Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2002
These are my personal opinions and do not speak for the GNU Project, the FSF, or anyone else.
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[December 31, 2002]
The pharmaceutical industry demands
increased patent power saying this
is necessary so it can pay for research for new drugs that will save
lives. But that is not really how it uses the money.
[December 31, 2002]
The new chairman of the 9/11 commission, replacing Kissinger, has
business ties with Osama bin Laden's brother in law.
[December 31, 2002]
Ibrahim Issa
tells the full story of his arrest by Israeli forces and
almost immediate commencement of demolition of his house.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 29, 2002]
Bush will go as far as war to oust Hussein because he would
lose face if Hussein remains in power.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 29, 2002]
Protect endangered cats by
buying bottles with real corks.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 29, 2002]
The US is
using torture to get information from Al Qa'ida suspects.
Less extreme forms of torture are being carried out by US government
employees directly. More extreme forms are done by proxies in other
countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I can understand the feeling that torturing terrorists is justified.
But what about accused terrorists that aren't real terrorists?
What about when someone else decides that torturing you is justified?
[December 26, 2002]
A
site that hosts many activist organizations is being disconnected by
its ISP as a result of pressure from Dow Chemical. One of the
organizations posted a hoax Dow press release and a parody of some of
its web pages. Dow's first response was to claim this was an
accusation of copyright infringement--probably not justified, because
the Supreme Court ruled that parody is protected. Dow must then have
put some sort of pressure on the ISP to disconnect the whole site.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
To publish on the web requires an ISP. If sites are disconnected for
trying to criticize powerful corporations, freedom of the press
becomes just a fiction.
[December 26, 2002]
Homeland security alert:
Osanta bin Claus.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 26, 2002]
Simply
participating in a protest is good for your health, independent
of the benefits of changing a bad social system.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[December 26, 2002]
The Hope Flowers School is looking for donations of funds
so it can
keep teaching peace to Palestinians.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 26, 2002]
The Chinese workers
who make most of the toys we buy
are paid 30 cents an hour--and being poisoned by the substances
they use at work.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 26, 2002]
Sending astronauts to Mars would be
cheaper than a war with Iraq,
and would contribute far more to advance humanity.
Even if we narrow our consideration to the danger of weapons of mass
destruction, space habitats are the only way to make humanity
lastingly safer from them. Stamping on Iraq while North Korea flaunts
its nuclear weapons and sells ballistic missiles won't even help.
[December 26, 2002]
Whoever said "It's impossible to be angry while looking at a penguin"
had never met me. I sometimes feel that I can't escape from penguins
inappropriately used as symbols of the GNU operating system by
well-meaning people who
believe the system is "Linux".
But I don't blame real penguins for this, and I'm disturbed
to read that they are
dying in thousands.
One thing this article does not make clear is whether all the penguins
that live in the Falkland Islands are dying, or only some of them.
Does anyone know?
[December 26, 2002]
The US requires visitors from certain Middle-Eastern countries to
register in a special way. I don't think that policy is oppressive in
and of itself, but inflexible the way it is being carried out reflects
the spirit of Bush and Ashcroft.
Reports of prison guards denying prisoners needed medical care are
legion, in the US as well as other countries. This can't be put down
to simple mistakes or ill-trained staff. It appears to embody a
pervasive attitude of cruelty--the same cruelty expressed by the guard
who said, "So many Iranians! I'll go get my shotgun."
[December 26, 2002]
This web site presents the campaign
against imposition of Chinese censorship in Hong Kong.
[December 21, 2002]
Ibrahim Issa works in the Hope Flowers school that promotes peace
between Israelis and Palestinians. Recently
Israeli forces arrested
him, accusing him of being a terrorist. Rather than put him on trial
for this (which would require mean checking evidence), they began
demolishing his house just a few hours later.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
It turned out that there was no evidence, because it was just a case
of guilt by association. He had rented a room to the wrong person.
The demolition was stopped--the house was only partly destroyed--by an
international outcry.
But most Palestinians are not famous and cannot expect so much
personal attention. When they are victims of guilt by association and
collective punishment, there is nobody to help them.
[December 21, 2002]
The US is arresting
hundreds or thousands of middle-eastern visitors
for minor visa violations, tearing them away from family members
and then mistreating them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Bush and his henchmen have set their bureaucratic machine on
systematic dumb useless cruelty.
[December 21, 2002]
Several European governments are trying to protect their fishing
industries in the short run, even though this could mean
wiping them
out completely in a few years.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Fishermen live in child's fantasy world: they refuse to recognize that
their overfishing has consequences--for them and for everyone.
Whenever limits on fishing are imposed to prevent extinction of the
fish stocks, the fishermen say, "This must be unnecessary, because it
hurts us too much." Wishful thinking, that. If we let them continue,
soon they will all be out of work; rational thought says they should
accept some pain to day to avoid worse pain tomorrow. But that takes
courage, which today's fishermen apparently lack. So they pressure
governments to move slowly in protecting the fish stocks. Repeatedly
this caution leads to failure.
We must not leave this important decision to childish minds that
refuse to recognize where their own actions are leading.
[December 21, 2002]
If, as the US accuses, the Iraqi declaration about weapons programs
has gaps, the UN resolution is not violated--yet. The weapons
inspectors are supposed to fill in the alleged gaps. Iraq may or may
not cooperate with them.
Here is a
thoughtful analysis of various possibilities for what is
happening, which explains how an attack on Iraq could easily hurt the
US if Iraq has not had a chance to comply.
[December 20, 2002]
According to Human Rights Watch, the
new ruler of Herat is just a
little better than the Taliban. Women can go to school now, but they
are not allowed to drive, talk to the press, or take off their Burqas.
If they do, they are savaged. Nonetheless, the US government is quite
chummy with the ruler.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 20, 2002]
Senator Lott resigned as the leader of Senate Republicans after the
criticism he received for praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential
campaign.
Thurmond's platform was racial segregation.
Lott is not resigning from his seat in the Senate, so the change in
leadership won't really have much effect on the Senate's ability to do
harm. The only way this might do some real good is by reminding people
what lurks in the heart of many conservatives.
[December 20, 2002]
Activists have given Poindexter a
taste of his own privacy-intruding
medicine.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
They asked for your help:
When and if you see Mr. Poindexter purchase something, travel
somewhere or do, well, anything -- send us a tip describing your
observations. We will display the information received right
here on this Web site.
[December 20, 2002]
As of Dec 17, the Israeli army had
cut off the village of Asira
A-Shamalia completely. Soldiers arrested 60 women walking to Nablus
where they work as teachers and nurses, and held them at gun point for
24 hours (as of when the report was made), while the rain fell on
them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 20, 2002]
The major elements of Dubya's "response" to the September 11 attacks
really have nothing to do with September 11. They echo the proposals
of the
Project for a New American Century, to which several of Bush's
appointees belonged. September 11 was
nothing more than an excuse for what they wanted to do anyway.
[References updated on 2018-01-08 because the old links were broken.]
Tellingly, Condoleezza Rice is quoted as describing September 11
as an "opportunity" and asking how to "capitalize" on it.
[December 20, 2002]
The Pentagon is once again
planning a massive propaganda campaign to
convince people around the world to support US policies. It might
also tell lies and smear and frame opposition figures--it wouldn't be
the first time.
[December 20, 2002]
The UK is
sending troops to the Persian Gulf now, which suggests
that Dubya is going to launch a war regardless of what the UN weapons
inspectors find.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Dubya is already saying that the Iraqi report contains lies.
Maybe it does, but if past experience is any guide, Dubya will
not show us any substantial evidence to that effect.
[December 19, 2002]
Dubya is
planning to spend millions on missile defense.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
There's nothing wrong with defense against ballistic missiles in
principle--if the system works and is affordable. However, in the
light of Newsweek's report that the Soviet Union installed a nuke in
its embassy in Washington, it seems ineffective. Even if you imagine
it as a defense against hypothetical future North Korean missiles, it
would have to be installed in every city to prevent them from being
able to do any damage. And that would be so expensive it's
ridiculous.
The main effect of Dubya's missile defense program will be to
subsidize his cronies in the companies that build the system,
and to provide more excuses to cut spending on programs that
help most Americans' lives.
[December 19, 2002]
Tunisia
censors the press and practices torture of political dissidents.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Now an Internet site www.kalimatunisie.com
outside Tunisia publishes uncensored Tunisian
news (in French).
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 18, 2002]
Bringing education to Tuareg children in Mali.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 17, 2002]
Yasser Arafat condemned Osama bin Laden for
trying to exploit the
Palestinian cause as a justification for atrocities.
Since Arafat's Fatah movement has been linked with suicide bombers, I
can't take this totally seriously; however, it is a step in the right
direction.
[December 17, 2002]
A party linked with murderous anti-muslim riots last March has
won the
election in Gujarat, India, by appealing to religious hatred.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 17, 2002]
The Surveillance
Camera Players have many "resource" pages describing various
surveillance systems and how they do or don't actually work.
[December 17, 2002]
Union organizers in Turkey have been
sentenced to over a year in prison
for holding an "illegal demonstration".
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
They were protesting against a law that prohibits unions from striking.
[December 17, 2002]
There have been
large protests in Hong Kong against a Chinese plan
to impose a law of treason that could be easily stretched to cover
opposition to government policies.
The Hong Kong government responded that the protests show Hong Kong
has freedom of speech today. That is true, but fails to refute the
claim that the proposed laws will reduce that freedom.
[December 17, 2002]
Ice in Greenland is
melting faster than ever observed before.
This contributes directly to sea level rise.
If the sea level rises the amount scientists generally expect, a few
feet, it threatens to make millions of poor people homeless in coming
decades. But this is not the worst it can get. At the end of the
last ice age, sea level rose 150 feet fairly quickly. If the
Antarctic and Greenland ice all melts, something like this could
happen again. Most of the world's great cities would be drowned.
[December 17, 2002]
Professor Ben-Artzi, who handed out leaflets for peace to the audience
at a public panel discussion in Israel and then said he wanted a
chance to respond to the speakers, was
physically attacked by the guards,
then accused of trespassing.
[December 16, 2002]
A visitor from Britain is
threatened with imprisonment in the US, and
prevented from returning home, on the excuse that he cut across
private property to participate in a protest.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I am not particularly an advocate of animal rights, but even so
I find it dangerous when the government seizes on flimsy excuses
to attack peaceful protestors.
[December 16, 2002]
If things go well, a war against Iraq could be cheap.
If not, it could cause
economic disaster for the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The article notes how the movement of manufacturing out of the US has
left US exports dependent on stopping individuals and companies from
copying: for instance, on proprietary software, movies, and patented
drugs. But it considers this merely as a fact, and does not judge the
system from an ethical point of view. Many of the changes that the
article warns might follow from increased antiamericanism are changes
that should occur anyway. There's no need to have an opinion about
the US to believe that people should switch from Windows to GNU/Linux
or that South Africa and India should be free to make medicine cheaply
so their citizens can afford it.
[December 15, 2002]
A
study in Africa shows that simply treating syphilis and other
curable sexually transmitted diseases cut the rate of AIDS infection
by 40%.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 15, 2002]
North Korea is
openly planning to produce nuclear material.
It makes no sense for the US to launch a war against Iraq
for suspicions of having an underground program to develop
weapons of mass destruction while ignoring Korea's far
more effective program.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, Colin Powell
made a statement recognizing that US support
for dictators in the Arab world is part of the cause for hostility
towards the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 15, 2002]
European fishermen
protested plans to cut fishing quotas by blocking
the English Channel with their boats. They want to be allowed to keep
fishing, but that is impossible--the fish they catch are being driven
to extinction by overfishing already.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 13, 2002]
China has
sentenced two Tibetan monks to death after a secret trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Remember when we were told that including China in world trade would
lead to democracy and human rights in China? Instead increased world
trade has had the opposite effect: it endangers democracy and human
rights everywhere else. That's why I support the campaign to boycott
goods made in China.
[December 13, 2002]
The
independent
reports on riots in East Timor against the government, but doesn't go
into much detail about why.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
A local group's
report attributes the problem to a mob that was angered by harsh
police activity, and then used by opposition politicians while police
failed to respond effectively. But it suggests that the underlying
causes include unemployment and lack of progress towards democracy
and prosperity.
An
ETAN announcement made shortly before the protests
refers to widespread dissatisfaction with the regime that the
multinational institutions have imposed.
[December 13, 2002]
The British Library has
suspended librarians for using the Internet to
look at porn. It's not merely an injustice, it is also stupid.
[December 12, 2002]
A peace activist in Iceland was
arrested for warning that Iceland's
planes might be targets for terrorism if Iceland participates in a war
against Iraq. The police chose to interpret this as a threat rather
than as a warning.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I would not use this arguments like this against Bush's crusade
against Saddam: the danger of retaliation is not a good reason to
stand aside from a war if there really is a good enough
reason to fight it in the first place. Nonetheless, the readiness to
arrest people for making such arguments is dangerous to democracy.
Much more dangerous than Saddam Hussein.
[December 11, 2002]
Social workers and police are
working together in Canada to harass dissidents.
[December 10, 2002]
A
hoax press release pretending to be from Dow Chemical
explains why it simply cannot help the people of Bhopal,
much as it would like to do so.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
A recent note describes the arrest of local residents
for trying to clean up the polluted site themselves.
[December 9, 2002]
Economist Paul Krugman, in the New York Times,
argues that monopolies
on broadband access in the US threaten to cause high prices, and
perhaps censorship as well.
The high prices will tend to discourage the growth of broadband
access. Meanwhile, Hollywood is claiming that the government should
encourage broadband usage by giving it increased power to restrict our
computers. Perhaps the government could achieve the job more
effectively (and with less cost to our freedom) by breaking up
broadband monopolies instead.
[December 9, 2002]
An American nurse
is in prison in Indonesia for "visa violations"
after treating injured people in refugee camps in Aceh as a volunteer.
(The idea that a tourist visa prohibits this is rather peculiar.)
She has been tortured and is on hunger strike to protest repeated
delays in her trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 7, 2002]
Israeli soldiers have
repeatedly attacked UN operations and personnel
in Palestine.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 7, 2002]
A
new constitution is being drawn up for Europe.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This raises the question: how democratic will this constitution be?
Most especially on the question of how to regulate business,
and how to negotiate trade treaties.
If Europe is to be democratic, the most important
[December 6, 2002]
The US government is publishing insults about UN weapons inspectors
that were appointed at the request of the US. Robert Fisk suggests
this is part of a
propaganda campaign to pave the way for war.
I'm struck by the resemblance between this propaganda campaign and the
ones that dictatorships (including that of Saddam Hussein) use.
[December 6, 2002]
Several teenagers confessed to raping the "Central Park jogger" in
1989. Now DNA evidence shows that
someone else committed the crime.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
False confessions are not unusual. Sometimes they result from police
pressure that people don't know how to resist. It may not be what we
normally call torture, but if it can lead people to confess to
something they didn't do, it has the effect of torture.
[December 5, 2002]
The International Association Against Psychiatric Assault, which
opposes forcing people to undergo psychiatric treatment, practices
democracy in a new form: the members
vote directly on the Internet.
I agree at least partly with their goals; I would have to study their
position more to know whether I agree fully.
[December 5, 2002]
Israeli soldiers dynamited a home in Gaza while the deaf grandfather
was still in it. They did not bother to check.
He was killed.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Israeli soldiers often force a Palestinian family out of their home
and dynamite it, so that everything they own is destroyed and they
have nowhere to live. They do this because a relative is accused of
fighting Israel. Even when nobody is killed, this is collective
punishment, which is prohibited by the treaties Israel has signed.
[December 5, 2002]
The MPP filed charges against "Drug Czar" John Walters for
publishing
lies to influence the marijuana legalization vote in Nevada.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 5, 2002]
Reacting to the disastrous oil spill that has ruined beaches and
destroyed fishing near Gallicia, France and Spain have
agreed on
a policy to keep dangerous tankers away from their shores.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
How amazing it is when governments act so intelligently.
[December 2, 2002]
Putting Kissinger
in charge of the investigation into what really
happened on Sep 11 is a blatant way of turning the investigation into
a coverup.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 1, 2002]
A
sarcastic column in the Independent, whose topic is the
British government's response to the firefighters' strike,
gets to the heart of the callous attitude of the Blair government.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[December 1, 2002]
The British government
issued a report, supposedly relaying
information from spies in Iraq, saying that Saddam Hussein is
ordering large numbers of people to hide documents and weapons
components that the UN inspectors will be looking for.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I suspect this information is false, both because it is exactly what
Prime Minister Blair wants people to believe, and because the claim
that Saddam believes he needs chemical, biological or nuclear weapons
to stay in power seems incredible. Saddam surely knows, just as we
do, that many repressive regimes stay in power using ordinary guns and
bullets. He also knows that a large number of people can't keep a
secret. With large numbers of Iraqis involved in hiding these things,
it's predictable that the inspectors would find out, giving Dubya
exactly the excuse he seeks for the war he wants.
Saddam is not stupid. It is more plausible that someone behind this
report is lying than that Saddam is playing so foolishly into Dubya's
hands.
[November 30, 2002]
A state official in Nigeria, citing Islam, has
called for a Nigerian writer to be murdered.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Islamic law is a form of brutality that the world should not tolerate.
Nigeria should abolish Islamic law in the states that have pretended
to adopt it, and officials who make death threats should be
imprisoned.
[November 30, 2002]
The prohibition of prostitution is criticized in a
thoughtful article from the Independent.
I can't imagine being the client of a prostitute, because the
situation would make me feel unwanted. It seems I need mutual
tenderness and desire to be part of sex, and the request for money is
a sure sign that someone doesn't really want me for myself.
However, for those whose feelings about this are different from mine,
prostitution ought to be legal.
[November 30, 2002]
Since neither Union Carbide nor its successor, Dow Chemical, has
cleaned up the poisoned site of the factory in Bhopal, local people
tried to do it--but they were
attacked savagely by the local police.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
It is interesting that a police inspector told these people falsely
that they are Hindu fundamentalists. He might have fooled someone
else, but how could he have fooled them? They know what their group
stands for. The strange thing is that police often do this. They
believe that the concept of truth does not apply to them.
[November 29, 2002]
This article explains how the "Homeland Security" bill opens your
internet communications to government snooping.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
Note that the article refers to "hackers"
but uses the word wrongly--the writer really means "crackers",
which are people who break computer security. By the way, I don't
object to prison sentences for people who break security and endanger
people's lives, if it is the truth that they did so and not an
exaggeration. What is dangerous to democracy is prison sentences for
people who break security for political graffiti or civil disobdience.
Another article explains how far "total information awareness" intends
to carry surveillance of everyone in the US that the government wants
to watch--the occasional real terrorist, and political dissidents
labeled as terrorists.
The choice of Poindexter for this program is ironic.
His past experience with America-hating terrorists was
to supply them with arms and lie about it.
[November 29, 2002]
The Supreme Court is looking at a case about whether police in the US
can bully (or
in effect torture) people into making statements.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 29, 2002]
Just a few months ago, the EU abolished the law that required
telephone companies and ISPs to destroy customer data once it was not
needed for billing. Now they plan to require this data to be kept for
a long time. The
excuse is terrorism, but there is no rational reason
to believe these surveillance measures are really necessary--or that
they will only be used against terrorists.
[November 27, 2002]
Israeli soldiers
shot a British UN worker in Jenin, causing
a diplomatic row between Israel and the UK.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 27, 2002]
What the intifada
may be doing to Israel's rule of law
Residents of Hebron
have to hide on Holy Days.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 27, 2002]
Argentina has defaulted on its debt to the World Bank.
There may be reprisals, but in the long run
it could be helpful.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Many poor countries are trapped in a cycle of increasing debt that is
never repaid, only transferred to more debt. In order to keep
transferring the debt, they must agree to cruel policies--for
instance, making children pay to go to school, which excludes the poor
from education. Even if the country can keep transferring the debt
and never needs to pay anything, these policies hurt the people. The
only escape from the trap is to break the cycle.
If default discourages lenders from continuing the cycle,
that is beneficial.
[November 25, 2002]
The government of Vancouver, rather than doing anything to help
the homeless poor find housing, has
obtained an injunction to kick
them out of the abandoned building that they were trying to repair.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 25, 2002]
Dubya attacks the Clean Air Act, weakening requirements for various
polluting industries to clean up their pollution.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Perhaps Bush feels uncomfortable in a clean world.
[November 23, 2002]
A proposed UK law to abolish many of the rights of those
accused of crimes is
even worse than was expected.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 23, 2002]
During the recent protests against the NATO meeting in Prague, the
protest headquarters was evicted. (I presume they had paid good money
to rent it.) It is clear that this was nothing but a dirty trick to
sabotage the protests.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 23, 2002]
Iraq plans to give the UN arms inspectors such a large amount of
information that
studying it may take a long time.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This can be seen as a tactic to delay the inspectors' report. It can
also be seen as the only rational response to the US threat that
withholding anything the US considers relevant would be taken as
grounds for war. Should Iraq take the risk of omitting anything?
The bulk of information may delay the final report, and thus impede
the job Dubya wants the inspectors to do--get out of the way so he can
invade. But it should not impede the job the inspectors have been
officially sent to do: finding and destroying any weapons of mass
destruction and facilities for making them. They can study the
records in whatever order they like, so having more complete records
on hand can only help their check for weapons.
[November 22, 2002]
A commentator in the Independent (London) reports that cocaine and
even heroin are becoming popular in her generation, and she attributes
it to the
previous practice of using ecstasy.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
If the connection is real, I wonder if it results from the fact that
the government treats them the same way. A person might think, "The
government told me nonsense about ecstasy and was wrong, so why should
I believe what they say about cocaine?"
[November 22, 2002]
The Onion reports: Muslim Groups In U.S.
May Be Developing Nuclear Families.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 22, 2002]
"Since last Sunday, a
question has been running around in my head and
troubling my sleep: What induced the young Palestinian, who broke into
Kibbutz Metzer, to aim his weapon at a mother and her two little
children and kill them?"
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 22, 2002]
The ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana in Nevada and Alaska
failed, but got around 40% of the vote, which shows that legalization
has substantial support.
Part of the reason for the failure was lies told by Dubya's
"drug czar" John Walters about
changes in potency of marijuana since the 1970s.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 22, 2002]
Dubya demonstrates his
shallowness and narrowness of mind with his own
words.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 22, 2002]
There are
continuing protests against Venezuelan President Chavez; the
police in the capital, Caracas, are siding with the protesters, who on
previous occasions were described as the wealthier segments of
society, typically the people of European ancestry. His supporters
are also holding demonstrations, which the police attack.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Whether Chavez is a tyrant or whether his opponents are trying to
maintain unjust privilege is hard for me to tell at this distance.
The one Chavez policy I can judge for myself is a policy of firm
support for both using and developing free software--a clear rejection
of corporate domination of one area of life. This suggests that
Chavez is at least to some extent trying to do the right thing, and
shows he is not merely an opportunist.
[November 22, 2002]
An aged oil tanker
broke in two and sank near the coast of Spain.
Most of the oil went down with the ship, but people expect it to leak
out and destroy the shellfish beds of a whole region in Spain.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
The tremendous ecological and economic danger from transport of oil
underlines the folly of the US policy of keeping gasoline cheap,
which encourages rapid consumption of oil and the transport of large
amounts of oil.
[November 22, 2002]
Turkey has imprisoned Mehmet Bal for
objecting on grounds of conscience to military service, and there are fears
he will be injured in prison.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 21, 2002]
Homeless people in Vancouver are
squatting in an abandoned building to
make the public aware of the dangerous shortage of housing there. The
government responded by arresting people and destroying their meager
belongings.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Note that "liberal" in Canada is the name of a right-wing party,
not like the US.
[November 21, 2002]
A general who says he would remove most Israeli settlements and talk
peace with Arafat is expected to become the head of Israel's labor
party.
If he gets a chance to do this, he will remove the main Israeli
obstacle to peace,
putting the ball in the Palestinians' court.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
As noted here before, most of the Israelis living in the West Bank
territories do not want to be there, and would leave immediately if
they could only get an apartment in Israel proper. The US could help
the cause of peace by buying the settlers' apartments from them and
then either knocking them down or handing them to Palestinians.
[November 21, 2002]
In Baghdad, as the UN weapons inspectors go to work,
US jets are already bombing even though the "war" has
not begun. Iraqis expect the US to
invade regardless
of whether Saddam cooperates with them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 21, 2002]
The US war on drugs is
causing a lot of harm in Bolivia.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 21, 2002]
Police in the UK want to be able to
lock people up for 36 hours
without charging them with a crime. Their behavior towards protestors
in the past suggests they are likely to use this as an excuse to lock
protestors away even when no crime has occurred.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 18, 2002]
The New Zealand government is
trying to adopt sweeping new
surveillance powers. The New Zealand Green Party is leading the
opposition to these bills.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 18, 2002]
Iran's religious rulers, pressured by student protests, are
reconsidering the death sentence of Hashem Aghajari, who was convicted
of blasphemy for suggesting that the mullahs' interpretation of Islam
is not the only possible one.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 18, 2002]
Since the US army has no trouble meeting its recruiting targets, what
is the reason for the
proposal to require American men to have
military training?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 17, 2002]
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is asking for support for the
participants in a protest march, who were
charged with serious crimes
after mounted police charged through the crowd attacking people.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 17, 2002]
Tony Blair is trying again to
attack the rights of the accused in the
UK. His latest plans would deny many defendants the right to trial by
jury and allow multiple trials for the same offense.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
A few years ago Blair wanted to limit jury trials to the rich and
famous, on the excuse that other people have less to lose if they are
unjustly convicted and imprisoned. Contempt for the public in general
cannot be more blatant.
Governments in Europe and the US already fabricate charges against
political protestors. To give them increased power over ordinary
citizens is a step backward. Where governments need increased power
is over large corporations like Microsoft that believe, from
experience, that they can buy the support of governments.
[November 17, 2002]
The evident US and British intention to attack Iraq whether Saddam
Hussein disarms or not, all while encouraging the persecution of
Muslims in many parts of the world, is
feeding Al Qa'ida.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 17, 2002]
The Pope
criticized Berlusconi, the TV magnate who became Italian
prime minister by controlling nearly all the private TV in Italy.
This may be useful somehow. The Pope also urged civilization to
commit suicide by having large families. Well, nobody can be right
all the time. Italians will probably ignore the former; let's hope
they ignore the latter too.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 16, 2002]
The famine in Ethiopia is partly caused by drought, and partly
by a callous Ethiopian government--but also partly by the world
economic system that has allowed coffee prices to fall to the point
where the
farmers who make your coffee are starving.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 16, 2002]
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security
initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see
internment camps and
martial law in the United States.
[November 16, 2002]
Just as Hamas was meeting to
to discuss rejection of suicide bombings, Israeli forces launched
a fresh attack which
probably destroyed the chances for agreement.
[References updated on 2018-01-16 because the old links were broken.]
Israeli peace groups point to a pattern of such actions, outbursts of
Israeli violence whenever Palestinians are discussing a reduction in
their violence. They say Sharon deliberately sabotages any
Palestinian initiatives to move towards less violent resistance, so he
can continue using their violence as an excuse for brutal policies
and theft of land.
[November 15, 2002]
Bush is currently
sending more troops to the Middle East.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This suggests he has no real intention of allowing arms inspectors
to disarm Iraq peacefully.
[November 15, 2002]
William Safire, a famous conservative who usually disagrees with me,
wrote something every American should take note of:
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is
what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card,
every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill,
every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every
academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip
you book and every event you attend--all these transactions and
communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as
"a virtual, centralized grand database."
[November 15, 2002]
Some parts of northern Nigeria have imposed Islamic law. The Miss
World contest in Nigeria was almost canceled by a boycott by the
contestants, until the Nigerian government promised that a sentence of
death by stoning, imposed on a woman for adultery under Islamic law,
would not be carried out.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Yesterday I saw a machine that was reportedly used until 1923 for
cutting off the hands of thieves in Yogyakarta, Java. This brutality
is practiced today in Saudi Arabia and perhaps Iran and Pakistan.
[November 14, 2002]
A Microsoft software license
includes terms that prohibit use of the
software to criticize Microsoft. The terms are buried in a long
license, so you might easily not notice them, criticize Microsoft, and
get sued.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Microsoft denies the terms mean what they appear to mean, but that is
little basis for relief. This illustrates the fact that shrink-wrap
licenses are very dangerous--they give businesses too much power.
[November 14, 2002]
Human Rights Watch says that the Attorney General of Colombia is
blocking prosecution of human rights abuses perpetrated by the
Columbian military.
[November 13, 2002]
Research reports that marijuana can
cause some serious health problems.
Part of the reason is that marijuana today is very potent.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
It still seems that the problems will be less than those of tobacco.
A large fraction of tobacco users use 40 to 60 cigarettes per day; the
addictiveness of tobacco tends to lead to heavier use. Only a few
marijuana users use as much as 3 joints per day. Most use it less
than once a day, often much less.
If marijuana were legal, it could be sold in various potencies.
Perhaps most marijuana users would choose less potent reefers.
[November 13, 2002]
I avoided commenting on the DC sniper while the national media were
filled with it. Now the lawyers for one suspect are
accusing the
police of breaking the law and trying to prejudice possible jurors.
When police bully someone into confessing, sometimes the confession is
false. We all understand that a person under torture might confess to
things he did not do. It may be hard to believe that people can do
this even without torture, but it is true, and false confessions are a
well-known phenomenon. It seems some people cannot stand up to
psychological pressure.
I don't know whether Malvi is guilty, but police practices that go too
far will squeeze out false confessions from time to time, even if this
confession was true. That can do more harm than the sniper murders
did.
Prejudicing the jurors is also dangerous, and unlike the danger of
false confessions, having a strong will does not make you safe. I'd
rather be shot than falsely convicted of murder.
[November 11, 2002]
Ever the enemy of democracy, Bush now plans to make it easier
for the government to
alter and destroy records that are supposed
to be available for the public to study.
[November 10, 2002]
How the war on terrorism
promotes terrorism--and other issues.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 10, 2002]
The crime of "driving while Black" exists in the UK as well as the US.
British people of Asian (mostly Indian) origin are less likely to
commit crimes than whites, but the police
suspect them more often.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 10, 2002]
Republicans in the senate plan further tax cuts for rich people,
installing conservative judges, more destruction of wilderness,
and fewer restrictions on corrupt accountants like those who
audited Enron.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 10, 2002]
Berlusconi, il ducino of Italy, tried to cancel the European Social
Forum in Florence on the excuse that there would be violence. This is
absurd, since the European Social Forum is not a protest against any
particular event in Florence. The only people who
might have started violence were the police.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 10, 2002]
Islamic parties did well in Pakistan's elections; General Musharraf
is trying to
block them from taking power.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Pakistan's laws are cruel and theocratic already--people are regularly
sentenced to death for blasphemy, and if they hope to be exonerated on
appeal, they are often murdered in prison. Anyone who wants to make
Pakistan more Islamic must be little different from the Taliban.
However, the US strategy of blocking democracy in these countries has
the long-run effect of boosting Islamists, because they become the
alternative to nondemocratic rulers that serve the US.
[November 10, 2002]
The US government is
forcing schools to turn over students' names and
addresses to military recruiters who then try to contact the students
at home.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Under the US Constitution, the Federal government is not supposed to
control education. They get around this by putting strings on Federal
aid that all schools depend on. We have to recognize that the
difference between an explicit legal mandate and a condition attached
to aid many people need is just an excuse.
[November 10, 2002]
Massachusetts voters adopted a referendum prohibiting bilingual
education in public schools. Non-English-speaking children will be
given one year to adjust to English, after which they will be required
to learn all subjects in English alone. The referendum did not tell
voters that
this law would mean teachers could be sued for speaking to
a child in his or her native language.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The probable result is that many immigrant students, all but the
brightest, will fall steadily behind after that one year, because they
won't understand English well enough to learn the subject matter.
Many of them will feel it is pointless to go to school, and drop out.
For lack of any better alternative, some will join gangs and increase
the crime rate.
This is bad for all students, not just immigrants, because bilingual
education is good for everyone. A Washington DC public school,
Escuela Biling�e Oyster, has a long waiting list for people outside
the district who want their children to go there. Most of them are
English-speaking speakers who want their kids to grow up knowing
Spanish also.
[November 10, 2002]
EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, has
warned colleges not to monitor what files students are transmitting
on the Internet.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 9, 2002]
South Africa has arrested the alleged perpetrators of a rather cracked
terrorist plot to
expel the majority blacks from the country.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
But while people can smile in amusement at the absurdity of this plan,
many South African blacks faces real danger from their own government,
from its support for business-dominated economic policies and its
disregard for AIDS prevention (see previous notes). Ironically, part
of what the plotters supposedly planned to do was cut off power
supplies. That's just what the government is doing with its
privatization policy.
[November 8, 2002]
The UK has sentenced former MI5 David Shayler to prison
for revealing
dirty government secrets to the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 8, 2002]
Unions believe that Bush intends to use an invasion of Iraq as an
occasion to employ the Taft-Hartley act to
destroy them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 7, 2002]
The demand for rare mahogany for making expensive furniture is
endangering the species and also the Amazon rain forest as a whole.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 6, 2002]
An Israeli legislator has
proposed to make it a crime to be a witness
for the International War Crimes Tribunal, or assist it in any way.
Simply keeping a record of war crimes and publishing it would be
prosecuted.
[November 6, 2002]
Tens of thousands
protested at the Quito summit negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 6, 2002]
PBS
rejected its own documentary on the misconduct of the Florida
election in 2000. Some of these forms of misconduct were used again
by Jeb Bush to get reelected as governor.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This article shows examples of several broad patterns of media bias
under corporate influence.
[November 5, 2002]
Israeli and International protestors who were shielding Palestinians'
olive trees with their bodies were
attacked and injured by Israeli
construction workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
It is interesting to compare these volunteer human shields with the
human shields used by the Israeli army, who were forced at gunpoint.
[November 5, 2002] (Stealing the election)
A documentary unprecedented
details the various forms of
cheating that Dubya used to steal the election in Florida.
[November 5, 2002]
Europe has adopted a ban on animal testing of cosmetics. A scandal
has developed because a company
planned to move production overseas
in order to continue doing animal testing.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I'm not particularly against animal testing of products, though I
think it may as well be avoided when there is no special reason for
it. The important point in these events is that Europe was going to
ban the sale of cosmetics that had been tested on animals, but didn't
do so because of WTO rules.
This is one more instance of how the WTO subordinates business to
democracy. I am not against world trade, but the WTO as it exists
today must be abolished.
[November 5, 2002]
A
rare case of good news: the Tamil Tigers, which have been fighting
for independence for a part of Sri Lanka, say they want to make peace.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 5, 2002]
In late October PBS was screening a documentary reporting on how Katherine Harris
removed some 50,000 voters
from the Florida voting lists and thus put the 2000 election in doubt. The dates
for most cities are Oct 30-Nov 5.
A related suit brought against Florida by civil rights groups was
settled out of court
in September, and the election laws passed since the 2000 election
remain inadequate
[References updated on 2018-01-16 because the old links were broken.]
[November 4, 2002]
Dubya's brother Jeb Bush is running for reelection as governor of
Florida. Just as last year, Florida is excluding tens of thousands of
legitimate voters claiming that they are "felons". But that is not
enough for Jeb Bush to defeat his Democratic challenger, Bill McBride.
Florida Democratic chairman Bob Poe says someone phoned him, claiming
to be speaking for the McBride campaign, and told him to cast an
absentee ballot on Nov 10--five days too late. He suspects that
someone is
systematically telephoning Democrats with this deceptive
advice.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The Republicans deny involvement in this, but I don't think their word
counts. Democratic politicians are not above lying either; however,
if indeed there was a massive campaign to trick democrats, we should
soon have plenty of witnesses who can testify they were called.
I don't know anything about Bill McBride except that he is running
against Jeb Bush, so I cannot say I endorse him. However, Jeb Bush
helped for Dubya to steal the election, and getting rid of Jeb will
make it harder for Dubya to do that again.
[November 4, 2002]
Yannis Serifis has been
accused in Greece of participating in the
"November 17" terrorist group, but supporters say he is being framed
for his political opposition--and that this isn't the first time he
was framed by the government.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 4, 2002]
State workers in Colombia have
gone on strike against
president Uribe's austerity program.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[November 4, 2002]
Earlier this year I wrote in favor of building a fence to separate the
occupied West Bank from Israel, as a way of preventing terror attacks
without subjecting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to constant
oppression.
Since then, Israel has begun building a wall; but rather than building
it between the Palestinians and Israel, Israel is
putting the wall
between Palestinians and their farmland--in effect, stealing their
land. The construction workers have threatened to kill Palestinians
who protest peacefully.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
A joint protest by Israelis and Palestinians was
held on Oct 26.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Israelis in the peace movement are
staying in Khirbet Yanun,
the Palestinian village whose inhabitants were driven out by
Israeli settlers, so as to enable the villagers to return home.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 4, 2002]
Bush continues to use devious twists and turns to
prevent a
congressional investigation into the events of 9/11.
[November 4, 2002]
The Israeli government has begun
denying foreigners entry to Israel
if they have nonviolently protected Palestinians by acting as witnesses
or shields.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[November 3, 2002]
ISPs are moving towards new price policies that
discourage people
from using a lot of bandwidth.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I don't entirely share the attitude of the author of that article; I
don't think that charging more for heavy use is necessarily
outrageous. But it is interesting to note that these policies
discourage use of services such as Internet radio (as well as P2P
networks).
The pressure to impose new restrictions on computers and recording and
copying devices often cites a desire to "encourage more use of
broadband". It is interesting to contrast that with this FCC decision
that will tend to discourage use of broadband.
[November 3, 2002]
A British court is
investigating the former head of the Israeli army
for violations of the Geneva convention, including the incursion into
Jenin, where Israeli forces destroyed large numbers of houses and used
civilians as human shields. The initial accusation that the army also
massacred hundreds of civilians in Jenin seems to be false, but the
army's tactics kill civilians regularly.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, a Human Rights Watch report
calls for prosecution
of the leadership of Hamas for ordering suicide bombings.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 1, 2002]
Russian police used a paralytic gas to disable Chechens who were
holding hundreds of hostages in a theater. The gas killed over a
hundred of the hostages, and Russia has been criticized for failing to
tell doctors how to prevent the deaths.
Most of the perpetrators were killed also--but not, it seems, by the gas.
This article in the Independent says they were shot while
unconscious.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This should be the larger scandal. Perhaps it is true that the police
didn't expect the gas to kill anyone, but the police who shot the
Chechens cannot make that excuse. There is no possible excuse for
killing suspects who are defeated and unresisting, no matter what
crime they are accused of.
[November 1, 2002]
International monitors will observe the Florida elections this year.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
That such monitors are necessary is a humiliation that the US owes to
George Bush and his supporters.
[November 1, 2002]
"There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not
alleged to be in danger or under actual attack... Rome [as it expanded
its empire] was always [claiming to be] attacked by evil-minded
neighbours."
Does
that sound like the US under bush?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[November 1, 2002]
Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, who controls all the main Italian
television stations, is pushing a bill
designed to help his friend
avoid being convicted of bribery.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 31, 2002]
Indonesia is adopting anti-terror measures that
raise fears
they will be used to suppress opposition to the government.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The authoritarian regimes in Singapore and Malaysia can detain
terrorist suspects indefinitely--just like the authoritarian regime
in the US.
[October 31, 2002]
Israeli expansionist settlers are trying to drive Palestinians off
their lands by shooting them as they try to harvest their olive trees.
