Palestine. PFLP Press releases Nov 20 - Dec 4
PFLP Press Releases 4 December 2001 In response to the decisions of the Zionist government that are to be considered to be a declaration o f war on the Palestinian people and the entire Arab Nation, we in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine affirm that our Palestinian people are united in confronting the occupation that represents the most disgusting types of terrorism and fascism. We also affirm that the struggle and resistance of our people for freedom and independence is a legitimate right guaranteed to them by international law and therefore the recent heroic operations fall within the framework of the natural response to Zionist crimes, and we affirm that resistance is our legitimate right so long as the occupation continues. We call for a declaration of general mobilization and the formation of a united national emergency structure to confront the occupation, for the immediate release of all political prisoners, for a final halt to campaigns of political arrest, and for the cancellation of all steps and decisions that the Palestine Authority has taken in the aftermath of the heroic operations in Jerusalem and Haifa. Enough of betting on useless negotiations! Enough submission to the dictates of the American Administration that gave the green light to the terrorist Sharon to continue and intensify his aggression against our people! In addition, we call on the Arab peoples to stand beside the Palestinian people in their patriotic struggle and in their resistance to Zionist aggression. The occupation continues . . . the resistance continues! Hail, all hail every military formation that resists the occupation! We will definitely win! 3 December 2001 Rather than declare an emergency, we need a national dialogue to determine a strategy for Palestinian effort Ramallah: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has commented on the Palestine Authority's declaration of a state of emergency, saying that such a step is impermissible. It restricts public and personal freedoms and gives free rein to further arbitrary decrees at a time when the Palestinian people are living through a real emergency situation in which they need to apply themselves to their concerns and problems. The statement by the Popular Front explained that the state of emergency declared by the Palestine Authority will have an effect on national unity in the field of confrontation, on the cohesiveness of the national ranks. This will occur even though the most strenuous efforts are made by every group to avoid harming this unity. The Popular Front in its statement called for a comprehensive and serious national dialogue to define the Palestinian strategy for work in these conditions and in the next stage, for an agreement upon a national collective leadership based on the resolutions that express the national consensus, and for participation in Palestinian political decision making through a national emergency leadership. The statement also called on the Palestine Authority to beware of meeting American and Israeli conditions, since these might simply bring on more Israeli pressure and dictates and more Palestinian concessions - something that only whets Sharon's appetite for repression. The Popular Front statement stressed the need to hold fast to national unity in the field, to continue the intifada and resistance as a strategic choice that leads to gaining national independence and to implementing the resolutions of international legality. Central Information Department Press Office 1st December 2001 American Promises require a means for their implementation. Stopping the intifada will only bring on more pressure. Ramallah: In a press statement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has commented on the call from the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization to stop the resistance, and on a series of official statements concerning the mission of the American team of envoys. The PFLP states that this is an attempt to beautify the face of the mission of that American team, despite the fact that it brings with it nothing but ambiguous positions on a Palestinian state, on the Israeli occupation, and on United Nations resolutions. The Popular Front statement said that the American positions constitute an American attempt to circumvent the achievements of our people, to empty out their contents by stopping the intifada and the resistance struggle, and by returning the Palestine Authority to fruitless rounds of negotiations on the basis of the Oslo Agreements and under the authority of the American Administration. In its statement, the Popular Front rejected the call for a so-called cease fire, and affirmed that it was holding fast to the option of intifada and resistance struggle, as an option that leads to driving off the occupation and compelling Israel to implement UN resolutions. The Statement also called on the leadership of the Palestine
Korean Central News Agency Dec 8
TODAY'S NEWS (December.08.2001 Juche 90) [CONTENTS] * Japan warned not to forget lesson from its defeat in Pacific War * Open questionnaire to S. Korean minister of unification released * New posters created * World's democratic forces called upon to protest Japan * Japan's crackdown upon Chongryon under fire * Japan's suppression of Chongryon assailed * DPRK to adopt strong countermeasure * DPRK is not afraid of war * Japan accused of raising again issue of suspected kidnapping * New Canadian ambassador to DPRK here For Spanish-speaking people * japon no debe olvidar leccion de derrota sufrida en guerra de pacifico * comite internacional de enlace por reunificacion y paz de corea exhorta Japan warned not to forget lesson from its defeat in Pacific War Pyongyang, December 8 (KCNA) -- The Japanese reactionaries should renounce its anachronistic design for reinvasion, clearly mindful that the Koreans and other Asian people today are not who used to be at the time of the outbreak of the Pacific War. