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11/4/02 - 11/10/02
Sunday 11/10/02
Russian oil giants sign drilling contracts with Iraq 11/10/02 Mena Report: "Russia’s Tatneft and Zaroubejneft oil firms have recently signed drilling contracts with the government of Iraq. The wells will be drilled in the north and south of the country, reported Al-Zawra. The deals follow a comprehensive $40-billion economic pact struck between the two nations in August, in an effort to safeguard existing Russian interests in Iraq."
MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden' 11/10/02 Observer, UK: "The Observer can today reveal that the MI6 officers involved in the alleged plot were Richard Bartlett, who has previously only been known under the codename PT16 and had overall responsibility for the operation; and David Watson, codename PT16B. As Shayler's opposite number in MI6, Watson was responsible for running a Libyan agent, 'Tunworth', who was was providing information from within the cell. According to Shayler, MI6 passed £100,000 to the al-Qaeda plotters.
The assassination attempt on Gadaffi was planned for early 1996 in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte. It is thought that an operation by the Islamic Fighting Group in the city was foiled in March 1996 and in the gun battle that followed several militants were killed. In 1998, the Libyans released TV footage of a 1996 grenade attack on Gadaffi that they claimed had been carried out by a British agent."
At Navy school in Monterey, voices of skepticism about Iraq war 11/10/02 San Franciscon Chronicle: "We should not occupy territory in Iraq," he said. "Do you really want the United States on the ground in that region for a generation?
"I don't think Iraq is that much of a threat," said Webb, an opinion rarely heard among current or former Republican administration officials."
Saturday 11/9/02
 Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans 11/9/02 Cryptome: "As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant.
Historically, military and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without extraordinary legal authorization. But Admiral Poindexter, the former national security adviser in the Reagan administration, has argued that the government needs broad new powers to process, store and mine billions of minute details of electronic life in the United States." The Coca Contra guru at it again.
OFRANEH INFORMA SOBRE REPRESION 11/9/02 Garinet: "Yo Juan Martinez, mayor de edad, oriundo de la comunidad de Triunfo de la Cruz en el Departmento de Atlántida, Republica de Honduras Centro America, miembro del Comité de Defenza de Tierras Triunfeñas (CODETT), presidente del "Isery Ondarun" (Nueva Organizacion en Garifuna) y miembro de la Junta Directiva Nacional de la "Organizacion Fraternal Negra de Honduras" (OFRANEH) en mi nombre y de mis compañeros informo a mi pueblo y al mundo lo siguiente, ruego a todos diseminar ampliamente esta infomacion.
Denuncio la detencion e injusto encarcelamiento de tres de nuestros dirigentes comunitarios."
Police Attack Garifuna leaders in Honduras 11/9/02 Garinet: "Coming on the heels of an arson in Vallecito, a police attack on a national march, and the government's filing charges against 35 community leaders, there is more news of repression against the Afro-Honduran Garifuna.
In Triunfo de la Cruz, 3 Garifuna leaders were actually arrested and thrown in prison November 3, over a land conflict. It regards 3 actes of land which fall inside the land which belongs officially and traditionally to the community of Triunfo. The official Community Title was awarded by INA, (National Agrarian Institute) the relevant government body, in 1992, encompassing 380 acres. Six years ago, the municipality of Tela (nearby larger city) sold those 5 acres to the "Asociacion de Pueblos Franciscanos de Muchachos," APUFRAM, (Association of Franciscan Boys Towns) who planned to build a high school. In the document, it is explicit stated that they must build a school within 2 years or lose their right to the land."
Government Holds Peace Talks With Foes 11/9/02 LA Times: "President Hugo Chavez's government and his opponents held wary talks in a quiet mountain seminary aimed at negotiating an electoral solution to their long-running political conflict."
Man Believed Slain in Yemen Tied by U.S. to Buffalo Cell 11/9/02 NYT: "American officials said today that a United States citizen believed to have been killed in Yemen by an American missile was probably the ringleader of a group of six men from the Buffalo area identified by law enforcement officials as a sleeper cell of the Qaeda terrorist network." The death squads at work.
Friday 11/8/02
Bahraini royal being held in Cuba camp 11/8/02 Arab News, Saudi Arabia: "A member of Bahrain’s royal family is among suspected members or sympathizers of the Al-Qaeda terror network detained at a US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his father said yesterday in an Arabic newspaper. Sheikh Salman ibn Ibrahim Al-Khalifa is “accused of sympathizing with Al-Qaeda,” Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Muhammad Al-Khalifa told the London-based daily Asharq Al-Awsat.