Sometimes they steal the olives. Sometimes they also burn the trees.
Israelis who support peace are
helping to shield Palestinians so they
can harvest their olives.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 31, 2002]
California has established high standards of fuel efficiency for cars.
Bush is having the Federal government
sue California to overturn them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Bush makes his money from the oil business. It seems that he is
determined to maximize his short term oil profits no matter what the
cost to society.
[October 31, 2002]
Why did the head of the New York Stock Exchange
meet with
a representative of a guerilla army in Colombia?
[October 28, 2002]
Starvation is hitting parts of India--the government has food but is
failing to distribute food to people who are hungry.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 28, 2002]
The ACLU is
suing the Denver police for keeping records
on political dissidents and treating them as potential suspects.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 27, 2002]
94 protestors were arrested at an anti-McDonalds rally in Mexico
City on the excuse that a parasol and a window were damaged.
[October 27, 2002]
How policy on Iraq, in the US and other countries, is
driven by
profit.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 26, 2002]
French Interior Minister Sarkozy has
proposed a ban on street
prostitution, claiming that streetwalkers somehow hurt the people
in the neighborhood where they operate.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
Making prostitutes livelihood illegal is only going to make their
lives worse. If Sarkozy wants to "clean up the streets" without
hurting the most unfortunate, he should offer them another place to
ply their trade--or a way they can live without having to be
prostitutes. However, his right-wing party would never dream of doing
that.
[October 26, 2002]
What chain of decisions led Israeli troops to kill
8 or more Palestinians in Rafah?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 26, 2002]
Relatives of people killed in the Sep 11 terrorist attacks
criticized the White House for trying to block or hamstring
Congressional investigation of why the attacks were not stopped.
This article also gives details about the points where Bush and
Congress disagree.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[October 25, 2002]
The right-wing government of Colombia, which enjoys strong US support, is
attacking protesting trade unionists.
[October 25, 2002]
A book about Osama bin Laden has been published by a
journalist who knew him.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 24, 2002]
The
world has a picture of Mother Teresa as someone kind who helped
the downtrodden, but actually she was a fanatical Catholic, interested
in performing religious services for sick people, not in their health.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The donations her organization gets
do not seem to be reaching the
poor in Calcutta.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
A previous note explained that the miracle cited by the Vatican as
grounds for declaring Mother Teresa a saint is a cure that was
actually caused by a straightforward medical operation.
One misrepresentation is piled on another.
[October 24, 2002]
In Vancouver, Canada, both police and drug dealers are
threatening
non-violent squatters in an unused building.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 24, 2002]
Israeli settlers have had a victory--their persistent violent
harrassment has chased all the Palestinians out of a village.
Ethnic cleansing, which some Israeli government people advocate,
has
taken a step forward.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 24, 2002]
Police repression of anarchists in Long Beach, California, continues.
Two anarchists have been
charged with felonies for having a gas can
in their car.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 24, 2002]
Although the price of a gallon of gas in the US is less than 2
dollars, the International Center for Technology Assessment
estimates
that a gallon of gas really imposes some $5 to $15 of cost on society.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 24, 2002]
The US Forest Service is
suppressing reports
about the health of forests,
and a conservation group is suing to demand release of the reports.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 23, 2002]
A comparison of the Iraq situation with the Cuban missile crisis.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 23, 2002]
A
petition organized in Israel for educators, psychologists, and
social workers calls for allowing schools in Palestine to reopen.
Non-Israelis appear to be invited to sign. The petition page also
explains how bad the situation is, so even if you are not an educator,
psychologist or social worker, you should still take a look.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 23, 2002]
After the attack on the World Trade Center, people were urged to keep
on visiting New York, for the sake of its tourist economy. After the
recent bombing in Bali, the West had the
opposite reaction: "Stay
away!"
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 23, 2002]
I have endorsed Green party candidate Jill Stein for governor of
Massachusetts in 2002.
[October 22, 2002]
While the US prepares to go to war against Iraq for developing nuclear
weapons, it
hesitates even to cut aid to North Korea.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I won't say that trying to make friends with North Korea is absurd.
We have much to offer that that country needs. This might have as
much chance of keeping the world safe from their possible nuclear
weapons as war would. But if so, why not consider such an approach to
Iraq?
[October 22, 2002]
Intimidation campaigns are
being aimed at Western reporters and
professors that criticize Israel's treatment of Palestinians, but in
the Israeli press there is still criticism of government figures whose
plans call for ethnic cleansing and atrocities.
[October 20, 2002, updated November 3]
A Spanish judge
accused the Basque separatist organization ETA of
trying to carry out "ethnic cleansing" by forcing non-nationalist
Basques out of the region.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I won't defend ETA, which is clearly a terrorist organization, and
I do not sympathize with the goal of separating the Basque region from
Spain. However, this accusation is both an evident exaggeration and
an evident absurdity. Even if ETA were trying to force all
non-nationalist Basques out of the Basque region--a charge that the
moderate Basques, the supposed victims of this campaign, reject--that
would not be ethnic cleansing, because they are all the same ethnic
group.
(I'm told that ETA has run a campaign of violence against Basques
who speak out in opposition to its views, and that some of them have
fled.)
Terrorist organizations are dangerous, but lying governments are
more dangerous.
[October 20, 2002]
Iraq may be developing nuclear weapons; North Korea is certainly
developing nuclear weapons and is much closer. Under the
circumstances, the contrast between US policy towards Iraq and North
Korea is
amazing.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 20, 2002]
The NRDC is asking the US government to declare beluga sturgeon
(from which beluga caviar is obtained) an endangered species,
saying they are
in danger of extinction.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 20, 2002]
Bush is trying to
shut down or replace government scientific advisory boards
with people that will give the advice he wants.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This resembles what Bush did earlier this year to international bodies.
The Bush administration is practicing a systematic campaign to replace
science with pro-business lies.
[October 20, 2002]
A letter by Abraham Lincoln opposing a plan to let the President
decide whether to attack Mexico
applies perfectly to the present day situation with Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 20, 2002]
The World Bank funds incinerators around the world that are intended
to prevent polution but
actually make it worse.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 19, 2002]
The US government paid to write and print textbooks for Afghanistan
that promoted Islamic extremism. The Taliban's schools used them.
Combining evidence from a number of US statements, it appears that the US is
still using the same extremist texts in the books it is donating
to Afghan schools.
It is possible that something is being done to correct part of the
problem.
According to the Washington Post article, Ahmad Fahim Hakim was
actually talking about the old textbooks, not the new ones, and some
changes are being made:
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
"UNICEF is left with 500,000 copies of the old "militarized" books, a
$200,000 investment that it has decided to destroy, according to U.N.
officials."
If the new textbooks are being changed only to remove the parts that
encourage fundamentalist violence, they may still teach a extreme
religious outlook on life. Should US funds be spent to teach that?
Dubya surely thinks so.
(Can anyone who reads Arabic obtain a copy of the new school books
that the US is giving to Afghanistan, and report what they say?)
[October 19, 2002]
A
proposal for the UN to engineer a regime change in the US is clearly
a parody of Dubya's arguments for regime change in Iraq, except that
in this case the facts are true and the arguments are valid.
[October 19, 2002]
A
detailed description of what global warming is likely to do
to the Bush family ranch in Texas gives an idea of how
foolish is his policy of doing nothing to curb global warming.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 19, 2002]
City and Federal officials, including Mayor Giuliani(*), told people
it was safe to go back to work in downtown Manhattan while the fires
in the World Trade Center were spewing toxic chemicals into the air.
Data and studies showing the danger and reporting on medical problems
were covered up or not publicized.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
* I wonder, since Giuliani was a night-mayor, who was mayor of New York
in the daytime?
[October 19, 2002]
The US Green Party
calls for an independent truth commission to get to
the bottom of what really happened on 9/11, and also calls for repeal
of the USA P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act. I think that is a good reason to vote
Green. (There are other reasons as well.)
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I already voted (by absentee ballot) for the Green Party candidates
for governor of Massachusetts, state treasurer, and state
representative.
[October 19, 2002]
Paramilitary murder gangs are
carrying out killings in Mexico, while the police do nothing.
[October 19, 2002]
The leader of a Ukrainian anti-nuclear group was murdered
as Ukraine plans to build more nuclear power plants
and
ignore a report saying it would be unsafe.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
But the issue is not just nuclear power. The funding for these plans
would impose a terrible debt burden and the deal requires
privatization of electric power in Ukraine. Privatization of
utilities in poor countries has often resulted in price increases of
100% or more, which can mean that many people get disconnected.
[October 19, 2002]
General Anthony Zinni, who was recently Dubya's own Middle East envoy,
opposes unilateral intervention in Iraq, saying it would only help Al
Qa'ida.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Speaking of hawks in the administration, Zinni said, "I'm not sure
which planet they live on," Zinni said, "because it isn't the one that
I travel."
[October 16, 2002]
One of those arrested in Washington while not protesting, along with
600 other non-protestors, believes that this illegal police action had
a strategic purpose: to make people afraid to participate in further
nonviolent protests. According to
his report, it succeeded.
He thinks that the reduced agenda of the IMF meeting constitutes a
victory, but I am not convinced. The freedom to protest and the
readiness to use it are more important in the long run than any IMF
meeting, more important than the IMF at all. Unless people respond
with outrage and a new readiness to oppose the US government, this
will be a victory for Bush, and a defeat for democracy and freedom.
[October 16, 2002]
An
article in the Independent, of London, argues that
the Bali bomb proves the need for a war on terror, not a war on Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 16, 2002]
A supposed "miracle healing" attributed to Mother Teresa, and proposed
as the basis for a proclamation of sainthood was
actually a medical cure.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This error fits in with the reputation of Mother Teresa during her
lifetime. According to articles in Free Inquiry, people think that
her organization provided medical care for the sick, but all it really
did was perform religious services as they died.
[October 16, 2002]
Bush continues to repeat that Iraq has ties to terrorism,
and that it poses a threat of war to the US, but
never offers any proof for either one. He doesn't think that
should be necessary.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 16, 2002]
DOD documents prove that the US knew that the Iraq sanctions would
deny safe water to the civilian population and thus spread disease.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 16, 2002]
Exiled humanist author Taslima Nasrin
has been sentenced to a year in
prison in Bangladesh for supposedly criticizing Islam. Her book,
about persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh, has been banned. She was
tried in absentia, a procedure that is considered fundamentally
unjust.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Pakistan, which Bangladesh was part of until the 1970s, is even worse,
sentencing people to death for "blasphemy" for even mild criticism
of Islam. And don't forget the Iranian death sentence against
Salman Rushdie.
All this illustrates the lack of respect for basic human freedoms,
including religious freedom and freedom of the press, that Islam often
leads to. I don't think that Bangladesh has adopted strict Islamic
law, but even without that, it has fallen into Islamist injustice.
Christian theocrats in the US, allies of Dubya, have not yet proposed
to imprison unbelievers, but persist in trying to use government funds
in propagating their religion.
I met Taslima Nasrin at a humanist conference in Mexico a few years
ago. The conference had a tour to visit the ancient city of
Teotihuacan; there, amidst ancient temples, I showed her a Bulgarian
folk dance, and she started to show me some Bengali dancing--but it
turned out to be Kathak, a classical performing art form that could be
compared to ballet, rather than folk dance. Not the sort of thing one
can pick up even slightly in five minutes. I hope she is doing well
in exile.
[October 16, 2002]
Travelers are
likely to overreact
to the danger of terrorism in
Bali just as they overreacted to the danger of terrorism in New York
a year ago.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 15, 2002]
The European Union is promoting a
treaty for "protection of broadcasting organizations" that would
give broadcasters the "right" to authorize or prohibit "fixations of
broadcasts". Unfortunately, they are not talking about prohibiting
people from being obsessed with TV. What they mean is prohibiting you
and me from making recordings of broadcasts. And they are not content
with merely saying "don't do it"--they envision that radios and
recorders will be designed to stop you.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Today you can get a radio and a tape recorder and record whatever you
like. Today you can get a TV and a VCR and record whatever you like.
The aim of this treaty is to make such equipment unavailable.
[October 14, 2002]
A peaceful protest in Ottawa, at a speech by US ambassador, called
attention to the fact that the US plans to deport an Ethiopian national
back to Ethiopia for probable torture and death, even though Canada
has offered to accept him.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 13, 2002]
Always A Fighter, Always A Terrorist, an article in Haaretz, explains
the biased language used to describe Israeli and Palestinian acts of
violence.
[October 13, 2002]
The American Gulf War Veterans Association
demands the resignation of
Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of Defense, for lying to the public. He
said that the US had never provided biological warfare organisms to
Iraq. A senate report in 1994 showed that the US did provide them.
It's not just that Rumsfeld, as Secretary of Defense, has a
responsibility to know about these things. He personally
played a central role in US relations with Iraq in the 1980s.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 12, 2002]
Bush says he has agreed to an independent investigation of the Sep 11,
but is trying to
block it from getting started.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
This sounds like what we were concerned Saddam Hussein might try to do
with the UN investigation that he faces. I wonder, is Bush taking
inspiration from Hussein, or projecting his own attitudes onto
Hussein?
[October 11, 2002]
What Bush
wants us to forget.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 11, 2002]
The League of Nations was destroyed because the great powers did not
respect it. The US risks destroying the UN in the
same way.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 11, 2002]
A
CIA report says that Saddam Hussein is unlikely to attack the US, or
support terrorists' doing so, unless the US attacks Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[October 10, 2002]
Marwah Barghouti, formerly found in demonstrations for peace and
for a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state, is now on
trial, accused of being a terrorist.
When Uri Avneri attempted to go to the court to watch the trial, he
found that the press and the public were excluded from the courtroom.
The government had
selected people to attend, from a right-wing extremist group.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
One person who could not get in protested outside the courtroom with a
sign that simply
listed the number
of Israeli and Palestinian deaths.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Israel is not the only middle-eastern country that interferes with
people who stand for peace. The Egyptian government
recently abolished the Cairo Association for Peace.
[October 7, 2002]
A court in the US imposed
multibillion-dollar punitive damages on the
tobacco company Philip Morris. The reason was that the company lied
(along with the other tobacco companies) to the public about the
harmful effects of tobacco.
Currently the US prohibits marijuana while allowing tobacco, a far
more dangerous drug, to be sold. Despite the danger of tobacco, it
should not be illegal, because we should not tell people how to spend
(in two senses of the word) their lives. Rather, we should make
active efforts to discourage kids from starting to smoke. At the same
time, we should legalize marijuana, and end the system of prohibition
that has ruined millions of lives in the US, and many others
elsewhere.
[October 7, 2002]
MacDonalds workers, angry at the ways MacDonalds has blocked them
from unionizing and thus keeps their wages at poverty level,
are planning a
world-wide day of resistance, 16 Oct 2002.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[October 7, 2002]
White House: President's "War Boner"
Must Be Satisfied
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 7, 2002]
Police began
intimidating protestors in Worthing, England
before their protest even got started.
[October 6, 2002]
The real purpose of Sharon's policy is to
create foreigners.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 5, 2002]
The UN resolution proposed by the US and UK includes two trick
requirements that demand Iraq (1) allow US spies to enter under the
guise or weapons inspectors, and (2) allow US armed forces to travel
everywhere in Iraq. In effect it demands total surrender while
pretending not to. This makes it effectively just a
provocation for war.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 4, 2002]
Arrests of protestors who have done nothing illegal are not limited to
Washington DC. 28 people who went to Baltimore to protest against a
rally by neo-nazis were
arrested just as they arrived. The police
then attacked various progressive organizations in the city.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
It is scary and strange that police in the US have so much sympathy
for right-wing extremists. Don't they remember Oklahoma City? But
this is not limited to the US--police in Genoa, Italy, forced arrested
protestors to salute pictures of Mussolini. Perhaps police come to
admire anyone who uses force against people.
[October 3, 2002]
Doug Malkan, a victim of the Sep 27 mass arrest,
describes his
experiences.
He calls this arrest "pre-emptive", and it is interesting to note that
it came shortly after Bush announced plans for "pre-emptive" attacks
against countries if they might perhaps someday threaten the US. The
same policy apparently applies to dissent: Bush would like to arrest
people if they might perhaps someday threaten his policies. His
version of the golden rule is, "Do one to others before they do one to
you." Alas for the US, that policy is a policy of committing
aggression.
Malkan says that some of the ways he and his fellow prisoners were
treated violate the Geneva Convention. There was concern in January
about whether the US would abide by the Geneva Convention in its
treatment of people captured in Afghanistan. I'm sure many Americans
read about that issue and thought, "Why should I care whether we
respect the rights of those people? They are our enemies, so they
have no rights!" The Geneva Convention is concerned with treatment of
captured soldiers and civilians in war time. Every side in a war is
someone's enemy, so everyone on every side needs the protection
protection from barbarism that the Geneva Convention provides.
Citizens protesting cruel government policies need it too.
[October 3, 2002]
A lawsuit
seeks to block Navy use of a new kind of sonar system
that can kill whales and dolphins by damaging their hearing.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The Navy argues that normal peacetime use will only kill a few sea
mammals. Wartime use would kill far more. In a justified war, a
situation where there killing human beings is legitimate, I would not
object to killing some whales too. But how many whales might that be?
Sounds propagate a long distance in water. Could this risk the
extinction of some whale species?
It is
not unusual for sonar to injure whales.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 3, 2002]
On September 27, police in Washington DC
arrested 600 people who were
standing or drumming in a park--not particularly protesting--without
even giving them a chance to leave. The police attacked and injured
some of the victims, then arrested everyone there; they held the
arrested parkgoers in handcuffs for 20 hours (others report longer
periods), illegally deprived them of food, and did not allow them to
contact lawyers.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
When you hear police speak of "enforcing the law", think of the
policemen who laughed when reminded of the laws governing how arrested
people are treated. If anyone says police are heroes, remember their
reaction when reminded that democracy includes dissent. And if you
ever on a jury listening to a policeman's testimony, remember the
lies.
[October 3, 2002]
In World War II and Vietnam, US war correspondents used to travel
with the troops, but after Vietnam US governments have severely
limited press coverage of war. The habitually secretive Bush
administration will surely try to restrict the press more than before
in Iraq. Since Saddam Hussein won't allow a free press either,
neither we nor Congress will be able to tell what's really going on.
We will be reduced to wondering what part of Dubya's speeches are
true and what part are lies.
If Congress adopts a resolution allowing war with Iraq, that would be
an opportunity to solve the problem. Congress could add the condition
that US war correspondents must have the same access that war
correspondents had in World War II.
[October 3, 2002]
The House resolution to authorize an attack on Iraq
requires Bush to certify that the US can fight Al-Qa'ida
and Iraq at the same time.
The idea that it is useful to require the president, or a department
of the administration, to certify something as true as a condition of
some activity presupposes that the president or the department has a
reputation for honesty and must maintain it. We had plenty of reason
to start doubting this in previous administrations, which on various
occasions issued dubious certifications in order to be able to do
whatever it was that required the certification. But when applied to
Bush, who is willing to contradict himself from one day to the next,
it reduces to asking him to pronounce a nonsensical magic formula.
In the future, such certification requirements should be designed to
impose a penalty for a certification that is false or exaggerates the
facts, to replace the penalty of loss of reputation for truth that was
implicitly assumed to apply.
[October 3, 2002]
The congressional investigation into intelligence failures
has found that the CIA had
plenty of warnings, including awareness
of the possibility that airplanes might be used as weapons.
This would seem to imply that Bush was lying when he said nobody
in the administration had thought of the idea.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
Today Bush said that war with Iraq "may become "unavoidable. By doing
this, he is trying to mislead us, pretending he reluctant to have a
war when in fact he seeks one. One day he wants to disarm Iraq; the
next day, it's "regime change" and never mind if Iraq is disarmed. He
must think we have rather short memories.
What the US needs is regime change.
[October 2, 2002]
Two opposition MPs in Zimbabwe
were arrested for making a video
of governing party agents buying votes.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 2, 2002]
Stepan Mesic, who was president of Yugoslavia when Slobodan Milosevic
took power there and is now president if Croatia,
testified
about Milosevic's plans to attack Croats and divide up Bosnia.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 2, 2002]
Megacorporate mergers and business-dominated globalization
are
tantamount to the USSR by the back door.
[October 2, 2002]
UN negotiator Hans Blix
says there is progress in discussions with Iraq
to arrange return of UN weapons inspectors.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
A
BBC report
around 0300 GMT on Oct 2 said that Iraq has
completely agreed to inspections, and that Colin Powell says that the
US will "not accept" the return of weapons inspectors under past UN
resolutions.
Just days ago, Bush was calling for invasion of Iraq on grounds of
"violating UN resolutions", and warning the UN it would be
"irrelevant" if it fails to enforce them. Now that Iraq has agreed to
comply with the resolutions and the UN is apparently having success in
enforcing them, the Bush administration position seems to have turned
around 180 degrees. Now, according to the BBC report, the US may try
to "thwart" UN inspections of Iraq.
Apparently whatever justification Bush offers for an attack on Iraq is
not sincere, just verbal manipulation.
(If you can find a URL for a textual form of this BBC report, please
email it to me so I can link to it. I will not link to audio files in
RealAudio format or any other format that cannot be played using free software exclusively.)
[October 1, 2002]
Houston police went on a rampage in August. Sent to look for drag
racers but not finding any, they
arrested almost 300 customers at a
mall instead.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The storm of outrage was so large that the officer in charge of the
raid was suspended from his post. The false charges of trespassing,
laid against those who were arrested, were dropped by the mayor some 2
weeks after the arrests. (Why did he take so long to act?) However,
many of the victims pled guilty immediately so that they could resume
their lives. It is not clear whether the charges against them have
been cancelled or whether the fees for towing their cars will be
refunded to them.
Some of them are suing the city.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[October 1, 2002]
Political activists in the US are being
put on a list of "terrorists"
which regularly stops them from boarding airplanes. When lawyers and
journalists ask various agencies who is responsible for this, they get
a run-around.
[September 30, 2002]
An Israeli general
argues that there is no reason for the US
to attack Iraq, because it is not a real threat.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 29, 2002]
In 2001, 6,238 people
died while waiting for organ transplants in the US because no
suitable organs became available. In the same year, 3000 people died
in the US because of terrorist attacks.
To prevent more deaths from terrorist attacks, governments hastily
passed laws that damage the civil liberties and privacy of living
people. There is no evidence that these laws were actually necessary
to achieve the goal, but Congress was in too much hurry to think
about it.
Meanwhile, deaths due to shortage of organs continue--the number for
2002 will probably be around the same as that for 2001. Why are so
few organs available? Because of foolish laws. If you die, even if
you have signed an organ donor card (I have, have you?), the medical
system will let your superstitious and foolish family members kill
several people by refusing to allow your organs to be transplanted
into them.
It would be easy to solve this problem, or a large part of it. Just
pass a law saying that any dead person's organs can be used for
transplantation unless that person explicitly took some action to say
no. But while we take away the rights of living people on account of
3000 deaths, we shrink at slightly changing the rights of corpses to
save 6000 lives a year. Is that rational?
In the longer term, it may be possible to save some of these people
(and maybe many others too) using embryonic stem cells. The US
government is trying to prevent that, too.
[September 29, 2002]
The Green Party and Libertarian Party candidates for governor of
Massachusetts have
sued to be included in the debates that have been
limited to the Republican and Democratic Party candidates. The debate
is, I believe, organized by various media companies; the lawsuit
alleges that these companies are giving valuable
contributions to
the included candidates, which is a violation of state law.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 28, 2002]
In the UK, a sex toy seller who is
also a political candidate
criticizes the laws that restrict access to porn, and the prudish
attitude of condemnation that it receives from much of society.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, in Australia, extramarital sex is commonplace among the
officials of their signals intelligence agency, and unnamed consterned
idiots are concerned that these officials might be "compromised by a
foreign government" because of their affairs. Yet the fact that these
affairs are so widely known and that so little effort is made to hide
them suggests that there is nothing to fear. Blackmailing these
officials would be like blackmailing a rock star about groupies.
"G'day, which of my affairs are you
threatening to expose this time?"
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 28, 2002]
Fire-retardant chemicals used in various produts
have been found in
high concentrations in arctic wildlife, and appear to be killing bear
cubs and seabirds. They may be endanging the people who live there,
too.
[September 28, 2002]
The Bush administration disregarded environmentalist warnings and
diverted too much water to agriculture, and
killed a large fraction of
the salmon in the Klamath River.
[September 27, 2002]
Anita Roddick
dared to write about how dissent in America is being
equated with support for Al Qa'ida--and promptly received hate mail
accusing her of supporting Al Qa'ida. It's an excellent example of
how a gang of people who are determined to erase an idea try to
intimidate others who continue to mention forbidden truths.
I got a taste of this treatment last September, when I asked Americans
to write to their "elected representatives and unelected president" in
support of civil liberties. It was not a large taste, probably
because I was reaching a smaller audience. The place where I've
received the treatment with full force is from the people who use my
work, but are
determined to believe that it was developed by Linus Torvalds.
[September 26, 2002]
The public radio station in Boston is having a pledge drive, and this
led me to reflect on why I stopped donating. I used to donate
regularly, because I appreciated the station, even though the usual
NPR commentator on Clinton seemed to have an axe to grind and
frequently criticized him for insignificant things (not really bad
policies such as NAFTA and GATT). I appreciated a radio station with
no commercials.
Then I noticed that I was hearing commercials on the station: the
announcers and interviewers were reciting the slogans of various
companies. They deny that these are commercials, they call them
"enhanced underwriting"; but they sound like commercials, feel like
commercials, and smell like commercials, so I say they are
commercials.
Some of these commercials are for companies that are doing harmful
things. ADM used to pay for positive publicity to offset its
conviction for price-fixing. Nowadays, the company that makes Flash
advertises itself as "changing what the web can be". They certainly
are changing it--for
the worse, inviting people to make web pages
that can only be viewed with their software.
I told the station why I stopped donating. If you too think business
should have less influence on public radio, please tell your station
that you will start donating when they stop having commercials.
[September 26, 2002]
Supposing it is true that Iraq is on the verge of developing weapons
of mass destruction, does it mean that the many half-million deaths
caused by UN sanctions were
completely pointless?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 26, 2002]
The UK government has released a list evidence for the claim that
Saddam Hussein presents an immediate threat, following a big publicity
buildup that said it would really prove the case. However, skeptical
legislators said contains
little new information.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Bush, too, has shown this pattern: repeatedly saying "When you see
this, you'll be convinced," but when we see it, it turns out to be the
same old insufficient evidence warmed over. Is he hoping to fatigue
our skepticism? It all adds up to reasons to distrust both the Bush
regime and the Blair regime.
[September 26, 2002]
The US is
trying to convince its rather unhappy allies to create a
NATO rapid reaction army for use against "rogue states". Would
those include the US?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 25, 2002]
A representative of the Colombian Commission of Jurists
speaks about
the deteriorating human rights situation in Colombia and its connection
to US involvement.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 24, 2002]
Declassified US documents prove the US was following General
Pinochet's atrocities in Chile in
great detail as they were being
carried out, starting just after the coup. The US supported Pinochet
strongly for the whole period, and therefore bears part of the
responsibility to those who were murdered or tortured by the
Chilean authorities.
[September 24, 2002]
Representative Ron Paul
poses a number of questions that people ought
to think about before supporting a war with Iraq.
A couple of the questions embody assumptions I disagree with. I don't
think it is wrong in principle to overthrow a tyrannical regime in
another country, for instance. What is often bad about US
intervention (both military and commercial) is that it often supports
tyrants or opposes the democratic power of the people. And if the US
supported Iraq's invasion of Iran, and if we now consider that
invasion wrong, the proper conclusion now is not that we should excuse
Saddam Hussein but rather that we should blame the US also.
However, overall these are important questions to think about.
[September 23, 2002]
Some communities in Columbia are
experimenting with new systems of direct democracy.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 21, 2002]
Nigeria canceled one death sentence for an unmarried mother, only to
sentence another unmarried mother in the same way.
[September 21, 2002]
A witness
describes
how protestors prevented Benjamin Netanyahu,
former prime minister of Israel, from giving a speech in Canada.
Netanyahu's policies were designed to create obstacles to peace with
the Palestinians, and I would support a protest to express opposition
to what he stands for. However, actually stopping him from giving a
speech is wrong.
[September 21, 2002]
An article in the Sep 2002 issue of Church and State (published by
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State) reports that
the US is working in the UN with Islamic theocracies to support
theocratic positions in international law.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
This not only means opposing abortion rights and birth control, as
you'd expect; it also includes supporting execution of minors. This
peculiar juxtaposition faithfully reflects the insane views of some
right-wing Christians, who think it is not so bad to kill people
after they are born.
The theocratic governments that the Bush regime joins with include
Sudan, which has been carrying out a civil war with Christians and
Animists in the south in the attempt to impose uncivilized Islamic law
on them. This although Sudan is classified by the US government as a
"state sponsor of terrorism". When Dubya says he won't condone
terrorism, I guess he makes an exception for countries that will
further the religious extremists' agenda. But this is inconsistent:
since Sudan's terrorism is motivated by similar religious extremism,
shouldn't Bush support that too?
The US appropriated $34 million for the UNFPA (UN Fund for Population
Activities) in 2002, but then Bush decided unilaterally to refuse to
spend it. The UN estimates this will result in 2 million pregnancies,
77000 more deaths of children, and 1 million more abortions. The
religious right-wingers don't mind this, though, as long as people
are forced to live in the world they want.
[September 21, 2002]
The Irish government is
asking its voters for a second time
to agree to the Nice Treaty. They rejected it in the first referendum.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The Nice Treaty is extremely dangerous because it permits a majority
of EU governments to approve an agreement with the World Trade
Organization. The agreement would then be binding on all of the EU,
bypassing the European Parliament. The EU is already insufficiently
democratic, but this would make it more so.
If Ireland again rejects the Nice treaty, it could save all of Europe.
[September 21, 2002]
Global warming is forcing Alaskan Inuit to
move their town.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, the US government is still offering flood insurance to
people who build on coastal land that is being eroded. This insurance
needs to be canceled so that people will be encouraged to move to
safer locations--as well as to avoid catastrophic financial blows to
the government.
According to NPR on Friday evening, flood insurance is even being
offered to new construction in areas near New Orleans that would be
flooded for certain if a strong hurricane hits the area. Global
warming is probably making hurricanes more numerous and stronger, and
causing sea level to rise, both of which increase the danger.
[September 21, 2002]
From SF Chronicle, Friday 9/20/02, page A18:
"Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Atherton, said that in closed sessions this week,
administration officials had been asked several times whether they had
evidence of an imminent threat from Hussein against US citizens."
"They said 'no'," she said. "Not 'no, but', or 'maybe', but 'no'. I was
stunned. Not shocked. Not surprised. Stunned."
If there were a way to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq
without great bloodshed (as easily as the Taliban were removed in
Afghanistan, say), and if we could be pretty confident that the result
would be a much better government for Iraqis, I would support doing it
simply for their sake. I don't believe in national sovereignty as an
absolute principle, a shield for tyrants; rather I believe that the
people deserve to have sovereignty, and in Iraq they do not.
However, a US invasion of Iraq would not be a walkover, and it would
create a lot of hostility that might fuel terrorism. Iraqis hate us
as much as they hate Hussein. The US would surely impose another
regime that would also be nondemocratic. Given that Iraq is not
really a threat to the US, I don't think this is justified. As for
the danger that Hussein may get weapons of mass destruction, that is a
real issue, but we should try to address it first with UN weapons
inspections rather than making war the first resort.
Bush, however, is
asking Congress for immediate unconditional authorization for war
against Iraq. I hope that the Senate will be smart enough to at least
insist on time for weapons inspectors to try to go to work, so we can
see whether Iraq cooperates.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 20, 2002]
Dubya loves to read.
[September 20, 2002]
An Iraqi exile
strongly denounces
Saddam Hussein's regime.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
There are many countries whose unelected rulers really deserve a
"regime change", but I still hesitate to advocate war against them.
Besides which, we ought to start by cleaning our own house, and
replacing the unelected ruler of the United States.
[September 20, 2002]
A US judge ruled that the Department of the Interior is
lying to the court
when it reports on the status of the Indian trust fund it administers.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 19, 2002]
The
threat to prosecute Gush Shalom for warning Israeli officers
that their actions violate the Geneva Convention has been dropped.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[September 19, 2002]
There is a glut of coffee
on the world market, but the four global
coffee-selling companies have kept the prices up for consumers. As a
result, coffee farmers get just half of one percent of what people in
the developed world pay for coffee. They are going broke, and
switching to making cocaine instead.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Oxfam is
asking the public
to help pressure the coffee companies to pay the farmers a more.
They could pay the farmers twice as much, and not notice.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 19, 2002]
Due to the ban on CFCs, the annual "ozone hole" is expected
to start shrinking. CFC levels are already
starting to decline.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 19, 2002]
Now that Bush cannot use weapons inspections as an excuse to
attack Iraq, will he
create another?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
US newspapers on Sep 19 have had articles about war plans, almost
as if Iraq had never agreed to admit the weapons inspectors.
[September 19, 2002]
Now that Iraq says it will admit UN weapons inspectors without
conditions, a
commentary in the Independent
argues that US allies will only support a war against Iraq if Saddam Hussein has first been
offered a real way to avoid one.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 19, 2002]
The Crow and the Owl
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 17, 2002]
The Sunday Herald, of Scotland,
reports on a secret US plan
to attack Iraq, drawn up in 2000 by Dick Cheney, now vice president
of the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 16, 2002]
Ten million people in Argentina have
joined barter networks
as a way to escape the country's financial difficulties.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 15, 2002]
The UN decided to
bury a report about the US bombing of a wedding party
in Afghanistan, apparently giving in to US pressure.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 15, 2002]
A peaceful protest before the World Summit on Sustainable Development
was
attacked for no reason, and then the protest was turned into
a stand-off with police.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The article also explains how the US and Europe tried to turn
the agenda into one of privatization.
[September 14, 2002]
Google is accessible in China again, and there is no indication that
it has pledged to enforce pro-Chinese censorship as Yahoo did.
[September 14, 2002]
Bush has
appealed to the UN to take steps to enforce its resolutions
on Iraq. This approach is more deserving of support than what he has
been saying before, and has at least a chance of winning the support
of some US allies, partly because it gives Iraq the chance to show it
is honest--if indeed it is honest--about renouncing weapons of mass
destruction.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 13, 2002]
Greek judges
declared a prosecution under the law that bans computer
games to be unconstitutional. I am not sure whether they said that
any prosecution under that law would be unconstitutional, or just this
specific one.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 13, 2002]
Yasser Arafat's
cabinet resigned in order to avoid a vote of
no-confidence. A Palestinian election has been set for Jan 20.
Will it be possible to hold a campaign and an election under
Israeli lockdown?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 13, 2002]
In the future it will seem a shame to have all this patriotism floating
about and
no one to destroy.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 12, 2002]
A
clear explanation of the workings of water privatization,
as imposed by the World Bank, shows just why it brings in no real
investment in improving water systems and cuts off poor people
from water supply.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 12, 2002]
A
commentary in the Independent argues that September 11 didn't really
change anything, it just gave the US a reminder of how things already
were--and the US doesn't want to look.
I don't entirely agree. The terrorist attacks provided a great excuse
for labeling dissidents as "terrorists" to suppress political opposition
and civil liberties.
[September 11, 2002]
A report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies
concludes that Iraq's capabilities for weapons of mass destruction
are weaker than they were before the Gulf War.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
A newspaper story today reported that Democrats in Congress say
that the Bush regime has failed to show them any evidence that Iraq
presents a pressing danger. "The same as before, with embellishments"
is an approximate quote from one.
[September 11, 2002]
Yasser Arafat
made a statement condemning violence against Israeli citizens,
but this is not good enough for Bush, who still demands the Palestinians
choose a new leader.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
Arafat is reported to run a corrupt regime. If that is true, probably
the only thing that keeps him in power is the external menace his
people face. Bush, of course, understands this, which is why he is
planning to start another war in Iraq. The best way to enable the
Palestinians to choose new leaders would be peace.
[September 11, 2002]
Former President Carter criticized the Bush administration for
trampling
civil liberties and canceling important treaties. He also says there
is no pressing need to go to war with Iraq.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 10, 2002]
Greenwash is defined as "Disinformation disseminated by an
organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public
image." British Petroleum is the winner of the 2002 Best Green
Actor award for corporate greenwashing. There were several other
awards as well.
[References updated on 2018-01-08 because the old links were broken.]
A subtle form of greenwashing is when a company donates to a small,
attention-grabbing worthy cause so as to distract attention from the
much larger and more important things they are failing to do. For
instance, Conoco
donated funds for Jane Goodall's work to protect chimpanzees; now,
of course, she praises Conoco.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Goodall's chimpanzee orphanage is a good thing, but is it a substitute
for restraining global warming? Conoco probably thinks it is--they
figure that by donating mere millions (my guess) to Goodall's
organization, they can go on leading our planet to disaster.
The sad irony is that climate change could potentially wipe out
chimpanzees in the wild, or thousands of other species, by shifting
the zones where various species and ecosystems can exist. A small
sanctuary for a species won't preserve it if, due to climate change,
the species can no longer live in that particular area.
Climate change can destroy an ecosystem even when all the organisms in
it have room to move to, if the various species that depend on each
other can't all move to the same place, or if new enemies move to that
place too and kill off some of them that others depend on.
[September 10, 2002]
Right-wing death squads have been
assassinating Zapatista supporters in Chiapas.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 10, 2002]
One in five Palestinian children are suffering from serious
malnutrition, according to the US Agency for International
Development. One quarter of West Bank Palestinians have had to sell
personal possessions to put food on the table. The
cause of this is
the Israeli lockdown ("curfew") which prevents people from doing any
sort of business or farming, or even going to buy food if they have
money.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Combined with other Israeli policies, this amounts to a campaign
of ethnic cleansing.
[September 9, 2002]
In Thailand, a
critique of modern capitalism from
a Buddhist perspective.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
I think we should distinguish between the existence of a market where
people freely buy and sell, and the system of the US today where
companies largely dominate society and shape people's thinking through
their public relations departments. Some people refer to the latter
as "Capitalism", but that term has historically been used for the
former, and I think we should keep it that way. Let's call the latter
system, today's destructive system, corporatocracy.
[September 9, 2002]
In Africa, where many people have AIDS, Coca Cola's policy
is to deny AIDS coverage to
over 98% of their employees.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 9, 2002]
The World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa was
programmed for failure by its attempt to gain the support of global
megacorporations. They insisted on proposing only one road to
development: privatization, trickle-down and austerity. Since they
have already spread poverty in much of the undeveloped world, the
summit was
programmed for failure
from the outset.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Dubya, whose financial interests are in oil companies, stayed away
from the summit, as
Exxon-Mobil asked him to, so as to reduce world attention to it.
He left it to the US delegation to block it from achieving anything.
The summit conclusively failed when
the US joined with OPEC to block any target for renewable energy
use.
[References updated on 2018-01-08 because the old links were broken.]
South Africa adopted the corporate agenda in 1996, and since has
privatized the water supply and the electricity. As a result, ten
million people have been disconnected from water or electricity. A
hundred thousand people became sick with cholera, and 250 died. Their
gravestones should read, "murdered by privatization". Many others
have been
evicted from their homes.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
The South African government protected the shiny image of the summit
by arresting large numbers of protestors.
[September 8, 2002]
Yahoo recently volunteered to conduct censorship on behalf of the
Chinese government. Another point of connection between Yahoo and
China is that they both treat workers like dirt.
