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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
 Sun Oct 06, 2002 8:51 pm
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PERMANENT REVOLUTION
Thu Oct 3,10:02 PM ET
By Ted Rall
The Real Link Between Bush and Hitler
NEW YORK--Herta Daeubler-Gmelin got it half-right when she compared George W. Bush's tactics to Adolf Hitler's. "Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems," she told Schwaebisches Tagblatt on Sept. 18. "It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler also used."
Shortly after Ms. Daeubler-Gmelin made her remarks, Bush flung his long knives across the Atlantic, and within days she was no longer Germany's justice minister.
Such sovereignty-busting gangsterism has its pleasures, but Bush's biggest cribbing from the Hitler playbook is "permanent revolution." Developed by socialist theorist Leon Trotsky in 1915 and applied by such totalitarian masters of control as Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, permanent revolution is the pinnacle of the art of mass distraction--one continually changes the subject of debate by striving for new goals that are always just beyond reach. The idea is diabolically simple: by the time people start grumbling about the problems created by your Great Leap Forward, you're causing new difficulties with your Cultural Revolution. Opposition takes time to materialize; taking the nation from one crisis to the next neutralizes your enemies by focusing them against initiatives you've already abandoned.
On the domestic front, Bush has launched so many political offensives that it's impossible for what's left of the left to launch a coordinated resistance. Fast-track signing authority for free trade, expanded tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations while running up the deficit, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rounding up detainees and depriving them of due process, unraveling environmental regulations, union-busting, curtailing privacy rights--any one of these full-scale assaults would require a full-court press by liberals to block or overturn.
In a blizzard of legislative and regulatory activity, virtually everything on the right-wing wish list is now being proposed. Previous presidents spaced out their initiatives in order to build popular support; Bush prefers to leave elected representatives out of the equation. The more legislation he throws at the wall, the more he'll get passed--and the more people will forget that his is an illegal regime.
Generalissimo El Busho's policy of permanent revolution has reached its zenith with his post-Sept. 11 foreign policy. Before we allow Bush's razzle-dazzle to leap us ahead to his next war, let's consider the one we've already got. Our campaign in Afghanistan news , lest we forget, continues even as thousands more troops pack for Iraq.
Operation Enduring Failure
"Dead or alive," said George W. Bush, squinting hard at Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. If we couldn't get those two, we'd settle for any other high-ranking Al Qaeda or Taliban official we could find. A year later our highest-profile prisoner is alleged Al Qaeda senior field commander Abu Zubaydah. Zubaydah was not involved, says the U.S., in any of the major attacks--Sept. 11, our East African embassies, the U.S.S. Cole--but rather in two Y2K plots that never came off (blowing up LAX and a tourist hotel in Jordan). Hardly a big fish, he's just a little minnow--and we wouldn't even have him if the Pakistanis hadn't tossed him into our boat.
We blew it. U.S. taxpayers are spending between $500 million and $1 billion a month to occupy Afghanistan and fight its Islamist guerrillas (in the `80s we called them "freedom fighters"), yet we haven't caught any of the people we blame for Sept. 11. Al Qaeda remains operational. They're moving money, weapons and men around the Middle East and Central Asia, preparing for their next attack. Not only are you no safer than you were on Sept. 10, but you've spent billions of bucks along the way.
But wait a minute, Bush said, beginning to distance himself from Operation Enduring Failure: the Afghan war was never about finding Osama and his coconspirators. No, we actually went to Afghanistan to liberate its people.
"We've seen the pictures of joy when we liberated city after city in Afghanistan," Bush crowed on Dec. 12. "And none of us will ever forget the laughter and the music and the cheering and the clapping at a stadium that was once used for public execution. Children now fly kites and they play games. Women now come out of their homes from house arrest, able to walk the streets without chaperons."
Beautiful imagery, nicely written by a talented but sadly anonymous White House speechwriter and echoed by TV reports filed from the Kabul Intercontinental. Too bad that, except for the part about games and kites, it's a lie.
Public executions continue. Sharia law--stoning adulterers and chopping off the arms of thieves--remains in effect, enforced by the same judges who ruled under the Taliban. Judge Ahamat Ullha Zarif told Agence France Press on Dec. 28: "Public executions and amputations would continue in accordance with Sharia law but justice would be applied fairly and with mercy. `There will be some changes from the time of the Taliban,' he said. `For example, the Taliban used to hang the victim's body in public for four days. We will only hang the body for a short time, say 15 minutes.' Kabul's sports stadium, where the Taliban used to carry out public executions and amputations every Friday, would no longer be used. `The stadium is for sports. We will find a new place for public executions.'" Now that's civic improvement.
Aside from a tiny minority of the residents of Kabul, ruled by Hamid Karzai's U.S.-protected city-state, the "liberated" women of Afghanistan still wear the burqa. A May report issued by Human Rights Watch says that women are subjected to "sexual violence by armed factions and public harassment" and that gang rapes are commonplace, particularly in the north. Not one inch of road has been paved. Writing for the Lexington Herald-Tribune, Sudarsan Raghavan notes: "The fall of the Taliban has left a power vacuum in mostly ethnic-Pashtun southern Afghanistan that has been filled by scores of shuras, from provincial ones to others in small villages. Elsewhere, warlords such as Abdul Rashid Dostum in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and Ismael Khan in the western province of Herat are now firmly in control of their fiefdoms, just as they were before the Taliban emerged in 1994. Along one stretch, the road is dotted with armed men at checkpoints controlled by tribal shuras. Often, they are nothing more than highway robbers preying on commercial trucks and taxis."
