More On US Military Buildup, War Threats In Central/South Asia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/110102/dlfor22.asp [With permanent U.S. bases for bombing and surveillance missions, radar installations, and rapid deployment of special forces and Marine combat teams in Pakistan proper, in geographically important Baluchistan in particular, as well as in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (on the Chinese border), the U.S. and its Western allies are within immediate striking distance of China, Russia, Iran and India, as well as, with the naval build-up in the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean, of the Eastern entrance to the Persian Gulf. No small wonder that Russia and others are, as a headline in yesterday's Guardian delicately phrased it, edgy.] The Hindustan Times Pak urges US to vacate air bases for mobilisation ANI New Delhi, January 11 Pakistan is said to have notified the United States that the bases that it was using in Jacobabad and Pasni might be needed to put the Pakistani air force on a war footing, a senior Pakistani military official said late last month. A report in the Washington Post says that the Pakistani government, faced with a fresh confrontation with India, has quietly been discussing with the US how long its military plans to remain at the four Pakistani air bases that have been key components of the war in Afghanistan. According to the report, Pakistani officials said their government at first indicated that it wanted the US to give up two of the four bases that it has been using to fight the war. In response, the US military is shifting its operations from Pakistan to other locations, such as newly obtained bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, officials said. Confirming the account a US general said, "There's been some talk of that." But he also said the US need for the bases is waning. "As we continue to improve the capabilities of the airport at Kandahar, staging from other bases in Pakistan might be less of a requirement for us," he said. "In other words, we could fly from other places directly into Kandahar." A senior Pakistani military official was quoted as saying that the two bases in question were partially reclaimed by Pakistani forces, before formal notice had been given to the United States. "It was such an emergency situation that the Pakistan air force was ordered to move straight into the airports while the discussions with the US officials on this subject were held later," the official said. "We are now co-sharing the two air bases with American forces." One reason for that rushed movement, he said, was that Pakistani officials realized they had incorrectly assumed that the US military presence in Pakistan would force India to restrain its military mobilization. However, Asad Hayauddin, a spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Washington, denied that any Pakistani military aircraft were moved. Rather, he said, his government notified the United States late in December that if hostilities broke out with India, the Pakistani military planned to move forces onto some of the bases currently being used by US forces. According to a Pakistani official, the Pakistan military originally argued that it would need to evict the US forces altogether from the bases in Jacobabad and Pasni, but after extensive negotiations between senior officials, it agreed to let some US forces remain there. The United States has deployed Special Operations teams, Marine combat search-and-rescue teams, support aircraft and units of the 101st Airborne Division to four bases in Pakistan. Pakistani military officials said they plan to share the bases in Jacobabad and Pasni, but let the US military retain exclusive use of the less-developed airfields in Dalbandin and Shamsi. At the Jacobabad base, located 300 miles northeast of Karachi, the US military has carried out extensive construction and repair work and installed its own radar equipment. In the coastal town of Pasni, 180 miles west of Karachi, more than a dozen US military helicopters were seen parked last week. Pakistani officials said that if war comes with India, their air force may want to use the Pasni airport to interdict Indian naval activity. The two bases that are of less interest to the Pakistani military are in the province of Balochistan, near Afghanistan. The Dalbandin airfield, 170 miles southwest of Quetta, has been used as a forward refueling base for US Special Operations helicopters flying into Afghanistan. The smaller Shamsi airstrip is believed to be used by only a few Special Operations units. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [
Bulgaria Proves Itself To NATO - In Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- New.BG January 10, 2002 Bulgaria must become a part of the anti-terrorist front in Afghanistan, President Petar Stoyanov said President Petar Stoyanov carried out two consecutive working meetings at the presidential office. Firstly, he received the British Gen. Sir Jeremy Mackenzie, who is the current consultant on the Bulgarian Plan 2004 for reforms in Bulgarian Army, and after that the received the leader of the European Commission delegation to Bulgaria Dimitris Kurkulas. President Petar Stoyanov and Gen. Mackenzie expressed their position about the forthcoming participation of Bulgarian servicemen in the peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan. President Petar Stoyanov said that Bulgaria should be a part of the anti-terrorist front, while the British General, who is a former Deputy Supreme Commander of the NATO forces in Europe, said that the inclusion of Bulgaria in the operation would be a "showcase" of the joint participation. According to President Petar Stoyanov and Mackenzie, the reform in Bulgarian Army must have the support of Bulgarian society, and on the other part, taxpayers in the member countries of NATO should know about the social price that Bulgaria must pay for the reform. Speaking to News.bg Agency, Gen. Mackenzie said that the new variant of Plan 2004 was better, and added that the chances of Bulgaria for an early membership of NATO were unknown for him, although it was sure that Bulgaria was making every effort to fulfill the requirements for membership. He emphasized that the problem with the SS-23 missiles was internal and its development would not influence the opinion of the Alliance for the reforms in Bulgaria. Dimitris Kurkulas said to President Petar Stoyanov that according to him Bulgaria was making efforts in the right direction as for joining the European Union. Speaking for News.bg Agency, he said that European Union was completely committed to the process of joining Bulgaria to the European Union. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
NATO Hopeful Romania Sends Troops To Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- China Central Television CCTV.com ["The six-million-dollar cost of their six month mission will be covered by the Romanian Defense Ministry." According to World Bank figures, Romania's per capita income for the year 2000 was $1,670, putting it 110th in the world. Along with Bulgaria (116th), which is also using public funds for a military mission to Afghanistan, Romania is one of two poorest nations in NATO's candidate pool.] Romanian Troops to Head for Afghanistan FRI, JAN 11, 2002 About 48 Romanian servicemen will fly to Afghanistan for a peacekeeping mission on Friday, Chief of the General Staff Mihail Popescu told the Romanian news agency. Romanian troops, as part of the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), will help the Afghan interim government in keeping order in Kabul and training local security forces. The troops are equipped with a C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and five trucks. The six-million-dollar cost of their six-month mission will be covered by the Romanian Defense Ministry. The ISAP will be led by Britain, which is contributing 1,800 troops for the first three months. The other 17 states signed up to the Afghan force are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. Editor:Liu Hongji Source:Xinhua __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Americans To Stay? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://frontierpost.com.pk/editorials.asp?id=2&date1=1/11/2002 [When friends fall out. The following reflects Islambad's opinion rather than my own, but is insightful in many ways nevertheless.] The Frontier Post (Pakistan) January 11, 2002 Americans to stay? Soothsayers are proving terribly right. They had said the Americans were coming to Afghanistan to stay. They had the experiences of Bosnia, Kosovo and the Gulf War in mind. The Americans are continuing their military presence in Bosnia and Kosovo despite the crises that prompted it having long dissipated. And even as the Gulf War that drew their military intervention ended more than a decade ago, they keep holding on to their bases in Saudi Arabia, citing an untenable Iraqi threat to its neighbouring Arab states. The soothsayers were saying once the Americans land at a place, they squat there and keep spreading themselves by constantly shifting the goalposts.This now seems about to happen in this region. As the Americans are inflicting finishing strokes on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda apparatus in Afghanistan, credible reports have begun appearing in the media that they are planning a long-term presence in the region. They are reportedly building an airbase in Kyrghyzstan to accommodate up to 3,000 troops, warplanes and support aircraft, and upgrading bases in Uzbekistan and Pakistan where their forces are stationed. Inside Afghanistan, the recent reinforcement of the 1,500 marines by the 101st Airborne Divisions troops at Kandahar airport is also being viewed as a pointer to a long US presence there, as such regular army troops are deployed to hold territories for months, if not years. This American presence in and around Afghanistan is being promoted on the pretext that Afghanistans interim government needs help to maintain security and root out remnants of the Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. No doubt, Hamid Karzais is a wobbly administration, badly hamstrung in imposing its control over governors and warlords. This explains the Kandahar governors refusal to hand over to Washington the three senior Taliban ministers who surrendered to him and whom he has released under his general amnesty for the Afghan Taliban. But none of these things can become a valid justification for any long-term presence. The real US motives are easily discernible. These are to establish a strong presence in this strategically important region, rich in oil and gas resources, for promoting its strategic, political and commercial interests. For these very reasons, this American move has all the potential to throw the region into intense major powers rivalry and embroil it in painful frictions, tensions and conflicts. Iran, Russia and China in particular would not brook any such US presence in their neighbourhood. The Russians have already come out strongly against it. This American presence would also potentially hurt badly the as-yet fragile international anti-terrorism coalition, and may even spell its demise. The Americans should not be oblivious either of the public anger their presence could touch off, leading to germination of terrorist propensities among fanatical elements. After all, rabid extremist outfits like Al-Qaeda drew their sustenance largely from the Arab public anger at the continued US military presence in Saudi Arabia. It is for the Americans to ponder over the negative impact their military presence could have on them. As for us, we cannot afford to reap their ill-considered moves bad harvest. We have burnt our fingers once by hosting their military presence in the 1960s. That incurred us Soviet anger. But the Americans returned the compliment by abandoning us when India invaded us in 1965. For their betrayals in our most critical times, despite our pandering to their wishes blindly in their hour of need, they have left our people completely disillusioned with them, a sense now being sharpened phenomenally due to their tilt towards India which is poised to thrust war on us. The government should remain cognizant of this public mood. In no event should it allow a long-term American presence on our soil that could also incur us the displeasure of our tested friends like China. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
What's New About This World Order? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- News.bg January 10, 2001 [Former King Simeon the Second of the House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, dressed as a prime minister for this year's Royal Nordic Ball.] Premier Simeon Koburg-Gotha inaugurated the conference Bulgaria - Dream Area Premier Simeon Koburg-Gotha inaugurated the first conference on tourism Bulgaria - Dream Area today. Speaking for News.bg Agency, he said that tourism would be an extremely prospective branch having a great potential, and reminded the commitment of his government to providing the legal basis for development of tourism in Bulgaria including crediting, taxation policy and licensing. According to Simeon Koburg-Gotha, one of the biggest advantages in developing tourism would be creating new jobs, and again emphasized the necessity of cooperation between government, local authorities, and business representatives. He spoke about the new tourism bill, which was harmonized with the European laws, and which stipulated easier crediting and a new strategy for training personnel. Newly elected President Georghy Parvanov did not attend the forum. Speaking on his behalf, the Chairman of Communication Group Maxim Behar read his address to the participants in the forum. In his letter, Georghy Parvanov expressed his conviction that cooperation with the American partners in tourism would continue in the future. The special video-message of the former American President Bill Clinton was also played on the forum. In its message, Clinton congratulated President Petar Stoyanov and the newly elected President Georghy Parvanov, and expressed his regret for not being able to attend the forum in person. According to Behar, the former American Governor Bob Miller, who was the co-organizer of the forum, has taken upon himself the commitment to organize the second forum by the end of 2002. Vice-Premier and Minister of Economy Nikolay Vasilev also addressed the participants of the forum and said that development of tourism would depend mainly on private initiative. He reminded that tourism in Bulgaria has registered an increase in 2000 and 2001, and said that it could register increase also in 2002. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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: BBC: Russia tension over US bases [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- I am afraid it is too late for them to make a genuine complaint about it. They should have known that if they let the US establish bases in former Soviet republics, these would not be a temporary thing. After all, that is what imperialism does. But Putin was too busy taking advantage of the post-September 11 situation to crack down in Chechnya. Steve K. ___ >From: Stasi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: Anti-NATO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: BBC: Russia tension over US bases [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] >Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 00:59:41 - > >HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK >--- > >Thursday, 10 January, 2002, 07:49 GMT >Russia tension over US bases > > >US promises rewards for support in Afghanistan >http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1751000/1751454.stm > >The speaker of the Russian lower house of parliament, the Duma, has >expressed his opposition to the setting up of any permanent American >military bases in Central Asia. >The speaker, Gennadiy Seleznev, said during his visit to the Kazakh >capital, Astana, that such move would be undesirable for Russian interests. > >"As members of the Commonwealth of Independent States collective security >agreement, we should not take any unilateral decisions without mutual >consultations." > >American troops have been using bases in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and >Kyrgyzstan since the start of the US-led campaign in Afghanistan. > >New challenges > >Mr Seleznev's comments follow earlier statements by the Russian President, >Vladimir Putin, who said he was not against American military presence in >the region. > > > > Uzbek President Islam Karimov (left) is a close American ally > > >But analysts say the close co-operation of the US military with Central >Asia's governments over Afghanistan poses new challenges to Russia. > >Many in the Russian military and nationalist circles fear Washington's >growing influence in what Moscow traditionally regards as its sphere of >interests. > >But Central Asian states, and notably Uzbekistan, see the new post-Taleban >realities as a chance to lessen their dependency on Russia. > >They also regard it as an opportunity to tighten screws on radical Islamic >groups, such as Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which have been >operating from Afghanistan. > >The Uzbek Government has accused it of responsibility for planting a series >of car bombs in Tashkent in 1999. > >Central Asians also expect the US to provide significant political and >financial rewards to boost their struggling economies. > _ 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 ==^
