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Iraqi Sunnis may have killed 50 Shi'ite hostages--or maybe not.
Many new species are discovered each year in Borneo's rain forest. Many are in danger of extinction as these forests are cut down. Probably many will be extinct before they are observed.
Israeli occupation forces arrested a Palestinian with meningitis, preventing him from continuing his treatment.
Global warming threatens world agriculture.
In 1990, police in Wales decided to "solve" a murder by framing the usual suspects. Now some of them are facing prosecution.
This sort of dishonesty happens frequently, but only rarely is there clear proof to expose it. Most of the time the police get away with their testilying.
Bush and the Republicans are dropping in popularity, and many oppose their latest bullying tactics.
However, they will have plenty of chance to blur the issues before the next election. And they can always rig the vote count again.
We all knew Blair was lying about Iraq, but due to his obfuscation we could not pin it down. Now a leaked document proves he lied about the advice he got over whether invading Iraq would violate international law.
It is clear that Bliar made a decision to attack and generated excuses for it. Kick this bum out!
A Mexican environmentalist is in jail for denouncing the killing of dolphins.
A UN inspector who exposed US war crimes in Afghanistan has been fired under US pressure, as part of Bush's War on Integrity.
Lethal injections used for US executions could be death by torture.
However, even humane killing of prisoners cannot be justified.
Sharon is ready to defy Bush's feeble attempts to restrain the increase of settlements in Palestine.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army is forcing more Palestinians to leave their homes.
The Republican party has two groups of supporters: theocratic Christians and business conservatives. Now they are at odds about the plan to abolish filibusters on judicial appointments.
An Argentine officer who participated in murdering prisoners has been convicted in Spain of crimes against humanity.
Spanish courts can punish crimes against humanity no matter where they were committed.
Spain should put Bush on trial next.
The Republican Party is now controlled by Christian fanatics who are set on abolishing all opposition and all secular society. It has become the party of theocracy.
For full details, and careful documentation, see this site.
These churches use the methods developed by cults in the 70s and 80s.
Uri Avnery on the continued harrassment of Mordechai Vanunu.
Bush is aiming to get the power to eliminate any Federal agency, by appointing his own friends to vote on the question.
Bush's record includes (1) staffing the Texas board of clemency with people who would carry out his wishes while denying him responsibility for them, and (2) dishonestly undermining all the agencies that protect the environment. To suppose he would staff the "sunset board" with people ready to abolish those agencies is not a leap of faith.
Here's a list of Federal agencies that the Texas Republican Party said it wants to abolish.
Ecuador's president, who broke promises in order to cater to the US, has been removed from office after a wave of popular outrage.
I hope the new president learns the right lesson and stands up to the empire.
The Burmese army appears to have used chemical weapons against Karen rebels.
Groping Arnold has made most of California hate him.
Perhaps he should switch to making movies about what he would do as governor. In those movies, everyone would admire him.
The Israeli soldiers who killed three Arab boys playing football were intentionally shooting to kill.
The Galapagos Islands are in trouble from a human population explosion.
Eradicating goats was worth a few million dollars, since the result is permanent. If the human fishing population could be moved out permanently for a few million dollars, that would also be worth the expense. However, paying them every year not to fish while their numbers increase would be like trying to protect native vegetation by feeding the goats.
Here's an idea for reaching a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine: democratically elect a joint representative body to negotiate it.
I have some disagreements with specific points in the plan. I disagree with the idea of adding "religious, civil society, community and business leaders" to the elected representatives. This is undemocratic because it would mean that people associated with religious groups, business, or community activities get represented more than once. Such leaders should have to run for election like everyone else.
(Also, the Palestinian Authority is democratically elected now.)
Arundhati Roy: Public Power in the Age of Empire.
An Arab family chased out of its home in Hebron by fanatical settlers has returned, protected by Israeli soldiers.
These settlers should be shot with tranquiliser darts and released in the wild, far from the abode of civilized people. But I've read that Sharon has recently insisted on maintaining them in Hebron where they regularly harrass and attack Palestinians.
Iraq is full of landmines, but clearing them has become slower since Bush moved in.
A UN agency has begun examining the issue of caste discrimination in India.
Germany's chancellor suggests boycotting companies that have fired lots of workers.
The industry response reflects the basic view of business executives that the public should bend over backwards to help business, but business need not do the converse.
The Bush forces do count Iraqi civilians they kill. They have repeatedly claimed that they do not, but this is apparently yet another lie.
The new Pope thinks it is ok for Catholics to disagree with the Pope about killing, if the killing they support is capital punishment or war. Only abortion and euthanasia are completely unacceptable to support.
Eels in Europe are being
driven close to extinction.
Exxon-Mobil funds 40 different groups to create false doubt about
global warming.
Some of the same organizations have also been funded by Microsoft to
create an image of public dissatisfaction with free software.
Iraqi Sunnis have taken Shi'ites hostage and threaten to kill them.
This moves Iraq closer to civil war.
I believe Bush wants such a civil war, since divide-and-rule is the
only way he can make the conquest succeed. He hopes that Shi'ites will
be the ones to destroy the resistance of the Sunnis.
Iraqi Shi'ites are talking about
prosecuting everyone involved
in wrongdoing during Saddam Hussein's regime. Bush doesn't like this.
The Bush regime is eliminating an
annual summary of global terrorism because the results were not going to be
favorable.
I suspect that this report was subject to political bias anyway. I
suspect that state-sponsored terrorism carried out by the Bush regime
and its allies was generally omitted. If someone wants to check that,
I will update this note.
Piercing the peer-to-peer myths: An examination of the
Canadian experience.
The European Commission's policy
treats the environment with contempt.
How Three Firms Came to Rule the World [of food]...Food Central.
People often wonder, "Doesn't Bush know he's running the country into
the ground?" Bush is good at being intentionally blind, but I don't
think Cheney is a fool.
Here's a proposed explanation for why Bush
and his clique would do this intenionally.
A small bipartisan initiative to make the House Ethics Committee
function again.
Bush claims "the tide is turning" in Iraq.
