NEXT BAUAW MEETING: WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13, 7 P.M.
1380 VALENCIA STREET, SF
BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW! VOTE YES ON N!
Prop. N committee meets Thursday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m
GLOBAL EXCHANGE OFFICE
2017 MISSION STREET, SUITE 303
(NEAR 16TH & MISSION STREETS)
GET ON THE BUS FOR THE MILLION WORKER MARCH
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2004
Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King III
have endorsed the Million Worker March on Washington
on October 17.
FOR MORE INFO:
Publicity Committee
111 Clayton Court Vallejo, CA 94591
phone: 707.552.9992 fax: 707.552.9993
mobile: 707.694.5699 email: rbs1@pacbell.net
http://antiwar4themillionworkermarch.org/index.htm
ALL OUT NOV. 3RD, 5 PM, POWELL AND MARKET STREETS, SF
END THE OCCUPATION! OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) COLORADO AIM AND ALLIES BLOCKADE
COLUMBUS "CONVOY OF CONQUEST" -
Over 200 Arrested
October 9, 2004
Denver Colorado
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
http://transformcolumbusday.org
Contact: American Indian Movement of Colorado
(303) 871-0463
denveraim@coloradoaim.org
http://www.coloradoaim.org
2) Woman escorting Palestinian kids
beaten by mob of Israeli teens in Hebron
Local aid worker attacked
By BILL LAYE, CALGARY SUN
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/10/10/663376.html
3) Her Son Was Killed in Iraq; Now She Pleads
for Americans to Stop the War
By Barbara Porchia*
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=896
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=896>
4) Shi'ite Fighters Begin Disarming in Baghdad
By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Oct 11, 2004 08:16 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6466839&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
5) U.S. to Seek Donors' Help on Iraq
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Oct 11, 2004 08:35 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6467066&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
6) Sharon Rejects Army Bid to Wind Down Gaza Offensive
By Matt Spetalnick
JERUSALEM (Reuters)
Mon Oct 11, 2004 09:02 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6467263&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
7) A Doctrine Under Pressure: Pre-emption Is Redefined
By DAVID E. SANGER
CRAWFORD, Tex
October 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/politics/
11preempt.html?hp&ex=1097553600&en=a3b0ac844d21255d&ei=5094&partner=h
omepage
8) Senate Approves Corporate Tax Bill
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON
October 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/business/11CND-
TAX.html?hp&ex=1097553600&en=3de4947a2f1bfd03&ei=5094&partner=homepae
9) Congress Approves Doubling
U.S. Troops in Colombia to 800
By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTÃ, Colombia
October 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/international/americas/
11colombia.html?oref=login&oref=login
10) New Scrutiny of the Flow of Iraqi
Oil to American Consumers
By SIMON ROMERO and SCOTT SHANE
October 11, 2004
THE U.N. PROGRAM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/international/middleeast/11crude.html
11) FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL STRUGGLE TO
ESCAPE THE LEGACY OF THE DISASTER IN IRAQ
By Robert Fisk
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=570692
12) Climate Fear as Carbon Levels Soar
Scientists bewildered by sharp rise of CO2
in atmosphere for second year running
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Monday October 11, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5036059-110970,00.html
13) Plants will not save us from greenhouse gases
Source: University Relations Office (URO) [newswire
September 30, 2004
McGill research shows increased carbon dioxide
levels decrease algae growth
http://www.mcgill.ca/newswire/?ItemID=12870
14) Muhammad Knaane, Abu Assad, was sentenced to
2 1/2 years in prison by the Israeli courts.
15) FACULTY FOR ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE (FFIPP)
PRESENTS:
WOMEN, PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
St. Boniface Church,
175 Golden Gate Ave.
(2 blocks from Civic Center BART)
Thursday, October 14th, 7:00 pm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) COLORADO AIM AND ALLIES BLOCKADE
COLUMBUS "CONVOY OF CONQUEST" -
Over 200 Arrested
October 9, 2004
Denver Colorado
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
http://transformcolumbusday.org
Contact: American Indian Movement of Colorado
(303) 871-0463
denveraim@coloradoaim.org
http://www.coloradoaim.org
Today, in the streets of downtown Denver, scores of American Indian
Movement members, and our TCD allies were arrested in a principled act
of civil resistance to the "Convoy of Conquest" (aka: Columbus Day
Parade). Despite any denials by its organizers, the Convoy is a
celebration of genocide against the indigenous peoples of the
Americas, and it elevates the theft of our homelands, and the murder
of our people, to national holiday status. To Colorado AIM this
is intolerable and unjustifiable.
Our arrests are designed to expose a corrupt educational, legal and
political system that refuses to describe the destruction of millions
of indigenous people at the hands of Columbus for what it is:
genocide. In a legal and political system that rationalizes and
justifies the murder, theft, and ongoing betrayal of our peoples and
nations, we, as the victims of such a system are under an obligation
to expose such moral and legal bankruptcy, and we actively refuse to
cooperate with legalized murder and theft. Our arrests today lay bare
the facts (they are not allegations) that Columbus was personally
responsible for:
· Trading in African slaves prior to his voyage to the Americas in 1492.
· Columbus was personally responsible for overseeing a colonial
administration that directly led to the death of millions of
indigenous people. (Father Bartolome de Las Casas, an eyewitness
and a contemporary of Columbus, estimated that 15 million indigenous
people died in the Caribbean prior to 15.
· Columbus advanced and expanded the arrogant European "Doctrine of
Discovery," claiming that superior, civilized, Christian Europeans and
the right to seize and appropriate indigenous peoples territories and
resources. This doctrine has been embedded into racist Federal Indian
Law, and is applied today in the case of the Western Shoshone in
Nevada and the Lakota in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
· More importantly, the legacy of Columbus allows the U.S. government
to "lose" between $40 and 100 billion in money that the U.S. was to
administer for the benefit of individual American Indians. The
government has admitted that it deliberately destroyed evidence in the
case, and it appears that the U.s. has no intention of finding or
accounting for the money that it has stolen. See:
http://www.indiantrust.com/
· The Columbus legacy is reflected in the psychology of the War in
Iraq as the U.S. military continues to refer to any territory not
under immediate U.S. control as "Indian Country." Anyone who expresses
a view other than the accepted, official version is considered to be
"off the reservation." Anyone who actually tries to understand the
Iraqi people, as opposed to murdering them, is suspected of being a
"race traitor" for having "gone native." These small examples reveal
a much larger and dangerous psychology of the ongoing war by the U.S.
against indigenous peoples, and other "infidels and heathens."
As was asked of Dr. Martin Luther King, some may well ask us today:
"Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, and arrests? Isn't
negotiation a better path?" King replied, "You are quite right in
calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct
action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and
foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused
to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue. The purpose of our
direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that
it will inevitably open the door to negotiation ."
Colorado AIM, like Martin Luther King, believes that tension in the
streets can move a community beyond its racist practices. With our
arrest and our prosecution by the City of Denver, we intend to go on
the offensive, to put Columbus on trial, to put his legacy on trial,
to put the City of Denver, the state of Colorado, and the
U.S. itself on trial. We will defend ourselves with an unapologetic
political defense in court, and, just as we did in 1992, and in 2001,
we will prevail.
Colorado AIM and our allies do not risk our liberty as a political
ploy, or merely as a tactic, we believe that the time is overdue to
challenge the most pervasive, and the most deeply seated source of
racism in the world: the oppression of indigenous peoples. Columbus
Day continues to operate as a justification of racial superiority, and
it, in fact, creates demonstrable and verifiable harm to our children,
and to their children.
