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World News
2/3/03 - 2/9/03
Sunday 2/9/03
No Oil Windfall Predicted Post-Iraqi War 2/9/03 AP: "Some analysts argue that Iraq would need several years and tens of billions of dollars to boost output capacity much above what it was on the eve of Operation Desert Storm."
Bush budget would overhaul Great Society 2/9/03 Boston Globe: "With little fanfare, President Bush has proposed a dramatic overhaul in the Great Society programs created in the 1960s to provide a safety net for the poor and the aged. His 2004 budget outlines a series of sweeping changes in social programs - from Head Start to Medicaid - that have long been targets of conservative criticism."
Training mission signals greater US role in Colombia conflict 2/9/03 Boston Globe: "The effort has been presented as a way to help Colombian troops protect an economically important government oil pipeline from guerrilla attack. But it is clear from the training taking place on an army base here that defending the pipeline will mostly entail offensive operations against seasoned guerrillas that have prospered on this swampy stretch of oil and coca fields. The first military unit selected for training, for instance, is a counter-guerrilla battalion, not a unit whose principle task is to protect the pipeline."
Cleveland, Ohio: War-protest events 2/9/03 Cleveland Plain Dealer: numerous events in the heartland.
Revealed: truth behind US 'poison factory' claim 2/9/03 Guardian: Like the phony babies in the incubators and the lies about the Iraqui troups massed at the Saudi border in Gulf War I.
War Could Bring Second Front 2/9/03 Hartford Courant: "Citing recent intelligence, these authorities also fear that a potential second front in the war on terrorism is taking shape. A groundswell of anger toward the United States, they say, could prompt attacks by Muslims with no formal ties to terrorist organizations - in response to what they view as an assault on Islam.
"These are amateurs who are mobilized by the rhetoric, who take it upon themselves to go on missions and cause terrorism upon unprotected targets that are a symbol of their hatred," said Magnus Ranstorp, a counterterrorism consultant to several European governments. "Only if you get lucky can you stop these people."
MI6 and CIA: the new enemy within 2/9/03 Independent, UK: "Britain and America's spies believe that they are being politicised: that the intelligence they provide is being selectively applied to lead to the opposite conclusion from the one they have drawn, which is that Iraq is much less of a threat than their political masters claim. Worse, when the intelligence agencies fail to do the job, the politicians will not stop at plagiarism to make their case, even "tweaking" the plagiarised material to ensure a better fit.
"You cannot just cherry-pick evidence that suits your case and ignore the rest. It is a cardinal rule of intelligence," said one aggrieved officer. "Yet that is what the PM is doing." Not since Harold Wilson has a Prime Minister been so unpopular with his top spies.
The mounting tension is mirrored in Washington. "We've gone from a zero position, where presidents refused to cite detailed intel as a source, to the point now where partisan material is being officially attributed to these agencies," said one US intelligence source.
Mr Blair is facing an unprecedented, if covert, rebellion by his top spies, who last week used the politicians' own weapon – the strategic leak – against him. The BBC received a Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) document which showed that British intelligence believes there are no current links between the Iraqi regime and the al-Qa'ida network. The classified document, written last month, said there had been contact between the two in the past, but it assessed that any fledgling relationship foundered due to mistrust and incompatible ideologies."
Group Watch: American Security Council 2/9/03 Political Research Associates: "Major General John Singlaub (ret) and Lieutenant General Daniel Graham (ret. ) co-chaired the American Security Council's Coalition for Peace Through Strength (CPTS). (1,3) William Van Cleave, George Keegan, Sen. Robert Dole, and Sen. Paul Laxa lt have also served as co-chairs of CPTS.
Other individuals of note who have served with the CPTS include former members of Team B, a pro-military, anti-Soviet team that went on to form the Committee on the Present Danger. These include retired head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Lyman Lemnitzer; former U. S. ambassador Clare Booth Luce; father of the hydrogen bomb Edward Teller; physicist Eugene Wigner and Charles Burton Marshall, a close friend of ultra-hawk arms negotiator Paul H. Nitze." Lemnitzer was author of Operation Northwoods, the plan to foment war against Cuba by creating incidents with Americans killed by phony Cubans.
Rumsfeld family tie is first victim of war 2/9/03 Telegraph, UK: "The Rumsfelds of Weyhe-Sudweyhe, an unremarkable red-brick suburb of Bremen, were once proud of their long-lost cousin, America's secretary of state for defence - but no longer.