It would be a tragedy if he gets away with conquering that country,
butchering its citizens, and stealing its wealth. But he may not be right:
Iraqi Resistance Stages Another Large-Scale Assault
There is also a sign of resistance from the elected "government" of
Iraq. Rumsfeld warned the elected "leaders" not to replace the Bush
toadies that run some Iraqi ministries.
However, they can't possibly gain the loyalty of Iraqis
unless they start to resist the universally-hated occupation.
Meanwhile, more countries are pulling their troops out.
In the UK, "anti-social behavior orders" have become an
all-purpose
excuse to imprison people without trial for activities that are not
punishable with imprisonment--or are not crimes at all.
The article doesn't mention it, but "engaging in political protest" is also
a common occasion for ASBOs.
The Gaza pullout is a
smoke screen for step-by-step ethnic cleansing in
the West Bank.
What sort of world are supermarket subservience cards leading to?
Police officers harrassing a political activist--that's not news.
Police officers lying, stealing, framing the activist--that's not
news. Activist suing and getting them fired,
that's news!
Congress is rushing headlong into new censorship for radio
and television.
Two Bush cronies, with a long history of corruption with Dubya. have
been accused of racketeering. However, Bush himself so far seems to
be getting away with his share of the booty.
An art auction is planned to support US dissidents in the Critical Art
Ensemble, facing
fabricated criminal charges.
Turkish police killed a 12-year-old Kurdish boy from short rage, then
left a rifle next to his body and called him a "terrorist".
(He was too small to even carry such a rifle.)
DeLay's Position on Tort Reform Was 'For Sale'.
(And other issues too.)
The practice of feeding antibiotics to chickens produced
drug-resistant
bacteria that are now found in a large fraction of the chicken sold in US
markets.
And even though the practice has been ended, the bacteria continue
to get into the chickens.
Perhaps the factories that formerly used antibiotics should be
condemned and burned.
The thugs that Bush used to drive Aristide out of Haiti are shooting
at each other now.
Haiti under Bush influence is a land of murder. Refugees trying to
flee to the US, with valid passports and visa, are denied asylum and
imprisoned. One was murdered by denying him his medicine.
It was Bush that arranged to drive Aristide out.
He's guilty of murder for each one of these deaths.
A high school principal was arrested, and accused of
bogus crimes, for
supporting a student that a policeman was improperly trying to arrest.
Recently the charges were dropped, and the principal is back at work.
(I made no link to that article because it is on a site that is not
generally accessible.) The prestige of the social role of school
principal surely helped bring this about. If you, rather than a
principal, had been falsely accused, you would not find it so easily
to overcome the lies.
New Japanese school textbooks are whitewashing Japan's crimes in World
War II. This has sparked protests in Korea and China.
If the US had an honest self-respecting government, it would join
the protests.
Peaceful protestors against military recruitment at the City College
of New York were attacked violently by police.
The police are like Dr Jekyll--much of the time, they actually
do protect and help citizens, but when their vicious side takes over,
they turn into something between a street gang and a mafia.
Christians in North Korea are
sent to prison camps where they
are tortured.
Soot, particles of unburnt carbon, is contributing to melting
the Arctic ice cap.
Uri Avnery: the Gaza settlers wagered on their future,
so we need not
pity them for having to leave.
A call to defy
corporate domination.
As Israel honors Major Plagge, a German officer who saved Jews from
extermination, we should consider carefully what his lesson
means today.
It is easy to recognize evil in the forms it took in the recent past,
with the benefit of hindsight. If someone tries to organize a
Nazi-style genocide campaign today, many people would recognize it as
such and oppose it.
But history does not repeat itself in detail. It is often harder to
recognize evil in today's different forms, harder to see what it is
that we must do to "resist being sucked into the vortex of evil" as
evil appears today. Would today's equivalent of Plagge be someone who
helps people escape from torture in Guantanamo?
The World Bank is planning a
big dam in Laos. The people living in the area to be flooded are unlikely
to have their lives restored, and rare animals living in the area will be
threatened.
Charges were dropped against a Bush forces soldier
accused of murdering an Iraqi civilian.
It is hard to restrain an occupying army from crimes against
civilians; Iraqis can expect to be shot with impunity by soldiers
until the occupation is over.
Rio de Janeiro police went on a murder spree, and shot 30 people.
The Bush regime asked the USPS to eliminate
anonymous postal mail. The USPS, to its credit, refused.
This attack on your freedom was consistent with the Bush regime's
policy of total surveillance on communication and travel.
They want to know where everyone goes, and what everyone says.
What stores are really doing with their "discount cards": discriminating
among their customers. For instance, they can
raise the price for you but not for your neighbor.
The UN Security Council called for prosecution in the International
Criminal Court of those who organized mass murder in the Sudan.
Now the challenge is to get the government of Sudan to hand them over.
Leaders of indigenous people in Brazil are being frequently murdered.
It is done by the henchmen of rich people who want to cut down their
forests.
Corporations killed our
commons.
The US corporate media, and corporate government, are using the
pope's death as a PR
opportunity for religion, and for distraction.
Enforcement of US laws about lobbying is very
lax.
Uri Avnery: Jinn in
the ballot box.
Amnesty International report French police
frequently attack, even kill Arabs or Africans that they arrest. Even
witnesses who threaten to report their violence have been violently attacked,
and charged with fake crimes. Thanks to a range of excuses, the police are
never seriously punished.
Some Labour MPs are planning to use their opposition to the
war as the
basis for their campaigns for reelection. This highlights the
way the public in the UK has lost its trust for Bliar.
Another Labour MEP
joined the Liberal Democrats, denouncing Bliar's attacks on
civil liberties.
We don't call him Bliar merely for lying about Iraq. He cannot be
trusted on anything at all, since his primary domestic policy goal is
to abolish civil liberties. If the war, based on lies, enables some
Britons that Blair has been lying to them about everything, their
country may derive some benefit from it.
The big car companies sued California for trying to make them reduce CO2
emissions. They said they couldn't cope with such requirements.
But they backed down when Canada demanded the same thing--which proves
they were bluffing all along.
What happened here is that these companies have more power over the US
government than over the Canadian government. In the US, they figured
that their pet legislators and pet president would accept false
excuses as valid, so they could get away with their bluff.