For further comments on these actions, or on the philosophy behind
these statements, please contact Colorado AIM at 303-871-0463 or
denveraim@c...
(c)2004 Transform Columbus Day Alliance
10/09/2004
UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545
This email list is designed for posting news articles or event
announcements of interest to UFPJ member groups. It is not
a discussion list.
To engage in online discussion of UFPJ matters, join our
iscussion list by sending a blank email to
ufpj-disc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
* To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ufpj-news/
* To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ufpj-news-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Woman escorting Palestinian kids
beaten by mob of Israeli teens in Hebron
Local aid worker attacked
By BILL LAYE, CALGARY SUN
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/10/10/663376.html
Threats -- and now a beating -- from militant Israeli settlers has
a Calgary aid worker volunteering in Hebron vowing she'll be staying
put. Diane Janzen, 28, and an Italian worker, whose name isn't being
released, were returning to their quarters at about 3 p.m. local time
after walking five Palestinian children home from school in the area
when a mob of eight Israeli teenagers from the nearby Ma'on
settlement attacked them with sticks.
The Italian man suffered a broken arm and had his camcorder
stolen while he tried to film the attack.
Janzen, who works for Christian Peacemaker Teams, escaped
shaken, but suffering only bruises.
"We're all people of God and we all believe in the same God,
so why would they do it?" Janzen said from Hebron when
contacted by the Sun yesterday.
"But this is nothing compared to what the Palestinians are going
through every day."
The mob dispersed when an Amnesty International worker, who
speaks Hebrew, told them police were being called.
Also hurt in this recent attack was AI worker Donatello Rovera.
Janzen said even though she was "sore and bruised," she would
be escorting the children to and from school again today.
Over the past 12 years, the threats have been common, but this
physical violence is cause for concern, said Janzen's boss, Doug
Pritchard, a Toronto-based co-ordinator with the non-profit
Christian Peacemaker Teams.
The interdenominational CPT currently has eight aid workers
in the Hebron area and just 10 days earlier two others were beaten.
One remains in hospital with a punctured lung, Pritchard said,
adding Janzen was the one who found the two "in a pool of blood"
and called for help.
"She's pretty shaken ... it's been a pretty intense 10 days."
Pritchard adds he's disgusted that, so far, the Israeli authorities
have made no arrests in either attacks and they appear to have
very little concern given the situation.
He noted it took Israeli police more than 30 minutes to arrive
when the call about this attack came in.
"It's pretty appalling," Pritchard said, adding he's hoping the
publicity surrounding these assaults will force officials to act.
"It (the violence) has never reached this level before."
All International news articles and news are available at
http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/internationalnews/2004-07
Messages before 2004 are available at (this site is an archive
only, so please do not try to add your
address) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internationalnews/
Please visit also: www.apm-ram.org
Please see also: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
International News
[Zionism is Racism, Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism]
Please read and feel free to forward, print, and publish.
We would like to apologize for any repeated messages, and any typing or
grammatical errors.
We act because we believe in this quote: " You can fool some
of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the
time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time"
Disclaimer
We are committed to free knowledge, unless otherwise
indicated, the opinions, personal articles or news analysis
expressed on this e-mails are not necessarily those of the
sender. This e-mail has been compiled in good faith. It is
our condition that, in exchange for this free information,
you the receiver accept that we will not be liable for any
action you, the user take based on the information in this
e-mail. It is essential that you, the user verify any and/or
all information contained herein before making your final
decision. This e-mail does not necessarily endorse the
ideas or presentation of ideas of the sites it links to and
with. We make no representations about any linked web
site's accuracy, completeness, and authenticity. We firmly
believe in the Freedom of Speech. We believe in civilized
exchange of ideas and thoughts. We will hold any one
trying to damage our image legally responsible before
the courts and will keep ourselves the right to pursue
the perpetrators to the maximum law limit. If you do
not agree with this disclaimer or would like to stop
receiving our e-mails, please unsubscribe, if you find
that this e-mail is a good source of knowledge and
would like to invite any others, please feel free.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Her Son Was Killed in Iraq; Now She Pleads
for Americans to Stop the War
By Barbara Porchia*
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=896
modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=896>
More than 1,060 men and women have paid the ultimate price and
more than 7,000 have been wounded. These brave souls asked not
what their country could do for them, but what they could do for
their country.
When we were led into war, we heard a consistently strong and clear
message: Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Iraq was an
imminent threat to America, and Saddam Hussein was connected
to 9/11. Yet after the release of the 9/11 Commission's report, the
justification for this war quickly flip-flipped to "America and the
world are safer because Saddam Hussein is in prison."
The major flip-flop, however, came from our Commander in Chief
who changed from saying this war is absolutely necessity to we are
safer with Saddam Hussein in jail and then to this war is a
"catastrophic success." Meaning, I guess, this war is an extremely
harmful success, or a success with physical and financial ruin,
whatever that is supposed to mean. This was a flip-flop from the
untrue to the incomprehensible.
Meanwhile, my mind and heart does its own flip-flop. In the morning
when I wake up, my mind flips on these words: weapons of mass
destruction, imminent threat, connection to 9/11. Then to thoughts
of my son, Jonathan, who died in Iraq; to all the soldiers who lost
their lives in this war; to those wounded physically and mentally;
and to those still fighting this senseless war. Then my heart flops
to tremendous pain and agony.
We clearly invaded a country for all the wrong reasons, and we are
clearly no longer looked upon as liberators but as occupiers.
Those beautiful flowers that were supposed to be thrown at our
soldiers' feet have turned out to be exploding bombs. If we had
invaded Iraq for all the right reasons, then bombs would not be
killing our brave soldiers.
We were given incorrect information about this war, and we have
lost way too many loved ones in a war based upon lies. We cannot
allow the death toll of our dear soldiers to reach 2000, our injured
to reach 10,000. We cannot allow any more families to be destroyed
as they receive news that their loved ones have joined
"heaven's military."
This is not about Republican versus Democrat; it is about right
verses wrong. As a great nation, we must remember: united we
stand, divided we fall. Let us unite to bring our soldiers home.
Every day I remember a discussion my son and I had; I hear his
voice so very clearly in my mind: "Mom, please explain to me
about Democrats and Republicans. I do not seem to understand
like I thought I did. Over here we are too busy to worry about that
difference. If someone goes down in my unit, we do not ask if he
or she is Democrat or Republican. If an RPG is incoming, we do
not discuss if it is a WMD. Mom, we need to work together."
I love our troops. I stand behind our troops. I will continue to
fight for our troops. I want to bring home our troops. I plead
that we work together to bring our soldiers home.
I'm going to ask you to do something. Take your child, or any
child that you love, or your spouse, and give that loved one a
big hug. When doing this, think of your feelings for that child,
your love for your spouse; hold these feelings and then ask
yourself if you are willing to lose that child or your spouse in
this senseless war?
Please, America, let's stop losing our loved ones in Iraq. Those
lost have families who cared for them tremendously, who today
are pained terribly. I loved my son, and my heart aches every day.
Please do not allow this tragedy to happen to you and your child.
* Barbara Porchia's son, Jonathan, died in Iraq outside Baghdad
in July 2003. She is from Arkansas.