What about all the money that we promised to spend to rebuild the country we bombed into freedom? The West welched. The Karzai government is already so broke that it can't pay its employees; it's already running a budget deficit--$165 million by early next year. $2 billion has already been spent--much of it likely stolen by corrupt Afghan officials--while the lives of ordinary Afghans continue to be plagued by poverty and starvation.
It doesn't take an expert on Central Asian politics to discern the obvious: occupation by a rich country that makes poor people even poorer is a recipe for resentment. Afghans are among the world's most fiercely independent people. A self-indulgent Western superpower propping up a band of third-rate puppets isn't helping to reduce anti-Americanism there. Never doubt that similar sentiments are spreading through other Muslim countries.
Onward to Iraq
One might ask why our Generalissimo is going after Saddam Hussein's Iraq when the war in Afghanistan has worked out so poorly, but one would be missing the point: Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution is at work. It is precisely because we botched Afghanistan that we're moving on to Iraq. |
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Hoople
Joined: 27 Dec 2001
Posts: 167
Location: Charleston, Ar |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 1:57 am
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"Make jobs, not war!"
Printed on Friday, October 04, 2002 @ 11:24:37 EDT http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=749
By Yusuf Agha
YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)
(YellowTimes.org) - At the precise moment President Bush was
admonishing the United Nations on Iraq, another of the nation's icons
was unveiling plans to disrupt the lives of thousands of Americans.
Less than twenty-five miles separate the U.N. podium from Murray Hill,
in the New Jersey home of Lucent Technologies - the nation's leading
manufacturer of communications equipment - where the layoff
announcement was being drafted. According to the New York
Times, "Analysts expect the company.to cut about 5,000 to 10,000 more
jobs, leaving the work force at 33,000 to 38,000 employees, down from
a peak of more than 123,000 two years ago."
As the American President dreamed of torrents of yellow cluster bombs
devastating thousands of Iraqi lives, he seemed totally oblivious to
the clusters of pink slips that were being prepared by the Human
Resources department at Lucent.
As world leaders harkened in stilled silence at Mr. Bush's
vituperative onslaught against the inadequacy of the U.N., thousands
of telecommunication employees waited in suspense to be herded to the
HR office for unceremonious 'exit' interviews. They had been
forewarned by newspaper reports that day that their industry planned
292,756 job cuts through November. As their country's President
repeated the phrase "if the Iraqi regime wishes peace" five times in a
single minute, thousands of American workers wished for their own
peace: peace of mind - where would their next paycheck come from?
Meanwhile, the west coast employees at Charles Schwab fared no better.
With investor confidence at a dramatic low, the San Francisco-based
brokerage firm announced plans to reduce its expenditures by
dismissing 1,800 employees within the next two months. "When those
cuts are completed," said the firm's chief financial officer,
Christopher Dodds, "Schwab will have dismissed more than 35 percent of
the 26,300 employees it had in early 2001."
With massive layoffs, business foreclosures, exhausted unemployment
benefits, a diminishing job market, shrinking 401(k) plans, non-
existent health care benefits and increasing fuel costs - there
appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel for today's unemployed
in America.
Associated Press reports that the U.S. recorded more job losses in
2001 than it did in any of the previous nine years. Citing the job
placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the report states
that "since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, U.S. companies have
announced 624,411 job cuts, more than the 12-month totals for every
year from 1993-1997. Through the end of November, companies had
announced close to 1.8 million job cuts in 2001, nearly three times
more than were announced in 2000."
Key sectors have been affected by the layoffs. The AFL-CIO web site
reports that, as of March this year, the hardest hit sectors have been
Manufacturing (443,993 jobs), Communications & Utilities (220,075),
Transportation (145,025), and Hospitality, Tourism & Entertainment
(140,785). Added to this is the disheartening release from the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics that in July 2002 alone, there have been
2,041 "mass layoff actions" - each involving at least 50 persons from
a single establishment - resulting in 245,457 newly jobless in
America.
Statistics are only half the story - these layoffs have affected the
people in the street, the workers one saw every morning with a
backpack slung over their shoulders, waiting at the street corner for
the light to change.
A colleague writes of the profound effect of layoffs in her
company: "Consulting Group is down to 25 percent of our employee count
from two years ago. I've been so lucky to have these past eighteen
months, since the layoffs began, to . prepare for a layoff. I have a
consultant friend in Boston who's been out of work for a year now. She
was with Ernst and Young, her second big six (or is it five). She's
found nothing yet. I really have had my cupful of this. It's
demoralizing."
Another email is equally depressing. "My little sister was laid off in
July. She was in Connecticut. She had been looking for a job in
Connecticut for a while, but the only work she could find was in New
York. She had lived and worked in New York before and it was very
stressful. So she's moved in with me, yesterday, as a matter of fact.
She was devastated. It's her second lay-off in a little over two
years."
As Congress debates empowering of the U.S. President with carte
blanche powers to wage an all-out war against the people of Iraq, the
stock market continues to be stifled by uncertitude. The Dow is at a
four-year low, and Wall Street is facing the "deepest bear market
since 1938." Reuters reports Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc
One, stating that the cause of this uncertainty is not market
fundamentals, but "an overdose of uncertainty" with the Iraq
situation. War is a costly affair.
Mr. Bush's war, says Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland),
would "divert some $200 billion from our own profound domestic needs,
including health care, prescription drugs, education and homeland
security." Only this time around, a unilateralist America will not
have allies who will foot the bill as they did in the Gulf War of '91,
where Saudi Arabia alone claims to have coughed up $80 billion as
its 'share' of the battle.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, the capital is immersed in another kind
of battle - a war of words. The Democratic majority leader criticizes
the President for "the lack of attention paid to the state of economic
security.a very unfortunate, some would say even tragic economic trend
in this country." White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer returns
fire: "How can the leader of the Senate be for economic security when
the Senate has failed to act on the budget, job-creating terrorism
insurance, pension protections, welfare reform, homeland security, the
faith-based legislation?"
