http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1852147,00.html


Informant: Davey Garland

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay's efforts to retain power despite his indictment have angered some rank-and-file Republicans, many of whom say his ethical problems and uncertain status are staining them and destabilizing GOP unity.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205M.shtml

If the intelligence was so bad and so moldy, why was it presented to the world as what Mr. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, famously called "a slam-dunk" case?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205L.shtml

Breaking with the White House and fellow conservatives, Republican Sen. Trent Lott and the head of the Cato Institute questioned on Tuesday whether top White House adviser Karl Rove, who remains in legal jeopardy in a CIA-leak probe, should keep his policy-making job.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205J.shtml

The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205I.shtml

Protesters are celebrating after seeing off plans for a mobile phone mast next to a school in Rowsley.

But meanwhile residents in Hackney will be fuming because a similar mast was given the go-ahead in the village.

On Tuesday night Derbyshire Dales District councillors rejected the 20-metre phone mast which would have sat behind Rowsley Primary School at Ashbrook Roofing and Supplies.

Rowsley Parish councillor John Hart, who was at the meeting said: "It was brilliant, I think the planners had every intention of putting it through and they got a surprise when it didn't.

"The research isn't clear about the health affects. I found some research in Sweden which suggests there are health risks from being close to a phone mast."

Omega the research is clear about the health affects. See under:
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Wissenschaft+zu+Mobilfunk/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Cancer+Cluster
http://www.buergerwelle.de/body_science.html


Ted Mellor, chair of the governors at Rowsley Primary School, said: "The mast was inappropriately sited. It was not that far from the school."

Derbyshire Dales District councillor Deborah Reed, who represents Rowsley, Stanton in Peak and Birchover Parish Councils, said: "We are all very happy and would like the company to go away and find a site somewhere else.

"The pole would have been right at the bottom of the garden of a resident, who has a 18-month-old child. And I don't think anyone would like a 66 foot pole by their garden wall.

"We cannot look at health issues because the government lays down the emission levels that a company mustn't go over. They talk about 'ionising emissions' – but who knows what that is?"

However, the same councillors gave the green light to a phone mast from the same firm, Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd, at Bent Lane, Hackney.

John Evans, chairman of Darley Dale Town Council attended the meeting and was very disappointed at the outcome.

He said: "The mast will be an eyesore. People from Matlock will be able to see it. I don't think the mobile phone company are making the effort to camouflage it."

Cllr Reed, who also voted against the phone mast going up in Hackney, said: "I think we are just going to have a proliferation of them. There's another one barely yards away."

A spokesperson for the applicant, Hutchinson 3G UK Ltd said: "We are disappointed that we were refused the mast at Rowsley. The planning officer did recommend this was the best site. We are limited to our options.

"We are going to have to wait now for the decision notice to see if we are going to appeal. We do need a site in the area as there is a demand.

"We amended our application twice at Hackney to make sure we had the best-designed and best -placed mast.

"It was agreed that if we shared the mast with Vodaphone we would have to increase the height to have two sets of antenna."

By Amy Thurston

02 November 2005

http://www.matlocktoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=749&ArticleID=1240768

Army Capt. Ian Fishback is plainly a very brave man. Crazy brave, even. Not only has the 26-year-old West Pointer done a tour in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, he has had the guts to suggest publicly that his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, lied to Congress.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110205Y.shtml

BBC Television exposé plus an interview with reporter Greg Palast by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! Monday, March 21, 2005

AMY GOODMAN: In an explosive new report for BBC Television Newsnight, investigative journalist Greg Palast charges that President Bush was planning to invade Iraq before the September 11th attacks and was considering two very different plans about what to do with Iraq's oil. The plans reportedly sparked a political fight between neoconservatives and big oil companies.

AMY GOODMAN: That report by investigative journalist Greg Palast, who joins us now in our Democracy Now! studio.

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=419&row=1

Welcome, Greg Palast.

GREG PALAST: Glad to be here, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: An explosive report on these two plans. And tie them in now to the nomination of John Bolton to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

GREG PALAST: Well, only in weird Bush world is nomination to the presidency of the World Bank considered a punishment job. Basically Wolfowitz is being tossed out head first out of the Pentagon because he decided to take on one enemy too big for his own teeth, which is big oil.

The main spoils of the war in Iraq is a seat on OPEC. It's not just the fields; it is a seat on OPEC. What do we do with that seat? The neo-cons wanted to use our control of Iraq's oil to smash OPEC, to smash the power of what they see as an Arab-controlled monopoly and Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, that also meant smashing $56-a-barrel oil prices, and the oil industry was deeply unhappy.

So, there was a neo-con plan put out. In fact, you broke the report here two years ago when we were on the air saying that there was a plan to privatize and sell off all of Iraq's oil fields. There was. Then Phil Carroll of Shell Oil was assigned by George Bush to baby-sit the situation in Iraq. The oil man went in and said there ain't going to be no privatization on my watch. We don't work that way.

You have to understand, oil companies, when they privatize, the big oil companies never get it, it's always the cronies of Chalabi and who's ever in power in any country. So, the oil companies did not want to be locked out, so they weren't going to go along with it.

Plus, they didn't like the neo-con idea that if there was privatization, and production would be ramped up, OPEC would be destroyed, oil prices would fall apart, and that would be the end of record profits for the oil companies.

So, a new report was secretly ordered up by a guy named Rob McKee, who took the Shell man's place. McKee is from ConocoPhillips, paid $25 million by Conoco in his last year there, assigned by Bush to Iraq to the oil ministry there. And he ordered up a new study which was done by the Jim Baker Institute.

Now Jim Baker represents Exxon and the Saudi government. And the Baker Institute people, and the people they worked with, came up with a report that said that there would be a state-controlled company, which would be very OPEC-friendly, very oil company-friendly and would establish profit sharing agreements with international oil companies. And that was their recommendation. Privatization was dead out, and they were just livid about Wolfowitz.


Informant: eyeodneedle

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/113-11/forum.html#anyd

Any exposure to radiation may cause cell damage that could lead to cancer, according to a June 2005 report from the National Research Council. The risk noted by the report, though small, is a third higher than the risk of 8.46 cancers per 10,000 people exposed to 1 rem (or 10 millisieverts [mSv]) currently used by U.S. regulators. The report contradicts critics who believe there is a threshold below which radiation is harmless; it also fails to support those who say low doses of radiation cause greater health damage per unit dose than high levels.

The seventh Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) report, sponsored by several federal agencies, assessed and updated the health risks from low linear energy transfer (low-LET) radiation, which deposits little energy in a cell and thus tends to cause little damage.The last BEIR report that addressed these health risks was published in 1990.

Richard Monson, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and chair of the group that conducted the study, says, "We judged that the most reasonable shape is a line through the origin." Simply put, this means any low-LET ionizing radiation may increase the risk of a cell becoming cancerous--there is no threshold below which there is no risk--and as exposure increases, so does the health risk. Researchers refer to this straight line as the linear-no-threshold model.

Less than 20% of people's low-level radiation exposure comes from anthropogenic sources. The Earth and cosmic sources emit the remainder. Nearly 80% of human-induced exposure comes from medical procedures, about 15% from products like tobacco and building materials, and around 5% from exposure at work.

For the purpose of the BEIR VII report, the authoring committee defined low-LET radiation as levels up to about 100 mSv. For comparison, a chest X ray averages around 0.1 mSv. The committee concluded it's likely that about 1 out of 100 people would develop a tumor or leukemia from exposure to 100 mSv above background. Of that same 100 people, experts would expect 42 to develop cancers for other reasons, but at the press conference marking the release of the report, the committee said it did not fully exclude the possibility of some radiation exposure being a factor in those cases.

The BEIR VII report employed statistical data to draw its conclusions and reviewed studies of people exposed at work and in medical settings. It also relied heavily on data from the Japanese atomic bomb survivors.

As these survivors age, more is revealed about the relationship between radiation exposure and eventual health outcomes. Investigators have also improved their estimate of the levels of exposure this population received. But critics question the heavy reliance on the Japanese survivors because of the "healthy survivor" effect--those who survived the bombing might have been hardier than those who died early on, potentially skewing the results.

Many researchers say the latest report helps reaffirm the general accuracy of federal standards in place for limiting health risks from low-level radiation. "We believe the data are more convincing than fifteen years ago and show that the radiation protection standards we use are reasonable," says Monson.

Mike Boyd, a health physicist who works on setting and updating those standards for the Environmental Protection Agency, concurs. "I don't think we'll be changing any federal standards," he says. "I'm not willing to say there will be no impact. This report will go into our estimation of risk and could lead to refinements, but generally standards should stay the same."

Although most scientists agree the report incorporated the majority of pertinent data up through 2003, information about low-LET radiation continues to emerge. One hypothesis under investigation, says biologist Andrew Wyrobek of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the possible adaptive response cells developed over eons of natural exposure. Other hypotheses include genetic instability (the idea that some cells already have genetic mutations and are thus more prone to becoming cancerous, given the incentive) and the "bystander effect" (in which cells respond adversely to nearby irradiation although they themselves weren't hit directly). These concepts were among those reviewed for the BEIR VII report but were not incorporated into the risk estimates.

Most experts agree that the BEIR VII report won't be the last in the series. "Right now there is just a lot we don't know about how cells react to very low doses of radiation," says Wyrobek. "But with multiple exposures from more and more people undergoing medical diagnostics in the low-dose range, and increased amounts of radioactive waste, it's important to understand these ranges better." Says Boyd, "I will be excited to see some future academy report after we find out more about how radiation affects cells at very low doses."

Sarah Todd Davidson


Informant: binstock

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=282

Ericsson and Nokia loose a High Court case in USA - Class action ahead? http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1110057/

Lösung für die Krise der Erwerbsarbeitsgesellschaft?
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21221/1.html



Jenseits der "Arbeitsgesellschaft" - Diagnose und Perspektiven > Existenzgelddebatte

Beiträge von Harald Rein zum Grundeinkommenskongress in Wien

Thesenpapier zum Podiumsgespräch am 07.10.2005 in Wien

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/existenz/kongress1_hr1.html


Das garantierte Grundeinkommen und eine andere, mögliche Welt. Textgrundlage eines Workshops

http://www.labournet.de/diskussion/arbeit/existenz/kongress1_hr2.html


Bedingungsloses Grundeinkommen. Lösung für die Krise der Erwerbsarbeitsgesellschaft? Artikel von Matthias Brake in telepolis vom 28.10.2005

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21221/1.html


Glocalist Review - Sondernummer zum Kongress Grundeinkommen bei attac (pdf, 1 MB)

http://www.attac.de/aktuell/glocialist-nr.89-90.pdf


Aus: LabourNet, 8. November 2005

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20051031.HERSH31/BNPrint/theglobeandmail/


Informant: Chris

.ausgestrahlt-Newsletter
Mittwoch, der 2. November 2005

Schickt dem SPD-Parteivorstand seine Wahlwerbung als E-Card: „Jetzt nicht wackeln – Atomausstieg heißt Abschalten!“

Kommt zur bundesweiten Demo „Erneuerbare statt Atom!“ am Samstag nach Lüneburg

Trotz allen Personalgerangels gehen die Koalitionsgespräche zwischen Union und SPD weiter. Die Gefahr ist, dass alle Welt nur noch auf das Postengeschacher schaut, und niemand mehr auf die Inhalte. Dem wollen wir vorbeugen - mit Eurer Hilfe.

Schon in den letzten Tagen sind viele Menschen aktiv geworden. Lasst uns den Druck noch einmal steigern!

Seit letztem Donnerstag haben über 2.800 Menschen den Offenen Brief an die Verhandlungsführer in Sachen Atom Sigmar Gabriel und Klaus Lippold unterzeichnet. Die Unterschriften haben sicher einen Beitrag geleistet, dass die Unterhändler der SPD in der Arbeitsgruppe Umwelt bisher wenigstens standhaft geblieben sind und zumindest eine Verlängerung der Restlaufzeiten ablehnen. Jetzt wird die Atompolitik Teil der letzten Pokerrunde.

Nach Informationen der FAZ steht das Thema am Freitag wieder auf der Tagesordnung von SPD und Union. Es droht ein fauler Kompromiss: In einer Nebenvereinbarung zum Koalitionsvertrag soll, so die FAZ, erlaubt werden, Reststrommengen von neuen auf alte Meiler umzuschichten. Dann würde in dieser Legislaturperiode kein einziges AKW abgeschaltet.

Jetzt müssen wir den Druck auf die SPD erhöhen, damit sie sich weder auf verlängerte Restlaufzeiten noch auf den Weiterbetrieb der Schrottreaktoren Biblis, Neckarwestheim 1 und Brunsbüttel einlässt. Weitere aktuelle Infos:
http://www.campact.de/atom/info/log

Schickt dem SPD-Parteivorstand seine Wahlwerbung zurück: „Jetzt nicht wackeln – Atomausstieg heißt Abschalten!“

Im Wahlkampf hat die SPD für den Atomausstieg getrommelt und viele WählerInnen haben sie auch deshalb gewählt. Jetzt wollen wir sie mit ihrem eigenen Wahlplakat an ihr Wahlversprechen erinnern:
http://www.campact.de/atom/act/signer

Kommt zur bundesweiten Demonstration „Erneuerbare statt Atom“ am kommenden Samstag, den 5. November in Lüneburg. Zwei Wochen vor dem nächsten Castor-Transport und zeitgleich zur letzten Runde der Koalitionsverhandlung wollen am kommenden Samstag Tausende ein Zeichen für eine konsequente Energiewende setzen. Komm auch Du am 5. November, 13.00 Uhr nach Lüneburg. Weitere Informationen: http://www.erneuerbare-statt-atom.de

Informiert Freunde und Bekannte über die Demonstration:
http://www.erneuerbare-statt-atom.de/demo/recommend


Jochen Stay

We the people of The Revolutionary Coalition declare our mission to pull together all of those disgruntled Americans who have come to the conclusion that the two party one party system of the Democrats and the Republicans is either a complete failure or working in collusion to achieve a goal unknown by the people and illegal according to our constitution, the supreme law of our land. We feel these so called two parties fail to represent the people of America and are convinced that these representatives do not have our security or best interests at heart. We are tired of hearing the promises of change year after year and watching those who make these promises shamelessly break them and violate our God given, natural human rights with their traitorous unconstitutional actions. We call upon all of those who support the bill of rights as guaranteed by the constitution and the declaration of independence and any and all third parties to come together despite our differences of opinion over any other issue. We propose that all that can agree to unite under the supreme law of our land, the Constitution of the United States of America do so now through this venue, the Revolutionary Coalition. We are a country divided and have come to the realization that nothing will change unless we can unite and work together to return our government to the binding chains of our constitution. We feel that when our founding father’s devised that glorious document, they knew well what our future would bring, because after all history does repeat itself. Greed begets greed and it is running rampant among the politicians and judges throughout our land. We call upon all of these office holders to be reminded of the oath they took to uphold the constitution and to protect the people from all enemies foreign and domestic, for to violate this oath constitutes treason and the American people, from whom these powers are derived, will not tolerate it any longer. We are of the understanding that since these representatives took this oath they are fully aware of their action on behalf of the people whom they have a duty to represent and when the day comes that we the people wrest control of this unruly government and return it to it’s rightful state, a constitutional republic, they will be held to account for their traitorous actions.

http://www.therevco.org/blog/index.php


Informant: Mofmars3

by Joe Carpenter

We’re all looking in the wrong place for reason and compassion and justice. It’s not anywhere to be found in Washington, DC. It’s not in governments or state houses. It’s not there in that prestigious gathering of experts and big brains. It’s right here. It’s wherever you are, and it’s right next door and it’s everywhere along your street and all around your neighborhood. It’s in the cars that pass you on the roadways and in the shops where you buy your dog or cat food. There’s no need to travel a thousand or even a hundred miles. It’s not necessary to make the climb up to the penthouse. Our hope, our possibility -- our only hope, our only possibility, lies in the ordinary people who compose our world, who are the very stuff of our lives...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Carpenter1102.htm

by Robert Jensen

For weeks after the racialized poverty of New Orleans was laid bare in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, people in the United States asked, “Could this be a turning point? Is this a moment when America might wake up to the inequality and racism in our own country?” The question itself -- posed most often by people living comfortably in the white middle class -- is an indication of just how deeply in denial the vast majority of privileged Americans are about these fundamental injustices, their role in perpetuating them, and how real change might come. We should be collectively ashamed that the question is being asked in this form, for two simple reasons...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov05/Jensen1102.htm

The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias

11/01/05

On July 14, 2003, syndicated columnist Robert Novak published 'Mission to Niger,' which reported, among other things, that former Ambassador Joseph 'Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.' The information was sourced to 'senior administration officials.' That left a lot of questions open. Had members of the Bush administration blown the cover of a CIA agent? Wasn't that illegal? Based on the information available at the time, it was impossible to say, but it certainly looked suspicious. Liberal bloggers, some reporters, and a few congressional Democrats pressed for more information. Eventually the CIA agreed and made a criminal referral to the Justice Department, suggesting that based upon what was known about the situation, serious crimes may well have been committed...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10559


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Sierra Times
by Carl F. Worden

11/01/05

We were lied into the war on Iraq. There is simply no denying it now. The Bush Administration will still insist they had bad intelligence, while at the same time, they were persecuting people like Joseph Wilson, and by extension his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, for Ambassador Wilson's revelation in a New York Times Op-Ed piece, that George W. Bush's claim in his 2003 State of The Union Address that Iraq was trying to buy 'yellowcake' Uranium from the nation of Niger was entirely false. Ambassador Wilson, a man of immense honor and credibility in this nation, with contacts worldwide, and a man who was Ambassador to Iraq during the build-up to the Gulf War/Desert Storm under senior President Bush 41, wrote in the New York Times Op-Ed peice that the documents alleging Iraq's attempt to buy Uranium from Niger were forged, and no such attempt by Iraq had been attempted...

