Fw: [ Venezuela: Chavez calls for countermobilizations, bosses' united front fra

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Forward from mart.
Please distribute widely!


Viva Chavez!
Viva the Venezuelan People!!
Venceramos!!

- Original Message - 
From: Jose G. Perez 
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 1:14 AM
Subject: Venezuela: Chavez calls for countermobilizations, bosses' united front 
fractures
(preface in English -Reutors and AP "new s"items in Spanish)

Chavez calls for countermobilizations, 
bosses' united front fractures!

Despite the claims that the bosses' cartel fedecamaras represent all
economic activity in the country and that they are all 100% behind the Dec.
10 general lockout, various fedecamaras sectors are OFFICIALLY dropping out
of the planned action, and it remains an open question how many workplaces
will heed the call to shut down even in those sectors which haven't formally
reneged.

The latest to turn tail and run are the airlines. Below I''ll reproduce
the AP wire. In addition, NOT participating in the lockout are the radio and
TV stations, the petroleum industry and, of course, government ministries
and offices.

Meanwhile, President Chávez has announced a series of mass
countermobilizations to the capitalist's campaign.

The popular offensive will begin December 6, third anniversary of
Chávez's (first) election as President, with a nationwide address by Chávez
and will culminate December 17 with a relaunching of the Movimiento
Revolucionario Bolivariano 200. Along the way there will be a night-time
vigil December 6, a "conquest of Caracas" by peasants and workers on Dec. 9
and 10, the formal signing of the agrarian reform merasure that has provoked
the ire of the oligarchy on the 10th itself, and a summit of the Association
of Caribbean States on the 11 and 12th.

Everything appears to suggest that the package of economic and other
laws recently promulgated by Chávez, with the agrarian reform as its
centerpiece, could be a turning point in the evolution of the process opened
by Chávez's elections three years ago, and one which brings to the fore in a
much clearer way the social forces involved.

On one side are the tattered remnants of the traditional bourgeois
political parties, the news media, and the bosses. Allied with the former
are the international news media and the United States, which is carrying
out a provocative campaign of little-noticed (by the media in the US)
statements trying to force Chávez to recant his criticism of the U.S. was
against the people of Afghanistan.

On the other side are the working people of Venezuela, with growing
sympathy from working people all over Latin America.

There are several historical references from post-WWII Latin American
history that it would be useful to keep in mind in thinking about the
Venezuelan process. One, obviously, is Cuba, but also the Allende experience
in Chile, the Perón period in Argentina, the Bolivian revolution of the
1950s, the Arbenz government in Guatemala, and the Nicaraguan revolution.

The point isn't so much that the latter processes were reversed, but
rather, that this kind of movement for national salvation are not at all
uncommon in Latin America. The Cuban revolution taken as a whole is
misleading because we know how the story comes out: the establishment of a
socialist country led by conscious Communists in a process where the
fundamental social classes were the peasants and workers.

But looked at as it was in 1959 and the first half of 1960, the Cuban
process seemed as undefined and incoherent as Venezuela might appear to many
today. It was through a series of political battles and confrontations that
the worker-peasant social character of what may have seemed at first just a
revolt against a dictatorial regime and for clean government emerged.

José

Below are two wire service dispatches from which the factual information
above is drawn.

*  *  *

Chávez anuncia agenda política para neutralizar paro empresarial

Por Silene Ramírez

 CARACAS, nov 28 (Reuters) - Con un ambiente de fiesta
marcado con concentraciones públicas, petardos y música
'revolucionaria', el presidente venezolano, Hugo Chávez,
pretenderá neutralizar un paro empresarial el 10 de diciembre.

 La agenda política paralela fue anunciada por el mandatario
pocas horas después de que el miércoles la máxima organización
empresarial del país, Fedecámaras, decidió convocar la
paralización pacífica de actividades de 12 horas en protesta a un
paquete de leyes aprobado por el gobierno.

 Una transmisión conjunta por radio y televisión cuatro días
antes del paro dará inicio a lo que Chávez llamó el miércoles, en
un acto público con sus simpatizantes, '11 días de intenso
trabajo y movilización popular bolivariana revolucionaria'.

 En esa fecha, el 6 de diciembre, se cumplen tres años de la
victoria abrumadora de Chávez en las elecciones presidenciales
de 1998 y el mandatario dijo que instalará con un acto 'de
mucha fuerza' el comando político de 

Fw: Support to Alina Lebedeva ! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

- Original Message - 
From: PCN-Service de Presse 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 11:52 PM
Subject:] Support to Alina Lebedeva !


INTERNATIONAL CALL FROM THE PCN-NCP :  
  
IN LATVIA, THE FORMER WAFFEN SS HAVE THE RIGHT TO
PARADE BUT A 16 YEARS OLD GIRL IS THREATENED WITH 15
YEARS OF JAIL FOR HAVING DENOUNCED NATO' S THREATS OF
WAR!  
  
THE PCN-NCP LAUNCHES A CALL IN ORDER TO STOP THE
PERSECUTIONS   
OF THE LATVIAN REGIME AGAINST ANTI-IMPERIALIST
ACTIVISTS AND THE RUSSIAN MINORITY!  

Alina Lebedva, a National-bolshevik activist and
russian speaking 16 years old girl, could spend the
next 15 years of her life in jail. What is her crime?
Having wanted to show, while the visit of the prince
of Wales in Latvia, her strong opposition to NATO and
the war that are leading the American and the English
against the Afghan people. Threatened of 15 years of
jail, Alina Lebedva didn't yet tempt to murder the
prince of Wales. She didn't prepare an attempt, she
didn't even tempt to wound it. No, her crime is having
thrown at the prince's face, in sign of protest
against the imperialistic politics of Great Brittain
and its American ally, a simple red carnation, wich
symboles her anti-imperialistic fight.  
  
In a democracy, that would have just been an
insignificant incident, but the Latvian regime reacted
with the persecution and the internment. Accusing
Alina Lebedva, that spent several days of jail, for "
having put at stake the life of a foreign dignitary",
the die-hard-repressive Latvian state is ready to
treat her like a terrorist and a criminal. And even
though the justice didn't bring its verdict, the young
activist is risking otherwise the internment. In
Latvia, the opponents to the regime are said to be
madmen.Who could criticize, even symbolically, with a
handful of flowers, a regime that is supporting
neo-Nazi parades, who persecutes its russian speaking
community, while sustaining the worse imperialistic
policies all over the world?  
  
To militate against NATO or the western wars, to
refuse that Nazi have more liberty than the
antifascist, that is " lunacy " in Latvia.That is why
Alina Lebedva is risking 15 years of jail or the
psychiatric asylum.When, every year, former Latvian
Waffen SS considered as anticommunism heroes, but 
were especially slaughters of Jewish (there is no more
Jewish community of Riga), are marching in streets of
Riga, with the presence of general officer, the
progressive contesation is treated with electroshocks.
Anti-semitism and Nazism are not crimes for the
Latvian regime that is accustomed to persecutions of
minorities. The old SS are less dangerous, as it
seems, that one activist who is refusing the adherence
of her country to NATO and the imperialistic war.  


But the Latvian state is mistaken, if it believes it
is able to appeal to its western masters while
criminalizing the political contestation of these
citizens. Since the independence, Latvia is one of the
countries in Europe where the linguistic and national
minorities are the most mistreated, where their
members hardly have the right to most elementary to
the citizenship. The first of these communities,
russian speaking minority is the permanent victim of
the xenophobia of the Latvian regime. And the former
SS are tolerated, even encouraged, because they are in
the same mood with a regime that helps everything that
can nourish, closely or from afar, the hate of the
Russian neighbor and everything that recalls the
soviet empire.  
  
These persecutions must stop! It is unbearable that
there is in Europe a nation where, according to the
same terms of the ECRA (European Center of Research
and action on Racism and  Anti-semitism), there is a
"30's" style xenophobia.  
Where are the human rights, that seems so important to
Western Europe, when the prince of Wales is visiting a
nation that looks like Germany of the 30's?  
Are the European Union and NATO ready to welcome in
their breast countries whose regimes persecute their
minorities and their legitimate objectors?  
Must we continue to support nostalgic activism of the
former SS, a tool of the Latvian state?  
  
At these questions, the PCN-NCP's answer is no!  
  
We launch today an international call in order to
sustain Alina Lebedva, courageous anti-imperialistic
activist, who refuses diktates of the New world order
and NATO, the aggression against the Afghan people and
the setting up of a fascist regime in Afghanistan.
Alina Lebedva can sympathize with the people of
Kaboul: she lives herself in a dictatorship controled
by the west, Latvia.  
  
We demand that all attacks against her are abandoned,
and that she could escape the horror of the
internment.   
  
We demand to stop the persecution of the political
protesters and the national minorities in Latvia,
where russian speaking community is suffering an
unbearable segregation.  
  
No to the nazification of Latvia!  
No to

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but.. [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[TOOLGT]

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---

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=2012523207

Even as the CIA saluted its slain colleague, the first American fatality in 
Afghanistan, "American hero" Johnny ‘Mike’ Spann, who died in the prison 
revolt, British journalists in Mazar-i-Sharif have begun reporting that Spann 
was less an innocent victim than the one who allegedly provoked the riot.

With allegations of "war crimes" against the US and UK coming in thick and 
fast for ignoring the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, 
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Commisioner, Mary Robinson, 
has echoed Kate Allen, director of the London-based Amnesty International in 
calling for an urgent inquiry.

Amnesty has said it is willing to send an observer to Afghanistan to monitor 
an inquiry. 

On Wednesday night, the BBC’s authoritative domestic television programme 
Newsnight interviewed Oliver August, correspondent for The Times, London, in 
Mazar-i-Sharif, who said that Spann and his CIA colleague, Dave, were thought 
to have set off the violence by aggressively interrogating foreign Taliban 
prisoners and asking, "Why did you come to Afghanistan?". August said their 
questions were answered by one prisoner jumping forward and announcing, 
"We’re here to kill you".

The Guardian’s Mazar-i-Sharif correspondent said the CIA "operatives had 
apparently failed on entering the fort to observe the first rule of 
espionage: keep a low profile".

The Times’s August said Spann subsequently pulled his gun and his CIA 
colleague shot three prisoners dead in cold blood before losing control over 
the situation. 

Spann was then "kicked, beaten and bitten to death," the journalists said, in 
an account of the ferocity of the violence that lasted four days, leaving 
more than 500 people dead and the fort littered with "bodies, shrapnel and 
shell casings".
=
 The operative, Johnny Michael Spann, was a 32-year-old former Marine captain 
who served in the Directorate of Operations (DO), the agency's clandestine 
espionage arm. On detail in Afghanistan, he was killed by mutinous Taliban 
prisoners at the Qala Jangi fortress who reportedly resented his aggressive 
behaviour, but neither the administration not the CIA made any reference to 
the nature of the incident while celebrating him as an "American hero." 


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HomeRightBanner.htm";>Click here: The Times 
of India 

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CPA, RAWA oppose Islamism, theocracy [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Barry Stoller]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Times of India. 29 November 2001. Afghan left to resist theocracy.

KOLKATA -- Opposing both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, the
Communist Party of Afghanisan has called for an armed resistance against
what it called pan-Islamism and theocracy of both Taliban and
non-Taliban variety.

In a recent statement, a copy of which was made available to this
newspaper, the CPA described the Taliban as well as the Al Qaeda as
creations of the United States and said that the Northern Alliance was
the new stooge of the US.

"It is the absolute right and responsibility of the people of
Afghanistan to resist the invasion and occupation of the US imperialists
and their allies, just as it was to resist the invasion and occupation
of the Soviet social-imperialists," the statement says.

Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, a
banned organisation which shot into prominence after it published
shocking live pictures of Taliban atrocities, demanded deployment of a
UN peace-keeping force to disarm the warlords of the Northern Alliance.

Sahar Saba, spokesperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of RAWA, who
came to Kolkata on Thursday, demanded that the former king, Zahir Shah,
be placed in charge of the interim government in Afghanistan.

"For us, this is not the ideal option. But since the true secular forces
do not yet enjoy support of the majority, this is the only option under
the present circumstances," Saba said.

"The Northern Alliance should not be allowed to form a government," she
insisted. "Northern Alliance is as bad as the barbaric and
fundamentalist Taliban," she said.

Strongly contradicting media reports that the women had attained
liberation after the Northern Alliance captured power in Kabul, the RAWA
leader said that the women were still being brutalised in the country
and there was no difference between the Taliban and the Northern
Alliance in this regard.

"Women's rights are still being violated in Afghanistan ever since the
fall of Kabul and other important cities in the country to the Northern
Alliance, and we are not safe at all," she said.

Saba alleged that media was "wrongly projecting" that women's rights had
been restored in Afghanistan with the defeat of the Taliban.

"Rights to removing burkha off the faces or listening to music does not
mean that the women have attained freedom. Most of the Afghan women are
still being forced to stay indoors," she said.

The RAWA leader came to the city and attended a reception organised by
the women's wing of the CPM, Ganatantrik Mahila Samity. She attended the
recent conference of CPM's women's wing in Hyderabad.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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Bush will decide who faces military trial [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Barry Stoller]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


AFP. 29 November 2001. Bush will decide who faces military trial:
WHouse.

US President George W. Bush will personally rule on a "case by case"
basis which suspected terrorists will face controversial US military
courts set up for that purpose, the White House said.

"He has reserved to himself, as opposed to designated it -- delegating
it to the secretary of defense or to any other officials -- that
responsibility," spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

Bush's decision to empower the US secretary of defense to set up special
military tribunals to try non-US citizens alleged to be terrorists --
including those thought to have participated in the September 11 attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- has drawn fire from civil
liberties advocates.

"The president will make the designation about who would be subject to a
military tribunal. He will make that determination on the basis of what
he believes is in the national security interest," said Fleischer.

The executive order, signed earlier this month, allows for a special
military panel rather than a civilian court to try terrorists like Osama
bin Laden, who is accused of masterminding the September strikes.

[The article above did not care to remind anyone about Bush's atrocious
record, as Texas governor, of approving death sentences in excess of any
other US state.]


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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Fw: [C-I] Another anti-capitalist demo in Romania [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Bill Howard]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ]

[Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ]
.
.
- Original Message -
From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 10:16 PM
Subject: [C-I] Another anti-capitalist demo in Romania



AP. 29 November 2001. Some 15,000 Workers March Through Bucharest to
Protest Low Wages, Job Insecurity.

BUCHAREST -- Marching to the beat of a brass band, thousands of laborers
from across Romania converged on the capital Thursday to demand job
security and higher wages.

The mostly male crowd of 15,000 thrust their fists into the air and set
off hand-held sirens, while the band played patriotic music at the
protest, organized by a trade union that claims 750,000 members.

The protest on the icy streets of Bucharest was one of several in recent
days. With winter setting in, fears have increased that officials will
slash jobs in state-run industries to control spending.

"We've had enough! Down with the prime minister!" the workers shouted,
cursing the year-old government as they marched, many with flaps on
their hats pulled down over their ears to keep out the cold.

