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June 2002Crisis in the Credibility of US CapitalismPosted: Sunday, June 30, 2002 Crime in the Suites Enabled by Political Corruption Causes a Crisis in the Credibility of US Capitalism by Tom Turnipseed The continuing revelations of corrupt corporate governance enabled by political campaign contributions is deepening daunting doubts about the credibility of U.S. equity markets and political leadership. The corruption is creating a widening crisis of confidence and is the sort of pernicious pathogen that can inflict a debilitating blow to the United States' leadership in economic globalization. Guido Rossi, a former Italian telecom chairman said, 'What is lacking in the U.S. is a culture of shame. No C.E.O. in the U.S. is considered a thief if he does something wrong. It is a kind of moral cancer." The loss of global confidence in the United States is causing foreign investors to pull back from U.S. corporations and turn to European and Japanese equity markets. Wolfram Gerdes, a German investment banker said, "There is unanimous agreement that the U.S. is not the place to invest anymore," and, "This is the most pessimistic sentiment against the U.S. I have ever experienced in my career." This sentiment is also undermining the value of the dollar that drives up the price of imports to the U.S. The very latest breaking scandal is Xerox Corporation, the world's largest copier maker, which admitted inflating revenues by $1.9 million the past five years by misreporting the timing and makeup of equipment sales. With no end in sight, the crumbling credibility of corporate America further accelerated this week with the death spiral of WorldCom. The telecom giant is apparently heading toward the largest bankruptcy in United States history after an auditing committee discovered that $3.6 billion in expenses were improperly booked as capital expenditures. WorldCom executives, like other corporate crooks, paid politicians to position themselves to be able to steal. According to The Center for Responsive Politics, WorldCom gave about $7.5 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions since 1989 to Federal candidates and the two major parties with Republicans and Democrats sharing almost equally in the bounty. WorldCom has also spent about $11 million in lobbying expenses since 1987. One of the biggest beneficiaries of WorldCom's political largess is South Carolina's U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings, the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. In the past ten years, Hollings has received over $32 thousand in contributions from WorldCom and it is anybody's guess how much the South Carolina Democratic Party has received from WorldCom in soft money due to Holling's influence. On July 27, 2002, the Chicago Tribune described Hollings as, "One of the companies most important friends....who shares WorldCom's antipathy to regional phone companies." Hollings is considered to be the political go-to-man in the tremendously competitive telecom industry which is a risky business as many regular phone services are being supplanted by inter-net services. Worldcom is the latest example of corporate corruption and chicanery in a lengthening list of high profile U.S. corporate executives who have, in one way or another, deliberately deceived business associates, shareholders, employees and regulatory agencies for their own personal enrichment. Top executives of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Global Crossing, Dynergy, Tyco, Qwest, Imclone, and even Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are either being investigated for improprieties or have been charged with wrongdoing. Ms. Stewart has been the empress of etiquette and the icon of good living in our era of affluence, and hopefully, her ethical demise will dim her luster as the desirable denizen of "the good life". Many of Ms. Stewart's devotees seem to be overly enamored of living lives that look good rather than living lives that do good. As sequels to the many productions that have emphasized celebrity and the lives of the rich and famous, the media should now describe the humiliating details of the descent into criminal activity of these wealthy and powerful people. We will make a mockery of our vaunted system of justice if such rich celebrities do not go to jail for stealing millions of dollars when poor, everyday people go to jail for stealing hundreds of dollars. With the reeking revelations about WorldCom this week, the talking heads on television are predicting the disclosure of more "cooked books" and scandals to come in major U.S. corporations. As the U.S. equity markets become more erratic and plummet downward, it is interesting to note that the price of stock is 23 times over earnings, which is an overpriced ratio that makes the market vulnerable to further declines. Meanwhile, President Bush is worried about the political fallout from the rash of corporate scandals as evidenced by polls like the Gallup survey in January that found that 63% of the respondents said big business had too much influence over his administration. Bush responded to the latest corporate scandal by saying, "I am deeply concerned about some of the accounting practices. Those entrusted with shareholder's money must-must-strive for the highest of high standards." Bush appears to be playing the war card to get through the economic difficulty. As business historian, John Steele Gordon put it on Brian Williams Show on CNBC, "War, as long as it is fought on someone else's territory is good for the economy." In a highly controversial statement that many observers believe will help to prolong and foment even more strife in the Middle East, Bush said that he was for a Palestinian State but the peace process could not work as long as Arafat was the Palestinian leader and until the Palestinian people had a "market economy". That is just what the Palestinians' need, a U.S.-modeled market economy with companies like - Enron, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Global Crossing, Dynergy, Tyco, Qwest, Imclone, WorldCom, Xerox, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia - and more crooked corporations to come. Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and civil rights activist in Columbia, South Carolina. www.turnipseed.net White Lies Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2002 June 25, 2002, By George Monbiot African leaders will be forced to humble themselves at the G8 summit, by taking the blame for what has happened to their continent By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 25th June 2002 In the Canadian fastness of Kananaskis this week, the messianic cult of empire will solemnly worship itself. The leaders of the G8 nations will declare that they have come to deliver the world from evil. They will announce that they are sacrificing themselves for the good of lesser nations. They will propose solutions from on high, without acknowledging any responsibility for the problems. It is traditional, when empire celebrates, that its vassal states come to pay tribute and beg for deliverance. This time, the African leaders who will be admitted to the summit on Thursday are prepared to suffer the final humiliation, by blaming themselves for the disasters visited upon them by the G8. "Africa", according to the Canadian government, "will remain a central focus of the Kananaskis Summit." The discussions will revolve around a plan called the New Partnership For Africa's Development, or Nepad, drafted by the African leaders and enthusiastically endorsed by the G8. The enthusiasm is not entirely surprising, as Nepad places nearly all the blame for Africa's problems and nearly all the responsibility for sorting them out on Africa itself. In the hope that it might win them a few crumbs of aid and extra debt relief, the continent's leaders appear to have told the rich world everything it wants to hear. Nepad accepts that colonialism, the Cold War, and "the workings of the international economic system" have contributed to Africa's problems, but the primary responsibility rests with "corruption and economic mismanagement" at home. Few would deny that these have played a significant role, but nowhere in the document on which the plan is based is there any mention of the far more consequential corruption and mismanagement by the nations to whom they are appealing. Africa's underlying problem, as the continent's leaders acknowledge, is debt. Nepad implicitly accepts the rich world's explanation for this debt: that previous African leaders have frittered away their economic independence through poor planning and personal graft. Nowhere is any context given: that Africa's deficit is merely one component of a vast and growing global debt, affecting consumers and nations in the rich world as well as nations in the poor world. Nowhere is any mention made of the "fractional reserve banking" system which causes it, and which arose as a consequence of corruption and mismanagement in western nations. The system ensures that the only way debts can be discharged is through the issue of more debt. This problem, as poor nations know but dare not acknowledge, is compounded by the policing system developed by the rich world in 1944. Rather than the self-correcting mechanism proposed by John Maynard Keynes, which forced creditors as well as debtors to discharge the debt, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were introduced as a means of persuading only the debtor nations to act, in the certain knowledge that this couldn't possibly work. This system granted the rich world complete economic control over the poor world. The power nations swing within the IMF is a function of their gross domestic product: the richer they are, the more votes they can cast. The World Bank is run entirely by "donor" states. These two bodies, in other words, respond only to the nations in which they do not operate. The consequences for national democracy are devastating. African voters can demand a change of government, but they cannot demand a change of policy. All the important decisions affecting the continent are made in Washington, and they always boil down to the neoliberal demolition of the state's capacity to care for its people. So when the African leaders announce that "Africa undertakes to respect the global standards of democracy", they are accepting a burden they cannot lift. Democracy in Africa is meaningless until its leaders are prepared to challenge the external control of their economies. But far from denouncing the authors of their misfortunes, they appear only to embrace them. "Structural adjustment", the IMF policy which has forced countries to repay their debts instead of investing in healthcare and education, is now almost universally acknowledged as the nemesis of development in Africa. Nepad's fiercest criticism is that it "provided only a partial solution" to poverty. Africa's leaders have pledged to support not only its successor policies (such as the IMF's demand that Malawi privatise its food reserves, with the result that millions of its inhabitants are now at risk of starvation), but also the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act passed by the US Congress. This act seeks to complete the job which structural adjustment began: forcing African countries to dismantle state support and privatise their economies in return for minimal concessions on trade and aid. Without addressing any of these obstacles, Nepad blithely promises to eliminate poverty, enrol all children in primary school, reduce child mortality by two-thirds and supply the continent with clean water and effective infrastructure. It will achieve these worthy aims, it claims, largely by means of "public private partnership": the mechanism which is now failing so spectacularly in the rich world, while being forced on Africa by the G8. Agricultural development depends, Nepad tells us, "on the removal of a number of structural constraints affecting the sector." One might have expected this to mean the dumping of subsidised produce onto the African market by Europe and North America, which is widely acknowledged as a crippling impediment to effective farming on the continent. But this is never mentioned. Instead, the plan insists, the "key constraint is climatic uncertainty". Quite how the African leaders intend to "remove" this constraint is not explained, but that objective is arguably just as realistic as any of the others they propose. Apart from a few timid requests for an increase in aid and a little more debt relief, the continent's leaders absolve the G8 nations of all responsibility. Instead, they proudly proclaim that "we will determine our own destiny" and call on the people of Africa "to mobilise themselves in order to put an end to further marginalisation of the continent". Self-determination is an admirable goal, but without control over economic policy it's bombast. Some might argue that this self-flagellation is a realistic means of engaging with the imperial powers in Kananaskis: the G8 nations, after all, do not take kindly to being lectured about their responsibilities. Nepad could be viewed as a white lie: the lies of the whites, repeated, with the best intentions, by the leaders of Africa. But development cannot be built upon a lie, for development is a matter of reality. So while their plan has admitted them to the imperial court, it merely reinforces the dispensation which ensures that Africa stays poor while the G8 stays rich. The continent's leaders will be forced to kneel on the stony ground of Kananaskis. But at least they've brought a Nepad. Reproduced from: http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=523 World News Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2002 • Brazil crowned world champions: Germany 0-2 Brazil ¥ This one is for Bush: Yes Bush, there are Blacks in Brazil • North Korea Accuses U.S. of War Plot • Crisis in the Credibility of US Capitalism • Hiroshima, The First Fireball • World War Crimes Court to Open Monday Despite US • If He Runs Again, Gore Says, 'To Hell With the Polls' • Bush vows to stop fraud wrecking economy • Blair's aides denounce US 'blundering' in Afghan war • A tale of two World Cups • Greek Explosion Injures Man • Thousands Attend Rally To Back Chavez • What a tricky business this capitalism is • Bye bye American pie • Bush vows to jail crooked execs • It couldn't happen here? Don't bank on it • World Con • Waiting for a miracle? • The blame the victim summit • Bitter reality of peace • Riots erupt after Belfast march • Blair rebuffed as rift with Bush deepens • Fate of 15 militants in PA's demolished Hebron HQ unknown • Arab states refuse U.S. request to name Arafat replacement • Israel to deny entry to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan • A world is born in a wink Why we should be worried about George W Bush Posted: Saturday, June 29, 2002 THE world outside the US is now getting used to the fact Americans have a fraudulently elected nitwit as their president, but George W. Bush excelled himself this week with a "long-awaited" definitive speech on Middle East policies that stretched even the weirdest imaginations. Bruce Wilson in London reports: MORE World News Posted: Saturday, June 29, 2002 • Pope Will Not Retire • Israeli Army Destroys Palestinian Hq • Embarrassed US blocks case against peace fighter • The first fireball • ANC angered by plan to build 'apartheid wall' • Gujarat's Muslim heritage smashed in riots • New F.B.I. Alert Warns of Threat Tied to July 4th • Rebels Push Colombia Toward Anarchy • Iraq Rebels Oppose U.S Strike to Topple Govt -Paper • Cheney Warns of Pre-Emptive Strikes • Pakistani Government Will Attempt to Rein In Militant Religious Schools • Bush's War becomes con game • US Judges make capital punishment easier to swallow • The Mideast doesn't have time for bad speeches • World Cup: South Korea 2-3 Turkey • The trouble with George W • Powell says determined to freeze out Arafat, seek new leaders • The way backwards • A lexicon learned • S.Korea Says 4 Killed, 18 Hurt in Clash with North • Xerox in $2bn scandal • Cheney to take charge while Bush goes under • Israel Destroys Hebron Compound • Catholic Priest Killed In Colombia • Police held for killing protesters • Before 9-11, Terror Was Low Priority • 'Baby Bomber' in family album leads to propaganda war • Bush warning for US companies • Bush's vision is already irrelevant in the Middle East • Happiness is a teaspoon of discoloured liquid • Once again, the West reveals its brutal contempt for the poorest continent • The real winners of the World Cup • Severe earthquake jolts northeast China, no report of casualty • Iraq's fat cats beat the sanctions • Al-Qaeda rocket attack kills 19 in east Afghanistan • Minister denies resigning over US troops • Musharraf fires spy chief after rigged vote World News Posted: Friday, June 28, 2002 • Bolivian candidates blast US "interference" • Xerox hit by fresh scandal, inflated profits by $6bn (£3.9bn). • EU gives more aid to Arafat in defiance of Bush • Congress Oks $450b Debt Limit Hike • Russia gets G8 cash, Arafat gets tough words • Israel worried as Hezbollah steps up espionage efforts • Mossad chief warns of Iran missile threat • Pakistani troops' deaths raise the stakes on all sides • Musharraf sacks general to bolster power • U.S. Threatens To Veto Bosnia Mission • 34 Asylum-seekers Break Out Of Camp • Europeans resist US call for UN immunity • Turkish collapse feared as leader hints he'll quit • Israeli forces keep 700,000 Palestinians under curfew • Musharraf moves to tighten grip on power • Please sir, can we have the summit security papers back? • Flawed peace plan reflects U.S. illusions World News Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2002 • Arafat Says US Needs New Leadership; Calls for Fair Elections • A fine mess you helped get Israel into, George • G-8 allies step away from Bush's Arafat stance • Disgraced WorldCom faces fraud charge • G-8 Leaders Challenge Bush's Stance • Israel scorns Palestinian election plan • Gulf widens over US threat to Arafat • Blair joins Canada and refuses to demand that Arafat quits • Court rules Sharon cannot be indicted for slaughter • Another year, another G8 summit. But do they achieve anything? • The key topics for Calgary • Arafat in poll challenge to Bush • Bush meets Blair, ups pressure for Arafat ouster • America's pledge of allegiance in schools ruled out • Bush learns first steps of a diplomatic dance • Still the man for Palestine • The bloody folly of George in Blunderland • Another step toward nowhere • G-8 Africa Relief Plan Hits Bumps • Powell sounds out Arab allies on Bush's plan for the Middle East • British plans to lock up mentally ill 'fundamentally flawed' • Zimbabwean White farmer finds resistance futile • Two Argentines shot dead in anti-government riots • Worldwide web of debt unravelling • Tennis Great Navratilova Attacks U.S. Values We've missed the point of Bush's Middle East policy Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2002  (Guardian UK) It's usually a mistake to assume that a world leader is off his head. Even Boris Yeltsin, though drunk in charge of Russia, had a sense of strategy. Another chump, Ronald Reagan, seemed barely to know in detail what he was doing at any given time, and once, talking to Gorbachev in Reykjavik, came close to handing over America's nuclear store. But Reagan wasn't mad. He clung to a big idea about how to make the world a better place. George Bush is no exception to this rule. His first solemn shot at bringing peace to the Middle East is so one-sided, so absurdly unreal, that it's tempting to dismiss it as the casual folly of a president who can't be serious. But presidents need the benefit of the doubt about their seriousness. We owe them, and ourselves, nothing less. Hugo Young reports MOREEuropean papers on Bush's speech Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 Le Monde (France) President George Bush proposed a strange deal with the Palestinians on Monday: the United States will help you to build a state if you get rid of your leader ... Under what name does the US assume the right to say who should be the head of a national liberation movement? ... What it requires of the Palestinians under occupation - democracy, transparency, effectiveness - it does not require of the number of dictatorships in the region with which it maintains good relations. But that is perhaps not the essence ... by demanding Mr Arafat's departure, one of the principal objectives of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, it ratifies an Israeli obsession: the elimination, at least political, of the man who symbolises the Palestinian national movement. Read the article Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) One cannot argue with Mr Bush's making an end to terrorism a condition of negotiations. He wanted to make it clear that there can be no political "rewards" for the kind of bloody attacks on civilians that Palestinian extremists have been carrying out for months. Yet this is where the problem starts. What is terrorism? Might it also include some of the