Yahoo subcontracts janitorial services to Team Services Inc.,
which pays workers just $6.50 an hour--much less, adjusted for
inflation, than the minimum wage was 25 years ago. Recently
those who tried to form a union were fired.
This makes two reasons to reject Yahoo and support its competitors.
If you have a Yahoo account, how about telling the company what you
think.
[September 7, 2002]
The
DEA raided a Santa Cruz medical marijuana collective,
arresting its founders, and provoking the condemnation of local officials and police.
This raid is part of a series that seems intended for maximum
arrogance and cruelty.
[September 7, 2002]
Earlier this year, a tribal council in Pakistan
sentenced Mukhtaran Bibi to be raped as punishment for her family.
Responding to public pressure, the Pakistani government intervened and
put the rapists and council on trial. Some of them have been
convicted and sentenced to death.
[References updated on 2018-01-08 because the old links were broken.]
The convictions may help change an old pattern of behavior that treats
women as little more than property of their families. However, the
death sentences repeat the brutality of the crime itself.
A
school in the village is to be named after Mukhtaran Bibi,
who has received compensation from the Pakistani government.
However, death threats against her and her family may make it
impossible for her to remain there and teach in it.
[September 6, 2002]
Google and Altavista are blocked in China, but Yahoo is still
accessible there. Why? Because Yahoo has
agreed to censor
its postings to avoid criticism of the Chinese government.
I suspect that this is a pressure campaign--that China is hoping that
Google and Altavista will likewise surrender to censorship of
criticism of China in order to regain access to the Chinese market.
If this scandalizes you, push back! Please forward this note to
anyone who sends you mail from a Yahoo email account.
[September 6, 2002]
Canadian senate committee
recommends legalizing possession and use of marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 6, 2002]
A month ago, the president of Birzeit University
denounced the
then-recent bombing at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
Now Israeli troops are setting up a military checkpoint at the
entrance to Birzeit University, which threatens to effectively
shut it down.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Starhawk, watching the destruction caused by the bombing and the
suffering caused by the curfew in Jenin,
writes about the ethical
responsibility for the bomb.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 6, 2002]
The permanent lockdown in Palestinian cities is making children
wonder when they will have a chance to go to school.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 6, 2002]
The Greek government has banned video games. Even having a copy of a
video game on your laptop--and nearly every laptop has some--
is a crime.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
If you own a laptop computer, do not go to Greece. Pass the word.
[September 6, 2002]
Despite his attacks on freedom of the press and democracy, President
Mugabe of Zimbabwe receives considerable support in Africa, because he
is trying to do
redistribute the land that was given to colonists
under the colonial system.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Democratic governments are supposed to do such jobs, but nowadays few
of them have the guts to oppose the power of the rich. This creates
an unfortunate opportunity into which people like Mugabe can step.
[September 6, 2002]
A statement by Colin Powell suggests that Bush plans to decide soon
whether to attack Iraq. This would mean allowing no public
debate on the question.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
Just a few weeks ago, the administration was saying it was too soon to
have a debate. It looks like any time before the decision is made
is too soon.
However, Iraq is pussyfooting about whether it will allow effective
weapons inspection, which makes no sense if it does not seek weapons
of mass destruction and wants to avoid a war.
[September 6, 2002]
The UK government proposed an "entitlements card" claiming that it was
something different from a national ID card. Now they reveal that
this is
actually
an excuse to collect fingerprint database of everyone
in the country.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
[September 6, 2002]
The Israeli government wants to prosecute the peace group Gush Shalom
for
warning some army officers that certain acts they boast of
committing are prohibited by international treaties on the conduct of
war. The attorney general of Israel concluded, however, that
reporting crimes is not illegal in Israel.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
So the Israeli government began talking about
passing a new law to criminalize this.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
However, a newer report says the attorney general now claims that Gush
Shalom can be prosecuted under existing law. I don't have details yet.
[September 4, 2002]
The European Union governments are using
secret treaty negotiations
with the US to abridge some of the human rights guaranteed by the
EU Convention on Human Rights--and bypass all democratic controls.
The US has also tried this approach, using trade treaties such as GATT
and NAFTA to impose changes in domestic laws. That is one of many
reasons the US should withdraw from these treaties.
[September 4, 2002]
China, which has a strict policy of censorship of Internet access, has
blocked
access to the Google search engine.
[September 4, 2002]
Perhaps Police in Wilmington want to "arrest the usual suspects", because
they are
compiling
a list in advance.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-16 because the old link was broken.]
[September 2, 2002]
Is there a
nuclear weapon in the Russian Embassy in Washington DC? A
Time Magazine editor reported that President Kennedy told him in 1961
that there was.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
If the bomb was still there in the 80s, it would follow that the Star
Wars program was a complete sham--the people who promoted it, such as
trade-missiles-for-hostages Reagan, surely knew that it was bypassed.
Is the bomb still there today? Citizens of Washington DC would
probably like to know, but they lack Congressional representatives to
press for information. However, citizens of nearby towns in Virginia
and Maryland also have reason to concern. They could start asking
their Congressional representatives to press for information about
this bomb.
Since Time did not put this story on line, I cannot verify it myself.
If anyone can find a physical copy of the 12 Nov 2001 issue of Time
Magazine, perhaps in a library, to verify that the text appeared
there as stated, I would appreciate it.
[September 1, 2002]
The US government is trying an
experiment in selective surveillance
and restriction of immigrants and visitors from certain countries.
The plan poses two threats at once: the surveillance and restrictions
may be extended to other visitors and then even to citizens, or
government discrimination against certain ethnic backgrounds could be
extended to other areas of life.
[September 1, 2002]
When Ashcroft refused to tell the ACLU about people who have been
secretly detained, the ACLU had a clever idea:
ask foreign governments
what they know about the matter.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-08 because the old link was broken.]
It turns out that our civil servants government regularly tell foreign
governments the information that is supposedly too sensitive to be
revealed to the American public that they supposedly serve.
[September 1, 2002]
A recent paper in Science reports that a certain variant gene
predisposes human males to become violent as adults if they are
treated violently as children. The majority, who don't have this
variant gene, are affected much less by violence they experience as
children.
This suggests the possibility of a government program to identify the
children who have this gene, and then make special efforts aid their
parents in raising them in a calm and gentle environment. (Of course,
the program could help other parents do the same thing.)
Why does this seem like such a strange idea? Because it presupposes a
government willing to solve problems using a program that benefits
disadvantaged individuals. Nowadays this is out of fashion--many
people nowadays believe that governments should limit their dealings
with individuals to punishment, and that explicit aid should be
available only to corporations.
[August 31, 2002]
An Indian judge has
refused to reduce the homicide charges against the
former head of Union Carbide. That companies careless handling of
poisonous chemicals caused a disaster in Bhopal that has killed over
four times as many people as the September 11 attacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 30, 2002]
Dubya's goons
attacked a peaceful protest
against his appearance in
Portland Oregon in August. Even a TV cameraman was attacked by police.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 30, 2002]
Swedish courts
continue to impose unusually long sentences on
Gothenburg protestors, many of whom were framed in the first place.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 30, 2002]
A Palestinian journalists' syndicate has
prohibited its members
from photographing armed children at rallies.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 30, 2002]
Police in South Africa
attacked a peaceful march
for....freedom of expression. Marchers were injured.
Even a journalist filming the events was arrested.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 29, 2002]
The record companies are grasping at straws to blame
Internet music sharing for the small downturn in record sales--as
an excuse for the draconian
laws to restrict what you can do with your computer.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Even if Internet music sharing did reduce record sales, that wouldn't
be a bad thing. Most of the time, the amount of money that the
musicians get when you buy a commercially produced record is
zero. This is because standard record contracts are
extremely exploitative.
[August 29, 2002]
A US appeals court
ruled against secret deportation hearings, saying
that secrecy violates the principles of democracy. Hear, hear!
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I've heard claims that Rabih Haddad overstayed his visa.
If that is true, it should be easy to present that evidence
in a public hearing, and deportation should be straightforward.
No secret intelligence sources would be compromised by stating
the date on which his visa expired.
[August 29, 2002]
Dubya's "
wag the puppy" strategy using the possibility of war with
Iraq to distract the American public from other issues.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 28, 2002]
The EU has
dropped its plans to push for a world increase in use of
renewable energy sources. Even though its definition of "renewable"
included problematical sources, and even though the increase proposed
was tiny, someone must have found it unacceptable.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 28, 2002]
The Annals of
Mathematics, one of the most prestigious journals in the field, is
now
cooperating with free online access for all. The journal operates
as an "overlay" on the arXiv, a site that provides free access to
nearly all scientific papers in Math, Physics and some other fields.
All scientific journals ought to work this way.
[August 28, 2002]
The head of Israel's army
compared the Palestinian threat to a cancer,
in a speech that seems to dismiss peace as a possibility.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 26, 2002]
Bush now has fast track authority,
and one of his
requirements for every country in the Americas is to sign the
WIPO
Copyright Treaty, which is a somewhat weaker version of the Digital Millenium Copyright
Act.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
[August 26, 2002]
The South African government has
arrested over a hundred activists to
stop them from planning and leading protests on the occasion of the
World Summit on Sustainable Development, which is happening there this
week.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Their protests would embarrass the South African government because
its policies of privatization are anti-development. These policies
have cut off water supplies, electricity, and homes from millions of
poor people. The water cutoffs caused outbreaks of cholera that
affected thousands, some of whom died.
Now the government is defending its policies with attacks on human
rights that increasingly resemble those of the apartheid regime.
[August 25, 2002]
Shirabe Yamada, an international observer in Bethlehem,
reports on what life is like there now that Israeli forces
have withdrawn from the city.
[August 24, 2002]
Tunisia
regularly tortures dissidents, who may be arrested for crimes
such as unauthorized use of an Internet connection, spreading false
news, and handing out unauthorized leaflets.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[August 24, 2002]
US voters, please call your members of Congress
to support Rep. Chris Smith's
letter opposing military aid to Indonesia.
[August 24, 2002]
I was not surprised to see Bush's
claim that that "senior" Al Qa'ida
agents are hiding in Iraq. Since he wants to invade Iraq, he had to
make that accusation sooner or later. I wouldn't put it past Saddam
Hussein to cooperate with Al Qa'ida, but we can't take Dubya's word
for it that this is actually occurring.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Dubya's refusal to name names is grounds for even greater suspicion.
The vagueness of the accusation seems designed to provide weasel-room;
no matter how many senior Al Qa'ida leaders turn up elsewhere, Bush
can always claim that some other leaders are or were in Iraq.
It would be almost impossible to get evidence to show Bush's statement
is wrong, which makes it the ideal accusation to fabricate.
I would expect that Saddam Hussein is carefully avoiding any activities
with Al Qa'ida these days, if only so that the US can't have anything
real to pin on him.
[August 23, 2002]
Muslim extremists in the Philippines
captured and killed two Christian
extremists who were trying to proselytize. It would be funny to see
these extremists going at each other, if not for the tragic outcome.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I believe that death is a tragic outcome because I am an Atheist. As
far as we can tell from the evidence rationally available to us, death
completely ends a person's existence, and therein lies the tragedy.
But why would a truly believing Christian or Muslim regard anyone's
death as unfortunate? It merely sends the person to heaven, or hell,
whichever one is appropriate, and why is that bad? "Kill them all,
God will know his own" is a perfectly logical conclusion from the
premise of an afterlife. If you don't like the conclusion, you had
better reexamine the premise.
[August 23, 2002]
The Free Trade Area of the America treaty is described as a
"free trade" treaty. What it really does is
give businesses power to fine governments for laws businesses don't like.
[August 23, 2002]
The Workers' Party in Brazil has a clear policy of support for free
software. When I heard that their candidate for president, Lula,
seems likely to win the coming elections, I began to hope that Brazil
could resist the poverty-spreading privatization and austerity
policies that the US pushes on other countries, including the Free
Trade Area of the Americas.
I was therefore very disappointed to read an article arguing that
Lula is not likely to change much.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Given this background, another article which
paints Lula as a Communist and supporter of terrorism is so absurd
that I have to doubt its sincerity. Was that article designed to
manipulate US public opinion to prepare for a US destabilization
campaign or coup attempt, should Lula make real strides in resisting
US pressure or cancel Brazil's debt?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 21, 2002]
NASA claims to be
investigating the idea of using electrical sensors
to check brain waves of passengers--to detect for terrorists.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I don't think technology is anywhere near the point where it could
make such distinctions, but the idea is still scary, because it shows
that government agencies are ready to perform thought control--if only
they could.
[August 21, 2002]
Pakistan's Supreme Court has reversed one death sentence for
blasphemy, but in the meanwhile another man has received a
similar sentence. The case of Dr. Younus Shaikh
remains to be decided.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Rationalists International asks people to send email to Pakistan's
president Musharraf calling for and end to blasphemy prosecution.
I sent a letter.
[August 21, 2002]
The Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom noted that many actions
carried out by Israeli armed forces against Palestinian civilians
violate international treaties. The crimes are no secret--the
officers who committed or commanded them boasted about them publicly.
Gush Shalom began sending letters to these officers, pointing out what
these treaties say, and the soldier's duty to refuse and report
illegal orders. They also told the officers that they would collect
reports of crimes to present to an Israeli court or the International
Criminal Court.
The Israeli government is denouncing them enemies of the state and
looking for ways to prosecute them. Is it a crime in Israel to keep
records of public confessions of criminal acts and forward them to
courts? We will see.
Here is a newspaper article
about this.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 to Uri Avnery's article because the old link was broken.]
Unfortunately I have not yet found a URL for the statements
by Gush Shalom about this.
[August 21, 2002]
Israeli forces are
withdrawing from Gaza and Bethlehem as part
of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority. It is a small
step towards peace.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 21, 2002]
The EU decided in 2002 that countries could force ISPs and telephone
companies to retain traffic data for some long period of time, in case
the police want to check up on you later. This includes information
such as who you phoned, who phoned you, who you sent mail to, who sent
mail to you, what web pages you browsed, and more.
The EU authorities who adopted this change said, at the time,
that
European countries would not be required to impose such data retention
laws. Now it is known they were lying--that the governments of Europe
were already designing a plan to do precisely that.
[August 19, 2002]
"America will never be destroyed from the outside.
If we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
[August 18, 2002]
Yahoo's janitorial services
fired an employee for trying to
start a union.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 18, 2002]
A group of senators including California Senator Feinstein are
cynically
using wildfires as an excuse to exempt logging from
environmental laws whenever "fire protection" is cited as an excuse.
Feinstein was formerly mayor of San Francisco; I can imagine what the
people of her city will think of this.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Senator Feinstein is also co-sponsor of the CBDTPA (Consume But Don't Try
Programming Act), a bill to require special copy-prevention
equipment in every computer, CD-player, etc. to restrict your freedom.
She appears to be a toady to business interests across the board.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Everywhere that Senator Feinstein speaks, protestors should appear.
[August 18, 2002]
July: Occidental Petroleum is
building a pipeline in Ecuador which goes
through Amazon jungle habitats of endangered species; although
they use the principle of private property rights as a shield for
their actions, they are building on others' property without permission.
Peaceful protestors at the Quito offices of Occidental Petroleum were
violently arrested, so protestors shut down the offices--all this to
get the company to keep a previously agreed meeting.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
One of the arrested protestors was a US citizen. The Ecuadorian government
decided to deport her instead of holding a trial.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 17, 2002]
Toxic mold
growing in buildings
causes respiratory problems
for the people who live and work in them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I wonder if there are fungicides, nontoxic to humans, that could be
put into building materials to prevent toxic mold from growing.
If you know, please email me: rms at stallman.org.
[August 17, 2002]
Flooding in many areas of central Europe is
reaching unprecedented
levels, inundating historic city centers. Over 100 people have been
killed. Thousands are homeless.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
It is hard to tie any specific weather event to long term climate
change, but we have to suspect that the greenhouse effect is partly
responsible for creating conditions that allowed this to happen.
An article in Science, 19 July 2002 (page 350), reported that the melt
rate of Alaskan glaciers is higher than was believed, so that
estimates of future sea-level rise must be increased. It also
mentioned that over 100 million people live on land within one meter
of mean sea level. In a few decades, many of them will be looking for
somewhere else to live. Would you prefer to provide land for them in
your neighborhood then, or cut back on greenhouse gas emissions now?
[August 17, 2002]
A German
newspaper article on Sep 14, 2001,
reported that the US had
had specific warnings of the danger of hijacking planes to use them as
weapons--contrary to the claims made by Bush when he admitted that the
US government had received warnings of possible terrorist attacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[August 17, 2002]
Victims of the Sep 11 attacks have
sued a number of defendants
including Saudi Arabian officials claiming they helped to finance
the attacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 16, 2002]
Iraq
offers to admit weapons inspectors provided that neutral
observers come with them to ensure the honesty of the inspectors. It
appears (though is not yet certain) that Iraq is not asking to limit
the activities of the inspectors (which would be unacceptable), only
to ensure they do their job in an unbiased way.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
There is no evidence tying Iraq to recent terrorism, outside the
imagination of a few dog-wagging US officials, but the danger of Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction was real enough in the past. If new
weapons inspections can show it is no longer real, that would be much
better than a war.
[August 16, 2002]
The UK
suspended trials
of genetically-modified rapeseed after discovering
that an unauthorized and potentially indirectly dangerous variety had been
mixed with the variety that was supposed to be tested.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
One of the dangers of genetic engineering today is the rapacity and
arrogance of the large companies that are doing it. You can set
standards for safety of genetic engineering trials, just as you can
set standards for accounting, but you can't expect companies to
follow these standards.
Genetic engineering can only be safe when the power of business has
been greatly reduced--when business defers to the government rather
than vice versa.
[August 16, 2002]
A French
newspaper article
in October 31 reports that a CIA agent
visited Osama bin Laden in July, while he was in a hospital in Dubai.
He was also visited by his relatives who are cozy with President Bush.
The page also has a
detailed
list of documented events that point towards
various sorts of US government failure and inattention in dealing with
the possibility of terrorist attacks. Each item comes with a reference
to newspaper articles from which the information was obtained.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[August 16, 2002]
Activists in Karnataka
convinced two farmers to destroy
their crop of genetically engineered Monsanto cotton.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
In principle, genetic engineering carried out in the future on the
basis of a full understanding of biology could be a tremendous boon to
humanity. However, genetic engineering today is a shot in the
dark--scientists don't fully understand the possible effects. At this
stage, we should be careful to make sure that genetically engineered
organisms remain confined to labs and factories, and cannot
interbreed with wild or agricultural organisms.
[August 16, 2002]
I have never seen the Donahue TV show
--I watch TV only rarely--but I
was pleased to learn that it has given national visibility to
Jean Charles Brisard, Michael Moore, and
Kristen Breitweiser.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
Michael Moore criticizes Dubya's economic policies that favor the rich
and impoverish most Americans. Brisard and Breitweiser are demanding
information from Dubya about the reasons why he protected Al Qa'ida
from investigation before September 11.
[August 16, 2002]
The
Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil has obtained idle
farmland for over 250,000 landless rural workers to farm. It has had
to overcome the murder of 1500 landless workers since 1988, as well as
the framing and imprisonment of one of its leaders.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The movement also operates schools, provides medical care and runs
co-op businesses. Some of these organizations use computers; unable
to afford legal copies of Windows, some of their activists used
unauthorized copies. Their political enemies fingered them for this
and had them imprisoned. To protect themselves from such attacks,
some activists are now learning to use the
[August 15, 2002]
OCAP, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty,
organized
a squat coincident with the Pope's visit to Ontario
as a way of calling attention to poverty and homelessness there.
The action has been very effective in building public demand
for action to provide housing.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 15, 2002]
Israel is putting Palestinian legislator
Marwan Barghouti on trial.
Barghouti used to have a reputation as an advocate of peace, but he is
accused of being a mastermind for attacks.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 15, 2002]
US soldiers are
stirring up enmity
in Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Perhaps we should blame the personnel. It is awfully easy for an army
that arrives as liberators to become oppressors, especially when they
mostly don't speak the local language and the political situation is
complex. However, it might be a good idea for the US army to get out
of Afghanistan while the US is still mostly considered a friend.
[August 15, 2002]
A few publishers are
trying to impose restrictions
on the use of books, through shrink-wrap licenses.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
There is no reason why a society should allow publishers to impose
such restrictions on readers. Governments have long placed limits on
the power to use nonnegotiated contracts to impose conditions on the
public. Consumer protection law exists for precisely this purpose.
It would make perfect sense to have a law saying that a shrink-wrap
license on a book is simply legally void.
The article uses the misleading propaganda term
intellectual property which leads to confused thinking. Please
don't imitate that practice.
[August 14, 2002]
Atlantic tuna are
threatened with extinction, and so are some fish
they eat, because of phony fish farms that catch wild tuna and fatten
them up for use as sushi.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 14, 2002]
The Bush administration is considering a
plan
to send assassination squads
to kill Al Qa`ida operatives and leaders--if it can find them.
Many countries will not like having US assassination squads operating
on their territory.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Since I am not a pacifist and believe that killing in self defense is
legitimate, I would not criticize the US government for killing
someone who is trying to kill Americans, if that is the only way to
stop him. However, the great power of governments brings with
it a responsibility to limit their use of this power.
I fear that the Bush administration, having shown no scruples about
imprisoning people without trial, will choose to kill people when they
could instead have been arrested and put on trial. It might even
choose to kill these people to avoid the trouble of imprisoning them,
or to prevent them from testifying.
The US army has killed Afghan civilians by mistake on several
occasions. Assassination squads also will run the risk of killing the
wrong man by mistake--or killing bystanders.
[August 14, 2002]
Saving the world, and ending poverty: which gets priority?
Is it possible to do
both?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 13, 2002]
Bush is
trying
to exclude ocean areas from environmental laws.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[August 13, 2002]
Iraq has
agreed to accept
UN weapons inspectors in accord
with the UN resolutions which say they must have unfettered
access to search for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
[August 13, 2002]
In Nablus, Israeli soldiers
shoot even at the kites
that Palestinians fly.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 13, 2002]
A
cloud of human-caused pollution hangs over much of Asia,
reducing rainfail as well as killing thousands of people outright.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 12, 2002]
In signing corporate reform legislation on July 30, President Bush said
that the new law "says to every American: there will not be a different
ethical standard for corporate America than the standard that applies to
everyone else."
Since the signing, corporatists are working overtime to
prove him wrong.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 12, 2002]
This quote is circulating on the net, and attributed to
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, but it does not come
from that play.
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war
in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor,
for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword.
It both emboldens the blood,
just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch
and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed,
the leader will have no need
in seizing the rights of the citizenry.
Rather, the citizenry,
infused with fear and blinded by patriotism,
will offer up all of their rights unto the leader
and gladly so.
How do I know?
For this is what I have done.
And I am Caesar."
[August 10, 2002]
A disturbing
web page presents evidence that fluoride, used to prevent
tooth decay, causes gum disease, which causes several other serious
medical problems.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I would be interested in seeing how dentists address this issue.
[August 10, 2002]
How to
bring about a regime change in the world's most dangerous rogue state.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 10, 2002]
The Northwoods Document is a 1962 US government
plan to attack Cuba by staging fake Cuban attacks to serve as an excuse.
It was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request.
The plan was never carried out, but the fact that it could
be seriously considered is a telling accusation.
The page also draws conclusions about the Bush administration's
motives for the war in Afghanistan. I don't endorse those
conclusions; I'm not convinced.
[August 10, 2002]
A warlord in Afghanistan lies to the UN about how prisoners are
treated--
passing off police quarters as the prison.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I heard once that Stalin used the same tactic at the Vorkuta prison camp,
showing the guards' quarters to visitors and claiming it was the prison.
[August 10, 2002]
The International Federation of
Iranian Refugees reports on the cruel totalitarianism of the
Iranian regime, while pressuring Western governments to admit refugees
fleeing the regime.
[August 10, 2002]
People are considering legal action in Britain after
50 officers in full riot gear broke up a free dance party, seriously injuring at
least nine people.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 9, 2002]
A group of doctors are
encouraging doctors and medical students to
reject hand-outs from drug companies. These are used to convince
doctors to prescribe more expensive drugs, while also adding to
the price of drugs.
[August 9, 2002]
The Vatican is
being
sued for over a billion dollars, in various
lawsuits about alleged dishonest financial transactions, return of
property looted in Yugoslavia during World War II, and sexual abuse.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 9, 2002]
A
sort of truce
has been agreed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 9, 2002]
US forces, with Pakistani support, are
kidnapping people in Pakistan
and taking them to Afghanistan where they are held incommunicado.
No one is safe anywhere while Dubya is here.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 9, 2002]
Just as ministers of the Palestinian Authority were meeting,
reporters saw a prisoner
executed by firing squad.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 9, 2002]
Dubya is
trying to proceed
with the Operation TIPS surveillance
program despite the fact that the Homeland Security Bill prohibits it.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
But rather than implement it with federal officials,
calls are being routed to a television show.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 9, 2002]
Should reporters be arrested for asking annoying questions? That's
not supposed to happen in a free country like the USA, but
it did,
for a while, on 12 July 2002.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, proposals are being made for
new laws to make it a crime to
leak classified information to the press.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
"Secret" information means something that the government does not want
you to know. Why not? There are various possibilities. Sometimes
there is a legitimate reason, keeping the secret from enemies.
Sometimes the enemies already know the secret, and the only ones being
kept in the dark are you and me. Sometimes, as with Bush's
relationship with Enron, the "enemy" is you and me.
Leaks are our last line of defense against government deception and
abuse of the public trust. The famous Pentagon Papers were classified
information but Daniel Ellsberg leaked them to the New York Times
anyway. Their publication showed the American public that the
government had been lying to them about the War in Vietnam.
Unless we believe that today's government officials would never, ever
lie to us, we must not make it harder to tell us what they are really
doing.
[August 9, 2002]
Do the corporate accounting scandals result from too little
shareholder control, or from
too much shareholder control?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 8, 2002]
Cambridge University is planning to claim copyright on all the
software written by its professors, and
claim
the patents on all the ideas they have.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Some professors are up in arms because they want to be the ones to own
monopolies on the software or ideas. As far as I am concerned, it
makes no difference whether the entity that applies restrictions to
you or me is a professor's company or a university--what matters is
our freedom. Rather then get sidetracked by a dispute about
who will be the master, we should stand firm for our freedom.
Cambridge should follow a few other universities and decide that
software written there will be free software.
[August 8, 2002]
A group of unarmed women in Nigeria occupied Chevron-Texaco oil
facilities. The
company
had been pumping the oil out of their land,
and giving them nothing but violent and brutal treatment.
Meanwhile, Indians in Peru are
blocking
loggers from cutting down their forest.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 8, 2002]
A few days ago I wrote that the US must stop dealing with Afghans
suspected of aiding the Taliban from fast-moving fighter planes, and
be prepared to send ground troops to check out the situation. An
article by Robert Fisk shows that just sending ground troops is not in
itself sufficient: they have to be prepared to see what's going on,
rather than coming in shooting, and they have to be willing to treat
Afghan civilians with respect. Otherwise they will kill and brutalize
civilians.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
At this point, many Afghans probably still feel grateful to the US for
kicking out the Taliban. Let's make sure they are still grateful
when US forces leave.
[August 6, 2002]
Some parts of the US are adopting computerized
voting machines which do not make any paper recording of ballots.
With these machines, if Bush steals the election of 2004, or if
someone else steals the election of 2012, it may be impossible to
determine who voters really voted for. "Any programmer can write code
that displays one thing on a screen, records something else, and
prints yet another result. There is no known way to ensure that this
is not happening inside of a voting system." It is even harder to
ensure this when the inside of the machine is a trade secret and the
election commission has promised not to examine it.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Such machines are a false economy--they should be prohibited.
[August 5, 2002]
At a time when most of the world is making a sustained assault on the
concept of human rights, Turkey has
passed
a law extending them. It
has abolished the death penalty, and legalized education and
broadcasting in the Kurdish language, which has long been prohibited.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
A US judge
ruled
that the government must publish the names
of the hundreds of people detained (often without criminal charges)
as supposed terrorists since last fall.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
Last March, the FBI
accused
the Saudi-backed Safa trust of supporting
terrorism. The Safa trust gives money to the Islamic Institute, which
was created to lobby the Republican Party.
[August 5, 2002]
There are reports of a high
incidence of severe birth defects in Iraq, which are likely to be
due to the depleted uranium antitank munitions used by US forces
during the Gulf War.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The site also contains photos of deformed babies whose deformities may
be due to depleted uranium. I have not seen them, since my usual
means of obtaining web pages works only for text files; however, a few
cases would not be conclusive proof anyway--statistics are more
persuasive. The parts of the page that I find most cogent are the
quotations from US government documents, quotations that indicate an
awareness before the Gulf War that depleted uranium might harm the
health of both civilians and soldiers (including US soldiers).
Also disturbing is the accusation that the sanctions committee is
blocking Iraq from importing equipment for decontamination, and from
importing cancer treatments.
[August 5, 2002]
The Bush administration has found an excuse by which to offer
"counter-terrorism training" to the Indonesian military.
There is a danger that this will be the same sort of training
that the US has done at the
School of the Americas: training in assassination, torture,
and how to crush democracy.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Such activities are no stranger to the Indonesian military. Just a
few years ago, it set up militias to terrorize the people of East Timor. It still refuses to
investigate those responsible.
In July, a US court found
two former generals from El Salvador responsible for massacres and
torture committed under their command. They have been ordered pay
over $50 million to three victims who sued them. (If they have this
much money, finding it may be difficult, but the verdict will put a
big cramp in their lifestyles anyway.) Both generals are graduates of
the School of the Americas.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
In July, 15 participants in a nonviolent protest against the School of
the Americas (whose offical name is now the "Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation") were
sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
This amazingly long sentence for mere trespassing
suggests that they are being punished for their ideas, rather than for
their actions.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
What the USA PATRIOT Act
means for libraries
and how they are responding to it.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
Israel did not allow the United Nations team to investigate what
happened when the Israeli army invaded Jenin in April, but the UN has
issued a report based on what information it could get. The report
concludes that there was no massacre of hundreds of people. In aiming
to present a picture of equal wrong on both sides, it
omits certain
documented murders.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
Global warming is causing changes in biological patterns in Britain.
So far, they are not harmful, but even
bigger changes will come.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Around the world, man's activity has wiped out half of the forest
and degraded many other habitats. A
new atlas
takes global stock of the situation.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
A year ago, Italian police in Genoa killed one protestor outright,
then attacked a school full of sleeping protestors, seriously injuring
dozens of them. Now a policeman
admits that he planted
a supposed molotov cocktail which was used by Berlusconi as an excuse for the
attack.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
The organization Food Not Bombs does something very subversive: it
gives food to whoever wants to eat. Often this means homeless people,
but poor people with housing also come.
Feeding the hungry is a subversive act because retail businesses
consider homeless people unsightly and try to chase them away. (To
where, one must ask--to jail? To the grave?) Under the influence of
business, city governments often go out of their way to harrass
homeless people. (The city of San Francisco actually detailed police
to seize and destroy the possessions of homeless people--I read about
this in the local homeless people's newspaper.) Thus, Food Not Bombs
often faces opposition.
This July, police in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
stopped Food Not Bombs
from handing out food in the park, saying that these "few" should not
"ruin the investments" of downtown businesses. Community pressure
made the city back down and issue a permit for food distribution.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
On May 6, Reclaim the Streets (a "terrorist threat" according to
former FBI director Freeh) held one of its impromptu street parties in
Dublin, followed by a march. Irish police (the Gardai)
attacked,
arrested, and savaged people arbitrarily--not just participants in the
party, but even people who were just passing by. Over 12 victims
needed hospital treatment.
Especially disgusting was the reported police tactic of bullying
people by pushing people or stealing their drinks, and arrestin anyone
who objected. The police behavior was so disgusting to the Irish that
the issue of police brutality became the leading news item.
[August 5, 2002]
General Galtieri, who led the Argentine military government that
tortured and killed many opposition figures,
has been arrested for
some of these murders, along with 41 other senior former leaders.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 5, 2002]
A new accoustic cannon
may give police additional ability to crush annoying political protests.
The acoustic cannon is probably much less dangerous than bullets, even
rubber bullets (which can maim or kill when they hit certain parts of
the body). It is certainly better for police to use the acoustic
cannon on protestors than to use a more dangerous weapon. The danger
is that this will enable them to get away with crushing protests, in
situations where doing so with bullets would stimulate public outrage.
Noise can permanently damage hearing. The article does not say
whether any tests have been done to see whether the acoustic cannon
causes hearing loss. Would it be considered ethical to do the
experiment as medical research? I tend to think not--but then, is it
ethical to do the experiment by using the cannon on protestors?
[August 5, 2002]
An
article
in The Nation explains how nuclear power lobbyists
go to work to influence congressional staffers.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
The Israeli government has cut off access to Bir Zeit University,
effectively closing it. Israeli academics have a
petition to allow the university to reopen.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken. The new article describes the closure, not the petition.]
CNN was removed from cable television in Israel, on the grounds that
it is pro-Palestinian. (In my experience it is mainly biased in favor
of business.)
[August 4, 2002]
The oil company Esso
sued Greenpeace in France,
and the court ordered them to stop using a symbol which looks like E$$O to describe the
company.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
Greg Palast
reports
on the supporters and the opponents
of Venezuelan President Chavez, and the reasons for their positions.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
President Bush likes to talk about reducing taxes, but he made a
Texas
city raise taxes in order to subsidize the Texas Rangers ball park
which Bush partly owned. Read about how Dubya swindled the taxpayers
of Texas and violated all the principles he claims to stand for.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
LA policeman Jeremy Morse was videotaped
beating up
a black youth in handcuffs and helpless.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Officer Morse's lawyer said in court that Morse used a "reasonable"
amount of force. That could be just courtroom tactics, but it would
not surprise me if that is what Morse actually believes. As a
policeman, he may have developed a standard of conduct according to
which it is reasonable for him to brutally attack people on the
street.
[August 4, 2002]
The British goverment has
proposed a
wide range of measures to reduce
the rights of citizens accused of crimes, and even those who are not
accused.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The part that scares me most is the idea that police could "impose
curfews and other bail conditions on suspects for whom they had
insufficient evidence to charge."
A similar tactic is being used frequently in Canada: protestors are
accused of a crime, perhaps a fabricated charge that is not intended
to stick, and released on bail on condition of not participating in
democratic activity such as protests. Of course, they continue to
protest anyway, so they are tried for violating the conditions. It is
a recipe making effective dissent into a crime. The words I quoted
from the Independent's article suggest that the British version of
this abuse may not even require fabricating an initial accusation.
[August 4, 2002]
The idea of legal rights in the US was
dealt a serious blow
when Judge Kollar-Kotelly ruled that prisoners being held in Guantanamo have no
right to a trial. They have, according to her ruling, no rights
whatsoever.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Another court case which was also rejected by the lower court is now
being appealed.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
One father
what it feels like when his child is turned into a sales pitch.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
The US is
trying to
weaken a planned amendment to strengthen the treaty that prohibits torture of prisoners.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
The
UK is reviewing
thousands of convictions for child abuse because there was insufficient evidence.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Experience in the US shows it is easy for repeated interrogation that
encourages accusations to convince children that adults had sex with
them (or that the things adults did constituted sex, since the
boundary is sometimes unclear), when that did not really take place.
[August 4, 2002]
On July 11, Judicial Watch
sued
Vice President Cheney accusing
him of swindling investors in his oil company, Halliburton.
Cheney made a video 6 years ago praising Arthur Anderson accounting
for its "good advice".
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
On July 26, White House security staff
prevented a process server
from delivering the summons to Cheney, threatening to arrest him
if he dropped the papers there.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 4, 2002]
In July, the Italian government
shut down several private web sites
for "blasphemy" against Catholicism.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[August 2, 2002]
The US is
using humanitarian aid to sneak
genetically engineered corn seeds into poor countries in Africa. If the corn is planted there,
it would cross-polinate the corn being grown by farmers, and then
they could be sued for patent infringement just for growing corn.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The US could remove the problem by milling the corn before it is
shipped, which costs $25 per ton, but the US refuses to pay this small
cost.
[August 2, 2002]
A Polish journalist was attacked by police in New York while
photographing a Critical Mass group bicycle ride/protest. The police
who attacked him then accused him of assaulting an officer (hitting
the policeman's fist with his body?). New York is where the word
"testilying" comes from.
[August 1, 2002]
On July 29, thousands of people in Nablus, Palestine, defied the
Israeli curfew nonviolently by walking on the streets of the town.
The Israeli troops did not attack them.
[August 1, 2002]
While the US Senate considers a law that establishes a 20-year
prison sentence if someone smokes pot on your property, the UK
government has
stopped arresting anyone
for possessing (or smoking) marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 29, 2002]
The French police are on a
rampage in Strasbourg: they have
arbitrarily prohibited peaceful protests, attacked peaceful
protestors, attacked journalists, and destroyed films and tapes giving
evidence of their violent attacks. Fortunately they were unable to
destroy all of the evidence.
The protests are in opposition to border controls and restrictions on
immigration. I'm not sure of the precise position they advocate, and
I probably don't fully support it--but that is a secondary issue
compared with the violence of the police.
[July 29, 2002]
A study at
Emory University shows that a part of the human brain
involved in feelings of reward (i.e. pleasure) are activated when
people cooperate with others, but not when they refuse to cooperate.
This suggests (though it does not yet prove) that humans have evolved
brain circuits that favor cooperation in general. A
brain scan experiment
offers further evidence that the human brain
is structured so as to encourage cooperation.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
If that is so, it
would give a biological answer to the age-old question of whether
human nature is good or bad: namely, that at least part of it is good.
[July 28, 2002]
Last week Israeli forces
dropped a bomb
on a populous area of Gaza,
killing a Hamas officer who had commanded attacks on Israel, and quite
a few helpless civilians at the same time. Israel said that the
civilian deaths were an "accident"--a worthless excuse, since they
should have known such an attack would kill civilians--but there
was a worse casualty: prospects of peace.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Hamas was just about to declare a cease-fire when this attack came and
enraged its supporters. Sharon, who does not want peace, probably
launched the attack to ruin the chance for peace. It's not the first
time that a comparative lull in fighting was shattered by an Israeli
attack. Until the Israeli government wants peace, and tries to bring
about peace, Israel must share in the blame for continued fighting.
[July 28, 2002]
Gush Shalom
reports
that Israel is using a new form of collective
punishment against terrorist suspects: arrest the men in their
families, blow up their homes without letting them take anything out,
and then forcibly move them to Gaza
not letting them return home.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
One of these house bombardments damaged four neighboring buildings so
that 62 people are now homeless.
[July 28, 2002]
There are charges that the FBI had
connections
to pre-Sep-11 insider trading.
[July 26, 2002]
The house already voted in favor of the investigation of 9-11,
which makes that urgent note obsolete. Please take it down
and replace it with this pol note:
The US House of Representatives has voted to launch an independent
investigation of US government failures to prevent the September 11
attacks. The US Senate is likely to approve it also. Many now accuse
Bush of being directly to blame for failure to prevent the attacks;
this investigation may determine the truth of these accusations.
[July 26, 2002]
Congressman Tim Roemer has called for legislation that would establish
an "Independent Commission to Investigate the U.S. Govt. Failures that
Allowed 9-11 to Occur." US citizens, please phone his office to
express your support: 202-225-3915. It is also useful to contact your
own legislators and ask them to support the bill.