All International news articles and news are available at
http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/internationalnews/2004-07
Messages before 2004 are available at (this site is an
archive only, so please do not try to add your
address) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internationalnews/
Please visit also: www.apm-ram.org
Please see also: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
International News
[Zionism is Racism, Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism]
Please read and feel free to forward, print, and publish.
We would like to apologize for any repeated messages, and
any typing or grammatical errors.
We act because we believe in this quote: " You can fool some
of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the
time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time"
Disclaimer
We are committed to free knowledge, unless otherwise indicated,
the opinions, personal articles or news analysis expressed on this
e-mails are not necessarily those of the sender. This e-mail has
been compiled in good faith. It is our condition that, in exchange
for this free information, you the receiver accept that we will not
be liable for any action you, the user take based on the information
in this e-mail. It is essential that you, the user verify any and/or
all information contained herein before making your final decision.
This e-mail does not necessarily endorse the ideas or presentation
of ideas of the sites it links to and with. We make no representations
about any linked web site's accuracy, completeness, and authenticity.
We firmly believe in the Freedom of Speech. We believe in civilized
exchange of ideas and thoughts. We will hold any one trying to
damage our image legally responsible before the courts and will
keep ourselves the right to pursue the perpetrators to the maximum
law limit. If you do not agree with this disclaimer or would like to
stop receiving our e-mails, please unsubscribe, if you find that
this e-mail is a good source of knowledge and would like to
invite any others, please feel free.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Shi'ite Fighters Begin Disarming in Baghdad
By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Oct 11, 2004 08:16 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6466839&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Shi'ite militia disarmament plan that
could end weeks of fighting in Baghdad got off to a slow start
on Monday as Iraq's interim government pursued peace talks with
the rebel-held Sunni Muslim city of Falluja.
"I've given up my weapons, I'm with the interim government
now," said Ahmed Hashem after handing over 22 rocket-propelled
grenades. "We want peace and I won't fight the Americans."
The U.S.-backed government aims to retake control of
rebel-held areas throughout Iraq by political or military means
ahead of national assembly elections due in January.
Mehdi Army fighters led by Moqtada al-Sadr began handing in
weapons at the start of a five-day period in which they have
agreed to disarm in the flashpoint Sadr City district.
Insecurity is rife even in Iraqi cities nominally under
control of the security forces. A suicide car bomber attacked a
U.S. convoy in the northern city of Mosul, killing two
civilians and wounding 18, hospital sources said.
"Initial reports indicate that there were civilian and
military casualties," the U.S. military said.
Police said the beheaded bodies of two Iraqi residents of
Mosul had been found in Mosul in the past 24 hours. There was
no word on the motive for their killings.
At Habibiya police station, the biggest of three designated
collection points in Sadr City, cameramen were allowed to film
only one batch of arms police said had been brought earlier in
a civilian vehicle. The weaponry included RPGs, rusty mortars
and artillery shells, anti-tank land mines and assault rifles.
"One man brought a Sam-7 anti-aircraft missile," National
Guard Captain Duraid Fadel told Reuters, adding that militiamen
were receiving $50 for each weapon they surrendered.
One Mehdi Army fighter, Kamel Hussein, walked off later
with $14,500 for delivering a big stash of RPGs and mortars.
But those three handovers were the only ones to take place
at Habibiya in the space of three hours.
Iraqi National Guards, their faces masked to avoid
identification, were deployed at the arms collection points.
Police were patrolling the vast slum district that is home to
some two million Shi'ites in northeastern Baghdad.
FALLUJA TALKS
After the five days allowed for disarmament, police and
National Guards are due to take control of Sadr City, where the
government has pledged to spend over $500 million on
rebuilding.
"If necessary we will extend the five-day period," a senior
security official, Abdul-Karim al-Saffar, told Reuters.
He estimated that Sadr fighters would receive up to half a
million dollars on Monday under the money-for-guns
arrangement.
Peace talks are also under way to try to resolve a standoff
in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Falluja, west of Baghdad,
held by insurgents since a failed U.S. assault in April.
Falluja representatives met Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan
in Baghdad to hear details of his plans to deploy National
Guards in the city under a proposed agreement.
Some insurgents in Falluja have said they do not object to
such a deal, or to participation in the elections, as long as
U.S. forces keep out of the Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad.
A deal to end bloody battles between U.S. marines and
guerrillas in April by handing control to a Falluja Brigade
that included ex-Baathist army officers collapsed a few months
later.
The U.S. military now regards Falluja as a haven for
foreign fighters led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, seen as
America's deadliest enemy in Iraq. It has conducted frequent
air strikes on suspected Zarqawi targets in the city of 300,000.
It is not clear whether any deals struck in Sadr City,
Falluja or elsewhere can staunch the bloody chaos into which
Iraq has sunk since last year's U.S.-led invasion.
"If the Americans show they are ready for truly free
elections, there would be no reason for Iraqis who oppose the
occupation to go on fighting," said Wamidh Nadhmi, a political
scientist who has his own small secular nationalist party.
But he accused Washington of seeking to perpetuate the rule
of the former exiled political parties who dominate the interim
government and a selected interim national assembly.
The elections, due to take place by the end of January, are
to elect a transitional assembly which will choose a new
government and write a permanent constitution for Iraq.
Iraqis are desperate for an end to daily bloodshed and many
resent the activities of foreign militants seen as responsible
for suicide bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages.
But the insurgency may worsen until their deeply
nationalist country gets a government that is widely perceived
as legitimate and independent of U.S. influence, analysts say.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) U.S. to Seek Donors' Help on Iraq
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Oct 11, 2004 08:35 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6467066&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - International donors that pledged
billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq meet in Tokyo this week as
the United States seeks outside help to stabilize the country.
Rising U.S. casualties and slow reconstruction have put
pressure on President Bush to look for international backing on
Iraq, a key issue in the U.S. election campaign.
Bush, accused by his rival John Kerry of spurning allies,
said last week Kerry's plans for a summit on Iraq
reconstruction were identical to those his administration was
pursuing.
More than 50 countries and organizations that pledged
around $14 billion a year ago will meet in Tokyo on Wednesday
to discuss how the money could finally be spent after delays
Iraqi officials blame mainly on insecurity.
The participants will include France, Germany and Russia --
countries that opposed last year's U.S.-led invasion and that
have criticized American postwar management of Iraq.
Donor nations met in Madrid last year, when Washington felt
more upbeat about the war and chaos in Iraq was less
widespread.
The International Crisis Group consultancy said
disagreements over the Iraq war extended to reconstruction.
"Political considerations have not been wholly absent
either, as lingering anger at the United States impedes
harmonization with its priorities and programs," the
Brussels-based organization said in a recent report.
POSTWAR PROBLEMS
Reconstruction has stuttered in Iraq. Electricity is very
erratic, sewage floods some streets and is mostly dumped in
rivers, roads have not been repaired and buildings bombed or
looted during the war still lie in ruins.
But Iraqi Planning Minister Mehdi al-Hafedh said all donors
understood the urgency of reconstruction. "The political
discord we have seen among donors is easing. Everyone has
accepted the legitimacy of the interim Iraqi government and
realizes that helping the country is essential," he said.
The government says Iraq could plunge into deeper chaos
unless the funds pledged by donors are spent soon.
"Rebuilding programs and economic reform are facing major
challenges," says a government paper prepared for the Tokyo
meeting. "Lack of progress in executing these programs, slower
than expected economic progress and increased insecurity have
contributed to a state of frustration among the population,
which could threaten the chances of success."
Only a few hundred million dollars of aid have been spent
out of the $14 billion pledged in Madrid. The funds bought
school supplies and helped to train government workers abroad.