Philippines: Up To 1,000 US Troops To South [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/01/11/phil.sayyaf.us/index.html [How many birds can be killed with one anti-terrorism stone? And how much longer before the Clark Air Force and Subic Naval bases are reactivated?] Philippines debates more U.S. troops By Rufi Vigilar MANILA, Philippines (CNN) --The Philippine government is considering a U.S. proposal to send a full military battalion to the Southeast Asian nation's troubled south. A confidential source said the U.S. military deployment could comprise "up to a thousand troops" who would set up a counter-terrorist training camp for Philippine soldiers in Sibuco, Zamboanga del Norte, some 500 miles (800 km) south of Manila. The arrival of U.S. troops would take place "in phases" starting this month, the source added. Armed Forces spokesman General Edilberto Adan confirmed the U.S. proposal but stressed the precise details of the deployment was "still tentative." "The plan has been tabled by the U.S.," Adan told CNN from the main Philippine military headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, where the matter was being discussed, "but nothing will be done without a mutual agreement with the Philippine government." A military battalion basically comprises some 500 soldiers, with about 100 each in five companies -- three rifle units, one heavy equipment unit, and another unit based at headquarters. A battalion could include hundreds more soldiers "if artillery, armored, and special weapons complements are added," a Philippine army colonel said. The successive arrival and exit of U.S. troops in the Philippines in recent months has fueled speculation they may be allowed to participate directly in operations against guerrillas from the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf in the south. Abu Sayyaf Abu Sayyaf have held hostage American Christian missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham and Filipino nurse Deborah Yap for more than seven months. The U.S. has put Abu Sayyaf on a list of terrorist groups with suspected links to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. Philippine officials, however, have repeatedly stressed that arriving U.S. troops would be limited to training an elite Philippine counter-terrorist force known as the Light Reaction Company. The latest batch of 25 U.S. military trainers arrived Thursday in Zamboanga, about 530 miles (850 km) south of Manila, a week after eight officers arrived in city. A training camp is being set up in Malagutay, just west of Zamboanga, where the Armed Forces Southern Command is based. General Adan said barracks for U.S. military trainers will also be set up in Basilan Island, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold just off the coast of Zamboanga, where the military believes the hostages are being held. The Armed Forces spokesman, however, stressed the barracks "will not be a separate camp but within a Philippine military camp." Kidnappings The Burnham couple and the Filipino nurse are the last of scores of captives the Abu Sayyaf seized in four separate incidents beginning in May last year. More than a dozen hostages were beheaded, including American tourist Guillermo Sobero. "There's a great deal of concern from the parents of the Burnhams that their children would perish," said Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, the Burnhams' home state. Tiahrt paid a visit to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week to express the U.S. government's concern about the Abu Sayyaf hostages and to monitor the training of Philippine troops in the south. The congressman's Manila visit follows talks on the hostage crisis held with Arroyo when she visited Washington in November. Deadlines Though the U.S. government has not set a deadline for the Philippine government to subdue Abu Sayyaf, Tiahrt said "there have been too many deadlines" set by the Philippine military last year which had not been met. Tiahrt also downplayed the expected arrival of more U.S. troops in the Philippines in the coming weeks, saying they are part of a "long-term commitment against terrorism" that "goes beyond the Burnhams." Should the Burnhams be rescued, counter-terrorist training for Philippine troops should continue, he said. Tiahrt, a member of House Appropriations Sub-Committee on Defense, explained the long-term goal of both the U.S. and Philippine governments is "eliminating the fear of terrorism." The U.S. government has pledged more than $70 million in military aid to the Philippines this year as part of its global counter-terrorist campaign, following the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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
McCain-Lieberman Traveling War Circus Demands Iraq Be Attacked [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Senators call for military action in Iraq 2002-01-10 By Paul Garwood Associated Press Writer ABOARD THE USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- The United States should consider attacking Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein after ending its campaign in Afghanistan, senior U.S. senators said Wednesday. The comments came as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and several other senators visited this aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. McCain told a reporter that Iraq presents "a clear and present danger" to the United States. "I think Iraq is going to have to be considered" as a target after Afghanistan, McCain said. McCain is touring the region with eight other senators, including Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. Lieberman said that for many Americans, the war against terrorism will not be over until Osama bin Laden has been killed or captured. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said the United States should have international backing for any military action in Iraq, but it is clear the Iraqi president is a threat and "is going to have to go." __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
FYROM: KLA 'Reactivating,' Issuing New Threats [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30340-2002Jan11.html Rebels Displeased by Macedonia By Ermira Mehmeti Associated Press Writer Friday, January 11, 2002; 7:52 AM TETOVO, Macedonia The disbanded ethnic Albanian rebel army that launched an insurgency last year announced Friday it was "reorganizing and reactivating" its units and accused the Macedonian government of ignoring a peace accord. In a communique delivered to The Associated Press, the rebels' self-styled National Liberation Army warned the troubled Balkan nation's Slavic majority to grant minority ethnic Albanians more rights under the Western-brokered agreement or face the possibility of fresh conflict. "Just as the Slav Macedonians do not feel any commitment to the agreement, we the members of the NLA as of today are forced to declare that we have no commitment toward the agreement whatsoever," the statement said. "We have proved that we are ready to live freely and in peace with an agreement," it said, but added: "We have proved that we can fight for our rights." The rebel force handed in its weapons to NATO troops in October and said it was disbanding in a show of good faith after the leaders of Macedonia's rival ethnic groups signed the peace accord, which ended months of conflict that began in February 2001. But the slow implementation of the accord has angered ethnic Albanians, who have accused Macedonian political leaders of stalling on constitutional changes that would give the minority greater rights and recognition. "We have respected our part of the agreement. We have been fair in the implementation of the whole agreement," the NLA statement said. "The Slav Macedonian bloc has avoided any kind of agreement with us. It has neglected and finally blocked the signed agreement and basically has completely ignored it. They have basically made it nonexistent." "Every effort of ours to preserve the agreement has failed," it said. The statement, which was signed simply by "the spokesman for the NLA," accused Macedonian authorities of using the past several months to purchase weapons, arm paramilitary groups and step up patrols in ethnic Albanian settlements. It warned the Macedonian government to cease patrols in villages where ethnic Albanians form a local majority "until all rights of our people are put into practice." "We warned Slav Macedonians' police and military forces that we will take no responsibility for their security," it said. There was no immediate reaction from the Macedonian government. The changes envisioned under the peace accord would grant the ethnic Albanian minority a greater role in the police, parliament and educational systems and expand the official use of the Albanian language. Ethnic Albanians account for nearly a third of Macedonia's population of 2 million. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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: [pttp] Jan 18 & Jan 25 - Lumumba-Kabila Commemoration [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: V S C <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 12:41 AM Subject: [pttp] Jan 18 & Jan 25 - Lumumba-Kabila Commemoration Vieques Support Campaign http://palfrente.tripod.com E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ NO TO RACISM & IMPERIALIST WAR! U.S. NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES & ALL OF PUERTO RICO! ___ -Forwarded message, courtesy of the V.S.C.- THE ROLE OF THE U.S. AND BELGIUM IN THE ASSASSINATIONS OFPATRICE LUMUMBA AND LAURENT KABILATO BE EXAMINED IN MEDIA AND FORUMSby Elombe Brath As the commemorative dates near of the assassinations of Patrice Lumumba and Laurent Kabila, the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and his eventual successor, activities for memorial programs in their memories are being planned to focus public attention on the ongoing struggle for the control of what many well-informed people believe to be the "richest territory on the planet", the Congo. For over the last four centuries European explorers and exploiters have been competing among themselves as to which one of them would hold sway over the vast territory (the third largest country in Africa) whose mineral wealth was so immense that 19th century observors claimed that it was a "geological scandal" for one country to be so abundant with natural resources. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the founding father of Ghana's independence, has made expansive analyses of the wealth extracted from the Congo by western nations, leaving the amount of debt owed to the Congolese people to be determined, in his tremendous works Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism and The Challenge of the Congo. And Dr. Walter Rodney also cited the Congo as one of the prime examples to sustantiate the thesis of his classic book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Besides the much widely aknowledged rubber, ivory, palm oil and copper, resources from the Congo have ranged and varied from such extreme of importance as the uranium taken the Shinkolobe mines that was utilized by the Manhattan Project to make the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to copal, used to make congolene to process kinky hair from its natural African texture and fashion into a straightened facsimile of Caucasians and Asians proper. The first plunder stolen from the Congo were its most important naturalresource - its people, who were kidnapped and transported to Europe, Portugal in particular, while others were sent to be enslaved in their colonies in the Caribbean and South, Central and North America. This was foIlowed by the European division of Africa at the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884-85, when the Congo was given to King Leopold II of Belgium as a personal gift for his part in organizing the colonization of Africa. The U.S., sitting as an observor at the Berlin Conference, gave the final arrangement the blessings of President Grover Cleveland and his administration. Under the Belgian monarch's brutal 23-year reign, over 10 million Congolese people were killed while undergoing forced labor to collect rubber and ivory which enriched Leopold to the sum of more than $10 million (in those days.)Leopold's atrocities became so outrageous that they were denounced vehemently, initiating protests by two African-American clergymen, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, followed by abolitionist Frederick Douglass and the famed American author Mark Twain, along with Britain's brilliant and prolific anti-colonial author Edmund Morel and the Irish activist Roger Casement. The outrage caused such a clamor that Leopold's embarrassed European allies forced him to transfer his ownership of so-called "Congo Free State" to the Belgian state. This act officially transformed the territory into a colony of the government in Brussels that was to be known as the Belgian Congo. From 1908 until 1960 the Congo was subjected to the imperialist desires of such U.S. capitalists as Thomas Fortune Ryan and his Intercontinental Rubber Company, and mining interests headed up by such luminary American financier families as the Guggenheims, Baruchs and Rockefellers, among others. During these years American and Belgian multinational corporations The national liberation struggle led by Patrice Lumumba and his Congolese National Movement (MNC) brought Belgian colonial rule to an unexpected end when Brussels was forced to accede to the independence demands of the Congolese people on June 30, 1960. With the second largest Black nation on the African continent, and one of its most geostrategically located - centrally, the axiomatic "h
Re: McCain-Lieberman Traveling War Circus Demands Iraq Be Attacked [WWW.STOPN...
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- In a message dated 1/11/2002 4:38:27 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Lieberman said that for many Americans, the war against terrorism will not be over until (Ariel Sharon) has been killed or captured. ==^ 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 ==^
Letter On War Crimes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Letter to the "El Paso Times" published. Letters The El Paso Times El Paso, TX Thursday, January 10, 2002 Clean up messes Thanks for the Jan. 2 editorial "U.S. must help solve unexploded-ordnance problem," regarding unexploded ordnance from cluster bombs used in Afghanistan. I agree that the U.S. should lead the effort to clean up the messes it creates. I only wish that the editorial had gone farther when discussing our illegal bombardment of Kosovo to include the radioactive uranium ammunition used in "tankbusters." The radioactivity has been attributed by some to have caused premature cancers or deaths in a number of peacekeepers stationed there. Also, the editorial should have included the deliberate bombing of factories such as the massive petrochemical complex in Pancevo which resulted in a massive release of thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals such as PCBs, ethylene dichloride and hydrofluoric acid into the Danube River (Europe's longest waterway) and surrounding ground-water table. Despite the much-promised aid for cleanup that was to be forthcoming with the replacement of Slobodan Milosevic with more "Western-friendly" leaders, very little has actually materialized, leaving a large section of southeastern Europe poisoned, and an economic engine for the entire Balkans disabled. Michael Pravica Las Vegas, N.M __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
It's Called Military Occupation [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Joining an ever expanding list of Western-occupied garrison state colonies, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Macedonia.] Friday January 11, 11:12 PM Afghan troops withdrawal from Kabul in line with agreement Afghan troops left the streets of Kabul for their barracks in line with the interim government's commitment to hand over responsibility for the capital's security to police and international peacekeepers. General Din Mohammad Jurhat, a senior security official in the interior ministry said around 5,000 to 6,000 Northern Alliance soldiers had left the city over the past three days. "Around five or six thousand soldiers have left Kabul. More will leave Kabul in a week," he told AFP. "Another five or six thousand divided between the police and the military will remain." Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni on Wednesday ordered the Afghan military to quit Kabul within three days and leave the city's security duties to Afghan police and an international peacekeeping force. The arrangement was formalised in the Military Technical Agreement (MTA) signed last week between the international community and the interim authorities. The MTA specified that security in the capital would be left in the hands of a fledgling police force and specially-authorised Afghan military units backed by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). A senior aide to the country's former king Mohammed Zahir Shah welcomed the troop pull-out. "It is a positive step towards avoiding confrontation and competitions. It makes the city securer," former army general Abdul Wali, who is also the son-in-law of the former monarch, said by telephone from Rome. Northern Alliance troops interviewed by AFP Friday said they were forbidden to carry weapons outside their barracks and that some of their comrades had already been sent home on leave. Earlier in the day Major Guy Richardson, the British spokesman for the ISAF confirmed the withdrawal had begun. "What the interim administration has said is those people who are from outside Kabul should return from whence they came," he said. "This from HQ-ISAF's perspective is good because they (the interim administration) are taking it a stage further than what is specified in the MTA. "We are delighted with the interim administration's compliance with the MTA." At Bala-e-hisar Fort southeast of the capital, Jan Mohammad, 38, a deputy to commander Haji Mohammad Almas, told AFP that troops were withdrawing from the centre of Kabul. "Yes, it's the last day and it will be finished," he said. Brigadier Mohamad Ghani said most of the troops under his command were withdrawing to Parwan province northwest of Kabul, and to Logar province to the south. "We have most of our soldiers in Logar now on a security mission," Ghani said. ISAF sources told AFP that a comprehensive intelligence blueprint on the security situation in Kabul would be developed over the coming weeks. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