The New York Times writes of the worsening situation in the job
market: "Things are considerably worse today. In the last two years,
the official jobless rate has risen and an additional two million
people appear to have dropped out of the labor force. Today, the real
level of unemployment for men probably approaches the level of the
recession-mired early 80's."
The newspaper predicts a "dismal retail season." What else could it
be, without a fire in the hearth and no presents under the Christmas
tree?
The state that endured the attacks of 9/11 now bears the attacks of
soaring unemployment. In an Op-ed piece in the New York Times, Senator
Hilary Clinton (D-NY) writes of an unemployment rate which "has
skyrocketed to 8 percent. Across the state, 553,000 New Yorkers are
out of work, with company layoffs and plant closings happening
everywhere from Niagara Falls to Rochester. Now 135,000 New Yorkers.
have exhausted their unemployment benefits and are struggling to pay
their bills."
"At this time last year," she writes, "800,000 Americans had been out
of work for six months or longer. That number has nearly doubled to
1.5 million and it is expected to increase to more than 2 million by
December."
Here it must be noted that those who have lost hope - who have stopped
looking for employment - are no longer counted in the official
unemployment statistic.
There are no White House plans on the anvil about how to deal with
this catastrophe of devastating proportions affecting mainstream
America. The single mantra emanating from its inhabitant is the need
to settle the 'family feud' with a 'pre-emptive' war that elder Bush
never finished, which will cost the nation billions of dollars.
Perhaps it is imperative for Mr. Bush to retain the image of a
President-at-arms, because of popularity ratings that rocketed after
the 9/11 attacks. In order to maintain this image, he has to maintain
the semblance of a perpetual war.
The new version of Operation Desert Storm, which President Bush is
threatening to mount against Iraq, may be just another attempt to
throw dust in our eyes, at the cost of greater unemployment, greater
budget expenditure, more taxes, less jobs, rising fuel costs, and -
heck, who cares - a few thousand Iraqi lives!
"There is much to do on the world stage," says Congressman Dennis
Kucinich (D-Ohio). "But we cannot do it by creating war when we ought
to be working for peace. Iraq is not an imminent threat. But an
unemployment rate which approaches 6 percent is an imminent threat."
This is the war Mr. Bush should be fighting - a war against
unemployment in America. Not one of squandered resources on missiles
and two-ton bombs raining like manna from hell on the hapless people
of Baghdad.
Make jobs, not war!
[Yusuf Agha is a historian who also dabbles in Information Technology.
He reads extensively and has an interest in the visual and performing
arts. He has resided in the United States for over two decades, loves
its people and the land, but is still trying to figure out whom the
government represents.]
Yusuf Agha encourages your comments: yagha@YellowTimes.org
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:26 am
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Saddam's inner circle is defecting, say Iraqi exiles
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 07/10/2002)
Saddam Hussein's power base is coming under extreme pressure, with members of his inner circle defecting to the opposition or making discreet offers of peace in the hope of being spared retribution if the Baghdad dictator is toppled, according to Iraqi exiles.
Ayad al-Awi, the head of the opposition Iraqi National Accord, said his group in recent weeks had received senior defectors from the Iraqi security services, which form the regime's nerve centre.
At the same time Kurdish groups said they had received secret approaches from military commanders offering to turn their weapons on Saddam when the war began.
They said members of the al-Majid clan, the pillar of Saddam's tribal power base, had made contact to seek assurances about their fate.
These signs of fragmentation indicate for the first time that Saddam's senior lieutenants believe that the United States and Britain are serious about toppling him.
The reports will raise the hopes of British officials who have long maintained that a credible threat of overwhelming force to bring down Saddam's regime could destroy his reign of fear and prompt senior lieutenants to seize power and avert a devastating war.
The American intelligence community harbours similar hopes. One ex-CIA senior officer told the Washington Post yesterday: "Someone will take action and cause it to happen."
American officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, have recently spoken of Iraqis eliminating Saddam themselves, either through assassination or by sending him into exile.
Last week, Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said: "The cost of a one-way ticket is substantially less than [the cost of war]. The cost of one bullet, if the Iraqi people take it on themselves, is substantially less than that."
Exiled Iraqis have been reporting for weeks that members of the regime have been trying to build relations with the opposition.
Ghassan Attiyeh, a writer on Iraq, said: "This is the kind of thing I would expect.
"For example, I just found a message on my answering machine from somebody telling me he had seen lorries moving weapons into houses in a certain area of Baghdad."
Mr al-Awi said the INA, a group formed by former members of the ruling Ba'ath party, had seen a surge of interest from senior members of the regime.
"We have been getting approaches for the past two or three months, but the trend is increasing. Those contacting us come from Saddam's inner circle.
"Some have defected, while others have been asked to stay to help us from inside. We cannot say much about the defectors at the moment, but some may speak after they have been debriefed.
"Things are happening inside the regime that will hopefully mean we can get rid of this evil regime. You can speak of Saddam in the past tense."
A Kurdish source said members of Saddam's al-Majid clan had been in contact with Iraqi opposition groups, as well as Western governments.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/10/07/wirq107.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/10/07/ixnewstop.html
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Purported Bin Laden Tape Warns U.S.
The Associated Press
Sunday, October 6, 2002; 4:44 PM
CAIRO, Egypt –– The Arab satellite station al-Jazeera broadcast an audiotape Sunday in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden said the "youths of God" are planning more attacks against the United States.