Pope John Paul II:
a political obituary.
Sharon is
thumbing his nose at peace, and even at Bush, with
an announcement of a plan to expand settlements. Uri Avnery predicted
this.
See also
http://www.geocities.com/keller_adam/gazit.htm for commentary.
Meanwhile, Israel plans to set up
garbage dump in Palestinian territory that could poison an important water
supply. Either it's an attempt to make the land uninhabitable for
Palestinians, or it's simply insane.
A
thoughtful analysis of the Venezuelan Constitution and what
it means for Venezuela.
New Zealand seems to have a
system of imprisonment without trial for non-citziens, similar to what
Blair tried to do in the UK.
This has been applied to Algerian refugee, Ahmed Zaoui, an Islamist
who was elected to the legislature by the elections that were canceled
in a coup. After that he had to flee
for his life.
Zaoui has been hounded from country to country by accusations from the
military government. These accusations could be true, or they could
be lies, but they can't be taken on faith. As the site says: Free
Ahmed Zaoui--or give him a fair trial.
Rap musicians like to present an air of being anti-establishment, but
they shamelessly
sell advertising in their own performances, showing
that they are no better than the executives of the megacorporations.
Speaking of "artistic integrity", I'd say that any musician who turns
his work into a commercial has no such thing.
The Iraqi resistance attacked Abu Ghraib prison very effectively.
Attacking a strongpoint like this suggests that
the resistance is gaining strength.
If political parties still mean anything, Energy Security
could be the opportunity for the Democrats to protect the US' future.
However, I think that they won't do it, because the power of business
is too great. The Democrats can't win an election covered mainly by
the corporate media--even supposing the votes are counted--unless they
do what the megacorporations want, and on an issue like this it's
primarily the oil companies that exert their influence. What the oil
companies want--as we can see from what friend in the White House does
for them--is for us to burn up the world's remaining oil as fast as
possible.
Galapagos islands wildlife is
threatened by fishing. The fishing interests have a lot of power in the
government of Ecuador, through corruption.
This "cut it down, wipe it out, make me rich, then I'll move on"
attitude is a menace to humanity.
The propsoed EU Constitution was designed to privilege business rights
over citizens' rights, it is undemocratic, and it is nearly impossible
to amend.
See Quand l'Union Europene tue l'Europe, in www.urfig.org. (Sorry, I don't have it in
English.)
"Reforming" the US intelligence services under the control of people
such as Negroponte and Goss won't prevent them from
"failing" again, because it won't give them what they need so as to resist
telling Bush whatever he wants to hear. That requires integrity, and integrity
is precisely what the Bush regime will not tolerate.
Parasitic mites, invaders from other continents, are wiping out the
bees that polinate US fruit crops. Killer bees didn't turn out
to be a disaster, but these might be the end.
How the US media encouraged
atrocities in Falluja.
Spain is selling some
transport planes and Coast Guard ships to Venezuela. The Bush regime,
which fights Venezuela on behalf of the oil companies, criticized this.
When Zapatero defended this sale by saying that these planes and ships
have "no offensive capacity", he conceded too much. There is nothing
wrong with selling arms to Venezuela, since Venezuela is not likely to
use them to attack anyone. What people should worry about is selling
arms to the Bush regime.
What is would mean to crack down on crime (by corporations).
Bobby Fischer, arriving in Iceland,
criticizes the US and Israel in a perfectly lucid way. (A little more
harshly than I would.)
Other stories have given the impression he is crazy, but he doesn't
sound crazy here. Perhaps those stories were meant to unjustly
discredit him.
Zimbabwe's formerly excellent medical system is a shambles
as AIDS spreads and life expectancy falls to 33 years.
Settlers in Gaza are
are threatening to resist with violence rather than leave.
They went to Gaza for the express purpose of imposing their will on
the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. I hope they leave peacefully,
but if they start violence, I won't be sorry for them if they get hurt
in it.
However, I think what is happening is that they think the Israeli Army
won't have the stomach to confront them with force. This army, which
regularly shoots Palestinian children, will pretend to feel
humanitarian considerations when it faces the settlers.
A scientific report shows how widespread ecological degradation
imperils the survival of humanity and the rest of life.
In addition to the slow decline of natural resources on which we
depend, the strains create opportunities for various kinds of
catastrophic collapse. Meanwhile, Bush does his utmost to accelerate
the degradation.
US government scientists working on storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain
falsified data to make it
appear safer than it really is.
Such dishonesty is disgusting but I no longer find it shocking. What
does shock me is that a Bush regime official was honest enough to
reveal it. The usual Bush pattern is to deny any inconvenient
scientific facts, so I wonder why Bush didn't do so here.
Temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctic are rising fast, and the ice
is disappearing fast. The danger is not limited to polar bears, and
to people who are cut off for months because they can't drive across
the ice. We're getting close to a rise in sea level that could swamp
coastal cities.
Discovery of new, even more horrible, Enron conversations.
(Gloating as fires threatened California's electric supply
is just the least of it.)
Illegal loggers who threaten murder against whoever opposes them
are
tearing down the Amazon rainforest. But President Lula,
far from trying to resist this, is building roads to help them.
You can
help Greenpeace campaign to stop the logging.
Comparing Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and France in regard to
national ID cards.
The Iraqi puppet government is arresting hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of
long-term foreign residents, making demands they cannot possibly meet.
Some of them have no other home to go to.
This is reminiscent of how Bush treated Arab foreigners in the US.
Protestors dared to march in Nepal, handing out flyers in favor of
democracy.
They were arrested.
Perchlorate pollution is poisonous, but unregulated, because
it comes from rocket fuel that the military uses.
Here's the executive summary of the NAS report.
Congressman DeLay participates in many forms of corruption.
And he doesn't hesitate to use his own power to prevent
his corruption from being punished.
Elected officials would not dare act like this if they expected
the voting public to have a chance to respond. DeLay can do it
because corporate control of the media is so effective that
he know's he's safe from public ire. In other words, because
democracy in the US is mostly fiction.
The Bush regime shows a peculiar lack of interest in pursuing
evidence of corruption in spending money in Iraq. In fact, it is
trying to prevent US courts from pursuing corruption cases involving
Bush forces spending there.