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/11/01/64_136_164_35_33460.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

In These Times
by Phoebe Connelly

11/01/05

The endorsement of Steve Young for representative of California's 48th district by the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), like his campaign, happened quickly. His was the first endorsement by the nearly year-and-a-half-old organization, and came at the end of the group's first 'Grassroots Strategy Day,' held on the Sunday after the September 24 peace march in Washington, D.C. Formed in July 2004, PDA is a national progressive political organization that operates as a federal Political Action Committee -- meaning they work directly with federal electoral campaigns, and face strict restrictions on contributions. The group's key staffers came from Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign, and it counts amongst its allies Howard Dean's Democracy for America...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2373/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Henry I. Miller

10/31/05

Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast will raise the price of commodities from cosmetics to crude oil, gasoline to grain. How could one storm score a hit on every wallet in the country? And what connection is there between Katrina and a possible avian flu pandemic? The answer is that as a society we lack sufficient resilience, the ability to prevent, recover from or adapt to adversity. In the gulf states, we permitted a situation to arise in which a huge proportion of the nation's energy-production infrastructure became concentrated in one region -- a region prone to hurricane-related catastrophes, no less. (The impacts would have been even worse, had Rita hit closer to Houston and its oil refineries.)...

http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04935.cfm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Strike the Root
by Per Bylund

11/01/05

We have just begun to see the extent and effect of the Orwellian policies following 9/11. The Patriot Acts in the United States are simply the beginning; further policies restricting the individual and unleashing the powers of the state will follow. In other parts of the world, the United States government is using its vast influence as superpower to make other states follow its lead. All over the West, the values and ideals inherited from Ancient Greece, and realized through science and technology during the Enlightenment, are mercilessly crushed or abandoned for the sake of power and control (or, in Newspeak: 'security')...

http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/bylund/bylund4.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Bill Quigley

11/01/05

Fully armed National Guard troops refuse to allow over ten thousand people to even physically visit their property in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. Despite the fact that people cannot come back, tens of thousands of people face eviction from their homes. A local judge told me that their court expects to process a thousand evictions a day for weeks. Renters still in shelters or temporary homes across the country will never see the court notice taped to the door of their home. Because they will not show up for the eviction hearing that they do not know about, their possessions will be tossed out in the street...

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley11012005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Jeffrey St. Clair

11/01/05

The repressive and cowardly actions by the administrators of Kent State University represent yet another blow to free expression and academic freedom. One would have thought that Kent State was consecrated ground, a national memorial for the dangers of allowing police and military troops to run roughshod over the fields of learning. The petty and vicious attempt to expel Dave Airhart, a veteran of Bush's bloody Iraq crusade, for trying to keep other students from being seduced or bribed into signing up for an illegal and immoral war is not only another black mark on the reputation of Kent State but an insidious threat to the rights of students across the nation...

http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair11012005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Cato Institute
by Doug Bandow

11/02/05

The White House seems to breed arrogance. Richard Nixon had his enemies' list. Bill Clinton's personal irresponsibility almost ruined his presidency. Now vice-presidential aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby has been indicted as a result of his efforts to discredit an administration critic. President George Bush & Co routinely vilify detractors, even conservatives. When previous Bush supporters unexpectedly opposed his nomination of Harriet Miers to the US Supreme Court, administration and Republican Party apparatchiks immediately attacked their critics's motives. That didn't work, so the President's friends threatened to toss conservatives into darkness. The administration has been notable for its policy of punishing, not the architects of its costly failures, but those who, like economic adviser Larry Lindsey and Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, correctly warn of the consequences. The President does not err; certainly his underlings should not suggest that he does. Nevertheless, for nearly five years, many conservatives backed the administration even as the President trampled their most cherished principles ...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5156


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AlterNet
by Evan Derkacz

11/01/05

The Democrats have scored a victory. After years of demanding that Senate Republicans pursue an investigation of pre-war intelligence, Reid's unusual maneuver paid off and the Republicans have agreed to pursue the matter. Granted, this is a first step and will require a series of bold follow-ups, but these are efforts worthy of support...

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/themix/#27571


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

TechCentralStation
by Jack Rafuse

11/02/05

Here we go again. Gasoline prices are dropping as usual with the end of the summer driving season. But oil companies are announcing huge quarterly profits, so the inevitable reaction has begun -- howls on Capitol Hill. Self-proclaimed friends of consumers want the profits refunded to 'ease consumers' pain.' They propose to do that through a 'windfall profits tax,' arguing that the government would make better use of the money than would the oil companies. They point out breathlessly that one company's last quarter earnings were $9 billion, and then multiply it to reach $36 billion for a full year. (As a relative measure, that's about how much US families spend on their pets each year. Comparisons often help when hysteria is setting in.) Twenty-five years ago, with gasoline prices at record highs and company profits 'unconscionable' according to some, like-minded critics won the day in Congress and enacted a windfall profits tax. It was a disaster...

http://www.techcentralstation.com/110205E.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7876


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent [UK]

10/02/05

Tony Blair's plans for tough new anti-terror legislation have been subjected to a damning critique by Amnesty International, as MPs prepare to debate the measures today. In a submission to MPs, Amnesty International denounced the proposals to increase police powers of detention and make a new offence of the glorification of terrorism. It called them 'ill-conceived and dangerous,' amounting to an attack on 'the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law'...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article324062.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

MSNBC

11/01/05

In past years, parents at Whitman and other high schools across the country may have paid scant attention to calls from military recruiters, but as the war in Iraq continues and the number of casualties grows, parents seem to be growing increasingly sensitive. Now many parents -- aided by such anti-recruiting groups as the San Francisco-based Leave My Child Alone -- are demanding that school boards make it easier for families to prevent military recruiters from contacting their sons and daughters. They are mounting e-mail and letter-writing campaigns telling families they can block school systems from releasing student information to military recruiters. Even such national educational groups as the PTA are getting involved in the effort to get the word out...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9881855/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Release: November 2, 2005

The Gun is Smoking: Ohio Exit Poll Data Provides Virtually Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount

Organization: The National Election Data Archive (NEDA)

Summary: New analysis of the precinct-level Ohio exit poll data provides virtually irrefutable evidence of large scale vote miscounts in Ohio during the 2004 presidential election. 6% of Ohio's exit-polled precincts had impossible vote counts and 57% had significant discrepancies (a less than 5% chance of occurring in any one precinct). The pattern of Ohio's exit poll results is not consistent with any exit poll error hypothesis. However, it is consistent with pro-Bush vote miscounts.

The full paper "The Gun is Smoking: Ohio Precinct-level Exit Poll Data Show Virtually Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount" is available at

http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/OH/Ohio-Exit-Polls-2004.pdf

In two Ohio precincts, even if all voters who did not complete exit polls had voted for Bush, the total Bush vote count would have been less than the official count. In a third precinct, all voters who did not complete exit polls would have had to vote for Bush to equal the official count. Unless Bush voters lied much more than Kerry voters on exit polls, or massive exit poll error occurred that was not detected by the pollsters, the results are mathematically impossible.

The Ohio exit poll data are a smoking gun for vote miscounts in Ohio. Ohio exit poll results are consistent with earlier findings of similar unexplained and implausible exit poll discrepancies in the national exit poll sample as described in the January 21, 2005 Edison/Mitofsky report.

For these reasons, NEDA urges

1) public release of all detailed exit poll data and methodologies by Edison/Mitofsky so that independent analysts may determine whether possible vote fraud occurred or not;

2) routine public posting on the Internet of accessible detailed election results (at the precinct level broken out by absentee, early, provisional, and Election Day counts) by local election officials as soon as polls close, to enable independent analysts to identify precincts with possible vote count errors in time to contest elections;

3) routine independent audits of vote count accuracy in all elections to detect and correct errors that might be deliberately or innocently introduced by insiders; and

4) widespread media coverage of this vitally important issue.

The data that NEDA analyzed was provided in the Election Sciences Institute (ESI) June 6, 2005 report, “Ohio Exit Polls: Explaining the Discrepancy”

NEDA's full paper "The Gun is Smoking: Ohio Precinct-level Exit Poll Data Show Virtually Irrefutable Evidence of Vote Miscount" is available at

http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/OH/Ohio-Exit-Polls-2004.pdf

The National Election Data Archive (NEDA) is a nonprofit organization of statisticians and mathematicians devoted to the accuracy of U.S. vote counts. Please see http://ElectionArchive.org for more information.

Contacts: Kathy Dopp kathy@uscountvotes.org 435-658-4657 or cell 917-656-0066 and Ron Baiman ron@uscountvotes.org

(This is why they don't want any witnesses from the UN or any other place whose willingness to support them they don't trust, such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others, not to speak of such activist groups as the Guantanamo Human Rights Commission and so on and so forth and where they probably wish they could put the Cuban Five, too.)

=============================================================

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644_pf.html

washingtonpost.com CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11

By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 2, 2005; A01

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

The existence and locations of the facilities -- referred to as "black sites" in classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional documents -- are known to only a handful of officials in the United States and, usually, only to the president and a few top intelligence officers in each host country.

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad.

But the revelations of widespread prisoner abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq by the U.S. military -- which operates under published rules and transparent oversight of Congress -- have increased concern among lawmakers, foreign governments and human rights groups about the opaque CIA system. Those concerns escalated last month, when Vice President Cheney and CIA Director Porter J. Goss asked Congress to exempt CIA employees from legislation already endorsed by 90 senators that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoner in U.S. custody.

Although the CIA will not acknowledge details of its system, intelligence officials defend the agency's approach, arguing that the successful defense of the country requires that the agency be empowered to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the U.S. legal system or even by the military tribunals established for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay.

The Washington Post is not publishing the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the covert program, at the request of senior U.S. officials. They argued that the disclosure might disrupt counterterrorism efforts in those countries and elsewhere and could make them targets of possible terrorist retaliation.

The secret detention system was conceived in the chaotic and anxious first months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when the working assumption was that a second strike was imminent.

Since then, the arrangement has been increasingly debated within the CIA, where considerable concern lingers about the legality, morality and practicality of holding even unrepentant terrorists in such isolation and secrecy, perhaps for the duration of their lives. Mid-level and senior CIA officers began arguing two years ago that the system was unsustainable and diverted the agency from its unique espionage mission.

"We never sat down, as far as I know, and came up with a grand strategy," said one former senior intelligence officer who is familiar with the program but not the location of the prisons. "Everything was very reactive. That's how you get to a situation where you pick people up, send them into a netherworld and don't say, 'What are we going to do with them afterwards?' "

It is illegal for the government to hold prisoners in such isolation in secret prisons in the United States, which is why the CIA placed them overseas, according to several former and current intelligence officials and other U.S. government officials. Legal experts and intelligence officials said that the CIA's internment practices also would be considered illegal under the laws of several host countries, where detainees have rights to have a lawyer or to mount a defense against allegations of wrongdoing.

Host countries have signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as has the United States. Yet CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are permitted to use the CIA's approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law. They include tactics such as "waterboarding," in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning.

Some detainees apprehended by the CIA and transferred to foreign intelligence agencies have alleged after their release that they were tortured, although it is unclear whether CIA personnel played a role in the alleged abuse. Given the secrecy surrounding CIA detentions, such accusations have heightened concerns among foreign governments and human rights groups about CIA detention and interrogation practices.

The contours of the CIA's detention program have emerged in bits and pieces over the past two years. Parliaments in Canada, Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands have opened inquiries into alleged CIA operations that secretly captured their citizens or legal residents and transferred them to the agency's prisons.

More than 100 suspected terrorists have been sent by the CIA into the covert system, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials and foreign sources. This figure, a rough estimate based on information from sources who said their knowledge of the numbers was incomplete, does not include prisoners picked up in Iraq.

The detainees break down roughly into two classes, the sources said.

About 30 are considered major terrorism suspects and have been held under the highest level of secrecy at black sites financed by the CIA and managed by agency personnel, including those in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, according to current and former intelligence officers and two other U.S. government officials. Two locations in this category -- in Thailand and on the grounds of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay -- were closed in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

A second tier -- which these sources believe includes more than 70 detainees -- is a group considered less important, with less direct involvement in terrorism and having limited intelligence value. These prisoners, some of whom were originally taken to black sites, are delivered to intelligence services in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan and other countries, a process sometimes known as "rendition." While the first-tier black sites are run by CIA officers, the jails in these countries are operated by the host nations, with CIA financial assistance and, sometimes, direction.

Morocco, Egypt and Jordan have said that they do not torture detainees, although years of State Department human rights reports accuse all three of chronic prisoner abuse.

The top 30 al Qaeda prisoners exist in complete isolation from the outside world. Kept in dark, sometimes underground cells, they have no recognized legal rights, and no one outside the CIA is allowed to talk with or even see them, or to otherwise verify their well-being, said current and former and U.S. and foreign government and intelligence officials.

Most of the facilities were built and are maintained with congressionally appropriated funds, but the White House has refused to allow the CIA to brief anyone except the House and Senate intelligence committees' chairmen and vice chairmen on the program's generalities.

The Eastern European countries that the CIA has persuaded to hide al Qaeda captives are democracies that have embraced the rule of law and individual rights after decades of Soviet domination. Each has been trying to cleanse its intelligence services of operatives who have worked on behalf of others -- mainly Russia and organized crime. Origins of the Black Sites

The idea of holding terrorists outside the U.S. legal system was not under consideration before Sept. 11, 2001, not even for Osama bin Laden, according to former government officials. The plan was to bring bin Laden and his top associates into the U.S. justice system for trial or to send them to foreign countries where they would be tried.

"The issue of detaining and interrogating people was never, ever discussed," said a former senior intelligence officer who worked in the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, or CTC, during that period. "It was against the culture and they believed information was best gleaned by other means."

On the day of the attacks, the CIA already had a list of what it called High-Value Targets from the al Qaeda structure, and as the World Trade Center and Pentagon attack plots were unraveled, more names were added to the list. The question of what to do with these people surfaced quickly.

The CTC's chief of operations argued for creating hit teams of case officers and CIA paramilitaries that would covertly infiltrate countries in the Middle East, Africa and even Europe to assassinate people on the list, one by one.

But many CIA officers believed that the al Qaeda leaders would be worth keeping alive to interrogate about their network and other plots. Some officers worried that the CIA would not be very adept at assassination.

"We'd probably shoot ourselves," another former senior CIA official said.

The agency set up prisons under its covert action authority. Under U.S. law, only the president can authorize a covert action, by signing a document called a presidential finding. Findings must not break U.S. law and are reviewed and approved by CIA, Justice Department and White House legal advisers.

Six days after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush signed a sweeping finding that gave the CIA broad authorization to disrupt terrorist activity, including permission to kill, capture and detain members of al Qaeda anywhere in the world.

It could not be determined whether Bush approved a separate finding for the black-sites program, but the consensus among current and former intelligence and other government officials interviewed for this article is that he did not have to.

