a low = profile in Riyadh.=20 Its discreet security fooled nobody, however: the bomb attack was the = second it has suffered in eight years. In 1995 seven people were killed. This shadowy corporation is said to have been founded during the Depression. = Dan Briody, author of The Iron Triangle, a study of Vinnell's one-time = owners, the Carlyle Group, serialised last week in The Times, says that there is = "no publicity, no press releases, no news clippings".=20 He adds: "No one knows who the original owners were."=20 Vinnell's work in Saudi Arabia dates back almost 30 years, when it won a contract to train Saudi troops to guard oilfields. A congressional = inquiry found that it had agreed a "no Jews" clause. In the 1991 Gulf War = Vinnell employees were seen fighting alongside Saudi troops.=20 The company has helped the Saudis build their National Guard from 26,000 troops to around 70,000.=20 In the early Eighties Time magazine reported that two employees were embroiled in a failed attempt to overthrow Maurice Bishop, the left-wing Prime Minister of Grenada, and soon after that a former employee was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.=20 ------=_NextPart_000_0048_01C31A57.89ABF210 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 4:25 PM
Subject: Bombed firm was 'cover for CIA'

= http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/14/1052885292950.html
The=20 Age     May 15 2003

Al-Qaeda hated = corporation=20

By Marian Wilkinson

Washington - The bloody attacks in = Riyadh are=20 telling because of their
targets, in particular the Vinnell = Corporation. The=20 residential compound and
the offices used by Vinnell were hit, = killing nine=20 of the company's
employees and injuring several others, two=20 critically.

Al-Qaeda has a particular hatred for the US Vinnell=20 Corporation because it
trains the Saudi Arabian National Guard, the = country's=20 internal security
force and an integral part of the Saudi military = forces.=20

Vinnell, under contract to the US Army, employs about 800 people = in=20 Saudi
Arabia including 300 Americans. Vinnell recently came under the = financial
control of giant US defence contractor = Northrop.

Vinnell's=20 relationship with Saudi Arabia over nearly three decades has = been
intriguing=20 and controversial. For five years until 1997 it was owned by = the
Carlyle=20 group, a defence and investment house close to the Bush = family.
Several=20 former Republican cabinet ministers sat on Carlyle's board.

In = 1975 the=20 Pentagon hired Vinnell on a $US77 million ($A118.8 million)
contract = to train=20 Saudi troops to protect the country's oilfields. About
1000 US = Special Forces=20 were recruited, says Dan Briody, author of a new book
on the Carlyle=20 group.

In 1992 Vinnell was taken over by the Carlyle group, whose = chairman was
Ronald Reagan's former defence secretary, Frank = Carlucci. George=20 Bush snr
would later act on behalf of Carlyle and in 1993 Mr Bush = snr's=20 former
secretary of state, James Baker, joined the company.

By = then,=20 Vinnell had trained the Saudi National Guard, and had = worked
alongside them=20 during the first Gulf War launched while Mr Bush snr and Mr
Baker = were in=20 office.

Indeed Vinnell, says Briody, "paved the way for = co-operation=20 between the
United States and Saudi Arabia during the (first) Gulf = War". It=20 was this
co-operation that infuriated Osama bin Laden.

http://= www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-679768,00.html

The=20 Times    May 14, 2003

Firm was 'cover for = CIA'

By=20 Ian Cobain

As befits a company that has been accused of being a = CIA=20 front, of
recruiting "executive mercenaries" and attempting to = overthrow the=20 Prime
Minister of a Commonwealth state, the Vinnell Corporation kept = a low=20 profile
in Riyadh.

Its discreet security fooled nobody, = however: the=20 bomb attack was the second
it has suffered in eight years. In 1995 = seven=20 people were killed. This
shadowy corporation is said to have been = founded=20 during the Depression. Dan
Briody, author of The Iron Triangle, a = study of=20 Vinnell's one-time owners,
the Carlyle Group, serialised last week in = The=20 Times, says that there is "no
publicity, no press releases, no news=20 clippings".

He adds: "No one knows who the original owners = were."=20

Vinnell's work in Saudi Arabia dates back almost 30 years, when = it won=20 a
contract to train Saudi troops to guard oilfields. A congressional=20 inquiry
found that it had agreed a "no Jews" clause. In the 1991 Gulf = War=20 Vinnell
employees were seen fighting alongside Saudi troops. =

The=20 company has helped the Saudis build their National Guard from = 26,000
troops=20 to around 70,000.

In the early Eighties Time magazine reported = that two=20 employees were
embroiled in a failed attempt to overthrow Maurice = Bishop, the=20 left-wing
Prime Minister of Grenada, and soon after that a former = employee=20 was
implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.


------=_NextPart_000_0048_01C31A57.89ABF210-- From jafujii@uci.edu Fri May 16 07:51:18 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 23:51:18 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: Saul Landau, Sat., May 24, 2 pm, Anaheim Message-ID: <001201c31b77$8e169a50$4ebac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C31B3C.E1237190 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 10:00 PM Subject: Saul Landau, Sat., May 24, 2 pm, Anaheim Saul Landau will speak on "Government Reality vs. Reality" Saturday, May 24, 2003, 2 p.m. at the Unitarian Church of Orange County, 511 S Harbor Blvd., Anaheim (At the corner of Santa Ana St. enter from Santa Ana St.) Saul Landau is an internationally known scholar, film maker, author, = human rights activist, political analyst, KPFK commentator and professor at = Cal Poly Pomona. Admission is free. A donation will be requested. Sponsored by the church Social Concerns Committee For more information call (714) 828-1134 or (714) 633-0922 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important = Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/uetFAA/sitolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> =20 Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to = http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/=20 ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C31B3C.E1237190 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 10:00 PM
Subject: Saul Landau, Sat., May 24, 2 pm, = Anaheim

Saul Landau will speak on "Government Reality vs.=20 Reality"
Saturday, May 24, 2003, 2 p.m.
at the Unitarian Church of = Orange=20 County, 511 S Harbor Blvd., Anaheim
(At the corner of Santa Ana St. = enter=20 from Santa Ana St.)

Saul Landau is an internationally known = scholar, film=20 maker, author, human
rights activist, political analyst, KPFK = commentator and=20 professor at Cal Poly
Pomona.

Admission is free. A donation = will be=20 requested.

Sponsored by the church Social Concerns = Committee
For more=20 information call (714) 828-1134 or (714)=20 633-0922


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor=20 ---------------------~-->
Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online = Answer=20 To Life's Important Questions.
http://= us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/uetFAA/sitolB/TM
----------------= -----------------------------------------------------~->