From The Heartland Of Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [And the war against international terrorism: Great Cromwellia-Blairiana.] Friday January 11 5:59 AM ET Children Back to Belfast School After Riot By Louise McCall BELFAST (Reuters) - Roman Catholic girls returned to a school beset by violence in north Belfast Friday after a night of sectarian rioting injured more than 30 police and soldiers. ``I can´t believe we´ve returned to the bad old days again, but I have no car and this is the only way I can take my child to school,´´ said a Catholic mother who gave her name as Mary, holding her daughter Catherine´s hand as she walked to the Holy Cross Catholic girls´ school. Thursday night and Friday morning, Catholic and Protestant youths hurled scores of petrol bombs, acid bombs, rocks and homemade ``blast bombs´´ at police and troops keeping them apart in the flashpoint Ardoyne area. More than 30 police officers and soldiers were injured and six cars were burned in the ugliest sectarian clashes in Northern Ireland in months. One Catholic mother said Protestants taunted her as she walked her niece to school, but there were few incidents. Father Aidan Troy, chairman of the school's board of governors, said most Holy Cross pupils had returned. ``I´m so relieved that the children are in school. I´ve been into the school and some of them are upset and some are very quiet but the majority are there and that´s what we called for,´´ he said. Hard-line Protestant politician Billy Hutchinson said Ardoyne residents did not want to be ``political pawns´´ and the latest dispute was not about Holy Cross School. At least eight armored police Land Rovers lined the Ardoyne Road, where houses of pro-British Protestant loyalists face the Catholic Holy Cross school. A police helicopter hovered overhead and police on foot kept a watchful eye under rainy skies. ``SOFTLY, SOFTLY´´ Police said they hoped for calm after the riots and had adopted what a police source called a ``softly, softly approach.´´ The school was closed Thursday after a dispute nearby the day before prompted the riots. Politicians and community leaders had spent the day trying to calm passions in the run-down district, but their efforts were in vain as hundreds of youths took to the streets. A police spokesman said 31 police and three soldiers were injured in the clashes, and one policeman and one soldier had to remain in hospital, but gave no further details. Police said some 90 petrol bombs were thrown by the rioters, 44 by pro-British loyalists, while seven cars were hijacked and six set alight, police said. Police fired plastic riot-control bullets as the security cordon became stretched by the escalating violence. The trouble was sparked Wednesday afternoon by an altercation between a Catholic woman and a Protestant woman as Catholic parents went to collect children from Holy Cross. Holy Cross, located in a Protestant enclave bordering a Catholic neighborhood, was at the center of ugly confrontations during a 12-week protest by Protestant residents last year. Television viewers around the world were shocked by images of young girls guarded by riot police and troops as they ran a gauntlet of hate walking to school. Northern Ireland ended 2001 with some hope of progress in solving the conflict between Protestants and Catholics which has cost 3,600 lives -- a quarter of them in north Belfast -- over more than 30 years, but gulfs between the communities remain. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
West Teaches Savage Tribesmen Humanitarian Values [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ABC News Morning Arrival Expected for 20 Al Qaeda, Taliban Prisoners Jan. 11 The first group of 20 al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners is due to arrive today at a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Thursday, the shackled, hooded prisoners were flown out of Kandahar, Afghanistan, in a U.S. Air Force C-17 amid tight security and great secrecy. They were then transferred to a C-141 transport plane at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey for the flight to Cuba. The prisoners were all chained together and outnumbered 2-to-1 by guards armed with stun guns. On the plane, they were chained to their seats, military officials said. Pentagon officials told ABCNEWS the prisoners might be sedated if necessary, and reports from a number of media outlets said the prisoners would be fed by their guards and would be provided portable urinals. "There are among these prisoners people who are perfectly willing to kill themselves and kill other people," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, adding that those overseeing the transfer have been authorized to use "appropriate restraint." Since the war in Afghanistan began, al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners have staged bloody uprisings against their captors at least twice. In November, CIA operative Johnny "Mike" Spann became the first U.S. combat casualty in Afghanistan during a revolt near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Humane, Not Comfortable Once in Cuba, the prisoners should not expect much more in the way of creature comforts. "We have no intention of making it comfortable," said Gen. Michael Lehnert, commander of Joint Task Force 160, which is in charge of the prisoners. "It'll be humane, but we are not working towards comfortable." Amnesty International has voiced concerns over the photographs of chained and hooded prisoners boarding a U.S. military plane in Kandahar on Thursday and of reports that the prisoners would be sedated during the flight. "All those in U.S. custody following the military operations in Afghanistan must be treated humanely, with full respect for international standards," an Amnesty statement said. The Pentagon said detainees would be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention rules on prisoners. The prisoners will be housed first in temporary "outdoor cells" until a permanent detention facility is built. U.S. officials hope to build 220 temporary cells initially and eventually 2,000 permanent ones to hold war detainees. A spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Geneva today said officials of the Swiss-based international human rights group will have unrestricted access to the specially-built jail in Cuba and private interviews with the inmates. It is not yet clear how many of the 364 Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners will be brought to Guantanamo Bay. However, officials say American John Walker was not on Thursday's flight. Walker was captured along with other Taliban fighters in northern Afghanistan in November. U.S. Forces Arrive in Philippines In other developments: An initial force of about two dozen U.S. special forces arrived in the Philippines to assist the government's efforts to crack down on Abu Sayaf, the militant Islamic group with links with al Qaeda. About 100 more U.S. troops are expected to arrive later this month. The Pakistani government has been discussing how long the United States plans to remain at four Pakistani bases with U.S. officials, according to a report in The Washington Post. Pakistan has been concerned about domestic unrest and escalating tensions with neighboring India. Recovery efforts at the remote site in Pakistan where a U.S. KC-130 cargo plane crashed Wednesday continue. None of the bodies of the seven Marines on board have been recovered In a warning to Iran, President Bush said Thursday the United States would "deal with them diplomatically, initially," if Iran tried to destabilize neighboring Afghanistan. The warning followed reports that Tehran, concerned about the perceived pro-Western stance of the new Afghan administration, was giving safe haven to fleeing al Qaeda members in a bid to fight Western influence in the region. ABCNEWS' Andrew Morse and Bill Blakemore in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Rebecca Cooper and Jason Ryan in Washington contributed to this report. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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: Letter On War Crimes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The article mentions the use of D.U. in so called "tankbusters" It should be noted that the vast majority of D.U. tipped cruise missiles and bombs were not used against tanks and armoured vehicles.. Most were used against buildings, particularly civilian hospitals, train stations, factories and apartment blocks. mart - Original Message - From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 10:00 AM Subject: Letter On War Crimes [ HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Letter to the "El Paso Times" published. Letters The El Paso Times El Paso, TX Thursday, January 10, 2002 Clean up messes Thanks for the Jan. 2 editorial "U.S. must help solve unexploded-ordnance problem," regarding unexploded ordnance from cluster bombs used in Afghanistan. I agree that the U.S. should lead the effort to clean up the messes it creates. I only wish that the editorial had gone farther when discussing our illegal bombardment of Kosovo to include the radioactive uranium ammunition used in "tankbusters." The radioactivity has been attributed by some to have caused premature cancers or deaths in a number of peacekeepers stationed there. Also, the editorial should have included the deliberate bombing of factories such as the massive petrochemical complex in Pancevo which resulted in a massive release of thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals such as PCBs, ethylene dichloride and hydrofluoric acid into the Danube River (Europe's longest waterway) and surrounding ground-water table. Despite the much-promised aid for cleanup that was to be forthcoming with the replacement of Slobodan Milosevic with more "Western-friendly" leaders, very little has actually materialized, leaving a large section of southeastern Europe poisoned, and an economic engine for the entire Balkans disabled. Michael Pravica Las Vegas, N.M ==^ 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 ==^
NORAD Twins Glow With WWII Nostalgia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Fighting the good fight and waging the Good War to defend Western Civilization...in Kandahar. The U.S. and its wholly-owned subsidiary may not have fought 'shoulder-to-shoulder' since they slugged it out together in the aptly named Devil's Brigade in WWII, but the NATO neighbors bombed the civilian infrastructure - and the civilians themselves - of Yugoslavia with wild abandon in 1999. Canadian cannon fodder? Heavens no. Chretien's Foreign Legion - under U.S. control and not command, mind you - is fighting shoulder to shoulder with its fraternal equal in the already conquered, defenseless Afghan city of Kandahar. And Big Brother smiles approvingly.] The Toronto Star Jan. 10, 05:35 EDT Canada, U.S. to fight together, again Mitch Potter STAFF REPORTER When Canadian troops join U.S. forces in Kandahar next week, it will be the first time the two countries have fought shoulder to shoulder since the fabled Devil's Brigade battled its way to Rome in World War II. "What makes this assignment stand out in Technicolor is the fact that it's just us and the Americans in Kandahar, side by side," said retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, a veteran of nine Canadian peacekeeping missions. "To find anything comparable you have to go back to the days of the Devil's Brigade, which was half Canadian, half American, a force of 4,000 in total, going into Italy and becoming the first Allied soldiers to walk into Rome." And while the U.S. will lead those combined forces, MacKenzie dismissed caterwauling about loss of Canadian sovereignty and fears our troops may be used as cannon fodder as "just plain wrong." "The fact is Canada will control the destiny of its own forces. The confusion comes from a lack of understanding of two clearly defined NATO terms `Operational Command´ and `Operational Control.´ Some people are using them interchangeably but they are very different things. "Our troops will be under Operational Control of the Americans. That means the U.S. commander cannot change the rules of engagement without first securing permission from Canada. It also means everything happens within each country's normal chain of command." Operational Command, MacKenzie explained, is not on the table for this mission. "If we gave them command rather than control, it would be saying `Do with them as you wish.´ Some people may be confused by this important distinction, but the military is not. NATO has operated this way for a long time, and it works seamlessly." But just how Canada's marching orders including a call to help hunt down and destroy pockets of Taliban and Al Qaeda resistance will translate on the ground of Kandahar is anyone's guess. Barely a month ago, the ancient Afghan city of 300,000 ethnic Pashtuns on the south-central desert plain was the last bastion of the nearly routed Taliban and its one-eyed leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Today, Kandahar is still very much a city of men with guns, but now the toting happens under the fragile governorship of tribal warlord Gul Agha Sherzai, whose own reign of terror during the Afghan civil war of the early 1990s helped pave the way for the Taliban revolution to follow. Gul Agha wasted little time in ordering media from the city upon first taking control. Omar, meanwhile, is somewhere just over the horizon, laying low in any of three central Afghan provinces or Peshawar, Pakistan, depending on whom you believe. Unlike the giddy liberation of Kabul, Kandahar fell in relative silence. It slipped from the hands of one Pashtun leader to another in what Guardian correspondent Peter Beaumont called "the most Afghan of fashions. Not with the predicted bloodbath, but with the quiet evaporation of the Taliban's most senior commanders and a change of allegiance among the rank and file, many of whom had been press-ganged from the countryside." Doling out envelopes of Pakistani rupees to ensure the loyalty of competing commanders, Gul Agha appears as firmly in control of his corner of Afghanistan as can be thought possible. Reports this week from Kandahar describe a nervous return to pre-Taliban norms: weekly dogfights, once banned because of the gambling involved, again thrill the populace; the flying of kites, another Taliban taboo, dance each Friday over the city's skies. Yet Kandahar remains very much a city of men with Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers, handheld weaponry is as ubiquitous as cellphones in downtown Toronto. And though banditry on the roads linking Kandahar with Kabul and Herat remains a threat, a trickle of refugees with nothing left to lose has begun to make its way back from the border middens of neighbouring Pakistan. But perhaps most noteworthy is what hasn't happened: with the devil they knew toppled by the devil they knew before him, battle-scarred Kandahar residents have largely welcomed the patrols of U.S. Marines and Special Forces with benign hope. Though as many as 300 Al Qaeda fighters are said to re
NATO Reciprocity: US Bailed Out By - Norway [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [The Atlantic Community in the Mediterranean. What's geography got to do with geopolitics? As European NATO jets patrol the skies of the U.S. eastern coast and Norwegians fill in for the U.S. in the latter's 'geostrategically' vital waters off the coasts of Italy, Lebanon, Libya and Yugoslavia, U.S. submarines are freed up to "limp back" to Norwegian ports hours after the sinking of the Russian submarine The Kursk. And to prowl the seas off the coasts of Russia, China, India, Iran, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Iraq, Malaysia and a host of other countries.] The Norway Post Friday, 11.1.2002 10. January 2002 Norwegian sub on NATO patrol in the Mediterranean The Norwegian Navy's submarine "KNM Uthaug" with a crew of 22 is leaving Friday to join the NATO fleet on patrol in the eastern Mediterranean. These waters were earlier patrolled by US naval vessels, but these are now released because of the US operations in Afghanistan. NATO has taken over, and has asked Norway to supply a submarine. The submarine is the second Norwegian naval vessel taking part in the patrolling of the Meditarrenaen. The frigate "KNM Narvik" has been a part of the NATO contingent since December. (NRK) __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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: [CubaNews] Terrorists' arrival doesn't faze Cubans [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- - Original Message - From: Walter Lippmann To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 12:08 PM Subject: [CubaNews] Terrorists' arrival doesn't faze Cubans "Talibanishment" really more and moreaccurately describes what Washington isdoing to its uncharged prisoners of war.Please take the time to read the viciousglee with which those involved describethe conditions they are planning for thecapitive who are being transported thesethousands of miles from their homeland.Consider these two paragraphs alone:Officials here describe the temporary facilities constructed at this remote seaside installation as cells, but the units appear more cage-like: 6-by-8-foot rectangles with concrete-slab floors, simple roofs and sides of chain-link fencing that, officials admit, will probably let the rain in."I would call it a cell . . . an outdoor cell for adetainee," said Col. Terry L. Carrico, who will supervise security at Camp X-Ray.Have no doubt that the people of Cuba arefully aware of what the United States isdoing with these prisoners, as VanessaBauzá's article documents well.Rather than clutter your e-mailboxes withthese items separately, I'm posting themall in one malodorous bunch. However youshould read them carefully. Were it not for the legacy of past fightsfor democratic rights, for legal rights,and for prisoners' rights in the UnitedStates, the conditions which these menfrom Afghanistan will receive, are whatWashington would like to see in the USwere it able to impose them! Well worthsharing with and explaining to others.(And this is NOT to suggest that theconditions in US jails are anything tosing praises about, by the way!!)