Rather, they believe that the CIA general counsel's office acted within the parameters of the Sept. 17 finding. The black-site program was approved by a small circle of White House and Justice Department lawyers and officials, according to several former and current U.S. government and intelligence officials. Deals With 2 Countries

Among the first steps was to figure out where the CIA could secretly hold the captives. One early idea was to keep them on ships in international waters, but that was discarded for security and logistics reasons.

CIA officers also searched for a setting like Alcatraz Island. They considered the virtually unvisited islands in Lake Kariba in Zambia, which were edged with craggy cliffs and covered in woods. But poor sanitary conditions could easily lead to fatal diseases, they decided, and besides, they wondered, could the Zambians be trusted with such a secret?

Still without a long-term solution, the CIA began sending suspects it captured in the first month or so after Sept. 11 to its longtime partners, the intelligence services of Egypt and Jordan.

A month later, the CIA found itself with hundreds of prisoners who were captured on battlefields in Afghanistan. A short-term solution was improvised. The agency shoved its highest-value prisoners into metal shipping containers set up on a corner of the Bagram Air Base, which was surrounded with a triple perimeter of concertina-wire fencing. Most prisoners were left in the hands of the Northern Alliance, U.S.-supported opposition forces who were fighting the Taliban.

"I remember asking: What are we going to do with these people?" said a senior CIA officer. "I kept saying, where's the help? We've got to bring in some help. We can't be jailers -- our job is to find Osama."

Then came grisly reports, in the winter of 2001, that prisoners kept by allied Afghan generals in cargo containers had died of asphyxiation. The CIA asked Congress for, and was quickly granted, tens of millions of dollars to establish a larger, long-term system in Afghanistan, parts of which would be used for CIA prisoners.

The largest CIA prison in Afghanistan was code-named the Salt Pit. It was also the CIA's substation and was first housed in an old brick factory outside Kabul. In November 2002, an inexperienced CIA case officer allegedly ordered guards to strip naked an uncooperative young detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets. He froze to death, according to four U.S. government officials. The CIA officer has not been charged in the death.

The Salt Pit was protected by surveillance cameras and tough Afghan guards, but the road leading to it was not safe to travel and the jail was eventually moved inside Bagram Air Base. It has since been relocated off the base.

By mid-2002, the CIA had worked out secret black-site deals with two countries, including Thailand and one Eastern European nation, current and former officials said. An estimated $100 million was tucked inside the classified annex of the first supplemental Afghanistan appropriation.

Then the CIA captured its first big detainee, in March 28, 2002. Pakistani forces took Abu Zubaida, al Qaeda's operations chief, into custody and the CIA whisked him to the new black site in Thailand, which included underground interrogation cells, said several former and current intelligence officials. Six months later, Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh was also captured in Pakistan and flown to Thailand.

But after published reports revealed the existence of the site in June 2003, Thai officials insisted the CIA shut it down, and the two terrorists were moved elsewhere, according to former government officials involved in the matter. Work between the two countries on counterterrorism has been lukewarm ever since.

In late 2002 or early 2003, the CIA brokered deals with other countries to establish black-site prisons. One of these sites -- which sources said they believed to be the CIA's biggest facility now -- became particularly important when the agency realized it would have a growing number of prisoners and a shrinking number of prisons.

Thailand was closed, and sometime in 2004 the CIA decided it had to give up its small site at Guantanamo Bay. The CIA had planned to convert that into a state-of-the-art facility, operated independently of the military. The CIA pulled out when U.S. courts began to exercise greater control over the military detainees, and agency officials feared judges would soon extend the same type of supervision over their detainees.

In hindsight, say some former and current intelligence officials, the CIA's problems were exacerbated by another decision made within the Counterterrorist Center at Langley.

The CIA program's original scope was to hide and interrogate the two dozen or so al Qaeda leaders believed to be directly responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, or who posed an imminent threat, or had knowledge of the larger al Qaeda network. But as the volume of leads pouring into the CTC from abroad increased, and the capacity of its paramilitary group to seize suspects grew, the CIA began apprehending more people whose intelligence value and links to terrorism were less certain, according to four current and former officials.

The original standard for consigning suspects to the invisible universe was lowered or ignored, they said. "They've got many, many more who don't reach any threshold," one intelligence official said.

Several former and current intelligence officials, as well as several other U.S. government officials with knowledge of the program, express frustration that the White House and the leaders of the intelligence community have not made it a priority to decide whether the secret internment program should continue in its current form, or be replaced by some other approach.

Meanwhile, the debate over the wisdom of the program continues among CIA officers, some of whom also argue that the secrecy surrounding the program is not sustainable.

"It's just a horrible burden," said the intelligence official.

Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

C 2005 The Washington Post Company


Informant: Walter Lippmann

--------

CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons

MSNBC

11/01/05

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement. The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9890829/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

CIA Runs Secret Terrorism Prisons Abroad
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1102-07.htm

Scooter Libby and Vice President Cheney withheld critical documents in the Senate's investigation of the use and misuse of intelligence in the decision to go to war and in the management of the war.

These documents must be handed over, because the American people deserve answers.

Please join me and Senator Kennedy; ask the White House to hand over those documents.

http://www.tedkennedy.com/page/petition/iraqdocuments/fdlksu

The American people know the high cost of this misguided war -- 2,000 U.S. soldiers dead, more than 15,000 wounded, hundreds of billions of dollars spent with no end in sight, and a continuing shameful effort by the White House to silence those who try to tell the truth about the war.

We need answers, not cover-ups, by the Administration about these serious issues. Thank you for all your support in trying to get the truth.

http://www.tedkennedy.com/page/petition/iraqdocuments/fdlksu

Thanks!


Informant: Mofmars3

Daniel Martin, 35, who has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, memory loss and impaired concentration since the 1991 conflict, will receive a disability award under the "umbrella term" of Gulf War Syndrome.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article323846.ece


From Information Clearing House

U.S. terrorism experts Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have reached a stark conclusion about the war on terrorism: the United States is losing.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N0137584.htm


From Information Clearing House

There is little doubt that the even if the Bush administration doesn't go down in flames, it will go down in history as one of, if not the most incompetent, corrupt and dangerous presidencies in the history of the republic. The question is, with crimes so colossal, why isn't there a public demand for his impeachment?

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorff11012005.html


From Information Clearing House



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

A hard hitting special report into the "war on terror" by award winning journalist John Pilger

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pilger_breaking_the_silence_35mb.htm

The response could include the deployment of three U.S. Army divisions backed by fighter-jets and airborne early-warning and alert aircraft. In all, the U.S.-led mission could include up to 300,000 troops.

http://menewsline.com/stories/2005/november/11_02_1.html


From Information Clearing House

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in remarks published on Tuesday he would oppose the use of Iraqi territory as a launchpad for any U.S. military strike on Syria. http://tinyurl.com/7oon3



Arab League denies getting Syrian request for emergency summit :

The spokesman for the 22-member Arab League, Hisham Yusuf, on Tuesday denied getting an official request from Syria to hold an emergency Arab League summit to elicit the combined support for Syria in the face of the United Nations Security Council's resolution 1636, adopted Monday.

http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/190959



Another Trojan Horse from the UN?

It's happening all over again. This time Syria has received the kiss of the White House don just as laid-out in the 1996 neo-con rule book "Clean Break".

http://www.counterpunch.com/heard11012005.html


From Information Clearing House

Bush-Cheney Traitors Deserve Prison, Impeachment

By Ted Rall

Don't let the Republicans distract you. Treasongate isn't just about deposed vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby, who has been charged with five felony counts and faces 30 years in prison, or even deputy presidential chief of staff Karl Rove, who may soon be charged as well. The Libby charges clearly point to the real culprit: Dick Cheney.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10849.htm



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

Ein Konzern bekommt es mit der Angst zu tun. Leider nicht vor den Gewerkschaften, da macht man sich keine Sorgen, notfalls schließt man eben einen Laden, wenn ein Betriebsrat gegründet werden soll. Nein. Es sind die ständigen Störungen von so kleinen Gruppen wie „Wal-Mart Watch“ oder „Wake Up Wal-Mart“, die langsam Wirkung zeigen. Jetzt kommt auch noch ein Film mit dem Titel "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" heraus und jetzt ist Schluß mit lustig. Der Konzern rüstet sich mit einem Krisenzentrum. Er will expandieren, neue Käuferstrukturen gewinnen und ist es leid, permanent in den Schmutz gezogen zu werden. Eine kurze Zusammenfassung über die Strategieänderung eines Weltkonzerns von Ralf Pandorf vom 01.11.2005

http://www.labournet.de/branchen/dienstleistung/eh/walmartstrategie.html

Can anybody say Halliburton? Now Gilead.

Bob


CLG News wrote:

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government

01 November 2005 http://www.legitgov.org/ All links to articles as summarized below are available here:
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu --Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing. 31 Oct
2005 The prospect of a bird flu outbreak is proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld served as Gilead's chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush regime in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld. The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. http://www.legitgov.org/flu_oddities.html

U.S. Military Wants to Own the Weather 31 Oct 2005 Military officials and weather modification experts could be on the verge of joining forces to better gauge, react to, and possibly nullify future hostile forces churned out by Mother Nature. While some consider the idea farfetched, some military tacticians have already pondered ways to turn weather into a weapon. [Uh, I think the horse has already left *that* barn.]

U.S. Ranks 44th in Worldwide Press Freedom Index --Nation's openness sinking after Sept. 11, northern Europe tops the list 01 Nov 2005 The annual worldwide press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders shows the United States, which is supposedly spreading freedom and liberty throughout the world, is in a fast decline regarding the freedom of its own press... A full list can be found at the RSF Web site.

Howard Dean: Indict Dick Cheney 31 Oct 2005 Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is urging Leakgate Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to indict Vice President Dick Cheney if he had anything to do with the decision of his chief of staff, Lewis Libby, to leak CIA employee Valerie Plame's identity to the media.

"This is a firing offence." Wilson Demands Rove's Sacking 01 Nov 2005 Joseph Wilson, the former US diplomat in the eye of the CIA-leak storm, has demanded the scalp of top White House political aide Karl Rove, over a scandal which has already toppled one key official... "I don't believe that Mr Rove should be permitted to resign. I believe this is a firing offence," he said.

Republicans join call for Rove to resign 01 Nov 2005 Both Republicans and Democrats have called for a radical overhaul of the Bush Administration, increasing the pressure on the US pResident to force Karl Rove, his closest political adviser, to resign over the CIA leak affair.

Libby defiant as Senate investigates Rove's role 01 Nov 2005 An official said yesterday that Lewis "Scooter" Libby would appear in a federal court in Washington on Thursday morning, where he would be formally charged, or arraigned. Mr Libby, 55, has made it clear he will plead not guilty. He was replaced yesterday by David Addington, a longtime aide to Vice-President [sic] Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser. Mr Addington was among the authors of a White House memo justifying torture of terrorism suspects.

Cheney Promotes Individuals Named In Indictment By Faiz 31 Oct 2005 "The White House announced today that it is elevating two members of Cheney’s staff who are named in the Scooter Libby indictment... 'The Vice President today appointed David S. Addington of Virginia to be the chief of staff to the Vice President. The Vice President also appointed John P. Hannah of the District of Columbia as the Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs.' Both Addington and Hannah are named in the indictment."

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, General Manager. Copyright © 2005, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

As the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen so, with 8 years to prepare, 2008 will perhaps be the last such election, ending the republic unless that 70 percent who are beginning to grasp just what is going on join together in a popular movement dedicated to ending pre-emptive wars and restoring the nation to its traditional tax base which repaired levees, educated the citizenry and at regular intervals repaired the wall that Thomas Jefferson wisely put in place to separate church from state. Join the demonstrations this Wednesday, November 2, to launch a movement to drive out the Bush regime. For the location nearest you, see http://www.worldcantwait.org .

Gore Vidal


Informant: C. Clark Kissinger

From ufpj-news

The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, and for "serious breakdowns" in procedures by promising Wal-Mart stores 15-days-advanced-notice of inspections for child labor violations.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110105LB.shtml

Malawi is losing nearly 200 square miles of its forests annually, a deforestation rate of 2.8 percent that the Southern Africa Development Community says is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the wood goes to make charcoal for cooking fires.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110105EB.shtml



Drought Deepens Poverty, Starving More Africans

A recent report by the United States Agency for International Development said that Malawi "is now in a near constant state of food shortage, with persistently high levels of nutritional deprivation." Most Malawians cannot finance even a minimally adequate diet.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/110205HA.shtml

Senator Harry Reid threw down a scathing condemnation of the Bush administration and the war in a statement he read on the Senate floor on Tuesday. Senate Democrats followed this up with a meaty threat: they will shut down the Senate every day until these issues are addressed fully and completely. Stay tuned. The next two weeks will almost certainly determine how this whole thing shakes out.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105Q.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/science/earth/01cnd-climate.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1130931355-yv2sGEprB9w89gkUkpZvaw


Informant: NHNE

It's been 5 long years since George Bush stole the White House, 4 years since he failed to prevent 9/11 and then seized dictatorial powers through the USA Patriot Act, and 3 years since he started selling the invasion of Iraq on the basis of pure lies.

For 5 long years, we've been urging Democrats in Congress to fight back.

Today, finally, Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats stood up for Truth, Justice, the American Way - and the majority of Americans who oppose Bush's far-right agenda. Reid's speech was powerful:
http://www.democrats.com/node/6673

Democrats forced the Senate into an unusual closed session to discuss the Senate Intelligence Committee Chair's refusal to conduct the "phase 2" investigation into White House war lies that his committee agreed in February 2004 to conduct. Republicans howled in outrage at being outmaneuvered by the Democrats, but ultimately they capitulated and agreed to issue the long-promised report by November 14.

This is a huge, fantastic victory.

And you, the members of Democrats.com, deserve a lot of the credit - because for 5 years, you stubbornly refused to accept the order from the White House, the Republican Party, and the Republican-controlled media to "get over it" - Stolen Election 2000.

I would especially like to thank those of you who have contributed to Democrats.com over the years and made our exhausting but crucial work possible.

So let's take a moment to celebrate the beginning of the end of our long national nightmare.

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, enough celebrating - now let's get back to work :)

Bob Fertik

WE DEMAND THE TRUTH! TELL THE SENATE TO FINISH ITS INVESTIGATION OF THE IRAQ WAR LIES
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/66

THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT: Hold a Vigil or Rally Against Bush on Wednesday

Wednesday, November 2nd, is the one-year anniversary of the election. Numerous organizations are working together to create vigils and rallies around the country against the war and against the Bush regime. After Downing Street Co-Founder David Swanson will speak at the rally at the White House at 11 a.m. Go here to find an event near you: http://www.worldcantwait.net

PASS A LOCAL RESOLUTION TO BRING TROOPS HOME

Cities for Peace (now under the auspices of Cities for Progress at http://www.citiesforprogress.org ), an After Downing Street Member group, congratulates you all and After Downing Street on the fantastic efforts and success in Washington and around the country on September 24th! We invite and urge you also to participate in a local activity that has the potential to grab lots of media attention, to raise even higher the level of public discussion on the issue of peace in Iraq and of Federal Budget Priorities. Please join 60 other cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia, in passing a Bring the Troops Home Now! Resolution in your community.
http://tinyurl.com/ccrn4

There are several underway currently, including in NYC. Please plug into existing efforts and start new ones where they do not exist. Here is our Cities for Peace Bring the Troops Home Now Resolution Tool Kit, that will help you to get the ball rolling:
http://www.ips-dc.org/downloads/troopshometoolkit.pdf

Please keep us abreast of your efforts and let us post your successes and Lessons Learned along the way!

Peace, Karen Dolan, Director, Cities for Progress/Cities for Peace kdolan@igc.org Malia Lazu, Field Director, Cities for Progress, malia@ips-dc.org

EXPOSE THE WHIG (WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP)

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced a Resolution of Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes, notes, emails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

This Resolution must be voted on in the House International Relations Committee by November 9th, 2005. The same committee, on September 14, came within one vote of passing a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo (H. Res. 375).