Like many Germans, they are appalled by Donald Rumsfeld's hawkish attitude to military action against Saddam Hussein." Hence Rummy's remarks about old Europe?
New York City Rally and March Permit Status 2/9/03 United for Peace & Justice: call for actions to secure Feb 15 permit in NY.
Foreign coup 'technicians' revealed as plotting a third coup attempt 2/9/03 Vheadlines: "Salazar’s sources report the entry to Venezuela of foreign IC destabilization experts advising an upbeat espionage assault on all levels of national life … street actions and winning over military officers that escaped the post-April purge are top priorities… Salazar confirms other reports that Spanish business and political sectors are favorable towards a coup solution, while in Venezuela itself, religious sects with high racist and anti-communist content ... and a huge injection of foreign money ... are making inroads in the so-called civil sector." Now who would those racist, religious sects be?
Saturday 2/8/03
 Saudis Plan to End U.S. Presence 2/8/03 NYT: "Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United States, to enact what Saudi officials call the first significant democratic reforms at home, and to rein in the conservative clergy that has shared power in the kingdom… The presence of foreign — especially American — forces since the Persian Gulf war of 1991 has been a contentious issue in Saudi Arabia and has spurred the terrorism of Osama bin Laden, the now disowned scion of one of the kingdom's wealthiest families, and his followers in Al Qaeda.
Saudi officials said the departure of American soldiers would set the stage for an announcement that Saudis — but probably not women, at least initially — would begin electing representatives to provincial assemblies and then to a national assembly, Saudi officials said."
Huge Car Bomb Kills 20 at Elite Colombian Club 2/8/03 Reuters: "A powerful car bomb wrecked one of the most exclusive clubs in the Colombian capital Bogota on Friday, killing at least 20 people, injuring more than 100 and sending panicked socialites staggering into the debris-strewn streets, authorities said."
Weary Wall Street Wary of Bush Policies 2/8/03 Reuters: "More than a year after the recession supposedly ended, a lot of things are still going wrong, leaving weary stock investors unwilling to take a stand and wary of President Bush's domestic and foreign policies.
Wall Street's long slide is scaring off investors who have typically taken a solid long-term view about the market. Faced with false rallies since the wealth destruction began in early 2000, most people don't believe that the message they walked away with after the 1987 crash -- that the period was a great buying opportunity -- will apply this time around."
French are unmoved by US 'frog bashing' 2/8/03 Times, UK: "France is shrugging off what the left-wing daily Libération labelled “le frog-bashing” as a manifestation of the primitive prejudices now prevailing in a country with which it has a long tradition of rivalry. Gallic commentators see America’s anger as proof that Paris must be doing something right. “It’s a little tiresome,” one French diplomat said. “The Americans always throw tantrums like this when they don’t get their way.”
Mystery Afghan troops attack target outside US airbase 2/8/03 Ummah News: "A press statement issued from Bagram, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul, said around five Afghan men were seen directing mortar fire away from the base, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"A Bagram air base security post reported an estimated five local nationals carrying mortars at approximately 5:00 am (0030 GMT) this morning, north of the base," the statement said." Bagram was also a main Soviet base in the Afghan War of the 80's.
Friday 2/7/03
Benador Associates Speakers list 2/7/03 Benador Associates: a who's who of media manipulators on Iraq and US Foreign Policy in this Israeli-American PR firm.
Gassing Iraq: Pentagon Plans to US Biochemical Weapons 2/7/03 Counterpunch
Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance 2/7/03 DOD, Command and Control Research Program: a doctrine of fools that won't even work in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries on earth.
Students Protest Possible Iraq War 2/7/03 LA Times: "More than 200 students carrying "no blood for oil" signs marched down the steps of the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies magnet school in West Los Angeles on Thursday to protest preparations for war against Iraq."
Civil rights lawyer: City cites terrorist threats to ban protest marches 2/7/03 Newsday: Interesting how the authorities allow Troskyite ANSWER to have their march in DC but not the broader based United for Peace & Justice coalition to have theirs in NY. Federal directives used as cover - "A civil rights lawyer accused the city on Friday of citing terrorist threats to ban protest marches as he urged a federal judge to permit a parade of anti-war demonstrators at the United Nations next week… "The concern we have is the security concerns since 9-11, which was heightened today," Esposito said, referring to the government decision Friday to raise its terror threat level to high. "I have received orders to do certain things concerning security as of 12 (noon) today."
