World News
7/8/02 - 7/14/02

Sunday 7/14/02

US UNIONISTS PROTEST COCA-COLA KILLINGS  7/14/02 ANNCOL: published 7/4 - "In solidarity with Colombian Coca-Cola employees a group of US labour organizations are organizing a vigil at Coca-Cola corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on July 22. The purpose is to put pressure on the soft drink giant to stop allowing the murder of workers at its Colombian bottling plants, the US unionists say."

Ex-radical held in 1971 killing of cop  7/14/02 Atlanta Journal Constitution: "The Black Liberation Army was a disciplined but loose-knit cluster of cells claiming to fight racial oppression by killing cops. The small but heavily armed group began operating around 1970, was smashed in shootouts and sputtered out in the early 1980s with the imprisonment of its top remaining members."

US Special Forces Come Under Grenade Attack In Uruzgan  7/14/02 Azzam: "Unknown gunmen launched an attack on an American Special Forces checkpoint on Friday. Grenades and other light weapons were used in the attack, which was launched near the same village that was victim to the barbaric US bombing that claimed 250 innocent lives and injured more than 400."

EU tells Morocco to quit island  7/14/02 BBC

Girls go to war as Colombia's frontline killers  7/14/02 Guardian, UK: "At least one third of Farc's 18,000 soldiers are now women. Hundreds more are being recruited as it gears up for a greater challenge from an expanding army expecting to receive more military aid and training from the United States as part of Washington's wars against drugs and terrorism… Defectors, however, say around half of their former comrades would desert the Farc if they thought they could escape safely. One reason for deserting, say the critics, is the guerrillas' double standards. Footsoldiers must lead blameless, disciplined lives, while their leaders get drunk, gamble and kill indiscriminately. And the Farc has largely lost not just its way, but the support of the people. Although the Farc was founded to fight for social justice, in the last decade it has been corrupted by its involvement in the drugs trade. Many of those it kills now are innocent peasants, the very people it set out to liberate."

Cabinet drops bill to exclude Arabs from Galilee settlements  7/14/02 Jerusalem Post

F.B.I. and Military Unite in Pakistan to Hunt Al Qaeda  7/14/02 NYT: confirming reports from Azzam and from Pakistani media.

Indonesia's Guerrilla War Puts Exxon Under Siege  7/14/02 NYT: classic oil company behavior - "Exxon Mobil is also the object of a lawsuit filed on behalf of villagers who accuse the company of turning a blind eye to brutality by Indonesian soldiers, who have a long history of human rights abuses and have been paid to provide the plant's security."

Nigerian Women, in Peaceful Protest, Shut Down Oil Plant  7/14/02 NYT: "Anunu Uwawah let a small smile escape as she told how she and a band of 150 village women have shut down most of a multinational oil company's operations in Nigeria for nearly a week. Ms. Uwawah said that on Monday the women, from the Ugborodo and Arutan communities, commandeered a ChevronTexaco staff ferry to sneak into the company's Escravos pipeline terminal." Texaco has a long history of racism.

Bush squirms in sleaze scandal  7/14/02 Observer, UK: "They relate to Bush's sale of stocks in an oil company of which he was a director in June 1990 - a transaction that catapulted him to massive wealth and on to the political stage in Texas and thereafter the world. The papers show that, despite his claims to the contrary, Bush was advised that the value of shares in his company, Harken Oil, were about to plummet. He sold them off just in time, reaping a profit of $835,807 (£553,514). It is a breach of US regulations to trade in stock with inside knowledge that its value is about to change."

Harken Documents on Bush Insider Trading  7/14/02 Public I: many primary documents on Bush's insider trading with Harken stock.

Four Afghan Soldiers Killed in Rocket Attack  7/14/02 Reuters: note the reference to smugglers instead of Al Qaeda, whose existence is simultaneously minimized and puffed up.

52 die after violence breaks out in Colombia  7/14/02 Scotsman

Christian Coalition to rally for Israel  7/14/02 World Net Daily: "The Christian Coalition said in a statement that it is "committed to Israel's survival." The organization does not believe Israel can survive if a Palestinian state is built." These good "christians" wish to condemn Palestinians to perpetual servitude and ethnic cleansing.

Saturday 7/13/02

Colombian journalist murdered  7/13/02 BBC: "The body of Mario Prada, who ran a cultural monthly Horizonte del Magdalena Medio was found beside a road outside the town of Sabana de Torres."

Protests over US police beating  7/13/02 BBC: "The man who took the video of Donovan Jackson's beating, Mitchell Crooks, on Friday started a seven-month jail sentence. He had been avoiding the authorities in northern California where he had been found guilty of drunk driving and petty theft." Left out is the fact that due to overcrowding, misdemeanor offenders are not even put in jail in LA County, so his arrest was clearly an act of revenge.