The United States is also struggling to start projects. It
has spent only $1 billion of the $18 billion it allocated for
aid and has diverted some of the money from rebuilding to
security.
Anti-U.S. forces have exploited economic hardship to
undermine the American-backed government and recruit followers.
"Social inequities are widespread," said the Iraqi
government paper, which sets out 300 projects worth $34 billion
to present at the Tokyo talks.
"With over half of the population under 24 years, youth is
alienated due to violence and limited access to education,
training and career prospects."
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Sharon Rejects Army Bid to Wind Down Gaza Offensive
By Matt Spetalnick
JERUSALEM (Reuters)
Mon Oct 11, 2004 09:02 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/
newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6467263&src=eDialog/
GetContent§ion=news
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Ariel Sharon has rejected
his army's request to scale back its Gaza offensive, seeking to
avoid any show of weakness after deadly bombings hit Egyptian
resorts crowded with Israelis, security sources said.
The prime minister decided a pullout from the besieged
Jabalya refugee camp would encourage Palestinian militants to
resume rocket fire into Israel and "send the wrong message" so
soon after the Sinai bombings, a source said on Monday.
Sharon's order to keep up the massive 12-day-old campaign
also appeared aimed at mollifying hard-liners before a
parliamentary speech on Monday in which he will try to soften
opposition to his plan to evacuate Gaza settlements next year.
If Sharon brings his "disengagement" plan to its first vote
in parliament in coming weeks as he has promised, a key
far-right coalition partner could bolt, forcing him to reshape
his government or call early elections.
Sharon's Gaza plan has been complicated by Palestinian
rocket fire into border towns, which triggered Israel's biggest
offensive in the occupied strip in four years of conflict.
Israel has killed 92 Palestinians since sending tanks into
northern Gaza, including Jabalya, a militant stronghold, after
a Hamas rocket attack killed two toddlers in southern Israel.
Three Israelis have also died since the raid began.
Army chief Moshe Yaalon asked Sharon on Sunday for
permission to redeploy outside Jabalya, saying the army had
driven back rocket crews and the longer troops stayed in the
densely populated camp the greater the risk, sources said.
Despite low-key U.S. pressure to end the operation, Sharon
ordered the army to press on, saying leaving Jabalya at this
point could spur militants to resume the firing of makeshift
Qassam missiles into the Jewish state. "He told the army to
continue the operation at the same level," a source said.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom later told Israel Radio the
army had delivered a "serious blow to the infrastructure of the
terrorist organizations" and that the offensive was in its
final stages. But he gave no timetable for ending it.
AVOIDING SHOW OF WEAKNESS?
The source said Sharon was also concerned a pullback so
soon after Thursday's bombings, which killed 32 people at
Egyptian Red Sea resorts where throngs of Israelis were
vacationing, would be seen as a sign of weakness.
Israel has said it suspects the al Qaeda network in the
Egypt attacks, but an Egyptian presidential spokesman on
Saturday warned against rushing to conclusions.
Egyptian officials have tended to link the attacks to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though all major Palestinian
militant groups have denied involvement.
Israel's parliament was due to reconvene on Monday, setting
the stage for critical votes to decide the fate of Sharon's
plan. Sharon was to sketch out his "disengagement" strategy.
Amid heightened tensions, explosions wrecked the home of an
Islamic Jihad leader in the Rafah refugee camp in southern
Gaza, wounding two of his brothers, witnesses said.
The militant group said Israel tried to kill one of its
commanders in an air strike. Military sources denied
involvement by Israeli forces. Palestinian officials said they
were also investigating whether the blasts could have been
caused by premature detonation of explosives stored in the
house. (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and
Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) A Doctrine Under Pressure: Pre-emption Is Redefined
By DAVID E. SANGER
CRAWFORD, Tex
October 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/politics/
11preempt.html?hp&ex=1097553600&en=a3b0ac844d21255d&ei=5094&partner=h
omepage
CRAWFORD, Tex., Oct. 10 - Under pressure to explain anew his
decision to invade Iraq in light of a damaging report from the
C.I.A.'s top weapons inspector, President Bush appears to be
quietly redefining one of the signature philosophies of his
administration - his doctrine of pre-emptive military action.
Traditionally, pre-empting an enemy is all about urgency,
striking before the enemy strikes. In the prelude to the invasion
in March of last year, Mr. Bush and his aides stopping short of
saying Saddam Hussein posed an "imminent" threat. Still, they
used urgent-sounding language at every turn to explain why
they could not afford to wait for inspectors to complete their
work, or for the United Nations Security Council to come to a
consensus on authorizing military action. "Facing clear evidence
of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that
could come in the form of a mushroom cloud," he said in a
speech delivered Oct. 7, 2002.
But the C.I.A. report released last week, written by Charles A. Duelfer,
described the evidence as anything but clear and the peril as far
from urgent. Mr. Hussein's military power began waning after the
1991 Persian Gulf war, the report concluded. While Mr. Hussein
most probably wanted to rebuild his illicit weapons, there is no
evidence he had started by the time Mr. Bush was delivering that
speech.
So over the last five days, with some subtle changes of language
and a new previously undiscussed justification for the war, Mr. Bush
appears to have expanded the conditions for a pre-emptive military
strike. He no longer talks about urgency. Instead, for the first time,
he has begun to argue that a military invasion is justified if an
opponent is seeking to avoid United Nations sanctions - "gaming
the system" in his words.
"We did not find the stockpiles we thought were there," Mr. Bush
told supporters in Waterloo, Iowa, on Saturday. "But I want you to
remember what the Duelfer report said. It said that Saddam Hussein
was gaming the oil-for-food program to get rid of sanctions. And
why? Because he had the capability and knowledge to rebuild his
weapon programs. And the great danger we face in the world today
is that a terrorist organization could end up with weapons of mass
destruction."
Then, returning to the line he has used in his debates with Senator
John Kerry , and one that always elicits applause, he added:
"Knowing what I know today, I would have made the same decision.
The world is safer with Saddam in a prison cell."
Taken at face value, Mr. Bush appears to be saying that under his
new standard, a country merely has to be thinking about developing
illicit weapons at some time. "He's saying intent is enough," said
Joseph Nye, a Harvard professor who under the Clinton administration
headed the National Intelligence Council, the group that assesses
for the president when countries have trespassed that hard-to-
define line.
"The classical definition for pre-emption was 'imminent threat,'
" Mr. Nye said. Then, with the development of the president's
"National Security Policy of the United States," that moved to
something less than imminent, because, as Mr. Bush argued,
it is often hard to know when a country is about to attack. Now,
said Mr. Nye, "the Duelfer report pushed him into a box where
capability is not the standard, but merely intention."
Of course, discerning changes of policy in the heat of a political
campaign is always risky. Candidates will often push a policy or
a doctrine to the breaking point to differentiate themselves from
their opponents. So as the campaign has come down to its last
three weeks, Mr. Bush has torqued his stump speech to make it
clear that in a post-Sept. 11 world, he will strike quickly, while
Mr. Kerry hesitates, negotiates or creates a "global test" for action.
The "global test" phrase comes from a statement by Mr. Kerry in
the first presidential debate that Mr. Bush now regularly throws
back at him. "Now he says he wants a global test before we take
action to defend our security," Mr. Bush said on Saturday in
Chanhassen, Minn., waiting for the crowd to yell "Boo!"