[July 26, 2002]
The ACLU has filed a lawsuit
to overturn the Digital
Millenium Copyright Act as unconstitutional. This is the law that
subordinates your freedom to media companies by effectively allowing
them to write their own copyright laws.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
[July 26, 2002]
People in India and the US are on
hunger strike
demanding that the man in charge of Union Carbide
be brought to justice India for the negligence that killed
thousands there.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 26, 2002]
There are reports that police have persistently and brutally attacked
protestors in Strasbourg. See
http://j12.org/news/ for more information.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[July 19, 2002]
Some prominent hackers are planning to offer
free software to promote anonymous Web surfing in countries where the Internet is censored,
particularly in China and Middle Eastern nations.
[July 16, 2002]
In the Bolivian presidential election, the candidate who endorses the
growing of coca and opposes US interference in his country
came in second.
[July 16, 2002]
Listen
To the Nonviolent Poor -- By Arundhati Roy
[July 16, 2002]
UnansweredQuestions.org proposes citizens commissions
to investigate the answers to several basic questions
about September 11 that the US government shows no interest
in investigating.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 16, 2002]
Privacy International has a new information resource
about the UK
government's proposed national identity ("entitlement") card.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 12, 2002]
Read Mark Twain's views about
saluting the flag.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[July 12, 2002]
As of July 6, the Israeli Army was
holding Jenin hospital under siege.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 5, 2002]
Italian police are now being
investigated officially
for faking evidence against Genoa protestors in July 2001.
It feels very good to see that an effort is being made to punish these
lawless bullies, but it is too soon to rejoice. Swedish police also
fabricated evidence against protestors, and some were investigated for
doing so, but most of those investigations were dropped with no
prosecution.
[July 5, 2002]
The UK government is proposing to introduce
national identity cards. The proposal is controversial, and I've
seen reports that many members of parliament are opposed to it. Supposedly
the information on the cards will remain "confidential", but that surely
won't apply to the police.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
These id cards will
not be very effective for preventing fraud or terrorism. They
will, however, increase the possibilities for totalitarian government
surveillance.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 5, 2002]
The US government is developing plans to use psychoactive "calming"
drugs to subdue protestors and prisoners. Are the people mad enough
to protest your policies? No problem,
just drug them so they won't
care any more.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 5, 2002]
The US
continues to hold
Bosnian peacekeeping hostage for its demands
to exempt the US from the International Criminal Court. Only China,
that great bastion of freedom, supports the US demands.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 5, 2002]
Bolivians are angry at US meddling in their country
as part of the "war on drugs". A presidential candidate
who supports growing coca, and opposes US intervention,
gained popularity after US threats and insults.
[July 4, 2002]
Bush is now directly connected with an act of apparent financial
misconduct. Vice President Cheney is directly connected with a
different act of apparent financial misconduct. It seems to be a
consistent pattern.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Republicans in Congress used the Independent Prosecutor law to
attack Clinton so persistently that people concluded the law should
not be renewed. I warned at the time that this would allow the
Republicans to escape prosecution for much larger and more severe
forms of corruption.
A week ago I visited Athens, and was told that the ancient Athenian
democracy allowed citizens to sue officials for all sorts of
misconduct--even for failing to keep their campaign promises. Perhaps
we should adopt this system today.
[July 4, 2002]
Israel is trying to
cut off international food and medical aid to the
Palestinians, even as it keeps them from traveling to work or school
and thus makes it impossible for them to live on anything except aid.
After long experience using what is implicitly collective punishment,
Israel is also moving towards explicitly adopting use of collective
punishment.
[July 4, 2002]
If corporations cheat their stockholders despite multiple layers of
laws and organizations designed to supervise their relations with
stockholders,
how much
must they be cheating their employees, their
customers, and bystanders?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 3, 2002]
Clarence Darrow, the famous defense lawyer,
gave a speech to prisoners
in the Cook County Jail about the causes and significance of crime.
Things have changed partly today--some people are in jail now
for smoking pot rather than because they were poor--but they are
partly the same.
[July 3, 2002]
The Israeli army is or was
holding two Americans and one Briton
captive in inhumane conditions, and denied access to their consulates.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, a Palestinian peace negotiator has been
arrested on trying
to return to Palestine through Israel (which is the only way to do
it). 17 members of Fellowship of Reconciliation, coming from the US,
were refused entry into Israel where they were supposed to meet with
a member of the Israeli legislature. Sharon must feel these
people carry an unacceptable risk of peace.
[July 3, 2002]
Starhawk, who grew up as a Zionist and is now staying with
Palestinians in Jenin to protect them from the Israeli army,
writes
about racism against Arabs, racism against Jews, atrocities committed
against and by Jews, and how this relates to religion and politics.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 3, 2002]
A tribal council in Pakistan
ordered the rape of a woman
as a punishment to her family. Police were reluctant to intervene
until public pressure built up.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The official legal system in Pakistan is horrible--there is a pattern
of sentencing pregnant rape victims to death for adultery, and
meanwhile, Dr. Shaikh has been sentenced to death for blasphemy
against Islam. These unofficial tribal law systems seem to be even
worse, based on total incomprehension of the idea of human rights.
President Bush, who also has no idea of the meaning of human rights,
would feel quite at home.
[July 2, 2002]
Global warming is causing grave problems in the US, from melting
tundra and spreading mosquitos in Alaska to large fires in the West.
Unless we reduce the use of fossil fuels, the damage will accelerate.
For more info about possible solutions, see
EnvironmentalSustainability.info.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
In some places, the problems are even worse--the small nation of
Tuvalu is being completely evacuated because rising sea levels have
made its islands uninhabitable. New Zealand invited the whole
population of Tuvalu to move in, which was relatively painless for
them since that population is small. When environmental refugees
number in the millions, will wealthier countries (the ones that burned
the fuel and caused the problem) accept the refugees whose lands they
destroyed, or will they close their borders and tell the refugees to
stay put and die?
Dubya opposes any government action to slow down global warning. We
know the reason why: he and his family are closely connected with oil
companies (not only Enron). But one thing puzzles me: why should they
be in such a hurry to sell all the oil so fast? Don't they realize
that the oil will probably be more valuable in the future than it is
now? Wouldn't even they be better off selling the oil when it becomes
rare, to a world that remains prosperous enough to buy it?
It could be that this is a symptom of the same short-sighted attitude
that led the executives of Enron and Worldcom to run them into the
ground instead of trying to operate as a going concern.
The Bush administration is
trying to ignore the problem of global warming
even while reporting that it will cause severe damage even in the US:
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Cutting down global warming would require an investment
of billions of dollars, but
the damage it will prevent
is even more costly.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13450
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[July 2, 2002]
The International Criminal Court was
established recently to prosecute war crimes
when national governments will not try. The US demands
absolute special immunity from this Court, and when the UN would not
granted it, the US vetoed the UN resolution to continue the
peacekeeping and police training forces in Bosnia.
Close US allies, including even the UK, condemned this move.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
In effect, the Bush administration is holding Bosnia hostage for its
demands for special treatment. Can you say "terrorist state"? I hope
the UN refuses to make concessions, because giving in to bullying
never makes the situation better in the long run. Sad as it will be
to end UN peacekeeping aid to Bosnia, it is clearly less important
than the long-term progress that the ICC represents.
[July 1, 2002]
The Argentine government, trying once again to impose painful
austerity measures to please the IMF, has triggered massive protests
again, and
police there have killed two protestors while injuring many
others.
There are reports that police have attacked the offices of
an opposition group, the United Left, shooting there too.
[July 1, 2002]
With WorldCom crashing and Xerox showing large previously concealed losses,
fraudulent accounting is hurting even business.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Over the past decade, leaders and legislators of many countries
(including especially the US) have done whatever business executives
and lobbyists ask them for, and the public (who they are supposed to
represent) be damned. The idea of holding business to any kind of
social responsibility has gradually been forgotten. What is now being
revealed is that the idea of holding business to a responsibility to
its employees or even its shareholders has been equally forgotten. In
the absence of government with the strength and the will to resist the
demands of business, the business system eats even itself. As
management becomes increasingly greedy and callous, they
short-sightedly destroy the ground they are standing on.
When it became clear that Andersen, one of the "big five" accounting
companies, had participated in the Enron fraud, some expressed concern
that criticizing the company could be dangerous for society. Fleeing
customers might drive it out of business, and reduce the "big five" to
a "big four". Where would that process of concentration end?
It's dangerous to have so few large accounting firms that society
hesitates to punish one of them for fraud. Therefore, the US
government should break up the remaining "big four" accounting firms
into eight or ten. This way, if one of them goes bad, the corruption
won't reach such a large portion of the business system; when it is
caught, if its punishment effectively drives the deceptive company out
of business, there will be nothing scary about that.
[June 30, 2002]
Israeli journalist Shimon Shiffer reports on
the reaction of Israel's foreign minister to Dubya's speech:
"Shimon Peres' face became more and more weary and angry, the longer
Bush went on with his speech. "He is making a fatal mistake" remarked
Peres. "Making the creation of a Palestinian state dependant upon a
change in the Palestinian leadership is a fatal mistake" he repeated
again and again. "Arafat has led the Palestinians for 35 years, kept
their head above the water in the international arena. No, no, you
can't just brush him aside with one speech."
The rest of the page is also enlightening. Search for "Bush can wait
- we can't" and "from Marissa in Balata refugee camp".
[June 30, 2002]
A PhD student who documented a massacre of Arabs during Israel's war of independence
faced harrassment,
and his degree was cancelled.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Israeli extremists will surely respond by pointing out that the Arab
nations had announced the intention to exterminate the Jews. That is
true--but Israel claims to live by a higher standard than that. To
meet that standard, it must seriously address its own atrocities, not
cite the low standards of some of its enemies to excuse them.
[June 29, 2002]
The world took a step towards
1984-style total surveillance this year, when the European Union
adopted a directive allowing countries to pass laws requiring
telephone companies and internet service providers to keep permanent
records of their customers activities.
Now Germany has passed such a law. (The precise details were
intentionally left blank, and could be changed at any time.)
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A German elected official told me that they cited "child pornography"
as the reason. That's one of the standard excuses given for
government surveillance of everyone, but it can hardly justify
totalitarian snooping. Nowadays the usual excuse for government
surveillance is "terrorism", but that's illogical too; real terrorists
know about these rules and are not likely to be caught this way.
[June 29, 2002]
Public Housing projects in the US often evict families because
someone in the family was arrested for using drugs--even if
the person is found innocent, the whole family can still be evicted.
The unfairness of this policy is so extreme that
residents and even officials cannot bring themselves to believe how
it works.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
One person was evicted after being framed
for using drugs. This story also illustrates in detail the unfairness
of the system as it operates.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
This is one of many ways in which the "war on drugs" hurts millions of
Americans.
Last week, the state of Vermont decided it will distinguish medical
use of marijuana from non-medical use and will study how to remove
penalties for medical use. It would join several other states
which have already done so.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Allowing medical use of marijuana is a step in the right direction,
but not far enough. Some illegal drugs, like some legal drugs, really
are dangerous, but the policies of prohibition do far more harm than
drugs do. Even the most dangerous addictive drug, tobacco, should not
be illegal. (I say this after tobacco killed my father and his
father.) The "war on drugs" is a war against our own people, and it
should be ended.
[June 29, 2002]
An appeals court in the US ruled that schools cannot have the students
recite the Pledge of Allegiance because the words "under god", added
to the Pledge in 1954, endorse religion. Judge Alfred T. Goodwin
wrote that these words are just as unacceptable as a statement that
"we are a nation `under Jesus,' a nation `under Vishnu,' a nation
`under Zeus,' or a nation `under no god,' because none of these
professions can be neutral with respect to religion."
Christians in the US are determined to impose their religion on the
whole population of the country. Our Supreme Court cannot be relied
on to uphold the Constitution in a thoughtful way, and may cater to
them. Congress surely will. But this courageous judge, and one of
his colleagues, did the right thing regardless.
Some states in the US have old laws prohibiting Atheists from
testifying in court or holding public office. And, for those who are
curious, I don't object to the existence of the song "God Bless
America" although I find it insipid, and I love Machaut's Messe de
Notre Dame despite its explicitly Catholic text and purpose--but I
would take offense at the use of either one in an official context
which implies government endorsement of the statements about religion.
[June 29, 2002]
The FBI has been searching
library records across the nation. 85
libraries reported being searched, but they are not allowed to give
any details because the "PATRIOT" act makes it a crime to tell the
public what the FBI has done. Libraries report getting calls from
frenzied Americans who favor giving up freedom and privacy because
they think that will somehow make them safe.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[June 29, 2002]
Yasser Arafat has
announced plans
for the Palestinian elections that Bush demanded--if Israel pulls back and makes it feasible to carry
them out. Arafat says he will run for re-election, and the choice
will probably be between him and religious extremists. Bush, who got
much of his backing from religious extremists, may find he does not
like having to negotiate with one.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 29, 2002]
Esso is suing
Greenpeace in France for its "E$$o" publicity campaign that
criticizes the oil company for opposing efforts to limit global
warming. It demands disconnection of the
StopEsso web site.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
Esso claims that the campaign "damages Esso's reputation." Of course,
pointing out someone's wrongdoing will tend to do that. If such a
lawsuit succeeds, it would essentially mean censorship of criticism of
corporations' activities. Esso operates in the US under the name
"ExxonMobil". Mobil, which Esso merged with a few years ago, was fond
of publishing right wing political ads in newspapers. Surely they
would not wish to deny their critics the same press freedom that they
enjoyed.
Many Americans are uncertain how to pronounce "xx" in "Exxon", and
some pronounce it like a single "x". That is incorrect. The correct
pronunciation is like gargling; it is the consonant at the end of
German "ach", Scottish "loch", and the American expletive of disgust
that is sometimes written "yech". Just kidding ;-).
[June 28, 2002]
Relatives of people killed in the Sep 11 attacks have
filed suit
against George Bush and other government officials, accusing them of
standing by and allowing the attacks to occur.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 28, 2002]
The anarchists in Long Beach, the same group that faces constant
police harrassment, held a benefit party. The police harrassment
continued--police fabricated noise complaints to shut down the party.
Police fabrication of minor accusations is a common harrassment
technique. In Sevilla, Spain, police last week confiscated water
bottles from protestors claiming they were dangerous weapons.
An activist's article about this harrassment is very angry, and I
found the tone offputting; you may also. But given how the police
treated them, I can't blame him for being angry. I am not an
anarchist myself (you can't have a welfare state without a state), but
when police interfere with the anarchists' peaceful expression of
their views, they attack democracy and our freedom. When police lie
and make false accusations, they attack the very idea of justice.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[June 28, 2002]
The UK government
proposes to force
people to take drugs, or even electric shock treatments, or else be kept in prison--even if they
have never committed a crime.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I know someone whose brain was messed up by electric shock treatment.
It is a form of torture.
[June 28, 2002]
Governments and the UN have
rejected
Bush's idea that the Palestinians should get themselves a new leader that suits the US better.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A rather
bitter-toned article by Robert Fisk points out that what
Bush offered the Palestinians in exchange is so leaky that it is
actually nothing at all.
[June 28, 2002]
The US government is
trying to sabotage
the International Criminal Court by threatening to cut contribution to UN peacekeeping forces.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[June 28, 2002]
The US Supreme Court
ruled that the
death penalty cannot be imposed by
a judge, only by a jury. This requires new sentencing for at least
168 persons awaiting execution, and perhaps others as well.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
This is a good event in that it may prevent some executions. Based on
past experience with DNA testing, it is likely that several of those
168 people are innocent. However, the question of whether a judge or
a jury makes the decision is really a side issue; the real issue is
whether to have a death penalty at all.
[June 27, 2002]
Israel is
keeping journalists out of the occupied territories, and thus
depriving the world of independent information about what is happening
there. Excluding journalists, which Bush did in Afghanistan and his
father did in Kuwait and Iraq, raises suspicions that something dirty
is being covered up. Israelis are not unaware of this.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
As usual nowadays, this repressive measure is supplied with an
innocent official justification: it's supposed to be for the
reporters' own safety. However, reporters travelled with US troops in
combat in World War II and Viet Nam; are Hebron and Bethlehem more
dangerous than a battlefield with two armies?
The article reveals that Palestinians (in number almost
a million) are allowed to leave their houses only for three
hours every third day. That regime is harsher than most prisons. How
can people live under such circumstances? Work is impossible,
schooling is impossible, medical care is impossible, and recreation is
almost unthinkable. Sheer boredom must drive people to suicide
bombing.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, President Bush demands that the Palestinians hold an
election to replace Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Authority has not
been very democratic, and a new election would be a good thing. But
there is no way to organize an election when the voters and the
election officials are under house arrest. This seems to be an
artificial demand that Bush knows the Palestinians cannot meet.
(Arafat already said he would hold elections if the Israeli troops
withdraw.)
I can only see one way that anyone could beat Arafat in a Palestinian
election: Bush could run, and steal the election as he did in the US.
I wonder what deals Bush could make with Israel, as President of the
Palestinians, saying he is doing it on their behalf. I hope they
aren't as bad as the trade treaties he wants to sign on our behalf.
[June 27, 2002]
Now that cars contain computers,
non-free software is affecting car
mechanics and their customers. Independent mechanics don't get access
to the information necessary to diagnose and fix certain problems in
modern cars, with the result that they cannot do the job any more.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Congress and the EPA are proposing to require automakers to release
the software necessary to diagnose car faults. (Unfortunately, these
plans do not require release as free software.) The auto companies
oppose the plans, making the predictable argument that they want to be
able to keep this information secret. There is a simple response to
that: there are more important things at stake than what they want.
Businesses keep all sorts of things secret for competitive advantage.
Sometimes this practice is harmless; sometimes it hurts the public.
When business secrecy hurts the public, we should not hesitate to
require them to disclose whatever information seems important for the
public to know. Corporations are not important in their own right, as
human beings are. Corporations do not deserve a right to privacy
when their secrecy hurts human beings.
If all the companies are required to disclose certain information,
that is not unfair, it just changes the rules of competition. Change
happens all the time.
[June 26, 2002]
90% of the Israeli settlers in the occupied territories want to leave,
according to an article in Haaretz which they decided not to translate
into English. You can find an unofficial
translation by searching for the word "important" in
that page..
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Initially the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories were
made by expansionists who were eager to create "facts on the ground"
in support of annexation, and there are still some of those. But they
were expanded by Israeli governments who made them available cheap to
immigrants (from Russia, etc.) in order to fill them. Since these
settlements are an obstacle to a peaceful solution, it is good news
that so many are willing to leave. All it will take is the money to
build them other places to live--and the US can certainly afford the
cost.
[June 22, 2002]
Ten thousand protestors in Arequipa, Peru, led by the city's mayor,
celebrated the suspension of plans to privatize the local electric
plants. The government of Peru was going to sell them, but massive
protests caused it to back down. However, the sale is not cancelled,
just put on hold.
[June 21, 2002]
A World Health Organization report says that
smoking tobacco
is even more dangerous than was formerly believed.
Half of all adult smokers who don't quit will be killed by it.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
My father and his father both died from smoking, so I try very hard to
convince people to stop smoking. However, dangerous as tobacco is,
prohibiting it would be wrong. People have a right to spend their
lives as they wish (in this case the word "spend" applies in a very
literal way). Other drugs, now illegal but probably less dangerous
than tobacco, should not be prohibited either. When a drug is
illegal, that creates additional danger: the danger of imprisonment,
and (for addictive drugs) the danger of being robbed by an addict
(since prohibition makes the drug more expensive).
[June 21, 2002]
Repression hits Cambridge Mass,
as a Palestinian organizer for a legal
protest was arrested shortly before the protest, then handed to the
INS, which tortured and maimed him.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Before the INS got him, the FBI interrogated him, accusing him of
being a terrorist. The only basis they could offer for this
accusation was protest leaflets found in his car.
Another Palestinian protest organizer was arrested in Chicago on the
same day.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Real terrorists aim to go unnoticed until they act, and they know
better than to call attention to themselves by participating in public
political protest. The FBI knows this, of course.
Police believe they are embattled fighters for a cause that is more
important than anything; this can easily lead them to believe that
they are justified in using any means whatsoever, including lying and
torture. Often they are in denial and do not themselves recognize
that their actions fit those words.
[June 21, 2002]
There is
evidence
that British Military Intelligence was directly
involved in a 1989 murder in Northern Ireland.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 21, 2002]
Thousands of penguins are dying
of starvation in the Falkland Islands because the fish they normally eat are missing. Human
activities, in the form of overfishing and global warming, may be
responsible.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Will we pay attention to this warning, or will we wait until millions
of people start starving?
[June 20, 2002]
More
details on the Bari/Cheney trial verdict.
Senior FBI agents were found liable for their
supervisory roles violating their civil rights.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 20, 2002]
Last November the US allowed Pakistani army personnel to sneak out of
Afghanistan (where they were helping the Taliban), a decision aimed at
avoiding embarrassment for Pakistani president Musharraf (who had
become a US ally). It appears that lots of Al Qa'ida terrorists
snuck out along with them.
[June 20, 2002]
A reporter
faces criminal charges in Zimbabwe for his articles
published in the Guardian, a London newspaper. The charges say that
because the article appeared on the Internet and could be downloaded
in Zimbabwe, it was published in Zimbabwe (and, by extension, in every
country that has Internet access).
By attempting to apply its laws to actions committed outside the
country, Zimbabwe follows the example of the US (which often tries to
impose its rules on the whole world), and launches an attack on
freedom of the press around the world. If the Guardian's publisher
travels to China or South Africa, he could be extradited to Zimbabwe.
Various countries have various laws that restrict publication or can
punish people for what they publish. Zimbabwe and China forbid
criticizing the government. The UK has absurd libel laws under which
even truthful criticism of public figures can be prohibited. The US
has the DMCA which prohibits publication of useful information such as
how to read a DVD. The US also has software patents. The proposed Hague
Treaty carries the danger of globalizing some or all of these laws
to over 50 countries, unless it is carefully limited to exclude issues
of publication.
[June 18, 2002]
35 years ago,
Padre Pio was condemned even by the Catholic Church as a
faker. Now he has been declared a saint, using a new "fast track"
procedure. It seems the Pope wants to be able to claim that saints
exist today, and thus encourage credulity.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Moral 1: anything called "fast track" means someone is pulling a fast one.
Moral 2: if you're looking for real saints in these times, look in the
Church of Emacs.
[June 17, 2002]
An
article in Business Week shows what life is like for the sweatshop
workers in China that produce much of the things we buy in rich
countries. They are treated almost like prisoners, and must pay most
of their salary back to their employers for daily expenses, so that
they end up with next to nothing. These are then sold to big-name
Western companies, including those that tell the public that they do
not buy from sweatshops.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
I am not sure when this article was written; the file name suggests it
was in 2000. Nonetheless, I expect that the situation is the same
today, because it is not an accident. It is the consequence of the
structure of global trade.
This abuse is not unique to China; it is much the same in other poor
countries. All these countries have laws about how workers should be
treated, but one way or another these laws are broken, or "exceptions"
are made so frequently that they become the norm. This is because the
various countries' governments are competing to increase their
exports. Anything that gets in the way of that, like the rights of
their own citizens, has to be eliminated.
[June 15, 2002]
Drought in parts Africa
results from burning fossil fuels in the North,
according to new climate models. The US and Europe have a duty to help,
not only for basic humanitarian reasons, but also because they caused
the problem.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 15, 2002]
MIT students protested the appearance of World Bank president
Wolfensohn at their graduation, but Massachusetts and Cambridge
police blocked them from exercising their legal rights.
Comes the next Cambridge city council election, I am going to ask the
candidates to support the exercise of political freedoms in Cambridge
and to restrain the police from interfering; I will make it clear that
this will be important to my vote. If you are a Cambridge resident,
would you like to join me in this?
[June 15, 2002]
The College Art Association plans to file an amicus brief when the
Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono
Copyright Act (aka Mickey Mouse Copyright Act) which retroactively
extended the term of copyright in the US by 20 years. They are
looking for teachers, writers, scholars, historians, etc. who have a
basis to claim that this extension has harmed their work.
If you can help, please read more
and then contact the CAA. If you know any teachers, writers,
scholars, historians, etc., who might be able to help, please ask them
to look at
http://www.studiolo.org/CIP/AmicusLetterEldredCAA.htm.
[June 13, 2002]
Patents on drugs can make life-saving medicine too expensive for many
people, even in rich countries, but often in poor countries. Drug
companies claim this is necessary to fund medical research, and that
sounds plausible--until you
start probing.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 13, 2002]
When Bush announced plans for detention without trial, he reassured
Americans that this would apply only to foreigners. This does not
reduce the injustice--if you were arrested and imprisoned arbitrarily
in a foreign country, would the fact that it is a foreign country
make it any better?
[June 13, 2002]
13 Kurdish members of the Turkish parliament
have been imprisoned for many years
for such things as speaking in Kurdish in favor of peace.
Their case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which
ruled that Turkey had violated the basic principles of democracy.
However, the court lacks the power to free them from prison.
[June 11, 2002]
Police in Long Beach, California,
don't seem
to understand what democracy means. First they attacked and arrested protestors for no
reason. Then they began a campaign to harrass
activists--conspicuously following them, stopping and searching them
frequently, and punishing them for any trifling excuse.
For these police officers, laws are just tools for intimidating
citizens. Nowadays, with September 11 as an excuse, they hardly even
deny it. Police spokesman David Marander says that surveillance of
dissidents is normal in the US now, and claims that September 11 makes
it legitimate. Why one an attack on our country should justify
another is something only a policeman could understand.
Sarah Roberts went to a protest in Long Beach to treat protestors who
might be injured there. She was arrested and later convicted of
crimes for her participation, although she did nothing wrong, or even
illegal.
The report says
the jury convicted her because she covered her face at
the protest. The idea that people who have done nothing wrong "have
nothing to hide" from the police is based on the assumption that the
police are honest and uphold citizens' rights. This assumption is
false all around the world, where political opposition is concerned.
It is especially false in Long Beach, California.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Where police gas protestors to suppress democracy, any intelligent
protestor would want to have a gas mask. Where police harrass
political activists, it is natural for dissidents to conceal their
faces. Simply being willing to take action in favor of democracy is
something to hide from the police.
Ms Roberts is sentenced to house arrest and required to wear a
tracking device on her ankle. The California legislature is
considering a bill to put a limit on sentences for nonviolent civil
disobedience, but because her sentence exceeds that limit, she may not
be allowed to go.
How about if you write to the mayor of Long Beach and say what you
think of the behavior of the government of their city? Amnesty
International has shown that authoritarian regimes can feel the
pressure of public condemnation around the world; maybe it will
work on Long Beach too.
Mayor Beverly O'Neill
333 West. Ocean Blvd., 14th Floor
Long Beach, California 90802
Tel: (562) 570-6801
Fax: (562) 570-6538
mayor@ci.long-beach.ca.us
Snail mail takes more effort than email, but is more effective.
Sober moral disapproval is more effective than name-calling.
[June 10, 2002]
Israel seems to be getting touchy about foreign witnesses
to the soldiers' actions in the occupied territories.
[June 10, 2002]
DRM Helmets: An Idea Whose Time Has Come
[June 10, 2002]
In the 1800s, the opium of the masses was religion. Today, as in the
Roman Empire, sports do the job. Millions of people are focusing
their attention on a distraction of no real importance: the football
world cup. Some, however, are paying the world cup a more intelligent
and less welcome kind of attention.
Activists point out that
the balls are made by child labor under terrible conditions
(typical of products made by global megacorporations today).
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Korea has used the world cup as an
excuse to suppress unsightly protests, unions and poor citizens
who might make the capital less than appealing for the visitors who
have come to watch the matches.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 10, 2002]
Islamic law in Pakistan regularly leads to cruel injustice. Sometimes
international pressure can prevent it. Zafran Bi Bi has been
freed after a campaign that delivered 3000 protest emails to President
Musharraf. Zafran Bi Bi was raped, then sentenced to death for
adultery (i.e., being raped by a married man).
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
However, Dr. Younus Shaikh remains under sentence of death for
blasphemy. You can sign an on-line
petition, or write a letter to the
government of Pakistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 9, 2002]
On May 31, Italian police raided union offices of the COBAS Confederation, seizing
computers. They also arrested some of its supporters, who were
charged with any specific criminal acts, only with "subversive
association". Some of those arrested had made reports about police
violence following protests in Genoa last year.
I provide the reference to their site for the sake of those who can
read it in Italian, but I myself cannot read it. If anyone sends me
updated information in English, I would like to post it here.
[June 8, 2002]
New York animal rights activist Andrew Stepanian was
recently sentenced to 6 months in prison
for asking questions when his friend
was beaten and arrested. He too was beaten and arrested, then
sentenced to prison for "resisting arrest" and "obstructing government
authority".
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I don't support the animal rights movement myself, but I do support
its right to state views I disagree with. Our police and courts ought
to support that right also. And how can the Joint Terrorism Task
Force deal with real terrorism, if it spends its time infiltrating
political opposition groups who practice nonviolence against all
animals (including humans) as a matter of principle?
[June 8, 2002]
An FBI agent tapping the email of Al Qa'ida
discovered that the Carnivore system was tapping other people's email as well.
[June 8, 2002]
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, forecasts another coup, and says
this time they will kill him to make sure he does not return to power.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 8, 2002]
The US plans to take a large step towards
1984-style total surveillance
by fingerprinting thousands of foreign visitors. The
regulations allow this to be done to any long-term visitor, but
officials acknowledge they plan to single out Arabs. The UN Human
Rights Commissioner warns that this endangers civil liberties.
Rather than conducting surveillance on thousands of Arabs in the
absence of specific reason to suspect them, it would be more effective
to investigate certain Arabs that have known ties to terrorism: the
bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia. However, they are off limits,
because the bin Laden family is too close to the Bush family, so others
have to get investigated instead.
Ashcroft speaks of checking the fingerprints against a database, but I
suspect that all these visitors' fingerprints will also be recorded
permanently in a database.
[June 8, 2002]
The UK government is building a special center for spying on internet
traffic to enforce the RIP act, which it now
agrees is flawed.
[June 8, 2002]
Indymedia Israel is facing a number of threats to its ability
to operate, which may add up to a campaign of harrassment.
First, a right-wing group has filed charges against Indymedia Israel
for not
censoring a cartoon which likened Sharon to a Nazi. The accusers
call for the people who run Indymedia Israel to be imprisoned for
"incitement to violence", and claim that this "incitement" has been
linked to an act of "actual violence."
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The "actual violence" they cite was a pie throwing. But hey, what's a
little exaggeration in order to imprison dissidents? Protestors in
many countries, including the US, the UK, and Sweden, are regularly
given long sentences for minor offenses.
Meanwhile,
police beat up an Indymedia reporter who was making a video
of a protest, and destroyed two Indymedia Israel videocameras. They
are asking for donations to buy new cameras.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 8, 2002]
The two great scandals
of the Bush administration are its ties with
Enron and its failure to act to prevent the 9/11 attacks. Former
federal prosecutor John Loftus claims they are directly connected --
that the administration blocked the FBI from investigating Al Qa'ida
terrorist threats in order to protect Enron's negotiations with the
Taliban.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 8, 2002]
The State of Maryland
has suspended executions; Governor Parris
Glendening recognized that it was being applied disproportionally
to Black killers rather than White killers.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Even if the death penalty were applied "fairly" to all killers without
regard to race, color, creed, national origin, sex, or sexual
orientation, it would still be a bad system. A considerable fraction
of the "murderers" sentenced to death in the US in the past few
decades have been exonerated subsequently by new evidence--but this
was possible only because their executions were delayed for many
years. With the "streamlined" death penalty that its supporters want,
those innocent people would have been executed before their innocence
was demonstrated.
[June 6, 2002]
FBI director Robert Mueller has now
admitted that by responding
differently to the available information the FBI might have prevented
the September 11 attacks.
The misnamed "USA PATRIOT Act" gave the US government increased
surveillance powers, supposedly justified because the FBI would have
needed them to detect plots such as that of September 11. This reason
was always clearly insufficient to justify such an attack on
Americans' freedom, but now we know it was not even true. The
preexisting surveillance powers were sufficient; the failure was a
failure of attention. The intelligence that was lacking was the kind
that capable people have, not the kind that spies gather.
The FBI proposes to turn its attention to prevention of future crimes
rather than investigation of crimes past. It is legitimate for the
FBI to try to prevent terrorism; however, we must restrain it from
investigating legitimate political opposition groups, as it did in the
80s. Why should we have a choice between two extremes, either
investigating of dissenters or no investigation of terrorists?
Finding a middle way and making sure the FBI follows it may not be
easy, but it is important; it makes no sense to give up without trying.
No sense for the US, that is. It makes perfect sense for Ashcroft and
Bush. They probably relish the idea of using the FBI against
political opposition groups. They don't need a good reason, only half
an excuse.
[June 6, 2002]
Berlusconi, the right-wing TV mogul who rules Italy, is
planning to
silence the main public TV show that criticizes his policies.
Meanwhile, the Italian government is starting to celebrate Mussolini's
fascist regime and the soldiers who fought for it.
[June 6, 2002]
VeriSign, the company that operates the DNS registry for the .org,
.net and .com domains,
is about to be sued for sending deceptive
advertising to domain name owners.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
VeriSign recently began offering a service of handling wiretaps
on behalf of telephone companies. This adds a new danger
to an already-threatening situation.
The FBI has long planned to expand the number of wiretaps it uses. A
1994 law required telephone companies to handle simultaneous wiretaps
on large numbers of phone lines. Having the tapping operated VeriSign
adds a new kind of threat.
"In the old model, you had the FBI and the telecoms seeing the
information, so you were not trusting someone who didn't already have
access to the information," says Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney at the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. "You might worry about your telecom, but
the fact is they had the information already. But it doesn't necessarily
have to be in the hands of a third party."
VeriSign also has a monopoly on selling certificates for secure
communication in e-commerce. If the US government still believed in a
competitive market, it would use anti-trust law to break up Verisign.
[June 6, 2002]
Four Swedish policemen are being prosecuted for their mistreatment
of protestors at Gothenburg last year. Sentences for some activists
have been reduced. However, some of the important acts of police
misconduct, such as falsifying video evidence, have been excused.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 4, 2002]
The US legal system tries to punish street criminals, but for
white-collar criminals takes a less harsh
"restorative" approach,
designed to heal the harm done and prevent recurrence. This
unfairness surely exists because white-collar criminals, from Enron on
down, have more clout.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
It's easy to imagine treating corporate criminals as harshly as we now
treat street criminals. Actually doing so would be harder, since it
would require overcoming the resistance of people with lots of money.
But that might be the wrong approach anyway--perhaps it would be more
effective (for preventing crime) to treat most street criminals more
like the way we now treat corporate criminals.
By legalizing marijuana, and giving cocaine and heroin addicts a legal
way to get their fix, we could cut the number of people considered as
criminals by half or more. (This would result partly from not
labeling mere drug use as a crime, and partly from the fact that
addiction would no longer lead people to burglary.) We could
therefore afford to spend more to deal with each one in a more
effective way (effective for preventing future crime, that is). We
could bring back educational programs in prison, as they used to be in
the 70s. That would reduce the chances that a released convict would
go back to crime. With a combination of all these approaches,
it should be possible to reduce crime considerably.
[June 4, 2002]
Israeli human rights groups
have
gone to court asking for an injunction
against the army's practice of using civilian hostages as human shields.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 2, 2002]
A US court decided
that mining companies can't dump tons of mining
waste into streams. The Bush administration directed the EPA to
permit this, but the judge decided the EPA is not allowed to make
regulations that go against the requirements of the Clean Water Act.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 1, 2002]
European governments have changed EU privacy laws
so that they can
require telecommunications companies to retain customer data for years,
in case police would like to check it. This includes who you talk to
by telephone, who you send email to, even where you walk while your
cell phone is turned on. (The possibility of this tracking is why I
do not have a cell phone.)
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
As usual, this was described as an anti-terrorism measure. As often
happens, it is a greater danger than terrorism. When the Nazis
conquered Europe, they used telephone records to track the
associations of dissidents and thus find other dissidents.
[June 1, 2002]
Contrasting the
ideas on liberty and patriotism of
Patrick Henry, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Ashcroft.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 1, 2002]
Teen pregnancy and teen crime: responses to the
same circumstances?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 1, 2002]
Republican Governor Rowland or Connecticut is a
close friend of the
Bush family, and may be implicated in handouts to Enron.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 1, 2002]
Please sign the petition
asking European governments not to require
telephone companies to retain customer traffic data. If this data is
retained, the police will be able to determine at any time who you
phoned and who phoned you, who you emailed and who emailed you, what
web pages you looked at, even where you walked if you had a cell phone.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 1, 2002]
As deployed US and Russian nuclear weapons are moved to stockpiles or
disassembled, the Russian ones
become dangerously vulnerable for terrorists to seize.
The US is spending money to help guard decommissioned Russian warheads
and fissionable material, but more is needed. This could be a much
more effective way to protect the US from terrorism than taking away
our freedom.
[June 1, 2002]
On 20 May 2002, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said that
no one considered the possibility that the Pentagon would be hit by a
hijacked plane. In
October 2000 the Pentagon held a drill to plan how to handle such a
crash. On 21 May 2002, the article describing the drill was
removed from the government's web site, in an apparent cover-up
attempt.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The cover-up did not succeed, but it shows we need to keep the
pressure on Bush and Co until they tell us what really happened. Bush
does not want an investigation and refuses to cooperate. Please support the demand
for an investigation.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[June 1, 2002]
In the
latest example of closing the world down against political
refugees, the UK government plans to reject some claims for political
asylum rapidly, in a period of a day or two, without even allowing
an appeal.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 31, 2002]
A report on NPR says that a federal appeals court has overturned the
law that would have required public libraries to install filtering
software on Internet terminals.
[May 31, 2002]
A new proposal for how to deal with the Bush calamity:
declare his election void
due to cheating, and roll back all its decisions.
The same article also reports that Jordan was trying to tell the US
that it had learned of a plan to use airliners as weapons. I don't
have a reference for that; if you know of one,
please tell me by email at rms at gnu dot .org.
[May 31, 2002]
An
interview
with a Palestinian would-be suicide bomber who had second
thoughts illustrates the danger posed by monotheistic religion which holds
that the triumph of that particular religion is a "mission from god".
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 31, 2002]
After September 11, the Bush administration claimed it needed new
powers to spy on Americans, ban organizations, and imprison visitors,
in order to fight terrorism--the outrageously misnamed "USA PATRIOT
Act". The disclosure that the FBI had received information about the
plot but refused to take action shows that this justification was
false.
Article by Peter Erlinder, Professor of Constitutional Criminal Law
and past President of the National Lawyers Guild.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 31, 2002]
Just before this year's independence ceremonies in East Timor, the
Indonesian Navy sailed several heavily-armed warships into Dili
harbor, thus violating
agreements with the United Nations and the East Timorese government
and rejecting East Timor's independence.
US voters: please contact your representatives in Congress,
and urge them to stand by the conditions they have already imposed
for a resumption of arms supplies to Indonesia.
[May 20, 2002]
In 1975, Leonard Peltier, political activist, was convicted of killing
FBI agents. There was no specific evidence tying him to the crime,
which occurred after a drawn-out campaign of harrassing and murdering
activists. Amnesty International, United Nations officials, and even
a federal appeals judge have called for his sentence to be commuted.
Now there is a campaign to
demand that Peltier should be considered for parole in the same
way as other people convicted of murder.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 20, 2002]
When you think of "bank robbery", you probably imagine someone
robbing a bank. Now 85
small publishers are being robbed by American National Bank (part
of Bank One). It decided for no particular reason to call back its
loan to their book distributor, LPC--and seized the money that LPC
deposited in the bank to pay the the publishers for the books that it
had sold.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Common Courage Press, which one of the 85 publishers, published a book
called Merchants of Misery which talks about Bank One. Now it is
their victim.