actions of the Israeli army ... what about Israel's "extra-judicial killings"? Terrorism is not something one can simply turn off. Radical elements, particularly the Islamic group Hamas, have long determined the course of action in the Middle East. Mr Arafat and Mr Sharon are each in their own way hostages to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' founder and leader. With his attacks, he constantly forces Mr. Sharon to act as he does, which then deepens the hostility between the two warring parties. Read the article El Mundo (Spain) In Afghanistan and the Middle East George Bush is today forced - in spite of all the isolationist instincts of North American conservatives - into the most dangerous exercises of nation building. If the United States is committed once and for all in the creation of a Palestinian state it is possible perhaps to fulfill that objective within three years ... But when making it conditional on Yasser Arafat's disappearance from Palestinian politics, Mr Bush goes too far in accepting Ariel Sharon's aims to the last letter. Read the article Researcher says spanking a bad disciplinary tool Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 The Associated Press (yahoo) NEW YORK - After analyzing six decades of expert research on corporal punishment, a psychologist says parents who spank their children risk causing long-term harm that outweighs the short-term benefit of instant obedience. The psychologist, Elizabeth Gershoff, found links between spanking and 10 negative behaviors or experiences, including aggression, anti-social behavior and mental health problems. The one positive result of spanking that she identified was quick compliance with parental demands. Her analysis was accompanied in the Psychological Bulletin by a critique from three other psychologists. They defend mild to moderate spanking as a viable disciplinary option, especially for children 2 to 6, but advise parents with abusive tendencies to avoid spanking. Gershoff, a researcher at Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty, spent five years on her project, analyzing 88 studies of corporal punishment conducted since 1938. The studies tracked both the short- and long-term effects of spanking on children. Gershoff stopped short of endorsing a legal ban on parental corporal punishment, saying the United States was unlikely to emulate a group of European countries in taking that step. However, she urged parents who spank to reconsider their options. "When they're in a situation where they're considering spanking, think of something else to do — leave the room, count to 10, and come back again," Gershoff said in an interview Tuesday. "The risk is just too great." Several major national organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have taken an official stand against corporal punishment by parents. The psychological association has not taken a stance, though it is on record opposing corporal punishment at schools and other institutions. Robert Larzelere, a psychology professor at the Nebraska Medical Center, was one of the three experts critiquing Gershoff's findings. He noted that while she found links between spanking and negative behaviors, she did not assert categorically that spanking caused those behaviors. Larzelere, in an interview, said he remains convinced that mild, non-abusive spanking can be an effective reinforcement of nonphysical disciplinary methods, particularly in dealing with defiant 2- to 6-year-olds. He shared concerns about spanking that is too severe or too frequent. Gershoff cautioned that her findings do not imply that all children who are spanked turn out to be aggressive or delinquent. But she contended that corporal punishment, on its own, does not teach children right from wrong and may not deter them from misbehaving when their parents are absent. "Until researchers, clinicians, and parents can definitively demonstrate the presence of positive effects of corporal punishment, including effectiveness in halting future misbehavior, not just the absence of negative effects, we as psychologists can not responsibly recommend its use," Gershoff wrote. American Psychological Assn.: http://www.apa.org THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Reproduced from: http://story.news.yahoo.com/ World News Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 • U.S. Businesses Dim as Models for Foreigners • Musharraf seeks powers to sack elected govt • Wife of ex-Afghan king dies in Rome • Lawmakers Move to End US Travel Ban to Cuba • War State No Republic • Palestinian boy killed in Jenin, dozens arrested • Regulators move against WorldCom • Court Rejects 'Under God' Phrase in School Pledge • 10 Pakistan Soldiers Killed In Al-Qa'ida Battle • Belgian Court Throws Out Case Against Sharon • Massive fraud reported at WorldCom > WorldCom inflated earnings by nearly $4 billion • Corporate Scandals Taking Toll On Markets • Martha Stewart facing wider probe in stock sale • World Cup: Brazil 1 - 0 Turkey > Brazil faces Germany in final. • Somalia minister kidnapped • 10 Pakistani soldiers killed • Arafat Rejects Bush Demands • UK rift with Bush over Middle East • China Crash May Be Metal Fatigue • Arafat approved reforms just as tanks rolled in • I wonder why Bush doesn't let Sharon run his press office • Arafat's mask slips, but he still has a trick up his sleeve • Mr Bush may be half-right, but he has broken the first rule of statesmanship • 'Go on bleeding for now, then eventually we'll have two states' • War, what is it good for? • Get rid of Arafat and Palestine is yours, says Bush • US may find ousting Arafat is easier said than done • Powell comes round to Bush's way of thinking • Corporate America hit by biggest scandal in history • The Empire is dead. Long live the Empire • Bush's benchmarks • Why the president stopped listening to Powell • Kuwaitis Sue U.S. Over 12 Held at Guantánamo • Pentagon watching China naval modernisation • Israel storms Palestinian HQ in Hebron • Bush's plan 'too vague' to achieve final peace Lessons From The Central Park Jogger Case Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 In the Context of Current History by Elombe Brath For over a week the media has mesmerized their crime fascinated American clientele with the sordid saga of the recently deceased Mafia Don John Gotti with highly romanticized stories on his life and the glamorous lifestyle of someone they claimed to be one of the most callous and vicious gangsters in the history of New York City. Meanwhile, little attention was being paid to a small news story regarding the 13 year old Central Park Jogger Case that should have been regarded as one of the biggest revelatory news bombshells in regards to the U.S. criminal justice system and American journalism at large. After a month of investigation, it was reported on Tuesday, June 11,on Fox TV and in the New York Times that a convicted rapist and murderer, Matias Reyes, serving 33 1/2 years years to life for the rape and murder of one woman and the rape of several others, has confessed that he was also the person who raped the jogger in the infamous Central Park case that nearly tore this city apart 13 years ago. This startling revelation, which seemingly - and hopefully - should lead to the expeditious resolution of pending appeals processes, demands for “pardons”, and expunging from the criminal justice records the convictions of six young African-American and Latino men who were falsely accused, charged, convicted and sent to prison for allegedy committing a heinous crime: the April 19,1989 beating and rape in Central Park of a white female jogger - then a 28-year old wall street investment banker, working for Salomon Brothers, no less. Moreover, while five of the defendants have been released after ostensibly serving “their” time, one young man, Kharey Wise, was never able to make bail and has remained incarcerated in the New York prison system for the last 13 years. Since Wise’s incarceration has continued much longer after the release of his other codefendants, it stands to reason that he should be released immediately into the custody of his mother, family and community. Given the importance of the highly sensationalized Central Park jogger case which had New York polarized along the racial fault-lines that have riven the nation since time immemorial, you would think that this story would have been the lead story on television newscasts and radio broadcasts and frontpage headlines in the major newspapers and the tabloids when the first story broke. With the exception of WBAI’S “Wake Up Call”, this was not the case. Fox TV did a piece on the story that was practically smothered by other regular features of lesser significance but were allowed to share equal time and space. While I did not see anything on News 1 myself, I was told that one did air on the channel but was appeared and was gone so fleetingly that it amounted to practically nothing. News 1 is supposedly New York City’s major cable television channel to cover events primarily of interest to New Yorkers. It is also the station where Dominic Carter has been ensconced for some time. An historical note of both paradox and parody is the fact that I personally intervened to stop Dominic from getting knocked out when a melee broke out after guilty verdicts in the Central Park jogger case were announced against two of the defendents. Maybe Dominic forgot about the case or just blocked it out of his memory. The New York Times, said to be the U.S. “paper of record”, which boasts that it prints all the news fit to print (or as Professor Rayfus Williams correctly pointed out, “All the news printed to fit), apparently felt that the story was not front-page material and only ran it in the B section, page two - not even page one, the section’s front page. And even then, the story tended to spread be confusion, leaving the impression that the relevance of Reyes confession was either that all of the defendants and Reyes were guilty or Reyes was just “off the wall.” I’ll get back to that in a moment. Reviews of the coverage of the two major daily tabloids which reap their profits by feeding sensationalized anti-crime stories when race is a key agitating ingredient, represent a scandal. I don’t think they mentioned the Reyes confession at all. Instead, the New York Daily News published a front and back page, 16 page wrap-around special edition glorifying the life of Mafia Don John Gotti while its rival, the New York Post, published a 13-page romanticization of the lifestyle of the man accused of being one of the most brutal crime bosses in the history of New York City. Did you notice how much fantasy, Sopranos-like press the “dapper don” mobster John Gotti received in his obituaries as opposed to that of the late former police commissioner Ben Ward? Gotti, the fifth born of 13 children born to a poor Italian family in the South Bronx, ascended to his notoriety and personal enrichment by engaging in murder and mayhem, racketeering and only God knows what, ending up in the federal penitentiary with a life sentence which he finally finished. On the other hand, Ward- the 10th child of 11 children born to an African-American family in Brooklyn; his father a laborer and mother a domestic, a poor family where six of his siblings died of childhood illnesses, sought to better his meager conditions and upgrade his social status through, as he was taught, honest, hard work. As it has been pointed out, Ward shined shoes, delivered groceries, developed his mental capacity in schools, graduated and joined the segregated U.S. Army military during World War II and was sent off to fight against nazism in Germany, fascism in Italy, and “make Europe safe for democracy”, etc. He subsequently joined the NYPD in 1951 and achieved the third highest score out of 78,000 applicates who took the examination. Yet, in the NYPD he was treated with as much racist hostility and contempt that many of white officers in the department usually mete out any Black or Latino citizen or denizen that they have sworn to serve and protect. Nevertheless, Ward - and this is not as much a promotion of either him or his career but a candid observation and honest appraisal of his work ethics - went on to return to school and earn a law degree from Brooklyn Law School, become the first Black person to be director of New York’s Department of Corrections and commissioner of the largest force in the country, two of the highest positions in the criminal justice civil service in this city’s history. Check the coverage of the obituaries between Gotti and Ward. Interesting contrast, aren’t they? Notice how the mainstream media treated the eulogies of a white man who led a life of organized crime and a Black man whose life was organized to fight against crime. It should be very instructive. And if you think that comparative analyses of the lives of Gotti and Ward and the hypocritical moral values that this society teaches have nothing to do with the coverage of the plight of the Black and Latino teenagers who were victimized in the Central Park case, you are definitely mistaken. How the mainstream media treated the confession of Matias Reyes is equally shocking. Reyes’s admission is as important a news story as that of Arnold Beverly, the self-professed mob hitman who admitted how he - not Mumia Abu-Jamal - killed Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia during December 1981! In my view, and that of many others that I have talked to , the news of Beverly’s confession should have allowed Mumia, who has been imprisoned on deathrow for over two decades, to at least be able to apply for bail if not outright demand immediate release. However, Reyes’s admission of guilt was treated in the same cavalier manner as was Beverly’s. Very little publicity; ignore the story and hope that it will fade away. It makes you wonder if someone in similar circumstances of either Reyes or Beverly would now come forth and announce that he (or even she) was the one really responsible for the actual killing of Nicole Simpson, how such an addmission as shocking as that be treated? Most likely, in order to save their racist faces and/or asses, the criminal justice system might actually do away with the bearer of the new unwanted news rather than face the consequences of the truth. The criminal justice system claims that everyone charged with a crime is to be assumed innocent until proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. Presumably, the system is willing to face the truth when confronted with it. But paraphrasing the immortal words of Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”, They want the truth? They can’t handle the truth! And it seems that they really can’t - or won’t - deal with the truth. Take the case of Matias Reyes. The 31-year old inmate pleaded guilty in October 1991 to raping and murdering a 24-year old pregnant white woman on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and raping several others, certainly didn’t need another case - especially one with the magnitude of the brutal rape that took place in Central Park on April 19,1989. Like Beverly, Reyes doesn’t need to add any more to his already overloaded plate or rap sheet. But after much soul searching, and perhaps having undergone an epiphany and a sense of remorse, along with an understandable jailhouse religious conversion, Reyes admitted that he had also been responsible for the rape of *Patricia Meili, the jogger attacked in Central Park in 1989. Of particular interest is the fact that Reyes’s rape and murder of the Upper East Side woman took place two years after that of the Central Park case, during a time that many of us were claiming that the six teenage defendants were innocent and that the prosecution should be trying to find the real assailant before they strike again. But our demands went to no avail. Now 31-years old, Reyes would have been 20 years old when he raped the woman for whom he was arrested for murdering and 18 at the time of the Central Park incident. The oldest defendant in the Central Park case was 16 and the youngest 14,hardly the running buddies of Reyes. In fact, although several of the defendants lived in the same housing development, Schomburg Plaza, the didn’t all hang out together or associate prior to the case. For the most part, they learned more about each other after being co-defendants in the case. Now back to the Times story by William K. Rashbaum. I find Mr. Rashbaum’s story somewhat disengenuous. Most irritating - and infuriating - is his conclusion when he quoted defense attorney Jesse Berman, who got a plea bargain for his client Steve Lopez to receive a lesser sentence. Rashbaum suggested that Berman stated while “he had always been skeptical of the confessions”, there were two options to understand Reye’s confession. According to Rashbaum, Berman said, “One possibility is that they’re guilty and this guy is guilty too, ”, and “One possibility is [Reyes] is off the wall and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, ” which is how the Times article ended. However, many who know Berman were suspicious that he would have offered only those two options to explain away Reye’s important confession. And lo and behold, when Herb Boyd contacted Berman, the lawyer not only clarified the misunderstanding but we learned how assignment editors and reporters connive to manufacture a bogus consensus on critical issues that have been devastating to the African-American and Latino community, especially the youth. According to Boyd, writing in the AmNews last week, Berman said, “I told them that one possibility is that they’re [the five convicted] all guilty, as well as Reyes; that Reyes is off the wall; or that he was solely responsible.” The fact that the Rashbaum and the Times edited out the one option that cited Reyes’s sole culpability in the crime is very important to understand the foul role that the major media plays in these cases which have are infested with racial dynamics. This omission cannot be dismissed as simply just the reporter and/or the Times simply just being mischievous or careless. It is a calculated attempt at deception, to plant into the minds of the general public that Reyes’s claim does not rule out the impression that the six teenagers had been involved with him, or that he is simply a nut. The contention is disengenuously beyond measure, and must be confronted and the authors must not be allowed to get away with impunity. The same can be said of the interpretation of DNA tests. According to the Times Reyes’s DNA tests showed that his “genetic material” was “consistent with some of the evidence” found in the jogger case. But, we are then told that, “the tests do not show a conclusive match”, alluding this opinion to some unnamed person who is supposedly familiar with the investigation. This slight-of-hand attempt to obfuscate the importance of the consistency of the genetic match with Reyes, which substantiates his confession, is similar to the time 13 years ago when the FBI brought back their results of DNA testing of the six defendants. The media had convinced almost everyone to expect a match that would guarantee a conviction of all of the defendants. But the results proved just the opposite, excluding matches of any of the defendants to the jogger. In fact, the only definitive match was with the jogger’s boy friend. Finding no match with the defendants who had been practically found guilty before the trial even began, an embarrassed prosecution reported that the results were “inconclusive.” Thus, at a time when DNA tests were freeing inmates all across the country who had been imprisoned for years, the Central Park defendents found themsleves in a most unusual paradoxical predicament at the end of their trial: they were railroaded to prison although DNA had cleared them of culpability in the actual committing of the crime. A few weeks ago two detectives went to the home of one of the defendants under the guise that they were just on a courtesy visit to see how the young man was getting along with his life after being released from incarceration. Shortly after, the detectives asked the young man to look at about a dozen photographs that they just happened to have with them. When they asked if he could identify any of the people in the photos he said yes, pointing out two of his codefendants. They then asked if he knew any of the others in the mugshots and he told them he couldn’t reconize anyone other than two he named (and he didn’t), the detectives left dissapointed. But when you reflect upon what this scenario indicates, it clearly looks like it was an attempt to entrap the former defendant, just as he and his codefendants had been entrapped in 1989. How so? Well, if you think that the detectives simply visited the young man to check on his wellbeing, than you don’t have to read further. On the other hand, if you know how detectives usually work, the chances are that they had shuffled photos of Reyes among the mix with hopes that the defendant would pick one out of him, allowing for them to develop a case that there was some sort of a link between the imprisoned convicted serial rapist and murderer to those who had