 =

Your=20 use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/ter= ms/=20

------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C31B3C.E1237190-- From dtsang@lib.uci.edu Tue May 20 19:18:07 2003 From: dtsang@lib.uci.edu (Dan Tsang) Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 11:18:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Ethnicstudies] [Subv] Prison organizing (fwd) Message-ID: Irvine -- With millions of Americans in prison, there's a lot to do to improve their lot. On Subversity today from 4-5 p.m. on KUCI 88.9 fm in Orange County (and via the Web at kuci.org), we chat with Alan Mobley, convict turned criminologist and now trying to organize inmates to give them a political voice. Alan Mobley is a native Southern Californian who first became interested in criminal justice issues in 1984, when he was arrested on narcotics charges. At that time the FBI claimed that Mobley led an organization that was the largest cocaine distributor on the West Coast. While in federal prison, Alan Mobley earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics and sociology, respectively, and studied eastern philosophy and yoga. Upon release from prison in 1994, he entered the doctoral program in criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine. Since his graduation in 2001, Dr. Mobley has taught at UCI, consulted for state criminal justice agencies, philanthropic foundations, and community groups, and conducted research on faith-based corrections, prison privatization, and substance abuse treatment. His work has been published in books and professional journals, and he speaks widely on criminal justice reform. One of his current projects involves organizing convicted felons and their families to participate in the political process. Dr. Mobley lives in Southern California with his wife and two young children. To chat with Mobley during the show, call 949 824-5824. Prison activist-scholar Angela Davis continues her Lectures on Abolition today at 5 pm at HIB 100 on UCI's campus. Her last lecture will be on Thursday at the same time and place. Thanx for listening. dan Daniel C. Tsang Host, Subversity, now Tuesdays, 4-5 p.m. KUCI, 88.9 FM and Web-cast live via http://kuci.org Subversity: http://kuci.org/~dtsang; E-mail: subversity@kuci.org Daniel Tsang, KUCI, PO Box 4362, Irvine CA 92616 UCI Tel: (949) 824-4978; UCI Fax: (949) 824-2700 UCI Office: 380 Main Library Member, National Writers Union (http://www.nwu.org) WWW News Resource Page: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/netnews1.htm AWARE: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/aware2.htm Personal Homepage: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~dtsang/ _______________________________________________ KUCI.org 88.9FM - "eclectic music, engaging talk" _______________________________________________ From jafujii@uci.edu Thu May 22 06:01:01 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 22:01:01 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Why two women went to war Message-ID: <001c01c3201f$24aa4740$e0bac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0019_01C31FE4.77BBD970 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Globe and Mail May 21, 2003=20 Why two women went to war=20 By Naomi Klein Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie could have passed for sisters. Two all-American blondes, two destinies forever changed in a Middle East war zone. Private Jessica Lynch, the soldier, was born in Palestine, W.Va. Rachel Corrie, the activist, died in Israeli-occupied Palestine. Ms. Corrie was four years older than 19-year-old Pte. Lynch. Her body = was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza seven days before Pte. Lynch was taken into Iraqi custody, on March 23. Before she went to Iraq, Pte. Lynch organized a pen pal program with a = local kindergarten. Before Ms. Corrie left for Gaza, she organized a pen pal program between kids in her hometown of Olympia, Wash., and children in Rafah. Pte. Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her government. Ms. Corrie went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her government. As a U.S. citizen, = she believed she had a special responsibility to defend Palestinians against U.S.-built weapons, purchased with U.S. aid to Israel. In letters home, = she described how fresh water was being diverted from Gaza to Israeli settlements, and how death was more normal than life. Unlike Pte. Lynch, Ms. Corrie did not set out to engage in combat; she = went to try to thwart it. Along with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement, she believed that the Israeli military's incursions could be slowed by the presence of highly visible "internationals," that Israel would not want the diplomatic or media scandals that would result = if it started shooting U.S. and British college students. In a way, Ms. Corrie was harnessing the very thing she disliked most = about her country -- the belief that American lives are worth more than any = others -- and trying to use it to save a few Palestinian homes from demolition. Believing her florescent orange jacket would serve as armour, that her bullhorn could repel bullets, she stood in front of bulldozers, slept = beside wells, and escorted children to school. If suicide bombers turn their = bodies into weapons of death, Ms. Corrie turned hers into a weapon of life, a "human shield." When that Israeli bulldozer driver pressed the accelerator, her strategy failed. It turns out that the lives of some U.S. citizens -- even = beautiful, young, white women -- are valued more than others. And nothing = demonstrates this more starkly than the opposing responses to Ms. Corrie and Pte. = Lynch. When the Pentagon announced Pte. Lynch's rescue, she became an overnight hero, complete with "America loves Jessica" fridge magnets, stickers, T-shirts, mugs, country songs and a made-for-TV movie. According to = White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, President George W. Bush was "full of joy = for Jessica Lynch." Her rescue, we were told, was a testament to a core = American value. As Senator Jay Rockefeller said, "We take care of our people." Do they? Ms. Corrie's death was met with almost total official silence, despite the fact that witnesses claim it was a deliberate act. Mr. Bush = has said nothing about a U.S. citizen being killed by a U.S.-made bulldozer bought with U.S. tax dollars. A congressional resolution demanding an independent inquiry into Ms. Corrie's death has been buried in = committee, leaving the Israeli military's investigation -- which conveniently = cleared itself of any wrongdoing -- as the only official probe. The ISM activists say this non-response sent a dangerous signal. = According to Olivia Jackson, a 25-year-old British citizen still in Rafah, the = Israeli military "waited for the response from the American government, and the response was pathetic. They have realized that they can get away with = it, and it has encouraged them to keep on going." On April 5, Brian Avery, a U.S. citizen, was shot in the face. On April = 11, Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist, was shot in the head and left = brain dead. Next was James Miller, a British cameraman shot dead while wearing = a vest that read "TV." Witnesses said the shooters in all three cases were Israeli soldiers. There is something else Pte. Lynch and Ms. Corrie have in common: the military's distortion of their stories. According to the Pentagon, Pte. Lynch was captured in a bloody gun = battle, mistreated by sadistic Iraqi doctors, then rescued in another storm of bullets by heroic Navy SEALs. But another version has emerged: The Iraqi doctors who treated her found no evidence of battle wounds, and they = donated their own blood to save her life. And witnesses have told the BBC that = the SEALs already knew there were no Iraqi fighters in the area. While Pte. Lynch's story has been distorted to make its protagonists = appear more heroic, Ms. Corrie's has been twisted to make her and her fellow = ISM activists appear sinister. For months, the Israeli military had been looking for an excuse to get = rid of the ISM "troublemakers." It found it in Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar = Khan Sharif, the two British suicide bombers. It turns out they had attended = a memorial to Ms. Corrie in Rafah, a fact the Israeli military has seized = on to link the ISM to terrorism. ISM members say that the memorial was open = to the public, and that they knew nothing of the British visitors' = intentions. The ISM says it is opposed to the targeting of civilians, whether by = Israeli bulldozers or Palestinian bombers. And many ISMers believe their work = can reduce terrorist incidents by demonstrating that there are ways to = resist occupation other than the nihilistic revenge offered by suicide bombing. No matter. In the past two weeks, half a dozen ISM activists have been arrested, several have been deported, and the organization's offices = have been raided. The crackdown is now spreading to all "internationals." On Monday, the United Nations special co-ordinator for the Middle East = peace process told the Security Council that dozens of UN aid workers had been prevented from getting in and out of Gaza. On June 5, the 36th anniversary of the Israeli occupation, there will be = an internationally co-ordinated day of action for Palestinian rights. One = of the key demands is for the UN to send a monitoring force into the = occupied territories. Until that happens, many activists are determined to = continue Ms. Corrie's work. More than 40 students at Ms. Corrie's college, = Evergreen State in Olympia, have already signed up to go to Gaza with the ISM this summer. So who is a hero? During the war on Iraq, some of Ms. Corrie's friends e-mailed her picture to MSNBC asking that it be included on the = station's "wall of heroes," along with Pte. Lynch. The station didn't comply, but = Ms. Corrie is being honoured in other ways. Her family has received more = than 10,000 letters of support, communities across the country have organized dozens of memorials, and children all over the occupied territories are being named Rachel. It's not a made-for-TV kind of tribute, but perhaps that's for the best. Naomi Klein is the author of No Logo and Fences and Windows. ------=_NextPart_000_0019_01C31FE4.77BBD970 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
Globe and Mail    May 21, 2003

Why = two women=20 went to war

By Naomi Klein

Jessica Lynch and Rachel = Corrie could=20 have passed for sisters. Two
all-American blondes, two destinies = forever=20 changed in a Middle East war
zone. Private Jessica Lynch, the = soldier, was=20 born in Palestine, W.Va.
Rachel Corrie, the activist, died in=20 Israeli-occupied Palestine.

Ms. Corrie was four years older than=20 19-year-old Pte. Lynch. Her body was
crushed by an Israeli bulldozer = in Gaza=20 seven days before Pte. Lynch was
taken into Iraqi custody, on March=20 23.

Before she went to Iraq, Pte. Lynch organized a pen pal = program with=20 a local
kindergarten. Before Ms. Corrie left for Gaza, she organized = a pen=20 pal
program between kids in her hometown of Olympia, Wash., and = children=20 in
Rafah.

Pte. Lynch went to Iraq as a soldier loyal to her=20 government. Ms. Corrie
went to Gaza to oppose the actions of her = government.=20 As a U.S. citizen, she
believed she had a special responsibility to = defend=20 Palestinians against
U.S.-built weapons, purchased with U.S. aid to = Israel.=20 In letters home, she
described how fresh water was being diverted = from Gaza=20 to Israeli
settlements, and how death was more normal than=20 life.

Unlike Pte. Lynch, Ms. Corrie did not set out to engage in = combat;=20 she went
to try to thwart it. Along with fellow members of the=20 International
Solidarity Movement, she believed that the Israeli = military's=20 incursions
could be slowed by the presence of highly visible=20 "internationals," that
Israel would not want the diplomatic or media = scandals=20 that would result if
it started shooting U.S. and British college=20 students.

In a way, Ms. Corrie was harnessing the very thing she = disliked=20 most about
her country -- the belief that American lives are worth = more than=20 any others
-- and trying to use it to save a few Palestinian homes = from=20 demolition.

Believing her florescent orange jacket would serve as = armour,=20 that her
bullhorn could repel bullets, she stood in front of = bulldozers,=20 slept beside
wells, and escorted children to school. If suicide = bombers turn=20 their bodies
into weapons of death, Ms. Corrie turned hers into a = weapon of=20 life, a
"human shield."

When that Israeli bulldozer driver = pressed the=20 accelerator, her strategy
failed. It turns out that the lives of some = U.S.=20 citizens -- even beautiful,
young, white women -- are valued more = than=20 others. And nothing demonstrates
this more starkly than the opposing=20 responses to Ms. Corrie and Pte. Lynch.

When the Pentagon = announced Pte.=20 Lynch's rescue, she became an overnight
hero, complete with "America = loves=20 Jessica" fridge magnets, stickers,
T-shirts, mugs, country songs and = a=20 made-for-TV movie. According to White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer,=20 President George W. Bush was "full of joy for
Jessica Lynch." Her = rescue, we=20 were told, was a testament to a core American
value. As Senator Jay=20 Rockefeller said, "We take care of our people."

Do they? Ms. = Corrie's=20 death was met with almost total official silence,
despite the fact = that=20 witnesses claim it was a deliberate act. Mr. Bush has
said nothing = about a=20 U.S. citizen being killed by a U.S.-made bulldozer
bought with U.S. = tax=20 dollars. A congressional resolution demanding an
independent inquiry = into Ms.=20 Corrie's death has been buried in committee,
leaving the Israeli = military's=20 investigation -- which conveniently cleared
itself of any wrongdoing = -- as=20 the only official probe.

The ISM activists say this non-response = sent a=20 dangerous signal. According
to Olivia Jackson, a 25-year-old British = citizen=20 still in Rafah, the Israeli
military "waited for the response from = the=20 American government, and the
response was pathetic. They have = realized that=20 they can get away with it,
and it has encouraged them to keep on=20 going."