We need volunteer organizers during the next week to help pass H. Res 505. Contact Sophie, Field Coordinator, at 415-789-8469 or lobbykit@yahoo.com

Talking Points on H. Res. 505:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/points

Email Your Congress Member:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/72

More Information and How to Get Involved:
http://www.AfterDowningStreet.org/whig

TELL CONGRESS TO DEMAND DICK CHENEY'S RESIGNATION

Dick Cheney is personally to blame for the illegal and disastrous invasion of Iraq. Behind the scenes, Cheney was in charge of the war planning effort. In public, Cheney uttered the Administration's most egregious and bald-faced lies - especially about Iraq's non-existent nuclear program. When his nuclear lies were exposed by Ambassador Joe Wilson, Cheney personally participated in the criminal campaign to destroy Joe Wilson by outing his wife. Cheney refuses to take any responsibility for the war or for his crimes, and his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, committed perjury and obstruction of justice to keep Cheney from being indicted. The United States cannot tolerate a criminal hiding from Justice in the White House. Congress must demand Cheney's immediate resignation.

http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/73

URGE THE SENATE TO REJECT SAM ALITO

George Bush's nomination of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court is unacceptable. In his 15 years on the Court of Appeals, Alito has compiled a record of right-wing judicial extremism: requiring battered women to notify their husbands before an abortion; prohibiting Congress from restricting the sale of machine guns; prohibiting Congress from enacting Family and Medical Leave; allowing employers to discriminate against workers with AIDS; even allowing police to strip-search a 10-year-old girl. Alito's financial dealings are also unacceptable: he ruled on a Vanguard case while he had a large investment there, and accepted an unexplained gift of as much as $250,000 in ExxonMobil stock. Bush chose Alito simply to reward his far-right supporters. Sam Alito would be the deciding vote on the most fundamental questions of our time, and he would invariably vote against personal freedom and in favor of a corporate theocratic dictatorship.

http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/74


AFTER DOWNING STREET NEWS

Not the End By Senator Edward Kennedy
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4297

Redemption For The Media By Alexandra Walker, TomPaine.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4292

The World Can't Wait By Russ Baker, www.TomPaine.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4289

Tomorrow Is the Beginning of the End By Debra Sweet, National Co-ordinator, the World Can't Wait
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4286

U.S. frees 500 prisoners from Iraq's Abu Ghraib By Reuters
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4284

Kristof Again Presses Cheney to Explain or Resign By Editor and Publisher http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4281

Is Impeachment the Answer? By Robert Parry
http://www.consortiumnews.com http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4264

The True Cost of War By Cindy Sheehan
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4258

Why Aren't the Democrats Screaming Bloody Murder? By Laura Santina, CommonDreams.org
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4257

The new "Solution" for antennas in Israel

I give some further backgound on the new "solution" that is described below at the end of this short article.

Iris Atzmon.


http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=91512

Experts to Recommend Shifting to Small Cellular Antennas
13:15 Oct 20, '05 / 17 Tishrei 5766

(IsraelNN.com) A fact-finding committee made of representatives of the Transportation, Communications and Interior Ministries is due to present its findings to the government by November 10th.

The committee began investigation a solution to the growing concerns and mounting resistance to the large cellular antennas that are becoming increasingly commonplace on the Israeli landscape.

According to some experts, including Prof. Eliyahu Richter who heads the Department of Industrial and Environmental Medicine at Hadassah Medical School, moving to a large quantity of smaller antennas to replace the fewer larger ones would result in less electromagnetic emissions per antenna, explaining that the closer antennas are situated to one another, the less the emissions.

Richter did acknowledge that even to this school of thought there is a down side, stating that this would significantly lower the emissions from each antenna but it would create a situation that everyone would be constantly exposed to continuous low-level emissions, even persons who do not use cellular telephones. He added that we are still uncertain as to the long-term effects of exposure and this has many people most concerned.


The governmental committee was the idea of our Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as a get-away from the threat on the companies several months ago, when the Interior minister Ofir Pines tried to change the current law of the cellular antennas. Pines wanted to give the public the right to resist antennas (which does not exist now by law) and to give compensation for the loss of property value. His suggestion had the support of most of the ministers, but the companies did a very good job at the last moment and his suggestion was not given a chance to be even discussed in the ministers meeting when Sharon decided to set a committee with no authorities, in order to discuss the public health issue etc and to buy time. With the excuse that they cannot inform the public on new antennas because of "security" reasons, the companies caused to turn Pines' offer down. It doesn't matter that his suggestion was not on new antennas but on existing ones, but as he said himself: "the whole world and its wife wanted to kill the suggestion". Several years ago when he wanted to put warning labels on cell phones, the next day the celluar companies representatives flew especially to Israel from Europe and came to his office. Then, he says, he understood with what kind of power he was dealing. Anyway, the first city to adopt the new change and put many small antennas is Modiin, near Jerusalem it will be a test case, but it's not so easy: the residents resist it, they gathered 2300 signatures. I suggested them to demand their mayor to show them a certificate/ approval from the Helsinki Committee which says that he has approval to do human experiments on them, anyway they are equiped with studies and we'll see how it develops. The trick of the small antennas is to neutralize the public right to resist antennas - these antennas require no permission, and they will be hidden in street lamps. The residents said to the TV today: we don't want the phone third generation, we want third generation for our kids !! The mayor was convinced by the environmental ministry that more antennas are less radiation from antennas and from phones, and the municipality will receive 2.5 million shekels from the cell companies and he says that the people will understand that it's for their benefit in the future. In a conference that was held in the city about 2 weeks ago, a cancer patient asked Dr. Stelian Galberg from the Env. ministry, who advances the new "solution", whether he wanted to come to her funeral. He answered that he hoped everything would be allright.

Omega see also http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Stelian+Galberg

The companies reaction to the TV news programm about Modiin today, was that the solution is based on the equation that was presented on the TV screen like this: MORE ANTENNAS = LESS RADIATION. After Modiin they plan to do it in the rest of the country.

This touched me deeply. Please pass it on far and wide if you feel so inclined.

In Peace, Sally

American Friends Service Committee: http://www.afsc.org/iraq/movie.htm


Informant: Hopedance

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1101-34.htm



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

(excerpt)

Sharing my rebutle to Bush supporter's justification for the war in Iraq

The following are just a few examples of how screwy is the rational of the author of the article you provided. I'm not even going to go into dozens of areas not being addressed.

Now, if there is anything I'm wrong about in my comments, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know. I took time, which is at a premium for me, to reply and I hope you do the same.

Jack Topel

ps: I could have written pages addressing the rest of the article but I realize people don't usually make the time. However, this much should make my point.

-------Original Message-------

Subject: FW: Important bit of history

THE following is a long, but TERRIFIC, perspective on our world today.... Raymond S. Kraft, the writer of this bit of history PLUS, went all out on this piece. If it doesn't start a lot of discussion nothing will.

...." We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We cannot do it everywhere at once so we have created a focal point for the battle now, at the time and place of our choosing, in Iraq....

If the strategy above is the one to follow, why didn't we go to where the Wahhabi, whom are the most radical, powerful, and well funded Islamic group was ALREADY concentrated in, as we did with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan?

The reason... Their base and funding comes from the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia...the same bunch who bailed Bush from his failed oil businesses in Texas.

Instead, we go after the paper tiger of Saddam Husein and created the most powerful recruitment tool for radical Muslims causing the very OPPOSITE of what we are trying to accomplish!!!

...If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabi's, the Jihad is, will control the Middle East, and the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies, the techno-industrial economies, will be at the mercy of OPEC - not an OPEC dominated by the well-educated and rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis.

You want gas in your car? You want heating oil next winter? You want jobs? You want the dollar to be worth anything? You better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins...

Yes, the rational for the Saudi Arabian rules for supporting their radical Wahhabi sect (to the tune of over 7 billion dollars as of 2003) was to buy protection so they don't for their own royal family.

The reason we may not be able to put gas in our cars and heat our homes will not be because of OPEC but because of the outrageous profits oil companies are reaping (you heard the recent news on this...right?)

As far a the value of the dollar...TOO LATE! it is already in the toilet and being "flushed" further by the minute. Did you see the e-mail I sent from Bloomberg Market News? Bill Gates was quietly dumping dollars and now he is doing it openly. OUR fiscal policies... mainly from the printing of trillions of dollars per year by the Federal Reserve are the major culprit...NOT ISLAMIC RADICALS.

Finally, I don't think I need to explain that we are already losing millions of jobs due to out sourcing...and these are not going to Islamic countries! (lets leave the Islamic radicals out of this one)

...(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad guys there and the ones we get there we won't have to get here, or somewhere else...

Forgive me for being blunt, but the rational above is absolutely moronic!!!

It is obvious that the author of this article has not read the translations of the speeches from Osama Bi Ladin. I have - as provided by researcher Howard Bloom.

It is an honor in their culture to sacrifice their or their childrens' lives for the Jihad. He further states that for every American son killed they can afford to have seven and have PLENTY left over. There are over a billion Muslims in the world. If only 10% are under the control and manipulation of radicals such as the Wahhabi's - to do the fighting and dying - that adds to a whole bunch of insurgents. We better hope they don't come after us in a focus point like Iraq!!

Finally, these guys can attack us anywhere at any time they really want. London and Madrid are 2 recent examples.


Jack Topel

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=95120;show_parent=1

CONGRESS IS AFRAID TO INVESTIGATE
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=95123;show_parent=1

http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/

"...My son, Casey Austin Sheehan, was recruited out of college and his recruiter promised him the sun and moon to enlist and delivered only an early grave. Not only should Mr. Airhart not be fined, suspended or expelled for his heroic act, but he should be given some kind of commendation from the college administration." --- Cindy Sheehan, statement of support for David Airhart and Kent State students.

"Surely, the memory of that shameful episode at Kent State in 1970 would be enough to make the university administration sensitive to unjust wars and the right of protest." - Howard Zinn, from his letter to the President Cartwright, Kent State University

"Soldiers like us know than even if the heart continues to beat the spirit may die in many important ways, and we know that we can leave a war zone, but the war never leaves us. Thank you, David, for your action. Hell may be within us, but so is our freedom, never let go of it.” -- Camilo Mejia

Anthony Arnove, Bonnie Weinstein, Brian Willson, Camilo Mejia, Charles Jenks, Charles Peterson, Cindy Sheehan, Dave Zirin, David Swanson, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Gilda Carbonaro, Hadas Thier, Howard Zinn, Jeffrey St. Clair, Justino Rodriguez, Michael Letwin for New York City Labor Against the War, Mitchel Cohen, Nick Bergreen, Nicole Robinson, Norman Solomon, Pablo Paredes, Phil Gasper, Rania Masri, Rebecca Sambol, Sally Shaw, Sheri Leafgren, Sherry Wolf, Stan Goff, Sunny Miller for Traprock Peace Center, Tariq Khan and Ward Reilly have taken a stand on behalf of students at Kent State University.

In this remarkable collection of letters, they object to military recruitment on campus and support the rights of students to protest it. They demand that Kent State stop its disciplinary hearing against David Airhart, a student and veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, who non-violently demonstrated for peace at Kent State on October 19th.

For the simple act of using a climbing wall erected by recruiters on campus, and then displaying a banner that read "Kent, Ohio for Peace", he was chased off the wall by recruiters who climbed up after him. As David was trying to get down, he was physically pulled off the wall by a recruiter. The recruiters face no inquiry; David, charged with disorderly conduct, is now facing a disciplinary hearing and possible expulsion from Kent State.

Kent State and Jackson State - where 6 students were killed in 1970 - are hallowed ground for the peace movement. After an autumn of repressions at Holyoke Community College, George Mason University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison - where students protesters have been harassed, attacked or brutalized - students at Kent State have taken a stand. And veterans of war and peace are coming to their defense.

Read Nicole Robinson's full account of David Airhart's quiet yet bold demonstration, the assault on him by military recruiters, and the Kent State administration's repression against him and free speech at the Campus Antiwar Network's site:

http://www.campusantiwar.net/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=117

Statements of support and letters to Kent State are published on the "Hands Off Dave" Blog at

http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/

More statements are welcome, and we encourage people to contact the Kent State administration (contact information below).

The statements and letters support David, Kent State students, and all students who wish to exercise their rights of free speech on campus.

Anthony Arnove
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=5

Bonnie Weinstein
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=3

Brian Willson
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=24

Camilo Mejia
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=10

Charles Jenks
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=36

Charles T. Peterson
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=22

Cindy Sheehan
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=23

Dave Zirin
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=6

David Swanson
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=18

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=13

Gilda Carbonaro
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=32

Hadas Thier, Justino Rodriguez and Nick Bergreen of the City College 4
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=34

Howard Zinn
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=12

Jeffrey St. Clair
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=26

Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against the War
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=9

Mitchel Cohen
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=28

Nicole Robinson
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/

Norman Solomon
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=20

Pablo Paredes
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=15

Phil Gasper
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=7

Rania Masri
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=25

Rebecca Sambol
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=14

Sally Shaw
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=16

Sheri Leafgren, Kent State
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=29

Sherry Wolf
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=27

Stan Goff
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=19

Sunny Miller for Traprock Peace Center
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=35

Tariq Khan
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=11

Ward Reilly
http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/?page_id=17

David is facing a disciplinary hearing in mid-November.

Call/email the Kent State University administration to tell them how you feel.

Carol Cartwright - University President: 330.672.2210 Carol.cartwright@kent.edu

Greg Jarvie - Dean of Undergraduate Students: 330.672.9494 Gjarvie@kent.edu

William Ross - Executive Director of the Undergraduate Student Senate: 330.672.3207 wross@kent.edu

Statements and letters in support of the Kent State students may be forwarded to Traprock Peace Center, which is posting an index of statements and letters. (Traprock is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization. In consultation with the Kent State Antiwar Coalition and the Campus Antiwar Network, Traprock reserves its right to exercise its discretion in posting any submitted material.)

Please sign the online petition by the Campus Antiwar Network at
http://www.petitiononline.com/CAN2005/petition.html

The petition reads:

To the administration of Kent State University:

"We, the undersigned, oppose disciplinary and criminal sanctions against Dave Airhart (a Kent State Student and Iraq war veteran) by Kent city police and Kent State University for demonstrating his opposition to the war in Iraq.

Not only because we believe that students should have the right to express their opposition to the war in Iraq and because we believe that the war is unjust, but also because we believe that the administration is using the charge of “disorderly conduct” to punish Dave Airhart for his ideas, we call on the city of Kent, OH and the administration of Kent State University to suspend all proceedings against Dave Airhart."


There is an excellent report on the Kent State situation in Socialist Worker -

http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/564/564_12_Kent.shtml

It includes comments from David Airhart and quotes from the above linked statements.