"By God, the youths of God are preparing for you things that would fill your hearts with terror and target your economic lifeline until you stop your oppression and aggression" against Muslims, said the voice in the audiotape.
It wasn't immediately clear when the tape was made. The short message was broadcast with a picture of bin Laden in the background.
Bin Laden said his message was addressed to the American people, whom he urged to "understand the message of the New York and Washington attacks which came in response to some of your previous crimes."
"But those who follow the activities of the band of criminals in the White House, the Jewish agents, who are preparing for an attack on the Muslim world ... feel that you have not understood anything from the message of the two attacks," he said.
Qatar-based al-Jazeera has become known for its broadcast of audio and videotapes of al-Qaida leaders. Last month, it aired excerpts from a videotape in which a voice said to be bin Laden's is heard naming the leaders of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
Until then, bin Laden had not been heard from since shortly after the U.S.-led bombing campaign began in Afghanistan last October.
An interview al-Jazeera said one of its correspondents conducted in June with two top al-Qaida fugitives was aired to correspond with the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Shortly afterward, U.S. officials announced one of the fugitives had been captured in Pakistan.
American officials have called the network biased in its coverage of the war on terrorism, the Israeli-Arab conflict and U.S. Mideast policy.
Al-Jazeera journalists say they strive to tell all sides of events from the Arab and Muslim point of view, and they have angered Arab governments as often as they have Washington.
The satellite station, initially funded by the Qatari government, began operations in November 1996. It is editorially independent of the government, which has its own official station to broadcast its point of view.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51149-2002Oct6.html
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Bin Laden still alive, reveals spy satellite
A year of life on the edge
Jason Burke in Jalalabad
Sunday October 6, 2002
The Observer
Osama bin Laden is alive and regularly meeting Mullah Omar, the fugitive leader of the Taliban, according to a telephone call intercepted by American spy satellites.
In the conversation, recorded less than a month ago, Omar and a senior aide were discussing the American-led hunt to track them down.
The two men, using a mobile Thuraya satellite phone, spoke about tactics for several minutes. Omar then turned to a third person who was within a few yards of him, voice analysis has revealed.
After exchanging a few words, Omar said that 'the sheikh sends his salaams [greetings]'. Senior Taliban figures habitually refer to bin Laden as 'the sheikh'.
Voice analysis appears to corroborate the identification of bin Laden. 'It shows he was alive recently at least,' said a senior Afghan intelligence officer. 'Some people might like to think he is dead, but that's just wishful thinking.'
The revelation comes amid growing speculation that bin Laden is dead. He has looked gaunt and unwell in videos released by al-Qaeda, and appeared unable to use his left arm.
There has been no public statement from bin Laden since early this year. Some analysts say this lack of communication indicates that he might be dead, but others say he is biding his time.
'He does not want to be rushed into saying something reactive. He wants to make statements on his own terms,' said Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of al-Quds newspaper in London.
Other analysts feel Omar could have been bluffing, knowing he was being listened to by the Americans.
Bin Laden's whereabouts are unknown, but it is thought he is moving between Pakistan and Afghanistan via the border between the Afghan province of Paktia and the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan.
There were unconfirmed sightings of him in eastern Afghanistan in March and April. The only confirmed location for him was at Tora Bora, the cave complex south of Jalalabad, in December.
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,805618,00.html
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 3:43 am
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U.S. Assures It Does Not Seek to 'Conquer' Iraq
October 05, 2002 05:42 PM ET
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
LEESBURG, VA. (Reuters) - The Bush administration, responding to criticism it has not planned sufficiently for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, promised on Saturday its military forces would not enter the country as "conquerors" or treat the Iraqi people as a "defeated nation."
While reaffirming a decision on using force against Iraq had not been made, Zalmay Khalilzad, a senior aide to President Bush, said, "Should force be required, U.S. and coalition forces will liberate the Iraqi people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein." "We will not enter Iraq as conquerors. We will not treat the Iraqi people as a defeated nation," he said, reading from a written statement.
He also said it was unlikely Washington would support creation of a provisional post-Saddam government until after Iraq's "liberation."
His comments to an annual conference sponsored by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy were seen as presaging an important televised speech on Iraq that Bush has set for next week and were intended to build as much support as possible within Iraq for a potential U.S. military campaign.
The U.N. Security Council is debating new instructions for U.N. inspectors charged with disarming Iraq. Bush has expressed doubts Baghdad will comply and said war may be unavoidable.
U.S. officials and experts say the success of a war against Iraq would depend heavily on how U.S. forces are received by the Iraqi people and by Iraqi military officers who might be persuaded to rise up against their leader.
Khalilzad's comments also seemed designed to reassure U.S. friends and allies anxious about a possible war.
The administration initially turned down a request to have a senior official discuss Iraq at the conference, but reversed course after public criticism for not participating in a program held on Thursday on plans for a post-Saddam Iraq.
At that program, leading Republican conservative Richard Perle and members of the Iraqi opposition exile community accused the administration of failing to lay sufficient plans for bringing democracy to Iraq if Saddam is overthrown.
Opposition leaders also expressed doubt about the U.S. commitment to a democratic Iraq and complained that the Bush team had refused to endorse a transitional authority that would be ready to take political power right after Saddam departs.
U.S. WOULD SERVE IRAQIS
Khalilzad, who oversees Iraq policy at the National Security Council, said the U.S. "mission in Iraq will be to serve the interests and the hopes of the Iraqi people..., a gifted and great people with ancient culture."
Long-term objectives include "establishing a broad-based representative and democratic government ... that will renounce terror and weapons of mass destruction, respect international laws and norms, give all religious and ethnic groups a voice, adhere to the rule of law ... and become an example of peace and tolerance for the region as a whole," he said.