[May 19, 2002]
The UK plans to place
asylum seekers under a form of semi-house-arrest that will require
them to spend every night at a camp in a remote part of Britain. To
be absent even for one night would lead to rejection of asylum claims.
These people would not be prohibited from meeting with someone London,
for instance, but it would take around five or six hours (depending on
the site) to get there, and be quite expensive, so practically
speaking they would very rarely if ever be able to do this.
[May 19, 2002]
Bush complains that the
Democrats are "second-guessing" his actions before and on September
11. If so, he has only himself to blame. He has told his aides
to resist attempts by Congress to investigate what happened and why.
If he would let the investigation proceed, Congress would know what
happened--and they would not have to guess.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
[May 19, 2002]
Yasser Arafat bowed to international pressure and
agreed to hold elections--then hours later added a condition,
saying that elections will be held only if Israeli forces pull back
from the occupied territories.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Palestinian Authority has not been very democratic, and has been
accused of corruption. If the elections and the campaign are free and
fair, it may become one of the few democratic governments in the Arab
world. (My understanding is that Jordan and Kuwait have free
elections for the legislature.)
Having democratic elections does not imply they will elect officials
that have much sympathy for the US government.
The condition can be interpreted in various ways. It could be an
excuse, made by someone who really would rather not have to face an
election. It could also be an attempt to bring about an Israeli
withdrawal. I don't know whether he wants Israel to meet this demand
or reject it.
The condition could also simply be practical. It is hard to run an
election when the election officials are stopped by checkpoints, and
hard for people to go to the polls or run campaigns if they are under
curfew.
[May 19, 2002]
Reporters
who criticize Israel's occupation policies are receiving irrational
hate mail from overseas defenders of Israel, accusing them of
being anti-semites, Nazis and (strange accusation) "Arabs". They are
accused of stirring up racism.
These accusations are outrageous, but the truth parodies them in a
paradoxical way: some defenders of the Palestinians' rights (but not
these reporters) are indeed descending into old-fashioned
anti-semitism. The old lies about Jews, such as that they kill babies
and drink blood, are being repeated in Arab countries--and by
Americans who claim to be defending the rights of Palestinians.
Those who send hate mail to reporters that criticize Israel probably
think they are fighting anti-semitic hatred, but actually the effect
is to promote hatred. Palestinian supporters will surely retaliate in
turn, and the cycle will lead to increased hatred on both sides--all
of it evil.
Is it wrong to document Israel's cruel treatment of the Palestinians
because that some take that as an inspiration for racism? No, because
people are responsible only for what they really do and say, not for
others' distortions of it. Reporting of what both sides actually do
is the only alternative to blanket demonization.
If you wish to prevent hatred against Palestinians and their
supporters, or if you wish to prevent hatred against Israelis and Jews
and their supporters, there's only one way to do it: reject and
denounce hatred in general. This is everyone's moral duty, but in
addition, it is the only way to succeed in protecting anyone from
hatred. The cycle of hatred leads to more hatred in all directions.
No one can escape hatred unless we reject it on all sides.
[May 19, 2002]
Arrogant
publishers continue to try to intimidate web sites that make links to
internal pages. In a recent instance, the Dallas Morning News was
the perpetrator.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 19, 2002]
A web server outside Singapore is giving Singaporeans an opportunity
to express political dissent.
The proposed Hague
treaty could enable Singapore to shut down this server.
[May 19, 2002]
We often talk on the Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, condemned by
Bush to a military court or life in prison without trial. Taliban
prisoners held in Afghanistan are facing even worse conditions:
starvation rations.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The West is partly responsible, because all of Afghanistan needs aid,
and we are too skinflint to provide it. Our intervention could be
good for Afghanistan--but now we have to help them survive the effects
of crop failure.
[May 16, 2002]
A plan is being drawn up to convert the island of Islay, in
Scotland, to use
wave power for all its energy, including generating hydrogen to
run the island's vehicles.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 16, 2002]
Heresies
in Pursuit of Peace: Thoughts on Israel/Palestine
[May 16, 2002]
An
AAAS report presents evidence
indicating that killings of civilians in Kosovo resulted from the actions of Serb forces,
not from NATO or KLA actions.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 15, 2002]
A scandal is developing in the UK as the Labor party is accused
of taking money from businesses in exchange for favors.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Tony Blair apes the Tories in every other respect, so why not this one?
[May 15, 2002]
Venice
is threatened with submergence due to rising sea levels. Some
scientists now say that the planned barrier to protect Venice will be
obsolete soon after it is built, because the waters are rising too
fast.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Tuvalu islands in Polynesia are already being abandoned because
rising seas are making them uninhabitable. Fortunately the
inhabitants are few in number, and New Zealand graciously offered to
let all of them come. But where will the millions go who live in
low-lying coastal areas of Bangladesh? As the rising waters displace
larger numbers, it will be harder to resettle them.
There is no telling when global warming might cause a catastrophic
shift in climate patterns which could melt the Antartic ice cap
and raise sea level by hundreds of feet. Catastrophic shifts
have happened before. The ice sheet covering much of North America
seems to have broken up and melted rather quickly at the end of the
Ice Age, perhaps in just a few years. It won't be easy to cope
with the submergence of many major cities.
A few years ago I visited Izmir, in Turkey. There is a famous street
that runs along the edge of the Mediterranean Sea; from the far side
of the pavement down to the waters is just a few feet. There is no
fence; I think that was so boats could tie up. Does Izmir have a plan
to cope with global warming?
[May 13, 2002]
Civilian employees of Dick Cheney's former company are carrying
out military missions around the world -- for profit.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 13, 2002]
The parliamentary followers of Berlusconi, the media tycoon who
rules Italy, are proposing to remove
from Italian public television certain programs that Berlusconi
alleges are biased.
Berlusconi has meanwhile refused to give up his control of all of
Italy's private television.
[May 13, 2002]
I don't generally root for sports teams, but I might make an exception
for the Fighting
Whities of the University of Northern Colorado. I am proud that
my racial group has finally been recognized in the name of a team.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[May 9, 2002]
A defender of Israel's occupation policies sent me a reference to an
article published by the Palestinian Authority, saying that it
supports terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Part of it does seem to apologize for terrorism--which I don't like,
but is not the same thing as supporting it. However, I have a
different interpretation of the overall thrust of the article. It
seems to be addressed to Palestinians who do approve of attacking
Israeli civilians, saying "Regardless of whether it's justified, it
just makes the situation worse, so would you please stop anyway?" In
effect, it tries to discourage terrorist attacks.
The article reflects a tremendous hatred felt by the Palestinians to
which it appears to be addressed, which is a paradoxical combination
of justified resentment for real oppression with religious and ethnic
prejudice.
[May 9, 2002]
The union that represents the staff of the European Patent Office
has denounced the
European Patent Office for disregarding laws and rejecting
democratic control.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
The EU is considering a mass-surveillance
directive to require all telecommunications companies to keep
long-lived records of who communicates with whom, via telephone or
email. The European Parliament has opposed the plan, but the Council
of Europe is trying to work around them--a move that could lead to
rendering the European Parliament meaningless.
"The Kept University", an article fromm the Atlantic Monthly,
explained in 2000 how corporate
funding is corrupting academia. I was impressed by the article
then; now I've learned it is available on the Internet. It is a
powerful antidote to the ideological view that commercializing all
areas of life is always advantageous.
The Burmese military government has released
Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader
of the Burmese democracy movement, and was elected president of Burma
but prevented by the military government from taking office.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
There is hope this will lead to democracy in Burma, but it is too
early to end the trade sanctions that Aung San Suu Kyi requested in
the past. They are starting to work, so let's keep the pressure on
till the job is done.
GATS, the General
Agreement on Trade in Services, threatens to give multinational
corporations additional power to restrict
the way countries protect their environment, public health, water
supplies, and give them the power to sue governments for any laws that
inconvenience them.
GATS would continue the failed Reagan/Clinton trickle-down policies,
which pretend that removing restraints on business will make everyone
better off. Supposedly it will increase the total wealth and everyone
will share in the prosperity.
Practical experience now shows that this policy has failed: it does
increase the total wealth, but all the benefit goes to the rich. In
the US, middle-class and working people gained nothing in the 90s
despite the boom, and poor people's wages went down. Only the rich
are better off. In other countries, business-dominated globalization
has led to lower wages and exploitative working conditions. The book
No Logo, by Naomi Klein, explains how this works.
At a May Day protest in Berkeley California, an undercover
cop disguised as a protester attacked an Indymedia photographer,
threw him into a police line to be arrested, and then walked away from
the protest as if nothing happened. The police did not try to stop
this masked attacker, which suggests he was a policeman in disguise
and the entire attack was planned.
For more information and pictures, see this.
Israel did not allow the UN team to investigate what happened at
Jenin refugee camp, but a Dutch
investigator says there is no evidence of a massacre.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I recently advocated a fence between Israel and the occupied
territories. I heard a report on NPR that Ehud Barak, former prime
minister of Israel, advocated such a fence in a speech this week.
A report says that police
can now identify people from DNA in the droplets of moisture in their
breath. UK police used this technique to pin some crimes on a
computer theft ring.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I don't mind if these methods help catch thieves; what worries me is
that they will be used to determine who is meeting with whom to plan
political opposition. Combined with common police tactics documented
in previous notes, such as falsely accusing activists of crimes as
serious as setting off bombs, sending disguised gangs to seize them on
the street, imposing bail conditions that prohibit protest and then
imprisoning activists for bail violation, and falsifying and hiding
evidence, anything that increases the police power to spy on political
opposition is a threat to democracy.
This development also augments the sinister danger of proposals for
national DNA data bases.
The US Military is asking Congress to exempt it from a wide range
of environmental protection laws. The bill would free the
military: to contaminate public drinking water with munitions,
discharge air pollutants, and exceed domestic noise limits.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Navy would have much greater leeway test systems that could harm
whales and other marine mammals. There are indications that
low-frequency sound communication systems meant for communication with
submarines can hurt whales at distances of hundreds of miles.
A Norwegian member of parliament is asking for a Nobel
Peace Prize for President Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
This reminds me of the totalitarian regime in the book 1984.
One of its slogans was, "War is peace."
A proposed Spanish law to regulate the Internet would allow
officials to close any web site.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Some states appoint judges; some, such as Texas, have elected
judges. A study shows that elected
judges are biased against out-of-state defendants. It quotes one
judge as admitting this bias.
I've heard other, more sinister accusations that wealthy companies
suing individuals in Texas can make campaign contributions to the
judge hearing the case and get favorable treatment.
Appointed judges can also show bias, as we saw when the Supreme Court
decided to make Bush president and not to count the votes of the
citizens of Florida. But all in all it seems to happen less often.
The US government may be using its new surveillance powers to spy on
political opposition. It also seems to be preventing them from
travelling. Many activists from Milwaukee were prevented from flying
to Washington DC for a protest in April because their names were found
in a database of suspects that airlines check before each flight.
They missed the flight, and much of the protest.
The Transportation Security Authority refuses to say why any of these
people was marked in the list--so when 20 activists in a group of 37
are listed as suspects, we have to suspect they were listed because of
their political views.
The policy, supposedly, when a passenger's name appears in the list is
to search the person's belongings carefully and then allow the person
to board. If this policy is carried out in that form, it should not
cause passengers to miss their flights. But this time the TSA decided
that the whole group must be searched as a group, and that none of
them could board until the whole job was done. This made them all
miss the flight.
What justification did the TSA offer for this form of obstruction by
association? None at all--they don't believe their actions require
justification. This organization has the power to block anyone's
activities, but has no accountability to go with that power.
One lesson for political dissidents in the US is not to leave yourself
open to obstruction by association. Members of a group should not
travel as a group--and, in general, should not tell the US government
or its proxies that they are a group.
A
rape victim in Pakistan has been sentenced to death by stoning as
a punishment for being a victim. The biased legal system in Pakistan
and some other Islamic states regularly leads to this result. A
similar case was reported recently in northern Nigeria.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I believe in religious freedom, but this does not mean freedom to
oppress others in the name of religion. Individuals have a right to
be Muslims, just as they have the right to be Atheists, Christians,
Jews, or Buddhists; but "Islamic law" is a barbarity that the world
should not tolerate.
(Islam is not the only religion that tends to impose barbarous laws.
The laws advocated by some Christian supporters of George W. Bush are
oppressive also, though in different ways.)
A petition campaign tries to "save General Motors from itself", by
pressuring it to start developing fuel-efficient cars so that the
company won't tank when it costs more to fill your tank.
It appears there may not have been an a massacre in the Jenin refugee
camp, as was previously charged.
Allegations of forcing
civilians to act as human shields remain, a practice that has been recorded before.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, Israel refuses to cooperate with a UN fact-finding
investigation into these events. A report I heard last weekend said
Israel was demanding that the team should only talk with witnesses
chosen by Israel--hardly a basis for a proper investigation.
This article explores how the US defines "democracy", using
the attempted coup against Chévez in Venezuela as a lens.
By the way, I think there should be an investigation into the reported
shooting of protestors just before the coup. It is important to
establish responsibility in this case, just as it is for the protestor
who was shot by Italian police at the Genoa protest in 2001.
I don't think we should let this slide just because it was associated
with someone who resists US domination.
The last three months have been the warmest ever recorded.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The danger of global warming, like that of terrorism, cannot be known
for certain in advance. What we know is that the potential damage
from global warming is huge, and the likely damage far exceeds the
likely damage from terrorism. Just the rise in sea levels is likely
to flood many cities, and leave millions of poor rural people
homeless. Preventing even worse harm will require firm and persistent
efforts.
The US government (like many others) is ready to trash civil liberties
in the name of fighting terrorism, even though there is no solid
evidence that it is necessary. Meanwhile, mild measures to fight
global warming, such as increasing taxes on gasoline or SUVs, are
ignored. Is a tax really worse than imprisonment without trial or
constant government surveillance? Is this a sign of rational
thinking, or is it a sign of a president whose family is in the oil
business?
Recently the US arranged the ouster Jose Bustani as head of the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based on
trumped-up accusations and violating the organisation's procedures.
The Guardian (London) reports on the threats that the US made
and investigates possible reasons.
RENTCAS has united 30,000 volunteers to help fight smuggling of
animals in Brazil--a practice that often involves extreme cruelty and
can push species towards extinction.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The
governor of New Mexico has proposed a major reform of laws about
marijuana. If you know anyone in New Mexico, please draw his or
her attention to the issue. Public support will help pass these bills.
The DEA has decided to "interpret" a 1970 law so that claims that
food containing even a trace of hemp is illegal. Please
visit http://www.SaveHemp.org
to tell your federal representatives that you object to this.
In 2000, the DEA promised Congress it would not try to ban hemp
products. Late in 2000 it broke that promise and began discussing a
rule change that would ban hemp products. But a rule change requires
a public comment period, where much opposition would have been
expressed. This new "interpretation" avoids offering the public a
chance to express its views--and that in itself represents disrespect
for the public.
The Drug Reform Coordination
Network is campaigning to change a provision in the Higher
Education Act that excludes thousands of college students (or would-be
students) from financial aid because of drug use (most often simple
possession of marijuana). Americans are asked to send email and faxes
to their congressional representatives through a special web site .
The East Timor Action Network ask Americans to write to Congress to
call for the establishment of a tribunal to
try the perpetrators of the atrocities there.
The Bush administration is taking advantage of the nation's
preoccupation with terrorism to encourage corporate concentration
of the media. The FCC decided on September 13 to review the regulation
that prohibits anyone from owning both a TV station and a newspaper
in the same area. This is likely to let TV chains snap
up newspapers, further narrowing the information most Americans get
about the world.
The public is invited to register
opposition to this change.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Please support the call for justice for the protestors of Gothenburg.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Spain, which has a large fishing fleet, has blocked
a reform of EU fishing rules intended to prevent overfishing
that is killing fish faster than they can reproduce.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
This is a typical example of short-term business thinking. The choice
is to fish somewhat less starting now but continue indefinitely, or
have fishing collapse entirely in a few years. Business, with its
exceedingly short view, prefers the latter. Remember this example next
time someone tells you that markets can be relied on to produce an
optimal outcome. Firm regulation would be good for everyone in the
long term, but servile governments lack the guts to regulate business.
It must be acutely humiliating to be a government minister, supposedly
powerful, and yet find oneself obliged to obey someone intent on
spoiling his own future. By and by, the government will have a chance
to attack and arrest some protestors. Then the ministers can feel
manly and brave, for a while.
Amnesty International has called for a war crimes investigation
into the Israeli invasion of the Jenin refugee camp.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The US is trying to undermine remove the leaders of international
agencies for being consciencious and effective.
Even as Bush talks about the danger of weapons of mass destruction in
terrorist hands, the
Bush administration is trying to remove the head of the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The reason: he
tries to examine chemical warfare facilities in the United States just
like chemical warfare facilities in other countries.
Earlier in April the Bush administration arranged for the removal of
the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Leaked
papers released by the NRDC show that ExxonMobil
and other businesses were calling the shots. They have campaigned
for years to create false doubts about global warming, to provide an
aura of false justification for their claim that we need not take any
pains to prevent the problem.
But that's what you elect a Republican president for, right? To
unleash business so it can dominate and trample everyone and
everything that happens to be in its way.
Alas, even when we didn't elect them, they still follow this policy.
Guatemalan
peasants have seized a number of large plantations, protesting the
unfair distribution of farmland.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Guatemala was the scene in the 1980s of a long guerilla war in which
the army and paramilitary groups carried out brutal repression.
I've heard of the Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty mainly for their protests against the Ontario
government and the unjust way the government has tried to suppress
them. Here's an article about the
work that they do to aid poor people in Ontario.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Smuggled film shows the Chinese
destruction of a monestary in Tibet because its popularity was
considered unacceptable.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The destruction in Jenin was more complete than an earthquake, yet
the Israelis have not allowed in any heavy lifting equipment, so the
Palestinians
dug out the bodies with their hands. The UN envoy to the Middle
East described the scene as "horrific beyond belief".
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Hundreds of
thousands protested business-driven globalization in Barcelona,
Spain in mid-March on the occasion of the EU summit.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Spanish government mounted a campaign to smear this exercise in
democracy as a violent attack against society, and closed the border
with France, thus preventing people from other parts of the European
Union from protesting a meeting of their own government.
Police restrained themselves from attacking the protestors for part of
the week, but eventually
gave in to their bloody urges
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
A peace group in Israel
chronicles daily the cruelty committed by the Israeli army against
Palestinians.
In the April
11 article we read about civilians used as human shields, and sick
people who are dying because they are not allowed to go to a hospital.
A mother ran out of the house to pull her three-year-old back inside
before soldiers could shoot him, but instead both of them were shot.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
In the April
12 article we read about people denied access to food and water,
and buildings demolished with people inside them.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
There are also reports that
the Israeli army committed mass murder against helpless civilians in
Jenin.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A statement by Lev Grinberg that I have read sums up the situation
clearly. It says: "Suicide bombs killing innocent citizens must be
unequivocally condemned; they are immoral acts, and their perpetrators
should be sent to jail. But they cannot be compared to State terrorism
carried out by the Israeli Government. The former are individual acts
of despair of a people that sees no future, vastly ignored by an
unfair and distorted international public opinion. The latter are
cold and "rational" decisions of a State and a military apparatus of
occupation, well equipped, financed and backed by the only superpower
in the world."
Lev Grinberg is Director of the Humphrey Institute for Social
Research at Ben Gurion University in Israel.
Research which purported to show that use of MDMA ("ecstasy")
damages the brain was so
flawed as to be worthless.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
French and Spanish investigators want to question
Henry Kissinger to see what he knew about the 1970s "Condor plan",
a conspiracy among Latin-American dictators to eliminate their
political opponents. They say CIA documents suggest that Kissinger
knew about the plan.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
That the US was behind Pinochet's coup in Chile is well known. It is
interesting that the connection is being pursued today. European
investigators say their intervention is because, among the many people
that were "disappeared" in Chile, there were citizens of European
countries.
Further
evidence of Israeli army atrocities in Jenin has emerged, as well
as reports that soldiers used civilians as human shields
(i.e. hostages), and demolished 3-story buildings with many people
inside them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Prime Minister of Israel, former General Ariel Sharon, is on trial
in Belgium for his role in atrocities in Lebanon in the 80s. He has a
long history of violence against Arabs--read how
he described it himself.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
There are reports that US
officials met with the Venezuelan coup plotters before the coup,
and a suspicion that they encouraged it.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A
general strike shut down most business in Italy on April 16. 2
million people joined protests against Berlusconi regime. Berlusconi
gained power through his control of most of the private television in
Italy, and through the government now controls the public television
as well.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The protest focused on Berlusconi's plans to eliminate
a law requiring that workers unjustly fired must be rehired,
but it pulled together a broad spectrum of opposition.
The
Dutch prime minister and his entire cabinet have resigned because of a
report holding his government partly responsible for the massacres of
unarmed Bosnians at Srebrenica in 1995. It was Serb forces that
committed the atrocity; the report partly blames the Dutch government
for the failure of Dutch peacekeeping forces in the area to prevent
it. It said that their mission had been planned in a way that left
them helpless to do an effective job.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
What I find most noteworthy here is that Dutch elected leaders still
believe in taking responsibility for failures of their policy. That
attitude used to be widespread in European democracies, but now they
have become brazen--perhaps this is part of obeying corporations
rather than the public. As for US Congressmen, they won't resign even
when they are convicted of corruption.
Users were recently shocked to discover that the KaZaa peer-to-peer
software includes a distributed computing facility that enables
KaZaa's business partner to sell access to the user's own
computer.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I share the KaZaa users' outrage, but I apply it more generally.
This is just one aspect of the general problem of non-free software.
With free software, you make your computer do what you want. With
non-free software, someone else has control over what your computer
does.
Representative McKinney calls for an investigation
into the unpreparedness of US response on September 11 and whether
companies tied to Bush have influenced government policy.
The British government has given
up on plans to eliminate the right to a jury trial for crimes such as
burglary and assault.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I read one version of these plans. It would have introduced of a
legal class system, giving prominent (and wealthy) people the right to
a jury trial while denying it to others.
The "justice system" in the UK, as in the US, is already biased in
effect (though not officially) against those who aren't wealthy. The
willingness to add explicit bias to the law indicates the low extent
of respect today for the idea of "justice for all". From the
prevailing business-is-everything ideology, it is a natural step to
suppose that trials are not important except for business executives
and celebrities.
The short-lived coup
against Venezuela's President Chavez was planned for months by
military officers, and comes out of an opposition movement funded
by Venezuelan conservatives in Florida.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Insight magazine says that the FBI threatened that their reporters' homes
might be burglarized if they obtained certain information through the
Freedom of Information Act. The article does not say that the FBI
said they would perpetrate the burglary, but since no one else would
be likely to know about said documents, that is the only plausible
interpretation.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
A burglary committed at the command of President Nixon led him to
resign before he could be impeached and removed from office. I don't
know whether Bush and Ashcroft ordered this particular burglary
threat, but it responds perfectly to the policy directions they have
set.
According to commentary in The Independent,
today's higher oil prices are beneficial because they encourage more
efficient use. This is exactly what the world needs, at a point when
world oil production is likely to decrease.
The article is wrong, though, when it says that other methods of doing
this have generally failed when tried. High taxes on petrol in Europe
have been very effective in promoting conservation, as witness the
difference in driving and living patterns between Europe and the US.
When many US drivers switched from automobiles to SUVs, there was an
obvious way to preserve the effect of automobile fuel efficiency
standards: extend the standards to SUVs. Certain businesses used
their political influence to block this. It is not that the policy
failed, but that the US government lacked the public spirit and
effective sovereignty to continue applying it.
The IMF "rescues" countries by making them sign secret agreements
to sell off
government assets for far less than they are worth. (The companies
which buy them then raise prices and spread poverty.)
Gore Vidal's book, "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to
Be So Hated," argues that, contrary to what President Bush told a
joint session of Congress, the Islamic world doesn't hate us because
of our freedoms. Rather, it hates the US because of its policies
towards the Islamic world, such as the military presence in Saudi
Arabia, the sanctions against Iraq, and unconditional support of
Israel.
It is a realistic view, and Americans would do well to read the book,
but I have to disagree partially. To a certain extent, the Islamic
world does hate us because of one specific freedom in our way of
life--sexual freedom. The same the freedom that Bush and his
right-wing friends hate too.
It's not just a danger, it's a fact: using
terrorism as an excuse, police have seized records about Americans
hundreds of thousands of times, and the rate is doubling every
month.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
They can check who you telephone, who you send email to, what you
search for, what books you buy, even what you borrow from the library,
without ever getting permission from a judge. You don't even have to
be a suspect yourself: someone else in the same town is enough for the
FBI to collect all your records--and keep them permanently to look at
again whenever they like.
The US is thus moving towards a state of totalitarian surveillance
that even the Soviet Union never achieved.
Australia finds a tobacco company guilty of destroying
the evidence for a lawsuit filed by a dying smoker.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
ENRON wasn't the first client for which Andersen was caught cooking
the books. It ought to be prosecuted now.
I encouraged Americans to call Congress on April 10 and 11 to oppose military
aid to Indonesia.
Robert Fisk comments on how Bush's
extremist rhetoric, encouraging a brutal policy, encourages Sharon to
ignore Bush when Bush says to stop. And many other related
topics.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Bill Moyers reports on how Bush
has blocked public access to presidential papers from the Reagan
administration which according to the law were supposed to be
released.
An article by John Pilger about the possibility of war in Iraq,
and about the facts, public knowledge but rarely mentioned in the
press in the US and the UK, that belie Bush's campaign
for war.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The UK plans to prohibit
employers from monitoring personal email sent and received by the
staff on the company's computers.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
Added 2018-02-01: According to this briefing, "The Code does not have the force of law, but rather provides the Commissioner's own views on how organizations can comply with the UK Data Protection Act 1998."
I received a very disturbing message which says that UK police have blocked the availability of
any hosting for the web site for the May Day Festival of
Alternatives. Rather than bringing charges, they are said to be
bypassing the courts and the legal system, by and threatening to
raid and shut down any ISP that dares to host the site.
A former prime minister of New Zealand accused
Dan Quayle, US Vice President under Bush Sr, of threatening to
assassinate him. He said, however, that New Zealand's Security
Intelligence Service advised him that Quayle was not regarded as
credible and could be ignored.
I saw a photo in which Quayle was meeting with generals from a
US-sponsored regime, holding a gun for a photo op. He held the gun
backwards, with the business end pointing at his own shoulder.
I've never been a soldier but even I could recognize his mistake.
If you know of a URL for this photo, please write to me.
Charges were dropped on April 2 against two members of the Edible Ballot Society. The judge
did not question the idea that it was a crime in Canada to eat one's
own ballot, but rather said there was no evidence that the two
defendants were the same people who did it. This means we cannot
assume that four others accused of the crime of ballot-eating are out
of danger.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
British Prime Minister Blair makes a habit of following the US as
if blindly (though it is surely the result of calculation). But when
he started talking of making the UK follow the US into war with Iraq,
his
party began refusing to go along.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
US newspapers published photos of John Walker Lindh naked, blindfolded
and tied up. If US forces treated Lindh this way, they probably did
the same to many other captives. Kinky, eh? I can imagine them
asking a prisoner, "Was it as good for you as it was for us?"
This brief walk on the wild side may shock some Americans but it is
not likely to have done the captives any serious harm. The real
danger they face is that of imprisonment for life without trial. The
Bush administration calls them "combatants", trying to cast them as
prisoners of war or something similar, but that concept presupposes a
real war which can have a distinct end.
Bush's "war against terrorism" is defined such that no one can ever
tell if it has ended. Mere international tension, occasional violent
acts such as the world has seen for the past 20 years, and even civil
disobedience which fits various countries' new definitions of
"terrorism", can all serve as excuses to claim that "the war on
terrorism is not over". Therefore it will never end, except through a
decision to see the situation in different terms.
How that might happen is not clear, but we can be sure Bush won't do
it. He knows what happened when Bush Sr. allowed his war to have an
end--he lost the next election--and he won't make the same mistake.
To have an end to the war, we need a president who has no stake in it.
We need to make sure Dubya loses his second presidential election more
clearly than he lost the first one.
A former UK Secretary of State for Defense clearly explains the harm
caused by US bias in the Middle East.
Tomato farm workers in Florida, who are paid just $7500 a year
with no benefits, have launched a protest
campaign against Taco Bell which uses many of the tomatoes they
grow. The campaign says that just a penny more per pound of tomatoes
would double the farm workers' pay. The increase in the price paid by
customers of Taco Bell would be insignificant; how, in good
conscience, can Taco Bell refuse? But it does.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The government of Bolivia has tried to impose a number of harsh
policies that provoked popular uprisings. There is evidence that
they are dictated in detail by the US government.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
There are reports that Israeli soldiers are keeping the press out
of Ramallah at gunpoint and shooting
at marked press vehicles.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Does low pay
mean more jobs? Locally, sometimes yes, but globally it does not.
Citizens of Massachusetts: please help oppose the plan to
amend the Massachusetts constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
371
people were arrested in Montreal on March 15 for protesting police
brutality there.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-01 because the old link was broken.]
A few protestors broke windows in police headquarters or drew
graffiti. The police made a big fuss about this: "It is a bit of a
paradox to see people denouncing violence using such violent methods",
said one policeman. That would be a cogent response, if police
violence were limited to minor property damage--but at this very
event, police were guilty of violence more severe than that.
A few protestors are accused of violating bail conditions. In Canada
nowadays, protestors accused of (real or fictitious) crimes are often
released on bail with conditions requiring them not to participate in
protests. If they do, they can be charged with violating the
conditions. In this way, even a trumped-up accusation for which there
is no evidence and which cannot be proved is sufficient to put
activists in prison.
Brandi Blackbear, a high school student in Oklahoma, wore Wiccan
symbols to school. The school suspended
her and accused her of casting a spell that made her teacher sick.
The school officials, probably Christians, not only restricted her
religious freedom and demonstrated their ignorance but also proved
themselves to be superstitious in the extreme. The ACLU is suing
them.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Global
warming of .6 degrees centigrade has already caused numerous
ecological changes including the spread of various mosquito-borne
diseases. Warming over the next century is expected to be twice that
much.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
According to an article in Scientific American, de-facto
slavery remains widespread in the modern world, usually based on
convincing its victims and the surrounding society that their
enslavement is legitimate.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The US government has made a practice of pressuring Indian tribes
to agree to sell natural resources on very unfavorable terms.
Unfavorable for them, that is--the terms are very favorable to the
companies that lobby for these deals. The Navajo tribe sued and
finally won on appeal.
Now the government is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the
decision on the grounds that if all
the Indian tribes demand to be paid what the government owes them,
that would be too expensive. Could we possibly apply this same
standard to the poor countries that owe money to US banks?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Plans are advancing to implant
chips in people for surveillance purposes.
According to Fox News, police
arrested a Fox reporter and confiscated a videotape, but they went
to court and were able to get it back.
There are several lessons to be drawn from this article.
First, it illustrates how police twist the law to do whatever they
want. In the mood to confiscate evidence from you? They just have to
order you to hand it over, then arrest you for disobedience.
Effectively they have absolute power, unless you can come back with
lawyers afterward. Because this power is not openly acknowledged as
such, they have to twist laws to exercise it. This teaches police
disrespect for truth as well as for the public's legal rights.
"You're on pentagon property", the police said, as if that were a
valid reason to confiscate the tape--and apparently it was not even
true.
Second, the allusion to the September 11 attack on the pentagon
illustrates the absurd ways that preventing terrorism is used as an
excuse for misconduct. (This was a comparatively mild instance; it
gets far worse.)
Third, it shows that their power can be limited in the long term, if
you have the money and the standing to get justice. Police have a
word for those with the money and the standing to get justice:
"citizens". To the police, those who lack these advantages are not
really citizens.
Journalists from organizations less powerful than Fox News often have
their evidence confiscated by police. They don't often get it back.
The Coalition for a Just
Cincinnati, has called for a boycott of the city. This is a
response to persistent racism, and police violence which extends as
far as murder. Prominent entertainers have cancelled appearances in
Cincinnati in support.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Now a business group involved in renting auditoriums in Cincinnati has
sued the
Coalition on the grounds that the boycott has reduced their
income. In their view, you're allowed to criticize business only so
long as nobody pays attention.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
An article in New Scientist reports that marijuana is much less
harmful than alcohol in its effect on ability to drive safely. An
experiment compared subjects who had smoked one joint with subjects
whose blood alcohol level was 50 milligrams per 100 milliliters,
which is lawful for driving in the UK.
In an act of prudish bigotry, college student Leilani Rios was expelled
from the track team because she works as a stripper.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
You might wonder why this is worth mentioning alongside police torture
and attacks on civil liberties. Many Americans regard athletics as a
tremendously important part of life; I don't agree. Ordinarily I
couldn't work up much concern about whether someone can be on a track
team, or whether there is a track team at all. But there is something
else here that is more important than sports. The reason for kicking
her out of the team reflects a more pervasive problem: the idea that
sex is disgusting. I was taught that sick attitude as I grew up, and
it has hurt me all my life. When a college athletic coach says,
"strippers can't be on our team because that isn't a positive image",
he is propagating the idea that sex is dirty. And that, in itself,
does far more harm than anything else associated with
athletics--except, perhaps, the excessive importance society grants to
athletics.
A genetic modification in corn, which causes allergies in some people
and was only supposed to be used for animal feed, is spreading by
natural cross-pollenation into the human food chain.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The UK government told an out-and-out lie in order to build public
support for sending 1700 troops to Afghanistan: it claimed that an
al-Qa'ida lab for chemical and biological warfare had been discovered.
(None was found.) Interestingly, US
government sources exposed this lie.
Then it told another lie to build public support for a possible new
war against Iraq: it claimed that the Iraqi government is providing
chemical and biological weapons to al-Qa'ida. Amazingly, the UK
military exposed this lie.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
False claims such as these put the public into a frenzy where it is
more ready to let governments abolish basic civil liberties. The UK
has done plenty of that.
About Those Polls: Do 80% of Americans Really Support Bush?
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany has ordered many
ISPs to impose filtering (censorship)
on all network access. The purpose is to block access to
right-wing sites, but censorship of the net is more dangerous than
these sites. Supporters of civil liberties are mounting a campaign
against the filtering.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
It is common nowadays for police to commit acts of violence while
pretending to be anarchist protestors, but the CIA has been doing it
for a long time. In Italy, right-wing terrorists supported by the CIA
helped stop rise of the left in the 60s and 70s. One "anarchist" who
was actually working for the security forces even went so far as to
throw a grenade into a crowd and kill people.
A law is being rammed through in Alberta, Canada to prohibit
teachers from striking, and rules out bargaining about working
conditions. As a protest, teachers are discontinuing
the after-school activities that they have done as volunteers.
Others plan to quit.
[References updated on 2018-02-01 because the old links were broken.]
A US government report details the way various laws are used to suppress
freedom of political dissent in the Czech Republic. Search in
particular for the strings "Kopal", "Zukar" and "Zitko". President
Vaclav Havel, once a dissident imprisoned by the Communist regime,
pardons many of those accused, but one great man is not a solid
foundation for freedom of the press.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A policy of not
arresting anyone for possession of marijuana has helped cut
robbery and burglary in a high-crime area of London.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Bush plans for military
courts for terrorist suspects have at least two glaring flaws.
Instead of a jury, the verdict is to be decided by part-time judges,
soldiers who take orders from Bush. Appeals are directed to more
soldiers, and then Bush himself.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A great country does not dispense justice with Bush-league
courts.
Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, gave a
speech at a bookstore last week, but refused to address the question
asked by Lawrence Silberman, who uses marijuana to reduce the side
effects of his cancer treatment. His question: "Do you think people
like myself should be arrested, sir?"
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
In the past few months, Hutchinson has directed police to shut down
several medical marijuana distribution centers that were authorized by
various states.
The Bush administration has plans to develop a new kind of nuclear bomb
designed to attack facilities deep underground.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
It might make sense to develop better weapons for attack on these
fortified bases, but a nuclear weapon is an absurd way to do it. Such
a weapon could be used in only two scenarios: (1) when the enemy that
possesses the deep underground bases has launched a nuclear attack on
the US, or (2) as a nuclear first strike by the US. The former is
possible but rather unlikely; developing a bomb for use only in that
situation is a waste of money. The second would encourage nuclear war
in general (which might mean an attack on the US), while costing the US
all of its overseas support.
It would be far more intelligent to develop a plan for attacking
buried bases by putting soldiers on the ground with bulldozers and
dynamite. That method could actually be used whenever an enemy
has underground bases, without any horrible side effects.
Making integrated circuit chips is a dangerous business--dangerous
for the employees. The companies have tried
to block studies which would determine just how dangerous.
International pressure is bringing Zimbabwe's President Mugabe to
the verge of making
concessions to the opposition, which objects to the recent unfair
election and antidemocratic laws.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
As "Blackhawk Down" plays on the screen, a group of helpless
Americans are trapped in Somalia once again. But this time it
is Bush and his men who have trapped them there and prevent them
from returning home.
Saudi religious police prevented
girls from leaving a burning school building because they were not
wearing proper Islamic dress. Men who wanted to rescue the trapped
girls were chased off. 15 girls died.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has rejected a Bush nominee, Judge
Pickering, in response to a campaign organized by abortion rights
organizations such as NARAL.
Bush's proposal
for increased foreign aid is a minute step in the right direction,
leaving the US still miserly about foreign aid. The total would
become just .1% of the GNP. Surely the US can afford to donate .3%,
as Europe already does--or even a whole whopping one percent.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A French court has attacked freedom of speech in the US by laying
criminal charges against an former executive of Yahoo. Yahoo in
the US has an auction site where users sell various things. Some
users sell Nazi memorabilia--permitted in the US but illegal in
France. France is trying to prevent this from being done on the
Internet in the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The US frequently attempts to apply its laws people and actions taken
outside US borders; on occasion it has sent agents into other
countries uninvited, to seize people and bring them to the US for
trial. Now the US is on the receiving end instead--but this
role-reversal doesn't make it right, it just means the danger to the
Internet is increasing. The danger is that the Internet may be
transformed from a space of fairly free communication to one where
people fear to say anything that is prohibited, or even actionable,
anywhere in the world.
The proposed Hague
Treaty threatens to exacerbate the effect, by explicitly
globalizing the laws various countries have under which you could be
sued for publishing something on the Internet. There is a simple
solution: to exempt publication from the Hague Treaty. But the media
companies, hoping to see harsh US laws such as the DMCA applied to the
rest of the world, demand that the treaty apply to publication.
Kalle Jungkvist, legally responsible for the publication of the
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet under Swedish law, was convicted on
March 7 for "agitation
against an ethnic group" because of material posted on
Aftonbladet's website by Nazi sympathizers.
Aftonbladet runs a web site where visitors to the website can post
comments and reply to them, much as they do on sites such as
GNU-Friends, Slashdot, and Kuro5hin.
In October 2000, Nazi sympathizers posted comments in a discussion
about the Middle East. Even though Aftonbladet removed the comments
when attention was called to them (which is bad enough, since it
represents political censorship), the court ruled that Aftonbladet
(and hence Kalle Jungkvist) is guilty of a crime for not censoring
them in advance. This ruling, if not overturned on appeal, endangers
the existence of unmoderated discussion sites on the Internet. The
threat exists not only in Sweden but, because of the new Europe-wide
arrest warrant system, everywhere in Europe.