Romania's poverty bites harder in the winter, when heating bills rise
along with the price of fresh produce. Other prices also traditionally
increase around Christmas.

Many of the defense industry, auto and postal workers marching Thursday
fear they will not be able to pay their bills. The government has
recently raised utility prices to bring them up to international levels.

The protests also reflect a loss of faith in Romania's new government.
Prime Minister Adrian Nastase has been criticized for pandering to the
West in the government's quest to join NATO while putting a gloss on
ordinary people's problems.

Formerly communist Romania has had difficulty restructuring its economy
along market lines.

Although a 4 percent economic growth rate is predicted this year, few
people's living standards have improved and the national monthly salary
remains at the equivalent of $100.

"We want higher wages, lower taxes and a risk bonus," said Elena Baciu,
26, a postal worker from Bucharest, who said she makes the equivalent of
$60 a month.

Defense industry worker Gheorghe Stoica, 41, said his factory in the
town of Plopeni, north of Bucharest, was short on orders, forcing him to
work only part-time and cutting his earnings.

Unemployment is about 8 percent in Romania, where successive governments
have shied away from closing down large state-run enterprises, fearing
unrest.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews


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Re: GI Joe answers the call [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[TOOLGT]

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In a message dated 11/29/2001 2:47:15 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:


  Toy industry observers say the doll's surprising comeback started
long before Sept. 11, however, and may say as much about GI Joe's
ability to adapt to his times as it does about current public tastes.

They should sell Barbies dressed in red, white and blue with black eyes along with him.
C!
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MEXICO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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MEXICO

JAMES F. SMITH, LA TIMES - Fulfilling a key campaign pledge, Mexican 
President Vicente Fox said Tuesday that his government will prosecute 
and punish officials who are found responsible for killing hundreds of 
leftists in the 1970s and '80s. Speaking in the courtyard of a former 
jail once filled with political prisoners, Fox also said that security 
files from that era will be opened, allowing public scrutiny for the 
first time of human rights abuses during the government's "dirty war" 
against leftist insurgents. Earlier, the National Human Rights 
Commission disclosed the results of a long-delayed report on the 
disappearances of activists and guerrillas in that period, when the 
long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, controlled almost 
every aspect of Mexican life. The commission found evidence that in at 
least 275 out of 532 reported cases, police or security forces had 
snatched and later killed the leftists. In 97 other cases, there were 
signs of forced disappearance but no proof; in the remaining 160 cases, 
no evidence was found to explain the disappearances. In every confirmed 
case, the missing people were tortured-and no formal charges were ever 
brought against the insurgents, the study found. The rights report 
doesn't mention names of suspected rights violators. But commission 
President Jose Luis Soberanes said the investigation identified 74 
"public servants" from 37 government agencies who are believed to have 
been involved in the disappearances. The report's findings were by far 
the most explicit evidence of the former government's responsibility for 
the disappearances, after decades of denials that rights violations 
occurred.
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Fw: GI Joe answers the call ( A Truly Sick and Disgusting "News" item) [WWW.STO

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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Forward from mart.

A truly sick and disgusting "News" item.

- Original Message - 
From: Steve Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 5:46 PM
Subject: GI Joe answers the call 
 ---
GI Joe answers the call 
 
 
 Toys: He's tough, he's heroic, he's a little plastic man whose
 popularity is rocketing again in these strongly patriotic days.
 
 By Peter Jensen
 Baltimore Sun Staff

November 22, 2001
 
  In times like these, America embraces a hero - even if he's only 12
 inches tall.
 
 Makers of GI Joe, the action figure whose career spans a venerable 37
 years, say sales are booming, thanks in part to a resurgent interest
 in the military and old-fashioned heroism in the wake of Sept. 11.
 
   It's an impressive comeback for a toy that had become obsolete, at
 least in its original foot-tall form, for more than a decade and only
 returned full-time to toy store shelves seven years ago.
 
   "The military has become interesting to kids again," says Derryl
 DePriest, who directs GI Joe marketing for Hasbro Inc. "If anything,
 recent events reinforce those core values that GI Joe symbolizes -
 honor, duty and commitment."
 
   Hasbro officials aren't willing to share exact sales figures, but
 will admit that sales of the toy have done "very well" since the
 terrorist attacks.
 
   Toy industry observers say the doll's surprising comeback started
 long before Sept. 11, however, and may say as much about GI Joe's
 ability to adapt to his times as it does about current public tastes.
 
   "The kids want heroes, and right now [the country has] clear heroes:
 They wear olive drab, and firemen's hats and flak jackets," says John
 Michlig, author of The Complete Story of America's Favorite Man of
 Action (Chronicle Books, 1998).
 
   GI Joe came dressed strictly in olive drab in 1964, when he was first
 unveiled by Hasbro. Michlig describes the toy as the company's answer
 to Barbie, rival toymaker Mattel's hugely popular doll, except GI Joe
 was aimed exclusively at boys.
 
   With his articulated limbs and elaborate wardrobe and accessories, he
 was more or less a copy of Ken if Barbie's boyfriend had enlisted in
 the Army. Fearful that he might be perceived as a girl's doll, Hasbro
 even put a scar on GI Joe's right cheek and company salesmen were
 told to describe the product only as an "action figure."
 
   "Hey, I wouldn't have had my son playing with a doll or dressing a
 doll," recalls Sam Speers, 75, of Sarasota, Florida who helped create
 GI Joe as Hasbro's director of product development in the 1960s. "But
 once we put him in the military, then it was all right. It changed my
 mind entirely."
 
   After modest sales initially, GI Joe's career took off, thanks to
 some effective television advertising and word-of-mouth among grade
 schoolers. The toy's career threatened to unravel just a few years
> later, when concerns about the Vietnam War sharply lowered the
 public's opinion of the military.
 
   Rhode Island-based Hasbro responded by making GI Joe an adventurer
 rather than a military man. His wardrobe switched from camouflage and
 helmets to space suits and explorer jackets.
 
   But things worsened by the late '70s, when the post-Watergate
 generation seemed more attuned to anti-heroes than a straight arrow
 like GI Joe. It didn't help that OPEC's oil embargo raised the price
 of plastic. Hasbro officials decided to discontinue the 12-inch
 version entirely in 1978.
 
   "Kids lost interest in GI Joe," says Vincent Santelmo, author of The
 Complete Encyclopedia to GI Joe (Krause Publications, 2001). "It was
 a time of long hair, tattoos and chicks. GI Joe didn't fit in."
 
   But GI Joe wasn't ready to turn in his plastic dog tags yet. In 1982,
 Hasbro started making a 3 3/4 -inch model - the same size as the
 highly successful Star Wars action figures. His whole identity was
 altered: GI Joe became a code name for a team of elite soldiers, men
 and women with specific personalities and character names.
 
   Sales took off once again - boosted by its tie-ins to a comic book
 and an animated TV series that was little more than a 30-minute
 advertisement for the line of GI Joe figures. But even that success
 eventually petered out and the miniature GI Joes were discontinued in
 the mid-'90s.
 
 'Kids today need heroes' 
 
   Hasbro's decision to revive the full-size GI Joe in 1994 was aimed
 largely at the growing legions of GI Joe collectors, mostly
 middle-aged men with fond memories of the earlier versions. They
 hadn't expected youngsters to buy into the toy, but it turned out to
 be a hit.
 
   "Kids today need heroes like they see on TV," says Charlie Bury Jr.,
 a Catonsville GI Joe collector with more than 400 Joes and an
 11-year-old son. "Now, they can sort of fight back themselves. And
 it's great to see the big guy back."
 
   Today, the GI Joe line is once again 

Fw: Group Says U.S. Expert Believed Behind Anthrax Attacks [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


- Original Message - 
From: John Roberts [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 7:11 PM
Subject: Fw: Group Says U.S. Expert Believed Behind Anthrax Attacks


from REUTERS.COM :

Group Says U.S. Expert Believed Behind Anthrax Attacks
November 28, 2001 02:43 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - The anthrax attacks in the United States were probably
the work of a member of a U.S. biological warfare program, the magazine of
 environment pressure group Greenpeace Germany reported Wednesday.
The magazine said its article was based on information from a U.S.
delegation source at the U.N. biological weapons conference in Geneva that
began last week. The attacks have killed five people.

"The U.S. delegation believe it is an inside job... Their members also
have  more information than has been made public," Kirsten Brodde, a reporter
 for the magazine, told Reuters.

The magazine said: "It seems the attacker ... wanted to force through an
increase in the budget for U.S. research on biological weapons."

It speculated that the attacker, who used anthrax-laced mail, had probably
wanted to cause panic rather than kill anyone.

U.S. investigators have still not determined who was behind the attacks,
but Attorney General John Ashcroft has signaled the authorities were inclined
to believe they had a domestic source.

The attacks occurred in the aftermath of the September 11 suicide plane
attacks on New York and Washington and prompted initial accusations by
President Bush that Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden may been
responsible.

Asked about the magazine article, an FBI spokesman reiterated that
investigators were pursuing a number of leads but no arrests appeared
imminent.

A spokesman for the U.S. delegation in Geneva said he did not have any
information about the article.

The magazine is linked to the environmental lobby group and shares its
 offices, but it said it was financially and editorially independent.

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Fwd: The Law of the Ratchet [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

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--- Begin Message ---
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=834
The Law of the Ratchet

by Steve Hanke &Robert Higgs

[Posted November 29, 2001]

As the U.S. confronts a new crisis, the opportunists are once again
playing the system and exploiting it for their own ends.

Much of the growth of government in the U.S. and elsewhere occurs as a
direct or indirect result of national emergencies such as wars and
economic depressions.

Laws are enacted, bureaux are created, and budgets are enlarged. In many
cases these changes turn out to be permanent. The result is that crises
act as a ratchet, shifting the trend line of government's size and scope
up to a higher level.

It comes as no surprise that governments spend more money and regulate
more actively during crises--wars and economic bailouts are expensive
and complicated. But a more active government also attracts
opportunists, who perceive that a national emergency can serve as a
useful pretext for achieving their own objectives.

The U.S. and other countries seem no more aware of this today than they
were in the past. And yet history has provided many examples to
illustrate how damaging it is.

Take the Great Depression. At that time, the organized farm lobbies,
having sought subsidies for decades, took advantage of the crisis to
pass a sweeping rescue package, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, whose
title declared it to be "an act to relieve the existing national
economic emergency."

Almost 70 years later, farmers are still sucking money from the rest of
society, and agricultural policy has been enlarged to satisfy a variety
of other interest groups, including conservationists, nutritionists, and
friends of the Third World.

Then, during the Second World War, when government accounted for nearly
half the U.S.'s gross domestic product, virtually every interest group
tried to tap into the vastly enlarged government budget. Even bureaux
seemingly remote from the war effort, such as the Department of the
Interior, claimed to be performing "essential war work" and to be
entitled to bigger budgets and more personnel.

Smaller crises have sent the opportunists into feeding frenzies, too.
The ever opportunistic International Monetary Fund is a classic case.
Established as part of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, the IMF was
primarily responsible for extending short-term, subsidized credits to
countries experiencing balance-of-payments problems under the postwar
pegged-exchange-rate system. In 1971, however, Richard Nixon, then U.S.
president, closed the gold window, signaling the collapse of the Bretton
Woods agreement and, presumably, the demise of the IMF's original
purpose. But since then, the IMF has used every so-called crisis to
expand its scope and scale.

The oil crises of the 1970s allowed the institution to reinvent itself.
Those shocks required more IMF lending to
facilitate--yes--balance-of-payments adjustments. And more lending there
was: from 1970 to 1975, IMF lending more than doubled in real terms;
from 1975 to 1982, it increased by 58 percent in real terms.

With the election of Ronald Reagan as U.S. president in 1980, it seemed
the IMF's crisis-driven opportunism might be reined in. Yet with the
onset of the Mexican debt crisis, more IMF lending was "required" to
prevent debt crises and bank failures. That rationale was used by none
other than President Ronald Reagan, who personally lobbied 400 out of
435 congressmen to obtain approval for a U.S. quota increase for the
IMF. IMF lending ratcheted up again, increasing 27 percent in real terms
during Mr. Reagan's first term in office.

Not surprisingly, the events of September 11 did not catch the IMF
flat-footed. On September 18, Paul O'Neill, the U.S. Treasury secretary,
had breakfast with Horst Kohler, the IMF's managing director, to discuss
the financial needs of coalition partners. Also on their agenda was the
IMF's denial of funds to countries that failed to toe Washington's line.

Within the U.S. government, the latest emergency has given cover to a
multitude of parochial opportunists, whose proposals range from bailing
out the airlines to nationalizing vaccine production. The resulting
"stimulus package" amounts to about $100 billion.

The ratchet continues to operate on ideology, too. A recent poll
conducted by The Washington Post indicates that 53 percent of Americans
think the government "is run for the benefit of all the people," up from
35 percent last year. Only 37 percent agreed that "the government is
pretty much run by a few big interests looking o

Fw: US: recession and hunger [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


- Original Message - 
From: New Worker Online 
To: Recipient list suppressed 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 3:52 PM
Subject: US: recession and hunger


International story - 30/11/2001.
US: recession and hunger.
by Steve Lawton

VISIBLE enough now is the effect of the economic crisis on workers in the
United States, toauthenticatethelatestexpert wisdom: that the country has
been in a recession for the last six months.

Turkey's aren't coming in for America's version of 'Crisis at Christmas',
but food queues for the hungry are growing; many workers are losing their
homes, while across the board, thousands of jobs are rapidly disappearing.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), November 26,
the United States has been in a recession since March -- the 1Oth since the
end of the Second World War. It's the closest yet to an official statement
by the US Administration. That may well be made early next week.

The NBER analysis takes several indicators of economic activity into
account, chief among them: employment, industrial production, real personal
income and sales.

The NBER identifies, without particular comment, that since industrial
production hit a peak in September 2000, it declined "over the next 12
months by close to six per cent, surpassing the average decline in the
[past six] recessions of 4.6 per cent."

Industrial output -- especially equipment, electronics and vehicles -- has
declined 10 per cent this year. Manufacturing, after a two decades-plus
decline, lost six per cent of its workforce in the past year alone.

Even among white-collar professionals, the jobless stand at 1.2 million,
an increase of 63 per cent over the past year. The unemployment level
overall has risen, in the same period, officially from 3.9 to 5.4 per cent
(figures which have been through many 'adjustments' to narrow the
definition of unemployed).

Over the past year, in all, 2.2 million have been made newly unemployed,
Business Week (November 19), pointed out. It also noted that job ads in
September were at the lowest for 18 years.

Significant numbers of job losses began in March last year, which meant
September 11 this year had an impact which still remained within the
recessionary pattern.

The social effects are clear. The Christian Science Monitor explained, on
the same day as the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee's report was made
available, that "With a failing economy and lengthening lines at food
pantries, traditional relief charities such as soup kitchens and shelters
will be highly visible this holiday season."

An example of this concern was revealed by the San Fransisco Chronicle
(November 21), which said that as Christmas looms, food storage for those
in need at this time of year is dramatically down in the Bay Area.