When the audience obliged, he added that "The problem is that
the senator can never pass his own test," going on to list military
action that Mr. Kerry has opposed, including in the Persian Gulf war.
In fact, Mr. Kerry has not done much to define when he would
take pre-emptive action. He has said he would reserve the right,
and criticized Mr. Bush for making pre-emption a doctrine. In the
second debate on Friday, Mr. Kerry made it clear that Iraq did
not meet his test: "Gut-check time," he said. "Was this really
going to war as a last resort?"
But when the subject turned to Iran, Mr. Kerry tried to sound
more hard-line than Mr. Bush, who he said had ignored nuclear
developments in both Iran and North Korea. "If we have to get
tough with Iran, believe me, we will get tough," he said, without
describing how close he would let the country get to a nuclear
weapon before acting. Mr. Bush, in an interview with The New
York Times in August, declined to draw that line, either.
The result is that America's allies - and perhaps its voters -
are more confused than ever about what will drive Washington
to war. To listen to Mr. Bush in the last few days, a country that
merely desires to obtain the world's worst weapons is a potential
target - but he has clearly avoided threatening Iran and North
Korea, the two nations racing fastest toward such weapons.
To listen to Mr. Kerry, Iraq's intentions to rebuild its arsenal
some day clearly did not meet the Kerry test: Mr. Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney, he said the other day, "may well be the
last two people on the planet who won't face the truth about Iraq."
It may be that the election must pass before Washington sends
a clear signal. "If I had a piece of advice for America's allies," a
senior foreign policy adviser to Mr. Bush said a few weeks ago,
"it's this: Turn your television sets off until this is all over."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Senate Approves Corporate Tax Bill
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON
October 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/business/11CND-
TAX.html?hp&ex=1097553600&en=3de4947a2f1bfd03&ei=5094&partner=homepag
e
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 - The Senate today approved a bill
handing out about $140 billion in corporate tax breaks.
The 633-page bill, which has already been passed by the House,
passed the Senate today on a vote of 69 to 17. It is loaded with
hundreds of provisions that provide benefits to a wide range of
interests, including the General Electric Company, oil drillers,
shipbuilders, cruise ship operators, importers of ceiling fans,
corn farmers, tobacco farmers and even foreign gamblers.
Despite widespread criticism of the bill as a Christmas tree
of special-interest provisions, the House passed it by a vote
of 280 to 141 on Friday, and the Senate voted, 66 to 14, on
Sunday to cut off a potential filibuster.
But Senate leaders were blocked from voting until today by
Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, who was
furious that the final bill did not include $2 billion in tax credits
for companies that keep paying employees who are called to
active duty from military reserves and the National Guard.
Ms. Landrieu finally won agreement for a vote - whose effect
would be purely symbolic - on a measure that would declare
the Senate's support for giving those employers some tax credits.
The largest provisions of the corporate tax bill repeal a $5 billion
annual tax break for exporters that has been declared illegal by
the World Trade Organization, and replace it with a tax reduction
for manufacturers in the United States.
The bill's tax breaks are worth about $140 billion over 10 years,
but it is supposed to raise the same amount of money by closing
tax shelters, raising customs fees and eliminating the old tax benefit.
On Friday night, Senate leaders overcame objections by opponents
of the bill, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts,
who were angry that it would provide a $10 billion buyout for tobacco f
armers without subjecting tobacco products to regulation by the
Food and Drug Administration.
Opponents could not muster enough votes to block the bill through
a filibuster, so Mr. Kennedy and his allies settled for separate voice
votes in favor of tobacco regulation and against new overtime rules.
But those bills are unlikely to become law because the House has
not passed similar measures.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Congress Approves Doubling
U.S. Troops in Colombia to 800
By JUAN FORERO
BOGOTÃ, Colombia
October 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/international/americas/
11colombia.html?oref=login&oref=login
BOGOTÃ, Colombia, Oct. 10 - The number of American military
personnel here will double, to 800, in the coming months, based
on a weekend vote in the United States Congress.
The action was welcomed by President Ãlvaro Uribe's government
for its fight against Marxist rebels but condemned by human rights
monitors, who warned of a sharp escalation in Colombia's conflict.
The 2005 United States Defense Department authorization act,
approved Saturday by Congress, also permits the Bush administration
to increase the number of American citizens working for private
contractors in Colombia to 600 from 400.
The soldiers and many of the contractors will, among other things,
develop and analyze intelligence on rebel movements, do surveillance
and train Colombian troops in counterguerrilla operations.
American officials who lobbied Capitol Hill to lift restrictions said
more American personnel were urgently needed to help Colombia in
its nine-month offensive in the south that pits 18,000 Colombian
soldiers against the country's most formidable rebel group, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. "That requires logistical
capabilities, maintaining supply lines, getting food and fuel to the
front, providing medical evacuation capabilities," said Adam Isacson,
a senior analyst at the Center for International Policy, a Washington
group that tracks Colombia. "They need a lot more American personnel
to fill those gaps."
Though the United States has contributed $3.3 billion to Colombia,
most of it in military aid, Mr. Uribe has lobbied hard for a larger
American role in the 40-year-old, drug-fueled conflict.
Lifting the Congressionally mandated limits on troops and contractors,
a little-noticed measure in the 5,000-page Pentagon authorization bill,
is seen by some political analysts and rights advocates as a major step
toward even larger American troop commitments. In the months before
the passage by the United States in 2000 of Plan Colombia, a $1.3
billion antidrug initiative, members of Congress hotly debated whether
involvement in Colombia could lead to a Vietnam-like quagmire.
"The main concern is two years from now: what is going to stop them
from coming back for more, until Colombia becomes one of our most
serious military commitments," Mr. Isacson said, referring to American
military planners.
The work Americans and others do in Colombia's conflict is perilous.
Eleven contractors, American and other foreign nationals, working for
American companies under Pentagon contracts have been killed since
1998. Three Americans whose plane crashed in a surveillance mission
over rebel territory remain in guerrilla hands 17 months after being
taken hostage.
Under Mr. Uribe's administration, violence has ebbed in Colombia,
the economy has improved and the security forces have made gains
eroding rebel forces and destroying vast fields of coca, the crop used
to make cocaine. But combat remains common, and political
assassinations and kidnappings occur with staggering frequency.
American involvement is being ratcheted up as the United States
steadily increases training for police and military forces in Latin
America.
In 2003, American soldiers trained 22,831 Latin American troops
and police officers, 52 percent more than in 2002, said a report
released last week by three Washington-based policy groups, the
Center for International Policy, the Washington Office on Latin America
and the Latin America Working Group Education Fund. In Colombia,
nearly 13,000 troops received American training, up from 6,477 in
2002.
Even before the new policy in Colombia was approved, American
officials and military officers had hinted that support for Mr. Uribe's
government would be expanded.
"We will stay the course," Gen. James Hill, the commander of
American military operations in Latin America, said last week in
Bogotá in a farewell address before he retired. He said that the
United States would "assist the Colombian people in ways that
are necessary to win the war."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) New Scrutiny of the Flow of Iraqi
Oil to American Consumers
By SIMON ROMERO and SCOTT SHANE
October 11, 2004
THE U.N. PROGRAM
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/international/middleeast/11crude.html
As Saddam Hussein pressed the United Nations oil-for-food relief
program for more money that he used to buy banned weapons, an
unwitting ally may have been the American driver. Almost until the
eve of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, American oil companies
were among the largest purchasers of Iraqi crude oil.