This does not surprise me, because I've believed all along that
funneling money to cronies is a major part of the motive for war. I'm
not surprised either that the Pentagon has dragged its feet on
appointing auditors. They would spoil the party.
A military tribunal said Kurnaz, in Guantanamo, was a terrorist. But
the evidence they looked at is now declassified, and it shows they had
no reason for that conclusion.
So why is Kurnaz still a prisoner? Because of reluctance to admit a
mistake? Because of a "bureaucratic trap"? Both occurrences are
common, and this is why punishment without trial threatens everyone's
freedom.
Bush opposes a plan to block the commerce in illegally logged wood.
The Bush forces tank fired at Giuliana Sgrena's car as it was moving
away (toward the airport), and without warning. Interview with
Naomi Klein,
who spoke with Giuliana in her hospital room.
Israel is creating a new crime - of talking to
journalists.
The Israeli Border Patrol arrested a 12-year-old Palestinian boy
(illegally), made him terrifying threats, then released him alone
in the middle of Israeli settlers. After he ran away to hide,
it was hard to find
him.
When I was last in Israel, I was told that the people in the Border
Patrol are particularly cruel.
Giuliana Sgrena
gives more information about the Bush forces' attack
that wounded her severely--exposing further lies.
A letter that Blair tried to hush up provides more evidence
thast he pressured the UK Attorney General into changing his conclusion that
invading Iraq was against international law.
Coca Cola Company pays
American Academy of Pediatric Dentists to hush
up talk about how soda damages kids' teeth, and to undermine campaigns
to stop selling soda in schools. It also bullies and silences
dentists who try to talk about the issue.
Many people will agree that what the AAPD has done is corrupt. I will
go further and say that schools that try to make money from sweetened
beverage sales are corrupt too. Each school administrator that does
this is engaging in inexcusable corruption. "We need money" is not an
all-purpose excuse. If schools are underfunded, they should take the
bull by the horns and start a movement to increase funding through
taxes. Collecting the money from sales of Coca Cola costs the
children, and their parents, a lot more.
250 Israeli high school students have vowed to go to prison rather
than be drafted to support the occupation.
The Arctic Is The Chemical
Sink Of The Globe.
Photos show
Israelis building rapidly in settlements in Palestine.
Angkor is being destroyed by robbers that cater
to secret collections.
Studies conclusively show that herbicide-resistant GM crops hurt wildlife.
The problems are not the direct result of the plants' genetic
modifications; they are the result of cultivating the plants with
certain herbicides, a method which the genetic modifications were
designed to make possible. This means that the problems are
independent of the precise way the modification was done. At the same
time, these problems do not apply to other kinds of genetic
modifications that have entirely different purposes.
Robert Kennedy Jr. reports on Bush's systematic campaign to destroy
environmental protection in the US. Every agency is now run by
its worst enemy.
Thanks to Bush, coal-burning electric plants are causing lung damage and
brain damage in American children. They emit mercury, and 1/6 of
American women have so much mercury in their bodies that their
children are likely to be born with brain damage. This is because
Bush allowed those plants to keep polluting.
The essay degenerates at the end into religious blither, but that
doesn't make its information less cogent.
Transparency International's report on
corruption in Bush-ruled Iraq.
The Bush regime doesn't get good marks.
The main Palestinian peace negotiator says continued Isreali expansion
of settlements around Jerusalem will make peace
impossible.
The FBI admitted (secretly) that evidence obtained from Guantanamo
prisoners was "suspect at best" because it was obtained by torture.
New EPA Mercury Rule
Called Illegal.
A court in California ruled that journalists have no right to protect
their sources when it comes to trade secrets. In addition, it approved
getting the information from journalists' ISPs. The EFF will appeal the ruling.
There are many reasons not to trust your email to any ISP in an
environment like the US that doesn't respect civil liberties. A previous note describes the experiences of the person
whose ISP permanently denied him access to his own email at the simple request
of the US government.
Bush showed his contempt for the world by proposing
Wolfensohn to head the World Bank.
The World Bank has acted for decades to promote privatization and the
empire of the corporations. Perhaps appointing an unqualified bully as
its head will help the opposition organize.
Zimbabwe, in economic collapse, prepares for a rigged election.
Privatizing the London Underground has been a costly failure.
This is what people get for dogmatic worship of the invisible hand.
The BBC bowed to Israeli censorship by apologizing for
not allowing censors to view its interview with Mordechai Vanunu.
Shame on you, BBC.
Evo Morales and Bolivians demanding a
large increase in taxes on
exports of natural gas called off their street protests, after the
lower house of Congress passed a bill giving more or less what they
asked for.
I've read elsewhere that the 32% tax imposed on gas exports by this
bill, combined with other existing taxes, would amount to more or less
the 50% demanded by the protestors.
The energy minister is mistaken: economic suicide for most of Bolivia
is what would result from continuing down the current path. He, like
President Mesa, has taken the side of the megacorporations who are
Bolivia's principal real enemies.
Uri Avnery: Memory of the Holocaust - from Jewish property into human
possession
The European Commission is concerned about problems from a fall in
Europe's population in coming years. Fortunately it recommends more
immigration as the solution.
The world's population increase threatens living standards, the
environment, causes extinction of species, etc.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
reports that a
Palestinian peace activist has been arrested and is being tortured.
Unemployed workers in Argentina got a loan
to
build a housing project. It seems to be working so far.
A long report by Giuliana Sgrena about her experiences as a hostage
in Iraq.
World Bank employees are saying they object to Wolfowitz.
I expect the Bush regime to steamroll their protests. His standard
practice is to crush any sort of integrity that an agency may have, so
that it becomes totally obedient. I would guess that's what Wolfowitz
is meant to do in the World Bank.
If so, maybe the regime is trying to turn up the pressure for
privatization. This could work, but it could also backfire by
stimulating stronger resistance.
Here's an example of resistance: in Bolivia, the inhabitants
of El Alto (which lies between La Paz and its airport) are once
again taking to the streets, because President Mesa refuses
to cancel the privatization of their water.