been earlier convicted, sentenced and served prison terms for the crime. Reyes’s confession could then be accepted contextually, without directly indicating whether that the Central Park defendants were actually innocent or not, but imply that they were somehow accomplices. In this scenario, Reyes would then just be projected as another member of the so-called “wilding”, “urban terrorists”, “super predators”, “wolf pack” that the police and the media concocted - but one that they had somehow missed in the sweep during 13 years ago. In effect, Reyes then could be presented as a missing rapist, similar to how Zacarias Maoussaoui, the alleged 20th terrorist that is believed was scheduled to participate in the tragic events of September 11,2001 if he hadn’t been in jail during the time that the tragedy occurred. With the prospects of facing one of the biggest lawsuits in the history of wrongful imprisonment grievances, New York City in general and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in particular are not very happy with the recent turn of events. Detectives have already made an additional attempt to harass the parent of another one of the young men convicted in the Central Park case but was brusquely shown the door. Don’t be surprised at anything that the police and the press try to do to avoid having to answer to the devastation they have done to the families of those “convicted” 13 years ago and await justice for the injustice accorded them at that time and the restoration of their good names and having their records cleared. Another slight-of-hand maneuver in the media concerning the case was the treatment of alleged confessions used against them. Without any doubt, if it had not been for the six young men being intimidated and inveigled by members of the NYPD and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office into making self-incriminating videotaped statements that were used as “confessions” against them, they never would have been convicted. These “confessions” concocted by the police were what prejudiced the public against not only the youth but the attorneys that defended them and activists who supported them. But I feel more confident today than at any time before that finally the Central Park Six will be totally vindicated. They have spent unnecessary years of their youth behind bars in a case that more and more people are starting to agree that if it had been their child or children instead of those who were victimized, then they would also be demanding immediate release and restitution. The other tragedy of the case is the collateral damage that wreaked havoc on the families. Some parents were so shamed about the case and frustrated about how they handled the situation that they fell victim to internal conflicts. Some even eventually separated, and at least two good fathers became so stressed out that their health was overlooked and deteriorated. Eventually fate took its course and their toll: both succuming to untimely deaths. Although the defendants had not been in any serious problems with the criminal justice system prior to April 19,1989,which usually is helpful as a mitigating circumstance for the court to be lenient, the horror of the crime weighed against the six young men benefitting by any previous good behavior. They were branded as sex offenders and demanded to make statements of remorse for a crime they had not done. And based on that, while the young defendants themselves denounced the barbarity of the crime, they could not, nor would not - or felt that they should have to - make such statements which would allow people to interpret as indicating that they were guilty. At the time the young men were being urged to show remorse as the only way to convince people that believed they were guilty that, instead, they were really innocent. It was demanded that they also should subject themselves to encounter groups to make sex offenders purge themselves of their assumed lustful impulses. And after that, upon release from prison, they were catalogued by Megan’s Law, that forces convicted sex offenders to be identified as such, allowing for potential employers or neighbors to further discriminate against having such an individual in either their employ or within their midst. And living near so-called “decent people” was entirely out of the question. While you are pondering how adequate you may think that it is for the guilty, compute how horrible it is for the innocent. Thirteen years ago Cardinal O’Connor drew some criticism when during the time that the hysteria around the case was initially at its highest, he went to visit the defendents at Rikers Island. We seized the opportunity then to raise a question of a deeper inquiry than if the Cardinal should or shouldn’t have made the visit. Some thought he was just trying to seek further “confessions.” Instead, we wanted to know how the media could be so gung ho to punish six Black and Hispanic teenagers and label them as sex offenders when their cases at least reflected reasonable doubts in regards to their alleged guilt? Meanwhile, both the system and the media neglected the coverup of the then-emerging cases of pedophile priests operating freely within the Catholic Church (as well as other religious denominations.) Why were priests who operated as serial rapists allowed to be transferred from diocese to diocese without an iota of repentance or arrest for statutory rape? How could they be allowed to leave such a trail of broken lives of innocent children and adolescents who were entrusted to a hypocritical religious hierarchy quoting scriptures and posturing as God’s representatives on earth? These callous individuals, whom Carlos Cooks was once jailed for referring to as “ecclesiastical pimps” and “bible quoting hypocrites”, have the audacity to demand confessions from others but cannot admit that their own guilt regarding their troubled lives are ruining the lives of their young charges. But are subjected to arrest for violating the criminal code? Were they shamed in public at the time, unlike today? All one has to do to figure out how long this unchecked licentious behavior has been going on is to see the amount of people who were victimized in their childhood now coming forth to testify are grown men. Have any of these holier-than-thou violaters ever been asked to submit to Megan’s Law so that when they are transfered to another parish at least the parishoners would have a chance to safeguard their children? No, they receive protection of confidentiality from their superiors in a blatant conspiracy of evil that denies everything they claim to believe in. And even now, after months of negotiations about how to stop the pampering of those who would reduce the church down to being viewed as an undecisive quarreling group of whether to continuing to sympathize with the delights of privileged class of pontifical pedophiliacs or defend the rights of the masses of naive and gullible people by taking the proper means to stamp out the pandemic sexual abuse of children, they cannot agree that zero tolerance of such psychologically damaging behavior has to be adhered to. And like the prosecution, the biggest factor in them even considering these crimes against the youngest of humanity is the fear that the price they will have to pay is financial reparations: irate victims and their families have started to penalize the Church by withholding the payment of their tithes to such a hypocritical and callous institution. In the final analysis, it’s bad enough if an individual priest is sick and needs help. It’s another thing - and even worse-when his sickness is allowed to go unchecked and subsequently spreads like a cancer among one of the largest religious congregations in the world. In the latter case, the priest, whether he is a deacon, bishop, cardinal or whatever and they abdicate their assumed moral authority to protect their flock, then they too are sick and even more dangerous than the wayward priests that they are covering up for. So are those who are now fearful of a major civil law suit to bring some sort of restitution to the young men, who have suffered irreparable harm by being made to pay for a crime that they did not do. The system seems hell-bent to do anything to render Reyes’s confession irrelevant and thus avoid a lawsuit that many people are now realizing that if justice is ever to be rendered in the Central Park jogger case it is due to the victims who, for the most part, were represented by incompetent counsel. Linda Fairstein and Elizabeth Lederer, the two district attorneys that gained fame and fortune in prosecuting the Central Park jogger case, have gone on with their lives and careers without ever having to look back. Patricia Meili, the jogger, is now willing to tell her story for big money with her aforementioned book due in the spring of 2003,although she testified that she could not remember what happened on that fateful day in April 1989 or since. Matias Reyes, however, does know what actually happened on that fateful night thirteen years ago. He has vividly described what occurred to the prison officials, state and federal authorities and the prosecution, which is what initiated him having to submit himself to genetic testing. And his DNA has supported his version of the event. Therefore, what are we to do about the six young men whose names and potential for higher education and decent employment were destroyed or deeply damaged because of a combination of all of the above factors? What are they to do to for themselves if they don’t get the justice that has eluded them for the last 13 years? It’s time that they finally get their day in court and freedom from the past which never should have been their misfortune in the first place. The time is now to finally clear this tragic mess up and bring closure to one of the most infamous cases of travesty of justice in a society that for Africans or people of African descent, or the indigenous population, was founded on injustice from its inception. Whether we rectify these wrongs or fail to do so is entirely in ovr hands. [*Don’t get upset that I mentioned her name like the media did 13 years ago when Amsterdam News publisher and editor-in-chief Wilbert A. Tatum made an earlier identification. As AmNews reporter Herb Boyd pointed out in the Amsterdam News last week (June 13-19,2002), Ms. Meili will be identifying herself in a book on the case which she has authored for the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster and will be published in the spring of 2003. And remember, although Ms. Meili testified that she did not know - nor was she able to identify - who assaulted and raped her at the time, when the trial(s) were all over, she thanked the police and the prosecution for solving the case.] Visit Elombe at http://www.afrikaleidoscope.net Reproduced from: http://www.theMarcusGarveyBBS.com World News Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 • Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War • Hope for 800 on death row in US • Arizona blaze rages as threatened town waits • Israeli troops storm Palestinian HQ • One-sided offer that will change nothing • World Cup: Germany 1 - 0 South Korea • Bush says Arafat must go • US dismisses al-Qaida claim that network is '98% intact' • U.S. Aid Agency Back In Pakistan • Arafat gambles with crackdown on Hamas • South Korea guilty of unfair play? • US hawks deliver victory to Sharon in battle over Arafat • Hamas waits defiantly as Israel plots its revenge • I confess: I have had some racist thoughts • Sharon launches massive Gaza onslaught • Bush plots path to Palestinian state as tanks surround Arafat • Gaza 'war' likely to escalate bloodshed • Afghanistan loses female minister in row over sharia law • Restrictions make life a struggle on West Bank • Politically, Arafat is a dead man walking • Israel halts aid to territories from Iran and Iraq • The cost of the first intifada still mounts • Chinese plan big Russian arms deal • Israeli helicopters seek and destroy with missiles • Bombs and fences Turmoil fuels plunder of African 'Garden of Eden' Posted: Monday, June 24, 2002 By John Kamau, herald.co.zw Anthropologist Jacque Dimarosimana watched as women cradling bundles of firewood emerged from southern Madagascar’s Toliara forest. Some few yards down the once-paved road, a large section of the forest had been cleared by charcoal dealers who were now packing the content into gunny sacks, ready for the 450-kilometre journey north-east to Antananarivo, the capital of this Indian Ocean island nation. Charcoal made of hardwood from Madagascar’s famed forests has become the only source of energy for millions of people in a nation whose only oil refinery remains closed and where fuel paraffin has run dry — driving the fuel business underground. To make matters worse, a power struggle between newly elected President Marc Ravalomanana and former president Didier Ratsiraka has engulfed the island in a political crisis since January. The rivalry has split the nation. "If this crisis continues," Dimarosimana warns, "the spiny forests (of south Madagascar) will be lost for good." Attempts to unite the political rivals and form a government of national unity have yet to bear fruit, although Ravalomanana made a gesture of reconciliation by dissolving the government on 16 June, with talk of being more inclusive with the opposition. Ratsiraka, meanwhile, fled to France in early June as sporadic fighting flared across the island’s northern peninsula. With fear of political violence running high in Antananarivo, those who can are packing their bags. Jean Habrokurouhou left his job as a clerical officer at the defence ministry and travelled south to his home village of Andranamaitso, some 12 km east of Toliara town. "I have to be near my family," he said. Every morning, the father of four boys enters Toliara forest to check his kilns, where hardwood from Madagascan forests is burned until it becomes charcoal. The wood is arranged in these kilns and covered with leaves and soil. A fire is lit through a tiny opening at the bottom. Smoke escapes from another opening on top. These openings allow the right amount of airflow — if there’s a leak, the wood could burn too fast or unevenly. These charcoal kilns have now become a source of livelihood for Habrokurouhou’s family — one gunny sack fetches US$3 in his village, or as much as US$12 in the capital. When asked about the long-term implications of forest destruction, he replies: "We have to eat; the next generation will take care of itself." With every gunny sack that is filled, south Madagascar’s forests are slowly giving in to wanton destruction by both charcoal dealers and farmers who practice the traditional slash-and-burn farming methods. "Madagascar will slowly bleed to its death," warns Racas Funtalorinana, a 25-year-old activist with a local environmental group. Southern Madagascar is famous for impenetrable thickets of weirdly adapted succulents, cactus plants and bloated giant baobabs. Its rich collection of plants and animals is one of the many tourist attractions on this island. Far from netting profits from tourism, it is the poverty that sticks amid the surrounding beauty — like the hundreds of tombs that dot Madagascar’s hilltops. Although Madagascar has one of the most unique ecosystems in the world, poverty and political uncertainty remain the new threats as thousands of villagers invade the forests in search of ever more fuel wood and agricultural land. "Politicians are pushing this country into an abyss," Dimarosimana says. With as many as 90 per cent of the people on the island subsisting directly on income from the land, and a per capita annual income of US$300, environmentalists here say that the country’s rulers will find it increasingly difficult in coming years to maintain such unsustainable livelihoods. "The fate of the people and the forest are inextricably linked but the people do not know this," says Racas Funtalorinana of the Madagascar Environment Trust. "The people want to be able to support themselves and better their lives. But at the moment there is growing temptation to cut down the forests in this lawlessness." Scientists estimate that in the southern Madagascar province of Fianarantosoa alone there are 200 000 plus species of plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth. "Madagascar is an ecological Garden of Eden," says Adan Erow, a Canadian researcher. "But all these cannot last a lifetime with all the poverty in this nation and if the current crisis continues." Erow has been studying the adaptation of the white Sifaka lemur, a primate found only in Madagascar — in one of the poorest and most environmentally challenged parts of the country. If the crisis gets out of hand, he says, Madagascar could go the Congo way — where too environmental poachers targetted forests and other natural resources. He thumbs through a local Catholic newspaper La Kroan’i Madagasikara. The editorial was catchy. It said: "Time to be pessimistic." Everybody in Madagascar is these days. Madagascar may be a geological and ecological wonderland (it snapped from mainland Africa some 180 million years ago), but as the crisis continues there is only one option before its 16 million people. As one villager said, "It is survival." — Gemini News. JOHN KAMAU is the editor of Nairobi-based Rights Features Service. Reproduced from: http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=11545&pubdate=2002-06-24 Court: Juries must impose death Posted: Monday, June 24, 2002 (AP) The US Supreme Court overturned the death sentence laws of five states today, affecting more than 160 death row inmates, by ruling that juries and not judges must make life-or-death determinations about the fate of convicted killers. The 7-2 ruling means that executions ordered for 168 people will be reconsidered, although it is not clear how the affected states will respond. MORE World News Posted: Monday, June 24, 2002 • Over 100 Die in Tanzania Rail Crash • Africa: permanent midnight • Five killed in church bus smash • Yugoslav President Fires Army Chief • US Supreme Court: Juries not Judges must impose death • Israeli tanks and APCs surround Yasir Arafat's compound • Non-university graduates banned from standing in elections • Bush Readies Mideast Peace Proposal • 6 Killed In Brooklyn Apartment Fire • PA says it arrests Hamas, Islamic Jihad members in Gaza Strip • CNN blinks first in battle with Israeli officials • Israelis Target Car in Gaza • British are institutionally racist, says public prosecutor • Israel to expel bomb families, smash houses • More than 200 feared dead in Russian floods • Mahathir delivers double shock to his people • Demand for an independent commission to investigate 9/11 • Is the World Cup a fix? • The west is walking away from Afghanistan - again • Arms deals hinder war on terror, says Amnesty • Mammoth Arizona Wildfires Merge • Osama Bin Laden and "98%" of the al-Qaida leadership are still alive • Iran quake victims claim survivors were left in rubble • For President Bush, fat is a federalist issue • India and Pakistan cannot silence Kashmiris • Palestinians put Hamas spiritual leader under house arrest • 'Weak' Karzai hands power to warlords • SPS plans to remove Milosevic as party leader • Six killed as rains lash Peshawar World News Posted: Sunday, June 23, 2002 • Major Crimes In U.S. Increase • Running on empty: time to give brain a workout • Iran Quake Victims Reduced to 220 • Heated refereeing row dogs finals • Fatal vision: how Bush has given up on peace • Al-qaida: Bin Laden Still Alive • Al-qaida Spokesman: Bin Laden Is Alive • Can the Afghan peace hold? • Mayors Of Colombian State Resign • Bush urged to join calls for peace summit • At least 500 killed in devastating Iran quake, more feared dead • Malaysian PM Mahathir resigned then changed his mind • Israel sends home Gaza’s doctor of mercy • Five Separatist Bombs Rattle Spain • Referee row boils over as World Cup shocks go on • Bombs wreck hopes of Gibraltar deal • Spain reassures tourists after ETA bombings • 23 killed in Orakzai wedding explosion • Bush bid for peace slammed before it begins • Las Vegas terror threat dismissed by FBI • Israelis tighten grip on West Bank cities • Israel hints at long-term West Bank re-occupation • They come here to live... and, if God wills it, to die • Starvation looms in flood-stranded Assam, India • RAF abandons missile system after near miss • Afghan leader powerless as rabble of warlords vie for cabinet control • Blair suffers a double defeat on asylum seekers at Seville summit • Bush at bay • Short attacks Blair over EU asylum 'sabotage' • The World Bank's next white elephant • Iranian villages razed as quake kills 400 World News Posted: Saturday, June 22, 2002 • Bush Welcomes Muslim Rebel's Death • At least 500 killed in devastating Iran quake, more feared dead • Car bomb explodes as EU summit ends • Settler arrested on suspicion of shooting dead Palestinian • Italy investigates widespread Internet child pornography • Internet delays feared in Europe as network shuts down • World Cup: Senegal 0-1 Turkey (golden goal) • World Cup: South Korea wins 5-3 on penalties • Video to show bin