==Terrorists' arrival doesn't faze CubansBy Vanessa BauzáHavana BureauJanuary 11, 2002Guantanamo, Cuba· Despite years of mistrust and tensionacross the heavily mined perimeter that divides an Americanmilitary installation from Communist territory, a top Cubangeneral said he was "confident that the current tranquillityon the border" will not be disrupted by today's expectedarrival of Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners at the U.S. NavalStation at Guantanamo Bay.In a rare interview, Gen. José Solar Hernández, second incommand of the Cuban army's eastern troops, said Cuba hadnot beefed up its elite Frontier Brigade in anticipation ofthe prisoners' arrival."We haven't taken any additional measures," Solar Hernándezsaid on Thursday. "We hope the Americans will take a numberof high security measures. On our side we have taken all themeasures already to resolve whatever contingency may occur."Cuba considers the U.S. Naval Station on the island'ssoutheastern tip occupied territory and has long demandedthe military leave. But under a 1934 treaty, both sides needto agree that the United States will leave. In protest,President Fidel Castro refuses to cash the rent checks,$4,085 annually, preferring to keep them as "historicdocuments," Solar Hernández said.Despite their demands for the base's return, Cuban officialshave been uncharacteristically diplomatic about the arrivalof what could eventually be thousands of Taliban andal-Qaida prisoners."The Americans are using this territory to resolve aproblem. We don't think this is anything against ourcountry, it is not an aggression," Solar Hernández said.Though Cuban and U.S. military officials speak occasionallyby telephone to resolve minor border problems, SolarHernández said there had been little communication on theprisoners."You are probably more informed on the Afghan prisoners thanwe are," he said.In a brief tour of the Cuban-controlled border area, SolarHernández led a group of journalists to the only access gateinto the northeast corner of the U.S. base. Because U.S.officials are not allowed off the base, the gate is onlyused by 10 Cubans who started working there before the 1959Cuban Revolution, when relations between the countries werefriendly.Here the no-man's land narrows to the width of a chain linkfence, topped with concertina wire. On one, Cuban soldierskeep guard under the sign "Republic of Cuba -- freeterritory of the Americas."Beyond the fence a few yards away, beyond a high fence, U.S.soldiers occupy their own watchtower, painted in camouflageexcept for a U.S. flag. The Marines' logo, an anchor andtheir slogan, Semper Fi, decorate the grassy hill below. ANavy helicopter swept over the base, and three Marines in anarmored car came to the border to hoist the U.S. flag.About 20 miles down the perimeter at the Los Maloneslookout, Solar Hernández pointed out the tents and barrackson the eastern edge of the 45-square-mile base where tens ofthousands of Cuban and Haitian rafters were held in 1994 and1995. He said about 40 U.S. militar
Re: Letter On War Crimes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Mart: And I'm sure, then, the article would not have been printed. It' called free speech; that is, "free" for the rich, at a cost for the rest of us. On 11 Jan 02, at 12:01, mart wrote: > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > --- > > The article mentions the use of D.U. in so called "tankbusters" It should be > noted that the vast majority of D.U. tipped cruise missiles and bombs were > not used against tanks and armoured vehicles.. Most were used against > buildings, particularly civilian hospitals, train stations, factories > and apartment blocks. > mart > - Original Message - > From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 10:00 AM > Subject: Letter On War Crimes [ > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > --- > > Letter to the "El Paso Times" published. > > Letters > The El Paso Times > El Paso, TX > Thursday, January 10, 2002 > Clean up messes > > Thanks for the Jan. 2 editorial "U.S. must > help solve unexploded-ordnance problem," regarding > unexploded ordnance from cluster bombs used in > Afghanistan. > > I agree that the U.S. should lead the effort > to clean up the messes it creates. I only wish that > the editorial had gone farther when discussing our > illegal bombardment of Kosovo to include the > radioactive uranium ammunition used in "tankbusters." > The radioactivity has been attributed by some to have > caused premature cancers or deaths in a number of > peacekeepers stationed there. > > Also, the editorial should have included the > deliberate bombing of factories such as the massive > petrochemical complex in Pancevo which resulted in a > massive release of thousands of gallons of toxic > chemicals such as PCBs, ethylene dichloride and > hydrofluoric acid into the Danube River (Europe's > longest waterway) and surrounding ground-water table. > > Despite the much-promised aid for cleanup > that was to be forthcoming with the replacement of > Slobodan Milosevic with more "Western-friendly" > leaders, very little has actually materialized, > leaving a large section of southeastern Europe > poisoned, and an economic engine for the entire > Balkans disabled. > Michael Pravica > Las Vegas, N.M > > ==^ 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 ==^
Whites irritated by independent-minded black leader... [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- On 10 Jan 02, at 2:17, Stasi wrote: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Daily Telegraph Military 'will not accept Mugabe defeat' === By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and Tim Butcher in Johannesburg (Filed: 10/01/2002) ZIMBABWE'S military hinted strongly last night that it would refuse to accept the result if President Mugabe loses the election in March. Mugabe has total support of the military for his re-election As Mr Mugabe finally set March 9-10 as the dates for the presidential vote, the military and secret police issued a thinly veiled threat. "The security organisations will only stand in support of those political leaders that will pursue Zimbabwean values, traditions and beliefs for thousands of lives lost in pursuit of Zimbabwe's hard-won independence," said Gen Vitalis Zvinavashe, the defence forces commander. "[The president] is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation struggle. We will therefore not accept, let alone support or salute anyone with a different agenda." The armed forces statement appeared to be part of a concerted campaign by Mr Mugabe's supporters to ensure that their leader is re-elected. Parliament met late into the night to consider a raft of legislation designed to lessen the chances of an opposition victory. The measures would ban foreign correspondents, register local journalists and give police sweeping powers to search and arrest opponents of Mr Mugabe. The general sought to increase pressure on opposition MPs by asking parliamentarians to "enact laws that protect our sovereignty and independence and that serve the interests of the majority of Zimbabweans". The ruling Zanu-PF has suspended regular parliamentary procedures to make way for an extended sitting to begin fast-tracking the bills. Critics say the planned Access to Information Bill is a draconian measure designed to constrain the independent media, including barring foreigners from working in the country as correspondents. In Zimbabwe, the government runs television and most radio stations. There is only one independent newspaper. Critics say it is anxious to keep anything but its own line from the public. The security laws would give police wider powers of search, arrest and detention, require stringent permits for public meetings. Both bills would outlaw verbal or written criticism of Mr Mugabe that could "engender hostility and hatred" of him. Most of the new measures carry large fines and terms of imprisonment. The president faces his toughest political battle in the election against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Analysts say Zanu-PF has seen its popularity fall as human rights abuses, including political killings and forced seizure of white farmland, have increased. The military have long been accused of offering logistical support to squatters who have led the often violent invasion of white-owned farms that the government has slated for redistribution to landless blacks. They are also said to have profited from Mr Mugabe's military adventure in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The MDC managed to win a majority in a vote on Tuesday on the so-called General Amendments Bill after Zanu-PF MPs failed to attend in sufficient numbers. The bill would have banned local independent monitors from the presidential election. "The government wants to play down its defeat, but effectively it cannot bring the bill back to parliament during this current session," the MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, said. In the event of it being forced through, "we will no doubt have to seek the interference of the courts." ==^ 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 ==^
Former Yugoslav Republics Form Joint NATO Alliance [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Anyone familiar with Zbigniew Brzezinski's volume The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives will be acquainted with one of his key theses, that an "expanding Europe" - explicitly under NATO control - will. though always under the domination of the U.S. (NATO, according to Brzezinski, exists for no other reason), be defined by a "Franco-German" axis. It's painfully obvious which member of this dyad is meant to prevail - and it's not the decadent 'frogs,' whom he despises almost as much as he does the Russians, whom he overtly banishes from Europe altogether. A joint Croat-Slovene military sub-unit could only benefit one nation; to wit, that which currently has military forces deployed abroad in at least eight nations, five of them non-European. But of course the assault upon and disintegration of the former Yugoslavia was initiated by then FDP West German Foreign Secretary Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and then signed on to by the Bush Sr. administration (on the prompting of those stellar humanitarians Bob Dole and Jesse Helms) shortly thereafter. My apologies for the 'history lesson,' but it never hurts to refresh our memories.] Slovenia Proposes Defense Agreement With Croatia LJUBLJANA, Jan 11, 2002 -- (dpa) The Slovene government on Thursday okayed an initiative on defense cooperation with Croatia, the STA news agency reported. The initiative refers to an inter-government agreement which should provide the basis for cooperation between the two countries' armed forces within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations. The agreement is to include courses, seminars, and military meetings between the armed forces of the two ex-Yugoslav republics focusing on defense and security policy. "This would provide the platform for a friendly and mutually useful cooperation between Slovenia and Croatia," the Slovene government said in a statement. Both states wish to become NATO members in the near future, and the Alliance's policy is not to accept candidates that have not solved all open issues with its neighbors. Zagreb and Ljubljana have still not ratified the accord aimed at solving a border dispute that was signed last summer by the two prime ministers, Croatia's Ivica Racan and Slovenia's Janez Drnovsek. (C)2002. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Enron plot thickens [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Music to my ears: a quartet [below] from today's Chicago Tribune. Figured it best to send this, rather than 4 separate reports. Even though "Accounting may prove hard to criminalize," strikes a discordant note, Enron's activities surely sound illegal--even to the utterly tone deaf. The question is whether there will be a deafening chorus of denunciation from the media and the public. I'm certainly ready for a rousing rendition of "Jail To The Chief!" But (to mix the metaphor), in the parlance of Watergate, "the toothpaste is out of the tube," and we can take some small pleasure in watching Bush & Co. try to squeeze it back in. Finally, on this subject, The Public i features a special report, "Enron executives who dumped stock were heavy donors to Bush," posted Wednesday at www.public-i.org/story_01_010902.htm - NC *From the update desk of chicagotribune.com: Tribune Daywatch - Friday, January 11th > >ENRON PLOT THICKENS. Enron Corp.'s auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, admits destroying an untold number of documents relating to the firm. And the White House says Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay last fall contacted two Cabinet officers about the firm's pending bankruptcy: >http://tm0.com/daywatch/sbct.cgi?s=179690262&i=446792&d=2184728 > >Accounting may prove hard to criminalize: >http://tm0.com/daywatch/sbct.cgi?s=179690262&i=446792&d=2184729 > >Andersen in hot seat: >http://tm0.com/daywatch/sbct.cgi?s=179690262&i=446792&d=2184730 > >David Greising: Andersen shreds trust. >http://tm0.com/daywatch/sbct.cgi?s=179690262&i=446792&d=2184731 > ABOUT US: YOUR GUIDE TO CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COM. Send your comments, questions and tips to [EMAIL PROTECTED]. IF THE LINKS ON THIS PAGE ARE NOT CLICKABLE ON YOUR COMPUTER: 1. Highlight the link by clicking your mouse and dragging the cursor across the entire address; if the address takes up more than one line, make sure you highlight the whole thing. 2. Under the "Edit" menu, select "Copy." 3. Open your Web browser. 4. Click in the "address" or "location" window of your browser. 5. Under the "Edit" menu, select "Paste." 6. Press the "Enter" key to access the link. >>Copyright (c) 2002, Chicago Tribune> Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: Click Here ==^ 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 ==^
Somalian president: US is terrorizing us [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 11 January 2002. Somali Ruler Says Country 'Terrorized' by U.S. KHARTOUM -- The president of Somalia's transitional government said Friday that his people had been "terrorized" by a U.S. propaganda campaign portraying the country as a possible haven for Osama bin Laden's followers. President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan told Reuters television that fears of U.S. military strikes were hindering efforts to bring peace to the country, considered by Washington as a potential target in its war on terror. "People are terrorized by this campaign of propaganda against Somalia," Abdiqassim said in an interview in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, where he was attending a summit. "People are terrorized to see the largest country in the world threaten this poor country that has been ravaged by civil war for 10 years," he said. Abdiqassim reiterated his position that there are no bases of bin Laden's al Qaeda network or other extremists in Somalia, and appealed for help from Washington to stabilize his anarchic homeland. "We want to unite our country, and have for that the help of the international community, so that Somalia will not be a breeding ground for future terrorists," he said. Abdiqassim said his fledgling government had set up a committee to combat terrorism and arrested several suspects, but its efforts were being hampered by a lack of resources. Illustrating the government's problems, officials say they have not been able to pay civil servants for four months and the information minister has only one working telephone line. Abdiqassim warned that warlords opposed to his attempts to unite Somalia were keen to exploit the United States' sudden interest in his country to strengthen their bid overthrow his administration, the most serious attempt to establish a central government for a decade. "For their own interest, they want to see America involved in Somalia, Somalia bombed, and then for them to take over power like the Northern Alliance did in Afghanistan," he said. Diplomats say warlords who watched the Northern Alliance rebels gain power in Afghanistan with the help of U.S. military might are seeking a repeat performance in Somalia. "But Somalia is not Afghanistan. The transitional national government is not Taliban. I am not Mullah Mohammad Omar," the president said. A team of U.S. officials visited aides to opposition warlords in the southern town of Baidoa for talks about the war on terror last month, raising fears among aid workers that a hasty intervention could stir further turmoil. Raising the specter of a disastrous U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s in which more than 20 American servicemen were killed, Abdiqassim said the United States should fight terrorism by pursuing peace, not war. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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 ==^