Spain press attacks Morocco  7/13/02 BBC

US Builds New Jumping off Base in Eritrea  7/13/02 Debka: "America has secretly built a new central command center for its Iraq offensive in the Eritrean port of Assab. The new facility also houses jumping off bases for the US air force and navy. While way off the beaten track, Assab has the great advantage of being positioned strategically near the Bab el Mandeb Straits linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the mouth of Persian Gulf. The dusty streets of this East African corner have recently filled with white American vans dashing around without license plates but recognizable as military vehicles from their sprouting antennae. In Assab’s harbor, docks and storage facilities have been renovated and closed off as a US military zone. Rooftop aerials and satellite dishes mark out a major US command post. Just to the north of Assab, the Americans have whipped a small local airport into the largest air base in the Horn of Africa, partly compensating for the sophisticated Prince Sultan air force base denied them in Saudi Arabia. Its new, wide runways can cater to heavy bombers, transports and fighter-bombers taking off for missions against any target in southern Iraq or the Baghdad area with the help of in-air fuel feeds. From Dalak, the US air force reach extends to any point in Iraq - from Baghdad to the northern oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.The largest concentration of US bases is located on the big island of Dalak Dist; some installations have gone up in the small eastern town of Deba Alawa and a town on the western side of the island of Jamil. In these locations, the US forces can avail themselves of Soviet port acilities, landing strips, headquarters and structures built there in the 1970s... Northern Iraq, including its oil cities, will be under the purview of US bases in southern Turkey and Tbilisi, Georgia. The new Red Sea bases, along with American aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean, will round off US coverage of all Iraqi airspace."

Eyewitness Account of the Shooting of Palestinian Journalists  7/13/02 Palestine Chronicle: "I spoke with Dahla as I tried to get them to the hospital later on, and he told me that they were filming from a close distance while wearing jackets that were clearly marked with the word “Press”. He said that the army opened fire directly at them using 800 mm round (from a tank-mounted gun)."

Past seen haunting Bush corporate crime chief  7/13/02 Reuters: "The head of President George W. Bush's corporate-crime SWAT team once was a director at a credit card company that paid more than 250 million pounds to settle allegations of consumer and securities fraud, the Washington Post has reported."

Friday 7/12/02

U.S. Forces Compound Attacked  7/12/02 ABC News: "A U.S. special forces compound came under grenade and small arms fire near the village where an American airstrike killed civilians at a wedding celebration, U.S. officials said Friday. There were no casualties in the attack, which occurred late Thursday near Tarin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province, U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King said. Afghan soldiers working alongside special forces returned fire after the brief attack, King added. Hostility toward U.S. military operations has increased in southern and central Afghanistan since the July 1 airstrike, in which an AC-130 gunship raked a compound where members of an extended family were celebrating an upcoming wedding." And on it goes to the next wedding rubout.

UNION ACCUSES COCA-COLA OF MURDER  7/12/02 ANNCOL: "In recent years the Colombian Food Industry Worker's Union (SINALTRAINAL) has been the victim of a systematic campaign of destruction, which has seen the assassination of 14 senior members of the union. According to the union the Colombian state and the multinational Coca-Cola Corporation are behind the crimes and at least 7 members of the union working in Coca-Cola plants in Colombia have been murdered after demanding that the company pay fair wages and respect the local environment."

Man Who Videotaped Beating Arrested  7/12/02 AP: "On Thursday, the amateur cameraman who videotaped the incident, Mitchell Eugene Crooks, was picked up outside CNN's studio in Hollywood on outstanding warrants for petty theft, driving under the influence, and a hit-and-run, Los Angeles County District Attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. Crooks, 27, ran from officers and let out several bloodcurdling screams as he was arrested, yelling, "Help me, help me." The arrest was captured by security cameras at CNN and Crooks was taken to the jail ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center."

U.N. Reaches Deal on War Crimes Court  7/12/02 AP: "This one-year directive is a temporary immunity from the International Criminal Court for not only the U.S. but for any country that is not a party to the treaty," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission. Under intense opposition from its closest allies and countries around the world, the United States backed down this week from its demand for permanent immunity for American peacekeepers."

SEC chairman Pitt says he won't resign  7/12/02 Atlanta Journal Constitution: "Pitt said he has no plans to release additional SEC documents involving Bush's sale of Harken Energy Co. stock in 1990."

Zionist Foreign Secretary Jorge Gutman Purging SRE of Non-Jews  7/12/02 Aztlan: an easy target for accusations of anti-semiticism thanks to expressions of racist sentiments, Aztlan nevertheless describes a process in Mexico that is familiar to US election watchers.