It is a mistake to even think of compensating the privateers for their
"investment" in something fundamentally exploitive. Kicking them out
without a cent would teach "investors" a salutary lesson about the
risks of "investing" in charging poor people exorbitantly for water.
Palestinian groups voted to maintain a truce. Will Israel stop its
violence against Palestinians?
The West should demand that the Israeli government do more to rein in
its extremist groups.
As Bush pretends to have succeeded in promoting democracy in the
Middle East, the fact is that his policies are spreading hatred for
the US, as well as religious fanaticism.
However, all the anti-Americans in the Middle East can't
mistreat the US as much as Bush does.
An Israeli calls for popular pressure through divestment in
companies that support the occupation.
He reports on the regular torture of Palestinians that he witnessed as
a soldier, and the steady advance of Israeli settlements even in times
of "peace".
Vietnam's Agent Orange Victims Feel Cheated by U.S. Court
Remember this when people talk about chemical weapons.
Bush's appointment of Wolfowitz: a declaration of contempt, or a
declaration of war?
It would be a mistake to see the World Bank as an political instrument
of the US. Rather, both the World Bank and the US government function
mostly as instruments of the megacorporations.
Thanks to murderous paramilitaries,
75% of the land in Colombia is in
the hands of the rich. The result is urban poverty for many. This is
supported by the US and the UK.
This reminds me of Vietnam, where the US also had a policy of driving
peasants off the land and into "strategic hamlets".
Coca Cola Company is involved in these murders too. That's one of the
reasons for the boycott of Coca Cola Company. See kiillercoke.org.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu faces new imprisonment for
speaking to journalists, which violates conditions unjustly imposed on
him after the end of his sentence.
Most Palestinians now reject suicide bombings and want to give peace a
chance.
Genetically modified corn in the US, and logging in Mexico,
are
wiping out the Monarch Butterfly.
Bush has pressured Guatemala into adopting a law restricting generic
drugs.
The result will be thousands of deaths.
This is a simple but clear example of what "free trade" treaties mean.
I'm not against international trade, but these treaties must be
abolished.
Greg Palast reports that oil companies have beaten out the neocons,
and convinced Bush to drop the plan to privatize Iraq's oil.
Meanwhile, he presents evidence that Bush began planning the
attack--and the privatization--shortly after taking office. More
proof that 9/11 was just an excuse for what he wanted to do anyway.
Il Ducino says that Italian troops will leave Iraq starting in
September.
Even other fascists find it hard to fully support Bush.
However, this statement falis to say when Italian forces will actually
be out Iraq. So it could be just a way to appease Italians for the
election while really not planning to change much of anything.
Israel's parliament accepted a report detailing how the government had
secretly funded illegal expansion of settlements, and announced a plan
to eliminate a fraction of them.
I'm concerned about the plan to "make illegal construction in the West
Bank a criminal offense." Palestinians essentially cannot get
construction permission from Israel, so all new houses are illegal,
and Israel frequently uses that as an excuse to demolish these houses.
With this law, Iseael could also imprison the Palestinians who build
on their own land.
Hariri Reportedly Assassinated To Make Way For Large US Air Base In Lebanon
I'm not sure how much credibility to give to this theory,
but I wouldn't put assassination beyond the US government,
any more than I would put it beyond the Syrian government.
The Earth's fish stocks are overexploited, and the situation is
rapidly
getting worse. This raises the prospect of wiping out fish stocks,
much as the cod of the Grand Banks were wiped out.
Ken Livingstone shatters the Bush-Blair terror campaign,
saying there is "More danger from bird flu than from terrorists".
Unfortunately, despite all the opposition, Blair has achieved his
ends:
to undermine civil liberties in the UK. A minister can now sign
a "control order" to take away anyone's rights.
The hearings that these suspects can have do not follow the rules of
trials, and do less to protect people from fabrications. (Not that
real trials do enough, since perjury committed by or arranged by
police often suffices to frame people.)
I believe it is just a matter of time before these control orders are
applied to crushing political dissent of all kinds.
Bush and Schwarzenegger have both produced fake news stories.
This article asserts that the US media are independent. The mass
media are hardly independent, they are controlled by the same
corporations that (more or less) control the government. However,
that doesn't diminish the wrongness of corrupting the situation
further.
36 cases of using software patents for aggression,
many against free software.
1/3 of the population of Lebanon protested to tell the Syrian army to
pull out, and the President of Lebanon too.
Ward Churchill is the focal point for a long-planned
Republican attack on academic freedom in the US.
Large anti-Syrian and pro-Syrian rallies are being held in
Lebanon.
Meanwhile, it appears there was a coverup in regard to the
assassination of Hariri. That might be evidence for Syrian
involvement in the killing.
What Syrians can do, Americans can do. The debris of the World Trade
Center was moved and discarded without an investigation, which lends
support to the theory that the Bush regime was involved. I wish the UN
would conduct a serious investigation of who was responsible, but the UN
is unlikely to apply the same standards to a US coverup as to a Syrian
coverup.
Accord With Tomato Pickers
Ends Boycott Of Taco Bell.
The plea of a Palestinian who has been punished for building a house
for his family on his own land in his town.
Global warming is
increasing the amount of forest fires, which make
carbon dioxide from the trees and from the ground below the fire.
This contributes even more to global warming.
Peculiarities of the Kyoto Treaty are encouraging harmful
investments in poor countries. These peculiarities were
imposed
by the US, which due to Bush then turned around and didn't sign.
Pier Scolari, who was with Giuliana Sgrena and Nicola Calipari
when the Bush forces killed the latter and wounded the former,
says that the attack was deliberate and without
warning.
An interview with
Giuliana Sgrena.
A response to Ken Livingstone: if Sharon is a war criminal, then so is
Blair.
This is basically true, but the crime that Blair is guilty of, for
launching a war of aggression, is more accurately described (in
Nuremberg terms) as a crime against the peace.
The Israeli government has collaborated eagerly
in establishment of illegal settlement outposts in Palestinian lands.
Noam Chomsky: US election campaigns work like ad campaigns for toothpase,
based on image and nothing else.