In the short-term, he promised Washington would "look to reunify Iraq ... and maintain its territorial integrity." The United States will "meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people," including immediately starting a major reconstruction program and possibly forgiving certain debts and other financial obligations, he said.
The ruling Baath Party will be disrupted, individuals accused of crimes against humanity will be prosecuted and Iraq's oil wealth will be used to meet its people's needs.
Iraqi opposition leaders have pushed the United States to endorse a provisional government that would be ready to govern immediately after Saddam is overthrown. Khalilzad called that scenario "a possibility but I think more likely that there would have to be liberation first and then a government put in place."
Another senior U.S. official told Reuters separately that Washington opposes naming a transitional government now in part because the Iraqi opposition has failed to stop its infighting long enough to agree on a democratic vision for the country.
"We don't know enough about what's going on inside Iraq. ... We don't think the Iraqi opposition yet has laid out its vision for Iraq," he said in an interview.
The Los Angeles Times reported recently the administration was planning a transition to a new government in Baghdad built around a leader emerging from inside Iraq.
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=topnews&StoryID=1538473
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20:00 06/10/2002
Last update - 00:06 07/10/2002
U.S. preparing possible trial of Saddam Hussein
By DPA
The United States is preparing for a possible war crimes trial of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
It said the State and Defence Departments, as well as the Secret Service, have been working closely on dossiers against Hussein and 12 close associates which could be used after a regime change in Baghdad
to prosecute them for genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass executions, rape and other crimes against humanity.
According to the newspaper, the U.S. government advocates the establishment of tribunals in a "free Iraq" with native and foreign judges.
"We need to do our part to document the abuses, to collect the evidence that points to who is responsible. We feel there has to be accountability for what has occurred. You can't brush aside the deaths of more than 100,000 people", the Los Angeles Times quotes Pierre-Richard Prosper as saying.
Prosper is the State Department's ambassador at large for war crimes and a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the Rwanda tribunal.
Six of the people on the U.S. list are members of Hussein's family: two sons, three half brothers and a cousin.
The list also includes Ali Hassan Majid, suspected of using chemical weapons to kill thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988,
the newspaper said.
U.S. officials and human rights groups claim at least 130,000 civilians have been killed as a result of deliberate regime policies during Hussein's 23-year rule, according to the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=216713&contrassID=1&subContrassID=8&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y |
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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 5:43 am
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1.5 MILLION ITALIANS PROTEST BUSH'S WAR IN IRAQ
ROME
1.5 Million March Against Attack on Iraq
Anti-War Rallies Change Italy on Iraq?
by Eric J. Lyman
ROME -- More than 1.5 million Italians took to the streets of dozens of cities Saturday afternoon and evening to protest possible U.S. military action against Iraq -- a surprise show of discord that could be fervent enough for the Italian government to re-think its support of Washington.
Iraq No War
Demonstrators show placards in front of Rome's U.S. Embassy during an anti-war protest, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2002. Several demonstrations took place in major Italian cities against possible U.S. military action in Iraq.
The larger-than-expected protests took place without violence, despite speculation from some fronts that the gatherings could become dangerous, especially to U.S. citizens. On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Rome circulated a warning to citizens residing in or visiting Italy to stay away from the demonstrations because of fears that they could become targets for violence.
But even though the protests were peaceful, demonstrators made it clear that they opposed U.S. action against Baghdad. The stance is significant because up to this point, Rome and London have been President George W. Bush's strongest allies in Europe.
Most European leaders -- most vocally France's Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder of Germany -- have called on diplomatic means to diffuse tensions between the United States and Iraq.
"For several weeks, Italians have been saying that they are opposed to action against Iraq, but this is the first time they have put those words into action," Maria Rossi, co-director of the polling firm Opinioni, told United Press International. "The site of thousands of Italians on the streets protesting against the potential war in Iraq has to be a sobering sight for government officials who will need public support for other issues."
Government officials were not available for comment on their stance on U.S.-Iraq relations on Saturday, but local television drew the same conclusion as Rossi.
"If the government can ignore this ... it can ignore anything," said one on-the-scene journalist for the network La 7 in Milan. "On this day, the Italian people have spoken ... and they say they are against support for the American position."
Opinion polls support that view, with a week-old survey from Opinioni showing that more than two out of every three Italians opposed any armed conflict over Iraq, and nearly four out of five Italians opposed to Italian participation in such action unless it was as part of a United Nations-sponsored force.
Most of the anti-war demonstrations took place on Saturday morning, with the biggest of those in Milan, drawing a crowd that police estimated at between 60,000 to 100,000 people.
Signs in the crowd showed Bush's head on the body of a hawk -- a reference to the president's hawkish stance toward Iraq's Saddam Hussein -- and others that showed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British leader Tony Blair as Bush's pets, referring to their support of U.S. policies. Other large morning rallies took place in Bologna, Florence, Naples and Palermo.
But the day's biggest march was held in the evening in Rome, where police said as many as 200,000 people gathered in protest.
"Our point is that we cannot support the United States's plan to kill innocent Iraqis in order to win the upcoming (Congressional) elections," Marco Filiberti, 38, a protester who came to Rome with six friends from the nearby city of Latina, told UPI.
Claudia Bacigalupo, 24, a teacher from Rome, said she hoped the day's unexpectedly large rallies would convince the government to backtrack on its support of Washington.
"We cannot control what the United States does, but we can tell them that if they want to march into Iraq they will have to do so without the support of the Italian military," Bacigalupo said.
Whether that will be the case or not is unclear. In the past, Berlusconi has paid only limited attention to public opinion -- which, combined his eagerness to support Washington on a variety of issues -- might make a change of plans unlikely. But pollsters say that because of the support the government will need to address an array of domestic issues, the public's view on Iraq could create a degree of doubt about the course the prime minister has chosen.