On April 5, Brian Avery, a U.S. citizen, was shot in the = face. On=20 April 11,
Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist, was shot in the head = and left=20 brain
dead. Next was James Miller, a British cameraman shot dead = while=20 wearing a
vest that read "TV." Witnesses said the shooters in all = three cases=20 were
Israeli soldiers.

There is something else Pte. Lynch and = Ms.=20 Corrie have in common: the
military's distortion of their=20 stories.

According to the Pentagon, Pte. Lynch was captured in a = bloody=20 gun battle,
mistreated by sadistic Iraqi doctors, then rescued in = another=20 storm of
bullets by heroic Navy SEALs. But another version has = emerged: The=20 Iraqi
doctors who treated her found no evidence of battle wounds, and = they=20 donated
their own blood to save her life. And witnesses have told the = BBC=20 that the
SEALs already knew there were no Iraqi fighters in the=20 area.

While Pte. Lynch's story has been distorted to make its=20 protagonists appear
more heroic, Ms. Corrie's has been twisted to = make her=20 and her fellow ISM
activists appear sinister.

For months, the = Israeli=20 military had been looking for an excuse to get rid
of the ISM=20 "troublemakers." It found it in Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar = Khan
Sharif, the=20 two British suicide bombers. It turns out they had attended = a
memorial to Ms.=20 Corrie in Rafah, a fact the Israeli military has seized on
to link = the ISM to=20 terrorism. ISM members say that the memorial was open to
the public, = and that=20 they knew nothing of the British visitors' intentions.
The ISM says = it is=20 opposed to the targeting of civilians, whether by Israeli
bulldozers = or=20 Palestinian bombers. And many ISMers believe their work can
reduce = terrorist=20 incidents by demonstrating that there are ways to resist
occupation = other=20 than the nihilistic revenge offered by suicide bombing.

No = matter. In the=20 past two weeks, half a dozen ISM activists have been
arrested, = several have=20 been deported, and the organization's offices have
been raided. The = crackdown=20 is now spreading to all "internationals." On
Monday, the United = Nations=20 special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace
process told the = Security=20 Council that dozens of UN aid workers had been
prevented from getting = in and=20 out of Gaza.

On June 5, the 36th anniversary of the Israeli = occupation,=20 there will be an
internationally co-ordinated day of action for = Palestinian=20 rights. One of
the key demands is for the UN to send a monitoring = force into=20 the occupied
territories. Until that happens, many activists are = determined=20 to continue
Ms. Corrie's work. More than 40 students at Ms. Corrie's = college,=20 Evergreen
State in Olympia, have already signed up to go to Gaza with = the ISM=20 this
summer.

So who is a hero? During the war on Iraq, some of = Ms.=20 Corrie's friends
e-mailed her picture to MSNBC asking that it be = included on=20 the station's
"wall of heroes," along with Pte. Lynch. The station = didn't=20 comply, but Ms.
Corrie is being honoured in other ways. Her family = has=20 received more than
10,000 letters of support, communities across the = country=20 have organized
dozens of memorials, and children all over the = occupied=20 territories are
being named Rachel. It's not a made-for-TV kind of = tribute,=20 but perhaps
that's for the best.


Naomi Klein is the author = of No=20 Logo and Fences and Windows.


------=_NextPart_000_0019_01C31FE4.77BBD970-- From jafujii@uci.edu Thu May 22 06:03:55 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 22:03:55 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: Empire and the Capitalists Message-ID: <004801c3201f$8c515000$e0bac380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0045_01C31FE4.DF6C09F0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable http://fbc.binghamton.edu/113en.htm Fernand Braudel Center, Binghamton University Commentary No. 113, May 15, 2003 Empire and the Capitalists by Immanuel Wallerstein No doubt, George W. Bush thinks he is in the forefront of those = sustaining the world capitalist system. No doubt, a large part of the world left = thinks that too. But do the great capitalists think so? That is far less clear. = A major warning signal has been launched by Morgan Stanley, one of the = world's leading financial investor firms, in their Global Economic Forum. = Stephen Roach writes there that a "US-centric world" is unsustainable for the world-economy and bad in particular for the United States. He = specifically takes on Robert Kagan, a leading neo-con intellectual, who has been = arguing that American hegemony can only increase, particularly vis-a-vis Europe. Roach could not agree less. He sees the present world situation as one = of "profound asymmetries" in the world-system, one that cannot last. What is Roach's argument? The world has been in a "great disinflation [marvelous euphemism] from 1982 to 2002" - a salutary appraisal so = different from the usual crowing about the strength of the U.S. economic position = in the world-economy. "And now the unwinding of a new disequilibrium is at = hand - the rebalancing of a U.S.-centric world." Why? First of all because of = the "ever-widening disparities in the world's external accounts." He says = that "as the United States squanders its already depleted national saving" = and "as the rest of the world remains on a subpar consumption path," the situation can only get worse. Finally, the conclusion: "Can a saving-short US economy continue to = finance an ever-widening expansion of its military superiority? My answer is a resounding 'no.'" What will therefore happen? The "prices of dollar-denominated assets compared to those of non-dollar-denominated assets" must fall, and fall drastically soon. Roach estimates: "a 20% = drop in real exchange rates and nearly double that in nominal terms, higher = real interest rates, reduced growth in domestic demand, and faster growth overseas." He ends his piece by saying that "the world is not = functioning as a global economy" (so much for the globalization theorists) and that = "for a lopsided global economy, a weaker dollar may well be the only way out." In short, Roach is arguing that the macho militarism swagger of the Bush regime, the dream of the U.S. hawks to remake the world in their image, = is not merely undoable, but distinctly negative from the point of view of = large U.S. investors, the audience for whom Roach writes, the customers of = Morgan Stanley. Roach is of course absolutely right, and it is noteworthy that = this is not being said by some left-wing academic, but by an insider of big capital. Seen in longer historical perspective, what we are seeing here is the 500-year-old tension in the modern world-system between those who wish = to protect the interests of the capitalist strata by ensuring a well-functioning world-economy, with a hegemonic but non-imperial power = to guarantee its political underpinnings, and those who wish to transform = the world-system into a world-empire. We had three major attempts in the = history of the modern world-system to do this: Charles V/Ferdinand II in the sixteenth century, Napoleon in the beginning of the nineteenth century, = and Hitler in the middle of the twentieth century. All were magnificently successful - until they fell flat on their faces, when faced by = opposition organized by the powers that ultimately became hegemonic - the United Provinces, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Hegemony is not about macho militarism. Hegemony is about economic efficiency, making possible the creation of a world order on terms that = will guarantee a smoothly-running world-system in which the hegemonic power becomes the locus of a disproportionate share of capital accumulation. = The United States was in that situation from 1945 to circa 1970. But it's = been losing that advantage ever since. And when the U.S. hawks and the Bush regime decided to try to reverse decline by going the world-imperial = path, they shot the United States, and U.S.-based large capitalists, in the = foot - if not immediately, in a very short future. This is what Roach is = warning about, and complaining about. But doesn't the Bush regime give these capitalists everything they want = - for example, enormous tax rebates? But do they really want them? Not = Warren Buffett, not George Soros, not Bill Gates (speaking through his father). They want a stable capitalist system, and Bush is not giving them that. Sooner or later, they will translate their discontent into action. They = may already be doing this. This doesn't mean they will succeed. Bush may get reelected in 2004. He may push his political and economic madness = further. He may seek to make his changes irreversible. But in a capitalist system, there is also the market. The market is not all-powerful, but it is not helpless either. When the dollar collapses, = and it will collapse, everything will change geopolitically. For a collapsed dollar is far more significant than an Al-Qaeda attack on the Twin = Towers. The U.S. has clearly survived the latter. But it will be a vastly = different U.S. once the dollar collapses. The U.S. will no longer be able to live = far beyond its means, to consume at the rest of the world's expense. = Americans may begin to feel what countries in the Third World feel when faced by IMF-imposed structural readjustment - a sharp downward thrust of their standard of living. The near bankruptcy of the state governments across the United States = even today is a foreshadowing of what is to come. And history will note that, faced with a bad underlying economic situation in the United States, the Bush regime did everything possible to make it far worse. ------=_NextPart_000_0045_01C31FE4.DF6C09F0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/11= 3en.htm

Fernand=20 Braudel Center, Binghamton University
Commentary No. 113, May 15,=20 2003

Empire and the Capitalists

by Immanuel = Wallerstein

No=20 doubt, George W. Bush thinks he is in the forefront of those = sustaining
the=20 world capitalist system. No doubt, a large part of the world left = thinks
that=20 too. But do the great capitalists think so? That is far less clear. = A
major=20 warning signal has been launched by Morgan Stanley, one of the=20 world's
leading financial investor firms, in their Global Economic = Forum.=20 Stephen
Roach writes there that a "US-centric world" is unsustainable = for=20 the
world-economy and bad in particular for the United States. He=20 specifically
takes on Robert Kagan, a leading neo-con intellectual, = who has=20 been arguing
that American hegemony can only increase, particularly = vis-a-vis=20 Europe.
Roach could not agree less. He sees the present world = situation as=20 one of
"profound asymmetries" in the world-system, one that cannot=20 last.