Laden still alive and dangerous • Ten Palestinians killed as Israel steps up reoccupation of West Bank • Why U.S. media black out documentary on war crimes? • FBI warns of a possible plot to use fuel trucks as a weapon • Israeli settlers rampage after blood-soaked week • Where there's no hope, must there be no life? • Philippine rebel chief 'shot dead' • British banker latest bomb victim • British Anger at Saudi bomb claims • Serb TV boss jailed over staff killed in Nato raid • European Intelligence: The US Betrayed Us In Macedonia • Blair backs away from linking aid to immigration • EU leaders to call for Palestinian state based on 1967 borders • Gaddafi and son preach message of peace • ETA rattles Spain's EU summit with three car bombs • RJ Reynolds to pay $US15 million to smoker • Perfection has its limits, even for Martha Stewart African Predator 'Rediscovered' in Tanzania Posted: Friday, June 21, 2002 Wildlife Conservation Society A WCS scientist working in southeastern Tanzania has rediscovered a carnivore that has remained undetected for the last 70 years. Photographed by a camera trap on the eastern side of Udzungwa Mountain National Park, the Lowe's servaline genet - a three-foot-long relative of the mongoose family - was previously known only from a single skin collected in 1932. "This is the first ever photograph of Lowe's servaline genet and confirms the animal's existence after seventy years," said WCS researcher Daniela De Luca, who was conducting a carnivore survey in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park using remote camera traps. "We now hope to find out more about the animal and thus help ensure its survival." Lowe's servaline genet was first described by, and subsequently name after, British explorer and naturalist Willoughby Lowe. Lowe's description of the skin noted that the animal differed from other servaline genets both in its range and coloration, specifically the presence of orange in the animal's white facial spots and lighter feet and legs. Ironically, another of Lowe's discoveries - the Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey - was declared extinct in 2000 after an extensive survey in the monkey's former Central African habitat failed to find any evidence of its persistence. Apart from the assumption that the Lowe's servaline genet is - like other servaline genets - nocturnal and tree-dwelling - De Luca points out that nothing is known about the genet's ecology, distribution and abundance. De Luca's camera trap survey was the first to focus on carnivores in the Udzungwa Mountains, noted for its levels of biodiversity and unique wildlife. "Compared to larger carnivores, the smaller species such as genets and mongooses are very poorly understood," added De Luca, "so one of our aims is to shed more light on this important and secretive group of animals." De Luca plans to conduct more research on the area's carnivore species through a combination of ecological studies and interviews with members of nearby communities. Findings on carnivore diversity and habitat requirements will be used to formulate recommendations on how to minimize the impact of human activities and settlements to wildlife. COPYRIGHT ©2002.Wildlife Conservation Society The Sickening Glorification of Criminals Posted: Friday, June 21, 2002 by Gene Callahan lewrockwell.com So how might we categorize political freedom? As Hayek famously put it, we are free when we live under the rule of law. "This, however, is true only if by 'law' we mean general rules that apply equally to everybody.... a true law... should especially not single out any specific persons or groups of persons" (Constitution of Liberty). In that, I think he was correct. But he failed to realize, or perhaps only realized quite late in life, that the institution of the state is incompatible with his dictum. That is because a state, at the very least, collects taxes, and tax laws inevitably divide the citizens into tax payers and tax recipients, to whom the laws apply differently. Employees of the state, for one, are always tax recipients, and the idea that they pay taxes is an accounting illusion fostered by having the government note a certain extra amount of income for state employees (their withholding), which it merely never pays them. MORE World News Posted: Friday, June 21, 2002 • Were Israeli Spies Detained on Sept. 11? • 10 Kashmiri rebels killed • 3,000 terrorists in Kashmir: Fernandes • Suspect in shoe-bomb case not coerced, judge rules • Eleven sentenced to death for roles in Burundi massacres • Rite Aid executive, former chiefs indicted • Panamanian Suspect Escapes Jail, Is Eaten by Crocodile • US Pursuing Al Qaeda Members Online • Fear Hangs Over Fourth Fireworks • Kashmir clashes kill 16 • Asteroid Close Shave • The anti-intelligence movement • US not be Able to Sell Submarines to Taiwan • World Cup: Germany 1 - 0 USA • World Cup: England 1 - 2 Brazil • Cheers turned to tears across England on Friday • Six injured in Spanish bomb blast • Bush meets Colombia president-elect Uribe • Chavez fought back with a speech • Blast cuts power to Madagascar's capital • Fears of al-Qaeda attack after car bomb kills Briton • Six settlers shot dead in West Bank • Arafat pleads for the bombings to stop • US received 'zero hour' warning on September 10 • Israelis threaten to drop CNN after Turner comment ¥ Great! Now they should take Al Jazeera! • Martha Stewart is being investigated for alleged insider trading • Blair gets down to nitty gritty of saying nothing • Fighter jets ‘too late to protect the White House’ • Britain hands peacekeeping control to Turks • Bush wants "action" from Arafat • Terror suspect's arrest may spur attack, FBI fear • Israeli leaders split on taking back land • Bangladesh gives India list of 20 terrorists • Blair defends arms sales to India, raps Pak • Bush, Powell work phones for Mideast plan • US confronts allies over global court • China Coal Mine Blast Toll Rises to 111 World News Posted: Thursday, June 20, 2002 • Large Asteroid Narrowly Misses Earth • Former priest Shanley indicted on charges of child rape • US planes strike command center in Iraq • US SC bars executions of mentally retarded • US Stocks Tumble to New Lows for the Year • South Korea is a hotbed of football and passion • Angry South Koreans demand trial for U.S. soldiers > Two South Korean girls struck and killed by U.S. armored vehicle • Flood death toll 500 and rising in China • Activists Slam Bush AIDS Initiative • Americans Think They're Envy of the World • Unusual Courage from 31 Members of Congress • The War on Terror Is Not a Suicide Pact • US High Court: Executing Mentally Retarded Unconstitutional • US President Still Plans to Reveal Peace Framework Soon • Italian club sack Ahn as payback for knocking out Azzurri • New bomb hits Bush peace plan • UK selling arms to India • US demands immunity for its peacekeepers • The curse of the infidel • 7 Die In Jerusalem Suicide Bombing • New order of battle • Afghanistan too 'precarious' for returning refugees: UNHCR • Palestinians tell Israel: it's open season • British Foreign Secretary's 'compassion' for bombers • Israel hits Gaza after suicide strike • Marines pulling out of Kabul • New alert on mobile phones • Karzai Sworn In As President • US heard 'tomorrow is zero hour' on eve of attacks • About 20,000 Trapped by Floods as More Rains Loom • Mysticism of the terrorist act • Israel builds up navy to face missile threat from neighbors • Anger as Karzai selects Afghan cabinet Archerd: Stone to Israel -- leave the West Bank Posted: Thursday, June 20, 2002 Israel is concerned about Stone's documentary, says an article in the Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon, which noted, "If (the) documentary on Yasser Arafat is as close to reality as were his movies on John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Israel has real reason for concern." He quickly added, "The (Jewish) settlements (on the West Bank) -- they are something else. The Israelis have no business in the West Bank. The settlements have to be gotten out of the West Bank." MORE World News Posted: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 • Aid donors 'raise risk of disasters' • U.S. atrocities in Afghanistan • The only gaffe the Prime Minister's wife made was to apologise • Israeli occupation to continue • Bus bomb leaves 20 dead as Israel asks: what next? • Palestinian Martyr Left Note Saying He Hated Death • Israeli PM pledges retaliation after Bus bomb kills 19 • Bosnia may try 50 war criminals • Bush's Palestinian plan leaked to Arab paper • Kurdish leader shuns US move to oust Saddam • Saudis hold al-Qaida suspects • US congressmen told of Gulf war veterans' plight • Saudi Arabia says it has al Qaeda terror suspects • Ministers decide on expanded Israeli operation, no exile of Arafat • Israeli army returns to Jenin, witnesses say • IDF: Women should be allowed to serve as combat soldiers • Israeli tanks in Jenin after 19 killed in Jerusalem bombing • UN-Iraq oil plan collapsing, says Russia • Pakistan slashes duty on 600 trade items from India • Britain hints at breakdown in talks over Gibraltar • US troops kill Abu Sayyaf rebels in southern Philippines • Goodbye to where America was • U.S. Supports New Colombia Leader • Staff Let Bush Sleep After Bus Bomb • Moussaoui Says Judge Is Mentally Ill • US troops kill rebels in Basilan • Rein in Bush's pre-emptive attack idea • The Rehabilitation Of Joan Peters • Hands off Palestine - and Hands off Israel • Behind 'Plot' on Hussein, a Secret Agenda • Do we have a license to kill? • Is America the New Roman Empire? Ethnic cleansing and the establishment of Israel Posted: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 by John Pilger, The New Statesman June 19, 2002 Behind the turbulent news from Israel, a struggle for historical truth has passed almost unnoticed outside academic circles; yet its wider significance is epic. In May 1948, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by the advancing Jewish militia in the coastal village of Tantura, south of Haifa. According to the recorded testimony of 40 witnesses, both Arab and Jewish, half the civilians were shot in a "rampage". The rest were marched to the beach, where the men were separated from the women and children. They were taken to a wall near the mosque where they were shot in the back of the head. The "cleansing" of Tantura (a term used at the time) was a well-kept secret. When they were interviewed four years ago, several Palestinian witnesses said they feared for their lives if they spoke out. One survivor, who as a child witnessed the murder of his entire family in Tantura, said to the interviewer: "But believe me, one should not mention these things. I do not want them to take revenge against us. You are going to cause us trouble . . ." Trouble indeed. The researcher, a student called Teddy Katz, has had his masters degree annulled by Haifa University, even though he was awarded a top grade by the Middle Eastern department. When his research was revealed in the Israeli press, Jewish veterans of the attack on Tantura sued him for libel, and several Jewish witnesses recanted. Katz had breached the taboo of the ethnic cleansing that gave birth to Israel and which the Palestinians mourn as Nakba - the catastrophe. Without waiting for the case to come to court, the university struck Katz's name from its honour roll. Whispered to be a traitor, and under pressure from his family and friends, Katz, a devout Zionist who lived on a kibbutz, apologised. Twelve hours later, he retracted his apology. Professor Ilan Pappe is one of the few to have read all the transcripts of more than 60 hours of Katz's taping of eyewitness evidence. "They include," he wrote, "horrific descriptions of executions, of the killing of fathers in front of children, of rape and torture." He describes Katz's thesis "as a solid and convincing piece of work whose essential validity is in no way marred by its shortcomings". The shortcomings, he says, come down to four minor mistakes. But the importance of the Katz research is its illumination of Israel's history in terms of "the expulsion, direct and indirect, of some 750,000 Palestinians, the systematic destruction of more than 400 villages and scores of urban neighbourhoods, as well as the perpetration of some 40 massacres of unarmed Palestinians." Although other prominent scholars supported Katz, a silence and hostility familiar to those who break academic and political ranks in Israel descended on the case. Since the election of Ariel Sharon last year, this hostility is such that not even national heroes are forgiven. Last month, Yaffa Yarkoni, "Israel's Vera Lynn", whose emotional, wistful songs have celebrated Zionist triumphalism from 1948 to the present day, lost her huge popularity overnight when she remarked that Israeli soldiers ought not to be writing numbers on the arms of Palestinians. "Isn't that what the Germans did?" she asked. One newspaper headline called her an "enemy of the people"; an editor said she "has joined the new anti-Semites in Europe". In challenging the Zionist version of Israel's past, Ilan Pappe is one of Israel's "new historians", a distinguished and courageous critic. He has likened the Israeli state to apartheid South Africa, with its Palestinian "bantustans" and plethora of humiliating controls which now restrict the movement of people within their own communities. He says that Sharon's goal is to begin the mass expulsion of Palestinians across the Jordan; only a pretext is required. According to one poll, 44 per cent of Israelis support this latest "cleansing", known as "transfer", another euphemism from the past. In 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister, wrote, "We have accomplished our settlement by transfer of the [Palestinian] population." Not quite. The notion of a "final transfer" is supported by a number of cabinet members in the ruling Likud government, by leading Labour Party members and professors and media commentators. "Very few now dare to condemn it," says Pappe. "A circle has been closed. When Israel took over almost 80 per cent of Palestine in 1948, it did so through settlement and ethnic cleansing. The country has a prime minister who enjoys wide public support and who wants to determine by force the future of the remaining 20 per cent." Now it might be Professor Pappe's turn to be expelled from Haifa University. In an open letter circulated two weeks ago, he writes that the dean of the humanities department has demanded his expulsion for criticising the university over the Katz case. This runs deeper; Pappe has been a consistent opponent of Israel's illegal military occupation of Palestine. He describes the university "court" that threatens to punish him as a "McCarthyite charade". He has called upon "universities worldwide to debate a boycott of Israeli institutions, given their contempt for basic principles of academic freedom and dispassionate research". He says that only international shaming, free of the intimidation that equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, will break the silence about "horrific deeds in 1948, and so prevent their repetition". Others in Israel, as courageous as Ilan Pappe, are also under pressure, both crude and insidious. In Ha'eretz, Israel's equivalent of the Guardian, two outstanding journalists, Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, have consistently reported the unpopular truth about Israel's occupation of the remaining 22 per cent of the Palestine it conquered in 1967. They live daily with threats and hate mail. Upholding the bravest traditions of Jewish humanity, they need international solidarity. John Pilger Website: www.johnpilger.com World News Posted: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 • Bus blast kills 19 • Damned if you do, dead if you don't • Missing Teen Coverage: A Question of Race? • Bush may send Powell to region • Rumsfeld Sold Up To $91m In Assets • World Cup: South Korea 2 - 1 Italy • World Cup: Japan 0 - 1 Turkey • Gunning for Saddam - but is the CIA capable of riggering his demise? • Australians say Afghan attack was botched • 'Strike first' may not imply force says Rice • Stop trying to behave like a Hollywood hitman • Morauta kept waiting amid election chaos • Afghan delegates walk out • Solve Middle East crisis first - Clinton • US again tries to evade reach of new global court • Three Killed In Air Tanker Crash • CNN chief accuses Israel of terror • US turf wars betray the Iraqis • Long spin, gentle press • Can the CIA win against Saddam? • Desert heat proves biggest enemy for Indian troops • 16 drown as bus falls into canal • Bush to recommend Ramallah as capital of Palestinian state The World Food Summit: what went wrong? Posted: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 By Peter Rosset YellowTimes.org Why do more than 800 million people still go hungry in a world marked by incredible affluence? Representatives from 180 nations gathered in Rome between June 10–13 to address just that question at the "World Food Summit: Fives Years Later" meeting. At the 1996 summit, also held in Rome, 185 nations signed a commitment to cut in half the number of hungry people by 2015. There, Cuban President Fidel Castro made waves - echoing the feelings of many - when he called that goal "shameful" for its abandonment of any notion to eliminate hunger. Subsequent trends have been more shameful still. MORE Can The Coup Mongers Win? Posted: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 VHeadlines "Vacuum of News" today as Venezuela's opposition-led print & broadcast media feebly tries to regroup after last week certainties that the Chavez Frias administration was to be overthrown ... in a June 15 coup d'etat that failed to take place. From Washington we hear that the US government has conceded a temporary entry visa to Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona Estanga who has been making a nuisance of himself with the Colombian government in Bogota and is being quietly asked to move on. The US administration's overtly friendly attitude to the coupster contrasts strongly with their persistent denial of visas to Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez Frias after his February 1992 attempted coup d'etat against corrupt Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. The US government had said they could not grant a visitor's visa to Chavez Frias since he had been involved in a coup d'etat! This time around, of course, Carmona Estanga was to have been their puppet President... My! How times have changed! ... or is it just typical Washington double moral? MORE World News Posted: Monday, June 17, 2002 • Justice Deferred: Dirty deed, dirty deal • Water, water everywhere, but... • Child pilgrims killed in Kashmir • Chirac landslide buries the Left • Just like us • Bush Polishing Palestinian Proposal • U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Bus Searches • Arafat Slams Rice's Comments • Laura Bush concerned about signal sent by W. Bank fence • Two beheaded in Kashmir • World Cup: Brazil 2 - 0 Belgium, Brazil to play England • World Cup: Mexico 0 - 2 USA • Cubans Overwhelmingly Back Socialism • Mexico May Expel Islamic Missionaries • Israelis turn to Berlin for refuge from conflict • Democrats Back Saddam Removal Plan • FBI Backing More Terror Prosecutions • Bell did not invent telephone, US rules • Saddam bolsters his defences against US attack • Tiger Woods wins the US Open with little challenge • Joan Smith: The man is stupid • Bush gives CIA green light to kill Saddam • Rice says PA is not the basis for a Palestinian state • Andersen verdict may not help Enron probe • 24-hour watch on envoy in Harare • Mexico and US fighting a cold war over water • Venezuela's Chavez challenges opponents to referendum • Loya Jirga adjourns debate on parliament • 23 killed in held Kashmir • Any use of preemptive force must be 'decisive,' Powell says • Israel rejects US plan for limited Palestinian state • State of emergency declared in southern Peru due to protests • Bangladesh paralysed by general strike • South Africa rejects reports of Gaddafi, Mbeki tussle • Putin sticks to his guns on Kaliningrad enclave • The Mossad and 9/11 Taking on the School of the Americas Posted: Monday, June 17, 2002 Graduates from Ft. Benning partook in Latin America's most corrupt regimes, yet Congress still funds the school by Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch, counterpunch.org Since the tragedy of 9/11, we have learned some of the ways Osama bin Laden has schooled his al-Qaida organization into a formidable terrorist organization. No major media organization I know of, however, dares today to discuss how for more than five decades - the last two decades on our own soil - our own government systematically has been operating a more substantial terrorist school. Established in Panama in 1946 as a hemispheric Cold War beachhead, the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), which operates solely for the training of Latin American military officers, was moved to Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA in 1984. Over 60,000 have graduated. They include Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega and Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer; the assassins of an archbishop, a bishop, six Jesuit priests and four American churchwomen; and countless other military strongmen responsible for the deaths of literally hundreds of thousands. From 1989-93, I worked with and heard the graphic persecution stories of untold numbers of Central American refugees fleeing de facto military dictatorships. It was no coincidence that the majority of SOA graduates in those years hailed from the Central American countries of Guatemala and El Salvador. Today, the majority of trainees are imported from Colombia, where we have pumped over $2 million of military aid daily the last two years into a "war on drugs" smokescreen for business interests that has only served to inflame the 40-year civil war there. Just two weeks ago, a narrow House majority freed this "drug eradication" money to openly engage in counterinsurgency operations. Vietnam, anyone? In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution, according to The School of the America's Watch, a watchdog organization. Even after these were made public, Defense officials continued to point out that most of the school's graduates had not committed the scores of human rights abuses against the millions of refugees fleeing the wrath that's come. This may be true. At the same time, for the last 55 years most of the Latin American military officers who actually ordered these abuses learned their lessons well through our taxpayer-supported SOA. After the House of Representatives decisively voted to shut down the school in 1999, a House-Senate conference committee voted 8-7 to keep it open, provided the school be renamed - get this - the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). Even SOA proponents saw no difference in the much-touted renaming. Georgia's late Sen. Paul Coverdell assured his constituents the name switch was "a cosmetic change," and the Columbus, Ga. Ledger-Inquirer strongly concurred in a recent editorial. Different name - same shame. Orwellian Doublespeak, anyone? Please join me and numerous communions such as the Presbyterian Church in urging leaders such as our distinguished Sen. Carl Levin, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to close SOA/WHISC and discontinue "Plan Colombia." The irony again is that, in the midst of our current war on terrorism to parts East, we train and unleash scores of future terrorists yearly to parts South. Hypocrisy, anyone? Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch is pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor. He was one of 43 indicted in April for trespassing onto Ft. Benning during what he describes as a solemn nonviolent civil disobedience action last November. The "SOA 43" trial date has been set for July 8 at the U.S. District Court in Columbus, GA. http://www.counterpunch.org/booker0617.html Musicians found to have 'more sensitive brains' Posted: Monday, June 17, 2002 By Lorna Duckworth, Independent, 17 June 2002 Musicians have bigger and more sensitive brains than people who do not play instruments, scientists revealed yesterday. The auditory cortex, which is the part of the brain concerned with hearing, contains 130 per cent more "grey matter" in professional musicians than in non-musicians. In amateur players, the volume of the auditory cortex is between the two, a team of researchers from Heidelberg University in Germany has found. They used scans and imaging techniques to compare the size and activity of the auditory cortex in 37 people. The professionals, who all performed regularly, showed 102 per cent more activity in their auditory cortex than non-musicians. Activity in the brains of amateur musicians was on average 37 per cent higher than in those who did not play an instrument, the researchers said in a report in Nature Neuroscience. The auditory cortex consists mainly of "grey matter" or nerve cells called neurons, which are interconnected by long filament-like axons, or "white matter". The scientists found startling physical differences between the three groups. Those with musical experience had larger amounts of grey matter in the region called the Heschl's gyrus. The structure contained 536 to 983 cubic millimetres of grey matter in professional musicians, 189 to 798 cubic millimetres in amateurs, and 172 to 450 cubic millimetres in non-musicians. There was also a high correlation between auditory brain activity and the musical aptitude of volunteers, who were asked to spot subtle changes in pairs of short melodies. The researchers added that post-mortem studies had revealed abnormally large Heschl's gyrus structures in two eminent musicians. But whether such differences were due to genetics or the effect of musical exposure on the brain remained unclear. "Our results indicate that the morphology and neurophysiology of HG (Heschl's gyrus) have an essential impact on musical aptitude," said the report's lead author, Peter Schneider. "The question remains, however, whether early exposure to music or a genetic predisposition leads to the functional and anatomical differences between musicians and non-musicians." http://news.independent.co.uk/world/ science_medical/story.jsp?story=305961 World News Posted: Sunday, June 16, 2002 • Terror-phobia as the instrument of power • state dept. analyst calls for censorship of the press • Spain break Irish hearts -- Spain win 3-2 on penalties • Gasoline Tankers Explode In Pakistan • Hindu Pilgrims Attacked In Kashmir • The Bad Old Days at the F.B.I. • Golden day for Senegal, Sweden 1-2 Senegal • 24 die in China internet cafe fire • Dark heart of the American dream • 13 Dead In Bus Smash • Two Israeli Soldiers Killed In Attack • Two Men, Woman Found Shot Dead • Iraq: U.S., U.K. Hurt Food Program • Just as you thought the world might be safer... • Contradictory rumours • Apartheid victims sue Western banks and firms for billions • Last ditch diplomacy • How Clinton came to dinner and made $9m • Pirates raid Mozambique sea treasures • 'White Australia' town split by race row • George W Bush is stupid • President Broadens Anti-Hussein Order • President's Clout Being Wasted as Homeland Security Dominates • 2 Children Killed In Separate Assault in Kashmir • Afghanistan Militants Threaten Aid Workers • FBI ‘guilty of cover-up’ over anthrax suspect • Israel wants fences not bridges • A dirty bomb from Pakistan? Or a dirty trick from Washington? • Kurds prove wary allies of the US • Osama bin Laden’s Forerunner World News Posted: Saturday, June 15, 2002 • Anti-Chavez protesters demand his resignation • Venezuela fears coup as loyalists stand firm • Man Opens Fire On Israeli Settlement • Five Killed In Murder-suicide • Pakistan Attack May Not Be Suicide • Andersen Convicted Of Obstruction • Germany, England Reach Cup Quarters • Infiltrators keep Army on their toes • Boy, thrown from bridge, dies • Mugabe accuses Briton of plot • The Pope, priests, and pedophiles • Soviet 1971 Smallpox Outbreak Worries Experts • Israel Has Sub-Based Atomic Arms Capability • Congo Troops Kill 70 in Surprise Raid • Russia Quits Arms Pact • Cubans Asked To Back Socialism • Suicide Bomber Kills 11 In Karachi • U.S. Wants Iraq Diplomat Out Of U.n. • Cracks show in Bush's White House • Israel begins fencing off Palestinian areas • Portugal go down in red sea • You are to blame for abuse, bishops told • Axis of errors has America's friends Bushed • Dirty tricks • US puts Cold War tactics in an Alaska deep freeze • Israel picks woman to fight 'battle of CNN' • We Were Better Off Under the Russians • Madagascar presidential rival 'flies into exile' • Bushism is American Stalinism today Venezuela -- Friday, June 14, 2002 Posted: Friday, June 14, 2002 Defense Minister calling for calm despite rumors of an impending coup... The opposition rumor mill has been working overtime to destabilize the government of President Hugo Chavez Frias despite their coup d'etat failure two months ago. Rincon says an investigation is underway to trace the source of a flurry of anti-government emails and pamphlets, the main purpose of which is to create public anxiety and fear. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12470.asp Alleged harassment of US citizens ... The US Embassy has made a formal protest to the Venezuelan government for at least four incidents of harassment of US citizens. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12471.asp Opposition and pro-government sympathizers have turned the entrance and surrounds at the downtown Caracas Attorney General’s Office into a verbal battlefield as both sides insist on packing complaints against each other, crippling the state attorneys' workload.h http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12472.asp Opposition National Assemblymen (AN) have been shut inside the Capitolio for several hours and refused to leave until a crowd of waiting pro-government supporters were persuaded to disperse. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12471.asp Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) Media Communications School director Asalia Venegas says a debate on the role of Venezuela's print and broadcast media has intensified after April 13-14. Venegas has aligned herself with the opinions of visiting journalist associations confirming that the domestic media has assumed political roles that do not correspond with their mission as intermediaries. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12473.asp It has emerged that the video shown by Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) National Assembly members, Luis Tascon and Iris Varela was first shown on 24-hour news station Globovision’s Grado 33 program. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12472.asp El Nuevo Pais editor Patricio Poleo has filed complaint against Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) National Assembly members Iris Varela, Cilia Flores and Nicolas Maduro for accusing her of staging the “Comacates” video of alleged active service officers. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12473.asp Will Armed Force (FAN) dissidents come out in uniform on June 15? Defense Minister, General Lucas Rincon Romero says he’s sure that active service FAN officers will not turn out for Saturday’s opposition march to Avenida Bolivar. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12474.asp Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) National Assemblyman Carlos Tablante has completed the opposition bench’s preliminary report of April 11 hearings. Tablante says President Hugo Chavez Frias is politically responsible for the “Miraflores Massacre.” http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12475.asp Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez insists that his office is "working with coordination and speed” into clearing up the events of April 11 and afterwards. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12474.asp President Hugo Chavez Frias was not involved in Macroeconomic Stabilization Fund (FIEM) transfers. National Assembly (AN) Comptroller Committee officials have begun an investigation into the administration of public monies from FIEM. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12476.asp Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) president Carlos Fernandez has lashed out predicting a financial collapse of the Chavez Frias government … “that’s what we can expect because the government is doing nothing and we are all going under.” http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12476.asp Venezuelan Banking Association (ABV) president Ignacio Salvatierra rejects accusations that the country’s banking system is about to cave in “the financial system is in good condition, as I have repeatedly reported.” http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12475.asp PROVEA human rights NGO has issued a manifesto against violence and in favor of strengthening democracy and human rights. Starting from the premise that radicalized sectors of society threaten political and social violence. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12477.asp The Attorney General’s investigation into the events of April 11 has been slow, making the general public and especially families of victims impatient. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12477.asp "Foreign invest is always welcome, but it needs to have a Venezuelan counterpart to assure long term success" says Venezuela's Minister of Production & Commerce Ramon Rosales; closing speech of the Norway-Venezuelan offshore oil sector industrial seminar. http://www.petroleumworld.com/storyT218.htm In Venezuelan capital, rumors of new coup abound, abuzz with rumors and ricocheting e-mail speculations about impending violence and an imminent coup against Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez. http://www.petroleumworld.com/storyT217.htm Venezuelan American Chamber advises: Prepare for violence. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8315.htm MARKET TALK: Nymex crude sags as equities drop. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8317.htm Venezuela PDVSA gets $364 million from FIEM for gas plan. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8316.htm Brazil Petrobras to issue up to $1 bln in shares. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8307.htm Venezuela's CTV preparing For nationwide strike. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8308.htm Nymex crude seen opening 10c lower on profit taking. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8309.htm Foreign cos line up to invest in Venezuelan gas projects. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8310.htm OUTLOOK: US gasoline demand pumps up Asian markets. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8311.htm Norway's Statoil to sell Methanol in North America. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8312.htm Brazil Petrobras hits record oil production of 1.53 million bpd. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8313.htm Qatar signs 3 petrochemicals deals worth $2 billion. http://www.petroleumworld.com/story8314.htm Venezuelan government approves public spending cut. The Venezuelan cabinet has approved a Bs.1 billion cut in public spending. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12478.asp Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) denies lending money to the treasury. Despite a balance of payments that suggests to the contrary, the Central Bank has denied lending the government money. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12478.asp "Venezuela is bordering on an economic collapse," according to Venezuelan Business Chamber (Fedecamaras). The business grouping believes that what is around the corner will be far worse. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12479.asp Government is taking measures to help textile sector. Will ask the Andean Community to defer the common external tariff for the textile sector. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12479.asp "The Venezuelan financial system is in good shape," according to Venezuelan Banking Association president Ignacio Salvatierra. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12479.asp Public sector electricity consumption down by 10-30%. The electricity consumption of 57 public sector companies has fallen by 10-30%. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12480.asp Venezuela and Bulgaria look to promote trade and investment. The two countries have signed an agreement to improve business relations. http://www.vheadline.com/0206/12480.asp World News Posted: Friday, June 14, 2002 • Two S.Korean Girls Run Over by US Armored Vehicle • Nearly One Third Americans Favor Chinese Products • Starbucks the target of Arab boycott for its growing links to Israel • US had role in Taleban prisoner deaths • Eight die in Spanish helicopter crash • Lindh: U.S. Denied My Legal Rights • Bush blames Karachi blast on 'radical killers' • Trade follows the soccer ball? • World Cup: Poland 3 - 1 USA • World Cup: Portugal 0 - 1 South Korea • World Cup: Tunisia 0 - 2 Japan • World Cup: Belgium 3 - 2 Russia • Seven killed in Karachi explosion • Bush ready to support interim Palestinian state • US artists damn 'war without limit' • Rumsfeld has no evidence of al-Qaida units in Kashmir • US-backed Karzai sweeps to power in Afghanistan • 'Intelligence gap' threat to UK • FBI agents question arrested Westerners over al-Qa'ida links • Ode to 11 September given the boot by ABC • Pollution rules for US oil and coal eased • A world without optimism is a truly dangerous place • US had role in Taleban prisoner deaths • India to get Israeli anti-hijack expertise • Car Bomb Kills 2 at U.S. Consulate • Zambian President Tells Western Powers to Mind Their Own Business • Muslim Member of Hindu Nationalist Party May Be Next President of India • Dirty bomb alert was over the top, White House admits • The War Inside the White House • Airline worker says she was told to keep bombing attempt quiet • US war crimes stand alarms Dutch • 24 Major Armed Conflicts in 2001 • Rumsfeld in Kashmir climbdown • Settlers Want Palestinians Fenced In, Not Out • US artists damn 'war without limit' • Bored in the USA • UK Spy Chiefs Warned Blair of 9/11 • Ethiopia Losing Confidence For Return of Axum Obelisk • The mouse that roared • Saying No to Nuclear Arms • Israelis Place Bets on Suicide Bomb Targets • GM firms the only winners at food talks summit • Rumsfeld Baffles India • Iraq Strike Likely By Winter • Karzai Sweeps to Power as Head of Transitional Government World News Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2002 • America's RC bishops: Forgive Us, Father, We Have Sinned • US Special Forces Come Under Fire in Afghanistan • Defusing the Hype Surrounding 'Dirty Bomb' • Confusion over US Mideast policy deepens • Bush 'Not Angry' With Ashcroft • Hill Eyes Shifting Parts of FBI, CIA • Stolen Artifact Removed From Auction • Hundreds of Maoists killed in west Nepal • Victims address Bishop conference • One dead after shooting at law firm • Croatia Defeat Sees Italy Through • World Cup Produces More Casualties And Shocks • Preempting preemption • World Cup: Ecuador 1-0 Croatia • World Cup: Italy 1-1 Mexico • World Cup: Costa Rica 2 - 5 Brazil • World Cup: Turkey 3 - 0 China • Crying shame for Argentina • How US smoke stacks brought drought to Africa • Severe floods plague Northwest China • Three missing after US military plane crashes in Afghanistan • U.S. downplays claim Bush mulling 'temporary' Palestine • Now Argentina, too, is gone • 'Dirty Bomber' a Political Dud • Pakistan Arrests Tied to Padilla • Sharon Threatens Bush Over Peace Plan • Koizumi Commits to No Nukes • U.S., Britain Defend Iraq Oil Rules • Mexico City Cops Seek Teen Killer • U.s. Drug Czar Warns Canada On Plan • UK anti-terrorist officials alarmed at US tactics • My racist mother had to die • Family Held At Gunpoint, 3 Killed • One Dead In N.y. Mill Explosion • Bush Signs $4.3b Bioterror Bill • 3000 homes threatened by raging wildfire • Treasures lost in museum fire • Ashcroft Reprimanded for Exaggerating 'Dirty Bomb' Plot • Bigger EU: A Mess in the Making • British Helicopter Crashes Off Va. • Better to steer clear of small wars • Qaeda suspects are U.S. citizens • MEANWHILE Bush and bin Laden know fear is the key Preparing for a Saturday coup? Posted: Thursday, June 13, 2002 VHeadline.com Venezuela Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) neighborhood watch committee (Bolivarian Circle) officials forecast another attempted coup d'etat will be launched on Saturday (June 15) collateral to an anti-government march on Avenida Bolivar demanding the resignations of both the Attorney General and the Comptroller General of the Republic. According to the neighborhood watch committee -- which draws its support mostly from students and local residents -- anti-government demonstration organizers will attempt to divert the march to the Miraflores Presidential Palace and confront pro-government supporters already gathered outside the Palace gates. The group calls on the foreign media to send their own reporters and not to rely on Venezuela's opposition-led mainstream media for news reports and images. No more manipulation and confrontation Posted: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 Reposted from Narconews Translated by VHeadline "It was made abundantly clear from the disastrous image of those days of disinformation, in which the majority of employees, reporters and journalists put our lives on the line only for media owners and board members to decide not to publish anything and hide from the public the serious events that were taking place in the streets, while mainstream TV channels aired old movies as if nothing was happening. We all must assume those days of confusion, tensions, interests, and mistakes with courage and rectify with deep sincerity. No more manipulation. We workers say firmly and responsibly that we will not accept such behavior again." - Venezuelan Media Workers Statement The El Nacional newspaper company has censored this communiqué and its workers have taken it upon themselves to let people know