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed commentary carried 60 years since the war was provoked by the Japanese imperialists. Recalling that hundreds of millions of people in Asia had to undergo scourge of this war, the commentary says: Many years have passed and there has been a considerable change in the international community since the Japanese imperialists were defeated in the war. Those countries which once committed war crimes have already reflected on their wrongs or in that process. But, there is no change in the way of thinking and attitude of Japan only. Japan's militaristic way of thinking and attitude still persist. It is because Japan is seeking to repeat the history of aggression, oblivious of the lesson from the Pacific War. Describing the past aggression and war deeds as justice, the Japanese reactionaries are straining every nerve to provide institutional mechanisms for overseas expansion while inciting militarism and aggressive idea. Japan has emerged a de-facto war state and aggression force. The viper of militarism is seeking to swallow up Asia and, furthermore, the rest of the world, with dreadful spite. But such act will never be allowed by the world people. We will annihilate with all our strength and means the Japanese reactionaries to the last man, if they invade the territory of the DPRK even an inch. Open questionnaire to S. Korean minister of unification released Pyongyang, December 8 (KCNA) -- The reunification solidarity for the implementation of the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration and Peace on the Korean Peninsula on December 4 made public an open questionnaire to the minister of unification as regards the deadlocked 6th inter-Korean ministerial talks, according to a news report. Quoting recent South Korean media reports as saying that the talks at which a draft joint press release had been worked out came to a rupture owing to the opposition of the minister, the questionnaire urged: if that is true, you should make clear whether it was done by your personal decision or under a consultation with the 'government' authorities. It also warned him against his remarks provoking the north and urged him to answer the question as to whether he would be ready to respond to the north side's call for the lifting of the emergency alert, etc. for the development of the inter-Korean dialogue in the future and the question as to whether he can request the judicial authorities to make an about-face judgement on those arrested for participating in the 2001 grand festival for national reunification. New posters created Pyongyang, December 8 (KCNA) -- The Mansudae Art Studio, the Central Fine Art Studio and Pyongyang University of Fine Art created many posters to inspire the Korean people to dynamically turn out in the vigorous drive for prosperity, holding high the torchlight of Ranam. The posters deal with the might of the homeland of Juche, the tremendous vitality of the army-based politics and the revolutionary spirit of the Korean people. The poster let's speed up the revolutionary advance in the new century, holding high the torchlight of Ranam lit by the great general and other posters reflect the revolutionary enthusiasm and militant spirit of the people across the country all out to bring a new peak to the drive to build a powerful and prosperous nation in the new century closely united around leader Kim Jong Il in the same spirit of devotedly defending the leader and unconditionally implementing the party's policies as displayed by the workers of the Ranam coal mining machine complex. And the posters such as let's advance dynamically
BACKWARDNESS
Vast areas of the world, the post-colonial zones are still dedicated to low value yielding primary products such as mono-crop agriculture and mining. Most of the increased trade remains between the industrialised manufacturing centres. The top five exporting states (EU, US, Japan, Canada, China) represent 53.2 percent of the world export market (according to WTO figures), whereas the top four importers take a 54 percent share between each other. The EU and the US both import considerably more than they export, and represent a substantial lucrative market to access. This imbalance of trade between the core and the periphery indicates the way in which the idea that opening up free trade will benefit poor nations and assist in their development is flawed. The sheer economic clout of the big capitalist states means they can bully and force other states into letting them have their way. As George Monbiot noted in his Guardian column (6 November) one WTO delegate from a poor state saying If I speak out too strongly, the U.S. will phone my minister. They will twist the story and say that I am embarrassing the United States. My Government will not even ask, 'What did he say?' they would just send me a ticket tomorrow. Such raw power means that whatever formal equality of the rules, they will still be used to serve the ends of the dominant states. Each national capitalist class seeks to protect its position and its investments, and is exceedingly unwilling to relinquish control of the state force which props up its power. The dominant policy is currently to pursue mutual capital interpenetration, and thus prevent losing control of their national economy at home, whilst having sufficient hostage capital to deter expropriation abroad. Whilst the times are good this policy is tolerable, but come a time of crisis each group will seek to save their own skins first and foremost. Should America sink into deep recession, it may decide to put a stop to the raiders taking a share of its profits, and throw the barriers back up. Certainly, so long as world society depends first and foremost upon competing capitalist groups vying for profits, it will be subject to the anarchy of capitalist self-interest, and any world body will be subordinated to the Machiavellian manoeuvrings of these groups. So long as capitalism remains any world body will be used as a potential tool for exploitation and robbery. The only genuine way to move forward to a world human community is by the abolition of sectional national élite interest, and the creation of a world human interest of common ownership of the worlds wealth, so that we can end the horrendous divisions the property system has created. Jt www.worldsocialism.org Nokia 5510 looks weird sounds great. Go to http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/nokia/ discover and win it! The competition ends 16 th of December 2001.