DRUGS, OIL, AND WAR: PREFACE 2/7/03 Peter Dale Scott: "With respect to drugs, I will only say that the United States must end those repressive policies whose result (and often intention) is to maintain the high drug prices that strengthen and enrich the international drug traffic. With respect to oil, we must intensify the search for technological ways to reduce consumption at home and move toward a more multilateral and equitable oil system abroad. Above all, the United States must return to the multilateral system of global regulation that it helped establish after World War II and renounce the fatal temptation to become a hegemon. We must not repeat the follies of Napoleon and Hitler in the heartlands of Eurasia.
This shift will require a different strategy to deal with the dollar and with petrodollars, particularly those from Saudi Arabia and its neighbors in the Persian Gulf. At present the United States balances its payments by secret agreements with Saudi Arabia to recycle petrodollars to the United States and to ensure that OPEC sales all over the world are denominated in U.S. dollars. These arrangements to ease pressure on the U.S. currency have helped, as an inevitable consequence, to create debt crises all over the Third World.
The same secret agreements, discussed in chapter 1 of this volume, are perhaps the prime example of how secret U.S. policies, barely documented, can give rise to global conditions of misery and unrest. People’s strategies of public opposition to official policies, such as the rallies that activists like Noam Chomsky indefatigably address, are in my opinion unlikely to succeed until they expose the unjust secret arrangements and deals on which these official policies are based. The U.S. political establishment, seemingly unassailable on its surface, becomes more vulnerable when the private, covert, and sometimes conspiratorial origins of what passes for public policy are exposed. This book is dedicated to examining war policies at this deeper level."
THE FORTHCOMING IRAQ WAR AND HOW TO OPPOSE IT 2/7/03 Peter Dale Scott: "Above all we must not, in coping with powers that are hateful, become hateful ourselves. This may sound trite, but we must remember how immature hatefulness destroyed the US movement against the war in Vietnam. It may sound ineffective; but we must remember that peaceful and non-violent protest has in fact achieved a number of goals that once seemed improbable, from US disinvestment in South Africa (an important step towards the subsequent liberation of its people) to the independence of East Timor.
The headlines about war should not depress us to the point that we lose touch with the many sources of goodness in this world. Instead we should mobilize to save them."
« La France n'est plus l'alliée des États-Unis » déclare le président du Conseil de la politique de défense du Pentagone 2/7/03 Réseau Voltaire: "La presse française analyse le refroidissement des relations diplomatiques entre Paris et Washington comme une simple crise, comparable à celle qui vit le retrait par Charles De Gaulle du commandement intégré de l'OTAN. Au contraire, pour les « faucons » états-uniens, il ne s'agit plus d'une crise, mais d'une rupture. Celle-ci est mise en scène par Benador Associates, un cabinet de relations publiques israélo-états-unien."
U.S. Considers New Anti-Terrorism Legislation 2/7/03 Reuters: "The U.S. Justice Department, which won broad new powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to eavesdrop and detain immigrants, is drafting legislation that would authorize the creation of a terrorist identification database, department officials said on Friday.
They said the proposals, which already have been criticized by civil liberties groups, also would limit the disclosure of certain information and allow pretrial detention of people suspected of terrorist activity without bail."
Colombian rebels blow up key oil pipeline 2/7/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "Colombian leftist rebels blew up a section of the country's most important oil pipeline in the northern Arauca province that US Special Forces are helping to guard, police said.
The pipeline, operated by multinational oil giant Occidental Petroleum, links the oil fields around the town of Cano Limon with the Caribbean oil terminal of Covenas and carries 105,000 barrels of oil a day.
It is considered crucial to maintaining uninterrupted oil exports, a major source of Colombian export earnings… Sabotage to the pipeline in 2001 cost Occidental Petroleum some $US445 million ($A754.24 million) in lost production, and prompted the Colombian government to place the oil producing region under military control."
Secret video refers to CIA killing Mugabe 2/7/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "The tape, recorded by ceiling-level cameras in the consultant's offices in Montreal on December4, 2001, shows Mr Ben Menashe becoming angry when Tsvangirai said constitutional succession would have to be followed if Mr Mugabe was no longer in office.