San Francisco Food Bank chief, Paul Ash, said: "We give away about 3,000
turkeys between Thanksgiving and Christmas and should have 1,000 by now."
He's got 80 so far for a giant walk-in freezer in its Potrero Hill
warehouse. The Bank's donors have almost dried up; it cannot finance the
giveaways.

As the Chronicle explained: "The turkey shortage is just one manifestation
of what social service agencies fear could become a crisis: Between the
economic downturn and the channeling of support to September 11 relief
efforts, donations to local community-based organisations have plunged. At
the same time, the number of people seeking help with food and housing has
soared."

The relief organisation, America's Second Harvest, is the biggest
nationwide safetynet against widespread hunger. It calculated in October
that, of its 214 food banks scattered across the country, 40 per cent
reported a drop in donations.

A year ago they reported a surge of 80 per cent. The surge was based on
the growing impoverishment of American's, so the reverse of it is obviously
going to be especially serious. But there is no sign that a department for
'Homeland Hunger' is about to be set up.

Social services told the Chronicle that the low paid are increasingly
seeking help. But job losses are hitting many sectors: "The people coming
to us now are often people who never expected to be standing in a food
line", said Barbara Zahner, Sacred Heart Community Service director in San
Jose.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a workers' research organisation,
revealed back in July that 29 per cent ofworking families "with one to
three children under the age of 12 do not earn enough income to afford
basic necessities like food, housing, health care, and child care, even
during a period of national prosperity." Food insufficiency, of all
hardships, is the most prevalent, EPI said.

But the bosses are sure not to go without. Abraham Lincoln noted back in
1837 that "capitalists generally act, harmoniously and in concert, to
fleece the people." Organised workers will, in time, fleece capitalism.

==

Fw Clown Prince Doofus II and the Vampire Hunters. [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:  Clown Prince Doofus II and the Vampire Hunters

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

CLOWN PRINCE DOOFUS II AND THE VAMPIRE HUNTERS
by Wayne Sumstine

Once upon a time there was a Clown Prince Doofus II who took the
throne. He knew he faced a huge task... How do you trump your
predecessor, a popular, mile-high Santa Claus with an elastic sack?

Doofus's advisors knew that the level of control that people would
gladly accept paralleled perfectly the ferocity of the demons
rattling around in their heads. So, their trick was to shift the
focus from "Every day is Christmas" to "Every day is Halloween." "If
you aren't going to give people social services then you better give
them a big scary adversary that never goes away," said the Doofus
advisors, "otherwise you run the risk of not being able to manipulate
whatever passes for patriotism these days in the numb noodles of the
masses." Doofus knew a good plan when it slapped him silly.

So they stuffed hundreds of Arab boogeymen in the deep freeze who had
no known connection to The Big Scare, and they badgered another 5,000
with no known connection to any known connections. At the same time,
535 reptilian hillbillies swarmed onto Capitol Hill and began to
cheer every vulgar clichÈ coming from the general direction of Doofus
II, regardless of which of his orifices did the emitting.

"At least we can all sleep better at night knowing that the same
agitated baboons who've been trying to blow up Castro's cigar for
forty years are now being diverted to the greater responsibility of
hunting vampires worldwide with their Arab-sniffing Chihuahuas,"
Doofus II told the nation.  And all the Reemocrats and Demublicans
with the long-toothed monsters locked up safely in their domes dozed
off peacefully to sleep with garlic bulbs tied around their necks.
And almost everyone lived happily ever after.

Those who didn't simply perished from intellectual annoyance.
November 28, 2001

[Reach Wayne Sumstine via e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED]  ]
Copyright (c) 2001 by Wayne Sumstine & NY Transfer News.

=
  NY Transfer News Collective   *   A Service of Blythe Systems
   Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
  339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012
  http://www.blythe.org  e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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What U.S. newspapers are saying [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Miroslav Antic]

th Mr. Putin while continuing cooperation against
terror. If U.S. resolve should start to slacken, then the issues
overlooked today will become tomorrow's crises.

-0-

Washington Post

Despite successes on the battlefields of Afghanistan, President Bush and
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have been circumspect about claiming
victory and prudent in warning of more difficult times to come. So it
was jarring to hear Attorney General Ashcroft, who seemingly has fewer
successes to point to, declaring that "America is winning the war on
terrorism." As Mr. Bush seems to understand, Americans do not need, nor
are they going to be reassured by, empty declarations of victory. Nor
can such declarations substitute for answers about the more disquieting
aspects of Mr. Ashcroft's investigation.

The attorney general based his claim of success on a law enforcement
effort that he said has been "disrupting the terrorist network in our
own country" with, among other things, "arrests and detentions that have
made America grow stronger, not weaker." ...

Since Sept. 11, the administration has claimed for itself sweeping new
powers, and been granted more by Congress. In addition to the operations
described above, the government has been given new wiretap authority and
has asserted the right to eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations and
try suspected terrorists before military panels with little due process
and no right of appeal. The administration justifies these measures on
the ground that the United States is facing an unprecedented threat, as
Sept.. 11 demonstrated. "Our job is to protect American lives," Mr.
Ashcroft told The Post yesterday, and he said the government could do so
while safeguarding the Constitution. But many Americans would like to
see in an attorney general more appreciation of the risks on the other
side -- the risks to American liberty, and to innocent people, when the
government assumes such wide and unchecked powers. That, more than
premature claims of victory, would be reassuring.

-0-

(Compiled by United Press International)




--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
--


Message: WWN-UPI-1-20011129-09493900-bc-sampler-Text
Content: SRV_INTNEWS SRV_USNEWS SRV_UPIWASH
Content: LEGAL POL WAR
Content: 02002000 11002000 11006000 16002000 16009000

 

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LMNOP Sunday Peace Walks at Lake Merritt, 3 P.M., "Come hell or high water." [WW

[LMNOP]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Please forward hither and yon:
__

The Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace weekly peace walks have
NOT been cancelled because of the possible rain.  We will be meeting as
usual on Sunday at 3 at the columns at the east end of Lake Merritt in
Oakland between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues.  (Near Grand Avenue offramp
from 580 freeway.  Best known nearby landmark is the Grand Lake
Theater).

The LMNOP Bulletin Board post about this follows:

--- LMNOP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 15:14:49 -0800 (PST)
> From: LMNOP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Brief reminder - we don't have sense enough to come in out
> of the rain???
> To: LMNOP Bulletin Board <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> No folks, the peace walk has not been called on account of rain.
> We'll be there at the columns as usual, and get a consensus of the 
> hardy folks who do show up whether they want to walk around the Lake,
> or stay under the shelter of the colonade awhile and talk, or
relocate
> someplace else, or what. Maybe we'll luck out and it won't even be
> raining, but if it is, the Lake is beautiful in the rain, and some
> people actually like walking in the rain if it isn't a heavy
> downpour, so we'll see . . . 
> 
> So put on those ponchos, get out those umbrellas, wrap your peace
> signs in plastic, and mosey on down to the Lake at 3:00. Think of it
> as an adventure!
> 
> See you there,
> 
> Beth and Steve 
___
For further information:  
(510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>



__
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1

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Everybody in - Fighting terrorism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Miroslav Antic]

Title: Message



HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

The ground war Everybody in - Fighting 
terrorism
Nov 29th 2001 From The Economist print edition

  
  

  


  EPA
  

  

  America at last puts large 
numbers of men on the ground
Get article 
background
NOBODY can accuse the 
Pentagon of being inconsistent. From the moment the bombing of Afghanistan 
began, it laid out the following priorities. First, liquidate the al-Qaeda 
network of Islamist terror, particularly its master, Osama bin Laden. Second, 
smash the Taliban regime which had been succouring that network. Last, and very 
much least (if, indeed, this can at all be described as a military objective), 
create a new order, more stable and humane, in Afghanistan.
From these strategic 
aims, certain tactics followed. From the start, it seemed clear that gouging the 
al-Qaeda fighters out of their hiding-places was a job that could be 
accomplished, in the end, only by soldiers on the ground. But such forces could 
not be deployed until aerial bombing had created a more or less safe environment 
in which American boots in substantial numbers could hit the ground.
Early on Monday, 
November 26th, it seemed that those conditions were finally met. Hundreds of 
marines had landed by helicopter at an airfield within striking distance of 
Kandahar, the Taliban's main stronghold and the only large city that remains 
under their control. The marines' four-hour flight from their ship in the Indian 
Ocean was the longest-range deployment in the history of the corps. Pentagon 
officials said the numbers on the ground would exceed 1,000 within a few days. 
The figure could rise quite rapidly to 10,000, judging by the number of marines, 
sailors and special forces that are being kept at the ready.
General Tommy Franks, 
who is in charge of the operation, said the American-led war effort would now be 
concentrating on two places in particular: Kandahar itself (where American 
bombers were raining destruction on a compound used by al-Qaeda and the Taliban) 
and the area between Kabul and the Khyber Pass, including a place called Tora 
Bora near Jalalabad where it was suspected that the leaders of al-Qaeda, perhaps 
including Mr bin Laden himself, may be hiding out.
But it was a daunting 
task, as the general admitted, to block the paths—between 150 and 170 of 
them—which al-Qaeda fighters may use to flee from Afghanistan to Pakistan. The 
Pakistanis were struggling manfully to block these routes to fighters, General 
Franks said, but only “within (their) capability”.

  
  

“America now owns a piece of Afghanistan,” said 
  one American commander, incautiously
As the marines dug 
themselves in, one of their commanders made the incautious comment that “America 
now owns a piece of Afghanistan.” In fact, possessing Afghanistan could hardly 
be further from America's intentions. The general's words were merely a moment 
of “exuberance”, explained Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, in his 
deadpan style, which combines blood-curdling threats to the Taliban with homely 
expressions such as “goodness gracious”, and “holy mackerel”.
As Mr Rumsfeld made 
clear, the Pentagon does not view occupying Afghanistan—even tiny pieces of 
it—as an end in itself. Ground forces will remain in place for as long, but only 
as long, as it takes to finish off al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts. Nobody is 
saying how long that will be. John Pike of Global Security, a Washington defence 
consultancy, reckons that the Pentagon is preparing to fight on until the 
spring.
Some of the marines' 
immediate targets became clear within hours of their arrival. They attacked a 
Taliban armoured column and claimed to have destroyed several tanks. But despite 
their eagerness to strike such “targets of opportunity”—targets which were 
sometimes impossible to identify from the air—the marines' task did not include 
a frontal attack on Kandahar. The task of “softening up” that ancient walled 
city was still, at least for the time being, in the hands of America's air 
force. “Anybody who is there is going to wish they weren't,” was Mr Rumsfeld's 
grim warning to the al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders who were believed to be holed 
up in the town centre. 
The marines' arrival in 
southern Afghanistan coincided with an all-but-final victory for anti-Taliban 
forces in the north. An uprising by Taliban fighters held captive at a fortress 
near Mazar-i-Sharif was put down by American bombing and some hard fighting on 
the ground. Several hundred rebel prisoners were killed after they had seized 
guns and rocket-propelled grenades from their guards (see 
article). 
But the war in 
Afghanistan was by no means over. For one thing, the Taliban appeared to be 
digging in their heels in Kandahar. Their spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed 
Omar, was apparently well enough to send a radio message to his hard-pressed 
forces: “Do not vacate an

Business this week [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Miroslav Antic]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Business this week
November 29th 2001
>From The Economist print edition 



Out of energy

The planned takeover of Enron by Dynegy collapsed after Dynegy pulled
out, accusing its rival Texan oil-trading giant of misleading it.
Earlier Standard & Poor's, a credit-rating agency, had downgraded
Enron's debt to junk status. American regulators remain fretful about
the impact of a probable collapse of Enron on financial markets.

See
 article: Upended  E+
 

America's recession is now official. The National Bureau of Economic
Research said it had begun in March, ending the longest expansion of the
economy on record. The current recession is unusual: employment has not
so far fallen dramatically and real incomes have not yet declined at
all.

See
 article: Say “R” 



   




Gordon Brown, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, is confident the
British economy will be less affected by the global recession than its
G7 peers. In periods of global economic slowdown in the past, Britain's
economy suffered more than most. But Mr Brown predicted 2-2.5% growth
next year and even faster growth in 2003.

See
 article: Pushing the boat out 

European Union governments are proposing to scrap extra fees for
credit-card payments and cash withdrawals of up to euro12,500 ($11,000)
by July 1st 2002, and for cross-border money transfers in the same value
range a year later.


New broom

Josef Ackermann, who is to head Deutsche Bank in six months' time, is
planning to shake up the bank's cosy management traditions. But Mr
Ackermann dismissed rumours that Rolf Breuer, Deutsche's current head,
would leave the bank earlier than next May. Mr Breuer has been under
fire ever since Deutsche's merger with Dresdner Bank, its arch-rival,
collapsed last year.

Standard Chartered, a mainly emerging-markets bank listed in Britain,
ousted its chief executive, Rana Talwar. The news increased speculation
that the bank might be a takeover target, with both Barclays and Lloyds
TSB talked of as suitors. Standard denies any discussions on a sale. Any
potential buyer would have to win agreement from Khoo Teck Puat, a
Malaysian who is the bank's biggest shareholder.

Michel David-Weill, chairman of Lazard, an investment bank, is trying to
stem the exodus of the bank's senior executives by letting the bank's
140 or so working partners have a stake in the franchise. 

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG) reported an interim loss, but it
is still the only one of Japan's top four banks to expect a profit for
the past year. Against the backdrop of a stagnating economy and an
increase in corporate bankruptcies, the bank's three peers bolstered
their provisions for loan losses. MTFG announced up to 4,500 job cuts by
March 2005.



 Reuters  




Lloyd's of London, the insurance market, is facing far bigger losses
from terrorist attacks on September 11th than it had first predicted. It
now estimates its net losses (ie, losses after reinsurance) to be £1.9
billion ($2.7 billion), about £600m more than originally forecast. The
biggest loss in Lloyd's 300-year history hit just when the market
appeared to have turned the corner after root-and-branch reforms.

Kvaerner, an Anglo-Norwegian engineering giant, agreed to merge with
another Norwegian firm, Aker Maritime. By doing so, Kvaerner has staved
off bankruptcy as well as thwarting a rival takeover bid from Yukos, a
Russian oil giant.

See
 article: Kvaerner's emergency merger  E+
 


Warning signs

BAE Systems, a British aerospace and defence group, issued its second
profits warning of the year. It is shutting down its regional-jet
manufacturing operation and will be cutting 1,669 jobs.

British Telecommunications will receive £2.38m ($3.4m) from the sale of
most of its property portfolio to Telereal, a joint venture of Land
Securities and the Pears Group. The portfolio includes offices,
warehouses, telephone exchanges, call and computer centres, but not the
BT tower and the BT centre in London. The deal, Britain's largest
corporate property outsourcing to date, is meant to ease BT's debt
burden. 