Cuba. RHC Weekend-08/09 December 2001
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 06:52:12 -0500 To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: RHC Weekend-08/09 December 2001 RHC Weekend-08/09 December 2001 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - Weekend News Update - 08/09 December 2001 . *FIDEL ADDRESSES SAO PAOLO FORUM CONDEMNING FTAA AND CALLING FOR UNITY *YASSER ARAFAT APPEARS ON ISRAELI TV AS WORLD CONDEMNS ARIEL SHARON *MULLAH OMAR REPORTED HELD AS KANDAHAR FALLS; US MARINES ENGAGE IN FIGHTING *BUSH OBTAINS ANOTHER VICTORY IN CONGRESS KEEPING $7 BILLION FOR PENTAGON *HUMANITARIAN PROGRAM IN IRAQ FAIL TO PROVIDE BASIC NEEDS - UN OFFICIAL *NATIONAL GUARD PATROLS STREETS OF CARACAS AS RIGHT WING THREATENS STRIKE *BODIES OF REFUGEES FOUND IN CONTAINER IN IRELAND *SOME RUSSIAN DEPUTIES REGRET THE COLLAPSE OF USSR TEN YEARS AGO TODAY *ACP GROUP CALLS ON EUROPEAN UNION TO PERMIT CUBA'S ENTRY TO ALLIANCE . *FIDEL ADDRESSES SAO PAOLO FORUM CONDEMNING FTAA AND CALLING FOR UNITY Havana, December 8 (RHC)--Cuban President Fidel Castro delivered the closing address of the tenth Sao Paolo Forum Friday night here in Havana. The four-day gathering of left and progressive forces from Latin America and the Caribbean came to an end with the approval of a final declaration condemning free market neo-liberal globalization, poverty, unemployment and corruption - with a strong denunciation of Washington's proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. During the tenth forum, which began on Tuesday, more than 500 delegates from 150 political parties and organizations - representing 84 countries - debated key issues facing the region and world. Fidel Castro attended plenary sessions each day, occasionally speaking with those gathered. His main remarks were reserved for Friday night and lasted well into the early morning hours of Saturday. The Cuban president spoke extemporaneously for a little more than five hours, touching on a wide array of subjects debated during the four-day meeting. Fidel Castro said that neo-liberalism, imperialism and capitalism have entered a time of extreme crisis - a Special Period he said, in reference to the stagnant economic period in Cuba following the collapse of the former Soviet Union and European socialist countries. The Cuban president noted that the coming period will be decisive for the world with either a new system of social justice or the planet's total destruction. He emphasized that free-trade neo-liberalism is unsustainable and will only lead to greater social tensions, affirming that there is no such thing as free enterprise or free competition. What kind of freedom exists for those who are illiterate, for those who live in poverty in the shantytowns of our major cities, the Cuban leader asked. During his closing address at the 10th Sao Paolo Forum, Fidel Castro took aim at the Free Trade Area of the Americas, calling it nothing more than the economic annexation of the region by the United states and he called upon those present from Latin American and Caribbean political parties and organizations to work for unity on issues of common concern. The Cuban leader insisted that a united front can be achieved on issues such as social justice and a better world for all - and that representatives from organizations that gathered over the past several days here in Havana have a moral and political obligation to achieved that united aim. Organizers of the Sao Paolo Forums announced that the 11th meeting will be held next November in Guatemala City. *YASSER ARAFAT APPEARS ON ISRAELI TV AS WORLD CONDEMNS ARIEL SHARON Havana, December 8 (RHC)--The President of the Palestine National Authority, Yasser Arafat, Friday night spoke directly to the Israeli public in a television interview in which he said that he had complied with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's demand to arrest Islamic militants. The Palestinian leader was attempting to stop the wave of reprisals against the West Bank and Gaza Strip a week after a series of suicide bombings by members of the Palestinian organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad left some 30 civilians dead. The rush to avenge the killings with more killings has brought worldwide condemnation upon Sharon, with international figures like Mary Robinson of the United Nations Human Rights Commission harshly criticizing Israel for carrying out the selective assassinations that have prompted the militant's actions. The French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, went even further, accusing Sharon of deliberately attempting to eliminate the Palestine National Authority, something which former Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been openly calling for and which Sharon's deputy foreign minister, Michael Melchior, seems to support by saying that the Palestinian leader is no longer relevant. An Israeli official who was not named told AFP news that his government reserves the right to prevent President Arafat from leaving the Gaza Strip where he has
Palestine. Angry Arafat Accuses US Of Pro-Israel Bias