"We do our thing. We eliminate or assassinate Mugabe or whatever ... then you say: now there's a constitutional process," Mr Ben Menashe said on the recording.
He added: "This is a different story. Work has been done on your behalf to get stuff to Congress. Work has been done to get these guys on your side to do the elimination on your behalf" as he pointed to a man at the table he had earlier identified as a CIA official who gave his name as Edward Simms."
Venezuela-resident Nazi executive kicked out of Costa Rica 2/7/03 Vheadlines
United for Peace & Justice 2/7/03 www.unitedforpeace.org: the web site for the New York and San Francisco demonstrations on Feb 15 and 16.
Thursday 2/6/03
Dustin Hoffman blasts Bush's war plans 2/6/03 Ananova: "Hoffman accused the Bush administration of "manipulating the grief of the country" after the events of September 11.
The president's real motives for going to war are power and oil, he said."
American Deaths in Afghanistan Campaign 2/6/03 AP: how many have been left out of this account?
Shunned DC Demands Full Voting Rights, First Primary 2/6/03 Black Commentator: "Washington, DC - the nation's first majority-black major city, and currently the only place in the world where residents of a democracy are not allowed a voice in the legislative body that governs them."
2002 immigration was lowest in 13 years, CBS
reports 2/6/03 Haaretz, Israel: "Only 33,500 people immigrated to Israel last year, the lowest annual figure since 1989, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Wednesday.
Last year's total was about 10,000 less than the number of immigrants who came in 2001, the bureau said, but still double the average during the 1980s, which was about 15,000 a year.
In 1990, the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union began, bringing 1.1 million people to Israel in just over a decade; but the annual figures have slowed steadily since the peak of 200,000 recorded that year.
The decline in immigration from the former Soviet Union was the main reason for last year's low immigration figures, more than offsetting the rise in immigration from certain other countries, such as Argentina. Some 6,000 immigrants came to Israel from Argentina last year - more than four times the 1,400 that came in 2001. Nevertheless, the 18,500 immigrants from the former Soviet Union remained the lion's share of the total."
US courts 'ignored evidence clearing executed Briton' 2/6/03 Independent, UK: "Elliott's lawyers believe he was set up to take the fall because, as a mixed white-Hispanic man, he was considered the outsider of the group."
La CIA, la manipulación cultural y la compra de conciencias 2/6/03 Juventud Rebelde: "Durante la Guerra Fría y hasta hoy, los servicios especiales norteamericanos, en especial la CIA, ha desarrollado operaciones secretas y abiertas para comprar y manipular a la intelectualidad mundial en función de los intereses de los gobiernos norteamericanos." Some say CIA invested in modern art, viewed as a safe art wtihout anti-religious overtones that could offend their more right wing consituencies.
CIA Officer Killed, 2 Hurt in Afghanistan 2/6/03 Newsday: "One CIA officer was killed and two others were injured in a training accident in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, agency officials said." So many accidents…
Judges targeted as Guatemala terror escalates 2/6/03 Reuters: "A judge is pumped full of bullets outside Sunday Mass three days after another survives a similar spray of automatic fire by diving out of her car. Four judges have received death threats already this year."
90 with al-Qaeda links jailed in Saudi Arabia 2/6/03 Ummah News: "The interior minister said last year that Saudi security agencies had questioned some 700 people with suspected links to al-Qaeda but only the 250 were detained. Those still in detention face legal action."
Wednesday 2/5/03
El exterminio de los indigenas Kuna 2/5/03 ANNCOL: "El exterminio de los indigenas Kuna es parte del proyecto de contrareforma agraria comenzado por el Gral. Rito Alejo - santo de la devoción del hoy alto gobierno - escribe Alfredo Molano (Tomado del Equipo Nizkor)"
Mandela says Powell is undermining United States 2/5/03 AP: "Speaking before Powell's speech to the world body, Mandela said chief UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei were the only ones with the authority to determine whether Iraq was complying with U.N. resolutions.
"We are going to listen to them and to them alone. We are not going to listen to the United States of America. They are not telling us how they got that information," Mandela told reporters."
