Correction - Turkey: 83rd Death Fast Martyr [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ### CORRECTION ### Name: Ali Camyar Organisation: TIKB - Revolutionary Communist League Of Turkey. Apologies for any confusion. Ali Caymar of the DHKP-C is the 83rd Martyr of the revolutionary prisoners Death Fast struggle. A demonstration was held by supporters of the revolutionary prisoners in protest outside the Turkish Embassy in London at 3pm this afternoon. News has also been recieved today of a police raid on and subsequent closure of offices of a progressive newspaper in Turkey. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Tiny Wireless Camera under $80! Order Now! FREE VCR Commander! Click Here - Only 1 Day Left! http://us.click.yahoo.com/WoOlbB/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/XcSolB/TM -~- Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Peoples_War A people who want to win independence cannot confine themselves to ordinary methods of warfare. Mass insurrections, revolutionary warfare, guerilla detachments everywhere - such is the only way. F Engels A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. Fidel Castro There is no revolution without violence. Those who don't accept violence can cross out the word revolution from their dictionary. Malcolm X The Marxist-Leninist doctrine on class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat affirms the role of violence in revolution, makes a distinction between unjust, counter-revolutionary violence and just, revolutionary violence, between the violence of the exploiting classes, and that of the masses. General Vo Nguyen Giap Without a Peoples Army the people have nothing Mao Tse-Tung Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuala: In The Firing Line - Frontline Magazine [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- FRONTLINE MAGAZINE The Venezuelan plot == The opposition parties in Venezuela, encouraged by the United States, are making moves to unseat President Hugo Chavez, whose policies are seen as posing a threat to U.S. hegemony. JOHN CHERIAN PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is counted among the most charismatic of world leaders today. Chavez, a former army paratrooper, who has faced the country's electorate twice in two years and won with thumping majorities, now faces a challenge from right-wing groups and a few of his erstwhile political allies. They are subtly encouraged by the conservative officials in charge of the United States administration's Latin America desk. Soon after George Bush took office as President, the U.S. Administration put Venezuela in the firing line. Chavez, unlike many other Latin American leaders, had refused to kow-tow to Washington on major international issues. Statements by senior administration officials focussed on the danger posed to U.S. interests in the region by the policies of the Venezuelan leader. Chavez is an ardent admirer of Cuban leader Fidel Castro though he has emphasised that he is not a Marxist. One of the first countries he visited after assuming office in 1998 was Cuba. Both countries today have strong diplomatic and political ties. Chavez dreams of once again integrating Latin American countries into one confederal entity as envisaged by the 19th century Latin American icon Simon Bolivar. Bolivar, who hailed from Venezuela, had briefly united Latin America. Chavez is seen by the U.S. right wing as a threat to U.S. hegemony in the American continent. Chavez, while pursuing an independent foreign policy, has been careful in his dealings with the U.S. Besides, the two countries need each other. Venezuela has the sixth largest oil reserves in the world and the U.S. is its biggest customer; around 40 per cent of the U.S.' annual oil imports are from Venezuela. But this has not prevented Venezuela from selling oil to Cuba despite the continuing U.S. blockade of the island nation. In fact, since assuming office, Chavez has expanded the country's oil export, doubling its value between 1998 and 2000. Chavez has also been playing an activist role in international politics. After Venezuela took over the presidency of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last year, he embarked on a vigorous diplomatic tour of member-countries of the organisation to drum up support for a united stance on stable oil prices. His visit to Iraq, the first by a head of state to the beleaguered country in a long time, symbolically broke the U.S.-imposed travel embargo on Iraq. And since then many high-level delegations, including one from India, visited Iraq, much to the annoyance of Washington. Chavez was successful in stabilising the price and output of oil. But in the last few months, international oil prices plummeted for a variety of reasons, raising alarm in Venezuela and other countries that depend largely on oil revenues. Last month Chavez embarked on yet another whirlwind tour of oil-producing countries. Chavez visited both OPEC and non-OPEC countries to convince them of the urgent need to curtail oil production so as to stabilise price. The trip seems to be paying dividends, as Russia, a significant holdout, has indicated that it will cut production and help boost the price of oil in the international market. Chavez's activism has not been appreciated by Washington. In recent months, domestic oil prices in the U.S. has dipped below one dollar a gallon after many years. Washington views Chavez as someone who poses a challenge to the established order in the region. Venezuela takes a strong interest in groupings such as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Chavez has emphasised the need to establish a multi-polar world in order to check U.S. hegemonism. He is not afraid of taking a principled stance on matters in which the U.S. has important stakes. For instance, he has been critical of the U.S.' massive military involvement in neighbouring Colombia, ostensibly to help the Colombian government crack down on the illegal production of narcotics. Many people in the region believe that the U.S. military presence is aimed at helping the Colombian military and right-wing militias to wage a war against the two leftist guerilla groups that have been active for more than 40 years. Chavez has maintained that he is all for finding a political solution to the long-running conflict. Any escalation of the war would have an adverse impact on Venezuela, which shares a long border with Colombia. There are more than a million illegal immigrants from Colombia in Venezuela. Besides, it is easy to shift cocoa cultivation and cocaine production from one country to another. After the U.S. launched its so-called war against terrorism, Chavez expressed concern at the mounting civilian casualties in Afghanistan. He
Nigeria: Woman leaves husband for naming baby Osama - Ananova [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Ananova : Woman leaves husband for naming baby Osama = A Nigerian woman has left her Muslim husband after he named their baby son after Osama bin Laden. The woman, who is Christian, had threatened to leave her husband when she was still pregnant. She made the threat after the man said he would name the baby Osama bin Laden if it was a boy. The Pan African News Agency do not name the couple but reported they lived in the city of Calabar. The wife is quoted as saying she would not return to the matrimonial home until her husband changed his mind. He would have to promise to me that he has done that by undertaking a naming ceremony in my relation's house with a new name, she said. The husband told a local newspaper that bin Laden was his hero for teaching America the lesson of their lives. Story filed: 11:29 Thursday 3rd January 2002 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
1951: Britain discussed dividing Afghanistan in the fifties: Records [WWW.STOP
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- : Wednesday, January 02, 2002 10:32 PM Britain discussed dividing Afghanistan in the fifties: Records AFP London, January 2 Click here US UNDER SEIGE Photos, Graphics, Videos Post your messages Read other views US STRIKES BACK Select Date Tuesday Jan 1 Monday, Dec 31 Sunday, Dec 30 Saturday, Dec 29 Friday, Dec28 Thursday, Dec 27 Wednesday, Dec 26 Tuesday, Dec 25 Monday, Dec 24 Sunday, Dec 23 Saturday, Dec 22 Friday, Dec 21 Thursday, Dec 20 Wednesday, Dec 19 Tuesday, Dec 18 Monday, Dec 17 Sunday, Dec 16 Saturday, Dec 15 Friday, Dec 14 Thursday, Dec 13 Wednesday, Dec 12 Tuesday, Dec 11 Monday, Dec 10 Sunday, Dec 9 Saturday, Dec 8 Friday, Dec 7 Thursday, Dec 6 Wednesday, Dec 5 Tuesday, Dec 4 Monday, Dec 3 Sunday, Dec 2 Saturday, Dec 1 Friday, Nov 30 Thursday, Nov 29 Wednesday, Nov 28 Tuesday, Nov 27 Monday, Nov 26 Sunday, Nov 25 Saturday, Nov 24 Friday, Nov 23 Thursday, Nov 22 Wednesday, Nov 21 Tuesday, Nov 20 Monday, Nov 19 Sunday, Nov 18 Saturday, Nov 17 Friday, Nov 16 Thursday, Nov 15 Wednesday, Nov 14 Tuesday, Nov 13 Monday, Nov 12 Sunday, Nov 11 Saturday, Nov 10 Friday, Nov 9 Thursday, Nov 8 Wednesday, Nov 7 Tuesday, Nov 6 Monday, Nov 5 Sunday, Nov 4 Saturday, Nov 3 Friday, Nov 2 Thursday, Nov 1 Wednesday, Oct 31 Tuesday, Oct 30 Monday, Oct 29 Sunday, Oct 28 Saturday, Oct 27 Friday, Oct 26 Thursday, Oct 25 Wednesday, Oct 24 Tuesday, Oct 23 Monday, Oct 22 Sunday, Oct 21 Saturday, Oct 20 Friday, Oct 19 Thursday, Oct 18 Wednesday, Oct 17 Tuesday, Oct 16 Monday, Oct 15 Sunday, Oct 14 Saturday, Oct 13 Friday, Oct 12 Thursday, Oct 11 Wednesday, Oct 10 Tuesday, Oct 9 Monday, Oct 8 Sunday, Oct 7 AFTERMATH Select Date Saturday, Oct 6 Friday, Oct 5 Thursday, Oct 4 Wednesday, Oct 3 Tuesday, Oct 2 Monday, Oct 1 Sunday, Sep 30 Saturday, Sep 29 Friday, Sep 28 Thursday, Sep 27 Wednesday, Sep 26 Tuesday, Sep 25 Monday, Sep 24 Sunday, Sep 23 Saturday, Sep 22 Friday, Sep 21 Thursday, Sep 20 Wednesday, Sep 19 Tuesday, Sep 18 Monday, Sep 17 Sunday, Sep 16 Saturday, Sep 15 Friday, Sep 14 Thursday, Sep 13 Wednesday, Sep 12 US ATTACKED Tuesday, Sep 11 British diplomats in the 1950s secretly discussed dividing up Afghanistan between the neighbouring powers of Russia and Pakistan, according to official files made public for the first time Wednesday. There were concerns then, which have a familiar ring given the events in 2001, that the country might have been about to slide into