Consolidation in Europe's retail market continued as Kingfisher and
Dixons, two British retailers, made inroads into the German and Italian
markets, respectively. Kingfisher bought 25% of Hornbach, a German
do-it-yourself chain. Dixons, Brit

Putin Serious About NATO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Miroslav Antic]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001. Page 9 

Putin Serious About NATO

By Pavel Felgenhauer  To Our Readers 

Has something you've read here startled you? Are you angry, excited,
puzzled or pleased? Do you have ideas to improve our coverage?
Then please write to us. 
All we ask is that you include your full name, the name of the city from
which you are writing and a contact telephone number in case we need to
get in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Email the Opinion Page Editor
 
When President Vladimir Putin visited the United States this month, he
announced that "Russia will have as close a relationship with NATO, as
the alliance is ready to have with us." Russian diplomatic sources say
that during the summit with U.S. President George W. Bush, Putin not
only made this far- reaching statement, but also complained that NATO
Secretary General George Robertson is meeting Moscow's overtures with
entirely empty declarations.

As Moscow moves closer to the West, there is a growing desire in some
NATO capitals to reward Putin and support his pro-Western policies.
Therefore, Moscow's complaints about NATO's intransigence were taken
very seriously.

Officials in Washington and London suddenly understood that the Joint
Permanent Russia-NATO Council known as "19+1" is in fact "19 against 1."
NATO nations first establish a consolidated position on all issues and
then collide with Russia, which is not allowed to take part in
preliminary consultations.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent Robertson and all NATO nations a
letter spelling out a proposal to create a new Russia-North Atlantic
Council that would meet every two weeks or even more frequently. On a
number of issues (yet to be defined), Russia would be invited to take
part in NATO consensus-building discussions before a final decision is
made. This would make Russia a NATO member nation in all but name and
give it an effective veto on some issues.

If Blair's formula of engaging Russia with NATO is approved, and the
bond between Moscow and the West continues to strengthen, the number of
NATO issues Moscow is allowed to decide may also grow. In the
not-too-distant future, Russian accession to the alliance may become no
more than a formality.

Last week, as Robertson visited Moscow to clarify the details of closer
cooperation, Putin announced that "Russia is not standing in line to
join NATO." This was interpreted as postponing for the time being the
immediate prospect of NATO expanding to Kamchatka. A great sigh of
relief could be heard in many NATO capitals, above all in Warsaw.
Military and nationalistic circles in Moscow that are against closer
relations with the West were also somewhat relieved.

However, Kremlin and Russian diplomatic sources involved in negotiations
with NATO interpret Putin's words differently: Russia wants to be in
NATO as quickly as possible, but does not want to stand in line together
with smaller former Communist nations. As a nuclear power occupying a
large part of Eurasia, Russia believes it is a special case and should
be treated differently from, say, Estonia. Moscow also wants to receive
a special invitation from NATO before it makes a formal request to join
so as not to be embarrassed by a rebuff.

Putin recently said, "it's also in our best interest to integrate Russia
into the contemporary international community in every sense of the
word, in defense, politically, and in security." Kremlin sources insist
that Putin is serious, while diplomats believe they can take Moscow into
NATO and also get full Article 5 guarantees that other members will help
protect Russia's long, vulnerable Siberian borders against Chinese or
Islamic threats from the east and south.

The current war against terrorism gave Moscow an opportunity to forge
closer ties with the West despite Russia's weakness, its brutal and
unsuccessful war in Chechnya, its undemocratic practices and its
unreformed military. In Moscow many believe that in the coming years
relations between China and the United States may reach boiling point
over Taiwan, giving Russia another excellent opportunity to integrate
fully with the West and enter NATO.

Last week, I visited Warsaw and NATO's Brussels headquarters. Polish
officials who believed they had built a permanent firewall separating
them from Russia by joining NATO are furious and are openly challenging
Blair's initiative. 

Russian diplomats in NATO, for their part, confirmed that Admiral
Valentin Kuznetsov has been selected to become the new head of the
Russian military mission to NATO. Kuznetsov is one of Russia's best
military diplomats, has a good command of English and has made a career
in arms control talks with Washington. Before Kuznetsov, Moscow
appointed to NATO army generals who did not speak much English and were
trained to lead tank assaults over the Rhine. Today, the time to
negotiate in earnest has finally come and Moscow seems to be ready.


Pavel

Rumsfeld up, Powell down -- for now [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Miroslav Antic]

ing them. The leadership of the victorious nation is so
divided in its strategic goals and even its immediate tactical military
and diplomatic decisions that arguments between the two sides are openly
and fiercely conducted in full view of the entire nation. And in this
case, the clearly expressed decision and desire of the president of the
Untied States was openly defied and countered by his own secretary of
defense on the very day that he made it. And, as a result, that cabinet
officer rises rather than falls in influence with that same president.

There were three reasons Bush swallowed crow and reversed himself on the
policy Powell had urged upon him so quickly. First, the fall of Kabul
actually happened, and skilful politicians always adapt as fast as they
can to new realities, especially if they had not planned or anticipated
them. That makes it all the more urgent to maneuver to take the credit
anyway.

Second, as President John F. Kennedy dryly noted after the 1961 Bay of
Pigs fiasco, "Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan." Therefore
it is only too natural that both Bush and Powell would scramble as fast
as they could to share with Rumsfeld the reflected glory of the dramatic
triumph which they had both opposed only days before.

Third, and most important of all, Bush was totally inexperienced and
generally ignorant in matters of war and diplomacy when he won the
presidency. Consequently, he has been pulled hither and thither between
the opposing magnetic poles of the dove Powell (negative charge) and the
hawk Rumsfeld (positive charge) during his entire 10 months in the White
House. This latest flip-flop by him is far from the first and will not
be the last.

Finally, Powell has fallen from influence -- though never from favor --
with Bush before, but like the veteran and canny Washington insider
political operator he is, he has always contrived to climb back. The
"damage control" tone of the flattering profile of himself that Powell
was able to influence, if not shape, in the New York Times was a major
step on that route. It is far too soon to count him out yet.





--
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
--


Message: WWN-UPI-1-20011129-09385500-bc-us-warpolicy-commentary-Text
Content: SRV_INTNEWS SRV_USNEWS SRV_UPIWASH
Content: POL
Content: 11001000 11002000

 

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Fw: Statements from Fidel, Roque on U.S. Policy against Cuba [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


- Original Message - 
From: Communist Party of Canada 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 4:28 PM
Subject: Statements from Fidel, Roque on U.S. Policy against Cuba


To all Committees, Clubs and Members
Cuba Bureau

Dear comrades,

Enclosed please find two statements, (1) by Cuban President Fidel Castro, dealing with 
the most recent  high-sea deaths caused by the notorious Cuban Adjustment Act, a U.S. 
Act which undermines normal emigration from Cuba in favour of risky 'flotilla'-type 
'escapes' by sea; and (2) by Felipe Pérez Roque, Cuba's Foreign Minister, to the UN 
General Assembly prior to the most recent UN vote against the US blockade, which 
passed virtually unanimously with only 3 votes against.

Comradely,
Cuba Bureau

**


KEY ADDRESS BY DR. FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT A MASS 
RALLY IN THE «JOSÉ MARTÍ» ANTI-IMPERIALIST SQUARE, ON NOVEMBER 27, 2001


Compatriots:
 
It was through the American TV networks and press agencies that we first learned that 
30 Cubans, 13 of them children, had perished in a human traffic operation on a fast 
boat registered in the United States, coming from that country and funded by people 
living there. 

It was not the first time, since similar events have occurred a thousand times before 
as a sinister consequence of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act. 

Whenever something like this happens, the U.S. authorities fail to provide us with 
information on the names, places of residence, age, sex or any other data on the 
victims they identify through information offered by survivors or by other means. The 
Cuban authorities are thus forced to look for a needle in a hay stack, that is, going 
through lengthy and complicated procedures to find the relevant data to inform 
families, schools, health and social security centers and other institutions on the 
situation of people who suddenly vanished without previous notice. 

It is through close contacts made easier by personal and family visits, to and from 
the United States authorized by our country, that unscrupulous merchants arrange 
costly and risky illegal journeys for groups of people from different towns who 
endanger the lives of many children by irresponsibly taking them along. 

This time, our own authorities have already identified almost half of the 13 children 
mentioned in the press dispatches, who were taken from their classrooms and schools 
where they were studying, completely unaware of the horrible death they would 
encounter out in the sea where their remains could not even be found. 

For many years we have been advising the U.S. Administrations that the Cuban 
Adjustment Act, in force since November 2, 1966, and the incentives to illegal 
migration are the cause of great hazards and take a high toll in human lives. 

>From day one of the revolutionary victory our country has never set obstacles to the 
>legal emigration of Cuban citizens to the United States or to any other country. At 
>the time of the triumph of the Revolution many people in Cuba, like in the rest of 
>the Caribbean and Latin America, who endured poverty and underdevelopment, wanted to 
>migrate to seek for better paid jobs and better living conditions than they could 
>find in their countries subjected to centuries of exploitation and plundering. Until 
>1959, an extremely limited number of visas were issued to Cubans. After that, for 
>obvious reasons, the gates were wide opened and that is how an important number of 
>Cubans began settling in the United States. 

The overwhelming majority of those made the necessary arrangements and traveled 
legally. Despite the increasing conflicts, on several occasions the two countries have 
signed agreements, which for over four decades have made possible the safe and orderly 
transportation of hundreds of thousands of Cubans to the United States without any 
loss of life of either children or adults. 

Actually, thanks to the Revolution's programs the Cuban emigrants are generally people 
with a high technical or professional training. 

In compliance with the latest agreements signed on September 1994 and May 1995, a 
total of 132,586 Cubans had traveled to the United States until November 9, 2001, with 
the corresponding visas and through absolutely safe means. 

The politicization of the migratory issue by the United States, particularly as it 
relates to Cuba, is at the source of this and many other similar tragedies. It is in 
their Interests Section that they choose the prospective travelers, demanding health 
and education certificates and personal life records, as well as other documents, 
which are often used to select highly trained professionals or people particularly 
relevant in their communities thus depriving our country of medical doctors, 
engineers, architects and other university graduates who have been educated here, 
absolutely fre

Fw: URGENT -- CP OF CHILE OFFICES ATTACKED!!! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Forward from mart.

URGENT!
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY!!
- Original Message - 
From: Communist Party of Canada 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 4:29 PM
Subject: URGENT -- CP OF CHILE OFFICES ATTACKED!!!


Urgent Action Message


Communist Party of Chile Offices Ransacked by Police; Gladys Marin and other Party 
Leaders Beaten, Arrested


Dear Comrades,

We have just received disturbing news of a brutal, planned attack on the Central 
Committee offices of the Communist Party of Chile by over 300 members of the 
Carabineros, the Chilean National Police.

According to preliminary reports, the attack took place at the head offices of the CP 
of Chile in Santiago on November 27. General Secretary Gladys Marin, Luis Barria (Head 
of the International Department), and the leader of the JJCC (communist youth league) 
were among the 50 or so party members who were beaten and then detained by the police. 
Some comrades had to be taken to hospital for injuries.

The offices were then trashed, telephone lines cut, and computers and other electronic 
equipment smashed and thrown out onto the street.

Most of the comrades, including cde. Marin, have since been released from custody, but 
a few are reportedly still under detention.

Chilean President Largos, and the newly appointed head of the National Police, Arturo 
Cienfiegos, have subsequently claimed total ignorance of the reasons for the police 
action, and have promised a full investigation. Many doubt their professed ignorance 
however, because it is extremely unlikely that rogue element within the police would 
complete such an atrocity without approval from the highest levels of the state

This attack comes only three weeks before nationwide elections are scheduled to take 
place, elections in which the vote for the Communists is expected to rise. The 
destruction of the party national headquarters will severely impact on the election 
campaign, a result which without doubt was intended.

The Communist Party of Canada sharply denounces this vicious repression against 
Chilean Communists and demands swift action to bring those responsible to account. We 
urge all democratically-minded Canadians to speak out against this outrage, and to 
send faxes, e-mails, etc. to the Chilean government and justice system to condemn this 
attack on democracy in Chile and to demand justice.

Further information will be forthcoming as soon as it becomes available.

Comradely yours,

Miguel Figueroa,
Central Executive Committee
Communist Party of Canada 

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GI Joe answers the call [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Steve Wagner]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


GI Joe answers the call 


Toys: He's tough, he's heroic, he's a little plastic man whose
popularity is rocketing again in these strongly patriotic days.

By Peter Jensen
Baltimore Sun Staff

November 22, 2001

  In times like these, America embraces a hero - even if he's only 12
inches tall.

  Makers of GI Joe, the action figure whose career spans a venerable 37
years, say sales are booming, thanks in part to a resurgent interest
in the military and old-fashioned heroism in the wake of Sept. 11.

  It's an impressive comeback for a toy that had become obsolete, at
least in its original foot-tall form, for more than a decade and only
returned full-time to toy store shelves seven years ago.

  "The military has become interesting to kids again," says Derryl
DePriest, who directs GI Joe marketing for Hasbro Inc. "If anything,
recent events reinforce those core values that GI Joe symbolizes -
honor, duty and commitment."

  Hasbro officials aren't willing to share exact sales figures, but
will admit that sales of the toy have done "very well" since the
terrorist attacks.

  Toy industry observers say the doll's surprising comeback started
long before Sept. 11, however, and may say as much about GI Joe's
ability to adapt to his times as it does about current public tastes.

  "The kids want heroes, and right now [the country has] clear heroes:
They wear olive drab, and firemen's hats and flak jackets," says John
Michlig, author of The Complete Story of America's Favorite Man of
Action (Chronicle Books, 1998).

  GI Joe came dressed strictly in olive drab in 1964, when he was first
unveiled by Hasbro. Michlig describes the toy as the company's answer
to Barbie, rival toymaker Mattel's hugely popular doll, except GI Joe
was aimed exclusively at boys.

  With his articulated limbs and elaborate wardrobe and accessories, he
was more or less a copy of Ken if Barbie's boyfriend had enlisted in
the Army. Fearful that he might be perceived as a girl's doll, Hasbro
even put a scar on GI Joe's right cheek and company salesmen were
told to describe the product only as an "action figure."

  "Hey, I wouldn't have had my son playing with a doll or dressing a
doll," recalls Sam Speers, 75, of Sarasota, Florida who helped create
GI Joe as Hasbro's director of product development in the 1960s. "But
once we put him in the military, then it was all right. It changed my
mind entirely."

  After modest sales initially, GI Joe's career took off, thanks to
some effective television advertising and word-of-mouth among grade
schoolers. The toy's career threatened to unravel just a few years
later, when concerns about the Vietnam War sharply lowered the
public's opinion of the military.

  Rhode Island-based Hasbro responded by making GI Joe an adventurer
rather than a military man. His wardrobe switched from camouflage and
helmets to space suits and explorer jackets.

  But things worsened by the late '70s, when the post-Watergate
generation seemed more attuned to anti-heroes than a straight arrow
like GI Joe. It didn't help that OPEC's oil embargo raised the price
of plastic. Hasbro officials decided to discontinue the 12-inch
version entirely in 1978.