Venezuela strike crumbles as Chavez retains power 2/5/03 AP
No casus belli? Invent one! 2/5/03 Guardian, UK: Past lies of the US on the occasion of the first Gulf War - "Jean Heller, an investigative reporter on the St Petersburg Times, has been nominated for a Pulitzer prize five times and come second twice, so when she asked permission to spend $3,200 (£1,950) on two satellite pictures, the newspaper backed her.
Heller's curiosity had been aroused in September when she read a report of a commercial satellite - the Soyuz Karta - orbiting and taking pictures over Kuwait. She wanted to see what the only independent pictures would make of the alleged massive build-up of Iraqi troops on the Kuwait/Saudi border. Soyuz Karta agreed to provide them. But no trace of the 265,000 Iraqi troops and 1,500 tanks that the US officials said were there could be found in the photographs."
Robert Fisk: Don't mention the war in Afghanistan 2/5/03 Independent, UK: "Hands up those who know that al-Qa'ida has a radio station operating inside Afghanistan which calls for a holy war against America? It's true. Hands up again anyone who can guess how many of the daily weapons caches discovered by US troops in the country have been brought into Afghanistan since America's "successful" war? Answer: up to 25 per cent.
Have any US troops retreated from their positions along the Afghan-Pakistan border? None, you may say. And you would be wrong. At least five positions, according to Pakistani sources on the other side of the frontier, only one of which has been admitted by US forces. On 11 December, US troops abandoned their military outpost at Lwara after nightly rocket attacks which destroyed several American military vehicles. Their Afghan allies were driven out only days later and al-Qa'ida fighters then stormed the US compound and burnt it to the ground."
Update on Feb. 15 March & Rally 2/5/03 IndyMedia: "The reason we have not yet been able to provide a location for this event is simple: With less than two weeks left before Feb. 15, the City of New York has still not granted our request for a permit to march and rally."
'Al-Qaeda sympathisers fighting Saudi security forces' 2/5/03 Jang Group, Pakistan: "At least nine armed clashes have taken place in the last six or seven months, the most recent on Sunday in the eastern province of Qatif," he told AFP, quoting sources within the security apparatus.
The spokesman for the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia said the clashes followed fatwas or religious decrees issued by unofficial Muslim leaders, including Sheikh Hmud bin Okla al-Shuaibi "who authorised, if necessary, armed resistance".
A dissident living in Riyadh told AFP by telephone "these are not isolated incidents but part of an armed confrontation between us and security forces."
"Such incidents will increase if there is an American attack against Iraq, and particularly if Riyadh grants military facilities to the Americans," said the Saudi, an "Afghan Arab" who fought against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan as did Osama bin Laden."
Venezuela's Chavez Threatens Foes with Forex Curbs 2/5/03 Reuters: "Speaking at a ceremony to commemorate a botched coup bid he led in 1992, Chavez said foreign exchange curbs to be introduced Thursday would be administered by a loyal retired army officer, Capt. Edgar Hernandez.
Hernandez will head a currency control office set up to counter the economic damage from the nine-week-old opposition strike, which has triggered a financial crisis in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
The government announced the controls, along with heavy budget cuts, to halt capital flight and a sharp drop in the bolivar currency caused by the grueling protest shutdown."
Americans will be fighting ghosts, say Iraqi exiles 2/5/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "The Americans will be fighting ghosts. They will find it very hard to know where the enemy is. Those who are betting that Saddam will be defeated quickly are mistaken," Lieutenant-General Tawfik al-Yassiri said.
"Tens of thousands of elite Iraqi forces have spread underground, above ground, in farms, schools, mosques, churches ... everywhere. They are not in camps or major installations. These units are prepared for city warfare and have the experience for it."
General al-Yassiri took part in a 1991 uprising against Saddam and now heads a council of exiled officers, who maintain contact with their former comrades inside Iraq."
“Left” apologists for US imperialism red-bait the anti-war movement 2/5/03 World Socialist: "The emergence of a broad-based movement of opposition to the Bush administration’s war against Iraq caught the American political and media establishment unawares. In the response of the various factions of the ruling elite there has been one common theme: the need to purge the anti-war movement of its left-wing elements and render it politically harmless."
Powell's Dubious Case 2/5/03 Znet: "U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the UN Security Council on February 5 wasn't likely to win over anyone not already on his side. He ignored the crucial fact that in the past several days (in Sunday's New York Times and in his February 4th briefing of UN journalists) Hans Blix denied key components of Powell's claims."