The Other Harken Energy Scandal - Oil, Death Squads and Corruption in Colombia  7/12/02 Counterpunch: "The bulk of the oil contracts were in the Magdalena Valley where military officers, drug traffickers, and cattle ranchers had come together to form right wing paramilitary groups that fought guerillas, assassinated union leaders and human rights activists, and terrorized peasants in order to force them off coveted land. Most of the oil companies doing business in the region either tacitly accepted or actively sought out the protection of these death squads. A 1996 Human Rights Watch report documents the fact that the Colombian military armed and assisted these groups and, under the guidance of the CIA, integrated them into its intelligence networks. The close cooperation between the military and the paramilitaries continues today - and tends to be most rampant in areas where there is a lot of oil production."

Al-Neda Website Archive  7/12/02 Cryptome: "The real Alneda site was at Alneda.com not Al-neda.com, MY site I have put up in conjunction with federal authorities in hopes of intercepting confused communication intended for the actual "Alneda" site formerly at drasat.com."

Israeli hackers lead the world  7/12/02 Haaretz, Israel: "The study found that for every 10,000 Israeli Web surfers, there are an average of 33.1 hacker attacks generated against Internet sites throughout the world. Hong Kong came in second in the study, with 22.1 attacks per 10,000 Web users, followed by France (19.9), Belgium (17.6) and Thailand (15.9)."

ADVIERTE LÍDER INDÍGENA BOLIVIANO POSIBLE INSURRECCIÓN SI BLOQUEAN SU ACCESO A LA PRESIDENCIA  7/12/02 Radio Havana: "El líder agrario boliviano Evo Morales, primer indígena que disputará en el Congreso la Presidencia de Bolivia, advirtió sobre una posible insurrección en su país, si no se le llegase a permitir el acceso a la primera magistratura en caso de ser nombrado para el cargo."

Venezuela: Fracasa marcha golpista armada  7/12/02 Rebelion: "El pueblo bolivariano en general, las coordinadoras populares, un gran número de Círculos Bolivarianos, Los Tupamaros, la Asamblea Popular Revolucionaria, la Asamblea Popular Revolucionaria de Coche y un sinúmero de otras organizaciones populares estan en la Avenida Sucre a la altura del sector Agua Salud, preparados para la defensa del palacio. Un gran número de militantes del partido MVR se encuentra en El Calvario muy cerca del palacio de Miraflores. Los grupos independientes exigiremos que se nos permita llegar tan cerca del palacio como lo ha hecho el MVR."

Seattle militants investigated for possible ties to al-Qaida  7/12/02 Seattle Times: "The Seattle investigation has focused on some members, both African Americans and whites, of the now-defunct Dar-us-Salaam mosque in Seattle's Central Area. Federal agents have identified at least a half-dozen core members of the purported cell but have gathered information on more than 100 others who had dealings with radicals at the Seattle mosque."

Debating September 11  7/12/02 The Nation

Iraqi sites for bio-war revealed by defector  7/12/02 Times, UK

Against the boycott of Israeli academics  7/12/02 World Socialist: "By crudely equating Jewish academic institutions with the Israeli state and its crimes, the academic boycott plays directly into the hands of Zionist ideologues. Measures targeting ordinary Israeli citizens serve to reinforce Zionism’s efforts to inculcate the fatalistic and deeply pessimistic idea that the entire world is against the Jewish people and that the state of Israel offers their only sanctuary."

Thursday 7/11/02

HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL IMPLICATED IN PLAN TO MURDER CONGRESSMAN  7/11/02 ANNCOL: kill all the moderates and then you have perpetual war - "Gustavo Petro, a progressive member of the Colombian Congress has been forced to flee the country after it was revealed that a senior member of the Colombian Attorney General's Office and a national death squad commander were planning to assassinate him."

PARAMILITARIES ON THE RAMPAGE  7/11/02 ANNCOL: "During the first week of July hundreds of sinister leaflets, signed by the AUC paramilitary group in Colombia, have begun appearing on the streets of the city of Palmira and the nearby town of El Cerrito in Valle de Cauca department. The leaflets say that AUC death squads in both places are soon to begin a campaign of assassinations in poor neighbourhoods where the paramilitaries say residents support guerrillas of the FARC-EP."

WAR AGAINST DISPLACED COMMUNITIES IN COLOMBIA  7/11/02 ANNCOL: "In the city of Medellin the paramilitaries have been burning the makeshift shacks and assassinating leaders of the displaced communities. In Bucaramanga and Barranquilla leaders have received death threats and in Neiva the police violently attacked and threatened 50 families."