Charles Jenks
Chair of Advisory Board and Web Manager Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-7427 fax 413-773-7507
http://www.traprockpeace.org


From ufpj-news

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/business/01walmart.ready.html


Informant: NHNE

San Francisco Chronicle
by Jon Carroll

10/31/05

I dunno, does it seem like 1998 to you? Or maybe 1973? You know -- the president in a second term, a scandal erupts, everyone in the White House saying they're not paying attention and instead doing what the American people elected them to do. The president tries to stay above it all, but loses supporters as more details emerge. Nothing else seems to get done, even though there is much else to do. In both previous cases, it wasn't so much the initial act as the cover-up that prolonged the story. The lesson about the malign nature of cover-ups was much noted both times -- 'if only he'd come clean right away,' people murmured -- but that lesson has not been learned. Maybe that will always be the case; every administration has its own form of hubris, its own feeling of invincibility. Heck, people drive without seat belts and fail to evacuate hurricane zones -- the 'special me' notion is widespread...

http://tinyurl.com/873t2


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CounterPunch
by Elaine Cassel

10/31/05

The media is filled with Republican pundits, right-wring Christians, and arrogant politicians lambasting Patrick Fitzgerald for prosecuting Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI and the grand jury. Not a 'real' crime, sniffs Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who, surely, being from Texas, must know a lot about lies. Big lies, and how to tell them. Why is it that these Republicans choose not to embrace the truth, and telling the truth, as a revered 'family value' or American 'virtue?' It's because lying is part and parcel of their overarching policy -- a policy that is to its core, aggressive, yet weak, self-serving and subversive, manipulative, and antisocial."

http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel10312005.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

FreedomWorks
by Dick Armey

10/31/05

"A taxpayer revolt is sweeping the nation with a battle cry for a 'Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights.' The latest count finds activists working with legislators in at least 22 states, from Georgia to Alaska, California to Vermont, to enact a Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR), a tax-and-expenditure limit on state government that requires voter approval of spending over certain reasonable benchmarks. Taxpayers are up in arms because politicians are wasting too much of their hard earned money, and they want it to stop. Taxpayers agree with Armey’s Axiom: No one spends someone else’s money as wisely as he spends his own...

http://tinyurl.com/cwyhj


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The politicization of public companies
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Ivan Osorio

10/31/05

Are institutional investors taking over the world? Maybe not, but their importance in the public policy arena is growing, enough for the Federalist Society -- you know, the conservative legal cabal of which liberals speak in hushed tones -- to notice. It's a good thing they did. A recent Federalist Society panel took up this question, 'Unions as Shareholders: Doing Their Duty or Misusing Pension Fund Influence?' Before answering this question, we need to answer another: What is an institutional investment manager's fiduciary duty?

http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,04934.cfm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Frontiers of Freedom
by Chuck Muth

10/31/05

We interrupt our regularly-scheduled red-meat coverage of Supreme Court nominations, politically-inspired indictments, amnesty for illegal aliens and pork-barrel spending to bring you a discussion about ... GSEs. Wait! Don't touch that dial. Before your eyes glaze over, know that today's topic, while not 'sexy,' is critically important to those of you who might want to buy a house in the post-Greenspan era -- complete with another example of Republicans in Congress wandering off the conservative reservation...

http://tinyurl.com/cwjd5


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Mother Jones
by Tom Engelhardt

10/31/05

So we all continue with 'the worse possible outcome.' What remains with us -- and the administration -- as well is the ongoing, devolving catastrophe in Iraq where, in just the last three days, 8 more American soldiers have died during a month, not yet at an end, in which 79 American servicemen and countless Iraqis were killed. At the heart of the case that brought us into this war were a series of deliberate lies and forgeries. And I'm not just referring to Scooter Libby's series of ridiculous, ad-lib whoppers to the grand jury. (Was he throwing himself on his sword to protect his boss or was this just the typical we-can-get-away-with-it hubris of the Bush White House?)...

http://tinyurl.com/bn7kk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Human Events
by Robert Novak

10/31/05

Bush's blunder on Miers reflects his genuine disdain for Washington and the national government, still intense after nearly five years in office. That is basically why he reaches back to longtime friends and associates (cronies, say his critics) whom he trusts. Having been told that the conservative Republican base would not accept his friend Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the court, Bush tried to sneak through Gonzales's successor as White House counsel. That Miers would pass muster inside the White House suggests how limited a group Bush consults. Cronyism is endemic with this president, and there is nobody close at hand to advise him otherwise... [editor's note: Much of this column was immediately superseded by the nomination of Alito, but some of it is still important; more interesting is the fact that Novak didn't know what was coming -- guess his inside sources dried up, eh? - TLK]

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=9992


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Spectator
by Patrick Devenny & Robert McLean

11/01/05

At home, Britons were stunned by the graphic footage of their soldiers being assaulted in a city thought to be 'safe,' especially in comparison to the blood-soaked urban areas of the Sunni Triangle which dominate news coverage emanating out of Iraq. The violent imagery was only the latest and most troubling indication of the British military's failure in Basra and its environs, a disastrous turn of events which seemed unthinkable two years ago, when British troops were welcomed into Basra with relatively open arms. The root of this failure stems from the very strategy that was once lauded as the antidote for insurgent violence...

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8953


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

10/31/05

The normally formidable Bush spin machine, which has perfected Orwellian doublespeak to an art form, has obviously been rattled by the Lewis Libby indictment and the whole Valerie Plame affair. The administration's uncharacteristic and lame response has taken a well-worn page from a public relations playbook: try to change the subject. It has pursued this strategy by speeding up the selection and announcement of the Supreme Court nominee of the month. But this mere diversion might actually signal that the White House has done something wrong. Furthermore, trying to change the subject shows weakness that could embolden critics. That's the kind of response one would expect from a weak-kneed Clinton administration. Remember the U.S. cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 on the day that Monica Lewinsky was testifying before the grand jury? The Bush administration would never want to be caught dead imitating the Clinton administration's 'small thinking'...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1600


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AntiWar.Com
by Christopher Deliso

11/01/05

If the Libby trial does go ahead, threatening to expose awkward and sensitive administration secrets, what could Bush and Cheney do to reduce the pressure? There's always the option of launching a new war against Syria and Iran on the basis of phony evidence. And hey, could we really put it past them? After all, these are the very people who delight in creating their own reality for the rest of us to follow, and who are perfectly willing to concoct elaborate fictions in order to expedite the needless deaths of thousands, as in the war on Iraq...

http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=7856


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Please activate today to save our coastlines and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! Thanks to North American Ocean Noise Coalition member Richard Charter and the National OCS Coalition for their work to defeat the Budget Reconciliation Package and for sending this alert to Seaflow. The Arctic Refuge may be drawing its last breath at the hands of the oil industry. Thanks for speaking up and spreading the word on behalf of our wild spaces and wild faces. Mary Jo Rice P.S. The vote on the House floor is scheduled for November 7. Please don’t delay.

Only Seven Days to Save Your Coast in Congress:

A bill aimed at opening all of America's most sensitive coastlines to offshore drilling will be voted on, up or down, on the House Floor in only a week, on November 7. House Leadership has chosen to hide offshore drilling within a broader budget bill that is immune from any amendments, so your own Representatives must now vote against "final passage" of what is called the "Budget Reconciliation Package" to save your state's coastal waters.

Hastily approved by a party-line vote in the House Resources Committee on October 26, the deceptively titled "Ocean State Options Act" would immediately remove all of our existing coastal protections by quickly rescinding the bipartisan offshore drilling moratorium that has been renewed each year for twenty-four years. This treacherous proposal would instead create a complex new bureaucracy requiring each state's legislature and governor to continually agree to ask the Secretary of Interior, every five years, for an additional extension of their state's protection, but after ten years all protection for every state would be gone. The Secretary of Interior could, at any time, deny continued coastal protection, even while states would be continually coerced - with offers of money - to allow offshore drilling.

If that's not bad enough, the very same Budget Reconciliation Package would also open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil companies while opening our coast. The oil industry, flush with record-setting profits, is now lobbying hard to get this bill passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law before coastal communities and the public can wake up to what is in this last-minute legislation. Each American who cares about their favorite coastal natural treasure now has a critical role to play in the upcoming House vote. We need to alert the media in all coastal regions with our own Op-Eds and calls to reporters, and above all, we must make calls to be absolutely sure that our own Representatives will vote against final passage of the Budget Reconciliation Act on November 7. This is a history-making moment, and the future of our coast, forever, depends entirely on what actions we each take in the next seven days.

To get direct contact information such as the DC office phone number for your Representative, you can visit http://www.visi.com/juan/congress or go to http://www.house.gov You can also call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Representative's office.

http://www.seaflow.org


Informant: Scott Munson

The Bush administration has missed dozens of deadlines set by Congress after the September 11 attacks for developing ways to protect airplanes, ships and railways from terrorists.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105M.shtml

One of the reporters at the center of the CIA identity leak investigation says he first learned Valerie Plame's name from President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105L.shtml

--------

Time Reporter Says He Learned Agent's Identity From Rove Matthew Cooper Says I. Lewis Libby Confirmed Information

Oct. 31 2005 — - One of the reporters at the center of the investigation into the leak of the identity of an undercover CIA officer, says he first learned the agent's name from President Bush's top political advisor, Karl Rove.

Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper also said today in an interview with "Good Morning America," that the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, confirmed to him that Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA operative.

A grand jury charged Libby on Friday with five felonies alleging obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines. Libby was not charged with the crime that the grand jury was created to investigate -- specifically, who leaked the name of Plame to reporters in 2003. Rove has not been charged.

Wilson, who went to Nigeria in 2002 to investigate whether or not the country was supplying Iraq with uranium to make weapons of mass destruction, opposed the war. He said he found no evidence of such an exchange in an op-ed in The New York Times. Wilson has argued that the Bush administration revealed his wife's identity in order to silence his opposition to the war.

"There is no question. I first learned about Valerie Plame working at the CIA from Karl Rove," Cooper said.

Libby has since claimed that he heard the Plame rumors from other reporters. Cooper disputed that version of events. "I don't remember it happening that way," he said. "I was taking notes at the time and I feel confident."

If a trial goes ahead, Cooper said he would name Rove as his source of the information.

"Before I spoke to Karl Rove I didn't know Mr. Wilson had a wife and that she had been involved in sending him to Africa."

Copyright © 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/print?id=1265736


Informant: maintzger

On the day we honored Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, George W. Bush appointed a white male to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Marjorie Cohn writes that, evidently unable to find a woman or Latino sufficiently "qualified" to sit on the high court, Bush reached deep into the trough of right-wing federal judges and pulled out Samuel Alito.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105I.shtml

More bad publicity has motivated the Beast of Bentonville to fight back.

http://www.tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#6614

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldbriefing/story/0,15205,1605919,00.html

Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

When the going gets rough at home, American presidents leave the country.

http://www.tompaine.com/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101386_pf.html

by E. J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post

The indictment makes it crystal clear that the White House misled the public about its role in sliming Wilson and outing Plame.

http://www.tompaine.com/

--------

What the 'Shield' Covered Up:

As long as Bush still faced the voters, the White House wanted Americans to think that officials such as Libby, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney had nothing to do with the leak campaign to discredit its arch-critic on Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10855.htm

by Chris Pearson and Ryan O'Donnell, TomPaine.com

A year ago, we elected a president. How do we change the fact that, for two-thirds of us, our votes meant nothing at all?

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051101/the_shrinking_battleground.php

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, demanding answers about intelligence that led to the Iraq war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105X.shtml

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=7861


Informant: Carol Moore

From ufpj-news

Einflüsterungen: Umweltverbände fordern kompromisslose Umweltpolitik (01.11.05)

Die Umweltverbände Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Naturschutz­­bund Deutschland (NABU), Greenpeace und World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) haben Union und SPD aufgefordert, in ihren Koalitionsvertrag keine auf Kosten des Umwelt- und Naturschutzes gehenden Kompromisse aufzunehmen. Die Verbände begrüßten, dass am Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz festgehalten werden solle. Die vereinbarte Abschaffung der Eigenheimzulage ist nach Auffassung der Verbände ebenfalls ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung. Weitere umweltschädliche Subventionen müssten abgebaut und Energie-Effizienzprogramme beschlossen werden. Der Flugverkehr solle durch eine Kerosinsteuer und der Autoverkehr durch eine Kfz-Steuer auf Kohlendioxid-Basis belegt werden. Bisherige Leerstellen in den Verhandlungsrunden wie die Sicherung der Gentechnikfreiheit, die ökologische Verkehrswende, der Schutz der Verbraucher vor gefährlichen Chemikalien und der Erhalt von Naturschutzflächen gehörten dringend auf die Tagesordnung. Bei der Diskussion um mögliche Laufzeitverlängerungen von Atomkraftwerken dürfe die SPD keinesfalls den Einflüsterungen der Industrielobby erliegen.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12180

Reportage et Annexes sur un Contrôle de Mesures Officielles suivant le protocole ANFR dans les locaux d'ASL (CREST Drôme)

http://www.next-up.org/main.php?param=mesuresctrl

According to Cindy Sheehan, the price many of us are paying is so much costlier than the mere monetary expense or loss of reputation. Over 2000 American families have paid the price of our dear loved ones to the insanity. Over 15,000 of our young people are wounded.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105Y.shtml



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

Weg mit den Knästen!
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21238/1.html

Full-Time-Jobs, aber kein Geld für Essen
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21256/1.html

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_19839.shtml


Informant: Our bill of rights

Ericsson and Nokia loose a High Court case in USA

Please, read:

(START OF COPY) Ericsson and Nokia loose a High Court case in USA  Class action ahead?

The Mobile telephone manufactures did not succeed with their Stop-proposal at the American High Court. The Mobile phone manufacturers wanted to put a stop for consumers being able to take out court summons. Against them related to health risk from radiation from mobile phones, according to Bloomberg news.

The manufacturers behind the proposal were, between others, Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson. The High Court decision opens up for a class action against the mobile phone manufacturers, to go ahead. A group of consumers in Louisiana demands that every mobile phone user be given a headset to lower the radiation. Analysts tells Bloomberg news that the decision can open up for mass actions, by people who have contracted cancer, running into multimillions against the mobile phone manufacturers.

http://www.dagensps.se/artikel.asp?articleID=13340

Translated from Swedish by Agnes http://www.mast-victims.org/
(END OF COPY)


Olle Johansson, assoc. prof.
The Experimental Dermatology Unit
Department of Neuroscience Karolinska Institute
171 77 Stockholm Sweden

--------

Cell phone makers lose case at Supreme Court

Houston Chronicle

10/31/05

The Supreme Court refused today to consider throwing out class-action lawsuits that accuse cell phone makers of failing to protect users from unsafe levels of radiation. The cell industry argued that because the phones comply with federal rules, the lawsuits should be dismissed. Justices declined without comment to consider the appeal...

http://tinyurl.com/cmk9z


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Cell phone class action cases to proceed
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1114156/

Aktionsbündnis Sozialproteste Homepage: http://www.die-soziale-bewegung.de
Email: die-soziale-bewegung@web.de


Bei unserem letzten bundesweiten Treffen am 1. Oktober haben wir gemeinsam beschlossen, dass für eine Verbreiterung der Proteste eine Vernetzung mit anderen Spektren der sozialen Bewegungen und mit den Gewerkschaften notwendig ist.

Ein geeigneter Anlass, dies in Angriff zu nehmen, ist die Aktions- und Strategiekonferenz am 19. und 20. November in Frankfurt (Main), die dort in den Räumlichkeiten der Universität stattfindet. Wir haben uns als Koordinierungskreis in den letzten Wochen an deren konzeptioneller Ausgestaltung beteiligt. Im Vergleich zum Sozialforum in Deutschland, das im Juli in Erfurt stattgefunden hat, soll bei der Konferenz in Frankfurt der Vernetzungsgedanke und die Arbeit auf gemeinsame Projekte hin mehr im Vordergrund stehen.

Der Koordinierungskreis des Aktionsbündnis Sozialproteste und weitere Personen, die unserem Aktionsbündnis nahe stehen, werden sich vor allem in dem Forum "Arbeit und Soziales neu gestalten" engagieren. Ebenso wird es in dem Eingangsblock einen Vortragsteil "Arbeit umverteilen + Mindestlöhne + Grundeinkommen" geben. Aber auch in den anderen Veranstaltungen geht es immer wieder um die verschiedenen Facetten der Thematik Erwerbstätigkeit, Erwerbslosigkeit und Verfügung über den gesellschaftlichen Reichtum.

Die Einladung zu der Konferenz mitsamt Anmelde-Schnipsel findet Ihr auf unserer Homepage (sie wäre mit 160 kb als PDF-Datei zu groß für den Email-Versand) unter:
http://www.die-soziale-bewegung.de/2005/aktionskonferenz/aktionskonferenz_einladung.shtml

Weitere Punkte, die kurz erwähnt werden sollen:

* Die Kampagne gegen Zwangsumzüge ist angelaufen. Bisher haben wir von Initiativen in 8 Regionen erfahren, dass sie entsprechende Nottelefonnummern eingerichtet und teilweise davon die Presse unterrichtet haben. Ihr seid weiterhin aufgefordert, uns die entsprechenden Informationen zukommen zu lassen per Email an die-soziale-bewegung(at)web.de .

* In den nächsten Tagen wird ein Treffen zwischen Mitgliedern unseres Kokreises mit einigen MdBs der Linkspartei in Berlin stattfinden. Dies ist die Konsequenz aus einem Beschluss des 8. bundesweiten Treffens in Kassel: Die Linkspartei solle mit unseren Forderungen konfrontiert werden, um eine spannungsreiche und produktive Zusammenarbeit auf den Weg zu bringen.

* Wir haben eine Pressemitteilung im Namen des Koordinierungskreises abgesetzt, die die Demokratiegefährdung durch die aktuelle Missbrauchskampagne anklagt und sich auch an die ausländischen Medien wendet. Diese findet Ihr im Anhang dieser Email.

* Das nächste bundesweite Treffen wird am 10. Dezember im DGB-Haus in Göttingen von 12 bis 17 Uhr stattfinden.

Teilt uns bitte mit, wenn Ihr an der Aktionskonferenz in Frankfurt (Main) teilnehmen möchtet. Um Fahrtkosten zu sparen, möchten wir für die Hin- und Rückfahrt Fahrgemeinschaften mit der Bahn bzw. dem Auto gerne koordinieren. Ihr findet einen entsprechenden Link auf der Homepage.