where the union stands. Society is currently facing a crisis based on hatred and manipulation, imposed on us at will by leaders and organizations, a situation, which little by little, has led us to confrontations and intolerance on all levels and which could end in even greater ills. As representative of the workers of the country's most important print media, our trade union feels a deep responsibility vis-a-vis all the recent events and we think it important to announce that we will no longer allow ourselves to be used as a political flag or as an instrument of confrontation. We want to make it clear that we do not agree nor will we agree with aggressive political marches, work stoppages and strikes for political purposes. We do not approve of distorted and intolerant news slants and are not prepared to accept misnomered leaders and organizations that allegedly represent, guide and manipulate us with their stoppages and strikes when on repeated occasions they have denied workers the legitimate right to strike for labor benefits and failed to react to dismissals of workers exercising the right to free union activity and collective bargaining discussions to improve labor conditions. No more manipulation of media sector workers making us responsible for editorial lines. Media owners must accept that they are a force in society and for that reason have a social responsibility, not only to the workforce but also to Venezuelan society. They must understandand accept that their workers are doing our job and not working for a political project. If companies or media owners support or prefer one of the poles or groups disputing political power in Venezuela, we demand that they make it clear that it is the employer's and not the worker's position. Print and broadcast media owners and board members: please assume your responsibility and use your power in a positive manner to create currents of opinion, behaviors and attitudes in society in general. If you really want dialogue and rectification, take a leading role to benefit everyone and intervene correctly towards achieving social peace. Print & broadcast workers: we raise our voice as a right to be heard and to let people know what we really feel. We are responsible for what happens like every other Venezuelan. We must take a stand. We are the real majority whose support those so called leaders falsely claim. They have brought us to this confrontation. The real majority in the country just wants peace, no work stoppages, no war, and no coup d'etats. We want to work. That is the real majority and we media workers play an important role in channeling this sincere and optimistic message. No more manipulations and confrontation. We propose that the media's social commitment, journalist ethics, work relationships and work contract obligations imposed on journalists become topics for debate between company and workers to reach harmony in media circles and society in general, a debate which must be undertaken free of the heat of political militancy. We must really be convinced that our individual and collective future is at stake and that each individual and organization must assume a quota of reflection to act positively. We will not allow ourselves to be manipulated again. We will not allow ourselves to used as an image of lies to propagate disinformation. No more. It was made abundantly clear from the disastrous image of those days of disinformation, in which the majority of employees, reporters and journalists put our lives on the line only for media owners and board members to decide not to publish anything and hide from the public the serious events that were taking place in the streets, while mainstream TV channels aired old movies as if nothing was happening. We all must assume those days of confusion, tensions, interests, and mistakes with courage and rectify with deep sincerity. No more manipulation. We workers say firmly and responsibly that we will not accept such behavior again. We are all responsible for what happened in April, responsible for not wanting to dialogue, for not being tolerant, and for not allowing all the voices of a pluralistic Nation access to microphones, cameras and tape recorders. We are all responsible for passively accepting editorial lines, even when they curtailed the right to truthful information. There can be no dialogue and conciliation in the country, as long as the media continue to stimulate confrontation in society. Instead of excuses, inflating and deflating situations, all of us must take on a serious dialogue that allows us to come closer and that creates consensus in which different and obvious positions in society will be respected, a dialogue based on democracy and not coup d'etats, conspiracies and confrontations. Commitment and responsibility must start now and we must all participate in pacific and sincere change. Why the war will be brought to US soil Posted: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 By Bukka Rennie So the military/protective hawks in the USA are busying themselves preparing that country and its citizenry for what they deem to be the certain eventuality of the arrival on their soil of suicide bombers whose lethal weapons could well be of a biological or makeshift nuclear nature. Given the heightened spirit of patriotism and national unity that were attained after the horror of September 11, one can very well assume that not many dissenting voices will be heard critical of the moves to be made by the hawks representing the military-industrial complex. A clear enemy has been identified but moreso has been demarcated by the two most powerfully emotive factors known in the history of humanity: Race and religion. In this case "Arab" and "Muslim". Sad but true, once you wave a banner symbolic of a race and religion combine, that to almost all of humanity becomes tantamount to waving red flags before the eyes of enraged, mad, emboldened bulls. Already the FBI and the CIA have begun to beef up their forces in order to enhance their investigative, information gathering and assessing capabilities. With the power of hindsight, they are now clear that had both the FBI and CIA not messed up their analysis of information from operatives in the field, the horror of September 11 may not have happened. But in most instances it was not a matter of them not properly assessing information, it was more a simple case of blatant ignoring of information. That however is really not "simple". It reeks of the typical psychology and myopia of the supposed intellectually and militarily powerful. It is almost like a "willful suspension of disbelief". The powerful never feel that they can be hurt by the powerless. When Ho-Chi-Minh informed the Americans that if they invaded Vietnam they will have to fight everybody from "age nine to 99", Robert McNamara, rated to have possessed one of the highest IQ's known to modern man, was reported to have said to the then President, Lyndon B Johnson, "America is the greatest and most powerful nation in the history of the world, no slant-eyes running around in pyjamas all day could ever defeat us..." LBJ went in with full force and the Americans had to fight everybody from "age nine to 99". The USA, unable to handle the slant-eyes Viet-Cong, dropped more bombs on Vietnam that the overall total of bombs dropped in the two World Wars. By the time the USA bombed administrative centres and fuel storage compounds hoping to cripple the Viet-Cong war apparatus, everything had already been located underground. Most of all, the Americans never saw whom they were fighting in the jungles all those months and years until they were evacuating Saigon in total defeat. Abandoning weapons and scrambling onto aircraft, they were astounded to look back and see barefooted teenagers, many of them in "pyjamas". The powerful never learn. So blinded are they by their superiority complex. Attempting to organise to effectively block would-be suicide-bombers is the same as organising to put out sporadic, ubiquitous bush fires. Typically, the USA is preparing to deal with symptoms rather than the root cause. It is crucial for some of the Congress men and women to ask the relevant questions: Why are people from quite over on the Eastern Hemisphere of the world targeting America with such consistency and with such vicious intention? Why has the concept of the "Ugly American" persisted for the past decades since the inception of the decolonisation process and the blowing of the "winds of change" demanding the natural right to self-determination. Why? The root cause of the turmoil in the Middle-East is the decimation of the State of Palestine. The only solution is the re-establishment of Palestinian statehood. In 1948 Israel was created by the British for European Jews by carving out a piece of Palestine, and despite the United Nations post-war edict that all settled borders be respected as is, where is, so to speak, the Israelis were never satisfied with what was given to them and embarked very early on a Zionist, militarist and terrorist programme to push the Palestinians out of Palestine altogether. And that is exactly what they have accomplished with the help of the USA. Israel will not last one single day without America. Okay, one can understand America's commitment to the State of Israel, but how can you be so committed to Israel without being also strongly committed to Palestinian statehood. The Palestinians have no State, they are refugees all over the Arab world, in Jordan, in Lebanon, etc and so have come to the conclusion that they will therefore fight their enemies "anywhere and everywhere". It is American foreign policy that ties the hand of all the Arab nations and deters them from defending the Palestinian cause. It is only logical that, by extension, the war will be brought to American soil. There is only one solution and that is commitment likewise to Palestinian statehood. But who wants solutions when the very lack of solutions can serve to generate profits and maintain the international status-quo and balance of power? World News Posted: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 • The Scare Scam • Mr Bush's titanic war on terror will eventually sink beneath the waves • 11 killed in bus attack in Algeria • Threat of 'dirty bomb' softened • Timing of plot news fit Bush's agenda • Suburban dream scorched in Colo. • Asteroid breakup gives clues to origins of Solar System • World Bank clears 500 million dollars for Pakistan • American Sentenced in Canada Hijack • The first steps on the hazardous road to democracy in Afghanistan • Afghans protest over US manipulation of summit influence at loya jirga • U.s. Plane Crashes In Afghanistan • Quake Shakes U.s. Virgin Islands • Pitch evasion • Disillusioned delegates walk out of loya jirga • World Cup: Spain 3 - 2 South Africa • World Cup: Slovenia 1 - 3 Paraguay • World Cup: England 0 - 0 Nigeria • World Cup: Sweden 1 - 1 Argentina • Senegal proves point for Africa • Powell outlines Middle East peace plan • Sharon unmoved by Bush as suicide bomb kills girl, 15 • Suspect is being denied rights, say campaigners • Dramatic return of 'war on terror' can only help Bush • British security sources doubts US 'dirty bomber' claims • Bush's titanic war will eventually sink beneath the waves • Five held in Morocco 'planned to strike warships' • Afghans protest over US manipulation of summit influence at loya jirga • US ready to monitor LoC if India, Pak agree • 3 tonnes of marijuana seized in Mexico • Sharon wins US support on Israeli incursions • Most Muslims OK with West • Arrest prompts US to launch global manhunt • US military presence key to stability in Asia, says Powell • Arrest prompts US to launch global manhunt • Israel had Padilla file before Sept. 11 • East meets West on high alert for fresh al-Qaeda bombings • Colombia Probes Police Chiefs Over Missing U.S. Aid • 2 More Bishops Resign in Sex Scandal • $500M deal for Coke, CBS, NCAA • France take home their broken hearts • India warns of malaria epidemic, 73 dead • Malaysia PM: Palestinians need a state • Judge rejects 'wrongful life' claim • Angola on the brink of famine, aid group says World News Posted: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 • Homeland Security Legislation Faces Delay • 10 injured in suicide bomb attack on Herzliya restaurant • Afghans: 'We Were Better Off Under the Russians' • ANALYSIS-Arabs bitter as Sharon basks in U.S. support • 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect Not Cooperating, Wolfowitz Says • Philippine President Rallies Troops • Ethnic massacre claim in DR Congo • Indian spy planes operated by Israelis: PAF Chief • Aid Groups Say Israel Impedes Relief Work • Pakistan President Says India's Gestures Not Enough • Business fears effects of Customs' new role • Reform on hold with Arafat under siege • Israel Once More Forces Arafat Into House Arrest • India, Pakistan Can Do Without US Meddling • 'Mistakenly' Killed on a Friday Morning • Bush's New Dept: Rushing for Security or Politics? • World Cup: Rep of Ireland 3 - 0 Saudi Arabia • World Cup: Cameroon 0 - 2 Germany • France dismissed by Danes: Denmark 2-0 France • Senegal 3 Uruguay 3: Senegal cling on to qualify • New Zealand Calls Early Election • Thirty-seven burn to death in Zimbabwe bus crash • Israel puts Arafat in new ring of steel • US shifting to strike-first war strategy • Russian Official's Remarks Contradict Historical Facts • Palestinian Killed as More Than 70 Israeli Tanks Enter Ramallah • Bush backs Israel's right to self-defence • Mo. Abbey Gunman Kills 2 Monks, Self • Bush and Sharon Consign Arafat To Sidelines • US backs Israel as tanks again ring Arafat • US stops al-Qa'ida 'dirty bomb' attack on Washington • What drives ordinary people to kill civilians - and themselves? • World's best steel themselves for bout of sudden death • Western leaders snub UN food summit • Fifty ways to love America World News Posted: Monday, June 10, 2002 • Bush team drafts first-strike policy • India Reopens Airspace to Pakistani Flights • Soccer riot in Russia claims second victim • Iceland study provides detail map of human genome • Nepal says kills 17 Maoist rebels in fresh assaults • US says it has thwarted al Qaeda dirty bomb plot • Bush, Sharon meet as White House backs Israeli raid on Ramallah • Mob boss John Gotti dies in prison hospital at age 61 • Bus Crash Kills 36 In Zimbabwe • Top Serbian officer killed in ambush • Rumsfeld dismisses Iraq's weapons claims • Women's tennis ruled by Team Williams • N. Carolina Highway Crash Kills 4 • 7 Immigrants Die In Arizona Desert • Kashmir tension eases after pledge to end terrorism • Washington embarrassed by botched Philippine hostage rescue • Gangsters, murderers and stooges used to endorse Bush's vision • Indian police hold Kashmiri leader under terror law • US plans airborne monitor force in Kashmir • Karzai Likely To Remain in Power After Vote • PA police arrest Gaza Strip leader of Islamic Jihad • US quits Uzbekistan base after chemicals leak • Bickering Afghans put their future on hold • Inquiry blows cover on slackness of US Secret Service • Dozens of Palestinians wounded by Gaza blast • Palestinian sceptics critical of Arafat’s reformed cabinet • Madagascar crisis talks in Dakar end without accord, but with plan • Sharon: Talk of Peace Premature • Sharon Rejects Newest Peace Plan • The overthrow of Saddam could unlock peace in the Middle East • Iraqi opposition groups visit Washington • Baghdad 'using Syria rail link to smuggle in military hardware' • Hard-hitting Czech aims volley at EU • Nepali leader says China to help fight Maoists • 400 civilians killed in eastern Congo: rebels • No mushroom cloud for Nevada licenses • Communists in disarray as Putin reneges on power-sharing • 19 Drink Cologne, Die In S. Arabia • Israeli Forces Enter Ramallah • S. Korea Activists Fight Police • Heavy Rains In Colombia Flood Homes Their game, not ours Posted: Monday, June 10, 2002 by Peter Preston The Guardian There is an eerie symmetry. One world crisis, anxiously tended by the United States, takes a breather. India and Pakistan will not blow each other up this week (if at all possible). Another world crisis duly resumes centre stage as Ariel Sharon heads for the White House, doubtless fearing the propaganda moment - probably as he and George W embrace in the rose garden - when some faraway survivor of Jenin takes his final revenge. One step closer to the brink, one step back. MORE Chavez Frias prepares action against terrorists Posted: Monday, June 10, 2002 VHeadline News Briefs Taking a leaf out of US President George W. Bush’s book, Venezuela's Chavez Frias prepares action against terrorists and conspirators who are determined to end democracy in Venezuela. Whether Chavez Frias will follow through his threat is another matter since failure to enforce the law was the prelude to the April 11 conspiracy. Military officers threatening acts of subversion and the print & broadcast media that give them free propaganda are breaking the law … “institutions should be aware we must apply a heavy hand to guarantee peace in Venezuela.” IRS/Seniat Superintendent Trino Alcides Diaz reports that tax collection from January thru May is $617 million less was than scheduled. “The Treasury received $3.65 billion, which is less than our estimates for the period.” The President has warned that those who promote non-payment of taxes as part of a civil disobedience campaign are breaking the law as well as damaging the nation's economy -- “tax evasion is a crime according to Venezuelan law and anybody who refuses to pay taxes will go to prison … for years, people have grown accustomed to not paying taxes." MORE Cuban Dissident Campaign is a Fraud Posted: Monday, June 10, 2002 The truth about the Varela Project By Calvin Tucker On Friday 10th May, the dissident Varela Project petition signed by 11,020 Cuban voters was delivered to the country's National Assembly in Havana. The fanfare of publicity that surrounded the petition almost eclipsed Jimmy Carter's call to end the US blockade of the island, and coincided with the claim by the Bush administration that Cuba was developing biological weapons and sharing them with Iran. The Varela Project demands "a new electoral law" and the "right of Cubans to create enterprises". If adopted, commented Ed Vulliamy in an Observer article supporting the petition, these proposals would mean "in effect, the end of communism in Cuba." On the day the petition was submitted, BBC News reported with barely concealed glee: "Cuba's Constitution says the National Assembly must schedule a national referendum on the proposals if it receives the verified signatures of 10,000 legal voters." Exactly the same claim was also broadcast by the American news channel Fox News, and printed in The Observer, The New York Times, USA Today and syndicated to the rest of the world's media on the Associated Press wire. The implication was clear and damning. Should the Cuban Government fail to hold a referendum about returning the island to capitalism, it would lose all constitutional legitimacy and be exposed as a dictatorial regime. But this claim by the BBC and the big business owned press was a complete fabrication. The Cuban constitution is unambiguous. Only the National Assembly is empowered to decide if and when there shall be a public referendum (Article 75.u). Petitioners have a quite separate and unrelated right. They can propose legislation for debate in the National Assembly to be taken up by its relevant commissions which would debate the proposal, suggest amendments, vote on it and determine whether and when it should be introduced to the full legislative body (Article 88.g). Inside Cuba, the proponents of the petition did not make the claim that the constitution guaranteed them a referendum on their proposal - in fact the petition is phrased as a request for a referendum. Given that the Cuban constitution was adopted by referendum in 1976 with a majority of over 90%, and is freely available, such a falsehood would be unsustainable within the country. But unsurprisingly, Varela Project leader Oswald Paya, despite being extensively interviewed by the world's media, has neglected to correct the fabrication. The fact that this misinformation appeared simultaneously in the world's most influential media networks suggests that it was planted by forces that have considerably more experience of manipulating public opinion than the leaders of the Varela Project. FOREIGN COMPOST The Varela Project has been presented as a significant departure from previous anti-communist campaigns against the Cuban government. And indeed, the Project has, on the face of it, little in common with the more fanatical US sponsored émigré groups, who by their involvement in terrorist activities and promotion of the blockade, are completely discredited inside Cuba and have little credibility abroad. Vicki Huddleston, head of the US Interests Section in Havana, has stated that the United States has provided nothing more than "moral support" for what she called a completely "home-grown effort." Oswald Paya has also made much of his project's supposedly independent status. He told the BBC on 10th May, "We have not accepted a single