One of the honest bureaucrats in the US Army tried to do her job and
block Halliburton's corruption. The Army tried to label her as
incompetent and force her retire. But she's determined to
fight
corruption, even if that means fighting the White House.
The Bush regime is corrupt from the top on down, and there is no room
in the US government for anyone who is honest and incorruptible.
US infrastructure is crumbling under the weight of Bush regime. This
is consistent with the Bush philosophy of
"grab what you can" and his
lack of concern for the future of the country.
It would be better to spend money on maintaining US infrastructure
than on conquering Iraq. However, there is no point expanding
highways or airports now, since oil prices are likely to shoot up in a
few years, and this will reduce traffic.
Some courts in France are refusing to enforce copyright law against
people who make copies for noncommercil distribution. Hooray.
All across Central America, people are protesting against plansfor a new "free
trade" treaty with the US.
The European Union is
planning to crush human rights in the name of safety."Evidence" obtained
from anonymous "intelligence sources"
would be presented in court, making it easy to fabricate a basis to
imprison anyone. Even to express certain opinions--such as, to say
that an act labeled as "terrorism" was necessary or justified--would
be a crime.
People were shocked when the ACLU defended the rights of Nazis to hold
a public rally in the US--but there is a good reason for this. France
and Germany have long prohibited certain kinds of statements of
support for Nazism. Given that precedent, it is hard to argue against
extending the prohibition. In effect, it is already functioning as
the "edge of the wedge" to attack freedom of speech.
Blair broke the
government's own rules by concealing information from
his ministers, in order to gain their acquiescence for attacking Iraq.
A
boycott-Coke protest at Iowa State University.
Why does Bush want
RFIDs in passports?
How business delayed the recognition that diesel fumes
are dangerous.
One way to reduce these fumes would be to encourage sending freight by
train rather than by rail. (Trains use diesel engines too, but use
much less fuel for the same amount of cargo.) High taxes on diesel
fuel would be one way to do the job.
Opposition to the war is
hampering US military recruitment.
Italian journalist Sgrena accuses the Bush forces of intentionally
shooting at her vehicle, and says that they lied about the circumstances.
(She was injured; the Italian agent who had arranged her release from
Iraqi kidnapers was killed.)
I believe Sgrena, because this
fits a pattern.
Bush has sent over 100 people abroad to be tortured.
Protestors are
blocking a plan to cut down a burned but vital old-growth forest in
Oregon.
Other reports, for which I have no URLs, say that the cops arrested
several protestors and dragged them across a gravel road face down.
They dislocated one protestor's shoulder. Apparently they did not
accuse these people of "assaulting an officer"; there must have been
too many witnesses.
War protestor Chris Gaunt
talks about her experiences in prison for nonviolent protest, including
being falsely accused and convicted of attacking a policeman when she went
limp.
Policemen lie to support each other just like members of a gang. On a
question like this, I will trust the protestor's unsupported word more
than any number of policemen.
Coca Cola Company uses a
series of deceptions and half-truths to evade responsibility for actions
over which it has control. It refuses to cooperate with independent
investigations, but instead funded a phony "independent" investigation.
The telecom companies are funding a large network of organizations
to pretend
to be grass-roots support for their policies.
As a result, the FCC Consumer Advisory Committtee is
packed
with people that indirectly represent the telecom companies.
Greg Palast wishes Dan Rather, and American journalism, "rest in peace".
Bush's "Clear Skies" bill is actually a
rollback
of environmental regulations. Even some Republican senators oppose it,
and it seems unlikely to pass. So he is now trying to attack the organization
of state officials that oppose it.
A Half Million
Lebanese March for Syria.
Now I am starting to worry more than violence will break out
afresh in Lebanon.
I wondered for a while whether this is what Bush intends. However, given
Bush's preference not to hear bad news or projections of problems, to
disregard reality for fantasy, I think he simply isn't paying attention
to the issue.
Public pressure convinced Tiffany's to continue
boycotting Burmese gems, which are mined with slave labor by the
military rulers.
This shows how even when companies act with ethical scruples,
the public needs to keep the pressure on.
Bush policies undermine the global fight against the spread of AIDS,
by opposing needle-exchange and requiring recipients to pledge to
"oppose prostitution". This pledge, aside from being unethical, makes
it hard to help prostitutes stay healthy.
The reason this pledge is unethical is that prostitution isn't wrong.
I can't imagine wanting to pay someone to have sex with me, since I
would not feel loved or wanted in such a situation, but I see no
grounds to condemn prostitutes. Being a prostitute isn't doing wrong
to anyone.
There are moves in the US to
limit protections for journalists to
major (corporate) media only.
This makes sense. The corporate media are controlled enough not to be
very dangerous. The First Amendment is therefore most important, most
dangerous to corrupt officials, when it applies to independent
journalists.
Texas Republicans are moving to
block prosecution for election
law violations, to save Tom DeLay.
These things are possible because the US media are so controlled.
If we had a healthy democracy, they would be afraid of public
opinion.
Bush resumed military aid to Indonesia, based on a dishonest
claim that Indonesia has met the legal requirements for doing so.
Opposition is growing to water privatization in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Muslim women's rights activists say that Bush is
undermining the gains they have made.
Victims of a Stalled Revolution
Bush imposed a deathlike quiet on the city of Mainz, and the
inhabitants (and Germans in general) are getting angry.
If you are living in a place that Bush wants to visit, I suggest you
start a public "Bush is not welcome" movement before he gets there.
Maybe you can cancel the visit that way. If that doesn't work, pay
for a big "Bush go home" sign near the place he wants to go. Bush
does not like to see criticism; perhaps that sign will be enough to
make him stay away.
Since the Israeli settlers have been
threatening violence if they
don't get their way, Gush Shalom suggests, "Take away their guns".
Robert Fisk: Is Lebanon walking into another nightmare?
While Fisk warns that Hezbollah's refusal to disarm opens the threat
of renewed violence, the leader of Hezbollah says he
doesn't want violence in Lebanon. I hope it is true.
Brazil convinced the WTO to rule the US must end its cotton subsidies.
While it is nice to see a poor country benefit from the WTO for a change,
we shouldn't let this blind us to the harm that the WTO does.