War For World Dominance 2/5/03 Znet: "Bush, and the ruling Wall Street elite he represents, are desperately seeking to cope with a growing economic crisis attributable to fundamental contradictions in the very system over which they reign. As in the past, war is seen as the answer. Today, they want to go to war to grab the vast untapped oil riches of Iraq and the Persian Gulf. More importantly, they want to literally rule the world because they think it will rescue them from the deepening economic morass and bring a cornucopia of super profits. They are also massively shifting the burden of the crisis to the workers, poor, and middle strata in the United States and in every corner of the world. In the process they intend to siphon off even more wealth to the minuscule top one percent of society. Such were the undercurrents beneath Bush's State of the Union rhetoric."
Tuesday 2/4/03
Denuncian vínculos de sobrino de Rafael Poleo con el narcotráfico 2/4/03 Aporrea: "Estimados compatriotas, recurrimos a ustedes para efectuar esta denuncia de suma gravedad, conscientes de que los medios de “información” nacionales harán hasta lo imposible por evitar su publicación, ya que las PRUEBAS aquí contenidas involucran a uno de los grupos económico-mediáticos mas poderosos e influyentes dentro de la Coordinadora Democrática: El Grupo Poleo, dueños de El Nuevo País." Old patterns repeating themselves…
Mega-Terror Menaces on Three Continents 2/4/03 Debka, Israel: "Al Qaeda’s spokesmen are going beyond general calls for action against the enemy. They have announced a serious escalation of tactics. They are telling partisans explicitly that American troops and civilians must be fought with nuclear weapons. In some Internet sites associated with the group, such slogans as “the way to kill Americans is by nuclear attack,” appear of late. Another favorite is: “There are no Western civilians. Every Westerner is a combatant whom we are enjoined to kill.”
DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terror experts estimate that Al Qaeda is striving to prepare the ground for the mass murder of American and Western civilians by unconventional means of warfare.
The network’s sites abound with detailed instructions on how to prepare chemical agents and dangerous toxins for harming American troops. They also offer detailed information on security procedures at American Gulf military installations and ways to overcome them for the kidnapping of US troops as hostages. Our experts suggest that their harping on the nuclear option is a strong indication that the fundamentalists possess some sort of nuclear weapon.
Our monitors have picked up another alarming development on the al Qaeda Internet scene. While the chatter continues unabated, operational signals among activist cells in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon have dried up. This organized blackout of electronic communications on open channels appears to portend some operation."
Malcolm Hooper - Emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland 2/4/03 Guardian: "The Gulf war was the most toxic battle in western military history. We exposed our own troops to major toxins. When I became chief scientific advisor to the British Gulf war veterans, I naively expected their health problems to be handled with integrity by the authorities. Instead I came up against corrupt politics, bad medicine and science prostituted in the service of the military."
Hamza gloats over shuttle 2/4/03 Sun, UK: "HOOK-handed cleric Abu Hamza last night GLOATED over the shuttle disaster and rejoiced in the deaths of the seven astronauts.
The Muslim fanatic called the Columbia crew “thugs of space” who deserved to die.
He denounced the team — made up of Americans, an Israeli and an Indian-born Hindu — as a “trinity of evil” punished by Allah.
The 45-year-old cleric said they were “criminals” bent on boosting military satellite technology so America could dominate the world. He claimed it was a sign from God that debris rained down on a Texas town named Palestine. Hamza — banned from preaching his hate-filled sermons at London’s Finsbury Park mosque — said of the tragedy: “This was a divine act, a message for mankind.” Hamza received his injuries as a CIA backed mujahedeen in the Afghan war against the Soviets.
Blair blocked ship deal to snub Chirac 2/4/03 Telegraph, UK: "Tony Blair blocked a decision to award a French company a £3 billion contract to build the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers because of anger at President Jacques Chirac's behaviour over Iraq and Zimbabwe. M Chirac's decision to invite President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to Paris for a summit on Africa this month in defiance of EU travel sanctions proved to be "the last straw"."
Pentagon adviser: France 'no longer ally' 2/4/03 UPI: French sources with top security clearance point out that the senior leadership in that country remembers well how Eisenhower, in one of his famous temper tantrums, threatened to atomize Paris and London if they did not pull out of Suez in 1956. That set the tone for the years to come. The British, with characteristic duplicity, pretended to go along with the US, but "accidentally" bombed a US ship in the port of Alexandria.