Slow Death on the Jail Convoys of Misery  7/11/02 Antiwar: "The second soldier testifies that many US soldiers were present at Shibarghan when they arrived and it was a US officer who gave the order for the dumping of the bodies. "All the containers were full of holes which were visible," he states. "In each container about 150 to 160 had been killed. The Americans told the Scheberghan people to get them outside the city to avoid them being filmed from a satellite." (5) Interviewed separately, the two drivers say that dead, wounded and unconscious prisoners were left on the trucks for the ride to the desert site. As the trucks were unloaded there, the prisoners who were still alive were summarily executed by NA soldiers. One of the drivers maintains that on at least one occasion, dozens of US soldiers were present during the executions… When Doran got word that Dotsum's troops were tampering with the grave site, he showed a short version of his film to the German and European parliaments, in the hope that the publicity would lead to the protecting of the site and an investigation leading to war crimes trials. 5000 of the 8000 Kunduz prisoners are unaccounted for and may be buried in the desert, he fears. Physicians for Human Rights also has called for the site's protection and a full investigation. Its personnel have performed autopsies on three of the bodies and found suffocation to be the probable cause of deaths."

28 Colombia Mayors Resign  7/11/02 AP: "The mayors of 28 cities and towns resigned this week after leftist rebels threatened to kill Colombian mayors if they didn't step down, authorities confirmed Thursday." The FARC is said to get its revenues from taxing the coca trade while the paramilitaries extensively engage in it.

Israel Lobby Alone Cannot Explain Alabama Defeat  7/11/02 Black World Today: "The tragedy in all this is that Earl Hilliard apparently forgot that without mobilizing the Fannie Lou Hamers of Black America or without the Black Belt activists on the ground that sacrificed their lives and fought for political rights, African Americans would still be banished from the halls of Congress."

LULAC leader's speech at convention first ever  7/11/02 Houston Chronicle: "Hector Flores of Dallas, the newly elected national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, made an unprecedented speech to the morning assembly, the first time LULAC's top leader has addressed an NAACP convention."

Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America  7/11/02 Joe Bob Briggs

A Houston man on trial for taking photos of police from his own yard  7/11/02 KHOU, Houston: "According to testimony, Ibarra never interfered with the search warrant scene and never left his own property."

CRITICA CUBA POSICIÓN DE EE.UU. SOBRE TRIBUNAL PENAL INTERNACIONAL  7/11/02 Radio Havana: "Bruno Rodríguez, embajador de Cuba ante la ONU, calificó de asalto armado al Derecho de Tratados la pretensión de Estados Unidos de que el Consejo de Seguridad enmiende el alcance del Tribunal Penal Internacional. El diplomático cubano aclaró que su país no es parte del Estatuto de Roma, que creó ese cuerpo de justicia, pero mantiene que deben ser respetados los estados que soberanamente decidieron firmarlo y ratificarlo."

American elections dictate timing of an attack  7/11/02 Times, UK: "THE rhythms of the American electoral cycle mean that if President Bush fails to attack Iraq at the beginning of next year, he may have missed his chance."

West sees glittering prizes ahead in giant oilfields  7/11/02 Times, UK: "Iraq has oil reserves of 112billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, which has some 265billion barrels. Iraqi reserves are seven times those of the combined UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea. But the prize for oil companies could be even greater. Iraq estimates that its eventual reserves could be as high as 220billion barrels."

Justice Department To Attempt Shut Down of 9/11 Evidence Friday  7/11/02 UQ: "U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Robert D. McCallum, Jr. and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York James B. Comey advised U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, also of the Southern District of New York, that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will intervene to control access to all evidence and documents related to all private litigation before Hellerstein's court regarding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -- citing "grave national security concerns" as their motivation."

The US State Department has gone on the offensive again, urging the Organization of American States (OAS) to insist on its offer to facilitate Venezuela's process of dialogue between the government and the opposition.  7/11/02 Vheadlines: "Some left-wing analysts suggest things are now going the USA’s way and have begun to question the wisdom of recent Chavez Frias appointments: Opus Dei right-winger Roy Chaderton Matos as Foreign Minister (MRE), Tobias Norbrega Suarez as Finance (Hacienda) Minister and conservative Colonel (ret.) Luis Enrique Prieto Silva as Defense Minister."

Trinidad & Tobago used as an anti-Chavez Frias staging ground  7/11/02 Vheadlines: "The announcement last week by Prime Minister without a Parliament, Patrick Manning of Trinidad & Tobago at the Caricom Heads of Government Meeting at Georgetown (Guyana) concerning the proposed natural gas pipeline from Trinidad & Tobago to Puerto Rico, including the French Antilles, is potent proof that Manning is now positing himself as Bush’s proxy in the Caribbean to limit the energy plans and policies of the government of President Hugo Chavez Frias of Venezuela."

Troop movements and meetings with the Armed Force High Command have had a somewhat 'cooling off' effect  7/11/02 Vheadlines

Wednesday 7/10/02

Arms (Still) for Sale How the Market Has Changed for Dealers of Death Since 9/11  7/10/02 ABC News: "In the room was Ukrainian-born Israeli Leonid Minin… In addition, police found $150,000 in cash and the equivalent of a half-million dollars in diamonds — as well as nearly 1,500 pages of documents detailing the activities that allowed Minin to enjoy this good life. Today, Minin is in jail in northern Italy on charges of drug possession. In October, he is expected to stand trial for arms trafficking. He faces up to 12 years in prison."