He said Sheikh Salman had been detained in Pakistan “and handed over to the Americans for the sum of $20,000,” without explaining to whom the money was handed over."
Bin Laden is alive - Interpol 11/8/02 BBC: ''The terrorist threat... is at least as great now as it was before 11 September. Sleeper cells are in place, unknown to the police, who are ready to act from one day to the next," Mr Noble said." - so much for the successes of the War on Terror.
Turkey entry 'would destroy EU' 11/8/02 BBC: "Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing told Le Monde newspaper that people who backed Turkey's accession were "the adversaries of the European Union".
Remembering An Ancestor: Kwamé Turé 11/8/02 Black World Today: "When people in our movement give unselfishly, and consistently of themselves, over the years, like Brother Kwamé Turé, we never forget them."
3 held in Hong Kong for buying missiles for Al Qaeda 11/8/02 Dawn, Pakistan: "The three were detained on Sept 20 by the Hong Kong police in a hotel room as they tried to buy the portable missiles in exchange for which they would provide and distribute five tons of hashish and 600kg of heroin in the United States.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents posed as arms dealers, a court was told on Tuesday."
Wilson Report: Will a War in Iraq Go Nuclear? 11/8/02 Defense and the National Interest: this Oct 12 article on a respected US military site shows the serious concerns many in that sphere have about the coming war.
UN falls into line behind Bush's war ultimatum 11/8/02 Independent, UK: "Fresh from his mid-term election victory, President George Bush told the American people last night that he expected the UN Security Council to vote as early as today on forcing Iraq to surrender its weapons of mass destruction or face almost certain military punishment.
As the leading powers on the Security Council came together last night to push for one of the most critical votes at the UN in years, Mr Bush said: "I'm optimistic we'll get the resolution voted tomorrow [Friday]." He spoke after phone contacts with the leaders of France and Russia, who were pressing for 11th-hour adjustments of a draft submitted jointly by the United States and Britain on Wednesday."
US poised to act against Mugabe 11/8/02 The Age, Australia: "The United States Government warned yesterday that it might take "intrusive, interventionist measures" to deliver food aid directly to millions of famine-hit Zimbabweans if President Robert Mugabe continues to starve his political opponents.
Washington is considering measures that would challenge Zimbabwe's sovereignty, according to Mark Bellamy, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Africa. Such drastic measures are being studied because the Mugabe regime is aggravating the effects of a region-wide famine by blocking food from areas that support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, he said."
Better to think before we fight 11/8/02 Washington Times: this Oct 1 editorial appeared in the Rev Moon's conservative newspaper and makes the case against war in Iraq - "Neoconservatives are preparing the groundwork for interminable U.S. conflict with the Middle East. In the current issue of Commentary, the influential magazine of the American Jewish Committee, Norman Podhoretz makes a case that it is not enough for the U.S. to attack only Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Podhoretz argues that "changes of regime are the sine qua non throughout the region."
The challenge that President Bush faces, says Mr. Podhoretz, is "to fight World War IV — the war against militant Islam." He identifies the enemies: "The regimes that richly deserve to be overthrown and replaced are not confined to the three singled-out members of the axis of evil" (Iraq, Iran, North Korea). At a minimum, the axis should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as 'friends' of America like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian Authority."
Thursday 11/7/02
Iraq War Could Be a Toxic Nightmare 11/7/02 Alternet
Editorial: Utterly reprehensible 11/7/02 Arab News: "Unfortunately in a civilized society, extra-judicial murders are not acceptable. Ali Qaed Senyan Al-Harthi may indeed have been a terrorist with blood on his hands, but it was not for the American CIA to act as judge, jury and executioner. Though it would undoubtedly have been far more difficult and might have caused the loss of further lives, the right thing to have done would have been to have apprehended Al-Harthi and brought him to trial. Butchering him and his body guards with a remotely fired missile was wrong.
Hitler’s propaganda supremo, Josef Goebbels used to boast that the bigger the lie, the greater its chances of being believed. Twenty four hours after the attack, the US administration came up with what many in the Middle East will see as a lie worthy of the biggest Goebbels ever told. The United States declared that it continued to oppose the policy of assassination used by the Israelis against what they took to be Palestinian extremists. How, when Washington’s secret army, the CIA has just done the self-same thing, can anyone believe this American claim?"
Democrats in the Aftermath: Stand for Something! 11/7/02 Counterpunch: by Rep. CYNTHIA McKINNEY
Is this the end of the rainbow for South Africa? 11/7/02 Independent: "On Monday the police caught one of the alleged ringleaders, a former army officer called Tom Vorster, who had been on the run for six months and is believed by police to have been in contact in recent years with white supremacist groups in the United States."