Russia to increase presence in Central Asia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 11 January 2002. Russia to increase presence in Central Asia. DUSHANBE -- Moscow called Friday for an increased Russian presence in central Asia to counteract heavyweight US military deployments in the former Soviet republics. "We must do everything in our power to make the Russian presence in the region more perceptible and more effective," said Gennady Seleznev, leader of the Russian lower house, the Duma, after meeting with Tajik President Emolali Rakhmonov in Dushanbe. Seleznev also called for an end to the US military campaign in Afghanistan and reiterated that Russia was against establishing US or NATO military bases on a longterm basis in Central Asia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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: Fathom Newsletter -- Global Affairs [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Maybe somebody is interested in some RAND propaganda > * Free Seminar * > INSURGENCIES AND THE ROLE OF REFUGEES: FOCUS ON AFGHANISTAN AND THE > TALIBAN, a free seminar from RAND, analyzes modern trends in insurgency > movements for the intelligence community and looks specifically at the > role of refugees in supporting the Taliban. The seminar is free; simply > follow the checkout process to enroll: > http://www.fathom.com/link.jhtml?cid=644&page=course&id=21701739 ==^ 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: Milosevic wants NATO on trial [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- > Subject: Re: Milosevic wants NATO on trial > [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] > To: > In-Reply-To: > > Nancy, > > we agree, but a theme song of Western propaganda > was > how closely THEY worked with Mr.Milosevic, which we > have repeatedly heard from time to time beaten out > on > the propaganda drums in Britain - bong, bong, boom, > bong, "there it goes again!" - the reason being to > whip up desire for "Intervention" - - "the West > isn't > doing enough! Since then we've heard a different > variation - " Milosevic says how much the West > cooperated with him, he''ll say so at his trial!", > an > extension of the same theme, > > > --- Nancy Hey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > > --- > > > > Yes, I don't think this would be a good angle for > > Mr. Milosevic to take, to > > claim that Western leaders "worked closely with > > him". I don't know when Western > > leaders ever worked "with" Yugoslavia, clearly > their > > greatest crimes were > > committed by working AGAINST Yugoslavia! > > > > Mager Lee wrote: > > > > > HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK > > > --- > > > > > > "Commentators believe Milosevic hopes that by > > calling Western leaders as > > > witnesses he will be able to humiliate them and > to > > show that they worked > > > closely with him during much of the 1990s as the > > old Yugoslavia broke apart > > > in bloodshed." > > > > > > Not this pathetic theory again! The BBC said > last > > week that the killing of > > > 107 Afghan villagers could prove "embarrassing" > > for the US. Now Milosevic > > > might be able to "humiliate" western leaders? > Even > > if one is to accept the > > > implication that the only thing western powers > did > > that was morally wrong > > > was to "work closely" with Milosevic (a horrific > > lie which is sickening for > > > anybody who experienced Krajine, Djakovica, Nis, > > Novi Sad and so on ad > > > nazium (I know it's not a word, but it should > > be!), why is it only an > > > "embarrassment" for them, yet Milosevic's role > > (still assuming one accepts > > > the lies) is described as "genocidal", > "monstrous" > > and "tyrannical"? > > > > > > Perhaps this is the sort of thing we can expect > on > > television in the future: > > > > > > Interviewer: "So, Madeleine Albright, what was > > your most embarrassing moment > > > as Secretary of State?" > > > > > > Albright " well, there have been many, > > it's a difficult job with > > > so many eyes on you waiting for you to slip up, > > especially being a woman! > > > Perhaps the time I attended the NATO 50th > > anniversary gathering and I > > > discovered that one of the other ladies was > > wearing the same shoes as me! > > > That left me a little red-faced, I can tell you! > > Possibly I would say the > > > *most* embarrassing however was the time when > NATO > > dropped cluster bombs in > > > Nis marketplace on a busy afternoon in 1999, > > massacring the shoppers and > > > leaving the survivors terribly maimed. I > certainly > > get a little hot under > > > the collar when that one is brought up! > > " > > > > > > Interviewer: "No! The SAME shoes?? How awful!" > > > > > > -Original Message- > > > From: Barry Stoller > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > > Sent: 09 January 2002 20:16 > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]; > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: Milosevic wants NATO on trial > > [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] > > > > > > > > > -- > > > The information contained in this message is > > confidential and is intended > > > for the addressee only. If you have received > this > > message in error or there > > > are any problems please notify the originator > > immediately. The unauthorised > > > use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this > > message is strictly > > > forbidden. This mail and any attachments have > been > === message truncated === __ 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 ==^
Israeli Breaches of Cease-fire [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION Palestinian National Authority Office of the President-Information Israeli Breaches of Cease-fire From: 19.00hrs Wednesday January 9 To: 19.00hrs Thursday January 10 Despite President Arafats speech on December 16, 2001 and its historical content, the occupation forces continue to occupy parts of Palestinian controlled areas & impose a military siege on the Palestinian territories including main and dirt roads. The breaches of cease-fire continue as well as the Israeli army and settler induced aggressions as detailed hereunder: The occupation forces breached the cease-fire [8] times: [6] Palestinians were wounded and [6] were arrested. [20] Trees were uprooted or burnt down & [30] Dunams were bulldozed. [77] Palestinian homes were demolished & [6] vehicles & [4] establishments were destroyed. Palestinian controlled areas were invaded [3] times and bombarded [4] times. § Jerusalem: The occupation forces stationed at Bido military checkpoint tortured tens of Palestinians trying to reach their homes. § Ramallah & AL Birah: The occupation forces continue to occupy & impose a blockade on the city. § Nablus: The occupation forces continue to impose a blockade on the city, opened fire at Palestinian houses causing damage & stormed in Salem village. § Hebron: The occupation forces detonated two vehicles near Fawwar triangle, closed down the triangle, Dora road and the entrance of the refugee camp and prevented Palestinians from reaching the area. § Gaza: The occupation forces arrested six Palestinians near Nahel Oz junction. § Northern Gaza: The occupation forces asked the Palestinian DCO to evacuate the offices of the Palestinians naval DCO. § Rafah: Under the cover of heavy gunfire, The occupation battle tanks invaded and demolished seventy Palestinian houses & two National Security posts & opened fire at Tal AL Sultan area. They also stormed in the fishing port and confiscated all the equipment. ==^ 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 ==^
For New York Area Serbs [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NEW YORK CITYWIDE PLANNING MEETING FOR FEB. 2 ANTI-WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM PROTESTTUESDAY, JANUARY 15TH Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday7:00 P.M.At the A.N.S.W.E.R. Office39 West 14 Street, Suite 206On Tuesday, January 15th, scores of activists from the New York metropolitan area will be meeting at the office of International A.N.S.W.E.R. to plan a massive organizing effort over the next 17 days, to draw thousands of people to a February 2nd protest against the World Economic Forum (WEF). The meeting will begin at 7:00 P.M. at 39 West 14th Street, Suite 206. International A.N.S.W.E.R. is a broad coalition of organizations and activists who have come together over the past four months to rally public support for social and economic justice as an alternative to war. The coalition is sponsoring a major, legally-permitted protest in front of the Waldorf Astoria, where from February 1 through February 4, several thousand corporate CEOs, bankers and politicians will be attending the WEF.If Dr. King was alive, there is no doubt that he would be helping us to send the World Economic Forum the message that the people of New York City and of the world desperately need jobs, healthcare, housing and human needs - not poverty, exploitation and war.For more information on the planning meeting or the anti-WEF protest contact A.N.S.W.E.R. at (212) 633-6646, or check the website at http://www.internationalanswer.org .IF YOU DON'T LIVE IN NEW YORK AND WANT TO GET INVOLVEDcheck out http://www.internationalanswer.org to find organizers in your area or to become one today!--Send replies to [EMAIL PROTECTED]This is the ANSWER activist announcementlist. Anyone can subscribe by sending any message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To unsubscribe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ==^ 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 ==^
WSWS: US bases pave the way for long-term intervention in Central Asia [WWW.STOP
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Friday, January 11, 2002 2:23 PM World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org WSWS : News & Analysis : The US War in Afghanistan US bases pave the way for long-term intervention in Central Asia By Patrick Martin11 January 2002 Back to screen version | Send this link by email | Email the author Recent statements by US government officials and reports in the American and international press indicate that the Bush administration and the Pentagon are carrying out a military buildup in Central Asia whose object is not merely support for the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, but a permanent military presence in the oil-rich region. The US government has acquired basing or transit rights for passage of warplanes and military supplies from nearly two dozen countries in Central Asia, the Middle East and their periphery, a projection of American power into the center of the Eurasian land mass that has no historical precedent. On January 9, US military personnel showed off the latest acquisition, a huge air base being built in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country which borders China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and was once virtually inaccessible as far as American imperialism was concerned. The new base, on 37 acres at the airport in Manas, 19 miles from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, is to be a major military hub. It now has temporary barracks for 300 members of the 86th Rapid Deployment Unit, who are building facilities that will eventually house 3,000 military personnel. The Manas base will service fighter jets, C-130 cargo planes and KC-135 refueling planes. Last month the Kyrgyz parliament gave its approval to unrestricted American use of the facility, including combat missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Pentagon officials said the new base in Kyrgyzstan, only a few minutes flying time north of Kabul, would give them the flexibility to continue the war in Afghanistan even if the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan makes it more difficult to use the bases in the latter country, which are currently major staging areas for US operations. Four KC-135s will arrive next week, along with a squadron of F-15E fighter jets by the end of January. A US officer working at Manas told the press, “In addition to the air force, there will be ground troops. This will be the first air base that will offer serious support to Operation Enduring Freedom,” the official name for the US war in Afghanistan. British, French and Danish forces will be stationed at Manas in addition to American troops. New US base agreements have also been concluded with Pakistan and two other former Soviet republics, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. US warplanes are already deployed at Kandabad air base at Karshi, Uzbekistan, backed by 1,000 US ground troops, and a US military assessment team has visited three potential bases in Tajikistan, at Kulyab, Khojand and Turgan-Tiube. American forces are stationed at several locations in Pakistan, and combat engineers are improving runways and erecting housing and other facilities for what is clearly intended as a long-term stay. Four other former Soviet republics—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan—have pledged various forms of direct military cooperation with the US attack on Afghanistan. Armenia and Azerbaijan granted overflight rights, which are critical for operations in landlocked Central Asia. They were rewarded December 19, when Congress, at the urging of the Bush administration, lifted a decade-long embargo on military aid to the two countries. Bases and pipelines Kazakhstan, which holds the lion’s share of the oil wealth of the Caspian basin, is reportedly offering several locations for possible US military bases. Turkmenistan is viewed as the prime location for the terminus of largely US-financed pipelines which would bring the oil and gas reserves of the region to the world market, possibly running across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean. Locations of other US bases in the region include Camp Bondsteel, the headquarters for US military forces in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia; Bulgaria, also regarded as a potential site for a pipeline to bypass the chokepoint of the Turkish straits; Turkey, where Incirlik Air Base has been used for a decade to carry out bombing attacks on Iraq; and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman in the Persian Gulf. In Qatar the US has built, in virtual secrecy, a huge $1.5 billion airbase at Al Adid whose 15,000-foot runway is one of the longest in the Gulf. Construction began after a visit by Clinton’s defense secretary William Cohen in April 2000. Qatar already hosts pre-positioned equipment for a US Army brigade. While US forces were initially stationed at Qatar in conjunction with the war against Iraq in 1990-91, a top Pentagon official said last year that the Qatar base was “not focu
Xinhua: Chinese FM Spells out China's Policy on Africa [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Friday, January 11, 2002 3:24 PM Chinese FM Spells out China's Policy on Africa Xinhuanet 2002-01-11 19:42:32 ¡¡ADDIS ABABA, January 11 (Xinhuanet£¬by Li Dawei ) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said here on Friday that China attaches great importance to Africa and it will continue to enhance its friendly relations and cooperation with the continent. In order to further the China-Africa relations, China would continue to support the establishment of the African Union (AU) and the implementation of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) on the continent, said Tang in his speech delivered at Ethiopian International Institute for Peace and Development. "Establishing the AU and independently formulating and implementing the NEPAD represent the new attempts made by African countries to collectively take on their challenges," he said. "This remarkable act gives full expression to the strong resolve of the African people in going along with the world's trends to seek peace and development," the minister added. The Chinese government will build on its good cooperation with the Organization of African Unity, deepen cooperation with the AU in future, and support the AU to play bigger role in realizing peace and stability and promoting integration on the African continent, Tang noted. He called on the international community to take concrete measures to jointly support the smooth implementation of the NEPAD. Talking about the Sino-Africa Cooperation Forum to be held thisyear in Addis Ababa, Tang said the Chinese government will maintain close contact and consultation with Ethiopia and other African nations, and jointly help secure a complete success for the next meetings of the forum. As the host country, Ethiopia has reportedly established a special preparatory committee and actively begun preparations for the forum. Concerning the issue of expanding China-Africa economic cooperation and trade, the foreign minister said the Chinese side will explore new approaches to cooperate with African countries, focusing on the areas of agriculture, infrastructure building and human resources development. The Chinese government has drawn out the "Go Global" strategy in a timely manner to support Chinese enterprises to go abroad formutually beneficial cooperation, said Tang, adding that the Chinese government will continue to provide assistance within its capacity to African countries. He also said that China would continue to support African countries to participate in international affairs on an equal footing, saying China will continue to enhance its consultation and cooperation with African countries in international affairs and coordinate the positions on such issues as peace, development,anti-terrorism, global security and the establishment of a new international order. "We support a bigger role played by African nations in international affairs including increasing their say and representation in the U.N. Security Council," said Tang. He said China supports the legitimate propositions and reasonable demands of African countries in the new round of multilateral trade talks, urging the international community, particularly the developed countries, to take more steps to accommodate the interests of African countries, increase input in Africa's development and honor their commitments to the settlementof the debt problem. Before giving his speech, the Chinese foreign minister held talks with his counterpart Seyoum Mesfin on the issues of bilateral relations and further cooperation between the two countries in the future. 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 ==^