Senators Decry Bioweapon Test Probe  7/10/02 AP: "Members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee criticized the Pentagon Wednesday for delaying an investigation of chemical and biological weapons tests in the 1960s that may have exposed soldiers to deadly agents."

Anthrax case homes in on unusual suspect  7/10/02 Christian Science Monitor: "The FBI narrows list of people it wants to interview to 30 scientists at two army labs."

Farrakhan corrects Iraqi news report  7/10/02 Final Call: "No, that absolutely is not true. The victory for Iraq as well as for the United States of America would be peace, so that no United States soldier would be put in harms way, or one bomb dropped on the Iraqi people."

Campaigners begin legal battle to shut down Camp X-Ray  7/10/02 Independent, UK

U.S. Backs Off Immunity Fight Involving Court  7/10/02 NYT: "The new American proposal marked a considerable retreat from the letter and spirit of earlier American drafts, which brusquely demanded blanket immunity for United Nations peacekeepers."

Former US pres Jimmy Carter ends Venezuelan mission,disappointed mtg declined  7/10/02 Petroleum World: "Opposition parties missed a chance to ease Venezuela's crisis by refusing to meet President Hugo Chavez, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said at the end of a peacekeeping mission."

U.S. Christians find cause to aid Israel - Evangelicals financing immigrants, settlements  7/10/02 San Francisco Chronicle: "The largest contingent of American Jewish immigrants in years stepped off the El Al charter flight at Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday, overjoyed at the chance to begin their new lives in Israel. Forgotten amid all the excitement was the fact that many of the 371 newcomers had been bankrolled by grants from U.S. evangelical Christians, who regard the return of Jews to the Holy Land as part of an apocalyptic prophecy foretold in the Bible. "What I'm seeing is the Scriptures being fulfilled right before our very eyes," said Bishop Huey Harris, whose First Pentecostal Tabernacle Church in Elkton, Md., raised $2,500 from its congregation to help finance the American Jews' journey."

Police laughed as they beat my son  7/10/02 SF Bay View: "I told them there was no fight, but they wouldn’t leave. “We have to search your house because there might be a dead body inside,” one officer said. They didn’t have a warrant. Another officer started going through the sheets and towels in my cabinets. When they tried to go into the rest of the house, my son Curtis, 22, and I stood in their way. A bald headed officer started striking my son. I asked him why, but he never answered. Instead, he called other officers to help him, and six policemen started beating Curtis with their billy clubs and flashlights. They pulled him down on the floor and handcuffed him face down with his arms behind him. They also put cuffs on his ankles. While he was on the floor, they punched him four times with their fists and kicked him with their boots, and one of them was really hitting him hard with his billy club."

120 countries oppose US stand on world court  7/10/02 The News, Pakistan: "The UN Security Council agreed to let UN member states express their views on Wednesday about the US threat to end the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia if it fails to get immunity for American peacekeepers from the new war crimes tribunal. With nearly 120 countries already on record opposing the US stand, the US government is expected to come under sustained criticism, even from close allies."

Didn't Think Arthur Andersen Could Be Involved In The Scandal At The Catholic Church? Think Again.  7/10/02 Tom Paine: "According to The Telegram, Andersen has run through all $7 million (Canadian) of assets it has recovered, spending some it on its own fees and much of the rest on fees to lawyers the firm hired. Right on the edge of the Grand Banks, the perfect financial -- and ethical -- storm shaped up. Scoundrels who disserved God collided with cads who served Mammon all too well. A gale-force fleecing of the lambs ensued. “They only seem to be interested in lining their own pockets,” Bob Buckingham, a St. John’s attorney who represents 10 of the orphanage alumni, told the paper. Eighty former students in Newfoundland alone are owed compensation; throughout Canada, more than $70 million (Canadian) in payments have been ordered. But there’s no money in the till. Two Christian Brothers schools -- which may be worth as much as $43 million -- remain to be sold, but Arthur Andersen is in arrears on its legal bills, and some of that money will disappear into lawyers’ pockets, too. The molestation victims will get the leavings."

Militants wire Web with links to jihad  7/10/02 USA Today

Tuesday 7/9/02

Judicial Watch plans to sue Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton, alleging accounting fraud  7/9/02 AP: ""We're seeking actual and punitive damages for allegations of securities fraud, for changing accounting practices and not advising the public of these changes," Judicial Watch chairman and general counsel Larry Klayman said Tuesday night in Miami."

Passenger who made comment about pilots' sobriety escorted off plane  7/9/02 AP

Arab boycott affecting US, though its cause is not understood  7/9/02 Arab News: "The Arab boycott is reverberating throughout the United States, but the reason for the boycott — US sympathy and support to Israel — appears to continue to be ignored. The terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 also deeply effected US-Arab tourism, education and trade, which once strengthened ties between the US and the Arab world, despite quarrels over US support for Israel and other foreign affair disputes."