The role that the companies, including ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco,
played in the oil-for-food program is now coming under greater
scrutiny in the wake of a report by the chief arms inspector for the
Central Intelligence Agency that disclosed how extensively Mr. Hussein
was abusing profits from the oil sales.
Executives at the two companies insisted over the weekend that their
purchases of Iraqi oil were not illegal or unknown in international
oil markets in recent years. Industry analysts also said they did not
know of any improprieties by the companies.
"All of our purchases of Iraqi crude were conducted in full compliance
with the program," a spokesman for ChevronTexaco, Michael Barrett,
said.
In 2001, Iraq was the source of 7 percent of all United States
petroleum imports, ranking sixth behind the largest foreign suppliers:
Saudi Arabia, Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and Nigeria, according to
the Energy Department.
Yet while such imports were considered routine, disclosures about
irregularities in how the Iraqi government selected partners to market
the oil have led to several investigations of the program - by the
United Nations, Congressional committees and a federal grand jury.
The United States attorney's office in Manhattan has issued subpoenas
to several American companies whose names appear on the Iraqi list
as having received vouchers for Iraqi oil.
A spokesman for the House International Relations Committee said
yesterday that the committee was exploring which oil companies
had received Iraqi oil or had been trading in the vouchers. While
committee investigators had been concentrating on the connection
between vouchers and Iraqi arms purchases, the report issued last
week by Charles A. Duelfer, the arms inspector, that named United
States oil companies as recipients of vouchers was now prompting
the panel's investigators to expand their inquiry to include the
United States oil companies as well.
In the meantime, an investigator associated with the independent
United Nations-appointed panel looking into corruption in the oil-
for-food program, said that his group had not begun investigating
whether or how American and other oil companies had benefited.
The panel, led by Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal
Reserve system, is concentrating on accusations of wrongdoing by
United Nations employees and companies like Cotecna Inspection
of Switzerland and Saybolt International, a Dutch concern, which
the United Nations hired to monitor parts of the program.
The investigator said that the panel would only begin to focus on
oil companies that got Iraqi crude oil, with or without United Nations
authorization, after this initial phase of the inquiry was completed,
which is likely to be weeks or even months away. The investigator
noted that the panel did not have subpoena power and lacked the
authority to take punitive action against any company, American
or foreign. Under the oil-for-food program, he said, member
countries, not the United Nations, were responsible for ensuring
that their companies obeyed sanctions against Iraq.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has also joined the
inquiry, with the chairman, Representative Joe L. Barton, Republican
of Texas, sending a letter last Thursday to the United Nations
secretary general, Kofi Annan, asking Mr. Annan to release "any
information in U.N. possession which relates to the use of oil-for-
food money to produce chemical weapons in Iraq."
The oil-for-food program, over its life, resulted in $64.2 billion
in sales, making it the world's largest relief program, American
officials say. The amount of oil sold fluctuated as the program
went on. At the start, in December 1996, Iraq was allowed to sell
only $2 billion worth of oil every six months. That limit was raised
to $5.26 billion every six months by December 1999 and then was
lifted altogether, until the oil-for-food program came to an end
in March 2003.
The program allowed Iraq the power to determine, with certain
exceptions, whom it sold oil to and whom it bought goods from,
based on the profits of the sale, according to the United Nations,
but the United Nations had veto authority over all the contracts.
For a United States oil company to participate, it first needed
permission from Washington. The revenue ultimately financed
$31 billion of relief supplies and equipment, including $1.6 billion
of oil-industry spare parts and equipment, among other items,
according to the United Nations.
At the same time, Mr. Hussein was imposing illegal surcharges,
collecting kickbacks and smuggling oil outside the approved
program, generating almost $11 billion in illicit revenue, which
he used to buy weapons, other prohibited items and to build
lavish palaces, according to the Duelfer report.
Moreover, oil experts have said, the largest source of money
from unreported oil sales was from Iraq's illicit sale of oil to
neighboring Turkey and Jordan. Neither the United States nor
Britain objected to these sales to staunch Middle East allies until
Mr. Hussein's government began making similar oil shipments
to Syria. Only then did Washington protest the deals, the experts
said.
Regardless of the route through which this oil reached world
markets, the United States was the single largest importer under
the United Nations program, with as much as half the oil in certain
periods processed at American refineries for sale in this country.
During the first seven months of 2002, the United States imported
an average of 566,000 barrels a day from Iraq, with big importers
including ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Valero Energy and Koch
Petroleum, according to the Energy Department.
These American companies acquired the oil after it passed through
a complicated route of trading concerns and intermediaries. The
Duelfer report said that Bayoil, a Houston-based trading company,
and Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., a prominent Texas energy investor with
a long history of dealings in Iraq, were among those who received
vouchers to buy Iraqi oil under the program. Their receipt of these
oil allocations does not mean that they did anything illegal.
Mr. Wyatt did not respond yesterday to requests for comment,
and messages left at Bayoil's offices were not answered.
Illustrating the convoluted way Iraqi oil reached the United States,
the Energy Information Administration estimated in late 2002 that
about 30 percent of it was first sold to Russian companies, with the
rest bought by companies from nations including Cyprus, Sudan
and Pakistan.
The Iraqi oil was resold to intermediaries who then marketed
it internationally, largely to American oil companies. For example,
in 2001, the energy administration estimated that significant
amounts of Iraqi crude oil wound up at American refineries, some
of which had been built decades ago in part to handle Iraqi blends.
Almost 80 percent of crude oil from the Basra region and more
than 30 percent of oil from Kirkuk went to the United States in
2001, according to the energy administration. Imports of Iraqi
oil under the program grew from an average of 89,000 barrels
a day in 1997, to a peak of 795,000 barrels in 2001, and then
declining to 459,000 barrels a day in 2002, the Energy
Department said.
Eric Lipton and Judith Miller contributed reporting for this
article.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL STRUGGLE TO
ESCAPE THE LEGACY OF THE DISASTER IN IRAQ
By Robert Fisk
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=570692
Independent (UK)
October 11, 2004
I am writing a book about our need to escape from history -- or rather about
our inability to escape the effects of the decisions taken by our fathers
and
grandfathers. My father was a soldier in the First World War or, as it says
on the back of his campaign medal, "The Great War for Civilization" -- which
is the title I've chosen for my book. In the space of just 17 months after
my
father's war ended, the victors had drawn the borders of Northern Ireland,
Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent all my
professional
life watching the people inside those borders burn.
I once sat down with old Malcolm Macdonald, Britain's former colonial
secretary, to discuss his handover of the Irish treaty ports to De Valera
before the Second World War, thus depriving Britain of three great harbors
during the Battle of the Atlantic. It was a step which earned Macdonald the
undying contempt of Winston Churchill. Inevitably, though, we ended up
talking about his vain attempts to solve the "Palestine problem" in the
1930s.
In the Commons, Churchill angrily condemned Macdonald for restricting
Jewish
immigration to Palestine. I still have my notes of what Macdonald said to
me.
"We have a terrific argument in House of Commons, and when we met in the
division lobby afterwards, Churchill accused me of being pro-Arab. He said
that Arabs were savages and that they ate nothing but camel dung. I could
see
that it was no good trying to persuade him to change his views. So I
suddenly
told him that I wished I had a son. He asked me why, and I said I was
reading
a book called *My Early Life* by Winston Churchill, and that I would want
any
son of mine to live that life. At this point, tears appeared in Churchill's
eyes and he put his arms round me, saying, 'Malcolm, Malcolm.' The next day
a
package arrived for me from Churchill containing a signed copy of his latest
volume of the life of Marlborough."