Stratfor: U.S. Intelligence Probe Expands in Africa [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Thursday, January 03, 2002 11:31 AM Stratfor U.S. Intelligence Probe Expands in Africa2300 GMT, 020102 Summary U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating links between Hezbollah, al Qaeda and mining investments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The investigations shed light on the links between militant groups and organized crime and more importantly, illustrate the freedom with which criminals and militants raise illicit funds in Africa. The discoveries, combined with al Qaeda's ties to drug trafficking, will lead the United States to expand its presence in Africa and thus build cooperation with African governments. Analysis U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are looking into links between al Qaeda, Lebanon-based militant organization Hezbollah and mining concerns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Washington Post reported Dec. 30. So far, the investigation has uncovered a network of Lebanese diamond traders with ties to militants -- who have assets in the Congo -- and alleged al Qaeda members. The United States hopes to paralyze al Qaeda by uncovering and seizing its sources of funding. Doing so, however, will have lasting consequences only if Washington can permanently shut down those sources of revenue. Africa, which has a wealth of natural resources, also has a number of failed states where large swaths of territory are beyond government control. A healthy black market and the presence of foreigners also combine to create attractive opportunities for criminals. Permanently preventing al Qaeda from exploiting the lawlessness of mineral-rich countries like the DRC will lead Washington to expand its engagement with African governments. But the United States must back up greater engagement on issues of security and politics -- including closer cooperation between U.S. and African intelligence and law enforcement agencies -- with investment and development aid. For the government in Kinshasa, expanded relations with the United States could translate not only into increased investment but also into greater political support for its war against rebels in eastern DRC and their foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda. The DRC has immense natural resources, including minerals and timber, but it has been ravaged by more than three years of civil war. According to a United Nations report released in April 2001, all five of the foreign nations involved in the conflict have plundered the Congo's mineral resources -- including cobalt, coltan, copper, diamonds and gold -- in order to fund their war efforts. Other nations are not the only looters to set up shop in the Congo's provinces. The U.N. report also cites the systematic looting of natural resources by organized criminal cartels with worldwide connections. U.S. intelligence officials say one of these groups is Hezbollah. The group -- which is known to have a global network including Latin American drug traffickers, European diamond traders and Middle Eastern militants -- may be using the DRC's illicit diamond trade to fund its activities. It may also be working in concert with other militant groups, like al Qaeda, involved in illicit fundraising activities in the Congo. Though no direct evidence linking the two has surfaced, al Qaeda has owned and operated businesses in other African nations including Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan. According to the Washington Post report, U.S. officials are also investigating terrorist ties to the mineral trade in Tanzania, where suspects arrested after Sept. 11 have been linked to al Qaeda. The reasons militant groups can operate with impunity are simple: Many African governments have little or no control over large swaths of territory, the network of illicit trade is well established and borders are porous. This description fits many African nations where natural resources are being exploited, including Angola, the DRC, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The events of Sept. 11 forced the United States to pursue al Qaeda's international sources of financing. The plethora of opportunities for illicit fundraising in places like the DRC or Sierra Leone will prompt Washington to explore options for uncovering al Qaeda's assets in these countries and finding means of shutting them down. But with 60 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's urban labor force employed in the black market, penetrating and dismantling al Qaeda's revenue streams may prove impossible. Faced with such a Herculean task, the United States will turn to African governments to serve as its proxies to fight terrorism. In places like Liberia, where it may be politically impossible to work openly with President Charles Taylor, Washington will seek other regional allies in hopes of pressuring the government in Monrovia. The new -- and therefore untainted -- administration of DRC President Joseph Kabila is an attractive
Xinhua: China Building Digital Tibet on Internet [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Wednesday, January 02, 2002 10:50 AM China Building Digital Tibet on Internet Xinhuanet 2002-01-02 16:05:38 CHENGDU, January 2 (Xinhuanet) -- The days that Tibetans passed oral messages by trudges on the back of horses and yaks half a century ago have gone. Nowadays, modern information facilities and network technologies are indispensable in the life of Tibetans. "Moreover, a 'digital Tibet' is being constructed to break the monopoly of spreading information on Tibet by foreign countries onthe Internet," Li Tao, a Tibetologist, said at a recent academic meeting in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. Zeng Zhongyi, general manager of the Tibet Telecom Company, said that the "digital Tibet" refers to the information modernization in Tibet. The "digital Tibet" will help overcome the traffic obstruction on the "roof of the world", and let people around the world get toknow the real Tibet, Zeng said. Chinese central and local government will increase investment in information facilities in the region and the optical fiber cables will reach each counties in Tibet by 2004. In addition, all of the towns of the region will be connected by telephone by 2005. And the number of Internet users will witness a sharp increase in the coming years. Zeng said that in view of the fact that Tibet has vast land andsmall population, the region has made a policy giving priority to the development of information industry. As a part of the "digital Tibet", a Window's platform compatible with Tibetan, Chinese and English languages has recently been developed by the Tibet University. In December 15, a multifunctional integrated software in Tibetan, Chinese and English languages developed by the Northwest China Institute for Nationalities was approved by experts. Using the software, Tibetans with the knowledge of computer and the Internet may compile application software programs in their nativelanguage. At present, the popularity rate of telephone in Tibet has reached 4.7 percent. Satellite communication stations covering allprefectures, cities and counties of the region have been built. The optical fiber cables have been laid from Lhasa to Xigaze, Nyingchi, Qamdo and other areas. The number of registered dial-up Internet users in Tibet has surpassed 4,000. Tibet's on-line existence was monopolized by foreign countries by the mid-1990s. People outside China could only see a distorted Tibet on the websites built by Dalai Lama's separatist group. However, more and more websites about Tibet emerged in the mainland of China in recent years. So far, the number of websites about Tibet in simplified Chinese is more than 100, and figure of related web pages is over 300,000. Non-governmental and individual websites made up the majority of the Tibetan websites in the early stages, while the joining of governmental webs at the end of 1990s has greatly pushed forward the development of Tibetan network. Ma Lihua, chief inspector of the well-known website, www.tibet-web.com, said that many overseas web visitors say the Tibetan websites in China have plentiful and reliable contents, and are quickly upgraded. Statistics show that about 33 percent of the Tibetan websites are about traveling, while 15 percent are about commerce and trade,and 17 percent in the field of culture and art. Most of the websites have high visit rate. For instance, after the tibet-web was launched no more than one year ago, at least 200,000 people have visited the site. More than 90 percent of the Tibetan websites are built in Beijing, Lhasa, Xining and Chengdu. The world first Tibetan language website, www.tonguer.net, opened last year in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province. Zeng Zhongyi said that all of the prefectures in Tibet now can be connected with the Internet. "We will further encourage the development of E-commerce. Tibetans have began to enjoy life in the information era." Enditem ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
UK/Afg: Arrested Scot seen as hero in Bradford - Guardian [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Arrested Scot seen as hero in Bradford Martin Wainwright and Kirsty ScottThursday January 3, 2002The Guardian James McLintock, the Scot arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of links with al-Qaida, was a hero in Bradford's Muslim community because of his exploits in Afghanistan fighting against the Russians. Dr Rasjid Skinner, a consultant psychologist who met Mr McLintock recently, said yesterday it was widely known that the 37-year-old had fought in Afghanistan with the mojahedin 10 years ago, and he was thought to have volunteered to serve with Muslims in Bosnia during the civil war. The Foreign Office was trying to confirm yesterday that a man detained on the Afghan border near an al-Qaida training camp recently was Mr McLintock. Dr Skinner said that Mr McLintock was a dignified man, modest about suggestions that he had been a hero in Afghanistan. "He was obviously someone of good character. His parents are academics and he was a master linguist, speaking many European languages and also Pushto, Urdu and Arabic," said Dr Skinner. "I felt I knew him before I met him, because he was such a hero to the community." Mr McLintock, originally a Catholic, converted to Islam in the mid-1980s after reportedly suffering from mental health problems as a youth. His father, Dr Ian McLintock, a former Labour councillor and university lecturer, and his mother, Margaret, a teacher and Amnesty International activist, have gone to ground with their other two children. Foreign Office officials have been unable to contact the family, whose house in Arbroath is deserted. Mr McLintock took the name Mohammed Yaqub and settled in Bradford where he married and had two sons. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