"Over the coming months, the government will try to pass a so-far unpopular budget, revisit controversial labor reform legislation and start to tackle painful pension reforms," Rossi, the pollster, said. "With the economy weakening, the government may have to pick its most important battles ... (and) what we don't know is whether Iraq is one of them."
The United States has taken an aggressive stance against Iraq -- including calls for Hussein's government to be toppled -- on fears that the Iraqi leader is building an arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 6:27 am
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MASSIVE PROTEST ON WALL STREET AS ECONOMY FALTERS
Could consumer-advocate Ralph Nader do for Wall Street what he did for Detroit?
The thousands of vocal protesters who turned up on Friday in New York's financial district to cheer him on certainly hope so.
Mr Nader, who became famous for taking on the US auto industry and ushering in a wave of regulation that led to safer cars, is now calling for greater regulation and enforcement of the securities industry.
Under dreary Autumn skies, angry investors and others gathered near the steps of the New York Stock Exchange to cheer on the former Green Party presidential candidate and his crusade to "crack down on corporate crime."
New York Stock Exchange on 4 October
Inflatable icons of greed at the stock exchange
"We're gathered here because we're concerned that not enough is being done about the most gigantic grand larceny episode in American history," Mr Nader said.
The result of that theft, he said, is that millions of Americans have been robbed of billions of dollars in stock and pension savings.
Broken trust
The recent wave of accounting scandals and bankruptcies have cost American workers over $175bn (�112bn) in retirement savings, with pension losses from the Enron bankruptcy alone totaling $1.69bn as of February. Mr Nader, who resembles a modern-day Abraham Lincoln, peered down from the podium on the steps of historic Federal Hall and told his audience that Wall Street is corrupt and something must be done about it.
"They have turned the New York Stock Exchange into a speculative casino ridden by corruption, deception and crime."
Activists rally behind Ralph Nader
Nearly 3,000 backers showed up to protest
He said the trust held by millions of Americans in the country's institutions, including investment banks, and state and federal regulators, had been broken.
No American would be happy until busloads of crooked executives are hauled off to jail, he said.
In that vein, he praised the work of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whose high-profile investigations into the practices of investment banks and corporate executives have resulted in numerous lawsuits.
Mr Spitzer announced on Thursday that New York had filed complaints against five former and current executives at four troubled telecommunications firms.
'Recipes for reform'
Asked by BBC News about the arrest of Andrew Fastow, the former chief financial officer at disgraced energy giant Enron, Mr Nader said it should send a message about corporate crime.
A mock choir sang the praises of excess during Friday's Ralph Nader Wall Street rally.
A mock choir sang the praises of excess
"But remember we're talking about tens of thousands of corporate crooks who were involved in these schemes and these deals, who aided, who abated, who implemented [and] who covered up," he said.
"If a dozen of these guys go to jail, that simply is not enough."
Mr Nader called 12 "recipes for reform" that he called on his followers to push Congress to implement.
They include a crackdown on corporate protection, a call for more protection for workers and investors, and a rollback of the "tide" of deregulation.
"Corporations were never designed to our masters," Mr Nader said.
"They were designed to be our servants in the public interest."
Copyright 2002 BBC
[Edited 3 times, lastly by Mech on 10-07-2002] |
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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 6:32 am
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Scramble to Carve Up IRAQI OIL Reserves Lies Behind US Diplomacy
Maneuvers shaped by horsetrading between America, Russia and France over control of untapped oilfields
by Ed Vulliamy in New York, Paul Webster in Paris, and Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Oil is emerging as the key factor in US attempts to secure the support of Russia and France for military action against Iraq, according to an Observer investigation.
The Bush administration, intimately entwined with the global oil industry, is keen to pounce on Iraq's massive untapped reserves, the second biggest in the world after Saudi Arabia's. But France and Russia, who hold a power of veto on the UN Security Council, have billion-dollar contracts with Baghdad, which they fear will disappear in 'an oil grab by Washington', if America installs a successor to Saddam.
A Russian official at the United Nations in New York told the Observer last week that the $7 billion in Soviet-era debt was not the main 'economic interest' in Iraq about which the Kremlin is voicing its concerns. The main fear was a post-Saddam government would not honor extraction contracts Moscow has signed with Iraq.
Russian business has long-standing interests in Iraq. Lukoil, the biggest oil company in Russia, signed a $20bn contract in 1997 to drill the West Qurna oilfield. Such a deal could evaporate along with the Saddam regime, together with a more recent contract with Russian giant Zarubezhneft, which was granted a potential $90bn concession to develop the bin Umar oilfield. The total value of Saddam's foreign contract awards could reach $1.1 trillion, according to the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2001.
The Russian official said his government believed the US had brokered a deal with the coalition of Iraqi opposition forces it backs whereby support against Saddam is conditional on their declaring - on taking power - all oil contracts conceded under his rule to be null and void.
'The concern of my government,' said the official, 'is that the concessions agreed between Baghdad and numerous enterprises will be reneged upon, and that US companies will enter to take the greatest share of those existing contracts... Yes, if you could say it that way - an oil grab by Washington'.
A government insider in Paris told The Observer that France also feared suffering economically from US oil ambitions at the end of a war. But the dilemma for Paris is more complex. Despite President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany agreeing last week to oppose changing the rules governing weapons inspectors, France may back military action.
Government sources say they fear - existing concessions aside - France could be cut out of the spoils if it did not support the war and show a significant military presence. If it comes to war, France is determined to be allotted a more prestigious role in the fighting than in the 1991 Gulf war, when its main role was to occupy lightly defended ground. Negotiations have been going on between the state-owned TotalFinaElf company and the US about redistribution of oil regions between the world's major companies.