  "Kids lost interest in GI Joe," says Vincent Santelmo, author of The
Complete Encyclopedia to GI Joe (Krause Publications, 2001). "It was
a time of long hair, tattoos and chicks. GI Joe didn't fit in."

  But GI Joe wasn't ready to turn in his plastic dog tags yet. In 1982,
Hasbro started making a 3 3/4 -inch model - the same size as the
highly successful Star Wars action figures. His whole identity was
altered: GI Joe became a code name for a team of elite soldiers, men
and women with specific personalities and character names.

  Sales took off once again - boosted by its tie-ins to a comic book
and an animated TV series that was little more than a 30-minute
advertisement for the line of GI Joe figures. But even that success
eventually petered out and the miniature GI Joes were discontinued in
the mid-'90s.

'Kids today need heroes' 

  Hasbro's decision to revive the full-size GI Joe in 1994 was aimed
largely at the growing legions of GI Joe collectors, mostly
middle-aged men with fond memories of the earlier versions. They
hadn't expected youngsters to buy into the toy, but it turned out to
be a hit.

  "Kids today need heroes like they see on TV," says Charlie Bury Jr.,
a Catonsville GI Joe collector with more than 400 Joes and an
11-year-old son. "Now, they can sort of fight back themselves. And
it's great to see the big guy back."

  Today, the GI Joe line is once again extensive - if still not quite
like the original. Where the original GI Joe cost $4, today's version
retails for $10 to $30, with some limited-edition models selling for
as much as $150.

  Hasbro officials haven't lost their touch for sensing the public's
mood. The week of Sept. 11, the company was in the proce

``Lucky me. I hit the trifecta" [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[TOOLGT]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Bush promised during the presidential campaign to avoid tapping Social Security except in cases of war, recession or a national emergency.``Lucky me. I hit the trifecta,'' Bush told Daniels shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the budget director.    
  


Click here: Miami Herald: U.S. budget deficit projected until 2005 


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DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[TOOLGT]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems 
By Declan McCullagh and Ben Polen 

4:42 p.m. Nov. 28, 2001 PST 
    
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice already is using its new anti-terrorism powers to monitor cable modem users without obtaining a judge's permission first. A top Bush administration official lauded the controversial USA Patriot Act at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying that the new abilities have let police obtain information in investigations that was previously unavailable. "We would not have been able to do (this) under prior law without a specific court order," said Michael Chertoff, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division. 

Previously, federal law said that "a cable operator shall not disclose personally identifiable information concerning any subscriber." Section 211 of the USA Patriot Act changes the law to read: "A cable operator may disclose such information if the disclosure is ... to a government entity." Other USA Patriot Act sections mean that police can obtain an Internet Protocol address, which identifies a cable modem subscriber, as readily as they can learn someone's telephone number. Chertoff said the government also has used its new powers to obtain court orders for logs from Internet providers that are outside of the court's traditional jurisdiction. "We've obtained court orders directed to out-of-district Internet service providers for logging information We've used the nationwide search warrant provision to obtain relevant information," Chertoff said. "We've used the emergency disclosure provisions to support our use of information that was provided to us by an Internet service provider." Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy called the hearing to review some of the Bush administration's recent actions that have raised concerns among civil libertarians, such as detaining over a thousand suspects, and the creation of secret military tribunals to try suspected terrorists. Leahy said in his opening remarks: "Whether any or all of these ideas are popular or unpopular at the moment, as an oversight committee, we accept our duty to examine them." The anti-terrorism law that President Bush signed last month amended the Cable TV Privacy Act and Title 18, Section 2703 of the U.S. Code's title 18 to faciliate greater eavesdropping. It also made it easier for government agencies to share information with each other, Chertoff said: "We have used it to start the process of sharing information between the intelligence side and the law enforcement side." Attorney General John Ashcroft has said the FBI began using the powers mere hours after President Bush signed the law. The Justice Department has prepared a "field guidance" manual (PDF) for prosecutors. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the senior Republican on the committee, said he thought the Bush administration was responding appropriately to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "The administration can take these positions," Hatch said. "They have to justify them, but they can take them, and I think there's more than enough information here to justify the positions they've taken." The Department of Defense has been responsible for drafting the guidelines for the military tribunal, but can ask the Department of Justice for assistance. "The Department of Defense can ask us for help," Chertoff said. Leahy replied: "I hope you wouldn't wait for an invitation. Pick up the phone and call them." Attorney General Ashcroft was invited to speak at this hearing but declined to attend, and instead is scheduled to appear at a hearing on Dec. 6. 



 Click here: DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems 




 
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Al-Qa'eda fighters 'flown to island' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[TOOLGT]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

 Click here: news.telegraph.co.uk - Al-Qa'eda fighters 'flown to island' 
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Alina Lebedeva faces hooliganism charge [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Barry Stoller]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


Ananova. 29 November 2001. Charles' flower attacker faces hooliganism
charge.

The Latvian schoolgirl who attacked Prince Charles with a carnation is
to be charged with hooliganism.

Alina Lebedeva faces up to two years in prison if convicted.

The Prince asked authorities to treat the 16-year-old leniently. She has
written to him, apologising.

The Prosecutor General's spokesman Dzintra Subrovska said said charges
of "threatening the health and life of a high foreign official" which
carried a 15-year  prison sentence would not be brought against the
girl.

The teenager, a supporter of a group hankering for the old days of the
Soviet Union, said she hit the Prince in protest at military action in
Afghanistan.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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Daily Defense News 11/29/2001 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Francisco Javier Bernal]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

> http://www.periscope1.com
>
>
> Total Number of Items: 22 http://www.periscope1.com
>
>
> Item Number:1
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> AFGHANISTAN - CIA OFFICER KILLED IN MAZAR-E-SHARIF PRISONER REVOLT (NOV
29/WP)
>
>
> Item Number:2
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> AFGHANISTAN - SMALL U.S. ARMY QUICK REACTION FORCE ENTERS AFGHANISTAN (NOV
29/WP)
>
>
> Item Number:3
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> AFGHANISTAN - SURRENDER NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN IN KANDAHAR (NOV 29/INT-AVN)
>
>
> Item Number:4
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> AFGHANISTAN - TOP AL-QAIDA OPERATIVE APPREHENDED (NOV 29/LAT)
>
>
> Item Number:5
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> AFGHANISTAN - U.S. CONSIDERS ESTABLISHING MORE BASES (NOV 29/NYT)
>
>
> Item Number:6
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> AFGHANISTAN - U.S. PLANS ATTACK ON WHITE MOUNTAIN STRONGHOLD (NOV
29/INDEP)
>
>
> Item Number:7
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> CANADA - NORTHERN MILITARY SELECTS MSTAR FOR BATTLEFIELD MANAGEMENT (NOV
29/ESS)
>
>
> Item Number:8
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> GERMANY - BERLIN WARNS AGAINST WIDENING WAR ON TERROR (NOV 29/REU)
>
>
> Item Number:9
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> GREECE - ATHENS, MOSCOW DISCUSS ARMS DEALS (NOV 29/MENL)
>
>
> Item Number:10
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> IRAQ - BAGHDAD SAYS IT IS READY TO DEFEND ITSELF (NOV 29/REU)
>
>
> Item Number:11
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> JORDAN - NEW IFV TO BE READY NEXT YEAR (NOV 29/MENL)
>
>
> Item Number:12
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> LATVIA - RIGA PLANS NEW RADAR FOR NATO (NOV 29/AFP)
>
>
> Item Number:13
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> LIBERIA - NEW REBEL ATTACKS HIT TWO TOWNS (NOV 29/BBC)
>
>
> Item Number:14
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> MALAYSIA - KUALA LUMPUR WANTS TO DEAL FOR FRENCH SUBS (NOV 29/AFP)
>
>
> Item Number:15
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> NEPAL - NEW DELHI OFFERS HELP IN FIGHT AGAINST REBELS (NOV 29/AFP)
>
>
> Item Number:16
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> PHILIPPINES - TERRORIST RECRUITERS ARRESTED IN SOUTH ASIA (NOV 29/CNN)
>
>
> Item Number:17
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> TURKEY - MILITARY AWAITS HOWITZER PURCHASE FROM GERMANY (NOV 29/MENL)
>
>
> Item Number:18
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> UK - CONTRACTOR WINS MULTIPLE CONTRACTS FOR MORE THAN $25 MILLION (NOV
29/FLIR)
>
>
> Item Number:19
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> UK - EUROFIGHTER VISUALIZATION WILL COME FROM CAE (NOV 29/CAE)
>
>
> Item Number:20
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> USA - CONTRACTOR CONTINUES EARLY DELIVERY TREND (NOV 29/NG)
>
>
> Item Number:21
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: IN
> USA - GRIFFON SUBSIDIARY CHOSEN FOR AWACS UPGRADE (NOV 29/DOD)
>
>
> Item Number:22
> Date: 11/29/2001
> Edition: AM
> USA - NEW NMD TEST PLANNED FOR THIS WEEKEND (NOV 29/BBC)
>
>
>
>
> Item Number:1
> Date: 11/29/2001
> AFGHANISTAN - CIA OFFICER KILLED IN MAZAR-E-SHARIF PRISONER REVOLT (NOV
29/WP)
>
> WASHINGTON POST -- The Central Intelligence Agency broke with
> tradition to confirm the death of Johnny Michael Spann during the
> uprising by prisoners near Mazar-e-Sharif, the Washington Post
> reports.
>
>
> CIA Director George Tenet confirmed Spann's death, the first known
> U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan, at the hands of Taliban
> prisoners being held by the Northern Alliance.
>
>
> Spann, a former Marine from Manassas Park, Va., worked as a member
> of the CIA's Special Activities Division, and is the 79th CIA agent
> killed in the line of duty over the years.
>
>
>
>
>
> Item Number:2
> Date: 11/29/2001
> AFGHANISTAN - SMALL U.S. ARMY QUICK REACTION FORCE ENTERS AFGHANISTAN (NOV
29/WP)
>
> WASHINGTON POST -- A quick reaction force of 100 U.S. Army soldiers
> has entered northern Afghanistan to back up U.S. special operations
> forces and CIA operatives, the Washington Post reports.
>
>
> The 100 soldiers are from the 10th Mountain Division, which has had
> 1,000 troops stationed in nearby Uzbekistan since early October.
>
>
> The group will prepare and hold landing zones for possible
> helicopter evacuations of American forces from other parts of
> Afghanistan, one official said.
>
>
>
>
>
> Item Number:3
> Date: 11/29/2001
> AFGHANISTAN - SURRENDER NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN IN KANDAHAR (NOV 29/INT-AVN)
>
> INTERFAX-MILITARY NEWS AGENCY -- Pushtun Gen. Hamid Karzai has
> joined with Northern Alliance representative Mawlawi Mohammed to
> negotiate for the Taliban surrender of Kandahar, Interfax-Military
> News Agency reports.
>
>
> Karzai and Mohammed, meeting with Taliban representatives in a
> suburb of the southern Afghan city, are demanding the disarmament of
> all units in Kandahar and a peaceful surrender to the Northern
> Alliance.
>
>
> More than 15,000 Taliban forces are reported in Kandahar.
>
>
>
>
>
> Item Number:4
> Date: 11/29/2001
> AFGHANISTAN - TOP AL-QAIDA OPERATIVE APPREHENDED (NOV 29/LAT)
>
> LOS ANGELES TIMES -- Northern Alliance forces claim they have
> captured a top Al-Qaida oper

Fw: Quislings Wanted [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Francisco Javier Bernal]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


- Original Message - 
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 5:30 PM
Subject: Quislings Wanted


  [Please forward this as well.  thanx]

  [I urge everyone on the STOPNATO list to submit their own "applications" to the 
quisling organization in the forwarded message below from the [balkans] group.  :-)  

  PS - STOPNATO members living in Toronto are invited to the CAWR's anti-war forum 
on November 30th at OISE Auditorium at 7:00pm.  Speakers include Michael Mandel (of 
NATO indictment fame), Salimah Valiana (CAWR's resident political economist) and 
NORMAN FINKLESTEIN (author and academic specializing in the mideast).  Bring your 
friends too.  Cheers!]

  Subj: [balkans] Job: Citizen's Pact for SEE, Novi Sad (Director General) 
  Date: 28/11/01 03:57:51 Eastern Standard Time 
  From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Sent from the Internet (Details) 

  The Citizens Pact for SEE is a network of NGO s for Youth, Civic Initiatives and 
Municipalities from the region aiming at regional civic cooperation, integrating civic 
society in SEE and eventually in the whole of Europe and strengthening the civic 
factor of the Stability Pact. The CP believes that civil society has a key role to 
play in creating stability, peace and democracy. The CP has secured funds till 1-11- 
2003 from the International Development Organisations Hivos and NOVIB from The 
Netherlands. The project is being advised and closely followed by the Inter Church 
peace Council (IKV, The Hague, The Netherlands).The Citizens Pact has three sectors of 
above-mentioned NGO s and Municipalities and each has its coordinator. The sector 
coordination offices are based in Podgorica, Osijek and Tuzla. The General Secretariat 
will be based in Novi Sad from the 1st of January 2002. 
  We are looking for a DIRECTOR GENERAL SECRETARIAT who will have overall 
responsibility, will be the main coordinator of the CP s work throughout the three 
sectors, and must be particularly active in the political field. He/she will widen the 
network on the political level, immediate react to developments in this sphere and 
must, in consultation with the sector coordinators, initiate and organise short term 
campaigns if the situation demands this. On the whole, his/her responsibility would be 
to enlarge the CP s political image and impact. The communication with external actors 
and lobby will be an important part of his/her function. Other tasks are writing 
(progress) reports and work plans and drawing up budgets as well as search for and 
coordinate additional funding possibilities. He/she will be directly responsible for 
the management of the (te be recruited) staff of the GS and will work closely together 
with the International Advisor. 
  He/she must have knowledge of and/or affinity with NGO setting and local 
authorities in SEE and regional co-operation,experience in a similar management 
position, be  fluent in Servo-Croat and English, have excellent computer skills in 
Word, moderate in Excel and  knowledge of accounting
  The place of work will be Novi Sad, Serbia, with frequent travel in the region; 
salary in accordance with the importance of the position; contract for one year with 
the possibility of extension till 1st of November 2003
  Candidates are requested to send their curriculum vitae and a accompanying 
letter stating, among other things, their motivation for working for the Citizens 
Pact.  Letters and cv must be send by email before 1st  of December to Mrs Cintha van 
den Hanenberg, [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Mrs van den Hanenberg will also be 
the contact person if you have any questions to ask. Tel: +381 (0) 81 624 803 or home 
+ 381 (0) 81 615 352


  

==^
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NATO wants it all [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Francisco Javier Bernal]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---





  BOSNIA: REPUBLIKA SRPSKA UNDER THREAT 

  Critics of Republika Srpska may use the Milosevic indictment to call for the
  dissolution of the Bosnian entity.

  By Zeljko Cvijanovic in Belgrade 

  The new war crimes indictment against Slobodan Milosevic, charging him with
  genocide in Bosnia, could bring into question the very existence of
  Republika Srpska, RS, and provoke political instability in Serbia.