UK: The extremist network that sprang from 'Londonistan' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Daily Telegraph The extremist network that sprang from 'Londonistan' (Filed: 03/01/2002) Security services dismissed threat from 'fireside warriors', reports Sean O'Neill LONDON has been a centre for Islamic extremists for years but only after September 11 have the activities of the militants been taken seriously. Click to enlarge The firebrand clerics who preached jihad and hatred of the West were dismissed as fireside warriors by British intelligence and security services. It was an attitude that enraged the French and Algerian authorities who referred to "Londonistan" - a city which harboured known terrorists, disseminated their propaganda and produced zealous new recruits. Zacarias Moussaoui, the first man to be charged over the September 11 conspiracy, lived in south London for nine years and was one of those recruits who was alleged to have gone on to become an al-Qa'eda operative. In Brixton, Moussaoui is believed to have met and influenced Richard Reid, the shoe bomber who tried to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. Reid, a British convert to Islam, is now thought to have spent time at Khalden Camp, the same al-Qa'eda training centre in Afghanistan to which Moussaoui, a French-Moroccan, travelled in April 1998. Moussaoui's family say he was radicalised in London after worshipping at the Finsbury Park mosque, where the imam is the Afghan war veteran Abu Hamza, and attending the Baker Street prayer group run by Abu Qatada, a Palestinian cleric. Another disciple of the Baker Street group was Djamel Beghal, an Algerian arrested in Dubai in September who is accused of leading a terrorist cell which was plotting to bomb the American embassy in Paris. Kamel Daoudi, Beghal's former flatmate in Paris and the alleged bombmaker for the embassy plot, was arrested in Leicester where he was in hiding after escaping French police raids. He and Beghal are now in custody in France. Qatada, a Palestinian who has political asylum in Britain, has been named by the Spanish authorities as Osama bin Laden's spiritual ambassador in Europe. He had £180,000 in various currencies seized in a police raid on his west London home last year. He has been named by the United Nations as a terrorist suspect and has had his assets frozen. A key figure in the network of Islamic radicals in London, Qatada is believed to have met bin Laden in Pakistan in the late 1980s when the Saudi was engaged in the Afghan war against the Soviet Union. He denies the meeting. His group's role appears to have been to focus on the most committed young men while other groups, like al-Muhajiroun, whipped up emotions among Muslim youth. Run by Omar Bakri Mohammed, who is based in Tottenham, north London, al-Muhajiroun supported and claimed to be recruiting fighters for the Taliban. The group has links with Dr Mohammed al-Massari, the Saudi dissident who has lived in Britain since 1994 and who has defeated attempts to deport him. In 1996 he helped Khalid al Fawwaz, another Saudi dissident, set up an office in London. Fawwaz was establishing bin Laden's press office. Bin Laden telephoned Massari to thank him for helping Fawwaz. Fawwaz and two Egyptians are in prison in Britain awaiting extradition to the United States to stand trial over the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania by al-Qa'eda. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^ whij03.gif Description: GIF image
Galloway: The flaws in Downing Street's fatwa - Guardian [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The flaws in Downing Street's fatwa Claiming war has made us safer is a dangerous hostage to fortune George GallowayThursday January 3, 2002The Guardian Largely lost over the festive period, Downing Street's pre-Christmas fatwa - hailing the government's war triumphs, while denouncing "10 media views which proved to be wrong" - deserves closer scrutiny. Cutely entitled "100 days, 100 ways", the document declares premature victory and parades the scalps of its critics before they have in truth been taken. The principal targets of the war, Bin Laden and his key associates, remain uncaptured and unslain. Even Mullah Omar, the one-eyed obscurantist and erstwhile emir, seems to have been mislaid. By carefully honing down the war aims to little more than better gender-balanced government in Afghanistan (not something the government is crusading for everywhere in the Islamic world), No 10's war-room spinners claim the victor's spoils. But even in Afghanistan, the last shot is a long way from being fired. Since the 100-days euphoria, hundreds have been killed by maladroit US bombing or maliciously misguided targeting. And having achieved the leader-ship of the multinational force, British soldiers pack their kitbags for another expedition through the Khyber Pass and our own thin red line is strung out still farther. The Queen scarcely has enough soldiers to fill the foxholes we are in already in Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait - so much for the 1960s withdrawal east of Suez - yet the New Labour army marches on. Their arrival is unlikely to remain uncontested. As one Pashtun warlord put it: "To kill occupation soldiers will be a duty for all Afghans; to kill British soldiers will be a pleasure." But the most dangerous hostage to fortune is the government's claim that, as a result of the war, "you and your family live in a safer world". "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" is always a dangerous chant, whether on the terraces at Millwall or aimed at the people "in 50 countries" who, according to Colin Powell, have made a strategic turn to suicide. Running through government propaganda is the taunt that those who saw armageddon in the mounting rage of Muslims - over Palestine, Iraq and the west's bottomless succour for the tyrannies which rule them - were crying wolf. But what was September 11 if not a taste of apocalypse? And why should we conclude that daisy-cutting Kandahar caves has made "you and your family" safer? There is scant evidence that the terrorists who hijacked those planes and flew them to destruction went to Afghanistan, far less depended on it. What is certainly true is that their cells were formed in Europe and their crucial training in flying and martial arts took place in the sun-kissed Florida glades. These were men more at home in hotel lobbies and internet cafes than the boltholes of Tora Bora. While no doubt useful, a state-sponsored base camp is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for a successful terrorist campaign, as decades of IRA activity in the UK proved. And what of the well of hatred from which the Bin Laden phenomenon draws its power? Do we take the hundred days of coup-less quiescence as dissipated rage? Does every bomb and convoy-strafing rally the world's Muslims to our side? As the Palestinian Authority lies comatose on life support, do we take the silence as a cry of surrender? Or are the Muslims merely nursing their wrath to keep it warm? On New Year's Day in a top Cairo hotel, I watched a cabaret act go into into a kind of rap routine. The audience roared with delight as the vocalist improvised on current events. But they saved their loudest applause for his paean of praise for Bin Laden. Today the Muslim world is stretched taut, waiting for the storm to break. The Wall Street Journal calls the British prime minister "America's newest and brightest ambassador". Despite their widely trailed objections to a widening of the war, the British are about to learn that ambassadors - whether sent abroad to lie for their country or someone else's - don't make decisions, but merely carry them out. Puffed up and pumping "let's kick ass" braggadocio, the Nixon-Reagan-Bush apparatchiks now proliferating in the treaty-busting White House are buckling up for the next assault. I wonder how safe the government feels "you and your family" will be once these tough guys get going - and the going gets even tougher. · George Galloway is Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin and a Scottish Mail on Sunday columnist. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an
Re: Arrested Scot [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Regarding the Guardian feature on the Scottish Talib: A perfect parable for the Humanitarian War and [In]Human Rights crowd if it had but eyes to see and ears to hear. Trace the trajectory of its protagonist and all becomes clear. His mother is an Amnesty International operative; he has psychiatric problems and heads off to Pakistan to fight in the CIA's war against secular Afghanistan; then he's deployed to Bosnia to fight for the jailed Gestapo agent and theocrat Izetgevovic, then the hero of the human rights brigade; he then returns to Afghanistan to join the Taliban in its war against the hero's erstwhile colleagues in the now Northern Alliance. You couldn't script a better morality tale than this. If he hadn't been captured he might have ended up in Macedonia...or Northwest Greece. A Western human rights poster boy, indeed. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'Post-Yalta World': Munich Redux [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Post-Yalta world is a quote from Zbigniew Brzezinski's latest, 1997, tome The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives which, among many fascinating items, contains a chapter called The Eurasian Balkans which charts out most everything that has transpired subsequently in the Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia, including the current Afghan campaign. Pre-Yalta world would have been more to the point. Eduard Benes, the president of Czechoslovakia before the Nazi invasion and again afterwards, is noted for selling his nation down the river at Munich as well as his mass-scale ethnic purges of Volkdeutsch afterwards, before the Czechoslovak people had the good sense to elect Klement Gottwald in 1948. Benes' daughter married the very same Zbigniew Brzezinski, whose preeminent intern was none other than Madeleine Albright, daughter of Joseph Korbel, a key aide of Eduard Benes...and so it goes. Post-Yalta Europe looks increasingly like 1941.] Austrian Defense Minister Demands Abolition of Benes Decrees PRAGUE, Jan 3, 2002 -- (Radio Prague) The Austrian Defense Minister and deputy chairman of the far-right Freedom Party Herbert Scheibner has said he expects the Czech Republic to abolish the Benes Decrees before its entry to the European Union. Under the post-war decrees issued by the Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes, some 2.5 million Germans were deported from Czechoslovakia and their property seized by the state. Mr Schreibner expressed hope that a solution to the issues of the Czech Temelin nuclear power station and the Benes Decrees would be found in the course of EU accession talks. However, he refused to say whether the Freedom Party would call for an Austrian veto of the Czech Republic's entry to the EU over the Benes Decrees, as the party has threatened to do if Temelin is put into commercial operation. (C) 2002 Radio Prague. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