Two French Troops Critically Injured in Explosion at Bagram Airbase  7/9/02 Azzam: "A massive explosion took place on Saturday during land mine removal at Bagram Airbase near the Afghan capital of Kabul. Two French soldiers were critically injured due to this explosion and were later shifted to France. The international 'peace keeping' troops' spokesman, Turkish Colonel Seamet Ooz said that in this incident, both soldiers sustained injuries on their head and arms. Since 'peace-keeping' troops took control of Bagram Airbase in April, almost 800 land mines have been removed but millinos remain over the rest of Afghanistan."

US Dirty Bombs: Radioactive Shells Spiked with Plutonium  7/9/02 Common Dreams: "Meanwhile, the real-time, worldwide use by the United States of radiological dirty bombs has moved well beyond the plotting and shooting stage, and has begun to produce dire consequences. Toxic, radioactive uranium-238 -- so-called depleted uranium -- used in munitions, missiles and tank armor may be responsible for deadly health consequences among U.S. and allied troops and populations in bombed areas, and has probably caused permanent radioactive contamination of large parts of Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo and perhaps Afghanistan. Depleted uranium "penetrators" as they are called burn on impact and up to 70 percent of the DU is released (aerosolized) as toxic and radioactive dust that can be inhaled and ingested and later trapped in the lungs or kidneys."

How Abd a-Samed became the 116th child killed in Gaza  7/9/02 Haaretz, Israel: "Some 26 percent of those killed by IDF fire in the Strip are children, compared to 15 percent in the West Bank."

'Jews-only' law sparks firestorm  7/9/02 Haaretz, Israel: "A proposed law that would allow Jews to bar Arabs from buying homes in their communities could expose Israel to a fresh wave of condemnation recalling the now-rescinded UN resolution equating Zionism and racism, critics of the bill said Wednesday. In a decision that set off a storm of debate, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet Sunday voted to endorse a bill that would allow areas within Israel which have been designated as state land to be devoted to residential use by Jews alone."

A strange kind of freedom  7/9/02 Independent, UK: "We all know about the perils of Islamic fanaticism. But, says Robert Fisk, the biggest threat to liberty in the US may come from other kinds of fundamentalism: Jewish and Christian."

Secret weapon work in Boca recalled  7/9/02 Palm Beach Post: "But Tom West knows many of the secrets. He was there. In an interview with The Palm Beach Post, he revealed previously unreported details of biological weapons testing in South Florida. Off and on from 1952 to 1957, West helped coordinate the wheat growing. He set up plots between and along runways at the old Boca Raton airfield, now the site of the Boca Raton Airport and Florida Atlantic University. By then, the military field had been shut down except as an auxiliary base for the military operations at Morrison Field, now Palm Beach International Airport. The plots of wheat ranged in size from about the area of a football field to about double that, West said. Although the wheat would grow as high as about 18 inches -- about knee high to an average-sized man -- the special team of about 20 men would wait until the wheat grew about a foot high, West said. They would then walk among the stalks with spreaders, spraying a fine powder of spores. After three days, the spores would have multiplied dramatically and the wheat would have spent all its energy fighting them. "The wheat would grow beautifully. But it wouldn't produce any grain," West said. Workers then passed through with tractors fitted with vacuum cleaners that sucked up perhaps millions of the spores. Because the spores multiplied so rapidly, workers were able to harvest them about every third day. Spores were transferred to 1-to-2-gallon vacuum-sealed, stainless-steel containers similar to pressure cooker pots. The containers were taken by truck to Avon Park, then flown out. West doesn't know to where." Possibly to Cuba a few years later, where there were many incidents of biowarfare…

EN BRASIL OTTO REICH PARA PROMOVER EL ALCA  7/9/02 Radio Havana: "El secretario norteamericano de Estado adjunto para asuntos del Hemisferio Occidental, Otto Reich, inició una visita a Brasil para promover el ALCA, Área de Libre Comercio de las Américas y conversar sobre la seguridad regional, en momentos en que la región cuestiona esas prioridades de Washington."

WorldCom scandal 'uncovered a year ago'  7/9/02 Telegraph, UK: "Melvin Dick, the Arthur Andersen partner who led the audit of the telecom company's books, and Jack Grubman, the Salomon Smith Barney banker with close ties to WorldCom, both admitted to Congress that they were aware of the lawsuit. Both men also claim to have been completely surprised by WorldCom's admission that it broke accounting rules."

Jackson raps Bush, Ashcroft  7/9/02 Washington Times: from the pages of the Rev Moon's paper - "The Rev. Jesse Jackson yesterday called President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft "the most threatening combination in our lifetime," at the 93rd annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People."