Business this week [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Business this weekJan 10th 2002From The Economist print edition Restarting computer sales Compaq Computer, the world's second-largest PC maker, said that surprisingly strong fourth-quarter sales, particularly in Europe, would produce a modest profit rather than the expected loss. The turnaround might even improve the chances of Compaq's proposed merger with Hewlett-Packard. SAP, Europe's leading software company, said that sales in the fourth quarter had exceeded analysts' expectations, topping euro1 billion ($885m). America's Justice Department confirmed that it was pursuing a criminal investigation into events surrounding the bankruptcy of Enron, the erstwhile energy-trading giant. The company has close links with the Bush administration. Season of no GOODWILL AOL Time Warner is to write off as much as $60 billion in the first quarter thanks to new rules over accounting for GOODWILL. The write-off reflects some of the company's expensive dotcom acquisitions. It also forecast that advertising revenues would decline for at least the first half of the year, confirming the miserable outlook for all media companies. AT&T is to take a provision of $1 billion in the latest quarter, mainly to pay for 10,000 job cuts. The telecoms giant has already laid off half this number and the rest will go in 2002. Merrill Lynch, an investment bank, also said it would take a charge of $2.2 billion in the quarter, the cost of 9,000 redundancies. Accenture, the world's biggest management consultancy, reported that profits for its latest quarter were up by 11% over a year ago to $258m and that it had made its highest-ever quarterly revenues. Perhaps, at a tough time for many businesses, Accenture was able to provide valuable advice on downsizing. EasyJet propelled EasyJet showed the bullishness of Europe's low-cost airlines with plans to buy 75 new passenger jets worth some $4 billion. In an effort to secure a favourable deal, easyJet signalled that it would consider buying from Airbus Industrie rather than Boeing, the usual supplier to no-frills carriers. Club Mediterranée, a French resort group, said it would report losses for 2001 of euro70m ($62m); the company blamed the effects of a sagging world economy, compounded by the events of September 11th. Others blamed a weak business plan. DaimlerChrysler, Mitsubishi and Hyundai unveiled plans to develop and produce an engine to power a range of smaller cars. Significant cost savings are expected as adaptations of the power unit could come to propel more than 1m vehicles. The Detroit motor show was dominated by gloom over expected job cuts at Ford, the world's second-biggest car maker. The Bush administration also announced a new push to encourage the development of fuel-cell-powered vehicles. See article: Fuel cells and cars Out of the picture Patricia Russo, charged with reviving Eastman Kodak's fortunes in the digital age, left after less than nine months as chief operating officer and president and returned from whence she came, to Lucent Technologies. She will become chief executive of the struggling telecoms-equipment company. Vizzavi, a European Internet portal that came rather late to the game, said its chief executive and 100 other staff would go. The joint venture between Vodafone and Vivendi Universal cost some euro1.6 billion ($1.4 billion) to set up but has attracted fewer subscribers than hoped for and has had trouble making money. Investor indifference met Vivendi Universal's stockmarket offer of a 5% stake in the company. Shares fell below the opening price, leaving the two banks underwriting the deal stuck with big holdings. Alcoa, the world's biggest aluminium firm, launched a bid for the 60% that it does not yet own of Norway's number two aluminium concern, Elkem, valuing the company at some $850m. Elkem described the offer as very bad. Norsk Hydro, Norway's leading aluminium maker, agreed to pay euro3.1 billion ($2.8 billion) to Germany's E.ON for its VAW aluminium unit, to make it the world's number three aluminium company. Fashion statement Yves Saint Laurent said that he would hang up his hat. The ageing haute couture guru expressed disillusionment with today's more commercial fashion industry. See article: Yves Saint Laurent retires Stockmarkets around the world have continued their steady recovery since the post-September 11th lows, as investors hope for a swift end to America's recession. Both American and European markets have gained, though Japan is less perky. See article: Is irrational exuberance in the air again? ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to:
Bush Fuels Oil Conspiracy Theory [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bush Fuels Oil Conspiracy Theory Ted Rall, AlterNetJanuary 10, 2002 Conspiracy theories are funny things: the wackier they sound, the more likely they are to be true. The fires of September were still burning when I, among others, suggested that the Bush regime's Afghan war might have more to do with old-fashioned oil politics than bringing the Evil Ones to justice. Little did I know how quickly I would be proven right. The Taliban government and their Al Qaeda "guests", after all, both were at best bit players in the terror biz. If the U.S. had really wanted to dispatch a significant number of jihad boys to meet the black-eyed virgins, it would have bombed Pakistan. Instead, the State Department inexplicably cozied up to this snake pit of anti-American extremists, choosing a nation led by a dictator who seized power in an illegal coup as our principal South Asian ally. Moreover, the American military strategy in Afghanistan -- dropping bombs without inserting a significant number of ground troops -- all but guaranteed that Osama would live to kill another day. So the Third Afghan War obviously isn't about fighting terrorism -- leading cynics to conclude that it must be about (yawwn!) oil. Bush and Cheney were both former oil company execs, after all, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was corporate counsel at Chevron. Unbeknownst to most Americans, oil fields dot northern Afghanistan near its border with Turkmenistan. But the real jackpot is under the Caspian Sea. Between confirmed and estimated oil reserves, Kazakhstan is destined to become the world's largest oil-producing nation, and will one day dwarf even Saudi Arabia. For the U.S., more production means cheaper oil, lower production and transportation costs, and higher corporate profits. The Kazakhs would be happy to work with us, but their oil is frustratingly landlocked. The shortest and cheapest of all possible pipelines would run from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf via Iran, but lingering American resentment from the 1980 hostage crisis has prevented U.S.-aligned Kazakhstan from getting its crude out to sea. Plan B is a 1996 Unocal scheme for a trans-Afghanistan pipeline that would debouche at the Arabian Sea port of Karachi. As Zalmay Khalilzad co-wrote in The Washington Quarterly in its Winter 2000 issue, "Afghanistan could prove a valuable corridor for this [Caspian Sea] energy as well as for access to markets in Central Asia." Khalilzad has an unsavory past. As a State and Defense Department official during the Reagan years, Khalilzad helped supply the anti-Soviet mujihadeen with weapons they're now using to fight Americans. During the '90s he worked as Unocal's chief consultant on its Afghan pipeline scheme. According to the French daily Libération, Khalilzad's $200 million project was originally conceived to run 830 miles from Dauletebad in southeastern Turkmenistan to Multan, Pakistan. Multan already possesses a link to Karachi. Partly on Khalilzad's advice, the Clinton Administration funded the Taliban through Pakistani intelligence, going so far as to pay the salaries of high-ranking Taliban officials. The goal: a strong, stable authoritarian regime in Kabul to ensure the safety of Unocal's precious oil. In 1998, after Taliban "guest" Osama bin Laden bombed two American embassies in east Africa, Unocal shelved the plan. Chief consultant Khalilzad moved on to the Rand Corporation think tank. Considering the Taliban irredeemably unreliable, Clinton withdrew U.S. support. But as the newly-minted cliché goes, everything changed after 9-11. Now the Taliban are gone, replaced with a U.S.-installed interim government. Rising energy prices helped push the economy into recession; perhaps 90-cent gas will work where interest rate cuts failed. Once again, the pipeline plan is hot. Did Bush exploit the Sept. 11 attacks to justify a Central Asian oil grab? The answer seems clear. On Dec. 31, Bush appointed his special envoy to Afghanistan: Zalmay Khalilzad. "This is a moment of opportunity for Afghanistan," the former Unocal employee commented upon arrival in Kabul Jan. 5. You bet it is: Pakistan's Frontier Post reports that U.S. ambassador Wendy Chamberlain met in October with Pakistan's oil minister to discuss reviving the Unocal project. And a front-page story in the Jan. 9 New York Times reveals that "the United States is preparing a military presence in Central Asia that could last for years," including a building permanent air base in the Kyrgyz Republic, formerly part of the Soviet Union. (The Bushies say that they just want to keep an eye on postwar Afghanistan, but few students of the region buy the official story.) Many industry experts consider Unocal's revived Afghan adventure fatally flawed and expect the U.S. to ultimately wise up and pursue an Iran deal. But thus f
THE PIPELINE PLOTS [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- "THE PIPELINE PLOTS, PART ONE" by Sherman H. Skolnick 1/9/02 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.skolnicksreport.com Sometimes when you know a lot of the facts and details, it is difficult to escape the idea that you are looking at a sinister scheme. Of course, skeptics and deniers will quickly label you a "conspiracy theorist", even if you are not, thus dismissing what you say. What high level powers do, on a regular basis, cannot simply be a device concocted for a one-time trick. The ultra-rich obviously "breathe together". So, it fits the historical definition of to "conspire". What they do, day by day, year by year, and century by century, is simply their method of operation. Their way of enriching themselves and controlling those of the middle income. Once in a while, their natural collusion is interrupted, sometimes only temporarily, by an upheaval led by the better educated group, the middle class, a Revolution. Starting in the 1990s, even before that, two groups made their plans as to the Caspian Sea energy area, Afghanistan, and the southern Balkans. Oil engineers obviously knew that in a few short decades, the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia will be played out. A growing market for oil and natural gas is Pakistan, Red China, and points east, like Japan. The Caspian area is there to be exploited. Oil, natural gas. One pipeline was planned through the southern Balkans, the split-apart area formerly called simply Yugoslavia. Standing in the way was a strongman, Slobadan Milosevic, who took over more or less with the demise of long-time dictator Marshal Tito who with an iron fist kept the ethnic and religious groups in check. Milosevic was once considered charming and popular. Toppling him started with the Henry Kissinger design of wrecking the Yugoslav banks. Kissinger & Associates have been a nest of clever snakes fronting for Big Oil and dictators and butchers worldwide. So, building on the natural friction between ethnic and religious groups in Yugoslavia, became the excuse for the U.S./British attack on the Belgrade government. The supposed justification, trumpeted in the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press, was the primarily fraudulent stories of "massacres". In the Spring of 1999, that became the reason for bombing and invading Serbia and their province of Kosovo. If not so bloody and tragic, the whole event would be laughable. Mighty military and economic forces of the West pulverized a once united nation which had no air force or navy worth noting, and an army no match for the invaders. Furthermore, Serbia was traditionally pro-U.S. if not also pro-British. In thousands of years, Serbia never attacked or invaded any other country. In violation of the Geneva Convention, to which the U.S. and Britain are signatories, U.S./British forces knowingly bombed and missile-attacked hospitals, schools, and churches. They bombed structures on the Danube, for months thereafter blocking river commerce for a whole section of Europe. The Serbian Radio/Television Building in Belgrade was directly targeted and many of those inside slaughtered. Who would rightfully dare prosecute the U.S./British leaders as war criminals? The International tribunals, made up of yesmen and cowards, are a dead letter. Think about it. If Serbia had an air force and a navy like the U.S., surely they had the right, yes, the duty, to in return, bomb and missile attack the United States. Fair is fair. Hey, the press fakers said it was a WAR. The attack on Serbia benefitted, some say intentionally, the Kosovo/Albanian dope traffickers. Whether you like or dislike what he says or does on other matters, notice something: U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D., Conn.), became the unregistered lobbyist for the dope-traffickers, the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army. Lieberman, who also ran for Vice President in the year 2000, made speeches fronting for the KLA. [I have rejected the strong warning of Lieberman's cohorts, who demanded I shut up about this, yet they know I am an independent, a loyalist for neither political party.] The blitz against Serbia began right after President Bill Clinton, impeached by House of Representatives resolutions, was turned loose from an Impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate. Some contend key Senators caved in after having been blackmailed. Head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin G.Hatch (R., Utah), reportedly was about to be caught up in the Olympics bribery scandal. The monopoly press covered up this and financial and other scandals implicating several U.S. Senators which would have dirtied up Senators at the time of the Impeachment Trial. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, conducting the Senate hearing in an imperial gold-stripped robe, was himself subject to being blackmailed, such as with
US economy faces 'significant risks' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . .US economy faces 'significant risks' Mr Greenspan's comments took analysts by surprise The US economy is showing signs of recovery but still faces significant risks in the short run, according to the US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. It seems to me that he's keeping the door open for rate cuts Carey Leahey, Deutsche Bank Securities "Recent signals about the current course of the economy have turned from unremittingly negative through the late fall of last year to a far more mixed set of signals recently," he said in a prepared text for a speech to be given to businessmen in San Francisco. "But I would emphasize that we continue to face significant risks in the near term," he added. Speculation had been growing that Mr Greenspan would use the speech to say that the worst of the current economic slowdown had passed. More rate cuts to come? But analysts said his relatively cautious comments implied that more interest rate cuts could be on the way. "It's a little more negative on the economy than I expected," said Carey Leahey, senior economist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York. "It seems to me that he's keeping the door open for rate cuts." "I'm surprised about the overall message," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany. "The comments we have seen from other Fed officials have suggested they believe an economic recovery is on the horizon. The tone of Greenspan's remarks is markedly different." Share prices on Wall Street fell back after Mr Greenspan's views became known. The main Dow Jones share index fell back below the 10,000 level, and eventually closed down 80.33 points at 9,987.53. Recession In November last year the National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of senior economists, declared that the US economy had entered recession in March. The move brought an end to a decade of sustained growth. In an attempt to revitalise the flagging economy, the US Fed cut interest rates 11 times last year to 1.75% - their lowest level for 40 years. But in recent weeks, economic commentators had begun to see signs that the downturn has started to 'bottom out'. Consumer confidence has begun to rise, orders to manufacturing and service firms have increased, and the housing market has remained strong. But Mr Greenspan said he did not believe the evidence was conclusive. "Despite a number of encouraging signs of stability, it is still premature to conclude that the forces restraining economic activity here and abroad have abated enough to allow a steady recovery to take hold." He said the key to the economy's revival would be when US firms showed signs of recovery. "The broad contours of the present cycle have been, and will continue to be, driven by the evolution of corporate profits and capital investment." The latest unemployment figures released last week showed the jobless rate rose to 5.8% in December, and Mr Greenspan said this rate is likely to continue to rise even after the recovery begins. ==^ 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 ==^