  Two previous indictments issued against the former Yugoslav president citied
  individual crimes committed by Serb-led forces in Croatia and Kosovo, but
  did not mention genocide. 

  The Bosnia charges, however, could not ignore the Srebrenica massacre of
  1995 for which one Serb General, Radislav Krstic, has already been sentenced
  for genocide. Since The Hague's case hinges on a belief that Milosevic
  planned, ordered or inspired the Bosnian slaughter, he could hardly be faced
  with a lesser charge.

  The Hague's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, is adamant she will be able
  to prove Milosevic was the driving force behind the massacres. 

  The new indictment sent a shudder through RS. In Banja Luka, an atmosphere
  of panic set in. There were fears that it could lead to widespread
  condemnation of the entity, even calls for its dissolution, as its enemies
  could now argue that it was founded on genocide.

  The charges could also be embarrassing for the post-Milosevic regime in
  Belgrade.  Two police chiefs, instrumental in the overthrow of Milosevic in
  October 2000, are named in The Hague's Bosnian indictment.

  According to the charges, Milosevic exercised "real control" and had
  "considerable influence" over the Yugoslav army, the Bosnian Serb army and
  the Serbian paramilitaries sent to fight in Bosnia. 

  The names of 14 political, military, police and paramilitary leaders appear
  on the indictment as Milosevic's accomplices in what is described as a
  "joint criminal enterprise".  

  Topping the list are Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
  Following them are the political figures, Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana
  Plavsic.

  Also named are two members of the former Yugoslav presidency team, Borislav
  Jovic and Branko Kostic; Milan Martic, wartime head of the Croatian Serbs;
  paramilitary chiefs, including the late Zeljko Raznatovic "Arkan"; Yugoslav
  army officers such as Veljko Kadijevic and Blagoje Adzic; and Jovica
  Stanisic, secret police chief, and Franko Simatovic, former commander of
  special forces.

  Particularly awkward for Belgrade is the inclusion of Stanisic and
  Simatovic, who also featured on Milosevic's Croatia indictment, issued in
  September 2001. 

  Stanisic and Simatovic played a significant role in ousting Milosevic from
  power, mainly by promising that they would not intervene against civilians
  during the events of October 2000.  In return, they won assurances
  from Zoran Djindjic, the Serbian prime minister, that they would not be
  extradited to The Hague.

  The new democratically elected government in Belgrade is eager to portray
  Milosevic as a thing of the past.  Further extraditions could provoke
  instability, especially as the anti-Hague lobby is still strong in Serbia. 

  Earlier in November, the Serbian government had trouble suppressing a mutiny
  by Serb special police who feared that they might find themselves on The
  Hague lists.

  On Sunday, Sinisa Djordjevic, who advises RS prime minister Mladen Ivanic on
  relations with The Hague, warned that the Serb republic's survival would be
  threatened if the tribunal found Milosevic guilty of genocide.
  "The Serb republic must do everything within its power to defend its
  existence," he said.

  In Bosnia's Bosniak- Croat Federation, the Milosevic indictment was greeted
  with satisfaction. Kasim Trnka, who represents Bosnia in its claims for war
  reparations from Yugoslavia, told the Sarajevo daily Dnevni Avaz, "The
  Milosevic genocide indictment, as well as the Srebrenica charges, are
  crucial to establishing the international character of the war in Bosnia.
  They will considerably strengthen the Bosnian position." 

  The Bosniak Party for Democratic Action, SDA, which used to be led by
  Bosnia's wartime president Alija Izetbegovic, said Milosevic's indictment
  confirms Yugoslavia committed aggression against Bosnia and its non-Serb
  ethnic groups.  The party said genocide, among other things, resulted in the
  establishment of RS, implying that it should not be able to survive in its
  present form. 

  Zeljko Cvijanovic is a journalist with the Belgrade weekly Blic News

==^
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FW: Bush's Police State Power Grab [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Boyle, Francis]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


 
 
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954(voice)
217-244-1478(fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
-Original Message-From: Boyle, Francis 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 1:45 PMTo: Killeacle 
(E-mail)Subject: Bush's Police State Power Grab
In Name 
of Security, Thousands 
Denied   
Constitutional Rights
 
  
The federal government wants Americans to believe that the Constitution only 
applies 
when  
it says 
so.   
  
Exclusive to American Free Press
 
  
By Christopher 
Bollyn    
  
The actions taken by President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft 
in  
secretly detaining untold numbers of individuals and calling for secret military 
tribunals 
to  
handle captured Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners have been condemned as “a 
constitutional  
coup d’etat” which may lead to a “police state,” according to experts on 
constitutional 
and  
international law.
 
  
While most if not all the detainees “look Arab” now, experts warn, tomorrow’s 
detainees  
could be blond, blue-eyed—or you.
 
  
“What we’ve seen, since Sept. 11, if you add up every thing that Ashcroft, Bush 
and 
their  
coterie of federalist society lawyers have done here, is a coup d’etat against 
the 
United  
States Constitution,” said Francis A. Boyle, professor of international law at 
the 
University  
of Illinois. “When you add in the Ashcroft police state bill that was passed by 
Congress . . 
.  
that’s really what we’re seeing now.
 
  
“Since Sept. 11, we have seen one blow against the Constitution after another,” 
Boyle 
said.  
“Recently, we’ve had Ashcroft saying that he had, unilaterally, instituted 
monitoring 
of  
attorney-client communications without even informing anyone—he just went ahead 
and 
did  
it, despite the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures 
without  
warrant and the Sixth Amendment right to representation by 
counsel.”
 
  
The criminal investigation into the attacks, the largest in U.S. history, has 
netted about 
1,200  
detainees. But the Justice Department has failed to build a case against a 
single prime 
U.S.  
suspect in the terrorist attacks.
 
  
BAD EVIDENCE
 
  
Nine weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal authorities said on 
Nov. 15 that 
they  
had found no evidence indicating that any of the roughly 1,200 people detained 
in the 
United  
States played a role in the suicide hijacking plot. 
 
  
However, numerous legal protections, based on constitutional and international 
treaties,  
appear to have been ignored or violated in the case of the 1,200 
detainees.
 
  
“We are becoming a banana republic here in the United States, with ‘disappeared’ 
people,  
which was the phenomenon that we all saw down in Latin American dictatorships in 
the  
1970s and 1980s, with the support, by the way, of the United States Government,” 
Boyle  
said.
 
  
“We don’t know where they are or the conditions under which they are being held. 
We  
have no idea wheth er they have access to attorneys. We do know one of them 
died, 
under  
highly suspicious circumstances, while in custody. There have been reports that 
he 
was  
tortured to death,” he said.
 
  
The Constitution protects aliens in the United States, according to Boyle. 
“Clearly 
aliens  
here are entitled to the protections of the due process clause of the Fifth 
Amendment , 
as  
well as to the Article III (Section 2, Clause 3) basic constitutional rights in 
criminal 
cases,  
including indictment, trial before a federal district judge or jury, [rights 
relating to] venue 
and  
things of that nature,” Boyle said.
 
  
“I’m surprised there hasn’t been more of an outcry,” said Robert B. Reich, 
secretary 
of  
labor under President Bill Clinton, about the long-term detentions and the 
administration’s  
plans to monitor conversations be tween lawyers and terrorism suspects in 
federal 
custody.  
“The president is, by emergency decree, getting rid of rights that we assumed 
that 
anyone  
within our borders legally would have. We can find ourselves in a police state 
step-

Re: Bourgeois journalism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Charles F. Moreira]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Comrades,

Steve Kaczynski wrote with regards John Swinton's comments on his role as a
journalist:-

 ---
>
>
> (Below is a priceless description of bourgeois journalism, all the more
> priceless at a time when the media are fomenting war. It is possible that
> this item has even been posted on this list before, but if so, it is good
> enough to be looked at again.
> Swinton was honest about his profession, but you wonder why he kept on in
> it. Perhaps he had no other skill than this type of intellectual
> prostitution. Steve Kaczynski)

My response.

While Swinton is being honestly cynical about his profession and the
limitations journalists face in the capitalist-owned media in his the
article following below, there are journalists who try and convey the
truth -- or part of the truth either directly or between the lines in their
articles.

For instance we have journalists like Robert Fisk of  The Independent,
former Mirror correspondent John Pilger, several journalists here in
Malaysia and others who have written particularly critical articles about
the US and its "war on terrorism" and while journalists in the
capitalist-owned media certainly face limitations on what they can say and
the extent to which they can say it, so not all journalists are
journo-prosititutes as Kaczynski implies.

I say this as an information technology journalist writing for a computer
and information technology pullout of a major English-language daily in
Malaysia and at least in my section, it's a lot easier than for my
colleagues especially in the news section of the main paper.

Like media in the capitalist and imperialist world, the mainstream Malaysian
media is either owned by holding companies with connection to political
parties in the ruling National Front coalition government or they are owned
by "independent" capitalists who are generally friendly to the present
government.

Thus, while different papers in the mainstream media here may reflect
conflicts of interest between different sections of the Malaysian capitalist
class, they generally do not go beyond highlighting the plight of some
extreme cases of hardship among the working class -- just like capitalist
and imperialist papers in the West.

Furthermore, the government also can require editors to censor some types of
articles and the media here practices self-censorship to fit in with
government requirements, though more often than not, it's the media owners
who decide editorial policy.

However, despite all the limitations journalists face, it's far better that
left and progressive journalists remain where they are and struggle to get
the truth -- or part of the truth -- out to their readers, rather than to do
the "feel good" thing and quit their profession, much like such elements in
the West do by leaving "the system" to work on an organic farm, live in a
cabin in the forest, join a hippie commune or join a monastary -- and
essentially make themselves irrelevant in the politico-economic scene.

Kaczynski's suggestion that journalists should quit their job in the
capitalist media is like telling workers to quit their job in a factory or
workplace just because they are being exploited or are inevitably serving
the capitalist class by working for them.

Some journalists here or critics of journalists here have condemned
journalists who remain in the mainstream media rather than leave to join the
alternative or NGO media but if all journalists who don't like what the
mainstream media is writing decide to do that, there will not be enough
places in the alternative media to absorb them and most will be out in the
street.

There are some alternative media in Malaysia which write critically about
the government -- taking advantage of the Malaysian government's commitment
to not censor the Internet. These include online publications like
Malaysiakini.com (www.malaysiakini.com), AgendaMalaysia
(www.agendamalaysia.com) and Saksi (www.saksi.com) and some of these
publications are sponsored by western government agencies and NGOs.

For instance. Malaysiakini.com was started with a grant from the South East
Asia Press Alliance (www.seapa.org), a "civil society" NGO  in Bangkok which
campaigns on issues of press fredom in South-East Asia and calls fo
transparanecy in government and so on.

SEAPA was formed by Asian journalists covering the APEC meeting in Vancouver
in 1997 and their concerns are not about the role of APEC, the IMF,
imperialism, globalisation or the impact of currency speculation on Asia
economies but about the "lack of transparency" in Asian governments.

SEAPA is very vocal on these issues and it has an advisor from the Commitee
to Protect Journalists stationed at its Bangkok headquarters whose salary is
paid for by George Soros' Open Society Institute www.soros.org, and as
leftists and progressives all know, the Open Society Institute has an agenda
to promote George Soros' 

Fwd: Rebuilding Afghanistan? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Hcottin]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---



==^
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--- Begin Message ---

   Rebuilding Afghanistan?
 by William Blum


"U.S. Meeting Envisions Rebuilding Afghanistan" read the headline in the 
Washington Post of November 21.  After a one-day meeting in Washington of 
leaders from two dozen nations and international organizations, US and 
Japanese officials said they had developed an "action program" for the 
long-term rebuilding of the war-ravaged country.  
This should throw another log on the feel-good-about-America fire that's 
been warming the frazzled citizenry since September 11.  But like much of 
that fuel, there's likely a lot more propaganda here than substance.
It's a remarkable pattern.  The United States has a long record of 
bombing nations, reducing entire neighborhoods, and much of cities, to 
rubble, wrecking the infrastructure, ruining the lives of those the bombs 
didn't kill.  And afterward doing nothing to repair the damage.
 On January 27, 1973, in Paris, the United States signed the "Agreement 
on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam".  Among the principles to 
which the United States agreed was the one stated in Article 21: "In 
pursuance of its traditional policy [sic], the United States will contribute 
to healing the wounds of war and to postwar reconstruction of the Democratic 
Republic of Vietnam [North Vietnam] and throughout Indochina."
Five days later, President Nixon sent a message to the Prime Minister of 
North Vietnam in which he stipulated the following:
"(1)The Government of the United States of America will contribute to postwar 
reconstruction in North Vietnam without any political conditions. 
(2)Preliminary United States studies indicate that the appropriate programs 
for the United States contribution to postwar reconstruction will fall in the 
range of $3.25 billion of grant aid over 5 years."
Nothing of the promised reconstruction aid was ever paid.  Or ever will 
be.
During the same period, Laos and Cambodia were devastated by US bombing 
as unrelentlessly as was Vietnam.  After the Indochina wars were over, these 
nations, too, qualified to become beneficiaries of the America's "traditional 
policy" of zero reconstruction.
Then came the American bombings of Grenada and Panama in the 1980s.  
There goes our neighborhood.  Hundreds of Panamanians petitioned the 
Washington-controlled Organization of American States as well as American 
courts, all the way up to the US Supreme Court, for "just compensation" for 
the damage caused by Operation Just Cause (this being the not-tongue-in-cheek 
name given to the American invasion and bombing).  They got just nothing, as 
did the people of Grenada.
It was Iraq's turn next, in 1991: 40 days and nights of relentless 
bombing; destruction of power, water and sanitation systems and everything 
else that goes into the making of a modern society.  We all know how much the 
United States has done to help rebuild Iraq.
In 1998, Washington in its grand wisdom fired more than a dozen cruise 
missiles into a building in Sudan which it claimed was producing chemical and 
biological weapons.  The completely destroyed building was actually a 
pharmaceutical plant which was producing about 90 percent of the drugs used 
to treat the most deadly illnesses in this desperately poor country.  The 
United States effectively admitted its mistake by unfreezing the assets of 
the plant's owner it had frozen.  Surely now it was compensation time.  But 
as of October 2001, nothing had been paid to the owner, the government, or 
those injured in the bombing.
The following year we had the case of Yugoslavia; 78 days of 
round-the-clock bombing, transforming an advanced state into virtually a 
pre-industrial one; the reconstruction needs were breathtaking.  Two years 
later, June 2001, after the Serbs had obediently followed Washington's wishes 
to oust Slobodan Milosevic and turn him over to the kangaroo court in the 
Hague that the US had pushed through the Security Council, a "donor's 
conference" was convened by the European Commission and the World Bank, 
supposedly concerned with Yugoslavia's reconstruction.  It turned out to be a 
conference concerned with Yugoslavia's debts more than anything else.
Serbian premier Zoran Djindjic, regarded as highly pro-Western, said, in 
a July interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, that he felt 
betrayed by the West.
"It would have been better if the donors-conference had not
taken place and inst

Re: Mathematical correction [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Don't be so sure. They're not finished yet.
mart
- Original Message -
From: STEVE KACZYNSKI <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 11:34 AM
Subject: Mathematical correction [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]


> HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
> ---
>
> It might be better to say "multiplied by 10" rather than "to a power of
10".
>
> Steve K.
> __
>
> >From: STEVE KACZYNSKI <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: Re: Fw: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied
> >[WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
> >Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 16:19:08 +
> >
> >HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
> >---
> >
> >
> >
> >...So we have just seen a "Turkish
> >prison" massacre multiplied to a power of 10...