Monday 7/8/02

BULLETS AND BOMBS: DAILY LOT FOR UNIONISTS  7/8/02 ANNCOL: the US persues its "war on drugs" by supporting a government in bed with the paramilitaries who kill trade unionist - "Terrifying record figure of assassinations of trade unionists in Colombia. Most murders take place in Antioquia department and unionists from the public services have been the hardest hit by the paramilitary death squads."

Against Israeli Apartheid - By Desmond Tutu and Ian Urbina  7/8/02 Black World Today: "The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure--in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation. Divestment from apartheid South Africa was fought by ordinary people at the grassroots. Faith-based leaders informed their followers, union members pressured their companies' stockholders and consumers questioned their store owners. Students played an especially important role by compelling universities to change their portfolios. Eventually, institutions pulled the financial plug, and the South African government thought twice about its policies. Similar moral and financial pressures on Israel are being mustered one person at a time. Students on more than forty US campuses are demanding a review of university investments in Israeli companies as well as in firms doing major business in Israel. From Berkeley to Ann Arbor, city councils have debated municipal divestment measures."

Steven Jay Hatfill -- Self-aggrandizing Killer or Fall Guy?  7/8/02 Cryptome: "provides somewhat greater detail on the background of Steven Hatfill than has been available in the press. It also includes circumstantial evidence or conjecture concerning Hatfill's relationships to others, especially the late Glenn Eschtruth, M.D. (Methodist medical missionary in Kapanga, Zaire [now Democratic Republic of the Congo], who was the only US [or foreign] casualty of a Spring 1977 invasion of Zaire by Soviet- and Cuban-directed mercenaries entering from Angola), the late Professor Robert Symington (anatomy, U. of Rhodesia; "father" of Rhodesian biological warfare), the late Larry C. Ford, M.D. (CIA-connected consultant to the South African biological warfare program, Project Coast, headed by Wouter Basson, M.D.), and Ford's associate, Jerry Nilsson, M.D. "

After scandals, U.S. economic model is hard sell abroad  7/8/02 IHT: "Corporate America's fall from grace has been swift and brutal. But it has been particularly humbling for people like Brancato, on the front lines of a campaign to convince foreigners that the quickest path to fiscal righteousness is replicating the U.S. model of corporate openness, independent directors and outside auditors. . Those efforts are increasingly running into roadblocks as corporate improprieties pile up like a free- way collision and spooked foreigners pull their wealth out of U.S. markets. . Around the world, the architects of the global economy are rethinking the idea that the United States should be the undisputed standard-setter for everything from executive compensation to accounting. They point to the woes of Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Xerox Corp. as the dark side of a Western-style capitalist system that rewarded greed and short-term gain and turned high-flying chief executives into celebrities."

Murder of minister plunges Afghanistan into fresh crisis  7/8/02 Independent, UK: "The daylight murder in Kabul yesterday of Abdul Qadir, one of Afghanistan's three vice-presidents, plunged the country into its worst political crisis since the West intervened to throw out the Taliban regime. President Hamid Karzai called his Cabinet into emergency session and declared Tuesday a day of national mourning for Mr Qadir, his most senior Pashtun ally in the government. But in Mr Qadir's home city of Jalalabad, where he will be buried today, it was suggested that the list of potential suspects in his killing was almost limitless."

Anti-American Rage Spread In Afghanistan  7/8/02 Kavkaz: «Had people been allowed to take these injured to the hospital more and more lives would have been saved», he said as he received bereaved villagers in the local mosque. «Many of the injured with broken arms and broken legs died due to loss of blood. «Until seven or eight o'clock in the morning the Americans did not allow anyone to help the injured and to cover the bodies. Most of their clothes had been burnt off (in the attack). «They kept filming and photographing the naked women». Casus belli.

Five US soldiers killed  7/8/02 Kavkaz: "Later the US troops planted explosives at his home and blasted the building. US troops have been facing tough resistance in Khost but they could not find any traces of Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani or the bases of his supporters in the area. In retaliation to this move, the anti-US fighters attacked the Khost airport where a large number of US troops are based. The attackers used rockets and missiles in the attack and damaged the barracks and equipment of the US troops. However, the details about the casualties could not be ascertained." Sounds like Israel!

LATIN AMERICA, CARIBBEAN - AIDS in the region  7/8/02 Latin America Press: "Approximately 1.9 million adults and children in Latin America and the Caribbean were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2001-1.5 million people in Latin America and 420 000 in the Caribbean. The total figure includes the 200 000 people who acquired the virus in 2001. The estimated 100 000 AIDS deaths in 2001 have further increased the ranks of children orphaned by the epidemic. Some 330 000 of the orphans are living in Latin America (fully 130 000 of them in Brazil) and 250 000 in the Caribbean (fully 200 000 of them in Haiti). Twelve countries in this region (including the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and several Central American countries), have an estimated HIV prevalence of 1% or more. In these areas, the epidemic is firmly rooted in the wider population and is driven primarily by transmission through heterosexual intercourse."