My father worshipped Churchill, and pleaded with a friend to ask Churchill
to
sign a book for him; which is why I have in my library today *Marlborough:
His
Life and Times*, with the words "Inscribed by Winston S. Churchill 1948" in
the great man's own hand.
I still take the book out from time to time to look at that handwriting and
to
reflect that this was a man who sent our armies to Gallipoli, who shook
hands
with Michael Collins, who stood alone against Adolf Hitler, who campaigned
for
Zionism in Palestine and sent King Faisal to Iraq as a consolation prize for
losing Syria to the French.
"The situation that confronted HM Government in Iraq at the beginning of
1921
was a most unsatisfactory one," Churchill would write in his *The World
Crisis: The Aftermath*, of the insurgency against British rule. His friend
Gertrude Bell -- and here I am indebted to H.V.F. Winstone's splendid and
revised biography of Britain's "oriental secretary" in Baghdad -- was that
same year trying to set up an "Arab government with British advisors" in
Baghdad so that Britain's army of occupation could leave Iraq.
"I don't know what hanky panky the Allies are up to about the mandates," she
wrote, "but I am all on the side of the League of Nations in protesting that
they must be made public . . . everyone from the Euphrates provinces says
the
people there won't accept Sunni officials and the (provisional) Council goes
on blandly appointing them . . . a Shia of Karbala (sic) has at last
accepted
the Ministry of Education . . ."
Bell attended Churchill's famous -- or infamous -- Cairo conference where
the
British decided the future of most of the Middle East. T.E. Lawrence was
there, of course, along with just about every Brit who thought he or she
understood the region. "I'll tell you about our conference," Bell wrote to
a
friend in her jolly hockey-sticks way. "It has been wonderful. We covered
more work in a fortnight than has been got through in a year. Mr. Churchill
was admirable ..."
It quite takes the breath away; the British thought they could fix the
Middle
East in 14 days. And so we laid the borders of Iraq and laid out the future
for what Churchill would, much later, refer to as the "hell disaster" of
Palestine. I'll always remember the way that Macdonald, talking to me in
his
Sevenoaks home 26 years ago, turned to me during our conversation. "In
Palestine, I failed," he said. "And that is why you are in Beirut today."
And he was right, of course. Had we really "fixed" the Middle East, I
wouldn't have spent the last 29 years of my life travelling from one bloody
war to another amid the lies and deceit of our leaders and the surrogates
they
appointed to rule over the Arabs. Had we really "fixed" the Middle East,
Ken
Bigley would not have been murdered in Iraq last week.
Can we escape? Can we one day say -- both the West and the peoples of the
Middle East -- "Enough! Let us start again!" I fear we cannot. Our
betrayals and our broken promises -- to Jews as well as Arabs -- have
created
a kind of irreversible disease, something that will not go away and cannot
and
will not be forgiven for generations.
Look, for example, how we egged on Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, how we
patronized him for eight terrible years with export credits and guns and
aircraft and chemicals for gas. Looking back now, we were doing something
else. By supporting Saddam's war, we were helping an entire generation of
Iraqis to learn to fight -- and die.
I called up my old friend Tony Clifton in Australia this week. He and I
reported the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war from both sides. "Just think," he said.
"All these millions of Iraqis were taught about how to fight a big army.
They
used to use their tanks as static positions with just their gun barrels
pointing over the earth to stop the Iranians. But they weren't allowed to
use
their initiative. But now Saddam has gone and all those lieutenants and
captains are older and can use their initiative and their fighting abilities
against the Americans. I think that's why the resistance in Iraq is so
successful."
I suspect that Clifton is right, and that the eight-year war with Iran which
we were so keen on is intimately connected to the current insurgency and the
savagery with which it is being conducted by the Iraqi gunmen and suicide
killers.
And what of the Americans themselves? I've been re-reading Seymour Hersh's
stunning 1970 account of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. And there's
something about the casual attitude to death and cruelty in the way that
Medina and Calley did their killings there that I find chillingly familiar.
The Americans have a professional army in Iraq, but it is becoming
frighteningly casual about the way it kills women and children in Fallujah,
simply denying that its air strikes are killing the innocent, and insists
that
all 120 dead in their Samarra operation are all insurgents when this cannot
possibly be true. What about the latest wedding party carnage, another
American "success" against terrorism? Because journalists can scarcely
travel
in Iraq any more, there is no longer any independent witness to this awful
war. What is going on in Ramadi and Hilla and all the other cities where US
forces carry out their brutal raids?
Tony Blair still thinks his hideous invasion was not a mistake. He still
seems to believe in his own version of The Great War for Civilisation, just
as
my father once believed in it. And now I wonder what terrors this disaster
holds in store for our future generations, who will also ask themselves if
they can escape from history.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) Climate Fear as Carbon Levels Soar
Scientists bewildered by sharp rise of CO2
in atmosphere for second year running
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Monday October 11, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5036059-110970,00.html
An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may
be on the brink of runaway global warming.
Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas
has leapt in a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural
systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past.
The findings will be discussed tomorrow by the government's chief
scientist, Dr David King, at the annual Greenpeace business lecture.
Measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere have been continuous for almost
50 years at Mauna Loa Observatory, 12,000ft up a mountain in Hawaii,
regarded as far enough away from any carbon dioxide source to be
a reliable measuring point.
In recent decades CO2 increased on average by 1.5 parts per
million (ppm) a year because of the amount of oil, coal and gas
burnt, but has now jumped to more than 2 ppm in 2002 and 2003.
Above or below average rises in CO2 levels in the atmosphere have
been explained in the past by natural events.
When the Pacific warms up during El Niño - a disruptive weather
pattern caused by weakening trade winds - the amount of carbon
dioxide rises dramatically because warm oceans emit CO2 rather
than absorb it.
But scientists are puzzled because over the past two years, when the
increases have been 2.08 ppm and 2.54 ppm respectively, there has
been no El Niño.
Charles Keeling, the man who began the observations in 1958 as
a young climate scientist, is now 74 and still working in the field.
He said yesterday: "The rise in the annual rate to above two parts
per million for two consecutive years is a real phenomenon.
"It is possible that this is merely a reflection of natural events like
previous peaks in the rate, but it is also possible that it is the
beginning of a natural process unprecedented in the record."
Analysts stress that it is too early to draw any long-term conclusions.
But the fear held by some scientists is that the greater than normal
rises in C02 emissions mean that instead of decades to bring global
warming under control we may have only a few years. At worst, the
figures could be the first sign of the breakdown in the Earth's natural
systems for absorbing the gas.
That would herald the so-called "runaway greenhouse effect", where
the planet's soaring temperature becomes impossible to contain. As
the icecaps melt, less sunlight is refected back into space from ice
and snow, and bare rocks begin to absorb more heat. This is already
happening.
One of the predictions made by climate scientists in the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is that as the Earth
warms, the absorption of carbon dioxide by vegetation - known
as "carbon sink" - is reduced.
Dr Keeling said since there was no sign of a dramatic increase in the
amount of fossil fuels being burnt in 2002 and 2003, the rise "could
be a weakening of the Earth's carbon sinks, associated with the world
warming, as part of a climate change feedback mechanism. It is a
cause for concern'.'
Tom Burke, visiting professor at Imperial College London, and
a former special adviser to the former Tory environment minister
John Gummer, warned: "We're watching the clock and the clock is
beginning to tick faster, like it seems to before a bomb goes off."