US braces for retaliation after Yemen assassination 11/7/02 Sydney Morning Herald: "Even those who applauded the strike said it was sure to inflame militant Muslims, including those belonging to the al-Qaeda network, and expose US diplomats and other overseas officials to possible retaliation. On Tuesday the US said it was closing its embassy in Yemen to the public indefinitely amid fears it might become a target for an attack to retaliate for the killings.
But US officials and top Pentagon advisers said al-Qaeda should expect more of the same. "We've got new authorities, new tools and a new willingness to do it wherever it has to be done," one Administration official said."
Bush moves on Saddam after victory 11/7/02 The Scotsman, UK: "GEORGE Bush, the US president, yesterday moved swiftly to turn the screw on Saddam Hussein as he produced a tough new United Nations resolution on Iraq, just hours after the US electorate gave him a resounding mandate to step up the war on terror.
The new joint US-British draft resolution promised "serious consequences" for Iraq if it defies the international weapons inspectors. Fleshed out after eight weeks of international diplomacy, the US said it would push for a vote on the resolution tomorrow.
It was a clear indication that Mr Bush, buoyed by the stunning Republican victory in the US elections, had returned to his foreign agenda with renewed vigour."
Buoyant Bush wins mandate for war 11/7/02 Times, UK: David Phillips, a senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said: “The election is a war mandate. The American people wanted to show solidarity with the Bush Administration’s war against terrorism and their support for the White House’s national security approach. War with Iraq was already likely. It is now inevitable unless Saddam fully complies with his international obligations.”
Wednesday 11/6/02
Turkish leader refuses to OK U.S. use of bases, critical of Israel 11/6/02 AP: "The whole Turkish population is very critical of what is going on in Palestine," Erdogan said. "Our public does not view this as anything anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic. They see it as the terrorism of Sharon."
"Turkey has to play a more active role," he added.
Broward reports wrong vote totals 11/6/02 Miami Herald: "More than 100,000 votes went missing on Tuesday between the time they were counted by electronic machines and the time they were reported on cable-access television and on the Supervisor of Elections web site.
A glitch in the vote reporting system left a 104,000-vote difference between Tuesday night's totals and those reported late Wednesday.
Election officials said the error has no effect on the outcome of any races, though voter turnout jumped from 35 percent to 45 percent after it was corrected.
And it raises questions about how the supervisor's office could have missed that many votes."
Wall St. Set to Cheer Republican Gains 11/6/02 Reuters: "The battle for control of Congress raged into the morning hours on Wednesday, but Republicans scored huge victories that could add more fuel to a four-week rally on Wall Street."
Not Your Mother's Peace Movement 11/6/02 SF Weekly: "At the same time, peace activists aiming for broader influence took a page from the playbook of their right-wing counterparts. Peter Ferenbach spent hours on talk radio during the last year, and Helen Caldicott, founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, recently launched her new Nuclear Policy Research Institute, designed specifically to provide experts who can match media appearances with the talking heads of conservative think tanks.
And, in the first major anti-war movement since average Americans incorporated the Internet into their daily lives, e-mail is in wide use. Organizations regularly spread the word to members on pending changes in Washington in a matter of minutes, and rally crowds with the push of a button."
Four nations may have killer disease stocks 11/6/02 Sydney Morning Herald: "The "top five list" for al-Qaeda, one official said, included anthrax, the nerve agent ricin, and botulinum toxin.
The CIA now believes that four nations - Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France - have undeclared samples of the smallpox virus.
France is one of five members of the United Nations Security Council with a veto, and the linchpin of US diplomatic efforts to establish a legal basis for war with Iraq… The vaccine is made of a live virus called vaccinia and poses a risk of serious complications, even death. The issue to be weighed is whether the threat of a bioterrorist attack using smallpox is serious enough to warrant exposing children to those risks."
Imam Jamil al-Amin to face news charges in US 11/6/02 Ummah News: H. Rap Brown - "Due to the fact that the case against Imam Jamil had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt, a hearing on the motion for a new trial had been scheduled for 15 November 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia. The appeal was looking extremely promising. Due to the fact that the case against Imam Jamil had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt, a hearing on the motion for a new trial had been scheduled for 15 November 2002 in Atlanta, Georgia. The appeal was looking extremely promising. Earlier this October the Federal District Court in Montgomery brought new charges against Imam Jamil, stemming from two years ago. He has been accused of using a rifle to assault three US Deputy marshals as they approached him in White Hall, Alabama. This new trial is expected to begin in early December 2002.