Wir freuen uns, Euch in Frankfurt oder beim nächsten bundesweiten Treffen in Göttingen begrüßen zu dürfen.

Mit solidarischen Grüßen Wolfram Altekrüger, Claudio Coladangelo, Renate Gaß, Peter Grottian, Ottokar Luhn, Michael Maurer, Edgar Schu, Detlef Spandau, Rainer Wahls, Helmut Woda

Aktionsbündnis Sozialproteste Koordinierungsstellen: Michael Maurer, m.m(at)dalichow-online.net (Brandenburg); Ottokar Luhn, info-gotha (at) offenes-buendnis.de (Thüringen); Helmut Woda, Helmut.Woda (at) web.de (Karlsruhe); Detlef Spandau, Detlef.Spandau (at) gmx.net (Ostwestfalen/Lippe); Claudio Coladangelo, teoanacatl (at) web.de (Giessen/Mittelhessen); Rainer Wahls, Rwahls (at) web.de (Berlin); Wolfram Altekrüger, W.Altekrueger(at)gmx.de (Sachsen-Anhalt) Vernetzungsbüro: Renate Gaß, R.Gass1 (at) gmx.de, Tel.: 0151 1539 0382 (Kassel); Edgar Schu, E.Schu1 (at) gmx.de, Tel.: 0179 672 9724 (Göttingen) Wissenschaftliche Beratung: Peter Grottian, pgrottia (at)

Anlagen:

Clement im menschenverachtenden Abseits Bundeswirtschaftsminister gefährdet mit seinem Parasitenvergleich die Demokratie in ihrer Substanz

Von keinem geringeren als Bundeswirtschaftsminister Clement stammt ein Report vom Arbeitsmarkt im Sommer 2005 mit dem Titel: "Vorrang für die Anständigen - Gegen Missbrauch, "Abzocke" und Selbstbedienung im Sozialstaat". Die Wortwahl und Sichtweise des Ministers haben in Deutschland große Empörung ausgelöst.

Im Jahr 2005 ist es in Deutschland wieder möglich, Arbeitslose und ökonomisch schwächste Mitglieder der Gesellschaft als "Sozialschmarotzer" zu bezeichnen. So geschehen in dem "Report vom Arbeitsmarkt 2005" des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit.

Autoritäre Regime kommen nicht "über Nacht". Sie werden über gesellschaftlich akzeptierte Vorformen politischer Gewalt gegenüber wehrlosen Bevölkerungsgruppen sukzessive eingeführt. Zu diesen Vorformen zählen Ignoranz, Abwertung, Verleumdung und Ausgrenzung. Herr Wolfgang Clement ist aber mit seiner betriebenen Diffamierung und Präsentation Arbeitsloser als SozialbetrügerInnen weit über diese Vorformen hinaus gegangen.

Schon mehrmals wurden von namhaften deutschen Politikern Menschen mit Ungeziefer verglichen. 1979 nannte Franz Joseph Strauß, damaliger Ministerpräsident von Bayern und Kanzlerkandidat, Schriftsteller "Ratten und Schmeißfliegen". Der heutige designierte Wirtschaftsminister Edmund Stoiber verteidigte diese Straußsche Entgleisung, und vor kurzem verglich Franz Müntefering, SPD-Fraktionsvorsitzender, Hedgefonds mit Heuschrecken.

Der aktuelle Rückgriff auf eine Sprache, deren Worte in gefährlicher Nähe zur Wortwahl des Dritten Reiches stehen, erfolgt, um Ursache und Wirkung bei der Entstehung von Arbeitslosigkeit auf den Kopf zu stellen. Damit Arbeitslose auch als wirkliche Verursacher ihrer eigenen Arbeitslosigkeit erscheinen, werden sie öffentlich von Amtsträgern der Bundesregierung diffamiert und entwürdigt.

Wir begrüßen es, dass viele Menschen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland diesen Entwicklungen nicht tatenlos zusehen und deshalb gegen den Bundesminister Clement Strafanzeige erstattet haben. Aus Verantwortung für die deutsche Geschichte halten wir es aber für erforderlich, mit dieser Pressemitteilung auch das Ausland aufmerksam zu machen, welche Tendenzen sich in Deutschland breit zu machen versuchen.

Wir stehen Ihnen gerne für Rückfragen und weitere Informationen zur Verfügung.

Koordinierungskreis des Aktionsbündnis Sozialproteste

Nicholas Kristof: Mr. Cheney, tell us what happened. If you're afraid to say what you knew, and when you knew it, then you should resign.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110105Z.shtml

For full coverage of the CIA leak investigation, go to our Special Coverage Page.

Mr. Fitzgerald Calling
http://www.truthout.org/fitzgeraldcalling.shtml

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/051031_mystery_monday.html


Informant: Gabriele Garibaldi

Eric Le Boucher agrees with former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin that a new transnational, privileged, self-perpetuating elite is being created.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105H.shtml

Amy Davidson talks with Jeffrey Goldberg who writes about Brent Scowcroft, the national-security adviser under President George H. W. Bush - and the former President's best friend - who has been at odds with the current administration. Goldberg discusses Scowcroft and the divide within the Republican party over Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105F.shtml

Senator Harry Reid: The nomination of Judge Alito requires an especially long hard look by the Senate because of what happened last week to Harriet Miers. Conservative activists forced Miers to withdraw from consideration for this same Supreme Court seat because she was not radical enough for them. Now the Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105E.shtml

David Addington, counsel to Vice President Cheney, is currently considered the leading candidate to succeed Scooter Libby as Cheney's chief of staff. But Addington's own role in the Plame matter is emerging just as the vice president considers whether to name him to the job.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105D.shtml

Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe: Singed by the special prosecutor and rattled by the Harriet Miers mess, Team Bush is in turmoil.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105C.shtml

Vice President Dick Cheney makes only three brief appearances in the 22-page federal indictment that charges his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., with lying to investigators and misleading a grand jury in the CIA leak case. But in its clear, cold language, it lifts a veil on how aggressively Mr. Cheney's office drove the rationale against Saddam Hussein and then fought to discredit the Iraq war's critics. The document now raises a central question: how much collateral damage has Mr. Cheney sustained?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105A.shtml

http://qwstnevrythg.blog-city.com/army_secret_surfaces_deadly_chemicals_at_sea.htm


Informant: beefree

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Michael Meyer
Netzwerk Zivilcourage Risiko Mobilfunk Österreich Plattform Sozialstaat Österreich
michael_meyer@aon.at
A-5165 Berndorf, Stadl 4
0043 – 6217 - 8576


GRAZER WOCHE 23.10.2005

An den Schulen soll bald Funkstille herrschen

Eine (politisch) breite Front hat den Kampf gegen Handys an Grazer Schulen aufgenommen und fordert ein Verbot.

In Wien ist der Streit um ein Handyverbot an Schulen bereits voll entbrannt – nun hat das heiße Eisen auch die Murmetropole erreicht. Denn die Mobilfunk-Gegner gehen nun in die Offensive. Zwei der schärfsten Verfechter: Grünen-Klubobfrau Sigi Binder und Kinderbüro-Geschäftsführer Bernhard Seidler. „Handys gehören sowohl aus pädagogischen als auch aus gesundheitlichen Gründen in Schulen verboten“, betonen beide.

Denn die Undiszipliniertheit mancher Schüler, die während der Stunde ihr Mobiltelefon benutzen, würde den Unterricht zerstören. „Und vor den Gefahren des Elektro-Smogs kann man nicht genug warnen. Aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zeigen klar, dass die Strahlung von Mobiltelefonen auf Kinder eine besonders schädliche Auswirkung hat“, erklärt Seidler.

*Breite Unterstützung*

Argumenten, denen sich Schulstadtrat Detlev Eisel-Eiselsberg und Josef Prassl, Büroleiter des Landesschulratspräsidenten, „inhaltlich voll anschließen“. Doch hier erwartet man sich vor allem aus den einzelnen Schulen Initiativen. „Das muss vor Ort mit den Eltern abgesprochen werden. Nur wenn diese einen derartigen Schritt unterstützen, ist ein Verbot umsetzbar“, so Eisel-Eiselsberg. Dem pflichtet auch Ilse Schmid, Präsidentin der steirischen Elternvertretung, bei: „Wenn, dann funktioniert so etwas nur über die Hausordnung an Schulen.“

Was ist Ihre Meinung zu diesem Thema? Gehören Handys an Schulen verboten? Schreiben Sie an die GRAZER WOCHE, Belgiergasse 3, 8020 Graz, per E-Mail an redaktion@woche.at oder posten Sie hier.

http://www.grazerwoche.at/gw/local/2064/index.do

Dienstag, 1. November 2005

Das oberste Gericht der USA will einen Appell von Mobilfunkanbietern nicht anhören und macht so den Weg für fünf Sammelklagen von Mobilfunkgegnern frei.

Mobilfunkgegner haben in verschiedenen US-Staaten fünf Sammelklagen wegen zu hoher Strahlenbelastung eingereicht, wie Reuters mitteilt. Die betroffenen Anbieter haben gegen die Klagen zunächst mit Erfolg appelliert; nun hat der US Supreme Court aber entschieden, die Anbieter nicht anzuhören. Die Klagen sind damit nun doch zugelassen.

In der Argumentation der Anbieter, darunter Nokia und Cingular, ging es vor allem darum, dass Mobilfunk-Zulassungen in den USA bereits national durch die FCC (Federal Communications Commission) erteilt werden und somit nicht auch noch einzelstaatlichen Regelungen unterworfen sein sollten: Die Anbieter haben Bammel vor einer "Balkanisierung der Netzwerkstandards", wie es im Appell heisst - sie fürchten, dass FCC-genehmigte Geräte künftig nicht mehr automatisch in allen US-Staaten benutzt werden können und das Geschäft damit komplizierter wird. (ub)

http://www.infoweek.ch/news/NW_single.cfm?news_ID=12083&sid=0

--------

Oberster Gerichtshof der USA weist Mobiltelefonprozess nicht ab

Der oberste Gerichtshof weigerte sich, eine Sammelklage abzuweisen, die Mobiltelefonhersteller beschuldigt, sie würden Kunden nicht vor gefährlicher Strahlung schützen. Die Mobiltelefonindustrie wandte ein, dass die Klagen abgewiesen werden sollten, weil die Geräte den gesetzlichen Vorschriften entsprechen. Die Gerichte lehnten diesen Einwand kommentarlos ab. In verschiedenen Staaten wurden Klagen eingereicht, die fordern, dass die Hersteller die Mobiltelefone sicherer machen. Die Ankläger wollen Hinweise für die Anwender und Freisprechanlagen, weil diese das Risiko von Hirntumoren verringern sollen. Die Verbraucher behaupten, die Industrie verletze verschiedene Gesetze, zum Beispiel im Hinblick auf Verbraucherschutz, Produkthaftung, Fahrlässigkeit und Betrug.

http://www.usatoday.com/


Aus: FGF-Infoline vom 03.11.2005

George Galloway has accused a US Senate committee of making allegations based solely on lies and demanded that it clear his name.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10821.htm

If Libby lied about how he discovered Plame's identity - he claims he heard it from journalists and had forgotten Cheney had told him - why would he tell such clumsy fibs? The only rational explanation is he was protecting his boss.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10834.htm

When the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) finally had the opportunity to look at the documents itself, it concluded they were forgeries. Last week the Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that they had been created by low-level agents of Sisme, the Italian intelligence service, which was trying to curry favour with the White House by supporting its WMD campaign.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10827.htm

Sleaze, leaks and an indictment add up to the worst presidential crisis since Nixon. And it will get worse. The White House has lost one key man but the whole chain of command may be engulfed by a scandal slowly revealing the lies that led to war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10825.htm

PRESIDENT Bush faced calls from Republicans and Democrats last night to dismiss Karl Rove, his chief adviser, as the fallout from the CIA-leak scandal continued to take a heavy toll on the White House.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1851093,00.html


From Information Clearing House

Letter from Iraq: America - Behind the Curtain:

Libby and the likes of him have devastated my already ruined country. Anything that exposes these people for what they are must bring some gratification.

http://iraquna.blogspot.com/2005/10/america-behind-curtain.html


From Information Clearing House

The idea that we are now fighting in Iraq to protect America has gained some currency, and its popularity is a testament to how far down the rabbit hole we have truly fallen.

http://lefthook.org/Politics/Alam102605.html


From Information Clearing House

The day after a federal grand jury returned a three count indictment against him for allegedly laundering $45,500 into President Bush's re-election campaign, Tom Noe appeared in shackles and handcuffs before a U.S. magistrate in Orlando to be arraigned.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/102905NoeFreed.html


From Information Clearing House

Thirty Ohioans who raised a combined $4.1 million for President Bush's re-election campaign have received more than $1.2 billion in public funds for their companies and clients, a newspaper reported.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10840.htm

U.S. not legally bound to reveal dump sites:

For decades, the U.S. Army secretly dumped millions of pounds of chemical weapons off the coasts of America and other nations throughout the world. Today, in the second day of a two-part series, we examine the extent — and the potential environmental disaster — of the dumping that occurred worldwide.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5dumpday2oct31,0,3757483.story


From Information Clearing House

President George W Bush has nominated federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4392540.stm



Alito Supports Unauthorized Strip Searches:

In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home. [Doe v. Groody, 2004]

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/31/samuel-alitos-america



The Record of Samuel Alito:
Pdf file:

A Preliminary Review: This preliminary report provides a summary of Judge Samuel Alito’s professional record. In compiling this document, we have focused primarily on those opinions, concurrences and dissents which were authored by Judge Alito himself and provide important insight about his record concerning important issues of fundamental rights and liberties.
http://media.pfaw.org/stc/AlitoPreliminary.pdf



Alito: Where were you in '72?:

A lot has been said this morning about Samuel Alito, President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, and his impeccable legal resume. Well, here's one portion of his resume we hope gets some very, very close scrutiny over the next few weeks, before his confirmation hearings.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/31/samuel-alitos-america


From Information Clearing House

Rove should be fired, spy’s husband says:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9875093


From Information Clearing House

The annual worldwide press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders shows the United States, which is supposedly spreading freedom and liberty throughout the world, is in a fast decline regarding the freedom of its own press.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10839.htm

Amnesty International said today that recent revelations about deaths in custody and abuses by US troops in Afghanistan are further evidence of a culture of disrespect for fundamental rights in the “war on terror” which the US has failed to adequately address.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511722005


From Information Clearing House

Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks say they have uncovered evidence supporting claims that the South Australian may have been the subject of organised torture by American troops. - Hicks's father Terry has detailed allegations of physical and sexual abuse of his son by American soldiers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10837.htm



The Case Against David Hicks:

"The Australians, the Americans, they all know – this is a façade, this is a farce"... David Hicks’ US lawyer Josh Dratel.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10838.htm



Bahrain formally demands probe into Gitmo torture:

The Bahraini Embassy in Washington has formally asked the U.S. government to launch an immediate investigation into torture, abuse and other brutal tactics used against a Bahraini prisoner held at its detention center in Guantanamo, Bay, Cuba, Bahraini foreign ministry source has revealed.

http://tinyurl.com/ajykv


From Information Clearing House



A Tale of Two Lives Destroyed by Abu Ghraib:

DER SPIEGEL looks at two lives destroyed by Abu Ghraib. One, an Iraqi community leader -- the other, his American guard.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10527.htm

Says former advisor:

United States president George W. Bush no longer trusts Italy's prime minister Silvio Berlusconi after remarks he made stating he did not want the US and Britain to attack Iraq.

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.224305282&par=0


From Information Clearing House

An update from http://www.lifeboatnews.com
Paul Grignon
http://www.lifeboatnews.com
http://www.paulgrignonart.com

Small communities would be wise to start a "garden" program in order to remain fairly self-sufficient in food. See: http://www.growarow.org

Oil Peak in 2005? Dale Allen Pfeiffer in Dale Pfeiffer's Blog Sunday 30 of October, 2005 http://www.lulu.com/allenadale

More evidence is coming in weekly to suggest that world oil production peaked in 2005. Within this past month, two notable petroleum geologists have produced statements to that effect. First there was Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, who said this past October. "In my humble opinion, we should now have reached 'Peak Oil'. So, it is high time to close this critical chapter in the history of international oil industry and bid the mighty 'Peak' farewell... At present, global oil output fluctuates around 82 mb/d as some institutions try vainly to push 2005 statistics towards 83 and 84 mb/d (as they always do). But they will be obliged to backtrack as 'actual' oil supplies fail to follow their 'paper' ones." (1)

This was followed by Colin Campbell's announcement at a conference in Rimini, Italy on October 28th that 2005 could be the year when world oil production peaks, to be soon followed by an irreversible decline.