US Military Ensconces Itself In Kyrgyzstan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- "We have a one year agreement. But one year may not be enough." This signals the effective end of the Shanghai Forum and any tentative efforts by Russia, China, India and the five former Soviet Central Asian nations to set up a joint defense arrangement for regional - and global - purposes. Western global military reach and unilateralism can proceed unimpeded.] Friday January 11 3:02 PM ET Kyrgyzstan Ready to Extend U.S. Base Deal BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev said Friday his ex-Soviet Central Asian republic would be ready to extend a one-year agreement on hosting a U.S. military base for operations in Afghanistan. The United States and its allies in the global war on terrorism are planning to deploy by February up to 3,000 troops and some 40 warplanes at the Manas airport outside the Kyrgyz capital. Kyrgyzstan, a poor mountainous nation of 4.5 million, does not border Afghanistan but is close to it. ``We have a one-year agreement. But one year may not be enough. It is possible that next autumn we will extend the agreement,´´ Akayev said on national television. Kyrgyzstan, the target of cross-border raids by Islamic guerrillas in 1999 and 2000, has enthusiastically embraced Washington's campaign to root out Afghanistan's radical Islamic Taliban and invited U.S. forces to launch operations from its territory. Akayev, who received the green light from Kyrgyzstan's former colonial master Moscow to host U.S. troops, said the decision was also likely to reap economic benefits by boosting cooperation with the world's wealthiest country. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Comments on military threat to Somalia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Somalia, sitting astride the key choke point separating the Red Sea from the Gulf of Oman, leading into the Arabian Sea, on which the country has a lengthy coastline - in fact Somalia has Africa's longest and most strategic coastline - is an extremely advantageous place to be for nations like the U.S. and Germany which desire to control important shipping lanes and deploy naval vessels throughout the Middle East and Southern Asia.] "People are terrorized to see the largest country in the world threaten this poor country which has been ravaged by civil war for 10 years." Friday January 11 11:51 AM ET Somali Ruler Says Country 'Terrorized' by U.S. By Matthew Green KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) - The president of Somalia's transitional government said Friday that his people had been ''terrorized'' by a U.S. propaganda campaign portraying the country as a possible haven for Osama bin Laden's followers. President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan told Reuters television that fears of U.S. military strikes were hindering efforts to bring peace to the country, considered by Washington as a potential target in its war on terror. ``People are terrorized by this campaign of propaganda against Somalia,´´ Abdiqassim said in an interview in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, where he was attending a summit. ``People are terrorized to see the largest country in the world threaten this poor country that has been ravaged by civil war for 10 years,´´ he said. The United States says it is gathering more intelligence on Somalia, fearing Islamic militants may have exploited the lack of a strong central authority to pursue their activities far from the eyes and ears of government. Abdiqassim reiterated his position that there are no bases of bin Laden's al Qaeda network or other extremists in Somalia, and appealed for help from Washington to stabilize his anarchic homeland. ``We want to unite our country, and have for that the help of the international community, so that Somalia will not be a breeding ground for future terrorists,´´ he said. Abdiqassim said his fledgling government had set up a committee to combat terrorism and arrested several suspects, but its efforts were being hampered by a lack of resources. The government was inaugurated in 2000, but still only controls parts of the capital Mogadishu and other patches of territory, competing with warlords who flourished after the fall of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Illustrating the government's problems, officials say they have not been able to pay civil servants for four months and the information minister has only one working telephone line. ``SOMALIA IS NOT AFGHANISTAN´´ Abdiqassim warned that warlords opposed to his attempts to unite Somalia were keen to exploit the United States' sudden interest in his country to strengthen their bid overthrow his administration, the most serious attempt to establish a central government for a decade. ``For their own interest, they want to see America involved in Somalia, Somalia bombed, and then for them to take over power like the Northern Alliance did in Afghanistan,´´ he said. Diplomats say warlords who watched the Northern Alliance rebels gain power in Afghanistan with the help of U.S. military might are seeking a repeat performance in Somalia. ``But Somalia is not Afghanistan. The transitional national government is not Taliban. I am not Mullah Mohammad Omar,´´ the president said, referring to the Taliban leader who sheltered bin Laden, wanted for the September 11 attacks. A team of U.S. officials visited aides to opposition warlords in the southern town of Baidoa for talks about the war on terror last month, raising fears among aid workers that a hasty intervention could stir further turmoil. Raising the specter of a disastrous U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia in the early 1990s in which more than 20 American servicemen were killed, Abdiqassim said the United States should fight terrorism by pursuing peace, not war. ``It was unfortunate for the Somali people, and for the American servicemen killed in 1993, but we hope that this time another sort of Restore Hope will come to Somalia,´´ he said. ``Instead of bombing Somalia, America will come as a friendly country and will lead the efforts of the international community to rebuild Somalia.´´ __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
BBC: Iran hits back at Bush [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Friday, 11 January, 2002, 16:31 GMT WATCH/LISTEN ON THIS STORY The BBC's Emil Petrie http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/175/video/_1754036_iran01_petrie_vi.ram"The Iranian government has denied it's a haven for Bin Laden's men" President George W Bush http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/175/video/_1753846_iran17_bush_vi.ram"[Iran] needs to be an active part of the coalition" Iran hits back at Bush Iran opposes the West's military role in Afghanistan http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1755000/1755562.stm By Jim MuirBBC Tehran correspondent Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has angrily denounced a statement by US President George W Bush that Iran must co-operate in the US-led war against terrorism. Speaking at Friday prayers in Tehran, Mr Rafsanjani described Mr Bush's statement as "rude and impudent", and said it would be "counter-productive". How does [Bush] dare speak to our nation in such a rude and impudent manner?... Such threats do not have the intended results Hashemi Rafsanjani As much as anything else in Mr Bush's remarks, Mr Rafsanjani objected to Iran being told it must do this and it must do that. Threats and blackmail, Mr Rafsanjani said, might work with people who were afraid of the Americans. But Iran had a long history of revolutionary resistance to American pressure, and adopting such a tone would have the opposite effect of that intended. Influential figure Mr Rafsanjani, twice president and currently head of an important constitutional body, the Expediency Council, is a pillar of the Iranian establishment. He was clearly voicing the view of the regime as a whole. Hashemi Rafsanjani: A long-standing critic of US policyEarlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry had denounced US suggestions that Iran might have permitted fugitives from the al-Qaeda movement to cross the border from Afghanistan and seek refuge in Iran. The ministry also took issue with the presence of Western military forces in Afghanistan, saying that their interference was a destabilising factor hampering the establishment of peace in the country. Iran is clearly concerned about the intervention of foreign forces on its doorstep. It was critical of the Western-led campaign from the outset. Radical groups Iran is also aware that its own support for radical Middle East groups that Washington regards as terrorists could make it a target for eventual attention once the Afghan affair is concluded. Both in Tehran and Washington, counsels are divided. There are elements on both sides that would like to use the current crisis to improve relations between the two countries, and others who would resist any such effort. It is a very fluid situation, and hard to predict which way it might go. ==^ 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 ==^ nothing.gif Description: GIF image blue_video.gif Description: GIF image <<_1755562_marinesap300.jpg>><> grey_pixel.gif Description: GIF image startquote.gif Description: GIF image endquote.gif Description: GIF image <<_1755562_rafs150.jpg>>
Correction on Somalia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Sorry for the earlier error. Somalia separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden. The Gulf of Oman leads into the Persian Gulf. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Singapore: American Troops Targetted In Bomb Plots - BBC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Friday, 11 January, 2002, 13:02 GMT 'Americans targeted' in Singapore === http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_1755000/1755022.s tm The bomb plots were said to be well developed Suspected Islamic militants arrested in Singapore were plotting attacks on US servicemen, the Singapore Government said on Friday. One plan was to blow up a shuttle bus carrying US personnel between a naval base and a local underground station, a government statement said. "The plan was apparently developed and ready for activation" Government statement Another plan was to bomb US naval vessels off Singapore, the statement said. Fifteen suspects were arrested last month, but two have since been released. Details of the plans - including a surveillance video of one of the targets - were discovered at the time of the arrests, the home affairs ministry said. "The plan was apparently developed and ready for activation," the statement said. It said eight of the men had received weapons training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Indonesia 'links' The 13 men are being held under the country's controversial internal security act, which allows for detention without trial. The government has said the suspected militants belonged to a group called Jemaah Islamiah, which it said was part of a larger network with cells in Malaysia and Indonesia. According to a report in Friday's Washington Post newspaper, US and Indonesian officials believe hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters trained at a camp in Indonesia last year, and fear sleeper cells could soon be activated there. Authorities in Indonesia acknowledged last month that there were ties between al-Qaeda and local Islamic groups on the island of Sulawesi. However officials have publicly denied the existence of militant training camps. But according to unnamed officials quoted in the Washington Post report, there was a camp on the island last year, hidden in thick jungle near the port city of Poso. ==^ 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: [CubaNews] Cuba Licensing - The Real Story [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Forward from mart. Please distribute widely. - Original Message - From: Walter Lippmann To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 10:04 PM Subject: [CubaNews] Cuba Licensing - The Real Story From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 6:00 PMSubject: USCSCA: CUBA LICENSING /THE REAL STORYTHIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ AND PARTICIPATE: MUCH IS AT STAKE! URGENT!Folks:Senator Byron Dorgan (ND) is scheduling hearings to investigate OFAC (the office within the Treasury Department that both grants travel licenses to Cuba and sends out fines to those who are caught traveling illegally) and its administration of travel regulations on January 29th, (less than two weeks away!) in response to widespread inconsistencies along with massive 'irregularities' and a recent trend of alarming license denials, or non-response to applications and inquiries which have been reported in licensing procedures for travel to Cuba. It appears OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) is taking 'creative license' in its interpretation of the regulations in their issuance/conditioning/refusal of licenses. Reflecting constituent pressure, there is an also strong and growing movement in Congress to redress this issue, or to scrap travel restriction altogether. In two recent votes, congress voted to withhold the use of public money in the prosecution of any U.S. citizen who traveled to Cuba unlicensed and suffered harassment or penalty fines by OFAC as a misuse of public funds.In order for Senator Dorgan to conduct these hearings, he needs factual information on people's experiences with trying to get a travel license from OFAC. We need to demonstrate the variety of requests, and the variety of responses given by different individuals to similar requests by OFAC personnel to show how arbitrary these determinations actually are. Therefore, we need you to fill out the following questionnaire and return it to Senator Dorgan's aides Brian Moran ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) AND Ian Woodward ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) as soon as possible, as these hearings are scheduled to commence January 29th, and they needs time to process them into data.The questions reflect the basic type of data we are seeking, preferably with as much detail as possible -- verbal follow-up, conversations, etc., and especially about exactly what the license request is for. It would help if we could get copies of the license request and any correspondence received from OFAC in time for the hearings. You are invited to submit written testimony to be entered into the record.If possible, we ask you to copy them to [EMAIL PROTECTED] to make sure we also have a database which we can use to begin to make sure that OFAC is not impeding what should qualify as legitimate travel. Our copies will be kept confidential and only shared with the legal team investigating this issue. For people who have traveled without licenses and would like to report their adventures with enforcement, we need that testimony also. Your name will not be used without your full permission, but your story is part of what must be told for Congress to understand the nuances of this policy and its affect on ordinary people, in real life.Given Bush's recess appointment of Otto Reich, that circumvented congressional approval, to the top State Department post for Western Hemispheric Affairs and the ultra-hardline stance he has on the maintaining the embargo, it is particularly important get a lot of individuals and organizations to sign the petition to Congress on ending the travel ban, to write their congressional reps. and to give testimony about their licensing process/ or letters from OFAC: fines levied, etc.Finally, I also want to give you all the link to an International Policy Report that Wayne Smith recently updated on the legal and historical particulars of the travel ban, which may be of interest to you all as well. That report is at: http://www.ciponline.org/cuba/ipr/TravelBan.htm . For us, much is at stake, as hearings without factual information on the depth of how difficult it is to navigate OFAC, could mean the system will only deteriorate further. PLEASE participate, this is really an opportunity we cannot refuse to move towards our goal of reclaiming our unrestricted freedom of travel, and keeping our access to Cuba from narrowing or even being further restricted under the pretense of these new antiterrorist provisions. **QUESTIONNAIRE * We ask that you share this survey with anyone else you may know who has had licensing problems. PLEASE RETURN THE SURVEY/STORIES/TESTIMONY TO THE FOLLOWING FOUR EMAILS: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] NO LATER THAN JANUARY 25. The hearing will be held on January 29. OrganizationCity StateName (if
Annan: Apologist For Morocco, West [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [That this former UN Envoy to NATO and Albright-selected operative would be the recipient of last year's Nobel Peace Prize ranks with Time Magazine making Adolf Hitler its man of the year in 1938. As nominal head of the UN, Annan has only one job to perform in relation to the Western Sahara: To demand that French and U.S. armed Morocco get out post haste and stop trying to change the demographics, a la Indonesia in East Timor earlier. Instead, the traveling salesman of world imperialism attacks the Polisario Front and advocates for the occupying monarchy.] Saturday January 12, 8:16 AM Annan backs call for release of Moroccan POWs from Western Sahara UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the Polisario Front to release more than 1,350 Moroccan prisoners of war seized during its struggle for the independence of the Western Sahara. In a report to the Security Council, he noted that most of the prisoners had been held for more than 20 years and described their continued detention as "a serious humanitarian issue". Annan said the situation of Saharan refugees living in camps at Tindouf in neighbouring Algeria was also "a matter of growing concern". In a separate letter to the council, Morocco's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Bennouna, accused Polisario of using the prisoners of war as propaganda tools. On January 2, Polisario said it had released 115 Moroccans at the request of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a gesture to mark the new year and the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Bennouna said their release was "consistent with the pattern" of Polisario's policy of using prisoners "for political and propaganda purposes by releasing them in dribs and drabs." Bennouna denied that Morocco was holding any Polisario prisoners, and he asked the Security Council to "continue its efforts to secure the prompt and unconditional release of all the Moroccans detained in camps in Algeria." Annan said the release of the Moroccans -- like the release in November of 25 Saharans held by Morocco -- was a "positive development". He urged both sides to help the UN High Commissioner for Refugees with confidence-building measures. Polisario fought a 15-year guerrilla war in Western Sahara after Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1976. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 and asked the UN to organise a referendum on the political future of the territory, but since then they have been at loggerheads over the composition of the electoral roll. Their failure to reach an agreement that would enable the referendum to take place has cast doubt on the future of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara, known as MINURSO. In his report, Annan recalled that the two sides had held separate meetings with his special envoy for the Western Sahara, the former US secretary of state James Baker. He said he would report to the council next month with a recommendation on the mandate of MINURSO, which expires February 28. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Ottawa 'Offended': Excluded From Killing And Dying In Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNATO.