Washington's predatory interest in Iraqi oil is clear, whatever its political protestations about its motives for war. The US National Energy Policy Report of 2001 - known as the 'Cheney Report' after its author Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly one of America's richest and most powerful oil industry magnates - demanded a priority on easing US access to Persian Gulf supplies.
Doubts about Saudi Arabia - even before 11 September, and even more so in its wake - led US strategists to seek a backup supply in the region. America needs 20 million barrels of crude a day, and analysts have singled out the country that could meet up to half that requirement: Iraq.
The current high price of oil is dragging the US economy further into recession. US control of the Iraqi reserves, perhaps the biggest unmapped reservoir in the world, would break Saudi Arabia's hold on the oil-pricing cartel Opec, and dictate prices for the next century.
This could spell disaster for Russian oil giants, keen to expand their sales to the West. Russia has sought to prolong negotiations, official statements going between opposition to any new UN resolution and possible support for military action against an Iraqi regime proven to be developing weapons of mass destruction.
While France is thought likely to support US military action, and China will probably fall in line because of its admission to the World Trade Organization, Putin is left holding the wild cards.
Russia recognizes potential benefits of reaching a deal with the US: Saddam's regime is difficult to work with. Lukoil's billion-dollar concessions are frozen and profitless to Moscow and Baghdad under UN sanctions, leading to fears that Saddam might have declared the agreement null and void out of spite. Iraqi diplomats say Zarubezhneft won its $90bn contract only after Baghdad took it away from TotalFinaElf because of French support for sanctions.
Russia stands to profit if intervention in the Gulf triggers a hike in Middle East oil prices, as its firms are lobbying to sell millions of barrels a day to the US, at two-thirds of the current market price.
Moscow's trust of Washington may be slipping after what a Russian UN official calls 'broken promises' that followed negotiations over Moscow's support for the Afghan campaign.
Russia turned a blind eye to US troops in central Asia, on the tacit condition that US-Russian trade restrictions would be lifted. But they are still there, and other benefits expected after 11 September have also not materialized.
'They've been making this point very strongly,' a senior Bush administration official conceded to the Washington Post , 'that this can't be an all-give-and-no-get relationship... They do have a point that the growing relationship has got to be reciprocal.'
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 6:47 am
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15,000 PROTEST BUSH'S WAR IN IRAQ
LOS ANGELES OCT 6 2002
RON KOVICK SPEAKS
Personnal comment on the "Not In Our Name" Rally @ the Westwood Fed. Building on Oct. 6th. 2002
Another demonstration, another effort to stop the poison of IGNORANCE from spreading! Today @ the Westwood Federal Building I witnessed a high spirited and energetic peace movement
expressing its wrath and clear opposition to this imperial strategy of military expansion. There were perhaps 6000 to 8000 people expressing their PASSIONATE and artistically creative opposition to a mindless and greed-driven colonial adventure by the Petrochemical Barons in Wash. "The revolution will not be televised" is the quote. The quote IS accurate: almost NOTHING of this heartfelt gathering of like-minded souls, call it PEOPLE POWER, was reported on corporate owned media (disinformation) networks. Just a few images of a bunch of happy -go-lucky party animals dancing to the jungle music of another age.The ANGER IS THERE! I saw it! Trust me! "Riots are the voices of the unheard." Martin Luther King.
To the Oil Elite in Power: Ignore our voices, and you will get what you deserve: chaos and grief! We will suffer along with you for your lack of insight. Time to awaken from the long reptilian brain induced dreams that have been fogging up your view of this beautiful Planet Earth. Join us in the festivities of Life. There is still time. Drop your weapons of mass distraction and drink the Wine of ecstasy. Smell the roses? Hear the nightingale sing?
Marco! OmarK.&Co.
Peace!
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Mech on 10-06-2002] |
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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 7:10 am
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12,000 PROTEST BUSH'S WAR IN PORTLAND,OREGON
Don't go back to sleep
I thought that I'd take the time to let the emotions of yesterday mellow out a little and the trolls time to rant for a while with their bashing requests before I posted this. I also wanted time to let the impressions I got from all the speakers I listened to and the people I spoke with yesterday sink in and meld.
The dragon I speak of that is waking is the majority of the population that is now starting to remember what this nation is really about. The people that are remembering that we have a constitution and Bill of Rights, that were written and agreed upon by the elected representatives of the people; Representatives that honored the wishes and desires of those that chose them.
The Constitution and the addendum to it, the Bill of Rights, were drafted as assurance to the people that the abuses of power under either an unjust Monarchy, or any other form of non-representative government would not have the chance to creep into existence. It seems that those who were already not awake, (referring to the ones who didn't fall asleep, "left-wing liberals and conspiracy freaks"), are finally opening their eyes, refusing to be content to meekly think, "Well, we did elect them, they must know better than us, let's tell them we agree to let them do what is best for us". The not-elected pResident of the U.S., Bush, and his supporters have found how far they can go with their lies before the people finally wake up and say "NO MORE"
Even Senators, who formerly supported them like Senator Robert Byrd, no friend of the people's will, are considering refusing to let the Constitution be destroyed any more than it already has. I am referring to the constitutionally-separation of powers of what authority is delegated to the 3 branches of government; Executive, Congressional and Judiciary. Granted he, and others of like mind, are only mad because their power of approval is being given away by their fellow Senators, but we can take advantage of that by urging, if it appears that the vote to approve the War Powers Act is going to be approved, to urge support of his threatened filibuster to stop it's passage. I'll make it easy for everyone to say "NO"; only one Ph # is needed, the toll-free Capitol switchboard, and then request transfer to his office and also your respective Senator's offices, Wyden and Smith, urging support. This is something that even the armchair protestors can do, the ten friend's of every one of the 5-12,000 who marched yesterday.