No Hard Feelings Between CIA Contras [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [The very moving 'heartfelt recantations' toward the end of this report should be taken in the spirit in which they were uttered. It's certain that the Company has other uses for the recently released, perhaps in Kazakstan or, as always, the Balkans.] Thursday January 3 9:52 AM ET Afghan Authorities Release 269 Taliban Prisoners By Jeremy Page KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's new government released 269 Taliban prisoners on Thursday, most of them captured as long as five years ago by Northern Alliance forces. The men were freed from a prison in central Kabul and given 500,000 afghanis ($20) each by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to get back to their homes, mostly in southern Afghanistan. The gesture underscored the confidence of the interim government that formally took power on December 22, about five weeks after the Taliban collapsed, worn out and bloodied by several weeks of blistering U.S. bombing. ``All of them are Taliban prisoners captured at the front,´´ said Brigadier Farooq of the Ministry of State Security, commander of a jail in northern Afghanistan where the men were held until two days ago. ``In order to restore peace and an atmosphere of freedom in the country, the government decided to release captives taken while fighting the Northern Alliance,´´ he told Reuters. ``They say they want to go back to their villages,´´ he said. ´´I don´t know how they feel in their hearts, but I don´t think they can do anything now.´´ Looking pale but reasonably healthy, and very relieved, the men queued up to collect their wads of crisp, new afghanis before gathering their few belongings and heading out of the prison compound. PRISONERS BACK GOVERNMENT They said they had heard about the September 11 attacks on the United States, the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, and the defeat of the Taliban from guards at the prison and the occasional radio report. Many, such as 20-year-old Doar Mohammad, said they now backed the new interim government of Hamid Karzai. ``I believe in God, but not in the ideology of the Taliban any more,´´ said Mohammad who was captured two years ago in the northern province of Baghlan. ``It didn´t do any good, torturing people, forcing men to have long beards and women to wear burqas. ``I joined the Taliban because they captured my area,´´ he said. ``If you had been me, you would have done the same. Now I just want to go home and listen to the radio and watch television.´´ But a few said they still believed in the Taliban's extreme interpretation of Islamic law, under which television was banned. ``I was upset when I heard about the Taliban´s defeat because I thought Islamic government had ended,´´ said Qutbuddin Hanifi, 28, who was captured four years ago. ``At the beginning of the Taliban movement, everything was all right and people were treated well,´´ he said. ``If I ask people in the street what happened for the last four years, maybe I will change my mind.´´ BELIEFS UNCHANGED Abdul Hadi, who joined the Taliban after studying in a madrassa -- or Islamic college -- in their former stronghold of Kandahar, said his beliefs had not changed after five years in prison. ``It is written in the Koran that the prophet said women should wear burqas and men should have long beards,´´ he said. ´´It is a personal thing -- if you are a Muslim, you must understand the rules of Islam.´´ ICRC spokesman Michael Kleiner said the government had asked his organization to arrange for the prisoners to be sent home. This was the second major prisoner release since the fall of the Taliban, he said. The first took place in Kandahar last month, when anti-Taliban forces released some 1,600 prisoners and sent them home. ``The new authorities are processing cases,´´ said Kleiner. ´´The important thing is that people can go home, and we are providing them with some cash to do so.´´ Farooq said senior Taliban leaders were released earlier as part of prisoner exchanges and there were no more Taliban in his prison in the northern district of Dubab. But there were 22 foreign prisoners from Pakistan, Burma, China, Saudi Arabia and Yemen still in captivity, he said. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Fw:Federal Judge Dismisses Puerto Rico Lawsuit [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- US NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES! NOW! - Original Message - From: V S C [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 4:18 PM Subject:Federal Judge Dismisses Puerto Rico Lawsuit Vieques Support Campaignhttp://palfrente.tripod.comE-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ NO TO RACISM IMPERIALIST WAR! U.S. NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES ALL OF PUERTO RICO! _ At a time when the U.S. government is sounding the drums of war, increasing its arrogance towards other countries, while propagating racist hate of other peoples abroad, the court's dismissal of thislawsuit is a blatant disregard for the victimized people of Vieques. The decision to dismiss this lawsuit is for all intents and purposes a call for continuing the criminal U.S. Navy bombing of Vieques. No matter what racist court officials decide, the peoples struggle continues. The global war campaign the U.S. government is engaged in will not prevent popular opposition everywhere in the world and the peoples struggle to eventually get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques. -VSC -- Federal Judge Dismisses Puerto Rico Lawsuit Associated PressThursday, January 3, 2002 A federal judge dismissed Puerto Rico's lawsuit to stop the federalgovernment from resuming Navy bombing exercises on the territory's island of Vieques. The Puerto Rican government said yesterday it would appeal. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said that although the political andpolicy issues surrounding the case were complex, "the legal issue, incontrast, is simple and straightforward." Puerto Rico had filed its complaint last year after Gov. Sila Calderon signed a law banning loud noises along the island's shores. That law cited the U.S. Noise Control Act of 1972, which allows states -- or, as in Puerto Rico's case, U.S. territories -- to set noise-control laws. In a ruling issued Monday, Kessler said she must dismiss Puerto Rico's case "for lack of subject matter jurisdiction." She said the Noise Control Act "does not provide plaintiff a cause of action to sue in federal district court for the violations alleged." Puerto Rican Justice Secretary Anabelle Rodriguez pledged to appeal theruling. "We think the decision is erroneous," she said yesterday in San Juan. President Bush has said he wants the Navy to end its training on Vieques by 2003, but many in Puerto Rico question whether the U.S. war in Afghanistan will cause him to back away from the commitment. In addition, Congress passed legislation last month that would bar the Navy secretary from closing the site until he and top military leaders certify the availability of a site or sites that would provide "equivalent or superior" levels of training. A Pentagon spokesman would not comment because he had not seen the ruling. Puerto Rican researchers have linked heart disease and other health problems found among Vieques residents to naval gunfire and pollutants released during military exercises. The Navy denies the allegations. ___ PEOPLES' FORUM U.S. Navy Out Of Vieques! U.S. Colonialism Out Of Puerto Rico! No To Racism! No To War! 12 noon, Saturday, January 26, 2002 St. Mary's Episcopal Church 521 West 126th Street Manhattan, New York City (Between Broadway Amsterdam Avenues) Take the IRT, # 1 or the IND "A" subway trains to 125th Street. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Fw: Uganda Women against War [fwd] [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: hde_tollenaere [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 31, 2001 12:12 AM Subject: Uganda Women against War [fwd] ANTI-WAR MESSAGE FROM THE WOMEN OF UGANDA Dear Sisters, We the women of Kaabong Women's Group on behalf of the rural grassroots women in Uganda, especially Karamoja region, are opposing military actions, budgets, arms fairs, and highly condemn the acts of terrorism and the revenge the USA has taken. Women, children are dying innocently. We bring this message of millions of women deprived of their basic human rights and status in all parts of the world and we join the International Women Count Network in London as we come to the third Global Women's Strike in which we shall all participate, with the theme Invest in caring not killing. Women and children are the majority of those killed and wounded in armed conflicts, besides their hard work of life-giving, going through severe hardship, cleaning, nursing, building, walking miles for clean water. All of us who have joined the Global Women's Strike are here on earth as living witnesses of thousands of people - women who suffer acts of violence and injustice caused by armed conflicts. We forced political and economic leaders to listen to us about military budgets, but we've failed to obtain even one satisfactory response to our demands. The demands stand unchanged. It is up to us to continue acting with all anti-neo-liberal globalization and anti-sexist movements to force international financial institutions (World Bank IMF) to radically change course and to make the UN assume veritable political leadership in the people's, particularly women's, interests. We must also find the means and the platform from which to continue our action to eliminate violence in the world. We have a lot on our plates. Members of Kaabong Women's group had a silence of prayers for all those who died in the terrorists act in New York and Washington and for the Women and Children who died in Afghanistan. Throughout history, women have crossed geographical, cultural and ideological borders in search of peace. We the women can find an end to this terrible act. Join us on the third Global Women's Strike so that we make it real: CARING NOT KILLING Yours in Power to the Sisters, Grace Loumo Met vriendelijke groet/Best wishes, - Herman de Tollenaere - My Internet site on Asian history and new religions: http://www.asianhistory.myweb.nl/ See also SIMPOS, information on occult tendencies' impact on society: http://www.stelling.nl/simpos/simpoeng.htm - ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Fw: AlQaeda Barely Scratched [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---
Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 1:58 PM
Subject: [ctrl] AlQaeda Barely Scratched
From WND }}}Begin
This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which
follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/
article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25881
Tuesday, January 1, 2002
WAR ON TERROR U.S. efforts 'barely scratched' al-Qaida? Students
of Islam express enthusiasm for 'holy war' against U.S.
By Toby Westerman
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com The al-Qaida leadership,
rumored to have fled from the devastation of Afghanistan, is finding a ready
supply of new, youthful followers who claim to be ready to fight "at every
moment." "Al-Qaida is still intact," and American bombing
"barely scratched" the terrorist network, according to one student attending a
Pakistani religious school and interviewed by the respected Italian news daily
Corriere della Sera. "It is not enough to
believe American propaganda," the young Islamic militant stated.
Most of those attending the school firmly hold the belief that the U.S.
began the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan as an unprovoked attack on the
Muslim world. Several of the approximately 3,000 students
(including some 600 Afghans) at the school - referred to as a "madrassa" -
revealed their determination to fight against the "great war launched by the
Americans" against Islam. It is the duty of
every "good Muslim" to be "ready to fight at every moment," one of the students
declared. Another student, who is a recent arrival from Kabul,
Afghanistan, quickly entered the discussion and added, "Even if Osama and Mullah
Omar are dead, it would be of little importance, because the cause for which we
fight" would find leadership "in other individuals."