What is Roach's argument? The world has been in a "great=20 disinflation
[marvelous euphemism] from 1982 to 2002" - a salutary = appraisal=20 so different
from the usual crowing about the strength of the U.S. = economic=20 position in
the world-economy. "And now the unwinding of a new = disequilibrium=20 is at hand
- the rebalancing of a U.S.-centric world." Why? First of = all=20 because of the
"ever-widening disparities in the world's external = accounts."=20 He says that
"as the United States squanders its already depleted = national=20 saving" and
"as the rest of the world remains on a subpar consumption = path,"=20 the
situation can only get worse.

Finally, the conclusion: = "Can a=20 saving-short US economy continue to finance
an ever-widening = expansion of its=20 military superiority? My answer is a
resounding 'no.'" What will = therefore=20 happen? The "prices of
dollar-denominated assets compared to those of = non-dollar-denominated
assets" must fall, and fall drastically soon. = Roach=20 estimates: "a 20% drop
in real exchange rates and nearly double that = in=20 nominal terms, higher real
interest rates, reduced growth in domestic = demand,=20 and faster growth
overseas." He ends his piece by saying that "the = world is=20 not functioning as
a global economy" (so much for the globalization=20 theorists) and that "for a
lopsided global economy, a weaker dollar = may well=20 be the only way out."

In short, Roach is arguing that the macho=20 militarism swagger of the Bush
regime, the dream of the U.S. hawks to = remake=20 the world in their image, is
not merely undoable, but distinctly = negative=20 from the point of view of large
U.S. investors, the audience for whom = Roach=20 writes, the customers of Morgan
Stanley. Roach is of course = absolutely right,=20 and it is noteworthy that this
is not being said by some left-wing = academic,=20 but by an insider of big
capital.

Seen in longer historical=20 perspective, what we are seeing here is the
500-year-old tension in = the=20 modern world-system between those who wish to
protect the interests = of the=20 capitalist strata by ensuring a
well-functioning world-economy, with = a=20 hegemonic but non-imperial power to
guarantee its political = underpinnings,=20 and those who wish to transform the
world-system into a world-empire. = We had=20 three major attempts in the history
of the modern world-system to do = this:=20 Charles V/Ferdinand II in the
sixteenth century, Napoleon in the = beginning of=20 the nineteenth century, and
Hitler in the middle of the twentieth = century.=20 All were magnificently
successful - until they fell flat on their = faces, when=20 faced by opposition
organized by the powers that ultimately became = hegemonic=20 - the United
Provinces, the United Kingdom, and the United=20 States.

Hegemony is not about macho militarism. Hegemony is about = economic
efficiency, making possible the creation of a world order on = terms=20 that will
guarantee a smoothly-running world-system in which the = hegemonic=20 power
becomes the locus of a disproportionate share of capital = accumulation.=20 The
United States was in that situation from 1945 to circa 1970. But = it's=20 been
losing that advantage ever since. And when the U.S. hawks and = the=20 Bush
regime decided to try to reverse decline by going the = world-imperial=20 path,
they shot the United States, and U.S.-based large capitalists, = in the=20 foot -
if not immediately, in a very short future. This is what Roach = is=20 warning
about, and complaining about.

But doesn't the Bush = regime give=20 these capitalists everything they want -
for example, enormous tax = rebates?=20 But do they really want them? Not Warren
Buffett, not George Soros, = not Bill=20 Gates (speaking through his father).
They want a stable capitalist = system,=20 and Bush is not giving them that.
Sooner or later, they will = translate their=20 discontent into action. They may
already be doing this. This doesn't = mean=20 they will succeed. Bush may get
reelected in 2004. He may push his = political=20 and economic madness further.
He may seek to make his changes=20 irreversible.

But in a capitalist system, there is also the = market. The=20 market is not
all-powerful, but it is not helpless either. When the = dollar=20 collapses, and
it will collapse, everything will change = geopolitically. For a=20 collapsed
dollar is far more significant than an Al-Qaeda attack on = the Twin=20 Towers.
The U.S. has clearly survived the latter. But it will be a = vastly=20 different
U.S. once the dollar collapses. The U.S. will no longer be = able to=20 live far
beyond its means, to consume at the rest of the world's = expense.=20 Americans
may begin to feel what countries in the Third World feel = when faced=20 by
IMF-imposed structural readjustment - a sharp downward thrust of=20 their
standard of living.

The near bankruptcy of the state = governments=20 across the United States even
today is a foreshadowing of what is to = come.=20 And history will note that,
faced with a bad underlying economic = situation in=20 the United States, the
Bush regime did everything possible to make it = far=20 worse.

------=_NextPart_000_0045_01C31FE4.DF6C09F0-- From jafujii@uci.edu Mon May 26 21:01:37 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (James A. Fujii) Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 13:01:37 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: US Plans Death Camp Message-ID: <000a01c323c1$9dc4da50$c277c880@ucil5frwob7cpy> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C32386.F14F1EF0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable =20 US plans death camp May 26, 2003=20 THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday. The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians. The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without charge for 18 months. General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber. =20 =20 The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical by the US, which has been attacked worldwide for breaching the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war since it established the camp at a naval base to hold alleged terrorists from Afghanistan. But it has horrified human rights groups and lawyers representing detainees. They see it as the clearest indication America has no intention of falling in line with internationally recognised justice. The US has already said detainees would be tried by tribunals, without juries or appeals to a higher court. Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers.=20 British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: "The US is kicking and screaming against any pressure to conform with British or any other kind of international justice." American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civil rights group protests against the military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay, said: "It is not surprising the authorities are building a death row because they have said they plan to try capital cases before these tribunals. "This camp was created to execute people. The administration has no interest in long-term prison sentences for people it regards as hard-core terrorists." Britain admitted it had been kept in the dark about the plans. A Downing St spokesman said: "The US Government is well aware of the British Government's position on the death penalty." Forwarded email sent by: Thomas Lash Coastal Convergence Society Huntington Beach, CA Phone: 714-964-2162 Email: ccshbca@aol.com Website: www.tokyoprogressive.org/~ccshbca Anytime you wish to be removed from this list simply respond with the = word unsubscribe. I will remove you as soon as possible. ------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C32386.F14F1EF0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
  
US = plans death=20 camp

May 26, 2003
THE US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo = Bay=20 into
a death camp, with its own death row and=20 execution
chamber.

Prisoners would be tried, convicted and=20 executed
without leaving its boundaries, without a jury = and
without right=20 of appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper
reported = yesterday.

The plans=20 were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey
Miller, who is in charge of = 680=20 suspects from 43
countries, including two Australians.

The = suspects=20 have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba
without charge for 18 months. = General=20 Miller said
building a death row was one plan. Another was to
have = a=20 permanent jail, with possibly an=20 execution
chamber.        &nbs= p;         =20
   
The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen=20 as
logical by the US, which has been attacked worldwide
for = breaching the=20 Geneva Convention on prisoners of
war since it established the camp = at a=20 naval base
to hold alleged terrorists from Afghanistan.

But it = has=20 horrified human rights groups and lawyers
representing = detainees.

They=20 see it as the clearest indication America has
no intention of falling = in line=20 with internationally
recognised justice.

The US has already = said=20 detainees would be tried by
tribunals, without juries or appeals to a = higher
court.

Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers.=20

British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials
Abroad, said: = "The US=20 is kicking and screaming
against any pressure to conform with British = or
any other kind of international justice."

American law = professor=20 Jonathan Turley, who has
led US civil rights group protests against=20 the
military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo
Bay, = said: "It=20 is not surprising the authorities are
building a death row because = they have=20 said they plan
to try capital cases before these = tribunals.

"This camp=20 was created to execute people. The
administration has no interest in=20 long-term prison
sentences for people it regards as=20 hard-core
terrorists."

Britain admitted it had been kept in = the dark=20 about
the plans.

A Downing St spokesman said: "The US = Government=20 is
well aware of the British Government's position on
the death=20 penalty."




Forwarded email sent by:

Thomas=20 Lash
Coastal Convergence = Society
Huntington Beach, CA
Phone: = 714-964-2162
Email:=20 ccshbca@aol.com
Website: = www.tokyoprogressive.org/~ccshbca

Anytime you=20 wish to be removed from this list simply respond with the word=20 unsubscribe.  I will remove you as soon as possible.=20
------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C32386.F14F1EF0-- From jafujii@uci.edu Mon May 26 21:44:46 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (James A. Fujii) Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 13:44:46 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: AOL Poll says WMD threat exaggerated and false. Message-ID: <002c01c323c7$a4ec4ec0$c277c880@ucil5frwob7cpy> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0029_01C3238C.F87CADE0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Fwd:=20 AOL tends to poll very conservatively. Here are results from this = mornings poll. The results show Americans may be waking up. Why do you think the weapons of mass destruction haven't been found in = Iraq? 53% The threat was exaggerated 1,116=20 39% Weapons have been moved 835=20 5% Faulty intelligence 107=20 2% Not sure 50=20 0% No opinion 10=20 Total votes: 2,118=20 Do you expect such weapons will eventually be found? 44% No, they were never there to begin with 939=20 39% Yes, it's only a matter of time 833=20 15% Not sure 315=20 1% No opinion 30=20 Total votes: 2,117=20 ------=_NextPart_000_0029_01C3238C.F87CADE0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Fwd:
 
AOL tends to poll very conservatively.  Here are = results from=20 this mornings poll.  The results show Americans may be waking=20 up.

