Saturday 5/29/04

D(isnformation) Day - 60 Years is Enough  5/29/04 Counterpunch: "June 6, 2004 marks 60 years since the fabled Allied invasion known as "D-Day." Lost amid the self-congratulatory orgy is the minor detail that by the time of the D-Day invasion, the Soviets were engaging 80 percent of the German Army on the Eastern Front. Oops…"

Exiled Allawi was responsible for 45-minute WMD claim  5/29/04 Independent: "The choice of Iyad Allawi, closely linked to the CIA and formerly to MI6, as the Prime Minister of Iraq from 30 June will make it difficult for the US and Britain to persuade the rest of the world that he is capable of leading an independent government. He is the person through whom the controversial claim was channelled that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction could be operational in 45 minutes."

Friday 5/28/04

Commission Named to Uncover Truth of Greensboro Tragedy  5/28/04 Black America Web: "Nov. 3, 1979 left an eternal stain on Greensboro, N.C. That day five activists protesting the treatment of workers in North Carolina mills at a “Death to the Klan” rally were attacked and killed by Ku Klux Klan members and American Nazis."

Thursday 5/27/04

The Kissinger Telcons: The Dobrynin File  5/27/04 National Security Archives: "This selection of documents focuses on one of the most important groups of documents in the newly released Kissinger telcons--the record of high-level diplomacy with the chief representative of the number one adversary, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin."

Manu Dibango Appointed UNESCO Artist for Peace  5/27/04 PL

No normality, little food, heavy repression  5/27/04 WW: "Gérard Latortue, the Boca Raton, Fla., business consultant appointed defacto prime minister after the Feb. 29 coup against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, visited France and Belgium May 12-14. The main purpose of his trip--besides pleading for money from the European Union--was to renounce Aristide's demand for $21 billion in reparations from France."

Wednesday 5/26/04

Illegal Immigration and Black America  5/26/04 ChronWatch: "A goblin is haunting Barack Obama's election campaign to become the Democratic senator from Illinois. That goblin is in the shape of illegal immigration and its impact on Black Americans. The Democrats need the votes of both Latinos and Blacks to win in November, yet this victory may be brought at the expense of Black Americans. Barack Obama cannot talk about this, because to do so he will have to alienate one group or another."

Chavez Says Attack on Venezuela Would Make Oil Prices Soar  5/26/04 PL

Haiti and the insanity of ‘official’ denial  5/26/04 SF Bay View: "As many as nine peaceful demonstrators were killed in Haiti on May 18, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets despite the risk - and reality - of violent repression by international forces and a militarized Haitian police force. These demonstrators were calling for an end to the illegal occupation by U.S., Canadian and French forces and for the return of overthrown President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The mainstream media has already done its best to cover this up, which isn’t difficult considering that most corporations no longer have journalists covering Haiti, save for Associated Press (AP), Reuters and the Miami Herald. The readership of these sources has scarcely been privy to any of the realities in Haiti for quite some time."

Haiti Solidarity Week summit demands return of exiled government, end to bloody reprisals  5/26/04 SF Bay View

Haitian lawyers respond to Marine spokesman - You are there to win - but the Haitian masses will not let you  5/26/04 SF Bay View

Statement from prison of Sò Anne, Annette Auguste, Haitian folksinger and champion of the poor  5/26/04 SF Bay View: "Throughout my imprisonment, the ceaseless campaign of repression and assassination against the base of the Lavalas political party has continued. Militants of our movement who are credible and well recognized leaders in their neighborhoods are being assassinated by the new militarized police force under the control and direction of the so-called MIF, which is in reality being directed by the U.S. Marines. Leaders of our movement are still being arrested and others forced into hiding in a concerted effort to break the back of the Lavalas movement, which still sees Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the only legitimate and constitutionally elected president of Haiti."

US Marines dispute Bay View’s account of Haiti Flag Day protest  5/26/04 SF Bay View: detailed statement refuting the Marines' account - "On Thursday and again on Saturday, the Bay View received email messages from U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Lapan, spokesman for the Multinational Interim Force in Haiti, wanting to “correct the record regarding MIF forces and U.S. Marines.” Lapan is disputing our coverage of the May 18 protest by 30,000 to 50,000 Haitians, headlined “At least 9 demonstrators killed during huge march on Haiti’s Flag Day,” in last week’s Bay View. This response to Lapan by journalist and documentary filmmaker Kevin Pina, an eyewitness, is followed by Lapan’s first message, then by responses from Pierre Labossiere and Wanda Sabir and finally by Lapan’s second message."