The students' remarks, and the enthusiasm for a "holy war" on the part of many
of their classmates, verify the observations of one early authority on Islamic
extremism. Yossef Bodansky, in his seminal work "Bin Laden:
The Man Who Declared War on America", noted the existence of a "solid, capable
Islamic terrorist infrastructure in the West, capable of operating both at home
and overseas" that does not rely upon specific instructions from
bin Laden. The students who were interviewed attend a school
called The Straight Path University, which is located about 30 miles south of
Peshawar, in northern Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border and the fabled
Khyber Pass. There is no admission on the part of the students
that the Taliban or al- Qaida committed any wrong, and certainly no indication
of remorse for the actions attributed to Islamic terrorism.
"Repentance - for what?" responded one of the young Muslim scholars when
Corriere Della Sera asked about Islam's share in the responsibility for events
in Afghanistan. "The United States" uses every chance "to
attack Islam," the student declared, and asserted that "their [U.S.] secret
services had planned the attacks of Sept. 11 for a pretext" to use against
al-Qaida, the Taliban and bi n Laden. The students
regard with contempt the new government in Afghanistan, a coalition of factions
supported by the West. The present Kabul regime is, according
to the students, a "fantasy and a farce" that will fall like a "house of cards"
and could "hardly succeed against serious opposition." Despite
America's war on terrorism, the school continues to operate without financial
difficulty, with much of its funding from wealthy donors in Saudi Arabia and
United Arab Emirates, according to the Corriere della Sera report.
Sympathies of those on the Pakistani side of the border with
Afghanistan have aided Taliban fighters in their escape from U.S.
bombardment and attacks from anti-Taliban forces.
Outright bribery has also proven effective in assisting the flight of
Taliban and al-Qaida personnel from Afghanistan, with the price for
passage from Afghanistan to Pakistan ranging from $1,600 to $3,300,
depending upon the importance of the refugee, according to an earlier
Corriere della Sera report. Related offer:
"Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America"
I.J. Toby Westerman, is a contributing reporter for
WorldNetDaily who focuses on current events in the Commonwealth of
Independent States and the Balkans. End{{{
~~~
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Re: Stratfor: U.S. Intelligence Probe Expands in Africa [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- It sounds like the CIA is once again using it's hacks in the media to prepare us for a further widening of the war.this time a war on the Democratic Republic of Congo! mart- Original Message - From: Stasi To: Anti-NATO Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 6:43 AMSubject: Stratfor: U.S. Intelligence Probe Expands in Africa HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK---Thursday, January 03, 2002 11:31 AMStratforU.S. Intelligence Probe Expands in Africa2300 GMT, 020102 Summary U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating links between Hezbollah, al Qaeda and mining investments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The investigations shed light on the links between militant groups and organized crime and more importantly, illustrate the freedom with which criminals and militants raise illicit funds in Africa. The discoveries, combined with al Qaeda's ties to drug trafficking, will lead the United States to expand its presence in Africa and thus build cooperation with African governments.U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are looking into links between al Qaeda, Lebanon-based militant organization Hezbollah and mining concerns in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Washington Post reported Dec. 30. So far, the investigation has uncovered a network of Lebanese diamond traders with ties to militants -- who have assets in the Congo -- and alleged al Qaeda members. The United States hopes to paralyze al Qaeda by uncovering and seizing its sources of funding. Doing so, however, will have lasting consequences only if Washington can permanently shut down those sources of revenue. Africa, which has a wealth of natural resources, also has a number of failed states where large swaths of territory are beyond government control. A healthy black market and the presence of foreigners also combine to create attractive opportunities for criminals. Permanently preventing al Qaeda from exploiting the lawlessness of mineral-rich countries like the DRC will lead Washington to expand its engagement with African governments. But the United States must back up greater engagement on issues of security and politics -- including closer cooperation between U.S. and African intelligence and law enforcement agencies -- with investment and development aid. For the government in Kinshasa, expanded relations with the United States could translate not only into increased investment but also into greater political support for its war against rebels in eastern DRC and their foreign backers, Rwanda and Uganda. The DRC has immense natural resources, including minerals and timber, but it has been ravaged by more than three years of civil war. According to a United Nations report released in April 2001, all five of the foreign nations involved in the conflict have plundered the Congo's mineral resources -- including cobalt, coltan, copper, diamonds and gold -- in order to fund their war efforts. Other nations are not the only looters to set up shop in the Congo's provinces. The U.N. report also cites the systematic looting of natural resources by organized criminal cartels with worldwide connections. U.S. intelligence officials say one of these groups is Hezbollah. The group -- which is known to have a global network including Latin American drug traffickers, European diamond traders and Middle Eastern militants -- may be using the DRC's illicit diamond trade to fund its activities. It may also be working in concert with other militant groups, like al Qaeda, involved in illicit fundraising activities in the Congo. Though no direct evidence linking the two has surfaced, al Qaeda has owned and operated businesses in other African nations including Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan. According to the Washington Post report, U.S. officials are also investigating terrorist ties to the mineral trade in Tanzania, where suspects arrested after Sept. 11 have been linked to al Qaeda. The reasons militant groups can operate with impunity are simple: Many African governments have little or no control over large swaths of territory, the network of illicit trade is well established and borders are porous. This description fits many African nations where natural resources are being exploited, including Angola, the DRC, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The events of Sept. 11 forced the United States to pursue al Qaeda's international sources of financing. The plethora of opportunities for illicit fundraising in places like the DRC or Sierra Leone will prompt Washington to explore options for uncovering al Qaeda's assets in these countries and finding means of shutting them down. But with 60 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's urban labor force employed in the black market, penetrating and dismantling al Qaeda's revenue streams may prove impossible. Faced with such a Herculean task, the United States will turn to
Cuba: lower infant mortality rate than US [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- BBC. 3 January 2002. Cuba records lowest infant mortality rate Cuba has recorded its lowest infant mortality rate for four decades, with 6.2 children in every 1,000 dying before the age of one. According to figures from the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, Cuba - along with Canada - now has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas. The United States is second with seven in every 1,000 children. Guatemala has the highest infant mortality rate with 45 in every 1,000 children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
The Balkans DU Cover-Up [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Article by: envirodoc Monday 31 Dec 2001 Summary: Discussion on Balkans contamination and health effects coverup Reference at indymedia website: http://urbana.indymedia.org//front.php3?article_id=3601 Source: http://www.thenation.com = The Balkans DU Cover-Up by ROBERT JAMES PARSONS Last November, when stories first appeared in the European press of deaths from leukemia among Italian soldiers who had served in the Balkans, alarm bells started ringing across the Continent. The leukemia was--and still is--believed by many independent experts to be caused by radiation from depleted uranium (DU) arms used in the Balkans during the war. Since most European countries are members of NATO, most of them have troops stationed in or near areas believed to be contaminated. In France, the February 2000 broadcast of a documentary about DU triggered a steadily increasing demand for more and better information. At the same time, reports were surfacing in Belgium of illness among that country\'s troops stationed in the Balkans. Early this year, Spain and Greece announced they will screen their soldiers for contamination, and Portugal has decided to remove its troops entirely from Kosovo. Country after country summoned US ambassadors or dispatched delegations to NATO headquarters in Brussels in search of more information about DU. But NATO--which in effect means the United States--has stuck to the Pentagon\'s oft-repeated refrain: If there is a problem, soldiers\' health should certainly be studied, but it is impossible that DU is involved because its radiation is so low as to be utterly harmless. A major reason for Pentagon evasiveness is the almost 200,000 Gulf War vets apparently suffering from the variety of illnesses lumped together as Gulf War Syndrome who have filed claims against the VA for service-related illnesses. Three-quarters of that group are now classified by the VA as disabled, and almost 7,000 of the original total have died. In the case of contamination by Agent Orange in Vietnam, the Pentagon ended up admitting claims from anybody who had served in the theater after use of the defoliant had begun. If this were repeated in the case of Gulf War Syndrome, most of the almost 700,000 vets who served on the ground in the Persian Gulf would be eligible to press claims. Further, in addition to helping solve the serious problem of what to do with nuclear waste, DU weapons play a key role in the US military\'s concept of a \no loss\ war. If such arms performed brilliantly against tanks in the Iraq war, they performed equally brilliantly against the Serbian regime\'s huge underground installations (\hardened targets\ in military jargon) in Kosovo, where NATO has admitted to using some nine and a half tons of DU. Hence, far from planning to remove DU from its arsenal anytime soon, the Pentagon wants to increase its use. Thus, duly attentive to its own interests, the US government has consistently pressured its NATO allies and the UN--which has assumed responsibility for Kosovo--to keep the lid on DU contamination investigations (to the extent that such inquiries cannot be thwarted outright). Such pressure, however, has not stopped information from slowly leaking out, as evidenced by the French documentary and the reports from Belgium. But until the Italian government decided in December to launch an official inquiry into DU use in Kosovo, there was no general awareness of the danger among the European public. Significantly, Britain, whose government has long been at odds with its own veterans over Gulf War Syndrome and is the only country other than the United States to admit to using DU, has been a low-key but insistent supporter of the Pentagon line. Much, in fact, is already known about DU. Contrary to what the Pentagon keeps insisting, the \depleted\ in the name depleted uranium does not indicate uranium bereft of all but weak, hence harmless, radiation. Rather, it is depleted of its contents of the uranium isotope U-235, which, because it is fissionable, is used for bombs and for fuel in nuclear reactors. What\'s left, U-238, is 40 percent less radioactive but still extremely dangerous. Anybody handling DU metal must wear clothing resistant to high-level radiation, hermetically sealed and equipped with a respirator. The Pentagon itself knows the dangers. On July 22, 1990, the US Army made public an exhaustive study of armor-piercing DU munitions (quoted in the Military Toxics Project\'s 2000 report \Don\'t Look, Don\'t Find\), which warned of respirable DU oxides, created during combat, that could cause cancer and kidney problems. It further warned that \following combat, the condition of the battlefield and the long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic energy penetrators for military applications.\