Peter Cox, head of the Carbon Cycle Group at the Met Office's
Hadley Centre for Climate Change, said the increase in carbon
dioxide was not uniform across the globe.
Measurements of CO2 levels in Australia and at the south pole
were slightly lower, he said, so it looked as though something
unusual had occurred in the northern hemisphere.
"My guess is that there were extra forest fires in the northern
hemisphere, and particularly a very hot summer in Europe,"
Dr Cox said. "This led to a die-back in vegetation and an increase
in release of carbon from the soil, rather than more growing
plants taking carbon out of the atmosphere, which is usually
the case in summer."
Scientists are have dubbed the two-year CO2 rise the Mauna
Loa anomaly. Dr Cox said one of its most interesting aspects
was that the CO2 rises did not take place in El Niño years.
Previously the only figures that climbed higher than 2 ppm were
El Niño years - 1973, 1988, 1994 and 1998.
The heatwave of last year that is now believed to have claimed
at least 30,000 lives across the world was so out of the ordinary
that many scientists believe it could only have been caused by
global warming.
But Dr Cox, like other scientists, is concerned that too much
might be read into two years' figures. "Five or six years on the
trot would be very difficult to explain," he said.
Dr Piers Forster, senior research fellow of the University of
Reading's Department of Meteorology, said: "If this is a rate
change, of course it will be very significant. It will be of enormous
concern, because it will imply that all our global warming
predictions for the next hundred years or so will have to be
redone."
David J Hofmann of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration centre, which also studies CO2, was more cautious.
"I don't think an increase of 2 ppm for two years in a row is
highly significant - there are climatic perturbations that can
make this occur," he said. "But the absence of a known climatic
event does make these years unusual.
"Based on those two years alone I would say it was too soon to
say that a new trend has been established, but it warrants close
scrutiny."
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) Plants will not save us from greenhouse gases
Source: University Relations Office (URO) [newswire
September 30, 2004
McGill research shows increased carbon dioxide
levels decrease algae growth
http://www.mcgill.ca/newswire/?ItemID=12870
The doomsayers may be right: our children may not inherit a bountiful
and green world. According to researchers at McGill University, we
have been overestimating the ability of plants to counteract the
greenhouse effect. Their findings, published in the September 30
issue of Nature, suggest changing conditions in the earth's
atmosphere may have more harmful effects on plant life than
previously believed.
The research, led by McGill University biologist Graham Bell, looked
at the response of algae to high carbon dioxide concentrations.
Their findings showed that the plants could not adapt to high
carbon dioxide conditions. This disproves the previous assumption
that plants can take up extra carbon dioxide in the environment.
According to Bell, these findings may be applied to other plant species.
Over the next century we may see a dramatic change in all plants
(including agricultural species) as our use of fossil fuels increases a
nd generates increased carbon dioxide levels.
To view the Nature article please go to the Nature website
Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Council of Canada.
Article: Nature
Sinead Collins
McGill University
514-398-6459
Source:
Christine Zeindler
Communications officer
University Relations Office
514-398-6754
http://www.phschool.com/science/planetdiary/archive04/atmo1032704.html
Carbon Dioxide Reaches Record Levels (March 26, 2004)
Graph shows steady climb in levels of atmospheric carbon
dioxide since the mid-1950s. NASA.
Scientists say the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached
record levels in 2003. Just as alarming, levels of the greenhouse gas
increased at a faster rate than has ever been observed before. The
conclusions were reached after months of observation from the
top of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor to the greenhouse effect
responsible for global warming. A growing number of scientists say
the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in recent decades is
mostly due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
Along with other greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide forms a blanket
around the planet that prevents the Sun's heat from escaping back
into space. Global temperatures rose about one degree Fahrenheit
over the 20th century.
Climatologists say big changes are on the way if Earth keeps getting
hotter. Climate will be disrupted, sea level will rise, polar and glacial
ice will melt, and weather patterns will become more and more
extreme and unpredictable.
The level of carbon dioxide rose about 3 parts per million over the
past year, from 376 ppm to 379 ppm. This is a jump of 167% over
the average annual increase of 1.8 ppm over the past decade, and
300% more than the yearly increase of 1 ppm recorded fifty years ago.
The scientists aren't sure what is causing the increase. It may be the
result of the rise of industry in Asia, particularly in China and India,
but more research needs to be done. Whatever the cause, scientists
are concerned the warming itself will create even more warming in
what is known as "positive feedback." Warmer air triggers the release
of even more carbon dioxide from the ocean and soil, which in turn raises
temperatures.
Some computer models predict that carbon dioxide levels could
reach staggering levels of 650 to 970 ppm by the year 2100. Global
temperatures could rise between 2.7 and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit
in that time.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
14) Muhammad Knaane, Abu Assad, was sentenced to
2 1/2 years in prison by the Israeli courts.
Today, October the 10th, the secretary general of Abnaa ElBallad
("Sons of the Country" movement), Muhammad Knaane, Abu Assad,
was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by the Israeli courts. Abu
Assad has been imprisoned for 8 months already, and will remain in
jail for at least another 20 months. The state prosecution had requested
a sentence of 6 years for the charge of contact with a "foreign agent"
(namely, Ibrahim 'Ajweh Abu-Yaffa) in Jordan. It was a clear political
trial, taking place against the background of the imprisonment of the
leaders of the Islamic Movement and the ongoing trial of his own
brother Hussam Knaane, and aimed at paralyzing the leadership of
the Palestinian mass movement within the Green Line.
Recently political persecution reached also the Jewish activists
sympathizing with the Palestinian struggle, as shown by the
administrative detention of Tali Fahima. Abu Assad is being punished
by the Zionist apartheid regime for his political activism on behalf of
a single democratic state for all the inhabitants of Palestine and for
the full implementation of the right of return of the refugees. We
call on the workers and democratic organizations all over the world
to mobilize against political repression in Israel and for the liberation
of comrade Abu Assad.
* Free Muhammad Knaane and all the Palestinian political prisoners!
* For the right of return of all the refugees!
* For a democratic, secular and socialist republic in all the territory
of historic Palestine!
Socialist Workers League (Palestine)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://asia.groups.yahoo.com/group/Marxists/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Marxists-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://asia.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15) FACULTY FOR ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE (FFIPP)
PRESENTS:
WOMEN, PEACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
St. Boniface Church,
175 Golden Gate Ave.
(2 blocks from Civic Center BART)
Thursday, October 14th, 7:00 pm
Safa Abu-Rabiah, is the daughter of a Palestinian mother and
a Bedouin father, who grew up in an unrecognized village in
Southern Israel. She is the coordinator of Bedouin Women's
Empowerment Program at the New Israeli Fund and an activist
with The Forum for Co-Existence Between Jews and Arabs.
Hannah Safran, is a co-founder of Coalition of Women for Just
Peace and an activist with Women in Black. As a scholar of women's
studies, her writings provide support to the Feminist and Peace
movement.
Susan Greene, is an artist, activist and clinical psychologist. She
is a founding member of Break the Silence Mural Project, a group
of Jewish American Women who conduct community art projects
in Palestine and a member of Jews for a Free Palestine.
JOIN US AND LEARN ABOUT WOMEN'S ROLE IN THE STRUGGLE
FOR PEACE, JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL.
$5-20 Sliding Scale, no one turned away
Co-sponsors: Jewish Voice for Peace and
International Solidarity Movement
No comments:
Post a Comment