==^
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Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology-Bioterrorism [WWW.STOPN

[Jacques Protic]

Title: Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology/Bioterrorism



HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


If anyone is worried 
about bio-terrorism suggest you read the attached! J.
 



Bioterrorism Wall Chart


The North Carolina Statewide 
Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology (SPICE), at the University of 
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has developed a wall chart on bioterrorist 
agents. A small version of this wall chart is online and available for your use 
for educational purposes as long as you use the chart in its complete form, 
including the disclaimer and credit to the North Carolina Statewide Program for 
Infection Control and Epidemiology.
Staff: William A. Rutala, Ph.D., Director; Karen K. Hoffmann, R.N., M.S., 
C.I.C., Associate Director; David J. Weber, M.D., Associate Director; Eva P. 
Clontz, M.Ed., Program Coordinator


Instructions for Printing the Wall Chart:
The chart is a .pdf file, which means that you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 
(free download of 
Adobe Acrobat Reader) installed on your computer in order to use it. 

  Open the chart in 
  Adobe Acrobat Reader. (If you are in North Carolina, use the NC chart that includes 
  contact phone numbers specific for the state.) 
  Print (preferably with a color printer) the chart on two 8 1/2 x 11 pages. 
  (In Adobe Reader, be sure that the printer is set to print in landscape.) 
  Tape the two pages together to form an 11 x 17 chart suitable for display. 
  (Copies can be made on 11 x 17 paper on a color copier.) 
  The chart must be displayed in its complete form, including the disclaimer 
  and credit to the Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology. 
  


Bioterrorism Resources 



  APIC/CDC Bioterrorism 
  Readiness Plan: A Template for Healthcare Facilities and other 
  information
  APIC Bioterrorism 
  resources
  Bioterrorism - CDC
  USAMRIID's 
  Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook
  JAMA articles on bioterrorism by the Working Group on Civilian Biodefense 
  - addressing anthrax, 
  smallpox, 
  plague, 
  botulism, 
  and tularemia 
  are online and free of charge. 
  Links 
  to other bioterrorism resources
  
  

  North Carolina Statewide Program for Infection Control and 
  Epidemiology
  
  
  

  UNC-CH 
  Disclaimer
  Last modified: 6 November 2001
  
  
   
  
==^
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Fw: {John Pilger] The Truths They Never Tell Us [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Fw: {John Pilger] The Truths They Never Tell Us


" Cheered by having replaced Afghanistan's bad terrorists with America's good 
terrorists, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has asked the Pentagon 
to 'think the unthinkable', having rejected its 'post-Afghanistan options' as 'not 
radical enough'."


- Original Message - 
From: Vicki Andrada 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 11:12 AM
Subject: Fw: [iac-disc.] The Truths They Never Tell Us



- Original Message - 
From: Louis Morgan 
To: Coalition to End the Sanctions against Iraq ; Berkeley Stop the War Discussion 
List ; iac discussion 
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 3:12 AM
Subject: [iac-disc.] The Truths They Never Tell Us



New Statesman
November 26, 2001

The truths they never tell us Behind 
the jargon about failed states and 
humanitarian interventions lie thousands 
of dead

John Pilger


Polite society's bombers may not have to wait long for round 
two. The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, warned last week 
that America could take action against '40 to 50 countries'. 
 
Somalia, allegedly a 'haven' for al-Qaeda, joins Iraq at the 
top of a list of potential targets. Cheered by having replaced 
Afghanistan's bad terrorists with America's good terrorists, 
the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has asked the Pentagon 
to 'think the unthinkable', having rejected its 'post-Afghanistan 
options' as 'not radical enough'.

An American attack on Somalia, wrote the Guardian's man at 
the Foreign Office,'would offer an opportunity to settle an 
old score: 18 US soldiers were brutally killed there in 
1993 . . .' He neglected to mention that the US Marines left 
between 7,000 and 10,000 Somali dead, according to the CIA. 
Eighteen American lives are worthy of score-settling; thousands 
of Somali lives are not.

Somalia will provide an ideal practice run for the final 
destruction of Iraq. However, as the Wall Street Journal reports, 
Iraq presents a 'dilemma', because 'few targets remain'. 'We're 
down to the last outhouse,' said a US official, referring to the 
almost daily bombing of Iraq that is not news. Having survived 
the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam Hussein's grip on Iraq has since been reinforced by one of 
the most ruthless blockades in modern times, 
policed by his former amours and arms suppliers in Washington and 
London. Safe in his British-builtbunkers, Saddam will survive a 
renewed blitz - unlike the Iraqi people, held hostage to the
compliance of their dictator to America's ever-shifting demands.

In this country, veiled propaganda will play its usual leading 
role. Asso much of the Anglo-American media is in the hands of 
various guardians of approved truths, the fate of both the Iraqi 
and Somali peoples will be reported and debated on the strict 
premise that the US and British governments are against terrorism. 
Like the attack on Afghanistan, the issue will be how 'we' can 
best deal with the problem of 'uncivilised' societies.

The most salient truth will remain taboo. This is that the 
longevity of America as both a terrorist state and a haven for 
terrorists surpasses all. That the US is the only state on 
record to have been condemned by the World Court for 
international terrorism and has vetoed a UN Security Council 
resolution calling on governments to observe international law 
is unmentionable. 
 
Recently, Denis Halliday,the former assistant secretary 
general of  the UN who resigned rather than administer 
what he described as a 'genocidal sanctions policy' on 
Iraq, incurred the indignation of the BBC's Michael Buerk. 
'You can't possibly draw a moral equivalence between Saddam 
Hussein and George Bush Senior , can you?'said Buerk. Halliday 
was taking part in one of the moral choice programmes that Buerk comperes, and had 
referred to the needless slaughter of tens of 
thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians, by the Americans during 
the Gulf war. He pointed out that many were buried alive, and that depleted uranium 
was used widely, almost certainly the cause of an epidemic of cancer in southern Iraq.

That the recent history of the west's true crimes makes 
Saddam Hussein 'an amateur', as Halliday put it, is the 
unmentionable; and because there is no rational rebuttal 
of such a truth, those who mention it are abused as 
'anti-American'.

Richard Falk, professor of international politics at 
Princeton, has explained this. Western foreign policy, he 
says, is propagated in the media 'through a self-righteous, 
one-way moral/legal screen with positive images of western 
values and innocence portrayed as threatened, validating a 
campaign of unrestricted political violence'.

The ascendancy of Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, 
and associates Richard Perle and Elliot Abrams means that 
much of the world is now threatened openly by a geopolitical 
fascism, which has been developing since 1945 and has 
accelerated since 11 September.

The 

Mathematical correction [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[STEVE KACZYNSKI]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

It might be better to say "multiplied by 10" rather than "to a power of 10".

Steve K.
__

>From: STEVE KACZYNSKI <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: Fw: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied 
>[WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
>Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 16:19:08 +
>
>HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
>---
>
>
>
>...So we have just seen a "Turkish
>prison" massacre multiplied to a power of 10...


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Re: Fw: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[STEVE KACZYNSKI]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

You know, the USA and its allies are becoming ever more "Turkish" in their 
military and security practices. By that I mean that they are showing 
greater and greater ruthlessness.
In December 2000, the Turkish authorities carried out a prison crackdown, 
killing 28 prisoners. (Two of the troops involved were also killed, but at 
least one of them died as a result of "friendly fire".) Many other prisoners 
were wounded and brutalised, but nonetheless the majority of prisoners 
survived, as opposed to what appears to be a massacre in Afghanistan a 
couple of days ago that spared nobody. So we have just seen a "Turkish 
prison" massacre multiplied to a power of 10.
The "Turkish" aspect goes more widely than that. We are seeing an 
ever-increasing attempt to control information. In Turkey, newspapers and 
journals whose line differs from that of the state have been bombed or 
police have carried out raids on them. Journalists are numbered among the 
"disappeared". Lesser forms of sanctions are also common. In the same way, 
Al-Jazeera was bombed.
But perhaps I am looking through the wrong end of the telescope. It is not 
the USA that is becoming more "Turkish". Rather, the practices it has long 
encouraged by security forces in states like Turkey are now being adopted 
more directly by US and allied forces.

Steve K.
__

>From: mart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 
>KIM <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, com-int <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Fw: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied 
>[WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
>Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 10:58:58 -0500
>
>HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
>---
>
>Forward from mart.
>PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY.
>- Original Message -
>From: Dawn
>Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 8:26 AM
>Subject: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied
>
>
>
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Dec. 6, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper
>
>
>Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied
>- by Deirdre Griswold
>
>The Pentagon has made it clear that it will manage the news coming out of 
>Afghanistan - either by direct censorship or by bombing the offices of 
>independent news sources like Al-Jazeera.
>
>Now we know why.
>
>What just happened to hundreds of Taliban prisoners of war at a fortress 
>outside Kunduz in northern Afghanistan would enrage and sicken anyone who 
>cares about justice and humanity. Amnesty International on Nov. 28 called 
>for an urgent inquiry into how the estimated 400 prisoners were killed - 
>only a handful survived - after witnesses said they had seen about 50 
>bodies lying in the courtyard, their hands tied behind their backs.
>
>The official story was that they were killed in an uprising that got out of 
>control. The Northern Alliance called in air strikes by U.S. jets. When 
>that failed to kill all the prisoners, oil was poured into the lower 
>chambers of the fortress and set on fire. As the Taliban tried to escape 
>the flames, a tank mowed them down.
>
>Washington has admitted that a CIA agent was killed in the fighting and 
>five U.S. Special Forces were injured by U.S. bombs. What was going on at 
>the fortress? Were prisoners being tortured and executed in summary 
>fashion? Is that why they rebelled? Or was the "rebellion" just 
>disinformation to cover an out-and-out slaughter of helpless captives?
>
>Remember, the Taliban released the Western missionaries they had been 
>holding without a scratch. And for them, this is a defensive war, fought on 
>their own territory against an enemy that has invaded from 10,000 miles 
>away. How civilized compared to the barbaric conduct of the Pentagon and 
>its puppet forces.
>
>- END -
>
>(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and 
>distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not 
>allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 
>10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: 
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>==
>
>Knowledge is Power!
>Elimination of the exploitation of man by man
>http://www.egroups.com/group/pttp/
>POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
>
>Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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>


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ht

Fw: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[mart]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Forward from mart.
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY.
- Original Message - 
From: Dawn 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 8:26 AM
Subject: [pttp] Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied



Via Workers World News Service 
Reprinted from the Dec. 6, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper 


Massacred Prisoners' Hands Were Tied 
- by Deirdre Griswold 

The Pentagon has made it clear that it will manage the news coming out of Afghanistan 
- either by direct censorship or by bombing the offices of independent news sources 
like Al-Jazeera. 

Now we know why. 

What just happened to hundreds of Taliban prisoners of war at a fortress outside 
Kunduz in northern Afghanistan would enrage and sicken anyone who cares about justice 
and humanity. Amnesty International on Nov. 28 called for an urgent inquiry into how 
the estimated 400 prisoners were killed - only a handful survived - after witnesses 
said they had seen about 50 bodies lying in the courtyard, their hands tied behind 
their backs. 

The official story was that they were killed in an uprising that got out of control. 
The Northern Alliance called in air strikes by U.S. jets. When that failed to kill all 
the prisoners, oil was poured into the lower chambers of the fortress and set on fire. 
As the Taliban tried to escape the flames, a tank mowed them down. 

Washington has admitted that a CIA agent was killed in the fighting and five U.S. 
Special Forces were injured by U.S. bombs. What was going on at the fortress? Were 
prisoners being tortured and executed in summary fashion? Is that why they rebelled? 
Or was the "rebellion" just disinformation to cover an out-and-out slaughter of 
helpless captives? 

Remember, the Taliban released the Western missionaries they had been holding without 
a scratch. And for them, this is a defensive war, fought on their own territory 
against an enemy that has invaded from 10,000 miles away. How civilized compared to 
the barbaric conduct of the Pentagon and its puppet forces. 

- END - 

(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute 
verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information 
contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For 
subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) 

==

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Elimination of the exploitation of man by man
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FW: [Intlawprofessor-l] FW: No War Against Afghanistan! (rev.) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG

[Boyle, Francis]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---



Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954(voice)
217-244-1478(fax)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  
 


-Original Message-
From: Boyle, Francis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 9:47 AM
To: intlawprofessor-l@law. wuacc. edu (E-mail)
Subject: [Intlawprofessor-l] FW: No War Against Afghanistan! (rev.)




-Original Message-
From: Boyle, Francis 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2001 9:44 AM
To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list' (E-mail)
Subject: No War Against Afghanistan! (rev.)


Subject: Professor Boyle's revised article


 NO WAR AGAINST AFGHANISTAN! 

 I want to start out with my basic thesis that the Bush administration¹s war
against Afghanistan cannot be justified on the facts or the law. It is
clearly illegal. It constitutes armed aggression. It is creating a
humanitarian catastrophe for the people of Afghanistan. It is creating
terrible regional instability.
 Right now we are having artillery barrages across the border between India
and Pakistan which have fought two wars before over Kashmir and yet today
are nuclear armed. The longer this war goes on, the worse it is going to be
not only for the millions of people in Afghanistan but also in the
estimation of the 1.2 billion Muslims of the world and the 57 Muslim states
in the world, none of which believe the Bush administration¹s propaganda
that this is not a war against Islam.