America's Empire Rules an Unbalanced World [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Copyright C 2001 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com America's Empire Rules an Unbalanced World Robert Hunter Wade International Herald Tribune Thursday, January 3, 2002 LONDON Suppose you are a modern-day Roman emperor, the leader of the most powerful country in a world of sovereign states and international markets. What sort of framework of international political economy arrangements do you create so that without having to throw your weight around more than occasionally, normal market forces bolster the economic preeminence of your country, allow your citizens to consume far more than they themselves produce, and keep challengers down? You want autonomy to decide on your exchange rate and monetary policy in response only to your own national objectives, while having other countries depend on your support in managing their own economies. You want to be able to engineer volatility and economic crises in the rest of the world in order to hinder the growth of centers that might challenge your preeminence and in order to allow your vulture funds periodically to buy up their assets at fire-sale prices. You want intense competition between exporters in the rest of the world that gives you an inflow of imports at constantly decreasing prices relative to the price of your exports. You want to invite the best brains in the rest of the world to come to your universities, companies and research institutes. You befriend the middle classes elsewhere and make sure they have good material reasons for supporting the framework. You make it unlikely that elites and masses should ever unite in nativistic reactions to your dominance or demand nationalistic development policies that nurture competitors to your industries. What features do you hard-wire into the international political economy? First, free capital mobility. Second, free trade (excepting imports that threaten domestic industries important for your re-selection). Third, international investment free from any discriminatory favoring of national companies through protection, public procurement, public ownership or other devices, with special emphasis on the freedom of your companies to get the custom of national elites for the management of their financial assets, their private education, health care, pensions, and the like. Fourth, your currency as the main reserve currency. Fifth, no constraint on your ability to create your currency at will (such as a dollar-gold link), so that you can finance unlimited trade deficits with the rest of the world. Sixth, international lending at variable interest rates denominated in your currency, which means that borrowing countries in crisis have to repay you more when their capacity to repay is less. This combination allows your people to consume far more than they produce; it periodically produces financial instability and crises in the rest of the world, which hold back the crisis-affected countries and also cause other governments to hold more of your currency and therefore help to finance your deficits; and it allows your firms and your capital to enter and exit other markets quickly. You also need, of course, a bail-out mechanism that protects your creditors and displaces any losses from periodic panics onto the citizens of the borrowing country. To supervise the international framework you want international organizations that look like cooperatives of member states and carry the legitimacy of multilateralism, but are financed in a way that allows you to control them. A Machiavellian interpretation of the U.S. role in the world economy since the end of the Bretton Woods regime around 1970? Certainly. In reality, America's engineering of its dominance has at times been for the general good, when it used its clout to think for the world. But often its clout has been used solely in the interests of its richest citizens and most powerful corporations. This latter tendency has been dominant lately. We see it in its new single-minded unilateralism in international relations, much exacerbated by the mixture of rage at Sept. 11th and gung-ho jubilation at success in Afghanistan. And we see it in what the United States is now ramming through the international supervisory organizations. The United States has engineered the World Trade Organization to commit itself to negotiate a General Agreement on Trade in Services, which will facilitate a global market in private health care, welfare, pensions, education and water, supplied - naturally - by U.S. companies, and which will undermine political support for universal access to social services in developing countries. And it has engineered the World Bank, through congressional conditions on the replenishment of IDA, the soft-loan facility, to launch its biggest refocusing in a decade - a private sector development agenda devoted to the same end of accelerating the private (and
ALBANIANS CALL FOR INDEPENDENCE OF KOSOVO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ALBANIANS CALL FOR INDEPENDENCE OF KOSOVO Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, who is likely to become the provinces future President , declared in Pristina on Saturday that he is to request the United States of America and the European Union to formally recognise the full independence of Kosovo. In a New Year message, Rugova declared that the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, the largest Albanian political grouping, will work intensively on the formal recognition of the independence of Kosovo, with our friends in America and the European Union, to contribute to the calming of the situation in this part of Europe and the world. He added that In fact, Kosovo is already independent but we are seeking formal recognition and integration into NATO and the European Union. Rugova said that his main objectives were to build a democratic and tolerant society, with security and the integration of other ethnic groups. He will have his work cut out. The second largest Albanian party, whose president is the ex-UCK leader Hashim Thaci, abandoned the parliament, leaving a void which has yet to be filled. A coalition government has still not been formed after the elections in November and as a consequence, Kosovo continues to not have a President as the Albanians bicker among themselves. The point is that the Albanians never had a united political programme. What they wanted was the Serbs out of Kosovo, the birthplace of the Serbian nation, since these were the only people who knew how to keep the Albanians under control. NATOs illegal and murderous campaign against Yugoslavia, which incidentally left large swathes of Kosovo contaminated with Depleted Uranium, created the notion of the monster which 500 years of Balkans history had been trying to prevent: a Greater Albania. Kosovo was never Albanian, although these people infiltrated and bred so prolifically that they now constitute 90% of the population. The purpose of the Albanian wife is to bear as many children as possible, wherever that may be, preferably outside Albania since living conditions in any of its neighbours are far better than at home. Albanians, like Afghans, are not one people, but rather a collection of tribes which call themselves Shqiperije (Eagle People). The language itself has very little written tradition and was tacked together into a grammar only in the twentieth century, being a mixture of Gheg and Tosk, two tribal dialects. The notion of Albania (a word foreign to either of these dialects) is anywhere that the eagle people live. To recognise the full independence of Kosovo would be paramount for a foreign power to demand that the USA recognise the right of Mexico over Texas or California. It would be a victory for terrorism, providing new fuel for the fires in Corsica, the Basque Country, Brittany, the Liga Nord, Aztlan, Scots nationalism, Welsh nationalism, and any other fringe separatist group. That the Albanians should have their own institutions within a Yugoslav Federal Province of Kosovo, acting under the auspices of Belgrade, would seem reasonable. The atrocities committed by certain rogue Serbian elements were as lamentable as those caused by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) against its own people. Many were the Albanian girls who fled into Serbian areas to escape being forced into prostitution rings by this group. That the UCK, basically a terrorist organisation with strong links to Osama Bin Ladens Al-Qaeda, should be handed a moral victory by granting full independence, would be an insult to all those who expressed their horror at the September 11th events. Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
World Jewish Congress Reorganizes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- World Jewish Congress Reorganizes By Associated Press January 2, 2002, 4:31 PM EST NEW YORK -- The World Jewish Congress, which led the effort to gain $11 billion in restitution for Holocaust victims, says it has reorganized its executive structure to focus on global terrorism. Secretary General Israel Singer will become chairman of the 21-member executive committee, and Elan Steinberg, WJC staff director for the past 15 years, will move to executive vice president, Steinberg said Wednesday. Avi Becker, director of the WJC's Jerusalem office, will assume the secretary general's title. The Holocaust restitutions will remain our legacy, but we feel it is the right time to move on, Steinberg said. The central issue now is security, the threat of worldwide terrorism and the menace to all democratic institutions. The leadership changes follow WJC President Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s recently announced decision to step down in 2002. The WJC has about 250,000 members in the United States and represents Jewish organizations in 80 countries. Copyright C 2002, The Associated Press ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