An Israeli officer's response to Bush  7/8/02 Middle East Times, Israel: "After Bush showed us how warped his understanding of reality is, he's left it to us to save our nation from its complete demise. We will push Bush aside, and do the job ourselves. We, the refusal movement, will continue to grow until thousands of Israeli soldiers say enough is enough. Then this land, which has been a battleground for so many years, will become a place of refuge, vision and hope for all its inhabitants. "You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?" said Khalil Gibran"

U.S. firm gives Cambodia list of 1970s U.S. bombing runs  7/8/02 Navy Times: "U.S. bombing runs against suspected Viet Cong supply lines on Cambodian soil began in 1969 and bombing of suspected communists in Cambodia continued sporadically until 1973. Tens of thousands of Cambodians were killed and injured in the raids, many of which were orchestrated secretly by the Nixon administration and later declared illegal by Congress."

Citing Israel's Need for Security, Bush Accepts Occupation  7/8/02 NYT: a triumph for the Israeli - US Christian fundamentalist alliance: "President Bush said today that Israel was justified in occupying the West Bank until "security improves," a comment that appeared supportive of Israeli officials, who had said recently that they had no intention of withdrawing their forces from Palestinian-controlled territories soon."

U.S. sweeps mall kiosks, hunting for terror clues  7/8/02 Philadelphia Inquirer: ""I've talked to the INS agents," Rambana said. "I've seen their paperwork. It's a fishing expedition. It's 'Let's see what we come up with.' " Across the country, media reports suggest that at least 32 foreign nationals have been detained: 19 in Atlanta, five in North Carolina, seven in Florida, and one in Pittsburgh."

Saddam risk a lie, says UN expert  7/8/02 The Herald, UK: "UNITED Nations weapons inspectors colluded with British secret service agents to spread disinformation about Saddam Hussein's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes as part of a campaign to justify military strikes, according to the head of the UN inspection team in Iraq. In an interview with The Herald, Scott Ritter, who led the United Nations Special Commission (Unscom) team in Iraq for seven years in the 90s, claims he helped to leak propaganda to journalists. He resigned from the post in 1998 but said his experience then suggested that recent claims that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction should be treated sceptically."

Cameraman records the slaughter of bicycling children  7/8/02 Times: "This is the first filmed record of the incident in which, Palestinians say, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians who ventured out into a quiet middle-class neighbourhood of Jenin on June 21, mistakenly believing that the curfew had been lifted."

Afghan wedding victims get $18,500 in compensation  7/8/02 Times of India: winning the hearts and minds - "District commissioner Abdur Rahim said he paid out to relatives eight million Afghanis ($200) on behalf of each individual killed and three million afghanis ($75 dollars) for each wounded person. "I paid the relief money in Afghan currency," Rahim told AFP in the district capital of Dehrawad where the village of Kakrakai was hit in last week's US bombing raids. The total compensation paid out by the Afghan government amounted to just under $18,500. He said the few tents and blankets US forces had provided for the victims had just added insult to injury. "If they think a few tents and a blankets can heal the injuries of the victims, OK." Rahim said. "We will kill two or three Americans and then give them some tents and blankets. Would it be adequate compensation?"

Preparations underway for radiation attack  7/8/02 USA Today: "The New York Stock Exchange plans to open secret communications centers around the country. Public health officials are adding hundreds of doctors to emergency-response teams. Nuclear safety officials plan to buy more radiation-detection devices."

World News

"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

Qawafil-ush-Shuhadaa http://www.shuhadaa.com [ARABIC]

Islam Question & Answer - Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid

Islaam Homepage

Islamic Assembly of North America [IANA on LINE]

Jam'iat Ihyaa' Minhaaj al-Sunnah Homepage

Nida'ul Islam/ The Call of Islam Magazine Online

Words Written in Blood. Arabic book collection of Shaheed Sheikh

Abdullah Azzam [ARABIC]

Maps & Weather

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/

A number of maps here
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/afghanistan.html

http://www.weatherhub.com/

Estimates of the total number of Muslims range from 0.7 to 1.2 billion worldwide and 3 to 6 million in the U.S. About 20% of all people on earth follow Islam. The religion is in a period of rapid growth.

Christianity is currently the largest religion in the world. It is followed by about 33% of all people -- a percentage that has remaind stable for decades. It is expected that, if current trends continue, Islam will become the most popular religion sometime in the mid-21^st century.

-- http://www.religioustolerance.org/islam.htm

Death from America

Iraq news: Soaring death rates among Iraqi children, 1999 BBC, UNICEF 500,000 child deaths

Ramsey Clark: Report to UN Security Council re: Iraq, 1/26/2000
1.5 million deaths

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