Ending the US subsidies could eliminate wasteful use of resources
in the US. But if this is to benefit the poor farmers in poor countries,
it needs to be accompanied by Fair Trade measures. Otherwise, the rich
in those countries will capture most of what US agribusiness loses.
Human Rights Watch says the king of Nepal's army has seized and
murdered hundreds of civilians. His enemy, the Maoist rebels, are
also murdering civilians, but the style differs.
Things seem to have got worse since the king abolished the civilian
government.
The Bush forces marine that was filmed murdering a prisoner in
Fallujah apparently
won't be prosecuted.
I feel sorry for him for being shot in the face, for seeing his
buddies shot, but that is no excuse--neither for killing prisoners,
nor for fighting the war, because he was wrong to be there in the
first place. It is justified for a conquered people to resist the
aggressor with force, and this does not excuse the aggression.
New Zealand developed a weapon to produce tsunamis
during World War II. It appears there has been further
development of the weapon since then.
The guards in a UK prison had a game: putting prisoners together who
would fight each other. One of these prisoners, who was just about to
be released, was beaten to death.
The guard who reported this has
received threats from other guards--including their union leaders.
The Fair Trade movement is growing.
I wish I could participate, but I don't buy much of the goods that
they cover. Most of the food I eat is either in restaurants,
or ready-to-eat in boxes--not raw materials--so it is the restaurant
or the food company that decides where to get the ingredients.
I think Fair Trade should be imposed by law by the rich countries, as
a way to transfer income from business to poor country producers. The
WTO probably prohibits this, because the WTO serves business, not the
poor. This is another reason to abolish the WTO.
A militia leader in Sudan says the government arranged the mass
murder that his group participated in.
Efforts to defend the US against bioterrorists - by throwing money at
research - are backfiring, says a 750-strong group of top scientists.
Bush is using a
claim of "national security" to wipe out
lawsuits from people who he arranged to torture.
Long before Bush, it was well known that most of the information kept
secret by the army was kept secret to protect them from public
criticism, rather than from enemies. The Reynolds case proves, if
proof was needed, that the government cannot be trusted in saying what
needs to be secret. What we see now is the application of this
principle, "national security" as an excuse to cover up vicious
government crimes, at the highest level.
In Ukraine, senior police officers have been arrested for murdering a
journalist.
The UK will stop requiring privatization as a condition for foreign
aid.
Hear, hear!
The US has
used the tsunami as an excuse to push two kinds of
intervention in Sri Lanka--military and economic.
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, dared to criticize Israel's
treatment of the Palestinians, and to call Ariel Sharon a "war
criminal".
I agree wholehearedly with the sentiments in this speech.
I wish it were not so rare that I get a chance to say that
about a political leader.
The global warming denial industry,
funded by oil companies, works to
create just enough skepticism about the danger so that nothing will
get done to prevent it.
The most important part of this article is, "CBI...warned that
companies could decamp to less heavily-regulated jurisdictions."
That's what business-dominated globalization means: any government
that tries to rein in the dangerous or cruel practices of business
receives this threat.
I see only two solutions: either a world-wide democratic government
that the companies can't threaten to escape from, or put an end to
business-dominated globalization. The effective way for governments
to regulate business is to regulate the sale of products: "If you want
to sell it here, you must follow these rules." This is what the WTO
prohibits. The WTO must go!
The fashion show that
was really a protest.
U.S. Must Charge Padilla With Crime or Release Him
Blair's attacks on civil liberties in the UK: a sorry pattern.
When Bush visited Mainz (Germany), the whole city was effectively shut
down to present a pretty and fake backdrop. A visit with citizens was
canceled when the German government refused to select only those who
are friendly to Bush.
European leaders are
politely ignoring what Bush has to say.
Uri Avnery thinks the situation in Lebanon is indeed a new expression
of the old struggles between religious groups.
This disagrees with the report I linked to recently which says that
the opposition is general. I have no way to check either one, but I
have more confidence in Avnery than in an American newspaper.
And it seemed too good to be true.
Liat Weingart, of Jewish Voice for Peace, thanks the Presbyterian
Church for deciding to put pressure on companies that support
the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The US is developing a weapon designed to attack crowds by causing
extreme pain.
Jonathan Schell argues that the apparent power of the US is a mirage,
because the US is unable to use that power to attain its objectives.
I don't entirely agree. Keep in mind that it is not really the US
government that rules this empire; it aids the megacorporations in
maintaining their empire. So the way to measure the effectiveness of
the megacorporations' power is to see how often the megacorporations
get what they want.
Recently in India, person who ought to know told me that the pressure
for India to change its patent laws (well beyond what the WTO
requires--not that WTO requirements are legitimate) comes mainly from
the US government. India is the main supplier of cheap medicine to
keep HIV in check. The drug companies stand to make lots of money
from cutting off the flow, while millions of the
not-quite-poorest-of-the-poor will die as a result.
In Iraq, it looks like Bush may get away with the privatization and
plunder of the country's assets, even though it may cost thousands of
Bush forces casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties per
year.
It seems that Bush often gets the megacorporations what they want,
even though this may not correspond to announced "national interests".
A member of the House of Lords speaks eloquently about
the need to preserve the right to a real trial.
The Turkish prime minister has
sued a cartoonist for a cartoon
that criticized the prime minister. This despite the fact that he was
himself imprisoned for speaking against a previous government.
Blair is making some concessions in his attempt to impose a policy of
punishment without trial on UK citizens. But he is very determined to
get it through, and rejected a proposal to require reconsideration
of the law next November.
The amendments being considered would make the law less bad, but there
is still no justification for it. If they think someone is using
telephones to plot something, they can listen to his phone calls.
Uruguay's new president, a leftist,
forges bonds with various other
leftists--including Castro.
The question is, will they go beyond occasional defiance of
Washington, and confront Washington's masters: the megacorporations,
and their low-wage treaties.
Bush said that the US needs "reliable supplies of affordable,
environmentally responsible energy", but that was just meant to sound
good. Less then 2 months later,
his budget plan cuts funds for
clean energy research.
Invading other countries is expensive, so something or other has to be
cut. But why this? I think Bush has a specific reason for these
cuts: he wants to make the US as dependent as possible on the products
sold by his friends in the oil business.