See these 4 worthwhile links [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- A NOTE A SHOUT OF JOY: As of Dec. 14 Phil Berrigan is out of jail and free again! Go to http://www.DemocracyNow.org and hear Amy Goodman's Jan. 3 radio interview of Phil. Peace to all from + Kev + (See these 4 links below) === + The Arrival of Orwellian America -- by Rick Gee http://www.strike-the-root.com/gee7.html === + War Propaganda at the New York Times -- by Matt Taibbi http://www.exile.ru/132/press.php === + Talkin' About the F-Word -- by Bernard Weiner http://www.antiwar.com/orig/weiner5.html === + Bush to Waive Congressional Notice of Spy Actions -- by Heidi Przybyla http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=uspolitics_news.hts=APCz2EBapQnVzaCB0 + + LET YOUR HEART, SOUL, MIND SPIRIT RISE ABOVE 'LEFT' and 'RIGHT' Support Antiwar.com at http://antiwar.com and the Global Network Against Weapons Nuclear Power in Space http://www.space4peace.org. + STOP STAR WARS - KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE + == + == Please see these URGENT space links on U.S. military plans for world domination: (1) http://www.af.mil/vision (2) http://www.dtic.mil/jv2020 (3) http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace (4) Report of the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/space20010111.html == + == Please help support the Plowshares and Catholic Worker movements and similar peace and justice, faith and spirit groups. + LOVE OPENS HEAVEN + Thanks from Kevin; age 47; U.S. Navy veteran (Vietnam evacuation and pull-out), cyber-pacifist for peace, gardener, prayer partner and stay-home father-of-4, in Florida (Tampa Bay area) USA. Blessed are the peacemakers. A prayer: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Help me speak truth to power. Pray for one another. Be merciful. Love your enemies. Be grateful. Soften your heart. Forgive those who've hurt you. Come quickly, Jesus Christ, mighty God, son of God, Prince of Peace, Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. Deo Gratias ... inscription on Dorothy Day's tombstone What is to give light must endure burning. -- Viktor Frankl It's either NONVIOLENCE or NONEXISTENCE - Martin Luther King Jr. = + === _ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Thousands of Afghans Likely Killed in Bombings [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Thursday, January 3, 2001 in the Toronto Globe Mail Thousands of Afghans Likely Killed in Bombings by Murray Campbell The Afghan village of Qalaye Niazi vanished in a rain of bombs, with only craters, remnants of mud walls and scraps of flesh and hair to show that it once existed. The people who used to live there say as many as 107 civilians died when U.S. warplanes, including a B-52 bomber, swooped down early Sunday. The Pentagon says the village in eastern Afghanistan was a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban loyalists and that, in any event, the estimate of casualties is "unfounded." Such conflicting information has been a staple of the three-month-old Afghan war and, critics say, has served to obscure the toll exacted from civilians. There is no agreement yet about how many ordinary Afghans have died from the U.S.-led bombardment, but one American academic estimates that the toll stands at 4,050 -- surpassing the number of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. The Pentagon has played down the number of civilian dead, dismissing many early reports as Taliban exaggerations. The bombing campaign is controversial in Afghanistan, with some members of the interim government suggesting it be stopped. Washington has refuses, and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said this week the bombing must continue, to "finish terrorists completely." The bombing campaign remains largely uncontroversial in the United States, where President George W. Bush's war on terrorism enjoys strong support. Marc Herold, a University of New Hampshire economics professor who has monitored the campaign, said yesterday that U.S. officials again have demonstrated their ability to manage the news and mainstream U.S. media have shown their willingness to be managed. "It's been a concerted effort to keep this kind of news off the front pages," he said. "The record of the Bush administration is pretty clear: This is a non-topic." Prof. Herold has gathered media reports (many of them unverified) from around the world for his estimate that 4,050 Afghan civilians have been killed in the bombing. Other organizations, whose monitoring has been less rigorous, offer lower figures. Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based organization, offers an estimate of at least 1,000 civilian deaths, while the Reuters news agency said that perhaps 982 people have died in 14 incidents. Prof. Herold's estimate, updated to include Qalaye Niazi and four other recent incidents, follows his initial calculation three weeks ago that 3,767 Afghan civilians had died since the first bombs fell on Oct. 7. He said he decided to study the effects of the bombing because he suspects that modern weaponry is not as precise as advertised, and because he found hardly any mention of civilian casualties in the U.S. media. He noted there have been news reports that Washington was spending millions of dollars to buy exclusive rights to accurate satellite images of the areas under bombardment. "Preventing the images of human suffering caused by the U.S. bombing from reaching U.S. audiences creates precisely what the Pentagon and Bush seek -- a war without witnesses." Sidney Jones, Human Rights Watch's Asia director, suggests there are several reasons for the muted reaction to the Afghan civilian toll. She said other Afghan topics -- the rebuilding of the country and the hunt for Osama bin Laden -- crowd the news agenda. 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
An Interview with ELN Commander Antonio Garcia, helpful links [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . - Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 11:29 AM Subject: [C-I] An Interview with ELN Commander Antonio Garcia, helpful links Some people on the listserves have questioned the tactics/grassroot support of the armed leftist groups in Colombia. This interview, see below, is very enlightening and can be found at: http://www.web.net/eln/News/Interview.html or for the ELN website: http://www.web.net/eln/ELN/eln.html also see the FARC-EP website: http://www.farc-ep.org/ for some other helpful links for human rights/social justice struggles worldwide in: Nepal: http://www.humanrights.de/n/nepal/index.html Sri Lanka: http://www.eelam.com/ http://www.tamiltigers.net/ Phillipines: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/4148/npa2.html http://www.csi.com.ph/~kmuid/news/news.htm Turkey: http://www.ozgurluk.org/press/ African people: http://www.npdum.com/index.htm Hope these links and this interview can help people understand the hope and inspiration of the struggles, and the grave danger of both the human rights/social justice workers in the movement and the innocent populations that are targeted by the repressive, USA-sponsored death-squad governments in all these countries. NorteAmericanos for Bolivar An Interview with ELN Commander Antonio Garcia Guerrilla leader Antonio Garcia has over-all military command of the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second largest guerrilla movement. An engineer by profession Garcia, now 44, joined the ELN when he was 19. The ELN Q. Who does the ELN represent? A. The ELN is an organization of Colombians who feel excluded by the state, the economic system, and the social injustices they create. We are an organization born of the people and we fight to build a political and economic order in Colombia where political exclusion no longer exists and where problems can be solved through the participation of the majority of the population. We represent the excluded - the majority of Colombians. Q. In what areas of Colombia do the ELN operate? A. The ELN operates in all of the three major mountain ranges of Colombia. We also have a strong presence in the north east of the country and in the plains of Casanare and Arauca. In the eastern plains and Amazonian regions we have neither political nor organizational presence. At the moment the ELN has 43 fronts in rural areas, 10 urban fronts and 22 mobile companies that perform operations in various parts of the country. Our fronts tend to be grouped together depending on their geographical position. For example the fronts in the departments of Arauca, Casanare and Boyaca are grouped together. There is another group made up of fronts based in the north eastern departments of Norte de Santander, Santander and Cesar, and another made up of fronts from the south of Bolivar department and north east of Antioquia department. Also in Antioquia, around the city of Medellin, we have an important grouping. We also have important groupings in the south west of Colombia, the departments of Cauca, Narino and Valle, and in the north around the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Guajira peninsula. All the ELN fronts are located close to main roads or the more important areas of natural resources - the bases of Colombia's economic infrastructure. Q. In the areas where you operate how much control do you have, do you function similarly to a local government? A. The regions in which we operate are totally neglected in terms of social, economic and political justice. They are basically stateless regions and this lack of authority is filled by the guerrillas who try to become an instrument to help the people to organise and to resolve for themselves the needs that they have. Although the ELN is a military force that confronts the establishment and its military forces we are also a force that contributes to the organisation of the society in which we operate. We try to develop the organisational processes within society because this is the only way that we can guarantee stability for the future. Only an organised society can guarantee its future and if a society is not organized any authority can impose their criteria. In the areas where the ELN operates, we are in constant communication with the surrounding communities; we try to coexist with the communities, we support them and help them to resolve their social, health, educational and economic needs. Q. How do you finance yourselves? A. The vast majority of our members are working people; teachers, peasants, housewives, intellectuals, factory workers, professionals, etc. Therefore we have a great number of wage earning people and most of the ELN's social and political work is financed by donations from these people. Those members who are part of the professional
Omar 'may already have been arrested' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 4 January 2002. Mullah Omar may already have been arrested: Afghan minister. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the head of the Taliban who has a 10 million dollar bounty put on his head by the United States, has maybe already been arrested, an Afghan minister told German television. Mohammed Amin Farhang, the Afghan minister for reconstruction, made the comment late Thursday in reply to a question on Germany's ARD state television network. I heard that Mullah Omar had been arrested. I do not know any more than that for the moment, Farhang said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Fw: [C-I] Fw: Cuba: lower infant mortality rate than US [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . - Original Message - From: mart [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: com-int [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; People's Voice [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Sean O'Donoghue [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Mrs. Jela Jovanovic [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Vicki Andrada [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Vivian Pensado [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 10:56 PM Subject: [C-I] Fw: Cuba: lower infant mortality rate than US - Original Message - From: Barry Stoller Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 5:47 PM Subject: [pttp] Cuba: lower infant mortality rate than US BBC. 3 January 2002. Cuba records lowest infant mortality rate Cuba has recorded its lowest infant mortality rate for four decades, with 6.2 children in every 1,000 dying before the age of one. According to figures from the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, Cuba - along with Canada - now has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas. The United States is second with seven in every 1,000 children. Guatemala has the highest infant mortality rate with 45 in every 1,000 children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Re: World Jewish Congress Reorganizes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- In a message dated 1/3/2002 4:40:27 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: NEW YORK -- The World Jewish Congress, which led the effort to gain $11 billion in restitution for Holocaust victims, says it has reorganized its executive structure to focus on global terrorism. How soon will the assets of the Mossad be seized? ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