Why do you think the weapons of mass destruction haven't been = found=20 in Iraq?

53% The threat was exaggerated 1,116
39% Weapons = have=20 been moved 835
5% Faulty intelligence 107
2% Not sure 50
0% = No=20 opinion 10
Total votes: 2,118

Do you expect such weapons = will=20 eventually be found?

44% No, they were never there to begin = with 939=20
39% Yes, it's only a matter of time 833
15% Not sure 315
1% = No=20 opinion 30
Total votes: 2,117=20




------=_NextPart_000_0029_01C3238C.F87CADE0-- From jafujii@uci.edu Thu May 29 07:44:35 2003 From: jafujii@uci.edu (Jim Fujii) Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 23:44:35 -0700 Subject: [Ethnicstudies] Fw: AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap Message-ID: <002e01c325ad$c5042920$58bbc380@ucigyqexhlhmwv> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_002B_01C32573.180C9390 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable http://www.counterpunch.org/blankfort05272003.html CounterPunch May 27, 2003 AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap How Israel's US lobby is stacking the deck By Jeffrey Blankfort It would be a mistake to view the Israeli cabinet's narrow approval of = the Bush administration's "road map" on Sunday, (or Sharon's use of the word "occupation") as steps towards resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict = or as a victory for President Bush. If there is any gloating to be done, it = will be by Israel's domestic US lobby and it will largely be done in private. Had the administration not surrendered on Friday to Ariel Sharon's = demands for significant revisions in the "road map," the Israeli cabinet might = not even have taken the vote. Moreover, the president would not have been = forced to make those concessions had not the Israeli prime minister been backed solidly by the pro-Israel lobby and by the majority of both houses of Congress. And thus, the supposedly immutable "peace plan" has foundered = at the starting gate. As his part of the deal, and before the cabinet vote, Sharon publicly accepted the plan's broad outlines, but not the phased steps contained = in the original which carried the stamp and presumably the input of the "Quartet," (Britain, the European Union and the Russians plus the US). During the debate, Sharon told his cabinet that the 14 reservations = about the plan that Israel presented to Washington were not negotiable. (BBC, = May 25) One that has been prominently mentioned is Israel's refusal to = recognize the right to return of Palestinians who were expelled or who left in = 1948, an issue that was not to be raised until the "road map's" final phase. Its prospects can best be understood by a metaphor that arose from a = press conference with Secretary of State Colin Powell who up to Friday had = been insisting that "no changes" would be made in the "road map." Faced with yet another humiliation at the hands of the Israeli prime minister, Powell downplayed criticism that the US was simply kicking the = can down the road by agreeing to address Israel's concerns "fully and seriously." "At least we have a can in the road," Powell told reporters. "We have to = get started. And so the can is in the road now. We will start moving it down = the road with perhaps little kicks as opposed to a 54-yarder." "It's easy to say, why don't you solve this up front - because you = couldn't. You have to get started," Powell said, adding that issues like = dismantling some Israeli settlement outposts may be "very, very difficult" to = resolve. (Ha'aretz May 24). And if those are hard for Powell to contemplate, one = can imagine the problems the administration will face if it attempts to deal seriously with those that can no longer be euphemistically described as settlements and have become well-established and well-populated towns = that the US no longer considers to be illegal. This raises a key question. Quite apart from the failings inherent in = the document, itself, weighted as it is in Israel's favor, it is difficult, = at this point, to discern how much the effort of the Bush administration to pursue the "road map" is one of substance as opposed to appearances. Every American president, beginning with Richard Nixon and the Rogers = Plan, has attempted to get Israel out of the territories it seized in 1967, = and every president since Jimmy Carter, has attempted to get Israel to halt = the building of Jewish settlements. Some of these efforts have been more = serious than others but all have failed. Given the events of the past few days, = the prospects of the current office holder do not seem any better. "What happened to all those nice plans?" asked Israeli journalist and = peace activist, Uri Avnery, back during the first Bush's administration. (Ha'aretz, March 6, 1991). "Israel's governments have mobilized the collective power of US Jewry - which dominates Congress and the media to a large degree - against them. Faced by this vigorous opposition, all the presidents, great and small, football players and movie stars - folded one after another." And so it appears to have happened once again. By its efforts to be "more Bush than Bush," Israel's officially = registered lobby, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), appears to = have gotten its way. It wanted to appear to be supportive of the "road map," while working to derail it. It managed this trick by drawing on a speech that Dubya gave last June 24, in which he expressed such strong and unqualified support for Israel that some observers, like Robert Fisk, jokingly suggested that it might have been written by Sharon. Unlike, the "road map," it had no timetable and placed the onus on the Palestinians to institute a new, democratic government and end all "terrorist acts" before Israel was required to take a single step. Rather than openly criticizing the "road map," and be seen as in = opposition both to a popular president and to "peace," AIPAC decided to get the = members of both houses to sign a letter supporting the "road map" as well as statements that Bush made in the June 24 speech. Columnist Leonard Fein, apprised his readers of this the May 2 Forward: "For many weeks," he wrote, "there's been a campaign to subvert the road = map meaning, in context, to subvert the prospect of resuming the peace = process. Since the president is on record as endorsing it, the subversion has = taken ... the form of end runs rather than direct attacks. "Encouraged by AIPAC many members of Congress have signed onto letters opposing any role for the quartet and insisting that the Palestinians = must fulfill all their obligations in the security realm before the Israelis = are called upon to act." AIPAC's actions were not a secret, except that the mainstream media = wasn't looking. Its web site reported that, in the run-up to the release of the "road map" letters were circulated in both houses, urging Bush to = "reaffirm his unshakable commitment to his June 24 principles" and to remain = focused on Palestinian performance rather setting any timetable. When it comes to Israel, Washington plays host to the strangest of bed mates. The Senate letter, which was signed by 88 of the 100 senators, = was sponsored by the liberals' darling, Barbara Boxer and one of the = liberals' anathemas, Mitch McConnell, along with Senators Dick Durbin (D) and John Ensign (R). The House letter, initiated by Republicans Roy Blunt and Henry Hyde and Democrats Stenny Hoyer and Tom Lantos, attracted 321 signatures. The message to Bush, as described by Nathan Guttman in Ha'aretz (May 19) = was "cautious but clear. The congressmen say they support the road map and = want American intervention in the peace process on basis of a two-state = solution, but warn the administration not to make too many demands on Israel = before the Palestinians do their part. "Many are urging you [Bush] to short circuit this process and to focus = on timelines in achieving the road map benchmarks," they wrote. "We believe = you will not be dissuaded and will focus instead on real performance." The letter, writes Guttman, "demands that the Palestinians dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, restructure its security apparatus, and = provide more transparency and responsibility" on the part of the Palestine Authority. Guttman gave credit for this enormous support to AIPAC. Although the = letters have no formal status or legislative meaning, Guttman points out, "the = fact that so many congressmen, from both parties, signed them should make it clear to the administration that Capitol Hill firmly supports Israel and demands that the Palestinians fight terror." Israel's friends in Congress have not relied simply on a letter. = "Language codifying the president's policy was included in the FY03 Foreign = Operations Appropriations bill, passed as part of the Omnibus Appropriations bill signed into law by the president in February. The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations = which generally lobbies the Executive Branch while AIPAC takes care of = Congress, came out against the road map, but supposedly does not want to appear to = be disagreeing with the president. Yet its own chair, Mortimer Zuckerman, = owner of the NY Daily News and the US News & World Report, blasted the road = map in an editorial in the magazine on March 17, headlining it as "The Road Map = to nowhere." Zuckerman, soon to step down from his chairmanship, is keeping up the attack. In an editorial to be published in the June 2 edition of US = News, he writes that, "Washington... having gone to war to eliminate a rogue terrorist regime, can hardly now support the creation of a new = Palestinian terrorist state, with its history of contacts with terrorist networks = from all over the world." The conference's executive director, Malcolm Hoenlein has been more = subtle, telling the Washington Post (April 30), that "We want to see a process = begin that has a real chance to succeed. We think the principles enunciated by = the president in his June 24 speech would do that, and there are elements in = the road map that contradict that." Illustrating the divisions that exist within the organized Jewish = community, the same article reported that 14 major Jewish philanthropists had = voiced strong support for the "road map." These big donors, who included Edgar M. Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, said in a letter, to congressional leaders that the = plan "provides Israel with a distinct opportunity to escape the bloody status quo" of the past 2 1/2 years. "The people who signed this letter are disturbed that the message the administration is getting from other parts of the Jewish community is opposition to the president's plan, when it should be enthusiastic = support," said Jonathan Jacoby, with Americans for Peace Now, who helped organize = the letter's signers. These "peaceniks" should not be confused with supporters of the = Palestinian cause. What the differences among the majority of the Jewish community reflect is a struggle that escalated during the Clinton administration between liberal Zionists, such as Martin Indyk and Dennis Ross whom the president brought into the State Department and into the Middle East negotiating process, and the right-wing Zionists represented most = noticeably by the Zionist Association of America's bulldog of a chair, Morton Klein = and the dozen or more Jewish neo-cons who brought us the Gulf War and who = now engaged in stoking the fires against Iran and Syria in Israel's behalf. Klein, speaking in Berkeley in the first week of May, repeated what has become his mantra on the issue. "This road map is a disaster," he said. = "It cannot and will not work. It's further appeasing terrorism." (No. = California Jewish Bulletin, May 15) The liberal wing of the Jewish community is very willing to see the establishment of a truncated, demilitarized Palestinian Bantustan under Israel's control and which would be subservient to US interests as well, while the right-wing backs Sharon's Likud and even further right parties = and their goal of a Greater Israel. At the moment, they are clearly in the ascendancy in the US as they are in Israel. The spate of suicide bombings that followed the meeting of Sharon with Mohammed Abbas (Abu Mazen), led to an escalation of warnings to Bush = from both the Likudniks and their Christian evangelical allies against = pursuing the "road map", including a group of Born Agains organized by former = White House aide Gary Bauer, president of American Values. At the same time, supporters of the "road map" were also upping their efforts, arguing that the latest violence proved the urgency of steps to bring the two sides together. Forty members of Congress submitted a = letter to Bush last week urging him to press forward with the "road map" while separately, 100 major Democratic donors and activists, organized by the Israel Policy Forum, signed a letter to the party's nine presidential contenders urging them to back the president's plan. The Forward's Ori Nir noted out (May 23) that "The flurry of pro- and anti-road map activity pointed to a paradoxical dilemma facing the = president as he plans his next moves: His strongest opposition comes from = political allies whose enmity could cost him in 2004, while his strongest support comes from liberal groups that are unlikely to reward him politically = for his efforts." "These guys" - the pro-road map liberals - "are not Bush's friends," = said Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, executive vice president of the hawkish Religious Zionists of America, and head of his own pro-Israel political action committee.. He predicted that the White House would pay more attention to the condemnations of the "road map" that emerged from a gathering of = right-wing Jewish and Christian activists in Washington on May 18. Billed as the "Interfaith Zionist Leadership Summit," the event drew about 400 participants and was sponsored by Jewish and Christian groups that = oppose the creation of a Palestinian state. And it matters not, that as Fein points out, "the fact that the road map = is plainly "frontloaded," demanding much more of the Palestinians than of = the Israelis in its early phases, [and that] the Palestinians have indicated their acceptance of it while Prime Minister Sharon has interposed 14 specific objections." And as Fein notes, "Sharon is hardly alone: The Jewish gurus of this administration, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, William Kristol and = others along with Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who not long ago referred to the West Bank as 'so-called occupied territories' oppose = this and presumably any reasonable alternative road map." Moreover, he adds, = "The heavies of AEI (American Enterprise Institute) [where we find Perle = again] oppose it." In fact, by declaring that settlements built illegally after March 2001 = must be removed, the "road map" implies that those built earlier are = legitimate. By calling for Israel to halt the killing of civilians, it affords tacit approval for the continued assassination of whomever Israel considers a "terrorist," while placing the Palestinian Authority in charge of eliminating any armed resistance to the continuing occupation. Moreover, nothing is mentioned about Israel's building of the massive = wall that has already confiscated yet more Palestinian land. That the = questions of the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the status of = Jerusalem are put off to the road map's last phase seems to indicate that the = "road map" was designed as a means to end the Intifada and the notion of a Palestinian state of any dimensions emerging at the end is little more = than a chimera. This illusion has even been incorporated into Congressional legislation. = On May 16, the Forward reported that the House International Relations Committee had unanimously approved an amendment to next year's State Department authorization bill, promising direct American financial aid = to a reformed, peaceful Palestinian state once it is established. The amendment, reportedly supported by both AIPAC and Americans for = Peace Now, ostensibly endorses Bush's two-state approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and declares that "a stable and peaceful Palestinian state is necessary to achieve the security that Israel longs for." Declaring that "the United States has an interest in a Middle East in = which two states - Israel and Palestine - will live side by side in peace and security," the bill, as reported by the Forward, calls on Israel to = "take concrete steps in support of the emergence of a viable, credible = Palestinian state." It was introduced by Lantos and Gary Ackerman of New York, two of the = Sharon regime's strongest backers in the House and Illinois's Henry Hyde, no = slouch himself when coddling Israeli interests. Congressional staffers cited by the Forward described the bill, expected = to "easily sail through" both houses of Congress, as an attempt to "codify" Bush's Middle East speech of June 24, 2002, which set out conditions for creation of a Palestinian state. The bill's conditions, however, notes the Forward, are more explicit = than those in the speech. It says Washington should recognize the Palestinian state only after a = new Palestinian leadership is elected, after the Palestinians cease = terrorism and incitement, take counter-terrorism measures in full cooperation with Israel, and ensure democracy and rule of law. The enactment of the strict conditions appeared to be a victory for = Israel, wrote the Forward, which also viewed the president's speech as being = tougher on the Palestinians than the road map. The Christian Science Monitor (May 19) suggested that Bush could use economic leverage on Israel to accede to the road map's schedule. It = pointed out that "Congress acted last month to help the Israeli economy with a = $1 billion grant in military assistance and $9 billion in loan guarantees. That's on top of the usual $2.7 billion in annual aid to Israel." "The $1 billion grant was automatically made available to Israel. It = even allows $263 million of that money to be used to buy Israeli military = goods. No leverage there. "But the loan guarantees, available over three years, depend on a presidential determination that Israel is following proper economic = policies to restrain its budget, shrink the public sector, and encourage the = private sector. Bush can, if he chooses, withhold portions of the loan if Israel continues to spend money on the heavily subsidized Jewish settlements. "Israel needs the loan guarantees to cover its sizable budget deficit = and help repay older Israeli bonds." Such pressure, however, isn't likely. In the May 2 Forward, Ori Nir = writes that, "American assurances to Israel under the road map are far more extensive than have been publicly disclosed." "In a letter expressing understandings about the road map, the United = States guarantees that it, not Europe or the United Nations, will oversee the monitoring of Palestinian compliance with the plan on security matters. Senior administration officials also have made a point of assuring = Israel and its American supporters in recent weeks that any significant = progress toward Palestinian statehood will depend on a cessation of Palestinian terrorism." What the article didn't mention but what apparently was its source was a less publicized visit to Israel, before that of Colin Powell, by = National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Elliot Abrams, who, thanks to = Rice's influence, had been appointed by Bush to be the NSC's Director of Near = East and North African Affairs. On May 18, before Sharon's visit had been canceled, the New York Post reported that Rice and Abrams were part of a White House delegation that secretly visited Israel a fortnight earlier to get the prime minister's views on the "road map." He couldn't have had a more receptive audience. Abrams, of Iran-Contra infamy, is a long-time Likud supporter. And while there, Rice told = Yediot Aharanot that the "security of Israel is the key to security of the = world." As if more was necessary, she added, among other things, that she feels = "a deep bond to Israel." The three-day tour by the Americans was described by Sharon as "the most serious White House team to visit Israel in many years," and was = intended to set the stage for what would have his eighth meeting with Bush, during = which Sharon told the Post, he has enjoyed "the friendliest and most fruitful relations the White House ever had with an Israeli government." A statement from Israel's Gush Shalom, on May 18, presumably with input = from Uri Avnery, noted that,"In his time as Prime Minister, Sharon had = already neatly disposed of numerous international diplomatic proposals: the = Mitchell Report, the Tenet Paper and the Zinni Paper, the Saudi Initiative - to = name only the best known. "Still, the 'road map' initially seemed to tax his considerable talents: = a paper bearing the combined imprimatur of the US, EU, Russia and the UN, which had been at the top of the diplomatic agenda for nearly a year, = which was formally launched with the personal sponsorship of the US President fresh from victory in Iraq and which was immediately accepted in its entirety and without reservations by the Palestinian side. "Yet none of this seemed to deter Sharon from industriously - and, as = seems at the moment, successfully - subverting and overturning that = initiative, too." As if to underscore Gush Shalom's statement, an unidentified = administration official was quoted in the New York Times (May 21) as asking, "How many special envoys have gone out there and had their reputations ruined. Where are we going to find somebody to do it when the chances are so = poor?"=20 Jeffrey Blankfort is the former editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin = and currently hosts radio programs on KZYX in Mendocino, CA and KPOO in San Francisco. He can be reached at: jab@tucradio.org ------=_NextPart_000_002B_01C32573.180C9390 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