The pro-Syrian prime minister of Lebanon
resigned after massive protests.
I am heartened to read that the opposition is spread across all the
religious groups in Lebanon. My concern at first was that this was a
manifestation of an underlying power-struggle between the groups. If
opposition to the Syrian troop presence is uniting Lebanon, that is a
good thing for Lebanon. It also suggests that the reason for the
Syrian troops to be there is no longer applicable.
Bhutan has
banned all public smoking, and sale of tobacco. I
support efforts to reduce tobacco addiction, but prohibition
goes too far.
An Iranian journalist has been sentenced to 14 years in prison
in a secret trial where his lawyer was not present.
This journalist was not allowed to meet with his lawyer,
and he wasn't given a real trial. Sounds like the mullahs
are learning from Bush.
Blair wants to imprison people who are mentally ill and
violence-prone.
I sympathize with the motivation, but the danger from such people is
quite small; meanwhile, such imprisonment was abused in the past. So
I think this proposal will cause more danger than it prevents. If
Blair and co. want to protect the public from dangerous psychopaths,
how about starting with the megacorporations?
Bush is negotiating with the Iraqi resistance.
Bush will not agree to a solution that doesn't let his cronies plunder
Iraq. I think Bush is trying to play on divisions within Iraq, and
the result could also be a civil war. It would be awfully sad if the
Iraqis accept this, rather than pushing the Bush forces out.
South Africa is failing to address the AIDS problem, hiding
the extent of it rather than taking effective action.
The total deaths due to President Mbeki's refusal to recognize the
situation will number in the millions.
Israel is trying to blame Syria for a recent suicide bombing.
I think it is partly a matter of "blame the usual suspects", partly a
matter of helping Bush (who wants to cause trouble for Syria), and
perhaps partly a matter of its relations with the Palestinian
Authority.
Israel isn't blaming the Palestinian Authority for the bombing, rather
for not preventing the bombing. Of course, it has no practical
ability to do so. This demand is like the labors of Hercules--it is
unjustified and designed to be impossible, so it realy serves as an
excuse to block peace and put the blame on the Palestinians.
Israeli terrorism is carried out by soldiers and police, and by
settlers. The first two could be stopped by a simple government
decision. The terrorism committed by settlers, like that committed by
underground Palestinian groups, is harder to stop. But if Israel
stops the terrorism that is directly government supported, that might
be enough to change the climate so that the Palestinian underground
groups will have to stop too.
How to save a criminal corporation from prosecution.
A new Republican report claims scientists have overestimated the danger of
mercury poisoning. But since this report was written by politically-appointed
congressional staff, I'd believe the scientists.
Bush's plans for forestry involve eliminating environmental
impact statements--which means that he can give his cronies
whatever they want, without format review.
The new rules also authorize the agency to ignore scientific
evidence. As a recent note pointed out, another Bush agency
frequently pressures scientists to lie. Just ignoring them
must be easier.
I predict that next Bush will fire the scientists in federal agencies.
With the major media ready to support his lies, he has no interest in
facts.
Turkey has become quite hostile to the US, and with good reason.
Without supporting the Turkish position on all the issues, I urge the
Turkish government should stop pretending to be best of friends with
Bush, and start proudly opposing him.
Novartis wants to buy major
makers of generic drugs. I worry about the possibility for corruption that
this would open up.
I suspect that Novartis will try to use its position to prevent
generic drugs from being available, and I think this merger
should be blocked.
The Bush forces took Iraqi civilians prisoner,
and when their
relatives came to ask about them, the soldiers attacked the relatives.
And this was the British Bush forces, the ones that are supposed to
know how to be less cruel.
Novartis wants to buy major makers of generic drugs. I worry
about the possibility for corruption that this would open up.
I suspect that Novartis will try to use its position to prevent
generic drugs from being available, and I think this merger
should be blocked.
How
biased and controlled are mass media in the US? Comparing the
coverage of two scandals, one right-wing and one left-wing, gives a
clear picture.
By the way, I don't see anything the slightest bit wrong in a
reporter's helping a citizen formulate a question to ask an official.
Seductive bad advice for environmentalists: "work more with business".
A study that I linked to from here previously reported that
environmental organizations have achieved more by activism than by
trying to work as insiders. The advice to work more as insiders
will mean achieving less.
I suspect two reasons why more Americans oppose environmentalism now
than before. Both are consequences of right-wing gains in other areas
of politics. One is that many Americans' views are shaped by the
corporate media, which is more solidly controlled and more right-wing
now than in the 70s. The other is Americans in general are poorer.
Concern for the environment grew as many Americans became comfortable
enough that they were not worried about immediate survival. As the
right-wing makes life harder in the US, more Americans fall back to
the level where they can't afford to care--about the environment, or
about anything.
There is no essential reason for there to be a trade-off between more
jobs and substantially more pollution. All sorts of work can be done
in cleaner ways or dirtier ways. When businesses face strong
democratic governments, as they did in the US in the 70s, they have to
do the work the clean way. But when businesses are stronger than the
governments, which is true todaya as a result of "free trade"
treaties, they can force countries to compete to permit the highest
pollution levels. That's why more jobs means more pollution.
Bush placated Europe by calling for a contiguous Palestine,
but he's not really stopping Sharon from carving it up.
UK plans for "internment at home" are running into trouble and are
being scaled back--but the essence, which is to deny
the principle that people are innocent until proven guilty, remains.
Bush gave Putin a good lecture about what democracy means. Now if
only
he would follow his own advice.
How credit card companies
play tricks to gouge the public.
They can do this because the president and Congress represent
the banks more than they represent the public.
Dubya's uncle's company is
profiting from the war, often through no-bid contracts.
The Colombian Army
arrested and then murdered peace activists and their families.
(I read in another announcement that one of the arrested people
escaped, which is how it is known that the others were arrested by the
army just before they were killed.)
The French oil company TOTAL is a big financial backer
of the Burmese regime--and its practices of slave
labor.
Chavez is moving forward with the breakup of large land holdings so as
to give land to the peasants.
The US encouraged this policy in the 1960s, but Venezuela did not
implemented i