According to Dr. Campbell, "the maximum peak of production as far as the normal so-called oil has come this year; after that will be a long decline.

Meanwhile, for other types of hydrocarbons. the peak will occur by 2010."(2) (Translated from Italian.)

These two statements, taken in concurrence with OPEC's August market report that total light, sweet oil production was declining,(3) and declining extraction rates from all the major oil companies except BP,(4) make it a safe bet that global oil production did indeed peak in 2005. I must offer a note of thanks to Chris Vernon for making both of the observations listed above in this paragraph.

Implications If world oil production has indeed peaked, then demand and production are diverging and the trend will be towards rising oil prices from here on in. However, the real problem lies not so much with the peak and with the irreversible decline that will follow. How serious our problems will be depends in part on how steep this decline is, and-possibly in larger measure-on how we react to the divergence and decline.

So far, the market and the general public has not yet realized that world oil production has peaked, much less the significance of this event. This is because the peak is being masked by specific production problems due to natural catastrophes, wars and civil unrest. At present, neither the market, the media nor the general public has been able to see the forest for the trees.

This situation is both bad and good. It is bad for society overall, because it means that we have not started to grapple with the problem. If society would wake up right now and begin to prepare, we could optimize our chances of transitioning into a sustainable paradigm. The longer it takes our society to wake up, the worse our chances will be of making this transition.

On the other hand, this social denial is delaying the other shoe (being the economic shoe) from dropping. Once the full realization of what is happening floods into the market, there will be an economic crash in response. This intervening period, which Dr. Bakhtiari calls 'Transition One', will provide a chance for those who are aware of what is happening to quietly prepare.

Personally, I do not advocate heading for the hills. Those hills are already occupied. And the residents there will be less and less apt to receive newcomers warmly.

Nor will you, as a newcomer have the support system that you left behind along with your familiar surroundings.

Instead, preparing means taking stock of what is around you, limiting or eliminating personal debt, increasing your own energy sufficiency where you are right now, and building up a reserve of whatever items you feel might be most helpful either for personal survival or trade.

Most of all, it means getting involved in your own community.

Possibly one of the most important things you can do to ensure community security is to get involved in your local food bank, or start one if none exists in your area.

Food banks can serve as a platform from which to launch community gardening programs.

And nothing will spell security for your community so much as locally produced food and a system for ensuring that none in your community must starve.


Voltaire's advice has never been more apt in every meaning of the phrase: "Let us cultivate our garden."


Informant: friends2b

The Real Story Of The Money Control Over America
http://www.rense.com/general61/bbil.shtm


Informant: eebeeb2004

This year, more than one million women are expected to file for bankruptcy, outnumbering men by about 150,000 if trends hold. Critics say that means the new US bankruptcy law, which makes it harder for filers to expunge debts, is particularly onerous for women.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/103105WC.shtml

DeLay protege Richard Pombo was named as one of the 13 most corrupt politicians in Congress. His payback is "the steady stream of environmentally destructive legislation flowing from the House Resources Committee, which he runs. The legislation would undermine environmental safeguards and raise broad new threats to endangered species and public lands."

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/103105EA.shtml

"Ending the war in Iraq must be at the centerpiece of a campaign that includes standing for national healthcare and preserving Social Security. This is the constellation of issues with which Democrats can take back the country." - Congressman Dennis Kucinich

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103105R.shtml

http://www.thesoapboxroadshow.com


Informant: R H

Washington Post Article by William H. Arkin 'Russia Nukes United States'.

(What Arkin - and the US military that does these excercises - fails to mention is that if Russia really were to nuke the US, the US would be toast several times over, with hardly a single person and no cities at all, left. The survival of not only US citizens, but of most land-based living things all over the world would be problematic. (this assumes current or near current warhead levels of round 2,500 warheads, used for 'city busting'.) US/Russia thermonuclear war is not an event one can 'manage'. It is an event that would be terminal at least for both societies and probably for most humans and other living things. ) Early Warning William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security Russia Nukes the United States

Code Name of the Week: Slomonia

Scooter Schmooter, Russia is about to nuke the United States.

Tomorrow, the U.S. military begins its largest "national" military exercise of the fiscal year, an exercise that posits a return of the "old guard" to Russia and a crisis that ends in a nuclear attack on the United States.

I previously wrote about gaming a terrorist nuclear attack in Alabama and war with North Korea as part of exercises Vigilant Shield and Global Lightning. Those two exercises are being joined by Global Storm and Positive Response tomorrow, all following a highly classified common Russian scenario.

In the scenario, according to internal exercise papers obtained by this washingtonpost.com blogger, "Slomonia" loses ally "Ublame" in a "domestically driven political realignment." Slomonia adapts a more aggressive foreign policy which re-ignites what the war gamers call a "mini-Cold War."

Slomonia, which in earlier game preparation was called Rusalka, is obviously Russia. The name was changed to Slomonia to obscure the identity of the country should there be a leak. Ublame is Ukraine, which ironically was earlier called Ubundi in exercise planning. I guess the possibility that World War III could begin over Ukraine is less sensitive than a 2005 nuclear war with our good friend Moscow.

The exercise scenarios begin with the Russian loss of Ukraine and a decline in relations with the west. Russia begins to mobilize in response to increasing NATO troops on its border and then it deploys long-range bombers to the Arctic and the Far East. To "punish" the West, according to the classified exercise papers, Russia begins to provide support for "old clients long abandoned," primarily the Northeast Asian country of Purple (aka North Kraal in early exercise papers), which is North Korea.

During a 60 day "time warp" mid-way in the exercise scenario to fast forward to the really fun nuclear war, North Korea and Russia prepare to nuke the United States with missiles and bombers. The war gamers call the eventual Russian bomber attack on Alaska and the continental United States "non-doctrinal," that is, physically impossible and implausible, but necessary in the war game in order to practice air intercepts and achieve victory for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

Herein lies the corrupt nature of this kind of war gaming. Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in to improve the "play" and stress the days of the hundreds of gamers -- a decline in U.S.-Russian relations, war with North Korea, ballistic missile defenses, terrorist attacks, cyber warfare, evacuation of Washington. The "simultaneous" Armageddons become what military wags often call a "self-licking ice cream cone," that is, self-indulgent confirmation of questionable assumptions. The real effect of all of this is merely to justify weapons, levels of spending, and the policies that are being pursued, not to "test" them.

It isn't as if a return to the Cold War isn't possible with Russia; it is. Thoughout the Clinton and Bush administrations though, United States national policy has been to intentionally ignore thousands of Russian nuclear weapons as a threat and accept that democracy and stability in the former core of the Soviet Union is more or less permanent. It is a risk, but a national decision was taken not to just mindlessly pursue the old "to have peace prepare for war" adage. When it comes to Russia, there is a clear recognition that there are things that can be done on a day-to-day basis to create stability and reduce mistrust and that these things all just as valuable as maintaining missiles on 30 minute alert.

So Russia with thousands of nuclear weapons is not a threat because the U.S. national security strategy says it is not, whereas comparatively puny North Korea and Iran are threats? Again, it isn't as if North Korea and Iran don't mean the United States harm, it is just that in order to justify our over-abundance of strategic nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defenses, and even conventional military might, war gamers have to invent capabilities to fit.

The Slomonian exercise scenarios being used for Vigilant Shield-Global Lightning-Global Storm-Positive Response are by no means unique to the Bush administration. In fact, the only thing surprising about these exercises is that the country being used to justify all of this isn't China. But then Russia is the only country other than the United States that has more than a few hundred nuclear weapons. Russia is thus the only justification for the United States to continue to possess thousands of its own nuclear weapons and do nothing to continue to pursue the process of disarmament.

These days, Pentagon big thinkers are desperately seeking to frame China as the future threat, the "peer competitor" that will keep the U.S. military afloat after Iraq. Chinese intentions towards the United States aren't important in this process. Instead, war planners posit economic and demographic trends to show that China will have increased resources to build up its nuclear might and pursue military domination some time in the future. By using Russian forces in war games, future and much more robust Chinese capabilities can be tested.

And tested they are. The Slomonia exercises include not just nuclear warfare and ballistic missile defenses, but also "full spectrum" U.S. information and special operations -- computer network attack and exploitation, directed energy attacks, disablement of Russian satellites and missiles --- to test future methods of perfecting a disarming first strike capability.

Russia loses. "Adaptive" U.S. nuclear war planning, American technological superiority, ballistic missile defenses, cyber warfare, and Top Secret U.S. methods all prevail. On November 10, Moscow is scheduled to "sue for peace," no muss, no fuss.

By William M. Arkin | October 31, 2005; 11:06 AM ET | Category: Code Name of the Week, War Games Previous: Libby's Resignation:


i wish this would happen in my life time, an 16 but that is not an exception. i must see the power that russia has in my life time i must see the world cruble on the super powers, i must see the U.S. take on countries it's on size, i must see russia exceed the U.s, i must see every nation bow down to the next great nation, i must see the power of the atomic bomb, i must live, i must see "WORLD WAR III."

Posted by: great | Oct 31, 2005 7:18:50 PM

Mr. Arkin, does a war game command this much of your column? You should know war games have been done for hundreds of years and a huge one between Russia and China was just completed where they used 10's of thousands of troops and practiced attacking stand-ins for American aircraft carriers. Why do you spend this kind of high visibility column space insinuating American Stranglovian tendencies, when America was the victim of a far larger war game scenario, not 2 months ago.

If anyone is a unreconstructed Cold Warrior, I think its one William Arkin.

One final point Mr. Arkin. Last I counted, there were more countries in 2005 with Nuclear weapons than in 2004. Probably in 2006 there will be more than in 2005. The wheel continues to turn. Presumably you seek some future time when the USA disposes of its thousands of war heads while the rest of the world re-arms, aided by a underground proliferation networks run by North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Russia and China? Come to think of it, maybe its a blessing you are confined to column space rather than decision space.

Posted by: Can'tBelieveIt | Oct 31, 2005 6:49:58 PM

Right. This is definitely an attention grabber. What about "Joshua still playing" or something.

Posted by: El Tonno | Oct 31, 2005 4:37:15 PM

A question for Mr Arkin:

Why is no one talking about the real issue in the Valerie Plame affair--i.e., Why has Scooter Libby held an extremely sensitive job and high level clearances in the White House for the past two years??

The Ignorant news media seems to think that investigations of SCI security breaches are handled by two year long grand jury investigations --they are not.

You know how SCI info is handled. What's going on? This Valerie Plame "investigation" makes no sense.

Exposure of a covert CIA agent should have kicked off a security investigation. The list of people who could have revealed that information should have been short. Anyone having SCI clearances--including Dick Cheney -- who had knowledge that Libby might had leaked Valerie Plame's name had an affirmative OBLIGATION to report that adverse info to security officers. In the case of WHite House and CIA employees, they stood to lose their own clearances if they failed to report adverse info on Libby.

It should have taken no more than 2-3 weeks to pinpoint Libby and to have demanded that he take a polygraph.

I can see why Fitzgerald's long legal investigation was needed to pursue a criminal prosecution -- but investigating and resolving breaches of security do NOT follow those leisurely processes nor are security investigations constrained by legal rules which govern criminal prosecutions.

Security clearances can be revoked anytime there is a question whether someone is trustworthy. No one has a right to the clearances. While one is presumed innocent until proven guilty in criminal prosecutions, the opposite rule is often followed when it comes to keeping security clearances -- the holder is required to show that he should continue to be trusted with SCI info.

One may refuse to answer questions in a criminal case -- one is REQUIRED to answer questions under a polygraph to keep security clearances. I can see how Libby could have taken the Fifth and refused to take a polygraph. But at that point --say 1 month after Valerie Plame's name was revealed -- he should have had his security clearances revoked and been escorted out of the WHite House --absent a direct intervention by the President. Why did that NOT happen 2 years ago??

On the other hand, if the President adjudicated the case and decided that Libby had simply made a mistake, then why was the Fitzgerald investigation continued?

The only way this Fitzgerald process make sense to me is if the White House is concerned that Libby has done something else other than outing Mrs Wilson, he has refused to cooperate/provide info about the other matter, and they are using this criminal prosecution as a way to squeeze him to answer questions/cooperate in the investigation of the other matter. But if they had questions about his trustworthiness, they would not have left him in the White House all this time --even under intense surveillance -- would they?


Posted by: Don Williams | Oct 31, 2005 3:13:52 PM

Actually, I think what is "stupid" is pursuing a psychopathic foreign policy that encourages Russia to consider another Cold War -- in self defense.

And the mainstream media headlines that irritate me are the ones that ignore our real problems/issues in favor of the latest from the Michael Jackson trial.

Posted by: Don Williams | Oct 31, 2005 3:03:31 PM

Arkin:

Stop playing with reality and promoting these 'games' of yours. It will only lead to tensions between the West and Russia. Fool.

VH

Posted by: Vladimir Helsinkov | Oct 31, 2005 3:00:53 PM

Eisenhower warned us to be careful of the military-industrial complex. perhaps now it is too late, and the real armageddon, the one where Jesus comes back will in effect be here, and the main cause? american military-industrial power-hungry, money-making corporations and politicians.

Posted by: Dan Dubei | Oct 31, 2005 2:58:59 PM

Gentlemen:

I find it offensive for you to use a headline like"Russia to Nuke U.S." What are you trying to do stir up war? We glorify war enough without you trying to agitate anymore.

It is stupid to use such headlines. Why do you do it?

Posted by: James W. Wilder | Oct 31, 2005 2:44:56 PM


More Madness - Alabama Gets the Bomb

WebEarly Warning William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security Nuclear War in ... Alabama

Code Name of the Week: Global Lightning

When Alabama gets the bomb... I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, Tom Lehrer's song "Who's Next" always brought a smile to my face.

Next month, Alabama gets the bomb. Well, Alabama gets bombed.

It's North Korea who's next. They get nuked.

It's all part of a classified military exercise slated to begin November 1, an exercise that, with the inclusion of North Korea and a terrorist attack in the United States, suggests up-to-the-minute relevance. In truth, though, the exercise replays the same tired Cold War global nuclear war game that has been the bread and butter of the U.S. military for decades.

The dastardly country of Purple, or maybe it's a terrorist organization aligned with Purple -- the script doesn't say for sure -- detonates a radiological dispersal device (or "dirty" nuclear bomb) onboard a merchant ship located on the Mobile waterfront. The President is in Mobile, leading a summit of world leaders addressing a tense escalation of global tensions.


The Alabama nuclear "event" kicks off the scenario for Vigilant Shield, a U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) exercise that is one in a series of national military exercises scheduled for the first ten days of November. The nuclear warfare component of these exercises -- called Global Lightning, and sponsored by U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha -- runs at the same time and will rehearse a nuclear war with North Korea.

In the exercise, Purple is a Northeast Asian nation thinly veiled as North Korea.

According to military documents and sources involved in the classified scenario writing for Vigilant Shield and Global Lightning, North Korea, which is posited to possess nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them, becomes embroiled in the worldwide crisis, eventually launching a first strike attack against the United States with a number of intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs).

Though Vigilant Shield is officially a "homeland security" exercise, the focus is military and federal government "consequence management" after spectacular terrorist and North Korea nuclear strikes, and the resulting, not kidding, global nuclear war.

I've already written about how NORTHCOM will do just about anything to be relevant to the "global war on terrorism" and not dirty itself in the pedestrian missions associated with natural disasters.

Scratch the surface of Vigilant Shield and it's clear that fighting the war on terrorism domestically is only fun when it is part of the senior varsity of administration interest: global nuclear war. In addition to the North Korean missile attack, as best I can piece together, the Vigilant Shield scenario includes the administration and Rumsfeld favorite ballistic missile defenses (trying to) shoot down incoming missiles, implementation of continuity of operations plans and evacuation to alternative command posts, mobilization of the 18-wheeler mobile command center to test emergency Presidential communications, the intercept of Soviet-like long-range bombers entering U.S. and Canadian airspace, and military "consequence management" after missiles land on Washington. There are a few modern day twists -- terrorist attacks, cyber warfare or what the military calls "information operations."