I despise Nazism, but I oppose censorship of Nazi views, or any other
political views. I would refuse to censor even George Bush if it were
up to me. As this case shows, any kind of political censorship
threatens the freedom of everyone. Americans concerned about
censorship can contribute to the
ACLU or the EFF. In the UK,
please support FIPR.
The
Australian government knew about and concealed Indonesian military
plans for massacres in East Timor.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The East Timor Action Network,
which brought the Indonesian occupation of East Timor to the world's
attention, asks Americans to ask Congress to keep the pressure
on the Indonesian military to punish the generals responsible
for these crimes of mass murder.
The Spanish opposition web site nodo50, which publishes criticism
of government policy and organizes public protests, details how the Spanish police
have been infiltrating their mailing lists, while demonizing them
as terrorists in the media.
Marijuana
is less dangerous than alcohol, found the British Advisory Council
on Misuse of Drugs.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The censorware installed in US public libraries, supposedly to
block access to sites that prudes find offensive, has the side effect
of blocking
access to a important archive of the history of the web.
The US recently endorsed for the first time, without fanfare, the
idea of a Palestinian
state.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A British columnist discusses the flimsy
evidence Bush et al offer to justify threatened attacks on various
countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
50,000 workers in the Daqing oil fields in China have formed
an independent union and are holding protests against dismissals.
The Chinese government offers all workers government-controlled
unions, but likes independent worker-controlled unions even less than
the US government does.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The movie Guilt by Association, shown March 13 (9pm) on Court TV,
dramatizes the effect of drug prohibition combined with mandatory
sentencing policies. It talks about Families against Mandatory Minimums
which opposes mandatory sentencing policies.
Mandatory minimum sentences compound the injustice caused by criminal
prohibition of drugs. For justice's sake, we should correct both
problems.
On March 7, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion
by the hemp industry to block the DEA's new hemp ban from taking
effect until the court has an opportunity to hold a hearing on the
matter. The hearing is scheduled for April 8. This is partly the
result of people who visited
http://www.savehemp.org to send letters to their congresspeople.
More letters are still needed.
Spanish police have a long history of torturing suspects, sometimes to
death. The Asociación Contra la Tortura posted a list of members of
the security forces who were taken to court for acts of torture in
Spain. Since the court cases are public knowledge, it is legal to
publish the list. But the Spanish government closed the site, using a
bizarre interpretation of a law meant to protect private personal
information.
The Agencia de Protección de Datos, which enforces that law, decided
that the ACT's web site was a "data base", and therefore that the
names of police sued or charged with torture could not be mentioned on
the web site without their permission. They fined the ACT $300,000,
which the ACT could not pay. The site was shut down.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The ACT's pages are available in mirror sites, but the
Agencia de Protección de Datos continues trying to shut them down in
countries that have similar "privacy" laws.
Meanwhile, groups that support Spanish government policies publish
information on their web site about individuals who support Basque
independence, but the APD does not try shut them down. Apparently
the Spanish government is taking lessons from Humpty Dumpty: Spanish
laws mean what the government wants them to mean, no more, no less.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Amnesty International has criticized Spain for pardoning
torturers and giving medals to them. The 2001 Amnesty International report on Spain and the 1999
report provide background information on the practice of torture
by Spanish police.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
Over 100 Israeli reserve officers have refused to serve in the
occupied territories on moral grounds, saying they would not participate
in a campaign to "dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people."
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
An interesting article on old "triracial isolate"
ethnic communities in the US, and their origins and history.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
When 50,000 protestors marched in Barcelona in June 2001, to
protest the World Bank, the Spanish police wanted to attack the
demonstrators but needed "violence" as an excuse. So they mounted a
disinformation campaign for weeks in advance, saying that the
protestors would be violent. When the protest happened, they sent in
disguised
police, who pretended to be protestors and started a fight. The
fake protestors faded away as police
attacked the real ones.
The police attacked other demonstrations the following day without
warning. In the weeks before the demonstration, police mounted a campaign of
harrassment in a part of the city, stopping people for no reason
and demanding to see their papers.
The New York Surveillance Camera
Players do street theater to call attention to the surveillance
cameras that the NYPD uses to monitor subversive activities such as
democratic protest. Now the NYPD is denying that the cameras are
theirs--simply lying, according to the Surveillance Camera Players.
The leader of the British barristers' organization warns of the danger
of a police state if legal safeguards for the accused are
abolished for the sake of streamlining trials.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Bush has attempted to shred the
Freedom of Information Act by ordering government departments to
resist requests for information.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Companies are filing frequent libel
lawsuits to silence people who criticize them on the Internet.
Often they have no valid grounds for a lawsuit, but the victims can't
afford to fight back.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The US is moving (and pushing the rest of the world) towards an
increasingly harsh form of capitalism, which promotes itself through
an ideology which holds that human nature is 100% selfishness and
people want nothing except to get the best deal.
The MAUSS group, in France, takes its name from Marcel Mauss, the
anthropologist who wrote about "gift economies". They refute the
right-wing ideology of human nature in order to defend the welfare
state.
Much more radical is Socialism As It
Was Always Meant To Be, by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel. It
discusses multilevel systems of participatory decisionmaking,
separately for production and for consumption. The plan is designed
to protect individual freedom and privacy in personal consumption
decisions as well as in seeking jobs. It seems to be an idea worth
thinking about.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
China
has imposed strict new censorship rules on political journalism.
The interior minister of Spain is threatening to suspend freedom of
movement in order to prevent protests, which he regards as an enemy of
society. An editorial in El Mundo points out that as a minister in a
democratic state which provides for political freedom, his
duty is to protect the people's right to protest.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The director of Telemadrid, the public radio and television
station in Madrid, has been fired
for airing a program which presented the views of peaceful Basque
nationalists. The same program included other portions of the
spectrum of Basque views, such as non-nationalist Basques. It
presented the victims of ETA terrorism, but not ETA. Nonetheless it
was considered unacceptably openminded.
Bush
tries to limit Senate investigation of why the Sep 11 attacks were not
prevented.
Major
Corporations Considering Relocating To Axis Of Evil.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Residents in an East Baltimore neighborhood where the city has
allowed trash to pile up for years--ignoring repeated
complaints--finally got some attention after they peacefully carried
the trash into a nearby street. Following the latest fashion of
persecuting protestors, the city has pressed charges of "inciting to
riot."
Radio Onda
Rossa in Rome, a left-wing station, uses a frequency which it took
over, several years ago, from a commercial station that had gone
bankrupt and stopped transmitting years earlier. Now the bankrupt
station has come back from the grave, and demanded the frequency back.
They had forfeited the license through non-use, and it now belongs to
Radio Onda Rossa, but the telecommunications ministry decided to hand
it back to them anyway.
Berlusconi, the right-wing ruler of Italy, owns most private TV in
Italy and controls state TV as well. There are not many places you
can hear an alternative view. Since the telecommunications ministry
reports to Berlusconi, this looks like an attempt to block off one of
the remaining few.
The Spanish government has prohibited public drinking, and demanded a
extra work from the Madrid police to enforce this unpopular law. The
police protested, so the national police came in to beat them up.
For pictures, see this.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
One can hope that after this experience the city police will feel more
sympathy for protestors they are ordered to attack. However,
experience shows that being on the receiving end of violence more
often tends to brutalize people; only a few have the moral vision to
consider how they were treated and decide, "I must not treat others
that way." So they are more likely to "take it out" on some innocent
person than to reform themselves.
Yale Professor David Graeber writes about the NYC
protests: how small anarchist groups organized them because nobody
else would, how they got a far larger turnout (20,000) than expected,
how they were entirely peaceful, how the police harrassed and attacked
them, and how the mainstream media ignored them because they weren't
violent enough.
The Pentagon announced that few
of the al-Qa'ida prisoners captured in Afghanistan will be tried in
military courts. In fact, after months of interrogation, none has
as yet been found "suitable" for such a trial. If, subsequently, a
few are found "suitable", they will probably be just barely so.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
This is a good thing--the fewer kangaroo courts, the better--but one
has to wonder what point it serves to have just a few of them. Why
take the enormous step of rejecting civilized standards of justice,
merely to deny a few minor suspects the chance to clear their names?
Two of the people arrested in recent New York protests describe
how the police
who detained them twisted and disregarded the law. Even some of
the police recognized the scandal. With law enforcement like this,
who needs crooks?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
INTERROGATION
AT US BORDER, by John Clarke: a Canadian anti-globalization
organizer's report on how US authorities detained him, demanded to
know the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, and ultimately on no grounds
whatsoever refused to let him give a speech in Michigan. Opposition
to globalization, though a view many Americans support, is too
subversive to allow foreigners to advocate.
After reading this report, I don't think the interrogating agent
really believed that Clarke knew anything about Osama bin Laden, or
that Clarke had anything to do with al-Qa'ida. It is too far fetched.
So why would he make that accusation?
It is standard police interrogation strategy to confront suspects with
false claims to have evidence they don't really have, and even false
accusations. They want the suspect to fear they already have proof of
his guilt, or even worse, that they have evidence which points to him
for some crime he did not commit. But police normally do that with
people they think are really guilty of some crime and may really
confess. And part of the method is to make it seem they really
believe the falsehoods they are saying. What happened here was
different: the agent who interrogated and accused Clarke did not
really try to pretend to a serious belief; he expected Clarke to know
he was fabricating the accusation out of thin air. This was worse
than a lying threat. This was a threat to lie.
The message in that accusation, meant to be visibly insincere, was a
message of arrogant power. "Watch me lie! See, I have no scruples.
I, and the people I work for, are going to lie about you, and if
others dare point out the truth, we will drown them out." The agent
knew that protestors are not terrorists, but he participates willingly
in the campaign to slander them. He works for the citizens of the US,
and his job is to lie to us.
An inmate in a California prison describes the inhuman and
gratuitous cruelty of the guards towards the inmates, most of whom
would not be prisoners or criminals if not for prohibition of drugs.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Law enforcement agencies want to increase surveillance of citizens
outside prison. I have a counterproposal: to install recording
cameras in prisons so that organizations for humane treatment of human
beings can monitor the behavior of the guards.
Indefinite
detention, secret charges and secret trials continue to be used
against Arab immigrants in the US. Often they are prevented even
from informing their families where they are. Often the only "reason"
is a minor visa irregularity that would normally lead to a small fine.
Estimates are over 2000 have been disappeared so far, but Attorney
General Ashcroft is hunting actively for more victims.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
New York Mayor Bloomberg needs to cut spending. He chose the
unkindest cut of all, one that falls on the most unfortunate residents
of the city--those who collect
and recycle discarded soda cans for five cents each. This shows
what Bloomberg stands for: cruelty to the weak and helpless.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Hasn't New York had enough night-mayors?
Italian police have raided
the office of the Association of Democratic Jurists, an
organization of lawyers, looking for videos that give evidence about
the Genoa protests. They did not find any, but the search pretext is
absurd anyway--anyone who has video evidence about the police attacks
would be glad to provide it to any serious attempt to prosecute the
police. It appears that Berlusconi feels there is no limit to what he
can get away with.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Loggers are planning to cut down protected
redwood trees in California, violating a deal that was designed to
protect the nests of a rare bird species.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Zbigniew Brzezinski revealed that the
US began in 1979 to fund Islamic military schools in Pakistan
designed to train Islamic radicals who would fight the Soviet Union.
These are the same schools that later produced the Taliban. ("Talib"
means "religious student".)
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Republican Party has threatened to sue EnronOwnsTheGOP.com
for using a parody of a Republican Party trademark.
There should be no validity in such a lawsuit, so this
appears to be a form of harrassment.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Italian police have arrested
four Moroccans in an alleged plot to poison the water in Rome.
However, the poison they were allegedly planning to use, ferrocyanide,
would have been harmlessly diluted if poured into the water supply; it
would not have hurt anyone. Those arrested are supposed to be
connected with Al-Qa'ida, and one does not expect that organization to
be laughably incompetent. Does this story make sense to you?
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Since these are the same Italian police that killed and injured
protestors in Genoa, and are attacking Indymedia now, one has to
wonder if this plot was a fabrication.
Ferrocyanide is normally used for gardening. Perhaps these Moroccans
were going to use it for their garden.
A lawsuit against Coca Cola accuses the company of hiring death
squads in Colombia to kill union leaders in bottling plants there.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
In 1990, a bomb exploded in the car of Earth First! activists Judi
Bari and Darryl Cheney. The FBI, reporting at the time to the
previous President Bush, tried to frame them for the bombing, and
never tried to find the real bombers. But the lie campaign failed,
and now Bari and
Cheney's lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland Police is going to
court.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Moral: cops don't always want to find the real terrorists.
A self-styled white bohemian talks about how people like him,
moving into a poor neighborhood, can open the door to gentrification
that ultimately forces the old
residents to leave. The article gives specific examples of how
property developers get help from city governments to do this--and
examples of how neighborhoods can resist.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
US and European corporations fell over each other rushing to help
the Chinese government implement effective Internet
surveillance, says a report in the Weekly Standard.
The UK government is proposing a system of censorship
that would cover any and all discussion of science and technology.
Opposition is already starting.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Italian police have seized
computers used by Indymedia in many cities in Italy, claiming they are
aiming to seize audio and video evidence about what happened during
protests in Genoa in 2001. This is an absurd pretext, since all such
material present on Indymedia's computers is accessible to everyone
through the web.
A funny song
about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono
Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on
works made as early as the 1920s.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
ECHELON is the name of the US/UK system that spies on nearly all
of the world's communications. The US government denied ECHELON's
existence, and the CIA used it to disregard laws prohibiting it from
spying on Americans, and finally the European
Commission exposed it. Considerable details are available on the
net.
Crooked accounting is not limited to Enron. While
Bush aims to give the military more money, they can't keep track of
what they are already given: money disappears and the loss is covered
up.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The charges against Noam Chomsky's publisher in Turkey have been
dropped. Fatih Tas published a translation of a book by Chomsky,
which accused the Turkish government of denying basic human rights to
Kurds in Turkey. Charges were dropped after Chomsky suggested to the
Turkish government that they ought to press the same charges against
him for having writing the original book.
The New York Times has published an article detailing
the deals made between George W. Bush and Enron while
he was governor of Texas, deals that gave Enron state
policies favorable to its business.
Indonesian labor rights activist Dita Indah Sari has rejected a $50,000
human rights award from Reebok in protest against the low salaries
Reebok pays Indonesian factory workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Bush has announced his plan for curbing
global warming: don't even try.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Utah is passing a law that declares sit-ins
as "terrorism".
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Microsoft has been donating millions of dollars to political
campaigns in the hope of escaping from its anti-trust conviction. It
has given more "soft money" than any other company. One state dropped
out of the case against Microsoft after Microsoft made a large
campaign contribution to its attorney general.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The UK proposes to adopt an "export control bill" for scientific
information which includes a system for censorship
for any and all areas of science.
Low-ranking Taliban soldiers, imprisoned in Afghanistan, are being
treated inhumanely; some
are dying from diseases, and they have no medicine, according to
Physicians for Human Rights whose inspectors recently visited the
camp.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
There is an effort in Germany to oppose surveillance legislation
there. See www.stop1984.com.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Australia
is paying neighboring countries to imprison people who sought asylum
in Australia. These asylum-seekers are being denied access to
lawyers, catching malaria, and trying to commit suicide. Some are now
on hunger strike. The Australian government actively keeps
journalists away from these prison camps, while claiming it does not,
and ignores criticism from Australian and foreign human rights groups,
and from the UN.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
It would be more humane to machine-gun these people than to imprison
them for life and drive them to suicide. But it would be harder for
the Australian government to pretend it is treating them properly and
obeying treaties on human rights if it shot them, so it tortures them
instead.
The US is now talking about a repeated war with Iraq. This might
be difficult to carry out, since Saudi Arabia does not support it.
Overt war might be less deadly to Iraqis than current UN sanctions, if
it were over and done with in just a couple of months. It would not
necessarily be that quick. It could be quite bloody if it leads to
house-to-house fighting, and Americans might not be able to stomach
the casualties among US forces, and Iraqi civilian casualties could be
massive.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The anthrax scare of 2001, although probably committed by Americans,
shows the seriousness of the threat that biological weapons could pose
in Saddam's hands. It is important to address this problem effectively.
That does not necessarily require war.
The US injured its chances of taking peaceful action to end Iraqi
biological weapons development when it arranged for UN weapons
inspectors to spy for the US "on the side", thus discrediting them.
This does not mean the world should back and watch Iraq develop
biological weapons, but also does not mean war is the only way. It
means that the US will have to distance itself from any future
inspection program because of its previous cheating. And the US is
hardly in a position to justify an immediate resort to arms after
having been insincere in trying a peaceful solution.
Torturing
suspects into false confessions is standard practice in Saudi
Arabia. A British accountant was tortured for 50 days till he
confessed to planting a bomb--then released because the Saudi police
realized he wouldn't conceivably do such a thing. Then he was made to
apologize for the false confession, released, but kept silent for six
months by stopping him from leaving the country.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
President Bush is proving very reliable: every part of his agenda is
sooner or later presented as part of the "war on terrorism." First it
was buying instead of saving, then an attack on our civil liberties,
then fast-track approval for low-wage treaties, then ballistic missile
defense. During the Superbowl, Bush
presented the "war on drugs" as a way of fighting terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
It is true that terrorists sometimes get money from selling drugs to
the US. But the reason why this works for them is the cruel and
ineffective US "war on drugs", which makes the drugs so profitable.
Bush's "solution" is actually the source of the problem. But what can
you expect from a war that is on drugs? Certainly not that it should
know how to shoot straight.
Part of Bush's agenda, to repay his right-wing Christian supporters,
is to prohibit abortion and contraception. Will he present this too
as an "anti-terrorist" measure? Will Ashcroft label Planned Parenthood as a
"terrorist organization", and deport every non-citizen who has ever
contributed to it? Stay tuned.
The peaceful protests in New York, although marred by police
violence, show that the movement
against corporate-controlled globalization is still alive.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The
UK government has proposed to require national ID cards. The
current proposal would not require people to carry them at all times,
but the plan to make them "cards" rather than larger objects suggests
they plan to take that next step later on.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Sinister: a participant in the anti-WEF protests in New York was
followed
home by police afterward and has no idea why. (His name is
Richard S, but he is not me and I don't know him personally.)
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A journalist for the Independent (London) faces imprisonment
in Zimbabwe for participating in a protest against plans to
prohibit foreign journalists from operating there.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The head of the North Wales police advocates prescribing heroin at no
charge to addicts,
so that they won't have to steal to pay for drugs.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
That is enough to justify the policy, but it would have secondary
benefits too: by removing addicts from the underground market, it would
greatly reduce underground sale of heroin, and reduce the sellers'
interest in attempting to get people addicted.
In Bush's
Orwellian Address, Jacob Levich points out the chain of
resemblances between the policies of President Bush and those
described in the book 1984.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
What nations was Bush referring to when he talked about "a country ruled by an 'unelected few'"
and "a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world" in
his State of the Union Address? A letter to the editor of the Seattle
Times straightens it out.
New
York police attacked peaceful protestors, surrounded groups of them
for long periods, and eventually blocked them from going to the
prearranged rally site. The violence was committed exclusively by
police. This is not democracy.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
A controversial play in Jordan makes fun of Osama bin Laden. Many
in the audience laugh, but a
substantial minority supports him.
Michael Moore calls on George Bush to resign as
president: "He flew you around America on the Enron company jet,
and for that favor you touched down on tarmac after tarmac to tell
your fellow citizens that you were `going to restore dignity to the
White House, the people's house.' You said this standing in front of
an Enron jet!"
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
An article in the Nation shows that the extent of dishonest
accounting in the US corporate system represents a fundamental error
in the Reagan-Bush policy of deregulating business.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
We have learned to despise for politicians bowing down to the rich and
even selling decisions to them, all with a view to their own power and
comfort. Occasionally a politician shows what the alternative could
be.
Chris Davies, a member of the European Parliament from Britain, and
Marco Cappato, a member of the European Parliament from Italy, each in
turn brought a tiny piece of marijuana to the UK authorities as a
protest against prohibition. Each was arrested, and
both now face criminal charges although they harmed no one.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
I admire the courage of these men, and I am sure their example will
make a difference.
In 2001, Vice President Cheney designed an energy plan for the US
which was very convenient for Enron. Now Cheney
refuses to disclose the list of lobbyists that he met with. He
offers an excuse for this, but surely the real reason is so that he
can avoid admitting that the money Enron paid him and Bush bought
influence.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The interesting part is that this selling of influence is considered
news. For Democratic officials, to be bought by business is
commonplace. For Republican officials, to be bought by business is a
moral obligation--if they refused, they'd be breaking a campaign
promise. Republican officials selling influence ought to be as
newsworthy as elephants wallowing in mud. But it seems unusual
because most days it goes unreported.
Meanwhile, in Britain, Blair's
government is also being accused of selling influence to Enron for
campaign contributions.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Elie Hobeika, a Lebanese militia leader who was involved in massacres
20 years ago in areas under the control of Israeli troops commanded by
Ariel Sharon, was
murdered two days after he agreed to testify against Sharon,
who is now the Prime Minister of Israel.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Zimbabwean parliament has rebuffed President Mugabe's proposed
journalistic censorship law, through suprise opposition from MPs in
his own party.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The listeners have won a great victory over the former board of
Pacifica Radio. The new board has voted to reinstate journalists and
shows that the previous board had fired or kicked off the air.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
On Saturday, 19 January, from 12:00 to 14:30, there was a Speak Out
Against Terrorism, For Civil Rights in Honor of Martin Luther King,
Jr. Several prominent groups were present, defending the
civil liberties that are currently in jeopardy from "anti-terrorism"
legislation.
Atheists: what do you say when people wish you "Merry Christmas"?
If you go along with it, you've encouraged people to assume that you
are Christian and to spread general pressure to act or be Christian.
But if you reject the sentiment, you risk returning meanness for
kindness--which is not good in itself, and gives Atheists in general a
bad name.
I found a solution to this dilemma: I respond, "As an Atheist, I don't
celebrate Christmas, but thanks for the good wishes." This way, I can
stand up for my views while still being nice to the person who wanted
to be nice to me. Give it a try!
A couple of people have asked why I don't just say "Thank you." The
reason is that that would not serve the purpose--it would not help
strengthen the right to be an Atheist in the US.
Atheists are discriminated against in the US, both practically and in
some cases legally; condemnation by prominent Christians, endorsed
more or less by the US government, is not unusual. Many Atheists are
afraid to make their views known--they are in the closet. The
presumption of Christianity which exists all the time is part of the
pressure not to be openly Atheist. By conspicuously denying the
presumption, I reduce the pressure on other Atheists.
I want to show Christians that they should not presume everyone is
Christian (or has any religion). So I came up with a way to do this
which is not hostile to them but still makes the point. My aim is to
make the point in a friendly way, not to suppress it.
The British government is now alarmed about reports that US-held
prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being treated inhumanely. This is
because some of them are British citizens. I hope that they will
press for proper treatment of all the prisoners, rather than limiting
their concern to the British few.
But more alarming than possible inhumane prison conditions is the
idea, being bruited around, that these prisoners may be held
permanently without trial if no evidence is found to charge them with
crimes. The US would really be sinking low if it does that.
It occurs to me that this horrible idea might not be a serious
proposal. It could be a sort of trial balloon, meant to make unjust
military courts seem acceptable by comparison.
The BBC reports that the speaker of the Iranian parliament has gone on
strike, saying that he will not attend parliamentary sessions, because
of the conviction and imprisonment of a reformist member of
parliament for "insulting the judiciary". The judiciary is controlled
by the conservative clerics.
I cannot say how much I am impressed to see a political leader of any
country act courageously in the service of freedom. One can hardly
imagine any American politician doing this.
The al Qa'ida prisoners held by the US include one US citizen and
some UK citizens. The US citizen will get a civilian trial that meets
(we hope) the highest standards; some
UK citizens are being held in Guantanamo Bay and are threatened with a
military court. If all these people had both fallen into UK hands,
it would be more or less the reverse. Each country now has a double
standard for justice.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
The Independent, of London points out that a double standard of justice
is not the best way to win world-wide support against terrorism,
or to encourage a higher standard of justice around the world.
In October I saw articles suggesting that the US intervention in
Afghanistan was just a plot to build an oil pipeline. I did not
believe them, and I still don't believe that was the main motivation.
But it is suspicious that the US special envoy to the interim Afghan
government,
Zalmay Khalilzad, was a lobbyist for building that pipeline. Mr
Khalilzad also lobbied for the Taliban, which makes him a strange choice
for the US National Security Council.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Reported on the BBC: the government of Zimbabwe has prohibited
criticism of the president, prohibited political rallies, and
prohibited independent election observers. Based on previous reports
the same laws may also prohibit foreign journalists and require
domestic journalists to get government permission. This is apparent
preparation for rigging the coming election. The EU is considering
imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe.
In Argentina, President de la Rua was driven from office by continued
popular protests, with over a million people taking to the streets in
Buenos Aires. The new president, Duhalde, is devaluing the peso, but
with a twist designed to avoid bankrupting non-rich citizens who have
debts measured in dollars. Dollar debts under a certain limit will be
converted automatically to pesos, so that a person's debt will change
along with his or her income. It might work. However, Duhalde is
also a corruption suspect.
Aram Publishing in Turkey published a
Turkish translation of essays by Noam Chomsky that (among many
other topics) criticize repression against the Kurds in Turkey. For
this, Aram Publishing's director Fatih Tas
has been charged of the crime of "propaganda against the state".
He faces a one-year prison term if convicted. Simply by holding this
trial, Turkey violates a basic freedom: freedom to criticize the
government.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Not only book publishers face criminal charges for criticizing
Turkey's human rights record. Foreign journalists and human rights
observers have been excluded, deported, or indicted. Even members of
the Turkish parliament have been imprisoned for speaking about
Turkey's human rights record. One former member of parliament,
Leyla Zana, has been serving, since 1994, a 15-year
sentence for "membership of an illegal organization." In 1998
this was extended by two
years for "inciting racial hatred" -- Zana is Kurdish, and
struggles for Kurdish rights.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
National borders are increasingly cordonning off parts
of the Internet.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
After the anthrax scare, you'd expect the US to give strong support
to a proposed treaty to restrict biological weapons. Instead it abruptly
terminated the negotiations, killing the treaty completely.
For more information, see
the Sunshine Project.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Winn-Dixie is trying to close down the site
www.shameonwinndixie.com (now .org) by threatening a
lawsuit for trademark infringement.
[References updated on 2018-01-21 because the old links were broken.]
A Common Cause report describes how Microsoft has been trying to
buy acquiescence in its monopolistic policies, with methods that
include donations
to presidential candidates (mainly Bush) and
funding supposed "grass-roots" support.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Naked
Air: Everybody flies naked and nobody worries.
Argentina has been suffering from recession and widespread poverty due
to an austerity program imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
These programs are supposed to make it possible to pay back the debt
(at the cost a great decrease in the standard of living for most
people), but in Argentina (and elsewhere) the result was an increase
in the debt. After four years of this, unemployment is at 18%, the
pensions of 1.4 million retired people have been delayed, people are
not allowed to withdraw their money from the bank and government
workers have been paid with bonds rather than with money they can
spend.
Argentines have responded with general strikes,
rioting in many cities, and massive protests on the street. All
this forced
President de la Rua, who authorized these policies, to resign.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
There is now international pressure for devaluation of the Argentine
peso, which would effectively reduce the savings and income of working
Argentines, but not reduce the debt (which is measured in dollars).
Investors are said to be "betting" that the peso will be devalued,
which means they will gain if it happens, and lose money if it does
not happen. They are therefore pursuing a course directly opposed to
the interests of most Argentines.
Any government that obeys the dictates of the IMF will just continue
down the path to ruin. Only debt forgiveness or debt default can
enable Argentina to recover. BBC Radio said president Adolfo
Rodriguez Saa plans to reject devaluation. He is suspending debt
payments, and using the money thus saved to create jobs.
Bush says we should not worry about the justice of military trials
because "they will be more fair than bin Laden's system." Should that
be the standard American justice--anything better than bin Laden is
good enough?
If the US appears to be "united behind Bush", that is because
dissenting
journalists, teachers, students, even museum staff are being
intimidated and fired. The amount of dissent that is visible
underrepresents the actual dissent.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
This suppression of dissenting views, albeit incomplete, presents a
narrow range of possible views to the public, and thus acts to
"manage" public opinion. To the extent that some Americans are
"united behind Bush", it is partly because they are being cut off
from other choices.
Winn-Dixie fired an employee for cross-dressing in his private
life--which is none of their business. A boycott campaign is
spreading. [URL updated 26 Jan 2002]
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
Growing and testing genetically modified plants raises the possibility
that the modified genes will spread to other wild or cultivated plant
populations. Aside from any problems that the genes themselves might
cause, the farmers whose crops unintentionally carry the gene face the threat of being sued
for patent infringement.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Such spreading is not unusual; Science News, 1 Dec, 2001, reported
that artificial genes are now commonly found in the traditional
varieties of corn grown in Mexico. In remote rural fields,
artificially modified genes appeared in a few percent of samples.
Near population centers, up to 60% of samples had these genes.
Will half of Mexico's farmers be shut down by patent lawsuits,
and forced to destroy their crops and their seed lines?
The companies that do the genetic engineering are not always careful
about trying to prevent this mixing. Friends of the Earth reported
recently that
an experimental plant field in Britain was illegally allowed to
bloom, and was being visited by bees that were presumably carrying
pollen to other populations. It took a week after the problem was
reported before the plants were destroyed.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
I don't feel a horror of genetic engineering; in principle, it has
great potential to benefit humanity. But it also presents risks,
which call for careful handling to minimize them. Foolish policies or
sloppy handling in the rush to profit can multiply the risks.
On December 20 in Rome, 100,000 school children protested right-wing
Premier Berlusconi's plans to commercialize the school system. References (in Italian
only).
The CPSR warns of the
danger and unreliability of national ID cards as a scheme for
preventing terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Several men described as North African political dissidents have
been disappeared
in Britain under the new anti-terrorism bill. The British
government plans to imprison them indefinitely without trial, and
refuses even to say who they are--so the term "disappeared" which
originated in Latin America in the 70s, is appropriate.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The British government says that the imprisoned are eight in number,
but without further information it is impossible to check the veracity
of that statement.
An article in Technology Review gives a lot of information about
the software used for surveillance, and argues that people
should not expect massive surveillance to be effective for preventing
terrorist attacks, only for investigating them afterward. There
should be no difficulty in obtaining court orders for such
investigations, so we can conclude that there is no reason to relax
the requirements placed on government agencies to limit their
surveillance activities.
[Update on 2018-02-07: The original article is now paywalled so I have decided not to promote it with a link. This article makes the same point.]
A federal judge has ordered a new sentencing hearing for Mumia Abu-Jamal, but not a new trial.
This may enable him to avoid the death penalty, but won't remove
the injustice of the unfair trial that he had.
It's official: Attorney General Ashcroft says that people like me
"aid terrorists" because we "erode our national unity". I was
wondering how long it would take for the Bush administration to say
that its critics are "aiding terrorists", because that follows a
global tendency in the "war on terrorism" to attack dissent and
criminalize protest. If government condemnation of dissenting views
offends you, please give your support to the ACLU, which
has spoken out against them.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
But I am proud to affirm that I am "eroding national unity", if
"unity" means support for Bush and Ashcroft. Those men are against
everything that I love in America. They're against civil liberties,
against justice, against separation of church and state, against
abortion rights and birth control, against the social safety net, and
apparently against political dissent as well. Their vision of
America's political future looks like a Christian version of the
Taliban; their vision of America's economic future looks like Panama.
They are trashing my country, and I'm going to do my utmost to erode
any "unity" that could help them finish the job.
MIT's President Vest is said to be planning to imitate President Bush
by instituting
Secret Thesis Tribunals ;-). By Jeremy Brown.
North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom calls for
legalization of drugs in the UK, saying that the war on drugs
has been lost.
A study shows that young marijuana users in the UK are often involved
in violence--but not because of the effects of marijuana itself.
Rather, the violence results from
their involvement in the illegal drug market, and would therefore
seem to be a consequence of prohibition.
The UK anti-terrorism law was scaled back to meet the objections of
the House of Lords, and is not as dangerous as it might have been.
But Amnesty International says it still opens the door to human rights
violations.
The Act permits non-nationals to be detained without charge or trial
for an indefinite period of time, on the simple decision of the Home
Secretary. The decision can be based on secret evidence and then
confirmed by a secret hearing from which the detainee and his lawyer
may be excluded. In other words, the concept of "legal rights" has
been abolished.
The Landless Women of Bangladesh enforce a Bangladeshi
law that gives newly-formed islands to landless people to farm.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Tens of thousands of protestors are expected at the European Union
summit in Brussels, Dec 14/15. Gas masks have been outlawed, and
people have been arrested for bringing them into Belgium from the
Netherlands.
Police may say that they intend to use tear gas against "violent"
protestors, and claim that carrying a gas mask is a sign of "violent"
intentions. However, experience since Seattle shows that it is common
for police to attack peaceful marchers with tear gas at protests.
Even bystanders not infrequently get hit. Carrying a gas mask simply
indicates recognition of how police actually behave.
The British House of Lords has rejected the proposed "anti-terrorism"
law, demanding many changes to uphold traditional British
liberties.
Canadians occupied the local office (as an MP) of the Justice Minister
as a protest against the proposed "anti-terrorism" laws that would
criminalize many common forms of protest: even to lie down in front ot
the a car carrying a representative to an international meeting would
count as "terrorism". See their statements about bills C35 and C36.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Meanwhile, Canadian author Mike Pearson is not
being allowed to receive copies of his own book. It was published in
the US, and the author's copies, shipped to him in Canada, keep
failing to arrive. The third shipment was returned with a sticker
saying "Do not deliver in Canada," which suggests that the unexplained
disappearance of the first two shipments was no accident.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
On December 7, Philadelphia
police attacked a peaceful protest rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal,
arresting marchers, hitting them with sticks, pepper-spraying them,
pointing guns at their heads, and throwing them against cars. Several
marchers were hospitalized; one had to be removed in an ambulance.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The police attacked a news photographer, too, pulling him down from on
top of a car where he was taking pictures of the protest. No doubt
they will fabricate an accusation to justify this attack--perhaps
"attacking an officer" (by taking photos).
UN Human Rights chief Mary Robinson has criticized the Bush
Administration, saying its present and proposed treatment of
"terrorist" suspects circumvented the system of checks and balances of
a democratic society.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
You may have heard of
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther turned radio journalist,
who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Amnesty
International says says he did not receive a fair trial. Among
other things, the prosecutor brought up his
political affiliation at the last minute when the jury seemed
skeptical; that convinced them.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Now another man is ready to confess to the murder--and so far, courts
have ruled that the system should not listen. A protest campaign
demands the reopening of Mumia's
case. I don't know whether Mumia is innocent or guilty, but
he deserves a fair trial--as does anyone else accused of a crime.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The book Actual Innocence by Scheck et al. describes the work
of the Innocence Project, which has used DNA tests to prove the
innocence of numerous convicts sentenced to execution in the US. The
book's title refers to the view, stated by one judge, that the "actual
innocence" of the convict should not derail an execution.
What do you think?
The
war on terror is continuing an assault on freedom that was begun in
the war on drugs.
Singapore's goverment wasn't satisfied to convict a
prominent journalist for criticizing the government on the
Internet--they committed him to a mental hospital.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The case of "incitement to riot" against the editors of Brand has been
dismissed. The court ruled that the article was indeed political
satire. The case received wide publicity in Sweden, with many
well-known personalities standing up for Brand and freedom of the press.
The prosecutors surely understood as well as anyone that this was
satire, but they chose to distort their judgment in order to fabricate
an accusation. This willingness to make false accusations is not
unusual among "law enforcement" personnel--it is found at all levels,
and in many countries including the US. For instance,
anti-globalization protestors are often accused of resisting arrest
because (say) they held their hands in front of their faces while
policemen were beating them on the head. All sorts of objects are
seized and called "illegal weapons". In the recent protests in
Ottawa, says
police seized gas masks, knives, cameras, watches, jewelry, medical
supplies and other items. (He is in charge of helping protestors
recover the seized goods.)
Just threatening to misrepresent reality so as to make
trouble for you is also a common bullying tactic--I have seen police,
customs agents, and airport security personnel use it.
No system of "justice" will be any good if the people who implement it
are dishonest. The prosecutor who misrepresented Brand should be
fired, and Sweden should make a systematic effort to insist on honesty
in its "law enforcement" system.
The EU is proposing an "anti-terrorism" measure that would classify
common forms of political protest and dissent as "terrorism". It
calls for keeping international dossiers on suspected protestors.
200 lawyers from all the EU countries have published an appeal warning
of the
danger to democracy posed by this measure.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Civilian casualties are inevitable in war. An honest government at
war must admit that they have happened. Here's a story about
verified civilian casualties that the US persistently denies.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
There is a panel discussion in San Francisco on December 11, "Chasing Windmills Of
PEACE: is this war necessary? are there alternatives?", followed by
relevant films.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Protestors labeled as terrorists.
The Bolivian regime is facing widespread protests from all sectors of
society, with strikes or threats of strikes by farmers, by bus
drivers, and even by businesses. In response, the president of
Bolivia and the US ambassador called the protestors "terrorists".
That main article on that page is followed by a number of recent news
articles and editorials from Bolivia, which help present the
situation.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government is pushing a pair of
"anti-terrorism" bills which, taken together, declare
typical anti-globalization protest tactics to be "terrorism".
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
In 1982, Lebanese Christian militamen slaughtered unarmed Palestinians
in refugee camps near Beirut. At the time, Israel was criticized for
giving them the opportunity to do it. Now evidence is being presented
to a court in Belgium that
Israeli forces participated directly in the slaughter of
prisoners. Ariel Sharon, then the commander of those forces and
now the premier of Israel, is being accused of personal
responsibility.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Meanwhile, there are reports that during or after the suppression of
the Taliban prisoners' uprising, some Taliban prisoners were killed
while they were in custody--with their hands tied. The legitimacy of
fighting enemies who are fighting back can't justify slaughtering
those who are no longer able to fight.
A 1987 speech by Supreme Court Justice Brennan warns Americans to
beware of America's
tendency to harm itself in time of perceived danger by abolishing
civil liberties, and later discover that the self-inflicted harm
was an unnecessary response to a shadow of a threat. Brennan quotes
Justice Davis, writing in 1866:
Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of
law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln; and
if this right is conceded, and the calamities of war again befall us,
the danger to liberty is frightful to contemplate.
After past wars, liberties were restored--but since our leaders claim
this emergency will continue for decades, they probably don't intend
to let that happen again. If we want ever to get our lost liberty
back, we have to start soon--before Americans grow to regard pervasive
government snooping and threats as normal.
A journalist reports on how Canadian
police menaced her to prevent her from covering the G-20 meeting in
Ottawa. Their only possible motive was that they were suspicious
of what she might say. On the street, police
attacked another journalist who was covering the protest.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Katie Sierra, the high school student who was censored for
criticizing the war in Afghanistan, has left school because she
was
repeatedly attacked and threatened there. People are requested to
write in support--of her case, and of her
safety.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Egyptian police have arrested a man for publishing a
supposedly obscene poem on the Internet outside Egypt.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The British government plans to prohibit "incitement of religious
hatred". Some legislators, and comedian Rowan Atkinson, are worried
that people will be prosecuted for
criticizing religion. The British government, of course, says
people should trust the government not to misuse the law.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
This happens at a time when Canada is using a law meant to prohibit
destroying other people's ballots to prosecute people who ate their
ballots as a protest, and the US is using minor violations of visa
rules to keep immigrants in prison incommunicado. Would you buy a
used law from a government today?