penny from the US Government." The Cuban Government has stated that Varela Project organisers are not independent, and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque recently charged that they are "on the U.S. government payroll." The Cuban Government has yet to release its evidence. However, Straight Left has discovered the following: The Varela Project is organised by the Christian Liberation Movement (CLM), which is also headed by Oswald Paya. The CLM in turn is part of a Miami based organisation called the Social Democratic Co-ordinator, which is modelled on the former 'citizens initiative' groups in the GDR and Czechoslovakia, and claims to support "democratic socialism". This 'Third Way' approach is an attempt to create a credible anti-government movement amongst intellectuals inside Cuba, and to undermine international sympathy for Cuba's actual socialist system. Last year the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is a federal government agency, gave $5,000,000 to Cuban groups which supported their goal of "democracy, human rights, and free market economics" and are engaged in "building on the Eastern European transition model." Amongst the many current and former recipients of this American largesse was the Cuban Dissidence Task Force, which received a $250,000 grant in the late 1990s. The USAID website states that one of the "specific accomplishments" of the task force was the setting up of the Felix Varela Law Centre "which supports Cuban lawyers in their research of Cuban legal institutions and laws that must be eliminated or modified to permit a peaceful transition from totalitarianism to democracy." American funding for the Felix Varela Law Centre was completed in September 1999. According to the Boston Globe (22 March 2002), the Varela Project petition drive was launched shortly afterwards. Calvin Tucker writes on British and international issues for the British magazine "Straight Left" and is a frequent contributor to Internet discussion forums on Jamaica and Cuba. World News Posted: Sunday, June 9, 2002 • Mexico Peasants Die In Land Dispute • Guards Kill Men In Hijack Attempt • Don't panic! But nobody did • Three Die In Texas Bus Crash • Rumsfeld Visits U.S. Troops in Kuwait • Woman fatally shoots her bedridden sons • One reported dead as riots greet Russia's World Cup loss • John Ashcroft's Power Grab • Philippine Troops Launch Attack • U.S.: Nerve Gas Traces Found at Base • Violence Precedes Sharon U.S. Visit • Iron Mike Tyson Is Rusted Through • Serena's Win Puts Williams Sisters Atop Women's Tennis • Minorities Struggling to Join The Political Elite in France • U.S. Trap • Former Army Ruler Returns as Mali's Elected Leader • Politicians hide themselves away, they only started the war • 2 Dead, 7 Hurt in Japan Ferry Crash • Lewis Stops Tyson to Retain World Heavyweight Title • We lost a plane, admits India • Protesters Hold March In Rome • Bomb Explodes In Jakarta, 4 Injured • 9 Killed As Sharon Heads To U.s. • R.i. Gunman Kills Two, Himself • Twelve injured in Lakes coach crash • Which way now for India? • Bush gambles US safety on $37bn security shake-up • Afghan Warlords Vie for Power • EU Police to Spy on All Email • Downed India Spy Plane Was Made in Israel • US Forces Draw Blank in Pakistan Terror Hunt • Israel on Brink of Expelling Arafat • Afghan Bus Crash: 67 Dead • Blairs draw fire for 'conduct unbecoming' at celebrations • Tales of apartheid EU Police to spy on all emails Posted: Sunday, June 9, 2002 by Kamal Ahmed The Observer Millions of personal emails, other internet information and telephone records are to be made accessible to the police and intelligence services in a move that has been denounced by critics as one of the most wide-ranging extensions of state power over private information. Plans being drawn up by Europol, the police and intelligence arm of the European Union, propose that telephone and internet firms retain millions of pieces of data - including details of visits to internet chat rooms, and of calls made on mobile phones and text messages. In a move that has been condemned by privacy campaigners, a draft document passed to The Observer reveals that the EU is now drawing up a 'common code' on data retention which will be applicable in all member states. MORE Coup rumors seek to create image of instability Posted: Saturday, June 8, 2002 A small sector of the opposition is floating rumors of another coup to create a climate of instability, Venezuela's foreign minister Roy Chaderton charged. "They want to create an impression of instability and of the imminent downfall of the legitimate government of Venezuela," Chaderton said. President Hugo Chavez was deposed and returned to power in a failed two-day coup in April. The Caracas daily El Universal published portions of what it said were communiques in which military officers declare themselves insubordinate to Chavez and call for a "constitutional rebellion." On June 4, opposition journalist Patricia Poleo, editor of the daily Nuevo Pais, divulged the contents of a videotape whose authenticity was not confirmed of hooded officers declaring that they would "do whatever is necessary" to defend Venezuela's institutions and denouncing Chavez as a "leftist." A week ago, a hooded man claiming to be an officer of the National Guard made public statements against Chavez. Rumors circulating by word of mouth are reinforced by news reports and handbills calling for an overthrow of the government. Chaderton said well-financed groups were using the Internet to foment subversion. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020607/1/2zbke.html World News Posted: Saturday, June 8, 2002 • Seven dead as Israeli settlers attacked • White House Faces Disclosure Suit • Cheney vow that US will take battle to Saddam • Rajouri villagers itch for war: India • Pakistan downs Indian spy plane • Five Killed In Train Crash In Canada • 3 People Killed in Kashmir Shelling • Ex-U.S. Spies Gather in Washington • Two Israelis killed in shooting attack • Venezuelan officer reaches El Salvador in asylum bid • Argentina affirms IMF reservations over reforms • Two Moderate Quakes Shake Mexico • Flag-burning day in a shellshocked city • To feel secure, the US needs the intelligence to understand its enemies • 3 Dead In Israeli Settlement Attack • Can Sharon achieve his goal of ridding Israel of Arafat? • Israeli Tanks storm Jenin • Sharon to persuade Bush to let go of Arafat • Bush promises new ideas as Mubarak talks begin • Jerusalem's first gay pride march defies critics • Bush opens his push for new security agency • Kennedy who bragged he could get off with murder - Guilty • 'Unthinkable' N-war still a risk: Karamat • Rajouri villagers itch for war • Government to fly Japanese out of troubled India • India rejects UK’s policing proposal • Officers `have fingers on nuclear trigger' • Department of sleuth: 170,000 to fight terror • India asks US for answers on guerilla camps • Missionary, nurse killed in botched rescue attempt • Leave my nice husband alone, NATO told • FBI hobbled by poor computers and no email • Delhi prepares for the prospect of nuclear war • Coup rumors seek to create image of instability: Venezuela • Kostunica's party announces Serbian shadow government Venezuelan officer reaches El Salvador in asylum bid Posted: Friday, June 7, 2002 By DIEGO MENDEZ, Associated Press SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (June 7, 2002 8:20 p.m. EDT) - A senior officer accused of taking part in a brief coup in Venezuela arrived to asylum in El Salvador on Friday as three other officers announced they were seeking shelter in the United States. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was deposed April 12 by military generals after 17 people died and hundreds were wounded when an opposition march collided with government supporters. Loyal troops - backed by thousands of civilian protesters - swept Chavez back to power two days later, ousting his brief successor, Pedro Carmona, a businessman. Carmona took refuge in Colombia last week. Rear Adm. Carlos Molina Tamayo, who had been named head of the presidential guard by Carmona, arrived from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas aboard a commercial jet amid tight security. Tamayo sought refuge inside El Salvador's Embassy in Caracas on May 25, saying he feared for his life. The Venezuelan government granted Tamayo permission to leave the country on Thursday. In Coral Gables, Fla., three lower-ranking Venezuelan officers said Friday they were seeking political asylum in the United States. Former Air Force Cols. Pedro Soto and Silvino Bustillos and former National Guard Capt. Luis Garcia Morales said Friday that threats against them and their families led them to seek asylum. MORE World News Posted: Friday, June 7, 2002 • Homeland Insecurity • Tennis: World domination for the Williams sisters • Israeli attack leaves Arafat HQ barely standing • Pakistan Downs Indian Spy Plane • Jennifer Lopez splits with husband • US tobacco company fined $36m for ads in teen magazines • Kennedy cousin convicted of Murder • Arafat defiant after Israeli raid on HQ • Kidnapped US missionary killed in Philippines • U.S., Filipino hostages killed in botched rescue attempt • FBI whistle-blower slams red tape • Security Issues: A Question of Implementation • Israeli Gays Hold First March in Jerusalem • Colombian Judges Close Their Courts • Four killed in bus blast • Cuban Migrants Say They Were Misled • France go from heroes to zeros • Israel Urges Syria On Militants • No joke as Tonga sues former royal jester $26m • The Bush doctrine makes nonsense of the UN charter • Seven tombs uncovered in Egypt • Williams sisters on top of world • Latest attacks could not come at worse time for White House • Indians set to invade Pakistani Kashmir • US details plan to scrutinise Middle Easterners • U.n. Official Warns Of Rights Abuses • Israeli Forces Blow Up 3 Buildings • Venezuela To Give Rebel Safe Passage • Report: Terror Fight May Slow Growth • Bush Seeks Homeland Security Dept. • A sorry, sorry, sorry affair • Bush tries to blunt anger over intelligence failures • Lack of intelligence • US Plan Includes Return to '67 Borders • Arafat Defiant But Weary As Tanks Destroy More of Compound • A Fence, Yes – But Not in Jerusalem • Dozens Killed in Burma Fighting • Rumsfeld: Only Good Terror Defense is Offense World News Posted: Thursday, June 6, 2002 • Oil spill killed 15,000 Galapagos iguanas • Arafat Defiant After Israeli Raid on Compound • US to press on with peace moves • Which Cuba does Bush dream of? • Cuba clarifies the situation with Venezuelan oil • Israeli Tanks Pen Arafat in Office • Arafat bodyguard killed in raid • Author blames US for attack • Buried hopes Burst dam swamps Syrian villages • Thirteen Maoist rebels killed in Nepal • Pakistan rejects Indian call for joint patrols • Bush Calls India, Pakistan Leaders, Urges Peace • West hawks arms as it preaches peace • US Army to keep Hitler paintings • 'Musharraf has betrayed us after ditching Taleban' • US to tackle toughest issues in new peace bid • America points to chief September 11 suspect • US Congress sets wide inquiry into blunders • Briton in Israeli prison hunger strike • Bomber brings Apocalypse to Armageddon • Israeli fears shift in terrorist tactics • Japan's A-bomb survivors worry India, Pakistan forgetting horror • Time not ripe for Indo-Pak summit: Powell • Calls for vengeance after car bomb • Muslims wary of US fingerprint plan • US counts the cost of its freedoms • Buried hopes, Burst dam swamps Syrian villages • US claims proof of Cuba's germ war project • Oil spill killed 15,000 Galapagos iguanas, study estimates • US-British force could be sent to defuse tensions in Kashmir • Africa is ready to change with G8 help, says Mbeki Venezuela asks ex-President Carter to aid talks Posted: Thursday, June 6, 2002 By Patrick Markey CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuela on Thursday asked former President Jimmy Carter to help soothe lingering political tensions after April's coup against President Hugo Chavez and welcomed international observers to monitor the nation's democratic process. Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said he had written to Carter asking him to help foster dialogue in the bitterly divided South American nation. MORE India Plans War Within Two Weeks Posted: Thursday, June 6, 2002  An activist of the All India Anti-terrorist Front shouts anti-Pakistan slogans, during a demonstration in New Delhi June 5, 2002. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said Pakistan must act on pledges to crack down on Islamic militants blamed by New Delhi for attacks on India before New Delhi could ease its stand-off with Islamabad. MORE World News Posted: Wednesday, June 5, 2002 • Lindh tied to killing of CIA agent • Americans Strongly Urged to Leave India, Pakistan • Americans Upset Portugal 3-2 at World Cup • Anti-Jew Posters Appear in Russia • Israeli Troops and Helicopters Enter Jenin • Car Bomb Kills 18 in Northern Israel • Be Forewarned: Surprises Are Inevitable • How Far Would Effects of South Asian Nuclear Attacks Reach? • Calculating global reach of a regional nuclear war • US mulls Philippine troop extension • Intifada takes its toll on Gaza • Palestinian Authority Condemns Bus Bomb • Al-Qaeda could exploit Indo-Pak standoff: Rumsfeld • Bush: Al Qaeda, Taliban move on to Iran • US-sponsored Iraqi Opposition conference postponed • INS Detains Flight Student Named in Pre-Sept. 11 FBI Memo • U.S.: Substantial Number of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan • Veteran soldiers and rebels in Colombia are working together for peace • Terror Suspect Says USS Cole Bombed to Free Sheik • Bush threatens to veto anti-terror bill • US Senator: More 9/11 lapses found • America pushes for new rapid-reaction force to revive Nato • India ready to talk peace, if border raids stop • America's military will return to S-E Asia • We gave US a week's warning of September 11, claims Mubarak • Palestine statehood move on Bush agenda • Pressure on Canadian PM to step aside • Death penalty for client as lawyer slept in court • Guatemala's Ex-president Sought • Dam Collapses In Northern Syria • Red Cross Changes Solicitations • U.S Congress Begins Sept. 11 Hearings • Sharon will fly to US to head off peace plan • Airlines sued over 'racist' screening • Black composer rejects Mandela's call to apologise for lyrics • White House releases Enron papers • Imagine if Blair tried to force Radio-host Paxman off air. • America pushes for new Nato rapid-reaction force • Scientists discover how smells can stir memory • President Bush accepts global warming but not its lessons • Russia Fails to Persuade Pakistan, India to Budge • Arafat Offers Plan to Fix His Security Apparatus • FBI and CIA fight it out OAS Considers Role in Venezuela Posted: Wednesday, June 5, 2002 By Ian James BRIDGETOWN, Barbados –– Nearly two months after a coup that briefly unseated Venezuela's president, the Organization of American States has offered to help the country in any way needed to ease political tensions and strengthen its democracy. Venezuela didn't immediately accept the offer, which was included in a declaration adopted Tuesday at the close of the annual OAS General Assembly in Barbados. But Venezuelan officials said they were pleased because the open-ended pledge of assistance respects the country's sovereignty. MORE Wage peace, not war Posted: Tuesday, June 4, 2002 Conflict in Kashmir could vaporise millions, but the world's 'moral leaders' are looking away by George Monbiot The Guardian There is something dreamlike about our contemplation of the drift to war in Kashmir. While India and Pakistan move their missiles into position, in Britain our concerns are focused on the evacuation of our own citizens, the destination of the likely refugees, and the possibility that the Indian cricket team might be prevented from visiting England at the end of this month. That 12 million people could be vaporised if the war begins in earnest is viewed as regrettable, but nothing to do with us. MORE We can't abolish it, so let's cut the monarchy down to size Posted: Tuesday, June 4, 2002 There are plenty of targets for opponents of royal excess to aim at by Hugo Young The Guardian As the golden coach prepares to roll, republicans are sure they've had the better of the argument against everything it stands for. Jubilee year has been a republican apotheosis. The cause has never achieved more respectability in chattering society. In 1977, the year of the silver, it was an eccentricity defying comprehension and ensuring ostracism. But now that republicanism is on the agenda, it faces a painful question: how do its believers deal with the plain and unalterable probability that it will make no headway in the lifetime even of the new-born babes whom science confidently tells us will be alive a century from now? MORE World News Posted: Tuesday, June 4, 2002 • Train runs into bus in India; 34 dead • Air Force Officer Suspended Criticizing Bush • Senate Deadline on Enron Papers Pass • Heavy casualties after Syrian dam collapse, says agency • South Korea beats Poland; Japan ties and China loses • More than 30 die as Indian train slams bus into canal • Rebels Attack Burundi Capital • Peres to Annan: Hold peace summit soon, before major terror attack • South Africa's Minister meets Arafat, slams cruel Israel • Terrified witness won't testify at Milosevic trial • Armed with a plan, Mubarak heads for Camp David • Bulgarian medics sparked Aids epidemic: Libyan court • Pakistan sheltering al-Qaida fighters, says Newsweek • Suits Allege Post-Sept.11 Airline Discrimination • President Bush returns to his frat boy roots • White House Warns on Climate Change • At the White House, 'The People' Have Spoken -- Endlessly • CIA Chief Meets Sharon In Israel • Fourth Night Of Riots In N. Ireland • New Zealand Apologizes To Samoa • Indians, Pakistanis In U.s. Fearful • Couple Accused Of Killing Tourists • Bush shifts global warming stance • Bush warns of 'first-strike' against rogue nations • Blair calls on Nato to realign itself against terrorism • Israeli soldiers detain 400 in search for militants • Hijacker in CIA's sights long before attack, say officials • 17 Days of Indian Shelling: 95 Dead • U.S. troops sweep base in Afghanistan but find no Qaeda forces • Arafat rejects court order to release 'assassin leader' • Death-row inmate gets reprieve after lawyer sleeps in court • Sydney cleric offered bribes say abuse victims World News Posted: Monday, June 3, 2002 • Swiss vote by a big margin to relax abortion law • Mexico arrests first suspects in peasant massacre • Buckingham Palace evacuated in fire scare • Israeli Red faces after Shin Bet blunder • FBI blames CIA for 9/11 disarray • Israelis in India are in no hurry to come home • India asks Israel to speed up arms sales • Vajpayee refuses to see Musharraf at summit • Terror war must target 60 nations, says Bush • India to fence Bangladesh border by 2007 • Indians scorn worry and love the bomb • Tribal candidates rally behind Karzai • Bush warns of 'first-strike' against rogue nations • Afghans produce huge drug crop • Irish offer Middle East lessons in peace • Mafia women put down their pans and pick up their guns • White Zimbabwean farmer shot dead • Time to leave European defense to Europe • Parachutist's death dive kills glider pilot • Kashmir attack deepens war fears • ROME - Court rejects Mafia murder verdicts • Freak mid-air smash in London kills two • How Africa changed a powerful odd couple on a tour of the poor Venezuela: Five Truths about April 11 coup d'etat Posted: Sunday, June 2, 2002 by Roldan Tomasz Suarez VHeadline.com I would like to point out a series of truths about the current situation in Venezuela that are just as valid for times to come. They are pillars on which we must base our political opinions and actions, as well as shields to protect ourselves from an avalanche of lies, deceit and manipulation, with which the media bombards us on a daily basis. Here are five truths and I will attempt to explain each as clearly and directly as I can. First Truth: There was a coup d'etat on April 11 To convince ourselves of this truth, we do not need to know the opinions of those directly involved in the events. Opinion polls aren't necessary. We don't have to listen to transcripts of parliamentary hearings or blindly trust the word of so and so. The only thing we have to do is to join three simple facts recognized as such by all parties implicated. a) The President was deprived of his freedom by a group of military officers, who demanded his resignation. b) His resignation never happened but there was an attempt to make the country believe the contrary. c) The same group of military officers decided to choose a new President. Each of the three facts constitutes a blatantly illegal act violating basic principles of democracy. Let us see why. In a democratic system, no military officer has even the slightest faculty to deprive the President of the Republic of his freedom under no circumstance. Listen up: under no circumstance. Even in the case of a President acting against the laws, there are