http://www.co= unterpunch.org/blankfort05272003.html

CounterPunch=20 May 27, 2003

AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap

How Israel's US = lobby is=20 stacking the deck

By Jeffrey Blankfort

It would be a = mistake to=20 view the Israeli cabinet's narrow approval of the
Bush = administration's "road=20 map" on Sunday, (or Sharon's use of the word
"occupation") as steps = towards=20 resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict or as
a victory for President = Bush.=20 If there is any gloating to be done, it will
be by Israel's domestic = US lobby=20 and it will largely be done in private.

Had the administration = not=20 surrendered on Friday to Ariel Sharon's demands
for significant = revisions in=20 the "road map," the Israeli cabinet might not
even have taken the = vote.=20 Moreover, the president would not have been forced
to make those = concessions=20 had not the Israeli prime minister been backed
solidly by the = pro-Israel=20 lobby and by the majority of both houses of
Congress. And thus, the=20 supposedly immutable "peace plan" has foundered at
the starting=20 gate.

As his part of the deal, and before the cabinet vote, = Sharon=20 publicly
accepted the plan's broad outlines, but not the phased steps = contained in
the original which carried the stamp and presumably the = input of=20 the
"Quartet," (Britain, the European Union and the Russians plus the = US).

During the debate, Sharon told his cabinet that the 14 = reservations=20 about
the plan that Israel presented to Washington were not = negotiable. (BBC,=20 May
25) One that has been prominently mentioned is Israel's refusal = to=20 recognize
the right to return of Palestinians who were expelled or = who left=20 in 1948,
an issue that was not to be raised until the "road map's" = final=20 phase.

Its prospects can best be understood by a metaphor that = arose from=20 a press
conference with Secretary of State Colin Powell who up to = Friday had=20 been
insisting that "no changes" would be made in the "road=20 map."

Faced with yet another humiliation at the hands of the = Israeli=20 prime
minister, Powell downplayed criticism that the US was simply = kicking=20 the can
down the road by agreeing to address Israel's concerns "fully = and
seriously."

"At least we have a can in the road," Powell = told=20 reporters. "We have to get
started. And so the can is in the road = now. We=20 will start moving it down the
road with perhaps little kicks as = opposed to a=20 54-yarder."

"It's easy to say, why don't you solve this up front = -=20 because you couldn't.
You have to get started," Powell said, adding = that=20 issues like dismantling
some Israeli settlement outposts may be = "very, very=20 difficult" to resolve.
(Ha'aretz May 24). And if those are hard for = Powell to=20 contemplate, one can
imagine the problems the administration will = face if it=20 attempts to deal
seriously with those that can no longer be = euphemistically=20 described as
settlements and have become well-established and = well-populated=20 towns that
the US no longer considers to be illegal.

This = raises a key=20 question. Quite apart from the failings inherent in the
document, = itself,=20 weighted as it is in Israel's favor, it is difficult, at
this point, = to=20 discern how much the effort of the Bush administration to
pursue the = "road=20 map" is one of substance as opposed to appearances.

Every = American=20 president, beginning with Richard Nixon and the Rogers Plan,
has = attempted to=20 get Israel out of the territories it seized in 1967, and
every = president=20 since Jimmy Carter, has attempted to get Israel to halt the
building = of=20 Jewish settlements. Some of these efforts have been more serious
than = others=20 but all have failed. Given the events of the past few days, = the
prospects of=20 the current office holder do not seem any better.

"What happened = to all=20 those nice plans?" asked Israeli journalist and peace
activist, Uri = Avnery,=20 back during the first Bush's administration.
(Ha'aretz, March 6,=20 1991).

"Israel's governments have mobilized the collective power = of US=20 Jewry -
which dominates Congress and the media to a large degree - = against=20 them.
Faced by this vigorous opposition, all the presidents, great = and=20 small,
football players and movie stars - folded one after another." = And so=20 it
appears to have happened once again.

By its efforts to be = "more=20 Bush than Bush," Israel's officially registered
lobby, the = American-Israel=20 Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), appears to have
gotten its way. It = wanted=20 to appear to be supportive of the "road map,"
while working to derail = it. It=20 managed this trick by drawing on a speech
that Dubya gave last June = 24, in=20 which he expressed such strong and
unqualified support for Israel = that some=20 observers, like Robert Fisk,
jokingly suggested that it might have = been=20 written by Sharon.

Unlike, the "road map," it had no timetable = and placed=20 the onus on the
Palestinians to institute a new, democratic = government and=20 end all
"terrorist acts" before Israel was required to take a single=20 step.

Rather than openly criticizing the "road map," and be seen = as in=20 opposition
both to a popular president and to "peace," AIPAC decided = to get=20 the members
of both houses to sign a letter supporting the "road map" = as well=20 as
statements that Bush made in the June 24 speech.

Columnist = Leonard=20 Fein, apprised his readers of this the May 2 Forward:

"For many = weeks,"=20 he wrote, "there's been a campaign to subvert the road map
meaning, = in=20 context, to subvert the prospect of resuming the peace process.
Since = the=20 president is on record as endorsing it, the subversion has taken
... = the form=20 of end runs rather than direct attacks.

"Encouraged by AIPAC many = members=20 of Congress have signed onto letters
opposing any role for the = quartet and=20 insisting that the Palestinians must
fulfill all their obligations in = the=20 security realm before the Israelis are
called upon to = act."

AIPAC's=20 actions were not a secret, except that the mainstream media = wasn't
looking.=20 Its web site reported that, in the run-up to the release of the
"road = map"=20 letters were circulated in both houses, urging Bush to "reaffirm
his=20 unshakable commitment to his June 24 principles" and to remain = focused
on=20 Palestinian performance rather setting any timetable.

When it = comes to=20 Israel, Washington plays host to the strangest of bed
mates. The = Senate=20 letter, which was signed by 88 of the 100 senators, was
sponsored by = the=20 liberals' darling, Barbara Boxer and one of the liberals'
anathemas, = Mitch=20 McConnell, along with Senators Dick Durbin (D) and John
Ensign=20 (R).

The House letter, initiated by Republicans Roy Blunt and = Henry Hyde=20 and
Democrats Stenny Hoyer and Tom Lantos, attracted 321=20 signatures.

The message to Bush, as described by Nathan Guttman = in=20 Ha'aretz (May 19) was
"cautious but clear. The congressmen say they = support=20 the road map and want
American intervention in the peace process on = basis of=20 a two-state solution,
but warn the administration not to make too = many=20 demands on Israel before
the Palestinians do their part.

"Many = are=20 urging you [Bush] to short circuit this process and to focus = on
timelines in=20 achieving the road map benchmarks," they wrote. "We believe you
will = not be=20 dissuaded and will focus instead on real performance."

The = letter, writes=20 Guttman, "demands that the Palestinians dismantle the
terrorist=20 infrastructure, restructure its security apparatus, and provide
more=20 transparency and responsibility" on the part of the=20 Palestine
Authority.

Guttman gave credit for this enormous = support to=20 AIPAC. Although the letters
have no formal status or legislative = meaning,=20 Guttman points out, "the fact
that so many congressmen, from both = parties,=20 signed them should make it
clear to the administration that Capitol = Hill=20 firmly supports Israel and
demands that the Palestinians fight=20 terror."

Israel's friends in Congress have not relied simply on a = letter.=20 "Language
codifying the president's policy was included in the FY03 = Foreign=20 Operations
Appropriations bill, passed as part of the Omnibus = Appropriations=20 bill
signed into law by the president in February.

The = Conference of=20 Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations which
generally = lobbies the=20 Executive Branch while AIPAC takes care of Congress,
came out against = the=20 road map, but supposedly does not want to appear to be
disagreeing = with the=20 president. Yet its own chair, Mortimer Zuckerman, owner
of the NY = Daily News=20 and the US News & World Report, blasted the road map in
an = editorial in=20 the magazine on March 17, headlining it as "The Road Map=20 to
nowhere."

Zuckerman, soon to step down from his = chairmanship, is=20 keeping up the
attack. In an editorial to be published in the June 2 = edition=20 of US News, he
writes that, "Washington... having gone to war to = eliminate a=20 rogue
terrorist regime, can hardly now support the creation of a new=20 Palestinian
terrorist state, with its history of contacts with = terrorist=20 networks from
all over the world."

The conference's executive=20 director, Malcolm Hoenlein has been more subtle,
telling the = Washington Post=20 (April 30), that "We want to see a process begin
that has a real = chance to=20 succeed. We think the principles enunciated by the
president in his = June 24=20 speech would do that, and there are elements in the
road map that = contradict=20 that."

Illustrating the divisions that exist within the organized = Jewish=20 community,
the same article reported that 14 major Jewish = philanthropists had=20 voiced
strong support for the "road map."

These big donors, = who=20 included Edgar M. Bronfman, president of the World
Jewish Congress, = said in a=20 letter, to congressional leaders that the plan
"provides Israel with = a=20 distinct opportunity to escape the bloody status
quo" of the past 2 = 1/2=20 years.

"The people who signed this letter are disturbed that the = message=20 the
administration is getting from other parts of the Jewish = community=20 is
opposition to the president's plan, when it should be enthusiastic = support,"
said Jonathan Jacoby, with Americans for Peace Now, who = helped=20 organize the
letter's signers.

These "peaceniks" should not be = confused with supporters of the Palestinian
cause. What the = differences among=20 the majority of the Jewish community
reflect is a struggle that = escalated=20 during the Clinton administration
between liberal Zionists, such as = Martin=20 Indyk and Dennis Ross whom the
president brought into the State = Department=20 and into the Middle East
negotiating process, and the right-wing = Zionists=20 represented most noticeably
by the Zionist Association of America's = bulldog=20 of a chair, Morton Klein and
the dozen or more Jewish neo-cons who = brought us=20 the Gulf War and who now
engaged in stoking the fires against Iran = and Syria=20 in Israel's behalf.

Klein, speaking in Berkeley in the first week = of May,=20 repeated what has
become his mantra on the issue. "This road map is a = disaster," he said. "It
cannot and will not work. It's further = appeasing=20 terrorism." (No. California
Jewish Bulletin, May 15)

The = liberal wing=20 of the Jewish community is very willing to see the
establishment of a = truncated, demilitarized Palestinian Bantustan under
Israel's control = and=20 which would be subservient to US interests as well,
while the = right-wing=20 backs Sharon's Likud and even further right parties and
their goal of = a=20 Greater Israel. At the moment, they are clearly in the
ascendancy in = the US=20 as they are in Israel.