From: Miroslav Antic [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Angry Arafat Accuses US Of Pro-Israel Bias HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Friday, December 7, 2001 by the Associated Press http://www.ap.org/ Angry Arafat Accuses US Of Pro-Israel Bias JERUSALEM (AP) - An angry Yasser Arafat accused the United States of Pro-Israel bias Friday during an interview broadcast on Israeli television. The United States has been pressuring Arafat to rein in the Islamic militant group Hamas that took responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 25 people in Israel over the weekend. When asked about recent American pressure on him to arrest militants, the Palestinian leader became irritated. ``Dear God, who cares about the Americans,'' Arafat said, striking the air with his hand at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah. ``The Americans are on your side and they give you everything,'' Arafat told Channel One television. ``Who gave you the airplanes? The Americans. Who gave you the tanks? The Americans.'' Arafat spoke after an Israeli F-16 jet attacked a Palestinian police compound in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the firing of mortars at area Jewish settlements. The Americans have abstained from criticizing Israel for military strikes against the Palestinians that came in response to the bombings, including several earlier in the week that killed two Palestinians and injured about 100. When the interviewer attempted to ask Arafat about recent American efforts to bring about a cease-fire to end 14 months of Israeli-Palestinian clashes, Arafat interrupted, saying: ``Don't talk to me about the Americans.'' As Israel's closest ally, the United States gives Israel about $2.7 billion in military and economic aide each year, part of which is used to buy fighter planes. The United States also grants the Palestinians aid annually. Since the bombings in Israel over the weekend, Arafat's forces say they have arrested about 180 militants. The United States has remained skeptical of the Palestinian crackdown, and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Thursday that Palestinian jails are ``built with bars in front with revolving doors at the back.'' Israel has repeatedly used the term ``revolving door'' in accusing Arafat of arresting militants only for show, and releasing them later. U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni this week gave Arafat a list of 33 Palestinians, the ones most wanted by Israel for suspected involvement in attacks, Arafat said. Of those, the Palestinian forces have arrested 17, Arafat said. Arafat lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for equating him with wanted terror suspect Osama bin Laden. Several Israeli ministers have also said recently they support an Israeli attempt to topple Arafat and destroy the Palestinian Authority. ``Your leaders don't stop the incitement against us,'' Arafat said. ``You say that I am bin Laden and the Palestinian Authority is the Taliban. Am I bin Laden?'' Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, reacting to Arafat's interview, said he had pressed Arafat in a phone conversation this week to arrest militants. He said he didn't support any Israeli action to bring Arafat down. ``I'm convinced that if Arafat will leave, the situation will be worse,'' Peres told the television. Arafat insisted that he was trying to implement a cease-fire. Copyright C 2001 Associated Press _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __
Philippines. US list affects Arroyo's negotiations with NPA
From: Barry Stoller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] US list affects Arroyo's negotiations with NPA AFP. 9 December 2001. Communist guerrillas declare ceasefire with Philippine government. MANILA -- Communist guerrillas on Sunday declared a unilateral month-long Christmas ceasefire with the Philippine government. The New People's Army (NPA) is to cease and desist from carrying out offensive operations against the armed units and personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and paramilitary forces, the NPA's political wing said in a statement. The ceasefire is to begin on December 15 and end on January 15, the National Democratic Front (NDF) said. Chief government negotiator Silvestre Bello said the rebels first proposed the ceasefire last week and that President Gloria Arroyo was to issue her response soon. We are awaiting the decision of the president, Bello said over ABS-CBN television. Arroyo last on Friday said government was open to declaring a ceasefire, noting that it showed that the rebels were still interested in pursuing talks with Manila. However, Bello said the inclusion of the NPA on a new terrorist exclusion list drawn up by the US State Department could affect the peace negotiations. This new development raises concerns not only on the part of the (peace negotiating) panel but also on the part of government, Bello said. President Arroyo is aware of this and I can only assume that she would have to consult with her military and security advisers on her decision of steps to be taken by the government. Arroyo was among the first leaders to have backed the US-led global war on terrorists. In exchange, the US government has pledged additional military aid to Manila in its war against secessionist groups, including Muslim gunmen holding hostage an American couple in the south. House of Representatives member Satur Ocampo urged Manila to make a categorical policy statement on the NPA's inclusion in the list, noting that there is now a conflict of policy since Arroyo has vowed not to negotiate with terrorist groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __
Afghanistan. The Deadly Pipeline War
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: The Deadly Pipeline War HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Saturday, December 8, 2001 in The Jurist http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/index.htm The Deadly Pipeline War US Afghan Policy Driven By Oil Interests by Marjorie Cohn George W. Bush justifies his bombing of Afghanistan as a war against terror. A twin motive, however, is to make Afghanistan safe for United States oil interests. A few days before September 11, the U.S. Energy Information Administration documented Afghanistan's strategic geographical position as a potential transit route for oil and natural and gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea, including the construction of pipelines through Afghanistan. Prior to September 11, United States policy toward the Taliban was largely influenced by oil. In a new book published in Paris, Bin Laden, la verite interdite (Bin Laden, the forbidden truth), former French intelligence officer Jean-Charles Brisard and journalist Guillaume Dasquie document a cozy relationship between George W. Bush and the Taliban. The book quotes John O'Neill, former director of anti-terrorism for the FBI, who thought the U.S. State Department, acting on behalf of United States and Saudi oil interests, interfered with FBI efforts to track down Osama bin Laden. Before he was tapped as Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, the biggest oil services company in the world. In a 1998 speech to the Collateral Damage Conference of the Cato Institute, Cheney said, the good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is. Because of the instability in the Persian Gulf, Cheney zeroed in on the world's other major source of oil, the Caspian Sea, whose resources were estimated at $4 trillion by U.S. News and World Report. Cheney told oil industry executives in 1998, I can't think of a time when we've had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian. But Caspian oil, landlocked between Russia, Iran and former Soviet republics, presents formidable transport challenges. Afghanistan is strategically located near the Caspian Sea. In 1994, the U.S. State Department and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency sought to install a stable regime in Afghanistan to enhance the prospects for Western oil pipelines. They financed, armed and trained the Taliban in its civil war against the Northern Alliance. In 1995, California-based UNOCAL proposed the construction of an oil pipeline from Turkmenistan, south through Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the Arabian Sea. Yasushi Akashi, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, was critical of outside interference in Afghanistan in 1997, which, he said, is now all related to the battle for oil and gas pipelines. The fear is that these companies and regional powers are just renting the Taliban for their own purposes. Meanwhile, feminists and Greens in the United States mobilized opposition to UNOCAL's pipeline deal and Washington's covert support of the Taliban, because of the latter's oppression of women. In 1998, after the U.S. bombed Al-Qaeda training camps in retaliation for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa, UNOCAL pulled out of the pipeline negotiations. Once the Taliban are overthrown and the U.S. installs a pro-Western government, lucrative investment opportunities will arise. Rob Sobhani, president of Washington-based Caspian Energy Consulting, said, Other major energy companies could see big opportunities in a deal crucial to restarting Afghanistan's economy. A new pipeline could produce revenues totaling $100 million. United States dependence on Middle East -- and soon Caspian -- oil -- has led our government to engage itself in heavy-handed, and deadly, interventions. The development of a sensible U.S. energy policy would obviate the perceived need to dominate other countries. But there has been an ongoing pipeline war between Russia and the U.S., which support competing pipeline routes. An energy expert at the National Security Council clarified the United States' anti-Russia policy in 1997: US policy was to promote the rapid development of Caspian energy . . . We did so specifically to promote the independence of these oil-rich countries, to in essence break Russia's monopoly control over the transportation of oil from that region, and frankly, to promote Western energy security through diversification of supply. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin recognized this in 1998: We cannot help seeing the uproar stirred up in some Western countries over the energy resources of the Caspian. Some seek to exclude Russia from the game and undermine its interests. The so-called pipeline war in the region is part of
wwnews Digest #359