As a side effect of the "anti-terrorism" bill, unnoticed by many of its
critics including me, the US now plans to prosecute people around the world for breaking computer
security--on the mere excuse that some of the packets are transmitted
through the US on their way between computers outside the US. The US
in effect threatens to impose its laws on people and activities in
other countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
There is a danger that the US will next impose other laws, such as
laws against pornography, to traffic between sites and individuals in
other countries that passes through the US en route.
Please note Note that this article uses the word "hackers" to
refer to security breakers, that is to say, "crackers". Hacking means
approaching an activity with a spirit of playful cleverness. Around
1980, some journalists misunderstood the word "hacking" and thought it
meant security breaking. Since then we hackers have been plagued with
the error.
Please don't slander us hackers. When you're talking about
breaking security, please say "cracking".
The UK already has a Terrorism
Act which has been used to arbitrarily ban political groups. Even
listening to a public speech by certain speakers seems to be a crime.
This law has been condemned by Amnesty International and by the
UN Commission on Human Rights. The UK government is nonetheless
encouraged by the results, and is now working on a law to further
attack human rights.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
A forensic analyst in Oklahoma with a habit of lying about the
evidence in order to please prosecutors was responsible for a
series of unjust convictions and sentences. Now she has been fired,
and some of those wrongfully convicted have been freed, but the state
Attorney General is blocking DNA tests that might exonerate others.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The article mentions similar lying forensic analysts in other states.
One such person can send dozens of people wrongfully to prison or even
to death.
Jared Israel probes the question of why no fighters
were sent to intercept the hijacked airliners on September 11. As
he shows, interception of planes on suspicious courses is routine--and
officials have been evading the question of why it didn't happen that
time.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
New Zealand journalist Sam Buchanan -- whom we reported arrested and
beaten in July -- has written a long account of his Genoa experience.
The
South Korean government plans to fingerprint every citizen, as a
surveillance measure. The progressive group Jinbonet is opposing the
plan.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Senior police officers in the UK have supported a
relaxation of laws for the use of the drug ecstasy.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Greg Palast reports that when trying to investigate terrorist
connections of other members of the wealthy bin Laden family, the
FBI was blocked by orders from above.
Jared Israel has compared the various US government and press statements
about
why no fighters were sent to intercept the plane
that attacked the Pentagon, and finds suspicious discrepancies
and signs of a campaign to mislead the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The mainstream media have responded to September 11 with a surprising
stream of hate, calling for bloody war--the bloodier, the
better--against the helpless people of Afghanistan and maybe other
countries too. An article contains a list of quotations that shows
the dreadful chorus of
lust to punish someone, no matter who.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
I fully support the US war effort in Afghanistan; I don't know whether
it will protect the US from terrorist attacks, but Afghanis are
already celebrating being rid of the Taliban, and that is enough
reason to fight. We should not have waited to be attacked ourselves
before helping them. This may even be a major setback for world-wide
religious extremism, which would be worth celebrating too. (Religious
extremists seeking political power are a threat in the US as well;
President Bush was their candidate.) My support for this war is
possible because it is not being carried out in the bloodthirsty
fashion that so many writers have asked for.
Anyone can hate; anyone who has suffered can wish to see someone else
suffer. The responsibility of leaders, both official and otherwise, is to
resist regressing to that infantile level.
Several years ago the Massachusetts voters approved an initiative to
set up a system of public funding for state elections. This system is
supported by Common Cause; in other states which have adopted it, it
has enabled political newcomers to make their views known and win
election, even against entrenched incumbents.
Now the legislators of Massachusetts, fearing they will face real
challenges to hold their seats, are refusing to fund the law. They
think they can overturn it by ignoring it. Common Cause is suing the
state of Massachusetts to demand implementation of the law.
www.wartimeliberty.com
provides information on "anti-terrorist" threats to civil liberties.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Israeli police continue to use torture, defying the Israeli
Supreme Court, which ordered them to stop.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The UK government, imitating the Bush administration, asks for the
power to
detain asylum-seekers for 6 months without trial. But some
legislators are speaking out firmly against the plan.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Another place to send your opinion on Katie
Sierra, the West Virginia high school student prohibited from
forming an anarchist club and from wearing anti-war t-shirts: the
Charleston Gazette, gazette@wvgazette.com.
Apparently you must limit your message to 200 words.
www.polyamour.net promotes
non-possessiveness in love relationships, and the freedom to go beyond
the narrow range of relationships sanctioned by convention.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
On Oct 25 the DEA raided the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center,
which distributed medical marijuana to 1000 seriously ill people.
They didn't dare to arrest anyone, but seized all of its assets.
For more information, see
the Marijuana Policy Project.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
A century-old Anarchist magazine in Sweden, Brand, is being prosecuted
over a parody article. The article was part of an issue that
parodied a typical woman's magazine, and its title, "How to make your
riot a success", parodied the original "How to make your party a
success". The article's suggestions were either vague or deliberately
unrealistic, but the charges against the editors are real.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
This prosecution forms part of a general recent pattern of government
repression in "Western democracies" against political dissent.
Jared Israel writes that the US government has protected
Osama bin Laden and his associates on numerous occasions after the
date he supposedly broke with the US--as recently as last August.
The Center for Democracy and Technology analyzes the
anti-terrorism bill and warns of further
legislative threats to civil liberties in the US.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Political repression in the US reached new hights as government agents
banned Green Party leader Nancy Oden from flying to her party's
convention because of the party's opposition to the war in
Afghanistan. Ms Oden has not been charged with a crime, and there is
no evidence to connect her or the Green Party with terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
It is not clear that this was entirely planned in advance. But it is
clear that Oden was marked before her arrival at the airport for
special abuse (which included physical assault) because of her
political beliefs, and then punished for complaining about it. But
that by itself is unjust, and when it is used to obstruct political
opposition, it endangers democracy.
To put an end to such repression, Congress should pass a law that
requires judicial review of such "you may not fly" orders. This is
what "rule of law" means.
Better yet, the practice should be prohibited entirely. When there is
real evidence to connect someone with terrorism, that person should be
arrested, not just stopped from travelling. Without such evidence,
there is no justification for anything beyond searching the person's
bags with extra care.
For the sake of full disclosure, I should mention that I endorsed the
Green Party candidate for president, Ralph Nader, in the last
election.
Canada is planning a
dangerous anti-terrorism bill. Among other things, it appears to
prohibit a legal defense on religious, ethical or environmental
grounds.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Censorship in school: a student in a West Virginia high school was
prohibited from forming an anarchist club, and
even from wearing anti-war t-shirts, on the grounds that
expressing these ideas "disrupts the educational process".
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Perhaps these ideas encourage too much thinking for a school to
tolerate. Here is how you can support Katie.
According to an article in Le Figaro (a major French newspaper), a CIA agent met
with Osama bin Laden last July in Dubai. There could be good
explanations for this, but I think an explanation is called for.
Jared Israel interviews the Red Cross about the bombed
warehouse of aid supplies in Kabul, to clear up some misleading
information about the circumstances.
According to The Independent, the FBI has detained over 1000
people as "terrorist suspects" and
refuses to say who or why. In some cases which are known, people
have been imprisoned for minor violations of immigration rules, or are
kept in prison although they are not suspects. Some have been beaten,
some have been in solitary confinement for no reason, and many have
been kept incommunicado and forbidden to communicate with lawyers or
family. It's the sort of conduct you would expect in a military
dictatorship.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The "anti-terrorism" bill is likely to lead to even worse
treatment for unknown thousands of non-terrorist non-citizens in the
future.
The
Sep 30 issue of Crypto-Gram explains why many of the new and
proposed security measures against terrorism are as ineffective as
they are intrusive--and how careful thought can lead to better
security while respecting the rights of travellers and the public.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The National Writers Union has voted to support a boycott of
Pacifica Radio stations because of their firing and harrassment
of popular journalists.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
FIRE, the Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education, campaigns against censorship
in academia. FIRE reports that since Sep 11 there has been a rash of censorship of
opinions about the terrorist attacks and how to respond to them. The
views being censored span the whole range of opinions; FIRE works to
oppose censorship of any position.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
The dangerous "antiterrorism" bill has been enacted into law. The law
omits the most horrible proposal, life imprisonment without trial for
non-citizens, but even without that it is a great
blow to freedom. Our leaders have done the United States more
damage than Osama bin Laden could ever do.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
A speech by Noam Chomsky, The New War
Against Terror, poses the question: what should be done to reduce
terrorism generally in the world today?
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Framed and unjustly imprisoned British political activist Mark Barnsley writes
about the extortionist "company
stores" in the privatized prisons in the UK.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
The UK plans to stop arrests for possession of marijuana
and allow doctors to prescribe it. This would take Britain most of the way
towards an intelligent and just policy for that drug. What still
needs to be done is to legalize sale as well, so that the growing of marijuana
won't be in the hands of criminal gangs.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Thursday, October 18
to consider the first appellate court nominee of the Bush
Administration with a clear anti-choice record. NARAL has set up
a page for you to ask your Senators to oppose the nomination and
to request a second hearing.
I recommend
Farce or Figleaf: The Promise of Leisure in the Computer Age by
R. Dennis Hayes.
The FBI is openly admitting that it wants to find a way to
use torture to get information from terrorist suspects.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
While the US forces attack the Taliban, we must not overlook evidence that the US
aided the Taliban in taking over Afghanistan. On 12 July 2000,
Congressman Rorhbacher presented information showing that
- The U.S. deliberately sent 'humanitarian aid' only to
Taliban-controlled areas;
- The U.S. State Department refused to act on information concerning the
location of Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan.
- U.S. officials tricked the anti-Taliban opposition into disarming
while the Taliban was receiving weapons from Pakistan.
With the COINTEPRO program in the 1960s,
the FBI disrupted and crushed US political opposition groups.
Such practices continued past 1990. Now they may use "anti-terrorist"
powers for similar purposes.
Cindy Milstein wrote an interesting article,
The Same New World: Antiauthoritarian Politics after September 11.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
United Airlines kicked a man off two flights, then banned him from
ever flying on their planes again, because he was reading
a novel they considered suspicious. Just as you'd expect from an
airline, they refuse to acknowledge publicly that they have done this,
saying "It's a security matter". If you think this behavior is too
much, you can write to United Airlines at jim.goodwin@ual.com. You can
also post your message on www.untied.com so that the public
can see it.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
A Times of India article alleges that a Pakistani general directly
supported the September 11 hijackers. Bush and Pakistan hope
Americans won't notice.
No Surprise department--Afghan refugees report
witnessing heavy civilian casualties from US bombing.
They may be justified, if the campaign succeeds in eliminating al Qaeda and
the oppression of women in Afghanistan; in the mean time, this shows
that our government is feeding us doubletalk.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Canadian government has
very close ties with the pharmaceutical industry, and repays their
lobbying efforts with monopolies that hurt the public in Canada and
abroad.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Imagine nearly 40,000 people homeless, living in conditions that the
United Nations considers unacceptable for a refugee camp. Does that
sound like a poor country struck by war? Actually it is happening in
just one city in a wealthy country in North America: Toronto,
Canada.
The Toronto Disaster Relief
Committee (TDRC) is trying to help, by raising private funds and
by pressing the government of Canada to start caring what happens to
its poorest citizens. Thus far it prefers to spend the money on
prosecuting ballot-eaters.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Naomi Klein wrote an interesting article on how the establishment is
trying to use the September 11 attacks to demonize and attack the
anti-globalization movement, and how opponents of misconceived
globalization can surmount this obstacle. See Protesting in
the Post-WTC Age.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
As governor of Texas, George W Bush signed a law making the use of
false ID by minors to obtain alcohol a jailing offense. In May 2001
his own daughters were arrested for just this crime. Not only were
they let off without going to jail (unlike the many teenagers arrested
during George W's governorship), but the bar, and the bar manager who
had caught them and called the police were menaced by Bush supporters.
The bar was threatened with loss of its license; the manager found
that web sites were calling on the public to harrass her. (This
information came from the Hightower Lowdown, August 2001.)
I'm sure you can imagine the scandal that would have developed if
President Clinton and his family had been involved in similar events.
So why no scandal for the shrub?
It doesn't take great genius for the party in power to get the idea of
profiting from terrorism to sneak through unpopular or harmful laws
and decisions.
In the US, Republicans are trying to invoke the "spirit of unity" to
bulldoze a path for dangerous trade treaties such as the FTAA. The EFF warns that the FTAA may be used to
impose laws like the DMCA
on all the countries of the Western Hemisphere.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
In the UK, a leaked government memo shows exactly how brazenly this
plan was made: a government official proposed, just hours after the
September 11 attacks, to
look for unpopular actions to announce while the public and the news
media were distracted by terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Sexual Freedom Coalition
campaigns to bring UK laws into line with the rest of Europe, ending
censorship and many other forms of government-imposed sexual
repression and prudery. After they triumph in the UK, I hope they
bring their campaign to the US.
Binding arbitration clauses are now often imposed by businesses on the
public. The expense of arbitration, together with arbitrators that
are untrained, incompetent, careless or even biased, increasingly
deprive Americans of their legal rights.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Montreal police
forcibly evicted squatters who had occupied a long-abandoned city
building. (Montreal has a great shortage of housing and many
abandoned buildings.) As often happens, they injured one of the
squatters in the attack; to distract public attention from the
enormity of this, they plan to press charges against him.
The US been very foolish in choosing its allies in Afghanistan. If we
seek allies that share deeper values and not just a momentary common
advantage, we should support the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
This secular and democratic feminist organization, now driven
underground, documents the Taliban's cruel treatment of women and
works
to educate and help Afghan women both within Afghanistan and in
the refugee camps in Pakistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The US plans to spend billions on fighting a war. Even a million
dollars could work wonders in RAWA's hands. With several million,
they could peacefully build a different kind of Afghan society, one
that would no longer fall into the hands of the most vicious.
Prostitutes in the Netherlands, where their trade is now legal, are
planning to
form a union.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
I can't imagine the mindset of someone who would want the services of
a prostitute. For me there is nothing to value in sex with someone
who felt no attraction or warmth for me. If a woman I longed for told
me, "You'd have to pay me to have sex with you," I'd go drown my
feelings of undesirability in work--not ask "How much?" And if
someone values money more than tenderness, I find that unattractive
regardless of the person's line of work.
If everyone were like me, prostitutes would have no customers, so
there would be no prostitutes. But prostitutes do have customers, and
there are prostitutes--so their lives should not have to be filled
with cruelty and danger. Their illegal status puts them in danger
from violence and from disease, and it leaves them helpless against
the cruelty of customers and pimps. One indirect consequence is that
their customers are also in increased danger from disease. Another is
corruption of the police, who are bribed not to arrest the prostitutes
outside of special occasions.
The consequent suffering affects millions of Americans, and kills far
more people than the terrorist attacks of September 11. We could
aleviate most of it simply by following the Dutch example, and
legalizing prostitution. And it wouldn't cost a dime to the treasury
(though if American prostitutes form a union, that could increase
prices for the customer).
Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene, has explained how the
irrationality of religion is a crucial ingredient terrorism, in
Religion's Misguided Missiles.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The West should
look carefully at the Northern Alliance of Afghanistan before
using them as allies against the Taliban, says Robert Fisk in the
Independent. They too are murderous and cruel, and supporting such
people is precisely the approach that gave us Osama bin Laden to deal
with.
The annual conference of the Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility on Oct 19-21, 2001 was about Nurturing the
Cybercommons.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
There was a protest on
September 22 in front of the embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC,
to free Dr. Younus Shaikh and hundreds of others also convicted in
Pakistan of blasphemy. You can
still sign an on-line
petition, or write a letter to the
government of Pakistan.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Dr. Shaikh faces the death penalty in Pakistan--for blasphemy,
supposedly criticizing Islam.
Amnesty international has called his trial unfair and labeled him
as a prisoner of conscience.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
As another terrible casualty of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the UK
government plans to institute
unlimited detention without trial of asylum seekers on mere
suspicion of involvement with terrorism. They could also be deported
without a hearing.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Thus rule by decree replaces rule of law.
Francisco Gil-White, of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of
Ethnopolitical Conflict, makes a case for determined
police activity and a Marshall plan rather than war in
Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Canadians who are threatened with imprisonment for eating their ballots are now
planning to
eat their subpoenas, to highlight the fact that even a harmless
symbolic protest is being crushed with force.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
A British journalist who covered the US-sponsored guerrilla war in
Afghanistan in the 80s warns that America's announced war on terrorism
suffers from confusion and worse,
in its aims, and its methods .
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
As part of preparations for a possible war, the Department of
Defense has stopped
discharging homosexuals from the armed forces. This shows they
don't really believe that gay soldiers are bad for the army's
effectiveness. When push comes to shove, they'd rather have those
soldiers in their posts than do without them.
This shows that the policy of excluding homosexuals from the forces
makes no sense in its own stated terms. If the peacetime armed forces
exist to be prepared in case they need to fight, gays should never
be excluded.
Britain plans to institute compulsory national identity cards, a
major attack on civil liberties there. Of course, this is presented
as a measure for preventing terrorism, but it won't do much good for
that; the real motivation for the policy is probably to crush
political protest against Blair's subservient policy towards business.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Atheists generally face discrimination in the US; since the terrorist
attacks, religious rhetoric that excludes Atheists has increased, leaving
many Atheists feeling unwelcome as Americans.
The Freedom Forum warns of the threat to civil liberties posed by
misguided responses to terrorism. See
Freedom flees in terror from Sept. 11 disaster.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Mir Tamim Ansary, an Afghani-American writer, explains why the people
of Afghanistan are the victims of the Taliban, and warns against
foolishly designed military measures which could hurt the Taliban's
victims while helping the Taliban recruit support.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
What Became of Tolerance in Islam?
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
A Burmese Arts and Literature Symposium was held in Brookline,
Massachusetts, because such a gathering cannot be held in Burma under
military rule. One of the guests was Tin Maung Than, who published
an independent magazine in Burma but had to flee the country. [Update on 2018-02-07: Long article for more information.] The Free Burma Coalition works
in the US to help support the recommendations of elected-and-arrested
Burmese president Aung San Suu Kyi for economic sanctions against
Burma.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, writes about how the police violence in
Genoa could affect the future of politics--in Italy, and
throughout the West. Right-wing premier Berlusconi, who is suspected
of encouraging the police attacks, is now trying to use the violence
as an excuse to suspend civil liberties on other occasions.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Award-winning Iranian
filmmaker Tahmineh Milani has been charged in Iran with the crime
of "insulting the values of the Islamic revolution."
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
WIPO, the World Intellectual Property organization, is responsible for
treaties that impose harsh copyright and patent laws on the citizens
of countries that are foolish enough to sign them. To convince the
public to support being restricted, WIPO is running an essay contest,
asking for responses to the question, "What does intellectual property
mean to you in your daily life?" They will surely select an entry
that praises copyrights or patents to high heaven. Any critical
response has no chance of winning their contest.
In response, another group called WIPOUT has launched a counter-contest. They are asking people to respond to the same
question, "What does intellectual property mean to you in your daily
life?" But they are looking for responses that present the harm done
by copyrights, patents, etc. They aim to highlight the side of the
issue that WIPO ignores.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Please keep in mind, after you read their site, that "intellectual
property" is a propaganda term. Even using it in your own
thinking leads to simplistic overgeneralization, because it lumps
together copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and various
other areas of law, which really have almost nothing in common.
To think about these various areas intelligently, you must think about
them one by one.
So in order to think clearly about these issues, think about
copyrights, or about patents, or about trademarks, but don't think
about "intellectual property". And if you want to help others think
clearly about them, please say and write "copyrights" or "patents" or
"trademarks", not "intellectual property". Your writing will be more
informative if you don't lump them all together.
Several Canadians, members of the Edible Ballot Society, are
facing five
years in prison for eating their own election ballots, which they
did as a protest against the sad state of democracy in Canada.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
The law being used to charge them was meant to prohibit destroying
other people's ballots, but the Canadian government is
stretching it to imprison these protestors--and thereby proving just
how right the protesters are.
If you wish to ridicule the bizarre actions of Elections Canada, you
can write to them at 257 Slater St. Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0M6, or
email them through their web
page.
The Privacy Foundation
has reported on how monster.com
collects and uses personal data from job-seekers. If you are
thinking of using the site, read this report first. The strangest
thing they report is that if you send a resume to certain companies,
asking for jobs in those companies, they forward it to monster.com
without even telling you.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The ex-chief of the Genoa police now admits there were
600 neo-nazis infiltrating the Genoa protests, with the aim of
committing acts of violence that would discredit the protestors.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Houston Chronicle has warned Americans that the US Department of
Justice has been attacking
and threatening journalists.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
A
clear explanation of the methods corporations use to manage news
reporting and thus public opinion about major issues--even yours and
mine, if we are not on guard.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Dr Younus Shaikh, physicist and founder of the first
rationalist organization in Pakistan, has been
sentenced
to death for "blasphemy". Support for his legal appeal is
urgently requested.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Greece has levied criminal charges against Italian police for
attacking a group of Greeks on their way to Genoa to participate in
the protests. Since Greece and Italy are both members of the European
Union, Greek citizens have the right to travel to Italy.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Italian police claimed that the protestors had attacked them; the
Greek prosecutor called this a "a distortion of reality."
The Independent, of London, has
warned against the danger of using a "small group of troublemakers
within larger, law-abiding movements" as an excuse to
restrict the civil liberties of protestors.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Readers of this site will know that the excuse is partly false as well
as philosophically inadequate--in Montreal and Genoa, some of the
worst "troublemakers" among the protestors were actually undercover
police.
Germany seeks to censor US web sites through lawsuits.
Otto Schily, the German interior minister, plans to meet
with US government officials to discuss ways of shutting down
right-wing US web sites that "have an effect in Germany".
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
I wish that our government officials were trying to defend the US
Constitution and our freedom of the press. I have no sympathy for
neo-Nazis, but if they can be censored, anyone else can be too.
Schily's quest may be thwarted this time by the Bill of Rights, but he
may have a better chance of carrying German censorship into the US if
the proposed Hague
Treaty is adopted. The ACLU and the American Library Association
are concerned about the Hague Treaty, and you should be too.
Advocates of corporate-driven globalization claim that it delivers
growth and general prosperity. Now a report from CEPR adds up the
results of corporate-driven globalization, and shows that in most of
the world it provides no general prosperity, and not even much growth.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
You might enjoy this political humor piece about the Republican War on
Prosperity. It explains how the GOP beat back the terrible
scourge of decreased crime rates and budget surpluses.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
China
has increased censorship on access to the Internet. Human Rights Watch thinks corporate
sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games could pressure China's government
to allow more freedom.
The Hawaii BOE voted against requiring the teaching of creationism in
Hawaiian schools. According to Steven Novella
<CTSkeptic@compuserve.com>, "the outcry from the scientific community
and the public played a significant role."
Remember Sun Myung Moon and the Moonies? They're back, and preparing
to feed at the public trough through Bush's plan to supply federal
funds to "faith-based" (i.e. religious) activities.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Detroit Free Press has a report on police
abusing a law enforcement database to harass enemies, stalk women,
and seek personal revenge. The database has been in use since 1967,
and its abuse is so common that stalking women on the basis of their
license plate numbers is known simply as "running a plate for a date".
Public Citizen has a report on the
effects of NAFTA
showing that citizens of the US and Mexico have generally lost out
as a result of the treaty, although business has benefited from it.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Bush now seeks to exacerbate these problems by extending NAFTA to
South America as well (the FTAA).
Public Citizen, an organization
originally founded by Ralph Nader, has been intervening to defend
people who operate web sites that criticize the behavior of companies,
from lawsuits by those companies alleging trademark or copyright infringement.
The latest Public Citizen newsletter also reports on the ways various
industries that paid money to the Bush campaign have been rewarded
with changes in "inconvenient" Federal regulations that would protect
public health or the environment from the actions of these companies.
Specific industries listed include oil, coal, electricity, paper and
logging, and mining.
One of the regulations that Bush revoked had been established
by OHSA to protect computer users like you from repetitive stress
injuries at work.
The British government is preparing a curfew law to "protect"
teenagers by locking them up.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
WBAI has cancelled
the Earthwatch
program, and fired its
host, award-winning journalist Robert Knight. Protest
rallies are going on. Meanwhile, some of the WBAI staff are
wearing masks while on the premises, in protest against
videocameras that the management has installed to snoop on them
while at work.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
On Aug 2, the Hawaii Board of Education voted on a proposal to
require teaching of creationism in biology classes. I heard about it
just before the vote, and sent them a
message about the proposal.
Canada has expanded medical
marijuana use, allowing people with certain medical conditions to
grow marijuana or designate someone else to grow it for them. It is
just a small step, but each step helps people recognize that there is
no rational reason for prohibition of marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Britain's most senior military officer says he has no evidence
that the proposed US missile defense system could work.
One of the first political notes in www.stallman.org mentioned
a mirror of the POSCO workers' web site, which was prohibited
in South Korea as a copyright violation. On 23 July 2001
the Seoul local court reversed its decision and recognized parody
as a form of free speech, not prohibited by copyright.
Sad to say, the workers' original grievances about unfair treatment by
POSCO have not been redressed. They don't have justice,
only the right to tell the public about the injustice.
The UK government is now reconsidering the laws for use of marijuana.
Legalization is a possibility.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Bush has repeatedly said that the anti-globalization protestors do not
represent the interests of the poorest nations. Then let these countries speak for themselves: 49 of the
world's poorest nations are meeting to block further trade
liberalization.
On May 1, 2001, Long Beach CA police attacked peaceful protestors,
made promises which they broke, accused them of various fabricated
crimes, then deported one person who has lived in the US since the age
of 3 months. One lesson it teaches is never to trust a deal with a
policeman.
Bush wants to eliminate contraceptive coverage in the health insurance
for federal employees, but Congress is showing some resistance. You
can help influence the outcome by sending a
message to Congress. (77% of Americans support requiring health
insurance to cover prescription contraceptives.)
Update: the House voted on July 25th to continue to require contraception
coverage for federal employees.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Read about the secret plans of the world's most dangerous rogue state.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Speakers corner, a
century-old tradition of freedom of speech in London, is now
threatened as a consequence of privatization of the parks.
A Russian encryption expert has been arrested on a visit to the US for
writing a program that converts encrypted e-books into PDF format.
Russians still have the right to use and develop such software, but
Americans have lost this right because of the Digital Millenium
Copyright Act. The US now seems intent to apply its harsh and unfair
laws to actions that occur outside its borders.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
This is an ironic reversal of roles for the two countries.
During the cold war, Russia was noted for its efforts to stamp out
unauthorized copying and redistribution of information (samizdat).
Today the United States is the principal offender.
When the corporate media report on anti-globalization protests, they
tend to under-report police violence while exaggerating the events
that serve as excuses for it. For independent non-corporate news,
see http://www.indymedia.org/.
The Marijuana Policy Project
reports that Nevada has enacted a law removing criminal penalties for
possession of marijuana.
Rationalist
International reports that Taslima Nasreen has been convicted in
absentia by a court in Bangladesh on charges of blasphemy, for
"hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims" with her novel "Shame"
and her criticism of the Quran.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
This illustrates the danger that religion still poses to civil
liberties in large parts of the world.
Should criminals be punished by raping them in prison? This is not
unusual in US prisons, and little is being done to eliminate it. In
fact, some officials seem to approve of this aspect of the penal (or
is it penile?) system.
Not all countries approve of it, however. The
Supreme Court of Canada recently blocked the extradition of
suspects to the US because the prosecutor in the
US had threatened them with homosexual rape.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Many
union leaders have been arrested recently in South Korea.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
An Ohio man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison
for writing--and not publishing--a fictional story about
kidnapping and torturing children. No actual children were harmed (or
involved) in the writing of the story, but the court did not care.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Fiction writers in the US had now better make sure the victims in
horror and crime stories are all old enough to give consent to the
violence that is done to them. And we had all better demand an end to
censorship laws, no matter what they are supposed to "protect" us
from.
Newspeak at the FBI: Dancing is Terrorism
Reclaim the Streets sets up surprise street parties,
where people play music and dance. It is described
in the book No Logo as one of the new forms of protest
against global brand culture.
On May 10, FBI director Louis Freeh testifying to
Congress listed Reclaim the Streets among the "Threats
of Terrorism to the United States". Is dancing
terrorism?
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
While we laugh at the absurdity of this, we have to
recognize that it might be the start of a persistent
and serious "big lie" campaign. And if further lies,
such as frame-ups or infiltration of provocateurs, are
used to support the big lie, it won't be the first
time.
Koreans opposing the enforced filtering of the Internet tried to
post my political note about it, below, on the
government site for comments on the access-restriction policy. The posting
was rejected unless they obscured all
the / n / a / u / g / h / t / y / / w / o / r / d / s
/. Words like "pornography" and "gay" -- the very matter at hand.
For once, some good news: the European Parliament passed
a resolution opposing widespread or general surveillance of the
public's electronic communication. This may make it harder for the European
Commission to impose a directive authorizing such surveillance.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Nike, which pays Indonesian workers a few nickels an hour, has a new
idea:
marketing sneakers by mocking the activists who criticize their
horrible treatment of the workers who make the sneakers.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Nike's marketing strategy is to make itself seem cool. You can fight
back by attaching a negative attitude to their name. Don't buy from
Nike, and if see a person wearing Nikes, express disdain for that
choice.
Greg Palast is the British journalist who exposed the ways that
Blacks in Florida were systematically excluded from voting in the last
US presidential election--an exclusion which effectively stole the
election for George Bush Jr (the Shrub).
Now his newspaper, the Observer, has been sued for
libel by the company that employs George Bush Sr: Barrick Gold
Mining of Canada. The accusation in the case is that Palast quoted an
Amnesty International report, which alleged that 50 miners might have
been buried alive in Tanzania by a company now owned by Barrick. This
was a small part of an article that exposes a long history of
sleazy connections between George Bush Sr and Barrick, including
Bush's actions as President of the US.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
Police in Germany have begun arbitrarily suspending
the civil rights of individuals, without charging them with crimes.
The reason? To stop them from participating in political
protests.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Big brother warning: it seems that some rental cars are now equipped
with a system that tracks
where you go, all the time. Before you sign a car rental
contract, raise the issue explicitly. Ask, "Do you track where I
drive in this car? Is there a GPS in this car?" If they say yes, ask
for a different car!
The US has abandoned the attempt to stop Brazil from manufacturing
AIDS medication at low cost.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Legal proceedings have been launched against a leading Egyptian
feminist, Nawal Saadawi, to
divorce her and her husband without their consent, as punishment for
allegedly criticizing Islam. I have not seen what she said, but if
this is a sample of Islam, I am sure it richly deserves whatever
criticism she gave it.
After long police repressions,
an activist from "Checkpoint
Austria" has now been sentenced
to three months conditional arrest for "slander in a severe
case"...After an exchange of words with the officers, he shouted out
to the other protesters that one of the officers had just threatened
him with the words: "Look, when we meet in some back alley, then - a
bullet to your head".
Senate passes resolution against teaching evolution:
The US Senate has passed an Education Bill into which language has
been added that essentially calls upon teachers to tell students that
evolutionary theory is not science. A Senator from Kansas hailed this
amendment as a vindication of the Kansas school board's 1999 decision
to eliminate evolution from the curriculum.
Please call or write your Senators and Congressman to oppose this,
and alert other people.
See http://www.agiweb.org/gap/legis107/evolution_update0601.html for
full information.
Police provocateurs attack demonstrators during protest in Barcelona
(Excerpt from a larger report).
"- while this is all going on for about half an hour ( the rally permit runs
out around this time) a punk beside me is thrown to the street and put in a
headlock by another slightly cleaner dressed punk. people surge forward
seemingly trying to help the guy but then it turns out about 20 of them are
undercover cops and a few more people start getting grabbed. this part was
crazy and was the first time i've ever seen real live 'agents provocateurs'.
I'm not sure if they had any 'reason' for grabbing this guy other than that
they wanted to start something and as a fully decked out punk, they wouldn't
look so bad."
Swedish police attack protestors, then
arrest some and hold them incommunicado.
Despite the fact that Gap makes their clothes in sweatshops, and
have been subject to many demonstrations across the nation, they
believe that the growing movement against corporate power is now large
enough to begin marketing on. Their new
promotional displays use anarchist iconography to market their
sweatshop clothes: now the protest itself can be essentially sold
to consumers as an image. If Gap succeeds, it will mean that every
protest that is staged will be building on their new image, in effect
turning protestors and activists into living, walking ads for Gap.
In The Independent (London): Democratic politicians are now
diverting attention from the policies that have left so many
voters discouraged, by making scapegoats of the people who organize
the mass protests against these policies.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
SITA, a French multinational, gave Brighton, England waste workers
an impossible workload, then locked them out when they refused to do
it, so the workers locked themselves
in. With the support of the community, the workers
were reinstated and the multinational lost the contract. "We should
take inspiration from this fight, because it shows that when people
get together we can stop privatisation in its tracks."
Ya Basta, nonviolent protestors of the EU summit in Gothenburg,
wrote a letter about being beseiged and
attacked by police.
Princeton scientists have
gone
to court asking for a ruling that the DMCA does not prohibit them
from publishing their research. The record companies had threatened
to sue them.
The American Commission on Civil Rights found widespread
disenfranchisement of poor and minority voters across Florida; abuses
were not located or isolated. Without this, Gore, marginally better
than Bush, would have clearly carried the state, and the Supreme Court
would not have had the chance to select a president.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
During the Quebec protests, a policeman
shot Eric Laferriere at a range of 20 feet, and maimed him for
life. Laferriere was standing harmlessly and not engaged in violence.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
![[ANTI-CENSORSHIP -- an image of the universal sign of negation
covering a pair of scissors]](/ko-censor.jpg)
The Korean government, following a deceitful chain of events, is
using the excuse of "protecting minors" to impose filtering on the Internet. The
list of sites to be blocked includes not only pornography (not that
pornography is a bad thing), but also sites that provide serious
advice to gay people.
Don't be fooled by the excuse. Censorship laws are more
dangerous to a democratic society than any pornography could ever be.
You can learn more here
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Jaggi Singh, who was beaten and seized by a disguised police
snatch squad that only afterward identified itself as police, has been
released on $3,000 in bail--but with absurd conditions. He is
prohibited from leading or organizing any demonstrations. The judge
has also prohibited Singh from possessing a megaphone.
Singh promises to appeal that condition to the Supreme Court of Canada.
A number of protestors were arrested in Quebec at the FTAA
meeting, generally on absurd or fabricated pretexts. You can help them by donating to their
legal defense fund.
When John Gatto accepted the New York City Teacher of the Year
Award in 1990, his acceptance speech was a deep criticism
of the school system and other aspects of childraising in the US.
IMF'S Four Steps to Damnation
Amy Kalinowski has written an
interesting letter to the Canadian Prime Minister about the Quebec
protests.
The shrub is already making big payoffs
to his campaign contributors--at the expense of public safety and
the national interest.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Amnesty International has
taken up the cause of the Quebec protestors attacked by police. Alas,
it's not just countries like China and Iran that oppress political
dissidents. See the
announcement.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Who owns the law? In many states, a
company owns part of the law, and you have to pay them an arm and
a leg to find out what is legal for you to do.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The US is using biological weapons in South America as part of the
"War on drugs", and at the same time shows signs of pulling out of the
negotiations for stronger controls on biological weapons, according to
the Sunshine Project.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
On the evening of Saturday, April 21, 2001, a day during which tens of
thousands demonstrated against the FTAA in the streets of Quebec City,
the Independent Media Center in Seattle was served with a sealed court
order by two FBI agents and an agent of the US Secret Service. The
terms of the sealed order prevented IMC volunteers from publicizing
its terms; volunteers immediately began discussions with legal counsel
to amend the order.
You can read more about it.
A new US patent, awarded to Monsanto on 16 January 2001, has
blind-sided biotech scientists and threatens to knee-cap public sector
research because it gives Monsanto exclusive monopoly rights on a
crucial method of identifying modified plant cells in the laboratory.
You can read more about the issue at this page on rafi.org.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Cops Arrest Crime Victim
On 19/04/01, during a British Critical Mass cycle action in Bristol, a
cyclist was arrested after he was run down by a car. The police's reason?
Alleged criminal damage to the car!!
In March 2001, scientist Ian Thomas was fired by the US
Geological Survey for posting a map on the Internet showing where in
the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve the caribou give birth. His web
site, containing over 20,000 maps, was disconnected. This appears to
be an act of political censorship by the Bush administration, which
advocates opening that reserve to oil drilling and does not want
government scientists to make available information that might
show the drawbacks of the plan.
Thomas has made some of the maps available on his own web site, and has filed
a Freedom of Information Act request to get the rest.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Canadian government prevented large numbers of US citizens
from entering Canada, on suspicion that they are planning to join in
protests against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. A wall was
built around the center of Quebec City to keep protesters away. The
antidemocratic suppression of public
protest is now a standard part of the effort to impose these
antidemocratic treaties.
Phone In Sick Day was
moved to April 20 in Canada in 2001--so people can participate in the
Quebec protest. In the US, Phone In Sick Day was on May 1 as
usual.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Quebec prosecutors are quitting a team that the provincial government
has set up concerning protests planned for the Summit of the Americas.
The prosecutors accuse the provincial government of political
interference.
An article by Naomi Klein called
Quebec City Keeping Us Out Before We Get There talks
about protestors being scared away from the Summit of the Americas.
Before you buy a Harry Potter book, read about how Warner
Brothers is attacking fan web sites, and maybe you will change
your mind. This is not an isolated case--read a long list of cases
where powerful companies
and institutions are grabbing domain names from their satirists,
from their fans, and from people who coincidentally use the same name.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
When a neo-Nazi party entered the government of Austria a couple of
years ago, there was a brief commotion. Then their leader stepped
aside, and the rest of Europe treated that as sufficient.
What have they been doing since the world's attention was taken away?
They have been acting like Nazis--encouraging racism and police
violence. There is a real problem in Austria.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Nike allows you to personalize your shoes with a message. Jonah H. Peretti tried to add the word "sweatshop" to
his shoes, and they refused.
Pat Schroeder (former Congressional Representative from Colorado),
who helped to make it a crime to give people free software to play
DVDs they have bought, is now leading a campaign to
turn public libraries into retail pay-per-view outlets
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
For an analysis of the various illegalities and frauds used in the
theft of the Florida election (and thus, of the US presidential
election as a whole), see
here.
The companies that make software to filter web access, often block
a wide variety of sites--not just porn, but politics as well. Not
surprisingly, they refuse to reveal which sites they block. Hackers
who figured out ways to extract the list from the program have been
attacked with lawsuits, and defended by the ACLU. The ACLU fights constantly to
defend Americans' civil liberties, and they need your support.
[First reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
(I joined the ACLU in 1988, when Daddy Bush called Governor Dukakis a
"card-carrying member" of the ACLU--in effect saying that upholding
the US Constitution was equivalent to being a Communist. Bush showed
his real views of freedom, and this convinced me I ought to join the
ACLU as a statement of support for them against this vicious calumny.
I've heard many other people joined at the same time.)
Deportees being flown from Europe to other countries have been
tortured by border guards while on the plane. A number of the victims
have died before getting off the plane. Some European airlines are
now refusing to carry such "passengers", but Lufthansa
continues to seek this lucrative business.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
NAFTA has been so successful at cutting wages in the US, and
destroying working conditions in Mexico, that politicians are aiming
to
extend NAFTA to South America if we don't stop them.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Here is an explanation of the
Supreme Court decision that ruled against counting the votes in
Florida, with a suggestion for what to do about it.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Billionaires
for Bush (or Gore) urged people to vote for either George Bush or
Al Gore. "We don't care which, we already bought both of them."