re World Jewish Congress Reorganizes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The WJC - quote - "has reorganizedits executive structure to focus on global terrorism"??? This is not news. The WJC has always supported Isreal'suse of terrorism against the Palestinians! Maybe the empahsis on the word"global " is what's different??? mart--- Original Message - From: Miroslav Antic [EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 7:13 PMSubject: World Jewish Congress Reorganizes HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---World Jewish Congress ReorganizesBy Associated PressJanuary 2, 2002, 4:31 PM ESTNEW YORK -- The World Jewish Congress, which led the effort to gain $11billion in restitution for Holocaust victims, says it has reorganizedits executive structure to focus on global terrorism.Secretary General Israel Singer will become chairman of the 21-memberexecutive committee, and Elan Steinberg, WJC staff director for the past15 years, will move to executive vice president, Steinberg saidWednesday.Avi Becker, director of the WJC's Jerusalem office, will assume thesecretary general's title."The Holocaust restitutions will remain our legacy, but we feel it isthe right time to move on," Steinberg said. "The central issue now issecurity, the threat of worldwide terrorism and the menace to alldemocratic institutions."The leadership changes follow WJC President Edgar Bronfman Jr.'srecently announced decision to step down in 2002.The WJC has about 250,000 members in the United States and representsJewish organizations in 80 countries.Copyright C 2002, The Associated Press ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Fw: Oil company adviser named US representative to Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Hmmm?? Just a complete and total coincidence I'm sure. Despite irrefutable proof to the contrary, America's greed and lust for oil couldn't have been the real reason for this war?? Could it??? mart - Original Message -From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2002 9:03 PMSubject: [PeaceNoWar] Oil company adviser named US representative toAfghanistanOil company adviser named US representative to AfghanistanBy Patrick Martin3 January 2002http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/oil-j03.shtmlPresident Bush has appointed a former aide to the American oilcompany Unocal, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, as special envoy toAfghanistan. The nomination was announced December 31, nine daysafter the US-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai took officein Kabul.The nomination underscores the real economic and financialinterests at stake in the US military intervention in Central Asia.Khalilzad is intimately involved in the long-running US efforts toobtain direct access to the oil and gas resources of the region,largely unexploited but believed to be the second largest in theworld after the Persian Gulf.As an adviser for Unocal, Khalilzad drew up a risk analysis of aproposed gas pipeline from the former Soviet republic ofTurkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean.He participated in talks between the oil company and Talibanofficials in 1997, which were aimed at implementing a 1995agreement to build the pipeline across western Afghanistan.Unocal was the lead company in the formation of the Centgasconsortium, whose purpose was to bring to market natural gas fromthe Dauletabad Field in southeastern Turkmenistan, one of theworld’s largest. The $2 billion project involved a 48-inch diameterpipeline from the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border, passing near thecities of Herat and Kandahar, crossing into Pakistan near Quettaand linking with existing pipelines at Multan. An additional $600million extension to India was also under consideration.Khalilzad also lobbied publicly for a more sympathetic USgovernment policy towards the Taliban. Four years ago, in an op-ed article in the Washington Post, he defended theTaliban regimeagainst accusations that it was a sponsor of terrorism, writing,“The Taliban does not practice the anti-U.S. style offundamentalism practiced by Iran.”“We should ... be willing to offer recognition and humanitarianassistance and to promote international economic reconstruction,”he declared. “It is time for the United States to reengage” theAfghan regime. This “reengagement” would, of course, have beenenormously profitable to Unocal, which was otherwise unable tobring gas and oil to market from landlocked Turkmenistan.Khalilzad only shifted his position on the Taliban after theClinton administration fired cruise missiles at targets inAfghanistan in August 1998, claiming that terrorists under thedirection of Afghan-based Osama bin Laden were responsible forbombing US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. One day after theattack, Unocal put Centgas on hold. Two months later it abandonedall plans for a trans-Afghan pipeline. The oil interests began tolook towards a post-Taliban Afghanistan, and so did theirrepresentatives in the US national security establishment.Liasion to Islamic guerrillasBorn in Mazar-e Sharif in 1951, Khalilzad hails from the old rulingelite of Afghanistan. His father was an aide to King Zahir Shah,who ruled the country until 1973. Khalilzad was a graduate studentat the University of Chicago, an intellectual center for theAmerican right-wing, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.Khalilzad became an American citizen, while serving as a key linkbetween US imperialism and the Islamic fundamentalistmujahedinfighting the Soviet backed regime in Kabul—the milieu out of which both the Taliban and bin Laden’s Al Qaeda group arose. He was aspecial adviser to the State Department during the Reaganadministration, lobbying successfully for accelerated US military aid to the mujahedin, including hand-held Stinger anti-aircraftmissiles which played a key role in the war. He later becameundersecretary of defense in the administration ofBush’s father, during the US war against Iraq, then went to the Rand Corporation,a top US military think tank.After Bush was installed as president by a 5-4 vote of the USSupreme Court, Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney transition team forthe Defense Department and advised incoming Defense SecretaryDonald Rumsfeld.Significantly, however, he was notnamed to asubcabinet position, which would have required Senate confirmationand might have provoked uncomfortable questions about his role asan oil company adviser in Central Asia and intermediary with theTaliban. Instead, he was named to the National Security
Fw: Michael Moore:Hail George-Conqueror of Evildoers [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: John Clancy Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 12:02 AMSubject:Michael Moore:Hail George-Conqueror of Evildoersfrom: [EMAIL PROTECTED] :Michael Moore: Hail George,Conqueror of Evildoers!Dear George W. Bush:Hats off to you, sir, for a job well done! The Soviets tried forten years to do what it took you only two months toaccomplish in Afghanistan. How did you do that? It's funny howa couple months ago there were all these Taliban, and now --there aren't any! You must be some kind of super magician --almost as good at disappearing acts as ol' Osama (or, as theysay on the Fox Nuisance Channel, "Usama" -- I like theirspelling better, like "We put the 'USA' in USAma!"). He didexist, didn't he? I would hate to have gotten myself all workedup over the wrong evildoer! I loved that last tape of his, thehome video of his sleepover with that sheik. What a partyanimal, that guy! And how 'bout that Northern Alliance! Thanks to them, myweekly supply of heroin will finally be reinstated. Whoo-hoo --and just in time for New Year's Rockin' Eve! Those Talibansimply did NOT have the best delivery system for the stuff,kinda like why you never see Beaman's gum anymore -- poordistribution and shelf placement. According to the New YorkTimes, the Northern Alliance has put all the poppy farmers backto work, and they are promising a "bumper crop" by spring.But Mr. Bush, I am most impressed with how you have usedthose who died on September 11th to justify your lining thepockets of your rich friends and campaign contributors. Your"Economic Stimulus Bill" -- pure genius! You actually got theHouse of Representatives to pass a bill eliminating the law thatsaid corporations have to pay at least a token minimum taxevery year. See, most people forget that back in your daddy's day (whenhe was VP) thousands of companies were able to lawyer theirway out of paying any taxes at all! Then a law was passed tostop that. Now you got the House to agree to give all thesecorporations back ALL the minimum taxes they have paid since1986!! That's $140 billion of givebacks ($1.4 billion to IBM, abillion to Ford, $800 million to GM, etc.). And you got thispassed, all under the guise of "September 11th!" How do youget away with this without the American public whoopin' yourbehind? Man, you are THE MAN! Hey, and tell your top sheriff, Big John Ashcroft, that his refusalto let the FBI look at the files of gun background checks thatthe Justice Department keeps -- to see if any of the terroristsor suspected terrorists have purchased weapons in the pasttwo years -- took some balls! Even though checking those filesmight turn up information that could protect us in possiblefuture attacks, Ashcroft was more concerned with notupsetting the NRA than in helping his own FBI catch the badguys. Now that's what I call getting your priorities straight. BigJohn may have lost his Senate seat last year to a dead guy,but he sure as heck ain't gonna lose me as a huge admirer! Well, I better go before someone from the Office of HomelandSecurity mistakes me for someone who needs to be"interviewed!" Rest assured I'm doing my part for the countryby shopping my sorry ass off in this week before Christmas.Buy! Buy! Buy! Tora! Tora! Tora! Bora! Whoo-hoo, Prince O'Peace!! Fight Team Fight! Go get 'em, George, Jr. -- we'recounting on you to kill all evildoers!Yours,Michael MooreThird in Line to the King of Afghanistanwww.michaelmoore.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] P.S. You'll beat that Enron rap, just like you beat your other raps! Chin up!Who needs "energy traders" anyway? I never saw that job on the list from my high school counselor!! ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
SCMP: Taipei 'fostering military ties with India' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST Thursday, January 3, 2002Taipei 'fostering military ties with India' Prev. Story | Next Story Taiwan and India are secretly developing military co-operation despite a lack of diplomatic ties, a report said yesterday. The two countries had started exchanging military intelligence and Taipei had sent a military attache to India, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. India's top air force officials visited the island some time ago to exchange views with Taiwan's air force commander Chen Chao-min, the paper quoted sources as saying. Contacts between the two sides started during the administration of former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui, it added. Taiwan defence sources said developing military co-operation with India was like setting an ambush on China's backdoor, the paper said. India recognises Beijing, instead of Taipei, as the legitimate Government of all of China, but ties between the two neighbours have often been rocky, with Beijing maintaining warm relations with Pakistan. Closer military links between India and Taiwan might trigger US concern that Taipei could some day obtain nuclear weapons from India to deter the constant missile threat from China. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^ china_left.gif Description: GIF image china_right.gif Description: GIF image