WW News Service Digest #359 1) Welfare cuts + job losses = poverty crisis by WW 2) Steel workers fight for their jobs by WW 3) Detroit opts for domestic partner benefits by WW 4) Michigan protest hits racial profiling by WW 5) Israel launches assault on Palestinian authority by WW - Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper - WELFARE CUTS + JOB LOSSES = POVERTY CRISIS By Heather Cottin New York There's another front to the U.S. war. It's right here in this country. The casualties are mounting by the tens of thousands as people are being cut off welfare just as the recession destroys millions of jobs. A huge number of those on welfare have been working people who earned so little they couldn't afford food and shelter without public assistance. As the rich get richer, with the kindly assistance of Congress and the president who are pushing through a $70- billion corporate tax incentive, the Bush administration is going ahead with the plan to end welfare as we know it. This bipartisan plan of, by, and for the wealthy, was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996 to end federal assistance to the poorest people in the United States. Entitled the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, this law stated that on Nov. 30, 2001, anyone receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children who had exhausted the five-year lifetime limit mandated by the new law would be withdrawn from welfare dependency and forced to go it alone. The policy wonks who came up with the title of the law implied that poor people who needed welfare were irresponsible. They put the blame for poverty on the poor, rather than the capitalist system that impoverishes millions as collateral damage while a wealthy minority enriches itself. Under this law, the federal government has been forcing recipients into what came to be called workfare. This means taking jobs--often below minimum wage--to qualify for assistance. Conservatives called it opportunity. Many people on welfare, however, are disabled or have small children to care for and haven't been able to take workfare jobs. Welfare was always insufficient to meet the needs of the poor. An Oct. 12 article in New York Newsday explained, Public assistance leaves families deep in poverty. The cash grant for a family of three is only $577 per month and has not been raised in more than 10 years. While many families also receive food stamps, assistance levels are still way below that needed to move a family out of crushing poverty. But even this meager support has now come to an end for tens of thousands of families. The largest group yet to face the cutoff of federal funds, they are also among the first to do so in a full-blown recession. FREEFALL CRISIS The Nov. 30 New York Times reported that stringent rules and a good economy had already cut the number of people receiving welfare in that city by half, to 387,000 recipients. Now, as the five-year limit expires for many, they won't be able to pay the December rent or buy enough food to feed their families. The New York State Constitution mandates a Safety Net program for those who cannot care for themselves, but for many of the 38,000 families in the state cut off from federal welfare after Nov. 30, this state net is not working. And there will be more. An additional 13,700 city families, the Times added, are expected to hit their federal time limit over the next three months. The New York City economic crisis has proved a disaster for the poor here. But Robert Doar, executive deputy commissioner of the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, won't admit it. He told the Times, Most people can get virtually the same benefits as before. ... We do think it's gone very smoothly. The Times reporter disputed this: But a very different picture emerges from visits to several welfare offices, interviews with welfare lawyers, social service organizations, and recipients themselves. Some have received letters just in the last few days denying them state aid, apparently in error. Others, in offices bristling with ominous posters about time running out, tried to apply for benefits but caseworkers told them--within a reporter's earshot--that it was too late. They are closing cases in error, and clients are being denied the right to transfer to Safety Net assistance, said Mark Cohen of the Welfare Law Center, a national advocacy group based in New York. Almost 65 percent of the welfare recipients had jobs, but they did not, according to the Times, make enough for their families' survival. The Times noted that many of the thousands who were about to lose welfare assistance were also losing their access to other programs that helped them survive. This is because of federal cutbacks of Medicaid, food stamps and rent- assistance programs. The Nov. 18 Times reported that the federal
New Revelations on 9-11