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Do politician's comments refer to a reality? Do they "mean"
anything?
Nowadays, some politicians don't see a need for that.
In November 2000, Democracy Now! -- Pacifica Radio's national news
magazine and an important source of alternative news and views on many
issues -- was under threat from Pacifica's management. Learn more at
http://www.fair.org/activism/democracy-now.html.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Free Burma
Coalition asking Americans in Nov 2000 to write to President
Clinton asking him to ban imports of garments from Burma. These
garments Burma exports are made in factories run by the military
dictatorship, using effectively slave labor.
In late 2000 I learned that a leading Pakistani rationalist,
Dr. Younus Shaikh, is being prosecuted for blasphemy, a crime that
carries a death sentence in Pakistan. The hysteria was such that for
a long time he could not find a lawyer willing to defend him.
This case is likely to continue for a long time. Please
help Dr. Shaikh by writing to the government of Pakistan to
express your concern about the case.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The Korean government is proposing a law to regulate the Internet in
Korea, which would impose censorship rules and is bad
for citizens' privacy.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The DEA is planning to prohibit
hemp-based products such as soap, which are not drugs at all, on
the grounds that they interfere with drug tests for marijuana. This
shows how sick and twisted the war on drugs is making the US: even the
tools of enforcement are now considered more important than mere daily
life. (Whatever drugs that war is on must be very dangerous.)
Please visit the site for the campaign to block these regulations, www.SaveHemp.org, and please help
and inform others.
(I received an interesting letter
in response to this issue.)
The Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility is having its annual conference in Pennsylvania,
Oct 14-15. Its theme is ``Reconstructing Privacy in the Information
Age''.
Americans United for the Separation of
Church and State has chided Senator Lieberman, the Democratic
candidate for vice president, for extremely religious campaign
rhetoric, injecting religion into the campaign in a way we would
normally expect only from right-wing fundamentalists.
Americans United sent Lieberman an open letter asking him to
ask voters to consider his record, not his religion.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
I've been a member of Americans United for several years.
In 1999 the US Congress proposed a law requiring every bank to
establish a ``know your customer'' program to report all unusual
deposits to the government--in effect, snooping on the customer.
When combined with the practice known as ``civil forfeiture'', which
means that the government can seize ``suspicious'' assets without even
having a trial, these programs actually threaten to take away your
bank account.
Strong public opposition blocked that bill, and ``know your customer''
programs did not become mandatory. But over 80 percent of US banks
have them voluntarily. That is better than 100 percent, but not good.
I have an idea for how to bring about some change in this. It
involves setting up a web site where people can record which banks
have these programs and which do not. People can ask their own banks,
and then record the answers.
Then people who don't want the extra risk of civil forfeiture, or
object to big-brotherism, can use the data base to find a local bank
which doesn't squeal on its law-abiding customers--and move their
deposits to that bank.
I don't have time to set this up, and I don't know how either. But I
hope I can get someone else interested. If you are interested in
setting this up, and you know how, please send me mail. (People are
working on this now, so if you want to help, please contact me rather
than starting on your own.)
The Consumer Project on Technology
is organizing an Open Access protest in
Washington DC, Thursday July 27. The issue will surely continue
to be important past that date.
[First reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Alongside the Republican and Democratic political conventions in 2000,
there were "shadow
conventions" sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project, calling
for an end to the War on Drugs.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
If you think a drug is dangerous, you can avoid the risk by not using
it. But you cannot avoid the many dangers of the War on Drugs--a
million Americans in prison (largely for nonviolent "possession of
drugs" crimes), no money for education because prison comes first, our
police corrupted, and our civil liberties undermined.
A Korean protest parody site has been shut down as a copyright
violation. The site was set up by workers who were fired, and then
not rehired despite a court order to rehire them. Eventually they set
up a protest parody site criticizing the employer, POSCO. POSCO sued
them for copyright infringement and succeeded, forcing their site to
be taken down. Now there is a world-wide campaign to set up mirrors
of the site. I have set up a mirror as part
of this campaign.
You might enjoy Ask Dr Laura
that is floating around on the net.
On April 25, 2000, the Marijuana Policy
Project reported that Hawaii has enacted a law removing criminal
penalties for medical use of marijuana (which can help cancer patients
tolerate the harsh side effects of many cancer treatments).
For some 20 years the U.S. has been the target of a crazed War on
Drugs. Around a million people are in prison in the U.S. today for
drug-related "crimes". Often the crime was simply to sell or use
drugs--activities that would not be crimes at all if we end this war.
Sometimes the crime was an act of violence--which should be a crime,
but typically would not have happened if prohibition did not
drive the drug trade into the hands of gangsters. (In the 1920s, the
illegal sellers of alcohol committed many notorious violent
crimes--but today's brewers, distilleries and liquor stores are
law-abiding.) Our civil liberties are constantly threatened by plans
to make this war "more effective".
When a war is on drugs, it tends to forget who the enemy is, and
attack citizens indiscriminately. Let's get the war off
drugs.
If you work for the corporate world, you may be interested in
celebrating Phone In Sick
Day on May 1.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
RTMark explains the holiday this way:
-
To bring an important American holiday back home.
Mayday commemorates ten Americans who lost their lives fighting for
the eight-hour [work] day, and their sacrifice has been celebrated since
1889 nearly everywhere in the world *except* America.
-
To call attention to the loss of the eight-hour day and other
quality-of-life indices in America.
Mayday heralds the approach of summer, a time that still means
"vacation" to those in most First-World nations. But substantial
vacations, like the eight-hour day, have passed into American
leisure history. While the average number of hours worked per year
has gone down throughout the First World, it has gone up in America,
with Americans now working six weeks more per year than they did in
1973 to achieve the same standard of living. Phoning in sick en masse
will function as a "mayday" distress call by increasingly harried
Americans. (Visit http://rtmark.com/sickday.html to see Andrei
Codrescu explain this most eloquently.)
[rms note: We used to expect technology to provide increased leisure
time. I believe it could, if society were not dominated by business and
business owners.]
-
To call attention to the dwindling quality of life everywhere.
The erosion of leisure is no longer limited to America. As European
countries are increasingly forced to dismantle social programs and
adopt American-style measures to benefit corporate health, we can be
sure that they will all go the way of the United States: two-month
vacations will shrink to two weeks, maternity leave will go from six
months to five days, etc. Therefore RTMark encourages Europeans, and
other First Worlders for whom May 1 is already a holiday, to phone
in sick on May 2. (In the Third World, of course, the effects of
neoliberalism are unspeakably worse than a mere erosion of leisure;
it would be tasteless to suggest that phoning in sick might
accomplish anything there.)
Taslima
Nasrin, a Humanist from Bangladesh, was threatened with religious
murder for criticizing such things as persecution of Hindus and the
injustice of Islamic law. She was officially charged with the crime
of ``blasphemy''. She is now in exile.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The right to criticize, or even ridicule, any religion or religion in
general is part of human rights. No religion or church is entitled to
suppress criticism--not Islam, not the Church of Scientology, not even
the Church of Emacs.
10 May 2002
US citizens: the Senate Judiciary Committee is blocking
Bush plans to pack US courts with antiabortion campaigners. Please
tell them to keep up the good work.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
10 May 2002
The union that represents the staff of the European Patent Office
has denounced the
European Patent Office for disregarding laws and rejecting
democratic control.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
10 May 2002
The EU is considering a mass-surveillance
directive to require all telecommunications companies to keep
long-lived records of who communicates with whom, via telephone or
email.
10 May 2002
"The Kept University", an article fromm the Atlantic Monthly,
explained in 2000 how corporate
funding is corrupting academia.
10 May 2002
The Burmese military government has released
Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader
of the Burmese democracy movement, and was elected president of Burma
but prevented by the military government from taking office.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 May 2002
GATS, the General
Agreement on Trade in Services, threatens to give multinational
corporations additional power to restrict
the way countries protect their environment, public health, water
supplies, and give them the power to sue governments for any laws that
inconvenience them.
6 May 2002
At a May Day protest in Berkeley California, an undercover
cop disguised as a protester attacked an Indymedia photographer,
threw him into a police line to be arrested, and then walked away from
the protest as if nothing happened.
5 May 2002
Israel did not allow the UN team to investigate what happened at
Jenin refugee camp, but a Dutch
investigator says there is no evidence of a massacre.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 May 2002
A report says that police
can now identify people from DNA in the droplets of moisture in their
breath.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 May 2002
The US Military is asking Congress to exempt it from a wide range
of environmental protection laws.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 May 2002
A Norwegian member of parliament is asking for a Nobel
Peace Prize for President Bush.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 May 2002
A proposed Spanish law to regulate the Internet would allow
officials to close any web site.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 May 2002
Some states appoint judges; some, such as Texas, have elected
judges. A study shows that elected
judges are biased against out-of-state defendants.
2 May 2002
Many activists from Milwaukee were prevented from flying
to Washington DC for a protest in April because their names were found
in a database of suspects that airlines check before each flight.
2 May 2002
A
rape victim in Pakistan has been sentenced to death by stoning as
a punishment for being a victim.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
2 May 2002
A petition campaign tries to "save General Motors from itself", by
pressuring it to start developing fuel-efficient cars so that the
company won't tank when it costs more to fill your tank.
30 April 2002
It appears there
may not have been an a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp, as was
previously charged. Allegations of forcing
civilians to act as human shields remain.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
30 April 2002
On Hacking: In June 2000, while
visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original
and true meaning of the word "hacker".
30 April 2002
This article explores how the US defines "democracy", using
the attempted coup against Chévez in Venezuela as a lens.
30 April 2002
The last three months have been the warmest ever recorded.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 April 2002
Recently the US arranged the ouster Jose Bustani as head of the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based on
trumped-up accusations and violating the organisation's procedures.
The Guardian (London) reports on the threats that the US made
and investigates possible reasons.
30 April 2002
RENTCAS has united 30,000 volunteers to help fight smuggling of
animals in Brazil.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 April 2002
Please support the call for justice for the protestors of Gothenburg.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 April 2002
Spain has blocked
a reform of EU fishing rules intended to prevent overfishing
that is killing fish faster than they can reproduce.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 April 2002
Amnesty International has called for a war crimes investigation
into the Israeli invasion of the Jenin refugee camp.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 April 2002
Even as Bush talks about the danger of weapons of mass destruction in
terrorist hands, the
Bush administration is trying to remove the head of the Organisation
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The reason: he
tries to examine chemical warfare facilities in the United States just
like chemical warfare facilities in other countries.
Earlier in April the Bush administration arranged for the removal of
the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Leaked
papers released by the NRDC show that ExxonMobil
and other businesses were calling the shots.
23 April 2002
Guatemalan
peasants have seized a number of large plantations, protesting the
unfair distribution of farmland.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
23 April 2002
Here's an article about the work that the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty does
to aid
poor people in Ontario.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
21 April 2002
Smuggled film shows the Chinese
destruction of a monestary in Tibet because its popularity was
considered unacceptable.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
21 April 2002
The destruction in Jenin was more complete than an earthquake, yet
the Israelis have not allowed in any heavy lifting equipment, so the
Palestinians
dug out the bodies with their hands.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
Contact
Congress now to say that East Timor should receive donations, not
loans.
20 April 2002
Hundreds of
thousands protested business-driven globalization in Barcelona,
Spain in mid-March on the occasion of the EU summit. Police
restrained themselves from attacking the protestors for part of the
week, but
eventually gave in to their bloody urges
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
20 April 2002
A peace group in Israel
chronicles daily the cruelty committed by the Israeli army against
Palestinians. In the April
11 article we read about civilians used as human shields, and sick
people who are dying because they are not allowed to go to a hospital.
In the April
12 article we read about people denied access to food and water,
and buildings demolished with people inside them.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
There are also reports that
the Israeli army committed mass murder against helpless civilians in
Jenin.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
Research which purported to show that use of MDMA ("ecstasy")
damages the brain was so
flawed as to be worthless.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
French and Spanish investigators want to question
Henry Kissinger to see what he knew about the 1970s "Condor plan",
a conspiracy among Latin-American dictators to eliminate their
political opponents.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
Further
evidence of Israeli army atrocities in Jenin has emerged, as well
as reports that soldiers used civilians as human shields
(i.e. hostages), and demolished 3-story buildings with many people
inside them.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Ariel Sharon is on trial
in Belgium for his role in atrocities in Lebanon in the 80s. Read how
he described his history of violence against Arabs.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
There are reports that US
officials met with the Venezuelan coup plotters before the coup,
and a suspicion that they encouraged it.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
A
general strike shut down most business in Italy on April 16. 2
million people joined protests against Berlusconi regime.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
The
Dutch prime minister and his entire cabinet have resigned because of a
report holding his government partly responsible for the massacres of
unarmed Bosnians at Srebrenica in 1995.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
Users were recenly shocked to discover that the KaZaa peer-to-peer
software includes a distributed computing facility that enables
KaZaa's business partner to sell access to the user's own
computer.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
Representative McKinney calls for an investigation
into the unpreparedness of US response on September 11 and whether
companies tied to Bush have influenced government policy.
20 April 2002
The British government has given
up on plans to eliminate the right to a jury trial for crimes such as
burglary and assault.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 April 2002
The short-lived coup
against Venezuela's President Chavez was planned for months by
military officers, and comes out of an opposition movement funded
by Venezuelan conservatives in Florida.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
18 April 2002
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors.
I was shocked to learn recently that there is no border fence dividing
Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Insight magazine says that the FBI threatened that their reporters' homes
might be burglarized if they obtained certain information through the
Freedom of Information Act.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
18 April 2002
Today's higher oil prices are beneficial because they encourage
more efficient use.
17 April 2002
The IMF "rescues" countries by making them sign secret agreements
to sell off
government assets for far less than they are worth.
16 April 2002
New article about the deposed, then
reinstated, president of Venezuela.
16 April 2002
Gore Vidal's book, "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got
to Be So Hated," argues that, contrary to what President Bush told a
joint session of Congress, the Islamic world doesn't hate us because
of our freedoms: it hates the US because of its policies towards the
Islamic world.
16 April 2002
It's not just a danger, it's a fact: using
terrorism as an excuse, police have seized records about Americans
hundreds of thousands of times, and the rate is doubling every
month.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
16 April 2002
US voters, please contact Congress ASAP to oppose a right-wing
bill that would
make it a crime to accompany a teen-age girl to another state to get
an abortion. Even a grandparent or a sister could be prosecuted.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
15 April 2002
Australia finds a tobacco company guilty of destroying
the evidence for a lawsuit filed by a dying smoker.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
13 April 2002
Precisely
how the Bush team stole
the Florida election is documented.
13 April 2002
ENRON wasn't the first client for which Andersen was caught cooking
the books. It ought to be prosecuted now.
10 April 2002
How Bush's
extremist rhetoric encourages Sharon to ignore Bush when Bush says
to stop.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
10 April 2002
Bill Moyers reports on how Bush
has blocked public access to presidential papers from the Reagan
administration which according to the law were supposed to be
released.
9 April 2002
Americans: call Congress on April 10 and 11 to oppose military aid to
Indonesia.
9 April 2002
An article
by John Pilger about the possibility of war in Iraq, and about the
facts that belie Bush's campaign for war.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 April 2002
The UK plans to prohibit
employers from monitoring personal email sent and received by the
staff on the company's computers.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Added 2018-02-01: According to this briefing, "The Code does not have the force of law, but rather provides the Commissioner's own views on how organizations can comply with the UK Data Protection Act 1998."
6 April 2002
I received a very disturbing message which says that UK police have blocked the availability of
any hosting for the web site for the May Day Festival of
Alternatives. (Press release)
6 April 2002
A former prime minister of New Zealand accused
Dan Quayle, US Vice President under Bush Sr, of threatening to
assassinate him.
5 April 2002
Charges were dropped on April 2 against two members of the Edible Ballot Society. But
because the judge did not question the idea that it was a crime in
Canada to eat one's own ballot, we cannot assume that four others
accused of the crime of ballot-eating are out of danger.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 April 2002
When Tony Blair started talking of making the UK follow the US
into war with Iraq, his
party began refusing to go along.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
4 April 2002
US newspapers published photos of John Walker Lindh naked,
blindfolded and tied up, but the real danger he and other detainees
face is that of imprisonment for life without trial. The Bush
administration calls them "combatants", but that concept presupposes a
real war which can have a distinct end. Bush's "war against
terrorism" is defined such that no one can ever tell if it has ended.
To have an end to the war, we need a president who has no stake in it.
We need to make sure Dubya loses his second presidential election more
clearly than he lost the first one.
4 April 2002
A former UK Secretary of State for Defense clearly explains the harm
caused by US bias in the Middle East.
2 April 2002
Tomato farm workers in Florida have launched a protest
campaign against Taco Bell which uses many of the tomatoes they
grow.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The government of Bolivia has tried to impose a number of harsh
policies that provoked popular uprisings. There is evidence that
they are dictated in detail by the US government.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
1 April 2002
When police say "No witnesses",
one must suspect they are up to some kind of dirty work that they
don't want to admit to the public. An encounter in a Paris airport.
1 April 2002
There are reports that Israeli soldiers are keeping the press out
of Ramallah at gunpoint and shooting
at marked press vehicles.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
Does low pay
mean more jobs? Locally, sometimes yes, but globally it does not.
31 March 2002
The Marijuana Policy Project won its lawsuit to get permission to
put a medical
marijuana initiative question on the ballot in Washington DC. Now
they need funds to mount a signature drive so that they can actually
put such a question on the ballot in November.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
371
people were arrested in Montreal on March 15 for protesting police
brutality there.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
When a high school student in Oklahoma wore Wiccan symbols to
school, the
school suspended her and accused her of casting a spell that made her
teacher sick. The ACLU is suing them.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
Global
warming of .6 degrees centigrade has already caused numerous
ecological changes including the spread of various mosquito-borne
diseases.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
According to an article in Scientific American, de-facto
slavery remains widespread in the modern world, usually based on
convincing its victims and the surrounding society that their
enslavement is legitimate.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
The US government is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a
decision that compensates the Navajo tribe for natural resources mined
on their property, on the grounds that if all
the Indian tribes demand to be paid what the government owes them,
that would be too expensive.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
31 March 2002
Plans are advancing to implant
chips in people for surveillance purposes.
31 March 2002
According to Fox News, police
arrested a Fox reporter and confiscated a videotape, but they went
to court and were able to get it back.
28 March 2002
The Coalition for a Just
Cincinnati, has called for a boycott of the city. This is a
response to persistent racism, and police violence which extends as
far as murder. Now a business group involved in renting auditoriums
in Cincinnati has sued the
Coalition on the grounds that the boycott has reduced their
income.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
28 March 2002
An article in New Scientist reports that marijuana is much less
harmful than alcohol in its effect on ability to drive safely.
28 March 2002
In an act of prudish bigotry, college student Leilani Rios was expelled
from the track team because she works as a stripper.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
28 March 2002
A genetic modification in corn, which causes allergies in some
people and was only supposed to be used for animal feed, is spreading
by natural cross-pollenation into the human food chain.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
28 March 2002
The UK government has been caught not once,
but twice,
telling out-and-out lies in order to build public support for sending
troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
24 March 2002
About Those Polls: Do 80% of Americans Really Support Bush?
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany has ordered many
ISPs to impose filtering (censorship)
on all network access.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
24 March 2002
In Italy, right-wing terrorists supported by the CIA
helped stop rise of the left in the 60s and 70s. One "anarchist" who
was actually working for the security forces even went so far as to
throw a grenade into a crowd and kill people.
24 March 2002
A law is being rammed through in Alberta, Canada to prohibit
teachers from striking, and rules out bargaining about working
conditions. As a protest, teachers are discontinuing
the after-school activities that they have done as volunteers.
Others plan to quit.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
23 March 2002
A US government report details the way various laws are used to suppress
freedom of political dissent in the Czech Republic.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
23 March 2002
A policy of not
arresting anyone for possession of marijuana has helped cut
robbery and burglary in a high-crime area of London.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
23 March 2002
Bush plans for military
courts for terrorist suspects have at least two glaring flaws.
Instead of a jury, the verdict is to be decided by part-time judges,
soldiers who take orders from Bush. Appeals are directed to more
soldiers, and then Bush himself.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
23 March 2002
Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, gave a
speech at a bookstore last week, but refused to address the question
asked by Lawrence Silberman, who uses marijuana to reduce the side
effects of his cancer treatment. His question: "Do you think people
like myself should be arrested, sir?"
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
22 March 2002
The Bush administration has plans to develop a new kind of nuclear bomb
designed to attack facilities deep underground.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Making integrated circuit chips is a dangerous business--dangerous
for the employees. The companies have tried
to block studies which would determine just how dangerous.
22 March 2002
International pressure is bringing Zimbabwe's President Mugabe to
the verge of making
concessions to the opposition, which objects to the recent unfair
election and antidemocratic laws.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
22 March 2002
As "Blackhawk Down" plays on the screen, a group of helpless
Americans are trapped in Somalia once again. But this time it
is Bush and his men who have trapped them there and prevent them
from returning home.
21 March 2002
Saudi religious police prevented
girls from leaving a burning school building because they were not
wearing proper Islamic dress.
20 March 2002
The Senate Judiciary Committee has rejected a Bush nominee, Judge
Pickering, in response to a campaign organized by abortion rights
organizations such as NARAL.
19 March 2002
Bush's proposal
for increased foreign aid is a minute step in the right direction.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 March 2002
A French court has attacked freedom of speech in the US by laying
criminal charges against an former executive of Yahoo, because
some users of Yahoo's auction site sell Nazi memorabilia.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 March 2002
Kalle Jungkvist, legally responsible for the publication of the
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet under Swedish law, was convicted on
March 7 for "agitation
against an ethnic group" because of comments posted on
Aftonbladet's discussion website by Nazi sympathizers. The court
ruled that Aftonbladet (and hence Kalle Jungkvist) is guilty of a
crime for not censoring them in advance.
17 March 2002
The
Australian government knew about and concealed Indonesian military
plans for massacres in East Timor.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The East Timor Action Network,
which brought the Indonesian occupation of East Timor to the world's
attention, asks Americans to ask Congress to keep the pressure
on the Indonesian military to punish the generals responsible
for these crimes of mass murder.
17 March 2002
The Spanish opposition web site nodo50, which publishes criticism
of government policy and organizes public protests, details how the Spanish police
have been infiltrating their mailing lists, while demonizing them
as terrorists in the media.
17 March 2002
Marijuana
is less dangerous than alcohol, found the British Advisory Council
on Misuse of Drugs.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 March 2002
The censorware installed in US public libraries, supposedly to
block access to sites that prudes find offensive, has the side effect
of blocking
access to a important archive of the history of the web.
16 March 2002
Human Rights in the US, and
in China, a new political article about a Chinese government
report
detailing human rights violations in the US.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
16 March 2002
The US recently endorsed for the first time, without fanfare, the
idea of a Palestinian
state.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
16 March 2002
A British columnist discusses the flimsy
evidence Bush et al offer to justify threatened attacks on various
countries.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
16 March 2002
50,000 workers in the Daqing oil fields in China have formed
an independent union and are holding protests against dismissals.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
16 March 2002
The movie Guilt by Association, shown March 13 (9pm) on Court TV,
dramatizes the effect of drug prohibition combined with mandatory
sentencing policies. It talks about Families against Mandatory Minimums
which opposes mandatory sentencing policies.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
16 March 2002
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion by the
hemp industry to block the DEA's new hemp ban from taking effect until
the court has an opportunity to hold a hearing on the matter. This is
partly the result of people who visited http://www.savehemp.org
16 March 2002
The Asociación Contra la Tortura posted a list of Spanish
police who were taken to court for acts of torture. The Agencia de
Protección de Datos, which enforces that law, decided
that the ACT's web site was a "data base", and therefore that the
names of police sued or charged with torture could not be mentioned on
the web site without their permission. The site was shut down.
The ACT's pages are available in mirror sites, but the
Agencia de Proteccin de Datos continues trying to shut them down in
countries that have similar "privacy" laws. Meanwhile, groups that
support Spanish government policies publish
information on their web site about individuals who support Basque
independence, but the APD does not try shut them down. Amnesty
International has criticized Spain for pardoning
torturers and giving medals to them. The 2001
Amnesty International report on Spain and the 1999
report provide background information on the practice of torture
by Spanish police.
[References 1 and 3-6 updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
16 March 2002
Over 100 Israeli reserve officers have refused to serve in the
occupied territories on moral grounds.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
16 March 2002
An interesting article on old "triracial isolate"
ethnic communities in the US, and their origins and history.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
10 March 2002
When 50,000 protestors marched in Barcelona in June 2001, to
protest the World Bank, the Spanish police sent in disguised
police, who pretended to be protestors and started a fight. The
fake protestors faded away as police
attacked the real ones. In the weeks before the demonstration,
police had mounted a campaign of
harrassment, stopping people for no reason and demanding to see
their papers.
10 March 2002
The New York Surveillance Camera
Players do street theater to call attention to the surveillance
cameras that the NYPD uses to monitor subversive activities such as
democratic protest.
10 March 2002
The leader of the British barristers' organization warns of the danger
of a police state if legal safeguards for the accused are
abolished for the sake of streamlining trials.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 March 2002
Bush has attempted to shred the
Freedom of Information Act by ordering government departments to
resist requests for information.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 March 2002
Companies are filing frequent libel
lawsuits to silence people who criticize them on the Internet.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 March 2002
The MAUSS group, in France, takes its name from Marcel Mauss, the
anthropologist who wrote about "gift economies". Much more radical is Socialism As It
Was Always Meant To Be, by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 March 2002
The College Art Association plans to file an amicus brief when
the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono
Copyright Act. If you can help, please read more
and then contact the CAA.
4 March 2002
China
has imposed strict new censorship rules on political journalism.
4 March 2002
The interior minister of Spain is threatening to suspend freedom of
movement in order to prevent protests, which he regards as an enemy of
society. An editorial in El Mundo points out his
duty is to protect the people's right to protest.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
4 March 2002
The director of Telemadrid, the public radio and television
station in Madrid, has been fired
for airing a program which presented the views of peaceful Basque
nationalists.
4 March 2002
Bush
tries to limit Senate investigation of why the Sep 11 attacks were not
prevented.
4 March 2002
Major
Corporations Considering Relocating To Axis Of Evil.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
4 March 2002
Residents in an East Baltimore neighborhood where the city has
allowed trash to pile up for years finally got some attention after
they peacefully carried
the trash into a nearby street. The city has pressed charges of
"inciting to riot."
4 March 2002
Radio Onda
Rossa in Rome, a left-wing station, uses a frequency which it took
over, several years ago, from a commercial station that had gone
bankrupt and stopped transmitting years earlier. Now the bankrupt
station has come back from the grave, and demanded the frequency back.
but the telecommunications ministry decided to hand
it back to them anyway.
2 March 2002
The Spanish government has prohibited public drinking, and
demanded a extra work from the Madrid police to enforce this unpopular
law. The police protested, so the national police came in to beat
them up. For pictures, see http://www.stlimc.org/front.php3?article_id=1775&group=webcast.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
2 March 2002
Yale Professor David Graeber writes about the NYC
World Economic Forum protests.
28 February 2002
The Pentagon announced that few
of the al-Qa'ida prisoners captured in Afghanistan will be tried in
military courts.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
28 February 2002
Two of the people arrested in recent New York protests describe
how the police
who detained them twisted and disregarded the law.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
27 February 2002
INTERROGATION
AT US BORDER, by John Clarke: a Canadian anti-globalization
organizer's report on how US authorities detained him, demanded to
know the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden, and ultimately on no grounds
whatsoever refused to let him give a speech in Michigan.
27 February 2002
An inmate in a California prison describes the inhuman and
gratuitous cruelty of the guards towards the inmates.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
27 February 2002
Indefinite
detention, secret charges and secret trials continue to be used
against Arab immigrants in the US.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
27 February 2002
New York Mayor Bloomberg chose to cut spending by the unkindest
cut of all, one that falls on the most unfortunate residents of the
city--those who collect
and recycle discarded soda cans for five cents each.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
27 February 2002
Italian police have raided
the office of the Association of Democratic Jurists, an
organization of lawyers, looking for videos that give evidence about
the Genoa protests.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
Loggers are planning to cut down protected
redwood trees in California.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
27 February 2002
Zbigniew Brzezinski revealed that the
US began in 1979 to fund Islamic military schools in Pakistan
designed to train Islamic radicals who would fight the Soviet Union.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
25 February 2002
The Republican Party has threatened to sue EnronOwnsTheGOP.com
for using a parody of a Republican Party trademark.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
25 February 2002
Italian police have arrested
four Moroccans in an alleged plot to poison the water in Rome.
However, the poison they were allegedly planning to use, ferrocyanide,
would have been harmlessly diluted if poured into the water supply.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
25 February 2002
A lawsuit against Coca Cola accuses the company of hiring death
squads in Colombia to kill union leaders in bottling plants there.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
25 February 2002
In 1990, a bomb exploded in the car of Earth First! activists Judi
Bari and Darryl Cheney. The FBI tried to frame them for the bombing,
and never tried to find the real bombers. Now Bari and Cheney's
lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland Police is going to court.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
23 February 2002
If you oppose a plan to create a national ID card system by
linking state driver license data bases, you can use the ACLU web site
to send a free fax
to your congressional representatives.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
23 February 2002
A self-styled white bohemian talks about how people like him,
moving into a poor neighborhood, can open the door to gentrification
that ultimately forces the old
residents to leave.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
22 February 2002
US and European corporations fell over each other rushing to help
the Chinese government implement effective Internet
surveillance.
22 February 2002
The UK government is proposing a system of censorship
that would cover any and all discussion of science and technology.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
22 February 2002
Italian police have seized
computers used by Indymedia in many cities in Italy, claiming they are
aiming to seize audio and video evidence about what happened during
protests in Genoa in 2001.
22 February 2002
A funny song
about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 February 2002
ECHELON is the name of the US/UK system that spies on nearly all
of the world's communications. The US government denied ECHELON's
existence, and the CIA used it to disregard laws prohibiting it from
spying on Americans, and finally the European
Commission exposed it.
20 February 2002
While
Bush aims to give the military more money, they can't keep track of
what they are already given: money disappears and the loss is covered
up.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 February 2002
The charges against Noam Chomsky's publisher in Turkey have been
dropped, after Chomsky suggested to the Turkish government that they
ought to press the same charges against him for having writing the
original book.
20 February 2002
The New York Times has published an article detailing
the deals made between George W. Bush and Enron while
he was governor of Texas, deals that gave Enron state
policies favorable to its business.
17 February 2002
Indonesian labor rights activist Dita Indah Sari has rejected a $50,000
human rights award from Reebok in protest against the low salaries
Reebok pays Indonesian factory workers.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 February 2002
Bush has announced his plan for curbing
global warming: don't even try.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 February 2002
Utah is passing a law that declares sit-ins
as "terrorism".
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 February 2002
In the hope of escaping from its anti-trust conviction, Microsoft
has given more "soft money" than any other company. One state dropped
out of the case against Microsoft after Microsoft made a large
campaign contribution to its attorney general.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
17 February 2002
The UK proposes to adopt an "export control bill" for scientific
information which includes a system for censorship
for any and all areas of science.
14 February 2002
Low-ranking Taliban soldiers, imprisoned in Afghanistan, are being
treated inhumanely; some
are dying from diseases, and they have no medicine.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
11 February 2002
There is an effort in Germany to oppose surveillance legislation
there. See www.stop1984.com.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
9 February 2002
Australia
is paying neighboring countries to imprison people who sought asylum
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
in Australia.
9 February 2002
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
The US is now talking about a repeated war with Iraq.
9 February 2002
Torturing
suspects into false confessions is standard practice in Saudi
Arabia.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
9 February 2002
President Bush is proving very reliable: every part of his agenda
is sooner or later presented as part of the "war on terrorism." First
it was buying instead of saving, then an attack on our civil
liberties, then fast-track approval for low-wage treaties, then
ballistic missile defense. During the Superbowl, Bush
presented the "war on drugs" as a way of fighting terrorism. What
is next? Will Ashcroft label Planned Parenthood as a
"terrorist organization", and deport every non-citizen who has ever
contributed to it? Stay tuned.
[First reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
8 February 2002
Someone to watch over me, a new
political article about government surveillance.
The peaceful protests in New York show that the movement
against corporate-controlled globalization is still alive.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
8 February 2002
Please support the petition calling on Bush and Cheney to
level with us
about their contacts with ENRON.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
8 February 2002
The
UK government has proposed to require national ID cards.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
7 February 2002
8 February 2002
Stopping terrorists before
they start, a new political article. Making sure that the CIA
does not create new enemies to attack us tomorrow surely deserves high
priority in any sincere "War on Terrorism".
8 February 2002
Sinister: a participant in the anti-WEF protests in New York was
followed
home by police afterward and has no idea why.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
6 February 2002
A journalist for the Independent (London) faces imprisonment
in Zimbabwe for participating in a protest against plans to
prohibit foreign journalists from operating there.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 February 2002
The head of the North Wales police advocates prescribing heroin at
no charge to addicts,
so that they won't have to steal to pay for drugs.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
4 February 2002
In Bush's
Orwellian Address, Jacob Levich points out the chain of
resemblances between the policies of President Bush and those
described in the book 1984.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
4 February 2002
What nations was Bush referring to when he talked about "a country ruled by an 'unelected few'"
and "a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world" in
his State of the Union Address?
4 February 2002
New
York police attacked peaceful protestors, surrounded groups of them
for long periods, and eventually blocked them from going to the
prearranged rally site. The violence was committed exclusively by
police.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
3 February 2002
Public Citizen
urges US voters to contact their senators ASAP to oppose "fast
track" for new trade treaties that are designed to surrender
democratic government sovereignty to business.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
3 February 2002
A controversial play in Jordan makes fun of Osama bin Laden. Many
in the audience laugh, but a
substantial minority supports him.
3 February 2002
Michael Moore calls on George Bush to resign as
president.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
2 February 2002
NARAL asks Americans to
contact your senator to oppose the nomination of Charles Pickering
to the 5th circuit court of appeals. He has supported
constitutional amendments to ban abortion.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
2 February 2002
The extent of dishonest accounting in the US corporate system
represents a fundamental
error in the Reagan-Bush policy of deregulating business.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 January 2002
Chris Davies, a member of the European Parliament from Britain, and
Marco Cappato, a member of the European Parliament from Italy, each in
turn brought a tiny piece of marijuana to the UK authorities as a
protest against prohibition. Each was arrested, and
both now face criminal charges although they harmed no one.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
30 January 2002
In 2001, Vice President Cheney designed an energy plan for the US
which was very convenient for Enron. Now Cheney
refuses to disclose the list of lobbyists that he met with. Meanwhile, in Britain, Blair's
government is also being accused of selling influence to Enron for
campaign contributions.
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
29 January 2002
The
governor of New Mexico has proposed a major reform of laws about
marijuana. If you know anyone in New Mexico, please draw his or
her attention to the issue.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
26 January 2002
A Lebanese militia leader who was involved in massacres 20 years
ago in areas under the control of Israeli troops commanded by Ariel
Sharon, was
murdered two days after he agreed to testify against Sharon, who
is now the Prime Minister of Israel.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
26 January 2002
Please sign the petition for justice
for the protestors and police of Gothenburg, Sweden.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
25 January 2002
Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn
you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my
personality . . . "
24 January 2002
Bush has proposed a large increase in military spending, including
pay raises for soldiers, reserves to cover the expenses of possible
combat, unmanned vehicles, and ballistic missile defense. Some of
these make sense, more or less -- but ballistic missile defense? It's
clear what is happening here: Bush is
at his old tricks.
24 January 2002
The Zimbabwean parliament has rebuffed
President Mugabe's proposed journalistic censorship law.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
22 January 2002
The new board of Pacifica Radio has voted to reinstate
journalists and shows that the previous board had fired or kicked off
the air.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
20 January 2002
Added another link to 11 January note about the Turkish
government's repression of dissent: One member of parliament has been
serving, since 1994, a 15-year
sentence for "membership of an illegal organization." In 1998 this was extended by two years for "inciting racial hatred".
[References updated on 2018-02-07 because the old links were broken.]
19 January 2002
New Political article: The
Injustice of Military Courts. Bush has a plan to try alleged
terrorists in military courts---courts where the prosecutor, the defense
lawyer, and the judges all work for Bush. But accusations against
innocent people happen with terrible regularity, and the danger of
false convictions in these courts is immense.
[Second reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
18 January 2002
The British government is alarmed about reports that US-held
prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being treated inhumanely -- because
some of them are British citizens. I hope that they will press for
proper treatment of all the prisoners. The idea is being bruited
around that these prisoners may be held permanently without trial if
no evidence is found to charge them with crimes, but it occurs to me
that this horrible idea might not be a serious proposal: It could be
a sort of trial balloon, meant to make unjust military courts seem
acceptable by comparison.
16 January 2002
On 19 January in Washington, D.C., there will be a Speak Out
Against Terrorism, For Civil Rights in Honor of Martin Luther King,
Jr. Transportation from New York
City is available.
15 January 2002
The speaker of the Iranian parliament has gone on
strike, saying that he will not attend parliamentary sessions, because
of the conviction and imprisonment of a reformist member of
parliament for "insulting the judiciary". The judiciary is controlled
by the conservative clerics.
15 January 2002
The al Qa'ida prisoners held by the US include one US citizen and
some UK citizens. The US citizen will get a civilian trial that meets
(we hope) the highest standards;
some
UK citizens are being held in Guantanamo Bay and are threatened with a
military court. If all these people had both fallen into UK hands,
it would be more or less the reverse. Each country now has a double
standard for justice.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
11 January 2002
It is suspicious that the US special envoy to the interim Afghan
government,
Zalmay Khalilzad, was a lobbyist for building an oil pipeline in
Afghanistan. Mr Khalilzad also lobbied for the Taliban, which
makes him a strange choice for the US National Security Council.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
11 January 2002
The government of Zimbabwe has prohibited criticsm of the
president, prohibited political rallies, and prohibited independent
election observers. The same laws may also prohibit foreign
journalists and require domestic journalists to get government
permission. This is apparent preparation for rigging the coming
election. The EU is considering imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe.
11 January 2002
The new president of Argentina, Dehualde, is devaluing the peso,
but with a twist designed to avoid bankrupting non-rich citizens who
have debts measured in dollars. Dollar debts under a certain limit
will be converted automatically to pesos, so that a person's debt will
change along with his or her income. It might work. However,
Dehualde is also a corruption suspect.
11 January 2002
A publisher in Turkey
has been charged of the crime of "propaganda against the state".
for publishing a Turkish translation of essays by Noam Chomsky that
(among many other topics) criticize repression against the Kurds in
Turkey.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
5 January 2002
National borders are increasingly cordonning off parts
of the Internet.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
2 January 2002
After the anthrax scare, you'd expect the US to give strong
support to a proposed treaty to restrict biological weapons. Instead
it abruptly terminated the negotiations, killing the treaty
completely. For more information, see the Sunshine Project.
[Reference updated on 2018-01-21 because the old link was broken.]
1 January 2002
Winn-Dixie is trying to close down the site
www.shameonwinndixie.com (now .org) by threatening a
lawsuit for trademark infringement.
[Reference updated on 2018-02-07 because the old link was broken.]
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Copyright (C) 2002 Richard Stallman
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