800-648-3516, and keep trying, call late tonight before you go to bed when the full voice-mail boxes may again have room to record your message.
The City of Portland even moderated it's approach to crowd control by putting an intelligent commander in charge yesterday, Rosie Spicer, who refused to use any violence even to counter any of the mild illegal acts that took place. I refer to the young man who decided to climb up on the East Portico of City Hall to whom I gave my anti-pepper spray goggles and the subsequent non-permitted march by about 30-50 people for about an hour.
The Trolls have claimed that the crowd gathered yesterday were "un-washed, stinking hippies and anarcharists. WRONG; we were a cross-section of every segment of society, every religion, every age, every political party and every morality. The one thing we all had in common was our desire to communicate to Washington that taking away our Constitutionally-granted rights and making decisions that are not agree-upon by the majority, will not be tolerated.
This time, it is not going to take the Tet offensive of January '68, which took the lives of at least one person that everyone my age grew up with. This time the "wag-the-dog" ploy that Clinton used to divert attention is not working.
This time, they have gone too far already, and most of you were too asleep to wake up in time. It is going to be a hard road to walk in order to re-claim some of the rights that have already been taken away in the last year. It will cost some of us freedom in order to counter the TIPS program of made-up lies by frightened neighbors, co-workers and right-wing nazi's that will enjoy our jailing under the JTTF powers that we have granted them to use.
Yes, I say we, as we must take responsibility to not standing up and saying "NO" earlier.
I hope that the dream of the young man, Josh from Winterhaven School, who is responsible for the most memorable quote of any of the speakers yesterday, " Someday the schools will have all the money they need and the Air Force will have to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber", comes to pass.
I have a dream that John Lennon's Imagine is used as a new national anthem, rather than a song glorifying war, death and struggle against oppressors.
I urge you, if you do nothing else, if you choose not to take a chance marching in the streets, if you choose not to participate in non-violent civil disobedience, which many will, you can at least call your congressman. Call, write, e-mail, or fax them every day. BUT DO SOMETHING, or go back to sleep, only to wake someday in the hell you have helped create.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Mech on 10-07-2002] |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 7:20 am
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27,000 morons is that your point cut and paste man ?
is that it...
or 27,001...
counting you...
Bush doctorine works...
u don't...and the other 27,000...of ya...
lol 
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Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 7:24 am
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Protests in Seattle:8000 Protest Bush's Unconstitutional War in IRAQ
An overflow crowd heard Scott Ritter speak Saturday about the horrors of war, the history of Iraqi arms inspections, and the unconstitutionality of unilateral military action against Iraq.
A thousand voices sang gentle songs of resistance at the University Temple United Methodist Church as people filled overflow meeting rooms prior to Scott Ritter’s lecture, “The Coming Iraq War: How Did We Get Here?” Ritter spoke at length about the horrors of war, and why the Bush administration’s proposed war against Iraq was unconstitutional and unnecessary. Ritter, a “card carrying republican” and an ex-Marine Intelligence Officer, criticized attempts by George Bush Sr. and George W. Bush, to portray complex issues of international security in black and white terms of “good” and “evil.”
Ritter was the chief weapons inspector in Iraq until resigning in protest in 1998 and has since been shunned by the corporate media and allegedly smeared by CNN.
In the audience was US Representative Jim McDermott, recently back from a controversial tour of Iraq. The congressperson was the subject of several, noisy, standing ovations.
KCTS was the only major media outlet to send a camera crew, and they left before Ritter finished speaking.
Outside, volunteers were busy making and giving away protest signs in preparation for Sunday’s Anti-War rally coordinated by the Not In Our Name coalition.
[Edited 3 times, lastly by Mech on 10-07-2002] |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 7:39 am
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just don't have any original thought eh ? mech....
ritter was paid by the iraqi's to make a propaganda movie...80,k I think...
what do you have to cut and paste about that...
nice of u and the other non-informed subspecies to take up for the butcher of bagdad....
but still you don't get it do ya...
"This campaign will be one of life or death for this regime, and we must use everything we have," he allegedly told them. According to the same source, Saddam told local commanders that if communications were cut with Baghdad, they had authority to fire chemical weapons the moment a ground attack began, reports Correspondent-at-Large Rod Nordland in the October 14 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, October 7). "Everyone knows that when it starts, [Saddam] is finished," says a Kuwaiti. "No one expects restraint."
http://library.northernlight.com/FB20021006870000015.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc
oh my...
cut and paste done right here...
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Deborah
Joined: 30 Jul 2000
Posts: 731
Location: East Coast |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 7:41 am
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.....The Trolls have claimed that the crowd gathered yesterday [10/5/02] were "un-washed, stinking hippies and anarchists".....
HAW HAW!!
We've heard that one before, eh?
Thanks for the coverage, Mech.
Signed,
Another Moron for Alternatives to War |
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theseeker
Joined: 25 Jul 2000
Posts: 3403
Location: Damnit...I'm a doctor jim |
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Mon Oct 07, 2002 7:48 am
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I'm just wondering what you'd look like ...all covered up deborah...like the muslims want women...and if you show skin...fingers get cut of...or worse your head...it happened in afganistan...on a converted UN built soccor field...oh but you missed that one...didn't you...
I have plenty of dis-agreement, with some of the Bush org namely the justice department,and how far they have a government hand up the ass of every American...but on the war of terror....I have no dis-agreement...
bet you bought into the "bang the drums of war" shakespere hoax too eh ? deborah ?
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