Tuesday 5/25/04

September Song - A Review of "The New Pearl Harbor"  5/25/04 Counterpunch: "The implications of the accumulated evidence is that the Bush administration was complicit in the events of September 11th, and not merely a victim of structural problems or incompetence on the part of the intelligence establishment. In a nuanced discussion of "complicity", Griffin distinguishes eight possible levels, from the lying about events to maximize political ends, through intentionally allowing expected attacks, to actual involvement in the planning of them."

The Developing Andean War - Corporate Investment and Government Double-Dealing  5/25/04 Counterpunch: "The same is true in the developing war in the Andes where the war in Colombia seems to be spreading inexorably into Ecuador and Venezuela. There, as in Iraq, Britain and Spain have faithfully supported the US. But while in Iraq the war was originally justified as part of the "war on terrorism", the Andean war is also dressed up as part of the "war on drugs". It is worth noting the Andean war's relationship with big business and dubious international finance."

US closes in on deal with Iraqi cleric  5/25/04 CS Monitor: "The death toll rose in Baghdad and Kufa as the Mahdi Army of militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr battled US troops. But behind the scenes, direct negotiations were under way to transform Sadr's militia into a political entity and end a violent rebellion."

Monday 5/24/04

Colombia: Death toll mounts from spate of bombings  5/24/04 AP: "A bomb planted by suspected rebels exploded in a crowded discotheque in northwest Colombia, killing at least six people and wounding 82 -- the bloodiest in a series of attacks marking the 40th anniversary of Colombia's main rebel group."

Video Shows Iraq Wedding Celebration  5/24/04 AP: "Prominently displayed on the videotape was a stocky man with close-cropped hair playing an electric organ. Another tape, filmed a day later in Ramadi and obtained by APTN, showed the musician lying dead in a burial shroud — his face clearly visible and wearing the same tan shirt as he wore when he performed… In all, 27 members of Rikad Nayef's extended family died — most of them children and women, the family said."

Ex-U.S. Marine: I Killed Civilians in Iraq  5/24/04 Democracy Now: "It sickened me so that I had actually brought it up to my lieutenant, and I told him, I said, you know, sir, we're not going to have to worry about the Iraq -- you know, we're basically committing genocide over here, mass extermination of thousands of Iraqis, and with the depleted uranium that we're leaving around on the battlefield, we're setting up genocide for future generations within Iraq. He didn't like that. He immediately went to my commanding officer, Captain Schmitt and proceeded to tell him about how I felt about Iraq. Word spread pretty quickly and I knew that my Marine Corps career was over. I knew that the statement that I had just made was going to bring about the blackball pretty quickly. So, I was scurried out of Iraq quickly, and ordered to report back stateside to receive psychological therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression. When I got back stateside, that's when things really became ugly."

U.S. arrests popular Haitian singer  5/24/04 Newsday

Israeli Agents Believed Involved in Abu Ghraib  5/24/04 NewsMax: "Word in NYC diplomatic circles is that some of the "civilians" seen in recent Iraq prison photos are in fact Israeli nationals "advising" U.S. forces."

'Gaps and Discrepancies'  5/24/04 Newsweek: "Things may be heating up in the prison abuse scandal for Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former Guantanamo Bay commander who is now in charge of detainees in Iraq. In a harshly worded letter, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence committee questioned the "candor and accuracy" of Miller’s responses in a classified briefing to the committee last week."

Torture Photos, Videos a Time-Honored CIA Tradition  5/24/04 Pacific News: "Much of the army interrogation, torture and executions occurred as part of the CIA-coordinated Phoenix Program, where standard interrogation techniques (as in Iraq) included rape, water torture and electrocution. Another veteran testified in Congress that, "I never knew an individual to be detained as a VC suspect who ever lived through an interrogation in a year and a half." There is precedent, too, for the alleged al-Qaeda video of the beheading of Nick Berg -- the videos in the 1980s of the mutilations and executions of Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan. These videos were disseminated to weaken the morale of the Soviet troops fighting there. Those who took them were the Afghan mujahideen, many of whom received special training in terrorist tactics from the CIA."

'I killed two and felt very proud. Now I just want to kill more'  5/24/04 Telegraph, UK: "Common wisdom in the Iraqi capital is that nearly all the Mahdi army fighters in the holy cities are poor and ignorant Shias from the sprawling Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. But most of those fighting the Americans this weekend were local. Some were educated and from well-off families… One fighter, a 23-year-old driver, said: "My mother praises me for fighting the Americans. If we are killed, our wives and mothers will rejoice that we died defending the freedom of our country. "I killed two Americans in Kufa only 10 days ago and I felt very proud. Now I just want to kill more and more. We will give our last drop of blood." "

"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to Democracies as against despots: suspicion." -- Demosthenes

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World News 5/24/04 - 5/29/04

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World News
5/24/04 - 5/29/04