legal procedures to stop and bring the Head of State to trial, procedures, which involve the response of competent organs, such as the General Assembly, the Attorney General's Office and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ). Obviously, none of these procedures could envisage or permit a group of Generals to place the President under arrest, whenever they deem it convenient. On the other hand, we could speculate a lot about whether Chavez Frias considered the possibility of resigning, or that he was on the verge of resigning, or told somebody or other that he had resigned, or was about to resign ... whether he drew up a document of resignation, or not … or what was the basis on which General Lucas Rincon Romero announced the President's resignation etc. etc. etc. It does not change the fact that Chavez Frias did not resign. It does not matter what announcements he or his spokespersons may have made or to whom he made them. It does not matter if he had promised to resign or not or under what circumstances. Such discussions are nothing more than a smokescreen to cover up the simple and clear fact that Chavez Frias' resignation was never formalized, according to procedure stipulated in the Constitution and therefore, said resignation never materialized. If Chavez Frias had indeed signed a document of resignation, the document would not have been guarantee enough, since in those circumstances with the President under arrest and incommunicado there was always the doubt that he had been forced to sign under duress, in which case the document would have no legal value at all. Finally, no democratic system in the world envisages the possibility of a group of Generals, even in the case of an authentic vacuum of power, appointing President the person they think is the most suitable. If there had been a vacuum of power, it is logical to assume that the National Assembly the only representative institution of popular will, apart from the Presidency would have taken the reins of the situation. The only and inevitable conclusion that follows these three simple facts is that there was a coup d'etat in Venezuela on April 11. The vacuum of power thesis is simply absurd. Those who defend it could only do so out of ignorance or to cover up their own participation in the coup. The Second Truth: we can be doubly certain that at least three groups took part in the coup: a sector from the Armed Force (FAN), a sector of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Fedecamaras) and a sector of the Catholic Church. To affirm this truth we do not need to know who exactly the coupsters were and what role each person played in the coup. It's enough to know that these three sectors publicly validated the President's supposed resignation and signed an act that dismantled the country's full democratic institutionality and installed Pedro Carmona Estanga as President. None of the acts could have been undertaken in good faith and with a clean conscience. The three sectors knew that Chavez Frias had not resigned, and yet they opted to lie to the country ... the three sectors knew that Carmona Estanga's government would be unconstitutional and yet, they supported its installation. Apart from these three groups we have total security, I repeat, SECURITY of their participation in the coup it's worth mentioning others, whose behavior arouses our suspicion. For example, the despicable performance of mainstream print & broadcast media during those April days is irrefutable proof that media bosses were, to say the least, biased in favor of the coupsters, if they weren't actively participating in the coup themselves. There is absolutely no excuse to justify the hermetic silence, which the media imposed during April 13. They claim that there were no guarantees to protect their reporters' security that day. Hadn't they, a day earlier, bragged about the courage of their reporters, who dared film the famous Llaguno Bridge images? Furthermore, there was no need to bring their reporters onto the streets on April 13. It would have sufficed to re-transmit images captured by international news agencies ... it would have been enough NOT to lie to the country trying to convince it that absolutely nothing was happening. Finally, the performance of the main opposition parties leaves no doubt that these sectors were also favorably disposed towards the coup d'etat. To support this idea, it's sufficient to remember how on April 12 within minutes of the coup, Venezuelan political dinosaurs (who many people had thought dead or retired) suddenly reappeared ... those "venerable leaders" of Accion Democratica (AD) and Christian Socialist (COPEI) ... erstwhile champions of democracy, enthusiastically threw themselves into the task of literally kicking out and spitting on Chavist State Governors and Mayors, who had been democratically-elected by the people. They were busy placing themselves in office and the machinery of dishing out positions had once again started to roll ... like a kind of macabre symbol, Carlos Andres Perez (CAP) announced his speedy return to Venezuela. We dispose of further proof that incriminates opposition parties. It concerns the performance within the framework of National Assembly (AN) hearings. The opposition, instead of seriously clarifying the strings that moved the coup attempt, has spent all its efforts to show that there was no coup d'etat in Venezuela. A thesis that, as we saw, holds no weight. It is difficult to imagine that behind this there is a different motive to cover up the truth of the facts and possible participation of the opposition in them. The Third Truth: The purpose of the coup d'etat was to guarantee the return to power of political and economic groups that bled the country during the more than forty years of AD-COPEI governments. Many people insist that the coup leaders' intentions were good, and that the only thing they wanted was to establish an authentic democracy in our country. Of course, anything can be said about intentions because they are invisible. Someone could propose, for example, that Pinochet, deep down inside, in his most hidden intentions, was always a great democrat. It's just that he could not carry through his intentions because of the circumstances he had to confront. Certainly, if we think in the abstract, it would be absolutely impossible. But would it be sane to believe it, especially in light of the actions the Pinochet dictatorship undertook? Let us ask, then, what were the coupsters' actions on April 11? What intentions do the actions reveal to us? Once again, we appeal to three simple facts, whose veracity has not been placed in doubt by any of the parties. a) Carmona Estanga dissolved all the public powers of the Republic. In the twinkling of an eye, this great democrat dismantled the country's whole democratic institutionality. Not happy with that, he decided to eliminate the existing Constitution, attributing himself with supra-constitutional powers, declaring himself the supreme and absolute authority throughout the national territory. b) Under the auspices of the Carmona Estanga government (as we have mentioned above), Chavist State Governors and Mayors, who had reached office in popular elections, were stripped of their positions, many in a violent manner. c) State security forces under Carmona Estanga's command, initiated a witch-hunt of politicians and public officials linked to the Chavez Frias' government. Raids and arrests that failed to comply with legal procedures followed and were enforced by persons lacking authority to do so. Charges and allegations were many times absurd, as for example, accusing the Interior & Justice (MIJ) Minister of illegal possession of weapons. Now I ask: Are dissolving all public powers, eliminating the Constitution, dismissing democratically-elected State Governors and Mayors and imprisoning political adversaries acts of a democratic government or, at least, those of one whose intentions are democratic? Evidently, then, the coupsters' objective has very little to do with democracy. Its immediate object was very clear: to root out any vestige of Chavism in the country. That implied eliminating the Fifth Republic's institutionality, including the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution and it also implied dismissing all Chavez Frias' supporters from power and even removing the adjective "Bolivarian" from the country's official title. In other words, the coupsters wanted to recede several years in time ... they were searching for a Venezuela that existed before 1999, trying to liquidate in one swift blow all the changes, for good or bad, that Venezuela had experienced in the last three years. Now, then, why did Fedecamaras, a group of military officers, a sector of the Church, media bosses, and the traditional political parties want to turn the clock back in that manner? It seems a stupid question in view of the obvious answer. We are talking about groups that had benefited for fifty years from a dramatically unjust distribution of wealth, systematic alienation of public goods, and terrible exploitation of the most needy in favor of tiny privileged groups. Do we have to provide more reasons as to why these groups wanted to move back in time at whatever the cost, even at the risk of losing the mask of defenders of democracy? Fourth Truth: The dictatorship that was being installed in Venezuela was going to be long-term. Carmona Estanga announced that democratic elections would take a year to organize. One could wonder why leave such a long time to carry out elections. In fact, under pressure from international organizations, Carmona Estanga changed his mind and decided to reduce the period to a couple of months, indicating that from the start it was feasible to have organized new elections within weeks. Once again, the question is: why did they want to let time pass before going to the polls? It's possible to imagine, with a good dose of certainty that, even in the case of Carmona Estanga's coup having succeeded, a large sector of society would probably have maintained sympathy towards Chavez Frias and the Bolivarian Revolution for some time. It's possible to imagine that elections organized too early and with the possible participation of candidates identified as "Chavists" could have endangered the coupsters' objective of rooting out Chavism in Venezuela. That is why it was necessary to let time pass before calling new elections, time to allow for the elimination of Chavism as a legitimate political alternative. Many instruments were on hand to accomplish the task. Let us remember that, on April 12, an intense media campaign got underway aimed at discrediting Chavez Frias as an "assassin" who had ordered the massacre of defenseless citizens in cold blood. The smear campaign probably would have been accompanied by a series of trials to "show" that Chavist leaders had contacts with the Colombian guerrillas and narco-traffickers and furthermore, brought in arms from Cuba and were organizing armed groups to eliminate democracy in Venezuela. All of this was going to end possibly with the political disqualification of social leaders, who had supported Chavez Frias and the banning of Chavism as an illegal, armed, subversive and terrorist movement. It would clear the way for elections, in which Chavism would not only be completely discredited but also perhaps legally banned from participation. Would a year have been enough to achieve the objective? I personally very much doubt it. I believe that the coupsters would have needed far more time to undo the deep commitment that a large sector of the population had acquired with the Bolivarian project. Already on April 13, we saw how many people were willing to risk their lives for the President's return ... we are talking about a sector that acquired a minimum of immunity to media manipulation and a strong dosage of distrust towards Chavez Frias' adversaries. These are considerable obstacles for the brainwashing process needed to execute the uprooting of Chavism. The coupsters would probably have seen the need to prolong for more than a year the waiting period for new elections. In the meantime, an autocratic system of government would be consolidating itself. Facing the impossibility of a rapid return to the long desired Fourth Republic, it would be necessary to increase levels of abuse and repression. Venezuela would be on the road towards a dictatorship whose length was unpredictable. Fifth Truth: Under the present circumstances the alternative to Chavez Frias is the abyss I hope the reader can see clearly from what has gone before that the problem facing Venezuela right now will not be solved by simply opening a dialogue between the government and the opposition. Forces opposed to Chavez Frias are not interested in a democratic dialogue, discussing public policies in a rational manner. If they had really been interested in dialoging, they would have made use a long time ago of democracy's most appropriate scenarios for dialogue, namely Parliament and the media. In their place, they have used the spaces to scream out that in Venezuela there are no scenarios for dialogue. Furthermore, if they really had been interested in dialogue they would have been very happy with Chavez Frias national broadcasts since they would have seen that the government was attempting to justify its actions to Venezuelan society, thus exposing itself to criticism and political debate. The insistence on more dialogue, repetition of the spin that Chavez Frias does not dialogue, accusations about the government's authoritarian character, are all part of a strategy in which a series of distorted democratic notions are used to destroy the opponent. Forces that enacted the coup in Venezuela are not interested in democracy ... they are interested in getting rid of Chavez Frias by any means. If that is the way, we must be very clear that the way things are going in Venezuela now, we only have two options on which to bet. One of them is the Constitutional permanence of Chavez Frias as Head of State and, in general, respect for the rules of the game, which Venezuelan approved in 1999. The other option is not even a quick return to the former social economic and political order of the Fourth Republic or the installment of a new and different democratic institutionality from the Fifth Republic. Based on everything argued above, we can see no other option but a prolonged right-wing dictatorship by those who lost their economic and political privileges with the arrival of Hugo Chavez Frias to the Presidency. This is the only real alternative that we have today vis-à-vis the Chavez Frias government. This is the alternative for which, like it or not, conscious or not, people rushed to participate in demonstrations organized by Fedecamaras, Confederation of Trade Unions (CTV), Primero Justicia (PJ) and Queremos Elegir. That is why I dare to say the alternative to Chavez Frias at the moment is the abyss. How to beat the media? Despite the fact that the truths we have just enumerated are simple and evident, it would seem that a large part of the population, especially the part that supposedly enjoys the highest cultural and educational levels, remains completely blind to the evidence. When we hear a typical middle class anti-Chavist talking, we get the impression that we are listening to a series of loose fragments, poorly repeated from radio and TV talk shows. There are a number of empty words that are being constantly repeated in the discourse: authoritarian, meritocracy, steamrolling, dollar-glutton, handpicked, governance, politization, disunited etc. etc. etc. Criticism towards the government becomes an infinite repetition, a rosary of expressions that nobody knows the meaning of any more but which silences thought very effectively. It means, in a few words, that the media is leading us Venezuelans to the abyss. For that reason, there is no political action more urgent at the moment than countering the power of dominant media discourse over public opinion. I think there are two major lines of action. The first, in my opinion, is the easiest: the creation of alternative sources of information. It's a great opportunity for community television and radios, which have started to proliferate throughout Venezuela. It's necessary that these alternative media avoid limiting their range of interest to specific local community problems. What's missing is a communications network where speeches and news blacked-out or twisted by the mainstream media can circulate, along with affairs of national interest. In that way, it would be possible to accomplish an informative coverage, at least, comparable with that of mainstream giants. It could be possible to unleash voices that up to now have not had the opportunity to express themselves. A first mechanism to further the articulation of a community network of this type would be the State TV channel .. Venezolana de Television (VTV). Let us imagine, for example, a weekly slot on VTV dedicated to community stations, a space where ideas, opinions, projects can be exchanged and where material of some stations can be offered to the rest for transmission. The other major line of action should aim at vaccinating the population against media manipulation. In a few words, it would revolve around a large scale educational act, which could use the alternative media as a vehicle and whose purpose would be to get citizens to learn how to unmask the varied mechanisms of manipulation and deceit used by the dominant media. This task, more intense and demanding than the first, would require working out if it were possible (and how it would be possible) to win over a Venezuelan society that has suffered for decades a process of deep cultural and educational devastation. Our mission could not consist simply in offering an alternative "rosary" (this time Chavists) of resonant words and phrases that are nothing more than slogans. What is needed is the creation of a genuine political consciousness, a passionately inquisitive spirit questioning the existing social order we live in (and those we could live in). How to promote that spirit with the urgency and speed demanded by current political circumstances? I do not know how to answer that question. The only thing I know is that the national universities should be doing far more in that aspect. World News Posted: Sunday, June 2, 2002 • Bush: U.S. Will Strike First at Enemies • Newsweek: CIA knew two Sept. 11 hijackers were in U.S. • Al Qaeda warns of major strike on US • Israel Says Land Seizures Defensive • Fire at Buckingham Palace • Angola helicopter crash kills 25 • Musharraf spoke the truth about Gujarat: Bukhari • Williams sisters march into French Open quarters • Cheney's former oil firm founders • Who is a terrorist? • Chasing phantom fears • Terrorism: uses and abuses • Imperious blundering • Israeli troops raid refugee camp homes • Israeli forces patrol Nablus, surround Bethlehem refugee camp • Britain attacks 'reoccupation' of West Bank • 50 al-Qaeda Britons feared to be back in UK • FBI's links to Irish crime lord exposed • We are already dead. This is the cemetery of the living • US backs Colombian vote for war • Relations sour further between India and Pakistan • India prepares for blitzkrieg • Exodus from Pakistan and India as war fears mount • Catherine Redden explains the dilemma of Westerners • British company equipped Indian sea base • Pakistan will use all its warheads: Moin • Britain in war zone rescue mission • Nuclear neighbours teeter on brink of Armageddon • The people suffer in a dispute they cannot control • Odd couple find a common cause in the slums of Africa World News Posted: Saturday, June 1, 2002 • Disgraced cricketer Cronje killed in plane crash • US soldiers mistakenly fire on Afghan allies, killing 3 • Victims reveal untold horrors to Peru's truth commission • Bush accused of tailoring policy to back brother • German liberals split over policy towards Israel • 'They can't see that disaster would overwhelm them' • Israeli army sweeps into Nablus to crush extremists • IDF detains 100 Palestinians during raid on Balata refugee camp • Sharon demands reform of Palestinian Authority before talks • World urged to help break the deadlock • Pakistani radicals' leaflets urge overthrow of President • Nuclear conflict could break out in 3 weeks: US • Kashmir rivals on brink of war • Indications that Musharraf is cracking down on militants: US • Musharraf, Karzai warn of massive destruction • No plan for military bases in Sri Lanka: US • Iran and US vie for influence on the front line • Jittery US moviegoers shaken by scenes of nuclear terror • Zimbabwe shuns offer of GM maize • Five in Cambodia sentenced for deadly bombings • New US commander says fight against al-Qaida is Tough • China bans toxic American computer junk • Word association ignites Harvard row as student prepares jihad talk • Yugoslavia votes for its own abolition • Rescue crews remove dead climbers from Oregon mountain • Fake US notes worth hundreds of millions seized in Manila • Judges unanimously strike down Web filtering law • New breed of parrot found in Brazil |
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