THE FACTS
 Now let me start first with the facts. As you recall, Secretary of State
Colin Powell said publicly they were going to produce a white paper
documenting their case against Osama bin Laden and their organization Al
Qaeda. Well, of course, those of us in the peace movement are familiar with
white papers before. They¹re always laden with propaganda, half-truths,
dissimulation, etc. that are usually very easily refuted after a little bit
of analysis. What happened here? We never got a white paper produced by the
United States government. Zip, zero, nothing.
 What did we get instead? The only statement of facts that we got from an
official of the United States government was Secretary of State Colin Powell
himself. And let me quote from Secretary Powell. This is the October 3
edition of the New Speak Times: ³The  case will never be able to be
described as circumstantial. It¹s not circumstantial now.² Well, as a
lawyer, if a case isn¹t circumstantial, it¹s nothing. The  lowest level of
proof you could possibly imagine is a circumstantial case.
 Yes, the World Court has ruled that a state can be found guilty on the
basis of circumstantial evidence, provided there is proof beyond a
reasonable doubt. But here we have Secretary of State Colin Powell admitting
on behalf of the United States that the case against Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
is not even circumstantial.
  If it¹s not even circumstantial, then what is it? Rumor, allegation,
innuendo, insinuation, disinformation, propaganda. Certainly not enough to
start a war. In the same issue of the New Speak Times, the US Ambassador who
went over to brief our  NATO allies about the Bush administration¹s case
against Bin Laden and Al Qaeda was quoted as follows: ³One Western official
at NATO said the US briefings, which were oral, without slides or
documentation, did not report any direct order from Mr. Bin Laden, nor did
they indicate that the Taliban knew about the attacks before they happened.²
 That¹s someone who was at the briefings. What we did get was a white paper
from Tony Blair. Did anyone in this room vote for Tony Blair? No. And the
white paper is in that hallowed tradition of a white paper based on
insinuation, allegation, rumors, etc.
 Even the British government admitted the case against Bin Laden and Al
Qaeda would not stand up in court, and as a matter of fact it was routinely
derided in the British press. There was nothing there. Now I don¹t know
myself who was behind the terrorist attacks on September 11. And it appears
we are never going to find out. Why? Because Congress in its wisdom has
decided not to empanel a joint committee of both Houses of Congress with
subpoena  power giving them access to whatever documents they want
throughout any agency of the United States government< including FBI, CIA,
NSA, DSAhttp://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/intlawprofessor-l

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Capitalism in fSU = poverty [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Barry Stoller]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


AFP. 29 November 2001. Millions of children in CIS, Central, Eastern
Europe in poverty: UNICEF.

GENEVA -- Nearly 18 million youngsters live in poverty in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central and Eastern Europe
(CEE) 10 years after the shift from communist to market-led economies, a
UN report said on Thursday.

Rising numbers of children are ending up being cared for in institutions
as families struggle to cope, according to the report by the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) entitled 'A Decade of Transition'.

[N.B.] It said that around 1.5 million children were in public care at
the end of the 1990s, or 150,000 more than at the start of the decade,
adding that the sharpest increase had occurred in the Baltic states.

As real incomes have fallen over the last decade, the number of children
in poor families has sharply increased.

At the end of the 1990s nearly 18 million children of up to 17 years of
age were living on less than 2.15 dollars a day.

Just under 60 million children and young people in the region were
living on less than 4.30 dollars a day, it added.

 In addition, HIV/AIDS cases are rising, especially in Russia and
Ukraine, and tuberculosis has returned to the region with 50 percent
increases registered in poorer countries.

In many parts of the region, family allowances were markedly cut in the
1990s and the UNICEF report calls for a sustained effort to address
child poverty, including the support of family incomes via tax and
benefit systems and economic policy.

It also calls for regular and independent reporting on the quality of
institutional care, while insisting that support services need to be
beefed up and family-based care solutions encouraged.

A stronger focus is also needed on preventative health care, health
education and public health programmes, while it notes that public
investment in education in several countries is currently low.

[In short: Bring back socialism.]


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Barry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews

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Reuters: death sentences in Turkey [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[STEVE KACZYNSKI]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

Turkey sentences three militants to death

Last updated: 27-11-01, 21:04

A Turkish court today sentenced to death three leftist militants
convicted of acts of terror - the first such judgment since parliament
passed a law lifting the death penalty for most crimes.

The sentences were levied against members of the urban guerrilla group
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) for trying to
subvert the constitutional order and shooting dead a Turkish soldier in
Denizli province in 1998.

Parliament amended the constitution last month to restrict the death
penalty to acts of terror and treason carried out in times of war, a
move to bring its laws into line with Europe.

EU candidate Turkey has not carried out an execution since 1984, but
scrapping capital punishment altogether has been high on the agenda in
its relations with the EU since Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan was
sentenced to death in 1999.

Ocalan, accused of leading a violent campaign for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast that killed more than 30,000 people, remains in
an island prison awaiting a European Court of Human Rights appeal on his
sentence.

DHKP-C is the largest of Turkey's many extreme left-wing factions and
claimed responsibility in September for a suicide attack on an Istanbul
police station that killed two officers, an Australian tourist and the
bomber.

Ankara considers DHKP-C a terrorist group and blames it for organising
prison uprisings and a mass hunger strike against prison conditions that
has claimed more than 40 lives.

Tuesday's ruling by a state security court in the western city of Izmir
included life imprisonment for four of the 22 defendants, the state-run
Anatolian news agency said.




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Bourgeois journalism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[STEVE KACZYNSKI]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


(Below is a priceless description of bourgeois journalism, all the more 
priceless at a time when the media are fomenting war. It is possible that 
this item has even been posted on this list before, but if so, it is good 
enough to be looked at again.
Swinton was honest about his profession, but you wonder why he kept on in 
it. Perhaps he had no other skill than this type of intellectual 
prostitution. Steve Kaczynski)

Journalism
>
>One night, probably in 1880, John Swinton, then the preeminent New York
>journalist, was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders
of
>his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast
to
>the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:
>
>"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America,
as
>an independent press. You know it and I know it.
>
>There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you
>did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid
>weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with.
>Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you
>who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the
>streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear
in
>one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be
gone.
>
>The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright,
to
>pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country
>and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly
>is this toasting an independent press?
>
>We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the
>jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our
>possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are
>intellectual prostitutes."
>
>(Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais,
>published by United Electrical, Radio &
>Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.)
>


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Re: US Is World's Sexual Superpower [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[STEVE KACZYNSKI]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

I am astounded by the idea that so many people in the world find 
contemporary Western cultural values to be tacky and shabby.
On a less ironic note, the UK is quite high up on the list, but also has 
Europe's worst record for underage pregnancies. That all this sexual 
activity might lead to social problems is something that will tend to be 
overlooked.

Steve K.
_
>From: Miroslav Antic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], 'BALKAN' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 'NATO' 
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 'Siem-News' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 'SNN' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 
>'SNN-Yahoo' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>CC: 'KPJ' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: US Is World's Sexual Superpower [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
>Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 18:56:07 -0500
>
>HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
>---
>
>US Is World's Sexual Superpower
>By Rodney Joyce
>November 27, 2001
>
>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) - The United States remains the sexual
>
>superpower of the world with Americans making love more often and with
>more
>partners than any other nationality, according to a survey by a leading
>condom manufacturer.
>
>Durex said on Tuesday that its annual poll of 18,500 people in 28
>countries
>showed the world was having more sex and starting earlier than ever
>before,
>and the United States was leading the field in all departments.
>
>The survey--carried out in May and published ahead of World Aids Day on
>December 1--showed respondents averaging sex 97 times a year, up from 96
>last
>year.
>
>But those Americans questioned averaged sex 124 times a year and were
>also
>starting earlier than anyone else at an average age of 16. Americans
>also had
>the highest average number of lifetime sex partners, at 14.
>
>The Greeks made love the second most frequently--117 times a year on
>average--while the Germans were the second youngest to get started at
>16.6
>years.
>
>France's reputation as a nation of lovers took something of a hit with
>frequency dropping from 121 times a year to 110 and slumping from top of
>the
>number of partners table to second with 13 compared to 17 a year ago.
>
>Japan remained bottom of the lovers league with an average 36 sexual
>encounters a year.
>
>Overall, 60% of respondents said they had sex at least once a week and
>4%
>claimed to make love daily.
>
>But single people had the least sex--86 times a year--and the libido of
>married couples (100 times) also trailed those living together (145
>times).
>
>One in 10 people said they never had sex.
>
>The global average age of first sex moved down slightly to 18.0 years
>from
>18.1, while the number of partners dropped to 7.7 from 8.2.
>
>Men appeared to be more sexually active than women, claiming a frequency
>of
>102 times a year against 91. Men also claimed an average 10.7 partners,
>versus 4.6 for women.
>
>Almost one third of all people said they had been faithful to one
>partner,
>while 16% claimed more than 10 partners.
>
>There were also considerable regional variations with Westerners
>starting
>their sex lives much earlier than Asians.
>
>The United States, Germany, France, Britain and New Zealand began at
>around
>17, while in India, Malaysia, Taiwan and China the average was age 20 or
>more.
>
>The beach was the most popular venue for love making, with 27% of
>respondents
>putting it ahead of a runner-up hot tub.
>
>Taiwanese people prefer doing it in their cars, people in Hong Kong
>prefer
>the office for their romance, while Nigerians splash out in the swimming
>
>pool.
>
>


_
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Re: Khanabad 'decimated by the Americans, 100 civilians killed' [WWW.STOPNATO.OR

[STEVE KACZYNSKI]

HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---

The US authorities are also trying to remind everybody that they are the 
"biggest kids on the block". S11 damaged their prestige and they are 
spoiling for vengeance. Perhaps there are economic factors involved too, but 
essentially all this is a crude demonstration of power.

Steve K.



>From: mart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: Khanabad 'decimated by the Americans, 100 civilians killed' 
>[WWW.STOPNATO.OR
>Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 00:02:45 -0500
>
>HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
>---
>
>It's not about honouring those who died on 9/11. It's about *avenging* 
>them.
>Remember Bush's words during the first days after 9/11before his spin
>doctors got him to refer to his planned mass murder and butchery as
>"justice" instead of "revenge"?
>mart
>- Original Message -
>From: Nancy Hey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2001 10:54 PM
>Subject: Khanabad 'decimated by the Americans, 100 civilians killed'
>[WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
>
>
> > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
> > ---
> >
> > I wonder how many more innocent people have to die before Americans
>finally
> > wake up and smell the coffee and realize that their government is
>committing
> > war crimes against these people. This is definitely not the way to honor
> > those who died on 9/11/01!
> >
> > Khanabad 'decimated by the Americans, 100 civilians killed'
> >
> > 27.11.2001
> > 1:00 pm - By JUSTIN HUGGLER
> >
> > KHANABAD - When we heard the explosion, we were
> > walking though the bombed out ruins of Khanabad, near
> > the Tajikistan border in the northeast of Afghanistan.
> >
> > When we got there, picking our way through the collapsed
> > remains of houses, an old man sat in his blood blinking
> > and shaking his head in bewilderment. Beside him, a
> > 15-year-old boy lay bleeding and unconscious.
> >
> > They had trodden on one of the American cluster bombs
> > that litter the fields and roadside around Khanabad.
> >
> > The Americans have killed more than 100 unarmed
> > civilians in Khanabad in the last two weeks, relentlessly
> > bombing heavily populated residential areas in the town,
> > which was one of the last under Taleban control.
> >
> > The Independent first reported allegations of civilian deaths
> > made by fleeing refugees a week ago. Yesterday, after the
> > Taleban finally fled the town, those allegations were
> > confirmed.
> >
> > Whole suburbs of Khanabad have been decimated. In the
> > suburb of Charikari, we found giant craters and piles of
> > rubble where houses used to be. Burnt, blackened stumps
> > of trees poked through the rubble. Here and there, a
> > fragment of a house was till standing, half a room, open at
> > one end where the rest had collapsed.
> >
> > Juma Khan was poking around the crater where most of
> > his family died with a shovel. His wife and six of his
> > children, his brother and all his brother's children died in
> > there when the American bomb struck: 15 people in all.
> >
> > A child's black gumboot lay in the rubble. It could have
> > belonged to Mr Khan's five-year-old son Hakimullah, or his
> > three-year-old daughter Hamza.
> >
> > The bomb fell at 8am, when the whole family was sitting
> > inside the house. A neighbour, Abdul Qadir, had dropped in
> > to visit. He died too.
> >
> > "I was just sitting there. The next thing I knew, people were
> > digging me out of the rubble," Mr Khan said.
> >
> > He saw them dig out his 11-year-old daughter, Gulshan,
> > the only other survivor. She has severe head injuries. "I just
> > started crying out for help," said Mr Khan. But everyone else
> > in the rubble was already dead.
> >
> > "I don't know who to blame," said Mr Khan. He didn't even
> > know it was the Americans who killed his wife and children.
> > "Maybe it was the Taleban bombing," he said "The planes
> > came and bombed my home. I don't know why. But whoever
> > bombed me is my enemy."
> >
> > Another man beckoned us towards the remains of his
> > house. It wasn't until we had climbed onto the pile of rubble
> > that was all that was left that he told us we were standing
> > on top of an unexploded bomb. He wanted to know if we
> > thought it was safe for him to move back into the remains
> > with his family. They survived because they were already
> > fleeing when the bomb hit.
> >
> > "When the bomb hit, I was knocked over by the blast," he
> > told us. "When I came to, I staggered out of the house, but
> > then I felt my legs give way and I fainted again."
> >
> > General Mohammed Daud of the Northern Alliance claimed
> > that only 13 people were killed in Khanabad when one
> > bomb went astray. That was patently untrue.
> >
> > One of the refugees who fled named one of the families
> > killed as that of Agha Pedar. Yesterday we found a survivor
> 

FW: 'asylum seekers snatch squads', Kill again [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]

[Knight, Jonathan]

Title: 'asylum seekers snatch squads', Kill again



HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---


 
-Original Message-From: John O 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Sent: 29 November 2001 07:22To: 
Recipient List SuppressedSubject: 'asylum seekers snatch squads', 
Kill again
==
National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC)110 
Hamstead  RoadBirmingham B20 2QSPhone: 0121-554-6947  
Fax:  0870-055-4570
E-mail  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web site:  http://www.ncadc.org.uk/
===

'asylum seekers snatch squads', Kill again

On Sunday 25th November 2001 a 'immigration snatch squad', (two police 
officers and two immigration officials), raided a high rise flat in Streatham, 
south west London. Five people were in the third floor flat, one person fell to 
his death from the balcony, trying to escape.

Jenny Jones, Green Party member on the Greater London Assembly,  has 
called for a halt to the activities of the Immigration Service 'snatch squads' 
in London, and is urging the Government to review the high pressure targets it 
has imposed on the Service. 

Jenny warned in September that an increase in such incidences and deaths 
was a possible consequence of the planned ten fold increase in the arrests of 
failed asylum seeker in London.
Jenny said: "I am saddened and shocked by this death. My condolences go out 
to his family. I'm sure that all of us on the Metropolitan Police Authority will 
want to know why such a terrible incident happened."

Jenny Jones believes "there should be an immediate halt 
to the operation of the asylum snatch squads in London and the Government should 
urgently review the targets it is imposing upon the Immigration Service. A ten 
fold increase in arrests of failed asylum seekers could mean more such deaths 
and incidents. 

Back ground: snatch 
squadshttp://www.ncadc.org.uk/letters/news24/snatch.htmlOther 
balcony deaths:27/4/94 Kwanele Eldah Siziba (27) Fell 150 feet to her 
death as she attempted to flee from what she believed to be immigration 
officials coming to deport her.23/10/94 Joseph Nnalue (31) Died after 
falling from his second floor flat in Stockwell, South London, when police and 
immigration officials called to question him regarding his immigration 
status.
15/3/96 Noorjahan Begum (35) Died after falling 30 feet from the balcony of 
a flat in Stepney, east London. Two immigration officers called at the flat 
early on the morning of her death.
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