The spate of suicide bombings that = followed the=20 meeting of Sharon with
Mohammed Abbas (Abu Mazen), led to an = escalation of=20 warnings to Bush from
both the Likudniks and their Christian = evangelical=20 allies against pursuing
the "road map", including a group of Born = Agains=20 organized by former White
House aide Gary Bauer, president of = American=20 Values.

At the same time, supporters of the "road map" were also = upping=20 their
efforts, arguing that the latest violence proved the urgency of = steps=20 to
bring the two sides together. Forty members of Congress submitted = a=20 letter
to Bush last week urging him to press forward with the "road = map"=20 while
separately, 100 major Democratic donors and activists, = organized by=20 the
Israel Policy Forum, signed a letter to the party's nine=20 presidential
contenders urging them to back the president's = plan.

The=20 Forward's Ori Nir noted out (May 23) that "The flurry of pro- = and
anti-road=20 map activity pointed to a paradoxical dilemma facing the president
as = he=20 plans his next moves: His strongest opposition comes from = political
allies=20 whose enmity could cost him in 2004, while his strongest = support
comes from=20 liberal groups that are unlikely to reward him politically for
his=20 efforts."

"These guys" - the pro-road map liberals - "are not = Bush's=20 friends," said
Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, executive vice president of the = hawkish=20 Religious
Zionists of America, and head of his own pro-Israel = political=20 action
committee..

He predicted that the White House would pay = more=20 attention to the
condemnations of the "road map" that emerged from a=20 gathering of right-wing
Jewish and Christian activists in Washington = on May=20 18. Billed as the
"Interfaith Zionist Leadership Summit," the event = drew=20 about 400
participants and was sponsored by Jewish and Christian = groups that=20 oppose
the creation of a Palestinian state.

And it matters = not, that=20 as Fein points out, "the fact that the road map is
plainly = "frontloaded,"=20 demanding much more of the Palestinians than of the
Israelis in its = early=20 phases, [and that] the Palestinians have indicated
their acceptance = of it=20 while Prime Minister Sharon has interposed 14
specific=20 objections."

And as Fein notes, "Sharon is hardly alone: The = Jewish gurus=20 of this
administration, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, William = Kristol and=20 others
along with Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who not = long=20 ago
referred to the West Bank as 'so-called occupied territories' = oppose=20 this
and presumably any reasonable alternative road map." Moreover, = he adds,=20 "The
heavies of AEI (American Enterprise Institute) [where we find = Perle=20 again]
oppose it."

In fact, by declaring that settlements = built=20 illegally after March 2001 must
be removed, the "road map" implies = that those=20 built earlier are legitimate.
By calling for Israel to halt the = killing of=20 civilians, it affords tacit
approval for the continued assassination = of=20 whomever Israel considers a
"terrorist," while placing the = Palestinian=20 Authority in charge of
eliminating any armed resistance to the = continuing=20 occupation.

Moreover, nothing is mentioned about Israel's = building of the=20 massive wall
that has already confiscated yet more Palestinian land. = That the=20 questions
of the right of return of Palestinian refugees and the = status of=20 Jerusalem
are put off to the road map's last phase seems to indicate = that the=20 "road
map" was designed as a means to end the Intifada and the notion = of=20 a
Palestinian state of any dimensions emerging at the end is little = more=20 than
a chimera.

This illusion has even been incorporated into=20 Congressional legislation. On
May 16, the Forward reported that the = House=20 International Relations
Committee had unanimously approved an = amendment to=20 next year's State
Department authorization bill, promising direct = American=20 financial aid to a
reformed, peaceful Palestinian state once it is=20 established.

The amendment, reportedly supported by both AIPAC = and=20 Americans for Peace
Now, ostensibly endorses Bush's two-state = approach to=20 resolving the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and declares that "a = stable and=20 peaceful
Palestinian state is necessary to achieve the security that = Israel=20 longs
for."

Declaring that "the United States has an interest = in a=20 Middle East in which
two states - Israel and Palestine - will live = side by=20 side in peace and
security," the bill, as reported by the Forward, = calls on=20 Israel to "take
concrete steps in support of the emergence of a = viable,=20 credible Palestinian
state."

It was introduced by Lantos and = Gary=20 Ackerman of New York, two of the Sharon
regime's strongest backers in = the=20 House and Illinois's Henry Hyde, no slouch
himself when coddling = Israeli=20 interests.

Congressional staffers cited by the Forward described = the=20 bill, expected to
"easily sail through" both houses of Congress, as = an=20 attempt to "codify"
Bush's Middle East speech of June 24, 2002, which = set out=20 conditions for
creation of a Palestinian state.

The bill's = conditions,=20 however, notes the Forward, are more explicit than
those in the=20 speech.

It says Washington should recognize the Palestinian state = only=20 after a new
Palestinian leadership is elected, after the Palestinians = cease=20 terrorism
and incitement, take counter-terrorism measures in full = cooperation=20 with
Israel, and ensure democracy and rule of law.

The = enactment of=20 the strict conditions appeared to be a victory for Israel,
wrote the = Forward,=20 which also viewed the president's speech as being tougher
on the = Palestinians=20 than the road map.

The Christian Science Monitor (May 19) = suggested that=20 Bush could use
economic leverage on Israel to accede to the road = map's=20 schedule. It pointed
out that "Congress acted last month to help the = Israeli=20 economy with a $1
billion grant in military assistance and $9 billion = in loan=20 guarantees.
That's on top of the usual $2.7 billion in annual aid to=20 Israel."

"The $1 billion grant was automatically made available = to=20 Israel. It even
allows $263 million of that money to be used to buy = Israeli=20 military goods.
No leverage there.

"But the loan guarantees, = available=20 over three years, depend on a
presidential determination that Israel = is=20 following proper economic policies
to restrain its budget, shrink the = public=20 sector, and encourage the private
sector. Bush can, if he chooses, = withhold=20 portions of the loan if Israel
continues to spend money on the = heavily=20 subsidized Jewish settlements.

"Israel needs the loan guarantees = to cover=20 its sizable budget deficit and
help repay older Israeli = bonds."

Such=20 pressure, however, isn't likely. In the May 2 Forward, Ori Nir = writes
that,=20 "American assurances to Israel under the road map are far = more
extensive than=20 have been publicly disclosed."

"In a letter expressing = understandings=20 about the road map, the United States
guarantees that it, not Europe = or the=20 United Nations, will oversee the
monitoring of Palestinian compliance = with=20 the plan on security matters.
Senior administration officials also = have made=20 a point of assuring Israel
and its American supporters in recent = weeks that=20 any significant progress
toward Palestinian statehood will depend on = a=20 cessation of Palestinian
terrorism."

What the article didn't = mention=20 but what apparently was its source was a
less publicized visit to = Israel,=20 before that of Colin Powell, by National
Security Advisor Condoleezza = Rice=20 and Elliot Abrams, who, thanks to Rice's
influence, had been = appointed by=20 Bush to be the NSC's Director of Near East
and North African=20 Affairs.

On May 18, before Sharon's visit had been canceled, the = New York=20 Post
reported that Rice and Abrams were part of a White House = delegation=20 that
secretly visited Israel a fortnight earlier to get the prime=20 minister's
views on the "road map."

He couldn't have had a = more=20 receptive audience. Abrams, of Iran-Contra
infamy, is a long-time = Likud=20 supporter. And while there, Rice told Yediot
Aharanot that the = "security of=20 Israel is the key to security of the world."
As if more was = necessary, she=20 added, among other things, that she feels "a
deep bond to = Israel."

The=20 three-day tour by the Americans was described by Sharon as "the = most
serious=20 White House team to visit Israel in many years," and was intended = to
set the=20 stage for what would have his eighth meeting with Bush, during = which
Sharon=20 told the Post, he has enjoyed "the friendliest and most = fruitful
relations=20 the White House ever had with an Israeli government."

A statement = from=20 Israel's Gush Shalom, on May 18, presumably with input from
Uri = Avnery, noted=20 that,"In his time as Prime Minister, Sharon had already
neatly = disposed of=20 numerous international diplomatic proposals: the Mitchell
Report, the = Tenet=20 Paper and the Zinni Paper, the Saudi Initiative - to name
only the = best=20 known.

"Still, the 'road map' initially seemed to tax his = considerable=20 talents: a
paper bearing the combined imprimatur of the US, EU, = Russia and=20 the UN,
which had been at the top of the diplomatic agenda for nearly = a year,=20 which
was formally launched with the personal sponsorship of the US=20 President
fresh from victory in Iraq and which was immediately = accepted in=20 its
entirety and without reservations by the Palestinian = side.

"Yet=20 none of this seemed to deter Sharon from industriously - and, as = seems
at the=20 moment, successfully - subverting and overturning that=20 initiative,
too."

As if to underscore Gush Shalom's statement, = an=20 unidentified administration
official was quoted in the New York Times = (May=20 21) as asking, "How many
special envoys have gone out there and had = their=20 reputations ruined.

Where are we going to find somebody to do it = when the=20 chances are so poor?"



Jeffrey Blankfort is the former = editor of=20 the Middle East Labor Bulletin and
currently hosts radio programs on = KZYX in=20 Mendocino, CA and KPOO in San
Francisco. He can be reached at: jab@tucradio.org


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