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [For the record, my mother and almost all of my - extremely large - family are Canadians. My spleen on this issue is really a cri de coeur for a country I had once hoped was sovereign.] "Jenkins told Hoon in the House that Britain had 'offended' Canada by excluding it from the force so that it could involve as many EU members as possible at the 'expense' of its long-standing NATO ally." Jan. 11, 01:00 EDT Britain denies snubbing Canadian troop offer Tory sees EU bias in Afghan plans Kevin Ward CANADIAN PRESS LONDON Britain's defence minister says military planners did not reject Canadian participation in the United Nations peacekeeping force in Afghanistan as he tried to lay to rest suggestions yesterday of a rift with Canada over the mission. Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons that Britain had hoped Canadian engineers would be part of the force in the Afghan capital of Kabul, despite charges by British newspapers and a Conservative MP that Canada has been slighted by the minister's military planners. "There has been some comment about Canada's generous offer of an infantry battle group," Hoon said in a statement. "Their offer was not rejected. We were simply unable to accept it in its entirety from the outset." The Times of London reported this week that there was "deep resentment" over the exclusion of a Canadian presence in the peacekeeping force of 5,000 soldiers. The Daily Mail joined in yesterday, reporting that "Britain's handling of the affair has infuriated the Canadian government." But Canadian officials in Ottawa and London say there's no friction between the two governments over the makeup of the British-led International Security Assistance Force. Tory defence critic Bernard Jenkin said Canada's participation fell victim to a push for a strong European element as a chance to get a so-called euro army off the ground. The European Union is trying to get a 60,000-strong army together for similar operations by next year, a force the Tories oppose. `(Canada´s) offer was not rejected. We were simply unable to accept it in its entirety from the outset.´ British defence minister Geoff Hoon Jenkin told Hoon in the House that Britain had "offended" Canada by excluding it from the force so that it could involve as many EU members as possible at the "expense" of its long-standing NATO ally. Canada, a key contributor to past U.N. peacekeeping operations, had offered 1,000 light infantry troops to the mission. Defence Minister Art Eggleton acknowledged the impact of European politics on the makeup of the peacekeeping force when he announced Canada was sending 750 troops to fight alongside U.S. forces in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan earlier this week. A three- or four-member Canadian military reconnaissance party could leave for Afghanistan as soon as this weekend to scout the region around Kandahar, defence officials say. Eggleton said Canada had been going back and forth with the British over a role in the Kabul force since before Christmas. The British suggested Canada send 200 engineers immediately, then follow up with the infantry battalion in three months, but Canada said no. Hoon told the House that Britain had hoped to use Canadian engineers from the start of the peacekeeping mission in Kabul, then allow Canada's infantry troops to replace British soldiers after several weeks. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Goebbels In Hollywood: War Movies Strike Back [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Daily Telegraph "No one goes to the western for a history lesson." War movies strike back (Filed: 12/01/2002) After September 11, Hollywood thought the public would lose its appetite for action-packed war films. But the suprise success of movies such as Black Hawk Down - which tells the story of the US military's ill fated raid on Mogadishu in 1993, shows us something startingly different, says Miranda Carter IN the aftermath of September 11, Hollywood - in common with the entire American entertainment industry - needed to have a big rethink. Within a few days of the attacks, the release dates of a number of action films, including Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage, the story of terrorists trying to bomb a skyscraper, were indefinitely delayed. Brian Grazer, an influential Hollywood player and producer of Apollo 13 among other films, announced that American audiences would now be expecting escapism, comedies and "dramas about family love". His words have been much quoted. The continuing success of the Harry Potter movie and The Lord of the Rings, which is currently at number one in the US box-office charts, seems to suggest that he was right. Patriotic fare: Black Hawk Down In November, however, in an unprecedentedly direct attempt to woo Hollywood, George W Bush's senior political adviser Karl Rove went to Los Angeles for a "war summit", to discuss how the film industry could, among other things, "show the heroism of American armed forces". Only a few weeks later, it was announced that a new big-budget war film, Black Hawk Down, was being brought forward from its original release date of March 2002, to open in late December 2001. Another war film, Behind Enemy Lines, a fictionalised account of the 1995 shooting down of a US pilot behind Bosnian Serb lines - and how he successfully escaped his would-be captors - came out just before Christmas. In its first week, Behind Enemy Lines came second only to Harry Potter at the American box office. It is Black Hawk Down, however, that is the real story. The film has an intriguing pedigree as Ridley Scott's follow-up to his triumphant Gladiator and rather less successful Hannibal; it is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who is known for a string of noisy "popcorn flicks" including the totemic Top Gun and the lamentable Pearl Harbor. Bruckheimer quickly identified the appetite for war movies in the wake of the September 11 atrocities when he said: "It's about revenge. People want to get back at the guys who did this, to feel empowered." Black Hawk Down is based on the best-selling book by Mark Bowden about the 1993 raid on Mogadishu in Somalia by American special forces made up of Delta Force operatives and young and largely inexperienced US Rangers. The mission was to kidnap two advisers of General Mohammed Farrah Aidid, the Somali warlord and clan leader whom the US regarded as the greatest obstacle to peace in the region. It became the US Army's biggest firefight since Vietnam. It was also an extraordinary military disaster in which two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in Mogadishu itself, two more were disabled, and 18 American soldiers and more than 1,000 Somalis died. The next day the bodies of several American soldiers were dragged naked through the streets of Mogadishu by angry crowds. Reading Bowden's book, it is hard to imagine how one could turn this event into the kind of exciting, patriotic fare to which American audiences might flock without actually rewriting history - or, at the very least, leaving an awful lot out. That, of course, is pretty much exactly what Scott and Bruckheimer have done. They have eliminated all but the most cursory of explanations of the context of the raid, of why the soldiers were unprepared, and why the Somalis were so furious. Black Hawk Down is a well-made action-war movie. There is virtually no character delineation of the soldiers; the Somalis are a ferocious black wave, a crowd of careering extras straight out of Zulu. The hideous confusion, deafening noise and brutality of battle are exhaustingly portrayed with an unvarnished vividness that recalls the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. There is no overt flag-waving, but the film carries an unmistakable message. The operation was a noble failure: it showed the strength of the American army. Through it all, the soldiers were stoic and brave. Casualties were caused in large part by the Rangers' loyalty to one another, and their determination to "leave no man behind". Bowden has announced himself pleased with the film. But his book, almost despite itself, paints a far broader and more ambiguous portrait of the circumstances surounding the raid and reaches a rather different conclusion. Although he is deeply sympathetic to and admiring of the soldiers, and is unwilling to apportion blame, his account shows that the raid was part of a largely ill-planned change of policy pursued by the new
NATO Cohorts To Share Gibraltar Colony [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Self-determination and the rights of non-contiguous subjugated peoples - e.g., Corsica, Ireland, Canary Islands, Greenland, Diego Garcia, French Guiana, Guam, the Azores, the Malvinas, the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, the Dutch Antilles - are only raised when NATO wants to bomb and fragment a defenseless non-member.] UK and Spain close to Gibraltar solution Giles Tremlett in Madrid Saturday January 12, 2002 The Guardian Britain and Spain have found a potential solution to their 300-year-old row over who owns Gibraltar, through the simple procedure of sharing it indefinitely, it was reported yesterday. Although neither Britain nor Spain was officially prepared to confirm the news, both said they believed they were still on track to sign an agreement that would put an end to the row by the summer. Spain's acceptance of an open-ended power sharing deal, reported in Spain's El Pais, would be a big shift from its historic demand for the return of Gibraltar to Spain. Previous potential deals, all unacceptable to the vast majority of Gibraltarians, had always included a fixed period of power sharing followed by a Hong Kong-style handover to Spain. The handover, under a Spanish proposal which has been on the table for a decade, would have happened within 50 to 100 years. The problem with the new solution, which would imitate the co-sovereignty that France and a Spanish archbishop share over the tiny Pyrenean mountain state of Andorra, remained, however, whether the people of Gibraltar could be persuaded to back it. The Foreign Office has explicitly promised that any deal that affects sovereignty would be put to a referendum of the Rock's 30,000 inhabitants. "We want an agreement... that Gibraltarians can be convinced to accept," a spokesman at the British embassy in Madrid said yesterday. Gibraltarians have always fiercely opposed any deal that might give Spain a say in their future. Fifteen years of isolation under General Franco - who sealed the frontier between the Rock and Spain - and more than 20 years of officially sanctioned harassment by Spanish border guards since then have done nothing to dispel the mistrust. Spain took a first timid step towards winning hearts and minds when, at a November meeting between the foreign secretary Jack Straw and the Spanish foreign minister Josep Pique, it agreed to give Gibraltar 100,000 extra phone lines and provide some health services to the people there. Spanish officials said yesterday they were aware any deal would have to be approved by the people of Gibraltar. "Our agreement, however, will be with Britain," a foreign ministry spokesman said. El Pais reported that officials on both sides believed that, even if it was rejected by the Gibraltarians, a deal between the two countries would still amount to significant progress in the dispute, which continues to cause problems in Brussels with Spain blocking some EU legislation because of its impact on Gibraltar. Officials from both sides were meeting yesterday to thrash out the agreement, to be signed by Mr Straw and Mr Pique in the summer. A spokesman at the British embassy said sovereignty was the main item on the agenda. "We always said sovereignty is one of the aspects. It is what it is all about," he said. When Gibraltarians last voted, in 1967, on whether they wanted to join Spain, 44 people were in favour while 12,138 were against. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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 ==^
Britain Pours Fuel On Nuclear Fire [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Pardon the coarseness of the expression, but a retired Pakistani general months ago said that his country was "the condom used by the United States to penetrate Afghanistan and now we'll be flushed down the toilet." Similarly, Great Britain's former Ethical Foreign Policy and NATO's Humanitarian Intervention were the prophylactics employed to destroy Yugoslavia and reinsert British colonial and U.S. neocolonial power in Northwest Africa. Having now rehabiltated Western imperialism and established NATO as military master of the world, all the fluffy New Age sloganeering can be thrown out in tomorrow's trash. War and global destabilization are, after all, supremely profitable, and no death merchant worthy of his name would miss out on such a splendid opportunity.] £1bn arms push to India · Blair criticised over deal days after promoting peace · 60 Hawk jets in package promoted by ministers Richard Norton-Taylor and Ewen MacAskill Saturday January 12, 2002 The Guardian The government is mounting an intensive campaign to boost arms sales to India, including 60 Hawk jets worth £1bn, in spite of the danger of the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir spilling into war and destabilising the entire region. The arms push comes only a week after Tony Blair visited India and Pakistan. He expressed the hope that "we can have a calming influence" and warned of the "enormous problems the whole of the world would face if things went wrong". BAE Systems, makers of the Hawk, is confident of striking a deal with the Indians. Ministers have been pressing India behind the scenes to clinch the contract. British arms companies will be prominent at an arms fair in New Delhi, Defexpo 2002, devoted to naval and land warfare. On offer at the exhibition next month will be howitzers, anti-aircraft guns, missiles and tanks. Sales of arms to India would contravene the ethical guide lines adopted by Labour soon after it came into power. The government is supposed to take into account any threat to regional stability. Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, has been pressing India to make a decision on the Hawk deal. John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, is scheduled to visit India next month for a conference on sustainable development but he is also expected to raise the Hawk deal, which he championed during a visit to New Delhi last year. Mr Blair has also been asked to throw his weight behind the Hawk campaign. Downing Street, after reviewing the request, decided it was not opposed in principle to the sale but that, politically, it would be unwise for the prime minister to be involved. The head of the Indian army, Sunderajan Padmanabhan, said yesterday that the build-up of Indian and Pakistan forces along the border had brought the two "quite close to an actual war" and his country was ready for it. The build-up follows an attack on the Indian parliament by Kashmiri separatists that India claims were backed by Pakistan. Sixteen people were killed in Kashmir yesterday, mainly in shoot-outs between the Indian army and security forces and Kashmiri rebels. A spokesman for the Pakistan high commission in London yesterday said Pakistan was "very concerned" at the arms build-up: "India has overwhelming support in conventional weapons. India has increased its defence spending by 28% in the last two years whereas Pakistan has virtually frozen its defence budget in the same period. "Any build-up of Indian equipment will aggravate the situation as it will tilt the balance even more in favour of India and encourage aggression." Britain imposed an effective arms embargo on Pakistan three years ago. Although the US lifted its arms embargo late last year after Pakistan helped the US in the war in Afghanistan, the Pakistan high commission spokesman insisted the British embargo was still in place, with requests for spare parts being delayed. Richard Bingley, spokesman for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, said yesterday: "It is diabolical that just days after Tony Blair was promoting peace in India, his government uses taxpayers' money to fund activity which could achieve the exact opposite." Britain will have one of the biggest pavilions at the New Delhi fair. The pavilion is being organised by the Defence Manufacturers Association with financial support from Trade Partners UK, a government body funded by taxpayers. Alan Sharman, the association's director general, said yesterday that 30 British companies would attend, along with officials of the government-funded defence export services organisation. The exhibition's brochure says that "with the recent political developments in the south-east Asian region" India is increasing its defence budget. The Society of British Aerospace Companies is separately sending a delegation to India next month. Several hundred BAE Systems' jobs at the production line in Brough, East Yorkshire - in Mr Prescott's constituency - will be at risk of
U.S. Military To Reconquer Philippines [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [We didn't 'fight' the Spanish-American War for nothing, of course. The Afghans are seeing history repeat itself according to the Filipino model currently as a matter of fact.] Manila may use American troops John Aglionby, south-east Asia correspondent Saturday January 12, 2002 The Guardian Manila is considering a US "battle plan" to send up to 1,000 special forces troops to help fight a long-running Islamist insurgency in the southern Philippines. US media quoted "confidential sources" yesterday as saying that the deployment could comprise a full military battalion - up to 1,000 troops. However, Manila said that nothing had been decided and indicated that the assistance may be as small as a tenth of the figure touted. The Philippines president, Gloria Arroyo, stressed that any US involvement would be in a training and supply capacity, although troops would be allowed up to the frontline. She said Manila was not asking the US to fight but that it was more practical for them to be nearer the frontline. Many Filipino politicians fear the US could assume a combat role, despite laws forbidding suchinvolvement. Several dozen US soldiers have been in the Philippines for a few months, preparing for a larger force and training Filipino troops. The soldiers are operating mainly on the islands of Mindanao and Basilan. More than 5,000 Filipino troops are fighting the Abu Sayyaf Islamists as well as renegade elements of the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the southern islands. Abu Sayyaf is holding a US missionary couple and a female Filipino nurse. They have killed many captives, including an American. A US military spokesman, Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis, said American troops were unlikely to become involved in combat. Meanwhile in Singapore yesterday, the government released a video, sketches and notes found in an al-Qaida leader's house in Afghanistan detailing possible terrorist targets in the island city state, including US military personnel, the US embassy, British and Australian high commissions, and a list of US businesses. Singapore said yesterday that the plan was ready to be implemented. · France has jailed a Frenchman of Algerian descent with links to al-Qaida, officials said. Ahmed Laidouni, 34, who had apparently trained in an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, was arrested on Christmas Eve and jailed for violating a 1999 judicial order forcing him to report to the authorities. __ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^ 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: Richard: On Latvia ( or: Why I hate Gorby) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Richard, They (before-Gorbachev leaders in the USSR) were for socialism. Can you imagine them all taking money today from the bourgeiosie and saying nothing about the death of socialism in the USSR? I guess I can't. I am passionately on the side of the working class around the world. Those who oppose it or who lend themselves to defending capitalism are the enemies of the children of the world, they are the enemies of freedom and dignity. I cannot imagine anyone who I respect working consciously for the foundations and think tanks taking blood money to live and "work," as Michial Gorbachev does. He is a class enemy. If he were not, he'd be criticising everything; poverty, the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, the World Bank, the IMF, WTO. He's be organizing Russians to take back their nation by force of arms from the felons who are destroying it. He's be in the streets of Moscow and (I hate this name) St. Petersberg (Leningrad, for goodness sake, LENINGRAD!!), with the workers, on strike, looting the food stores, defying authorities. Organizing, fighting, agitating. He'd be telling the world that the USSR came to the aid of the Marxist government in Afghanistan because the US and Pakistan was supporting the feudal brutal Mujahadeen. He'd be saying that that government gave women freedom, educated the children, was trying to bring Afghanistan out of the 7th century. And the US, in its most expensive CIA contra war EVER destroyed it.supporting the Taliban and the Northern alliance and the heroin trade. Gorbachev would talk truth. Silence. he is silent. I don't know who you are, Richard, but you must remember the part in John Reed's Ten Days that Shook the World in which a revolutionary soldier stopped a bourgeois group from promenading across a bridge and walking past the building that housed the Bolshevik government. When they asked to pass, he refused them, saying that either you were with the proleatiat or the bourgeoisie, and the only people who could pass were with the proletariat. Or do you know the US labor song, Which Side Are you On? That is what this is about. This isn't about whether you think it was nice to have Glastnost or Peristroika, it is about how these policies helped lead to the destruction of the USSR and led to the wholesale death of the Soviet people. And the end of revoulionary movements everywhere. This temporary cessation of the foward movement of the working class will have cost several hundred million lives around the globe by the time the workers of the world finally organize revolution. Under socialism ,one can't afford to have well-intentioned policies. One must fight agaisnt bourgeois tendencies and resist the imperialists who are always going to try to annihilate socialism. That cretin Fukayama talked about an end to histroy. The Enlightenment was stopped. Capitalism won, all was ducky for the rich. It was not; but in the 1980s and 1990s capitalism spread around the world like a terrible scourge and the revolutionary immune system that was found WHILE THE USSR WAS STILL EXTANT was destroyed. Now that the capitalist system is globally tanking, now that the overproduction in every nation is choking the economies, now that the only real profits can be found in war, now the working class will be waking up. In Argentina, the left has put aside their differences and is talking and working together. In the US, young people are joining together to fight for civil liberties and agaisnt war. These are small, but indicative developments. Are you familiar with the Turner Thesis? This is the final appication of it. The US has rub out of frontiers, the capitalists can't invest many more places, the system has really outlived its usefulness, and Gorbachev isn't on the same page as those who know this. He worries about pollution. That's nice. So does the Sierra Club and the Boyscouts, but they aren't on the side of the working class, and neither does that "great leader" you admire. Heather I will stop. ==^ 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 ==^