Arrests of al Qaeda terrorists disrupt plans for attack 2/4/03 Washington Times: the Rev. Moon's paper - ""The attack will be large-scale," one official said.
Additionally, the intelligence reports stated that any major attack is likely to be preceded by smaller-scale strikes, including assassinations of prominent people in the United States, the official said."
General Strike Organized Against Chavez Crumbles 2/4/03 Znet: "You know, according to the polls Chavez still is the most popular politician. The polls indicate that Chavez has between 30 and 35 percent, and this figure is actually from before the strike. Chavez has actually gained support. According to one survey that I saw that was published in the newspaper, it's a weekly newspaper that's called Quinto Dia, (http://www.quintodia.com.ve )l his support is up to about 50 percent. I mean that's just one survey that was quoted in the press and it's not a pro-Chavez newspaper.
But in any case, the surveys that were conducted before the strike placed Chavez at between 30 and 35 percent and the leading politicians of the opposition somewhere a little over 20 percent, and then the second leading candidate of the opposition less than that."
Monday 2/3/03
Chavez claims strike victory 2/3/03 BBC
Mandela Loses Patience With Bush Over Iraq 2/3/03 Black World Today: "Mandela also launched a stunning attack on British Prime Minister, Tony Blair -- a strong supporter of the U.S. in its campaign against Iraq. ''He is the foreign minister of the United States. He is not longer the Prime Minister of Britain''.
Mandela's attack on Blair comes just before South African President, Thabo Mbeki, meets with the British Prime Minister, in the United Kingdom, on Feb 1."
Scott Duke Harris: Anti-war movement marshals forces online 2/3/03 SiliconValley.com: "MoveOn, an advocacy hub based in Berkeley, is one of the more successful online groups when it comes to bridging the gap between the traditional and the new organizing efforts. MoveOn directors say its e-mail list, compiled after a person registers for free, has grown from 350,000 to 700,000 since August, when it began urging the Bush administration to exercise military restraint in confronting Iraq. Last fall, MoveOn hoped to raise $40,000 to pay for an anti-war appeal in the New York Times; members sent in nearly 10 times that amount… TrueMajority, a smaller Web-based group founded by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, also has made the new-world-to-old-world connection, raising money online to produce an anti-war TV ad.
Whereas it might have been difficult in the Vietnam War era for one peace group to clearly differentiate itself from another, the Web makes it easier for organizations to spell out their missions.
A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is known for its leftist agenda, for example. Antiwar.com is a Menlo Park-based operation with libertarian roots. Eric Garris, a Republican, founded Antiwar.com in 1995 ``to get away from the idea that the anti-war movement is only pacifist and leftist.''
The site claims to be attracting more than 400,000 separate visitors per month, including about a third from outside the United States."
North Korea on 'verge of making warheads' 2/3/03 Sydney Morning Herald: "But if the North Koreans reprocess the spent fuel rods, they could obtain enough weapons-grade plutonium to make several nuclear bombs within months, officials said. North Korea is suspected of already having one or two atomic bombs.
In another sign of the deepening crisis, the commander of US forces in the Pacific has reportedly asked the Pentagon for more troops, aircraft and warships to deter any "adventure" by North Korea if the US goes to war against Iraq."
Chavez Is On The Offensive - He Does Not Intend To Share The Fate Of Salvador Allende Or Michael Manley 2/3/03 Znet: "Wresting control of the PDVSA from the old pro-American management, who had run it as a personal fiefdom and favoured privatisation, is seen as pivotal to Chavez’s ability to deliver on his promises of homes, health and education for the poor. Just as the failure of April’s coup allowed Chavez to purge the military of right wing Generals, the slow defeat of the strike in the PDVSA, has provided Chavez with the opportunity to dismiss 5,000 anti-government executives and saboteurs, and press ahead with the long overdue reform of the company.
Thus far, the Venezuelan opposition’s tactics bear a remarkable and uncanny similarity to those which successfully overthrew Salvador Allende’s government in Chile in 1973 and which led to Michael Manley’s defeat at the ballot box in Jamaica in 1980." Uncannily organized in Langley and US think tanks under contract.
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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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