Global Lightning practices the American nuclear retaliation after Vigilant Shield. This year's is the second of an annual exercise series allowing the Omaha-based command to flex bigger muscles assigned by President Bush. In 2003, the President assigned STRATCOM overarching responsibility for missile defenses, "strategic" information warfare in support of national operations, and global strike missions -- nuclear and conventional.

Global Lightning exercises, according to STRATCOM documents, practices "nuclear combat readiness, proficiency and training" and "provides a bridging exercise between nuclear and non-nuclear forces." In other words, it practices escalation from conventional to nuclear war and implementation of the Bush administration's new global strike war plan, named CONPLAN 8022.

When the first Global Lightning was held in October 2004, The Shreveport Times reported B-52 bombers from nearby Barksdale air force base practicing minimum-interval take-offs, where 13 bombers took off within a minute or less of one another.

Emergency launches of bombers held on 24/7 alert were once quite common during the Cold War, but ever since the first Iraq war in 1991, when bombers were enlisted as the centerpiece of U.S. conventional bombing, the practice of "flushing" bombers to fight make believe nuclear wars became more and more infrequent.

Now the Bush administration has revived the old practice, building the capacity for the military to respond to an instant order to conduct a preemptive strike.

(Next week, no kidding: How Ukraine Starts World War III)

By William M. Arkin | October 21, 2005; 12:26 PM ET | Category: Code Name of the Week, Nuclear Weapons


Informant: FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign

http://www.WantToKnow.info/051031intelligencewarfabrication


Informant: Martin Greenhut

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1031-03.htm



Washington hid damaging Vietnam finding

By Scott Shane in Washington

The US National Security Agency has kept secret a 2001 finding by its own historian that its officers deliberately distorted critical intelligence during the Tonkin Gulf episode that helped precipitate the Vietnam War. The historian's conclusion was the first serious accusation that the agency's intercepts were falsified to support the belief North Vietnamese ships attacked US destroyers on August 4, 1964, two days after a previous clash.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10836.htm

by John Chuckman

The following quotes are from Bush's speech about the War on Terror, as given October 6, 2005, and largely repeated October 28. It was a speech especially dense with Bushspeak, a dialect which never means what it seems to say. Perspective and the occasional translation follow the quotes...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Chuckman1031.htm

Hey Harkavy!
by Sheila Samples

Remember the "Hey, Mikey" TV commercial with two brothers refusing to eat Quaker Oats' new Life cereal until their little brother, Mikey, who supposedly "hates everything" tried it first? Well, I'm not saying I get up every morning and yell, "Hey, Harkavy!" to see what's really happening in the news without all the commercial spin -- but I'm not saying I don't either. Either way, there's no better place to start your morning than with the peerless Ward Harkavy and his Village Voice blog, the "Bush Beat." In his "Morning Report" on Tuesday, Harkavy said, "It's kind of a horse race: Will Harriet Miers withdraw before Patrick Fitzgerald draws on her bosses? The White House needs to clear the decks for possible Plamegate indictments, and Miers will be needed to shuffle papers for George W. Bush's handlers. My money is on the nag to pull out before Fitzgerald pulls up in front of the White House, because everyone knows she can't make the weight." And last Thursday Harkavy wrote..."George W. Bush's handlers have finally put Harriet Miers out of our misery. She just now withdrew her name as a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court." Harkavy's right. Not necessarily about Miers being a "nag" but, with the Fitzgerald storm clouds gathering on the dashboard of Bush's White House, the "cabal" -- as this bunch laughingly dubbed themselves early in this misadministration -- will need every lawyer it can hog-tie and drag into service...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Samples1031.htm

by Norman Solomon

Alot of media outlets are now scrutinizing some of the lies told by the Bush administration before the invasion of Iraq. Yet the same news organizations are bypassing their own key roles in the marketing of those lies. A case in point is the New York Times. On Oct. 29, hours after the indictment of Lewis Libby, the lead editorial of the Times ended by declaring that “the big point Americans need to keep in mind is this: There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” On Oct. 30, the Times columnist Frank Rich referred to “Colin Powell’s notorious presentation of WMD ‘evidence’ to the UN on the eve of war.” And so it goes in the opinion section of the New York Times. There’s now eagerness to blast the Bush administration for some aspects of false prewar propaganda -- while the newspaper continues to dodge its own crucial role in promoting that propaganda...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Solomon1031-2.htm

by Mike Whitney

Lost in the hubbub surrounding the “outing” of Valerie Plame is the story of Plame’s CIA front company, Brewster Jennings and Associates. B.J. & A was based in Boston and was “intended to infiltrate ties between groups involved in smuggling nuclear weapons. Since NOCs (CIA agents under non-official cover) usually work at companies set up by the CIA as fronts, it has been speculated that other employees of the company may have been doing work similar to Plame. If that were true, the damage done by leaking Plame’s name would be vastly multiplied, as all the other NOC’s would be compromised” (Wikipedia) The fact that the Bush administration’s highest ranking officials deliberately endangered national security to pursue a personal vendetta is alarming, but equally disturbing is the fact that their behavior has greatly enhanced the likelihood of nuclear weapons proliferation. By outing Valerie Plame the administration has exposed the war on terror as a fraud. Brewster Jennings and Associates was a vital part of the United States’ covert strategy to fight the spread of WMD. Cheney and his lieutenants intentionally sabotaged that operation in an effort to destroy a personal enemy of the Bush White House. Their action has put us all at greater risk...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Whitney1031.htm

by Jason Leopold

Now it’s about the Niger forgeries. On Friday, after securing a five-count criminal indictment against Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, for lying to a grand jury about what he knew and when he knew it in regard to the outing of a covert CIA agent, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald plans to pursue broader conspiracy charges against Cheney senior White House officials, and top officials at the State Department and the National Security Council, that may finally shed light on how the Bush administration came to use erroneous intelligence that claimed Iraq tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger, lawyers involved in the two year old investigation said. While many federal officials and the media have long speculated that Fitzgerald was not only looking into the identity of administration officials who leaked undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to a handful of reporters, it was only recently that those rumors were confirmed...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Leopold1031.htm

by Patricia Goldsmith

On Thursday, October 27, the impending indictment of Scooter Libby was the second story in a lot of news broadcasts and papers. The lead was the withdrawal of Harriet Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court. The timing was no accident, of course, but the larger truth is that Miers was simply unacceptable to a rightwing base that has been eating bloody red meat with respect to the courts since the Terri Schiavo case and Justice Sunday earlier this year. William Kristol's reaction on the first day of Miers’ nomination: “disappointed, depressed, demoralized.” Phyllis Schlafly concurred: “[O]ur disappointment is acute.” As a result of the wingnuts’ severe displeasure, a new word has even been coined. If to “get ‘borked’ was ‘to be unscrupulously torpedoed by an opponent . . . to get ‘miered’ [i]s to be ‘unscrupulously torpedoed by an ally.’” The solution, according to uber-Republican Richard Viguerie, is simple: “At 38 to 39 percent support in the polls, the main thing [Bush] needs is a fight, an ideological battle to energize his supporters. He needs to pick someone who will drive Ted Kennedy up the wall.” As far as Viguerie is concerned, Miers’ withdrawal has already pumped up the base. It’s not often that you go toe to toe with the president of the United States of your own party and beat him,” he said. “It is very satisfying.”...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Goldsmith1031.htm

by Ken Sanders

While reading through the latest issue of Harper's Magazine, I came across excerpts from the more than 750 editorial changes proposed by Ambassador John Bolton, on behalf of the United States, to a draft of the Outcome Document on United Nations Reform . The purpose of the Outcome Document was to delineate the various areas of the UN that Member States, particularly the US, hope to change. The redactions and additions proposed (demanded?) by the US were startling in their implications. Based on the proposed changes, it would appear that the US wants to be able to target and deliberately kill civilians, encourage all but the worst forms of child labor, and make sure that no one does anything to meaningfully address nuclear proliferation, among other things...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Sanders1031.htm

A NY Times editorial today applauds the UN for supporting Washington's demands against Syria, saying: "The killing of Mr. Hariri and 22 others was an act of international terrorism and a blatant intervention in the political life of a sovereign state." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/opinion/01tues2.html

And of course the killing of hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq through sanctions and tens of thousands by bombs and bullets was not international terrorism. And the sanctions and wars were not "blatant intervention[s] in the political life of a sovereign state."

This is not just a matter of pointing out our rulers' hypocrisy. We all know every single Democrat of any stature in the party will echo the Times' rhetoric, facilitating succeeding acts of aggression by Bush, proving once again that the Democratic Party is not too cowardly to oppose Bush's warmongering -- they AGREE with it.

That's why, by the way, their joy at the Libby indictment is expressed solely around his getting caught for telling lies NOT because they disagree with the war crimes he was defending with those lies.

Remember all this when the 2006 Congressional elections come and liberals in the antiwar movement tell you to stop organizing and start hustling votes for Democrats.

Andrew Pollack


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3574/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT: Hold a Vigil or Rally Against Bush on Tuesday November 2nd is the one-year anniversary of the election. Numerous organizations are working together to create vigils and rallies around the country against the war and against the Bush regime. Go here to get involved:

http://www.worldcantwait.net

EXPOSE THE WHIG!

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced a Resolution of Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes, notes, emails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

"This group, comprised of the President and Vice President's top aides, was critical in selling the Administration's case for war," Kucinich said. "We now know that the Administration hyped intelligence and misled the American public and Congress in their effort to 'sell' the war."

This Resolution must be voted on in the House International Relations Committee by November 9th, 2005. The same committee, on September 14, came within one vote of passing a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo (H. Res. 375).

That near victory came after a great deal of citizen activism. This time we need to persuade all of the Democrats on the Committee to push a little bit harder and a few more Republicans to do the right thing. Co-Sponsorship of the Resolution by members not on the committee helps this effort.

Email Your Congress Member:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/72

More Information and How to Get Involved:
http://www.AfterDowningStreet.org/whig

SEND CONGRESS SOME SPINE

After Downing Street is working with the BackBone Campaign to encourage Congress Members to cosponsor a Resolution of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group.

Click here to download a Spine Postcard PDF to print (preferably on cardstock) and send to your Congress member.

Or visit the Spine Card page.
http://backbonecampaign.org/page.cfm?id=67


BONIFAZ MAY RUN FOR MASS. SECRETARY OF STATE

Constitutional attorney John Bonifaz is a co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org and the author of Warrior King: The Case for Impeaching George Bush. He has worked tirelessly to protect voting rights as founder of the National Voting Rights Institute, which played a crucial role in the Ohio recount battle in 2004. Visit his web site to learn about his exploratory campaign for Massachusetts Secretary of State. http://www.johnbonifaz.com/


AFTER DOWNING STREET NEWS

More "Precision Strikes", More Dead Iraqi Children Who Won't Be Counted By Eli Stephens
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4255

Indicting America By Scott Ritter
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4254

Rep. Henry Waxman Renews Request for Hearings on Leak Case
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4251

Bush Should Ask for Karl Rove's Resignation Over CIA Leak By Larry Johnson

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4249

Impeachment Time: Grab the Torches and Pitchforks! By Dave Lindorff

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4247

Rep. Jerry Nadler Demands Judiciary Hearings on White House Effort to Market the War
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4245

After the Libby Indictment, the Press Is Acquitting Itself By Norman Solomon

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4241

The Libby Indictment By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4233

Oedipus Tyrannus Wrecked By Jane Hamsher
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4220

The White House Criminal Conspiracy By TomDispatch and The Nation

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4218

Official A is Rove By Associated Press
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4177

Writing in an Age of Terror By David Swanson
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4173

One Down, 28 to Go By TomPaine.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4170

Reading List on War Lies By Dahlia Wasfi
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4166

What Did the President and Vice President Know and When Did They Know It? By Congressman John Conyers
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4154

Taking A Candle To The White House! By Scott Goodstein
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4137

Impeach Bush? By Jim Hightower
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4133

October 26th By Cindy Sheehan
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4104

Film of White House Vigil Wednesday Night
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4100

Conyers Responds to Gonzales
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4089

Why I'm Getting Arrested at the White House Today By David Swanson

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4050

Bush in 1999: Lies Are Impeachable By TalkLeft
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4055

Sign My Letter to Bush Demanding No Pardons for Treasongate By Congressman John Conyers
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4053

Show The War, Tell The Truth Campaign By Danny Schechter
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4051

No U.S. Coverage of Iraq Vote Fraud By Tom Hayden
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4042

Bush Crimes Commission
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4040

Rep. McGovern to Introduce Bill Ending Funding for Iraq War
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=funding

POWER POINT Here is an excellent Powerpoint presentation prepared by Michael Smith, the British reporter who originally broke the story of the Downing Street Memo. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/4153



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=95069;show_parent=1



http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Downing+Street+Memo

http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=95058;show_parent=1

VETERANS MUST DEMAND FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=95063;show_parent=1

Posted on Mon, Oct. 31, 2005

Cheney's new security adviser linked to bogus information on Iraq

BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY AND WARREN P. STROBEL

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney replaced I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as his national security adviser on Monday with an aide identified by a former Iraqi exile group as the White House official to whom it fed information on Iraq that turned out to be erroneous.

The Bush administration relied on some of the information from the Iraqi National Congress to argue that Saddam Hussein had to be ousted before he could give banned biological or chemical weapons to al-Qaida for strikes on the United States.

But no such weapons were discovered after the March 2003 invasion, and U.S. intelligence agencies and the independent commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks found no evidence of operational cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida.

The White House announced on Monday the elevation of John Hannah to replace Libby as Cheney's national security adviser. Earlier in the day it announced that Libby would be arraigned Thursday in federal court on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. He was expected to plead innocent.

The White House also announced that David S. Addington, who's been Cheney's legal counsel, would assume Libby's duties as chief of staff. Like Hannah, Addington has played a quiet, though influential, role in the vice president's office. The Washington director of Human Rights Watch accused Addington of helping draft policies that led to the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The vice president's office has previously denied that Hannah received INC information. Cheney's office didn't respond immediately to questions Monday about Hannah and Addington.

The INC's leader, Ahmad Chalabi, now a deputy prime minister in Iraq, was close to Cheney and other senior administration architects of the invasion. The INC supplied Iraqi defectors whose information turned out to be false. It has insisted that it tried its best to verify defectors' claims before passing them to the United States.

On June 26, 2002, the INC wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee staff identifying Hannah as the White House recipient of information gathered by the group through a U.S.-funded effort called the Information Collection Program. Knight Ridder obtained a copy of the letter and previously reported on it.

The letter, written by Entifadh Qanbar, then the director of the INC's Washington office, identified 108 articles in leading Western news media to which it said the INC had funneled the same information that it fed to Hannah, as well as a senior Pentagon official.

The information included a claim by an INC-supplied defector, Adnan Ihsan al-Haideri, that he had visited 20 secret nuclear, biological and chemical warfare facilities in Iraq.

Haideri's claim first appeared in a Dec. 20, 2001, article in The New York Times and then in a White House background paper, "A Decade of Deception and Defiance," released in conjunction with a Sept. 12, 2002, speech to the U.N. General Assembly by Bush.

Haideri, however, showed deception in a CIA-administered lie detector test three days before The New York Times article appeared, and was unable to identify a single illicit arms facility when he accompanied U.S. weapons inspectors to Iraq in January 2004, Knight Ridder reported in May of last year.

The White House background paper also cited INC-produced defectors' claims that Saddam ran a terrorist training camp outside Baghdad in Salman Pak where Iraqi and non-Iraqi Islamic extremists were schooled in assassination, sabotage and the hijacking of aircraft and trains.

After the war, U.S. officials determined that a facility in Salman Pak was used to train Iraqi anti-terrorist commandos.

Addington has been a key player behind widely criticized U.S. policies that have led to torture and other abuse of detainees held in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.

He reportedly helped draft an opinion by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales stating that the Geneva Convention didn't apply to some detainees in the war on terrorism.

"This was somebody who worked very hard to make sure the advice of senior military officials and national security professionals on the question of interrogation policies was ignored," Malinowski said. "The result was an unmitigated disaster for the United States."

Libby was both Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser. He was accused of lying in a two-year grand jury investigation into the leaking to journalists of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame in 2003.

The leak came after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused President Bush of misleading the nation by alleging in January 2003 that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore, the feedstock of nuclear weapons, from the African nation of Niger.

Wilson visited Niger a year earlier at the CIA's request and found no substance to the allegation.

© 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13046064.htm


Informant: John Calvert

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3573/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news