It is widely believed that these new charges are being bought in order that the federal government can gain a second conviction against Imam Jamil should he win his appeal against the murder charge."
World braces for 'triumphant' Bush. 11/6/02 UPI: "We are dealing with a power that has no limit in its dealing with foreign issues," said Mohammed Shaker, head of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Relations, whose wariness of a Bush administration unrestrained by any other branch of government was widely shared beyond U.S. shores… Only in Israel did there seem to be little new deference to the Bush administration and its striking new mandate. Israel's new Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu marked his own return to government by asserting the Bush administration's latest "roadmap for peace" was "not on the agenda." Netanyahu also told Israeli TV Wednesday he thought the attack on Saddam would be a good time to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, despite earlier promises from Israeli premier Ariel Sharon to President Bush that Arafat "would not be harmed."
Voters Set Republicans Loose on the World 11/6/02 Village Voice: "In tone, it takes us back to the Eisenhower '50s." And to 1929, the last time the Republicans controlled everything.
Israel weighs expanding navy to protect its nukes 11/6/02 World Tribune, Reston, VA
Tuesday 11/5/02
10 hurt as Chavez backers crash rally 11/5/02 AP
'P2OG' allows Pentagon to fight dirty 11/5/02 Asia Times: "P2OG would launch secret operations aimed at "stimulating reactions" among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction, meaning it would prod terrorist cells into action, thus exposing them to "quick-response" attacks by US forces. The means by which it would do this is the far greater use of special operations forces."
The Echelonization of America: NSA to spy domestically? 11/5/02 Cryptome: "The head of the National Security Agency said last week that Congress might want to aim the most powerful surveillance system in the world at American citizens.
Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, in a rare public appearance before the Senate Intelligence committee, said the ongoing terrorist threat means America needs to debate where to draw the line between foreign and domestic surveillance. Currently the NSA is prohibited from spying domestically."
Dear Mr. President 11/5/02 Gabe Hudson: "SECURITY WARNING - It has recently come to our attention that by visiting this site you have now been automatically registered on a government list. We apologize for this, and for any inconvenience which may result from this regrettable turn of events. As a precautionary measure, we advise that upon waking tomorrow, you carefully inspect the inside of your mouth, and please, given recent events, do not overlook the space under your tongue. Also, and of utmost importance, we recommend you thoroughly inspect the back of your head for any foreign objects."
President To Author: Your Book Is Unpatriotic 11/5/02 Hartford Courant
Cops nab suspected right-winger linked to KKK 11/5/02 Independent, South Africa: "It is believed he travelled to the US, where he had dealings with right-wing groups including the Ku Klux Klan."
Turkish Vote Gives Rise to Speculation 11/5/02 LA Times: "Erdogan is the leader of the AKP, but he's been banned from serving in parliament because of a 1998 conviction for Islamic sedition. That means the former professional soccer player can't become prime minister. Intrigue is thick in Ankara, the capital, as politicians and analysts speculate how Erdogan -- never one to give up -- will get what he wants.
Many are also wondering which Erdogan will emerge. For many of his 47 years, Erdogan has been a devoted Islamist, quoting the Koran and giving fiery speeches about political Islam. As mayor of Istanbul, he banned alcohol in cafes and opposed Turkey's attempts to join the European Union. He was often quoted as saying: "My frame of reference is Islam."
That endeared him to the clerics but not the generals, protectors of the nation's secular constitution.
Erdogan's AKP never mentions Islam. There is no flicker of religious imagery. The party's success was due to its ability to ride voter anger over the nation's corrupt government. With Turkey's $200-billion national debt and its 20% unemployment rate, the AKP campaigned on pocketbooks, not prayer beads."
Massive military cargo ships leave U.S. ports 11/5/02 Reuters: "LONDON (Reuters) - Three enormous U.S.-military owned cargo ships capable of carrying tanks have left U.S. shores in recent days, a U.S. navy official said on Monday, amid mounting evidence Washington is building up firepower to attack Iraq.
The latest deployment comes as the aircraft carrier battle group the USS Constellation set sail for the Gulf from San Diego, California this past weekend.
The cargo vessels, the USNS Bellatrix, the USNS Bob Hope and the USNS Fisher, just short of the length of aircraft carriers themselves, are some of the largest transport ships in the U.S. military's inventory."
Paper Ballots 11/5/02 TCS
Refugees reveal the other side of terrorism 11/5/02 Times, UK: “They ripped my 19-year-old sister’s dress off and one of the soldiers raped her on the kitchen table. I can still hear her screaming. I can still see her struggling. Those people you call terrorists, they have been there, too.”
Monday 11/4/02
Israeli Defence Force war crimes must be investigated 11/4/02 Amnesty International: "The report, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from Scrutiny - IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus, documents serious human rights violations by Israeli forces -- unlawful killings; torture and ill-treatment of prisoners; wanton destruction of hundreds of homes sometimes with the residents still inside; the blocking of ambulances and denial of humanitarian assistance; and the use of Palestinian civilians as "human shields".
4 U.S.-Afghan Bases Come Under Fire 11/4/02 AP: "On Saturday night, two rockets exploded near a U.S. base at Orgun, about 110 miles south of Kabul, the statement said. One of the rockets landed about 500 yards from the base.
At dawn Sunday, three rocket-propelled grenade rounds were fired at a U.S. fire-base in the southeastern town of Shkin in Paktika province, about 150 miles south of Kabul."
Venezuela: "EE.UU. nada debe hacer" 11/4/02 BBC Mundo: "John Coatsworth, Director del centro Rockefeller para estudios Latinoamericanos de la Universidad de Harvard, es uno de los más renombrados expertos sobre la región.
Dialogó con BBC Mundo sobre la situación de Venezuela, sus perspectivas, y la postura de Estados Unidos."
Greg Palast, Author of "Best Democracy Money Can Buy," Exposes the Continued Suppression of Florida's Black Vote in Election 2002 11/4/02 Buzzflash: "It's a whole new horror show. Two years ago, I reported that Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush had order county elections officials to erase 57,000 voters from voter rolls -- most of them Black, almost all of them innocent -- on grounds they are felons.
It cost Gore the White House.
So here’s the new tricks from these old dogs: The company that came up with this rotten little "purge" list has, under threat of suit from the NAACP, confessed that the total purge targeted 94,000 voters -- and that, at outside tops, only 3,000 may be illegal voters.
This weekend, on www.Salon.com, I'm breaking the ill news that, while the state admits that it kept these legal voters away from the polls, they will not put them back on the registries -- get this -- until AFTER the election on Tuesday.
First Bro' Jeb is in the fight of his life -- a statistical dead heat with Democrat Bill McBride ... so the Republicans, with their hands on the elections machinery, seem to be saying, "What’s the use of stealing an election in 2000 if we have to give it back two years later?"
S&P says Iraq war could lead to energy crisis 11/4/02 Forbes: "If the U.S. military were to strike Iraq in a contained conflict in which no countries came to Iraq's aid, oil prices would likely rise for about two weeks. Oil prices could either spike from about $28 a barrel-which includes a "war premium" of about $4-$6 a barrel-or drop to below $20 per barrel, as players liquidate supplies that had been purchased as a safeguard against an interruption of oil exports.
In a second scenario, in which Iraq received cooperation from other countries or independent terrorist groups spread war, an oil price increase might last longer. A third scenario would be a significant disruption of a tanker fleet. "There are tankers all over the world, and they are difficult to guard," Mr. Thieroff said."
Turkish Party: Opposes U.S. Strikes 11/4/02 Guardian, UK: "The leader of winning party in Turkey's elections said Monday he is opposed to a U.S. military strike against neighboring Iraq, unless approved by the United Nations."
China Replaces Russia as America's Global Partner 11/4/02 Pacific News
CIA Killed Al Qaeda Suspects in Yemen, Official Says 11/4/02 Reuters: 6 down and 50,000 to go…
Islamic 'clean' party sweeping board in Turkey 11/4/02 Telegraph, UK: "A party with Islamic roots looked on course last night to win Turkey's general election with enough seats to govern alone - threatening to re-ignite tensions between religious conservatives and the military-led secularist elite. The Justice and Development Party (known as AK) won more than 34 per cent of the national vote, with more than half the votes counted - a hefty lead over its closest rival, the pro-secular Republican People's Party (CHP), which trailed on 19 per cent."
Rally at Common Protests War in Iraq 11/4/02 The Crimson: in Boston.
New book says Israel deliberately sunk USS Liberty 11/4/02 Ummah News: "A new book, A History of Israel, by the UK-based Israeli historian Ahron Bregman, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan reveals new evidence about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967, which left 34 US men dead and 171 wounded.
Using never-before-published recordings of conversations over the radio system between Israeli pilots - attacking the ship - and the Air Control Tower in Tel Aviv, Bregman shows that the possibility that the ship was American was raised at the Israeli Air Control Tower before the first strike on the ship."
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"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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