From: Miroslav Antic [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: New Revelations on 9-11 HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Centre for Research on Globalisation http://globalresearch.ca http://globalresearch.ca/ NEW REVELATIONS ON 9-11 DID GEORGE W. KNOW? Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that he warned the United States of an attack 12 days before the September 11 atrocity. The Bush Administration knew that a terrorist attack was imminent. Twelve days before the 9-11 attacks, President Hosni Mubarak, had warned the US. Below is the text of the Associated Press report. Deafening Silence of the US Media. The story has been barely mentioned by major US newspapers. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution (8 December ) devotes two sentences to it. If the US government knew and failed to act, this raises serious issues. It also bears on our understanding and interpretation of the 9-11 events. Was it negligence or some form of complicity on the part of US officials? Was there a cover-up? If it was negligence, who then is responsible? Did George W. Bush know? George W. and President Mubarak are said to be friends. George W. talks regularly to President Mubarak. On the 6th of December, Mubarak received a telephone call from George W. Mubarak's revelations concerning 9-11 were published by a Lebanese newspaper on the 7th. Why did the Bush Administration fail to take precautionary measures? The least we could expect is an inquiry. Michel Chossudovsky, CRG, 8 December 2001 Egypt Leader Says He Warned America Associated Press, 7 December 2001 Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), globalresearch.ca, 8 December 2001 Egypt Leader Says He Warned America BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he warned the United States that something would happen 12 days before the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. In an interview published Friday by the left-wing Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, Mubarak also said it would be a grave mistake if Israeli forces were to kill Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Mubarak did not reveal how he learned in late August of a possible terror attack on the United States. He said he was taken aback by the scale of the Sept. 11 attacks, when hijackers seized four U.S. airliners and crashed two into New York's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside during an apparent struggle in the cockpit. We expected that something was going to happen and informed the Americans. We told them, Mubarak said. He did not mention a U.S. response. But nobody expected the event would be of such enormity. We did not know that they would hit this target or that, and we were all surprised when planes with passengers on board hit the twin towers, Mubarak said. Washington has said that in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, the CIA issued a warning that bin Laden was pressing for terrorist action against Americans. The warning was based on new intelligence but did not have specific information on the type of attack, a date or a location. Mubarak also commented on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Recent Israeli airstrikes have hit targets within 100 yards of Arafat's offices. Mubarak said that if Israel were to kill Arafat, it would create a vacuum in the Palestinian leadership that none of the six to eight contenders would be able to fill. Leaderships would emerge that would vie for popularity and compete in staging violent operations, internally and externally, against Israel, plunging (the region) into chaos. They (Israel) should understand this and know that it is dangerous, Mubarak said. And what would happen after Arafat? Who would Israel hold responsible for (acts of violence) - the leaders of Hamas or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine? Mubarak said, referring to two militant Palestinian factions. Hamas has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings that killed 25 people and wounded scores in Jerusalem and Haifa last weekend. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister in October. Copyright AP 2001 Crisis at a Glance: Latest developments at home and abroad Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 8 December 2001 WHAT DID HE KNOW? Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told a Lebanese newspaper that he warned the United States 12 days before the Sept. 11 attacks that something would happen. He said the enormity of the attack was a surprise. The URL of this article is:
China. People´s Daily Dec 10
Extracts. US Will Not Succeed in Toppling Saddam: Iraqi Minister. The United States will not be able to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, just it had tried, but failed, in the past to topple the Iraqi strongman, Iraqi Minister of Culture Hamed Yussef Humadi said on Saturday. The United States will not be able to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, just it had tried, but failed, in the past to topple the Iraqi strongman, Iraqi Minister of Culture Hamed Yussef Humadi said on Saturday. They (the US) have been trying this for the past 20 years and they admitted for many times that they did not succeed. They are not going to succeed because Saddam has the whole (Iraqi) population behind him, Humadi said after attending the opening ceremony of a Chinese photo exhibition in the capital Baghdad. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said recently that toppling the Saddam regime remained as an aim of the US foreign policy. When asked about the possibility of the US attacks on Iraq, Humadi said that the US has been attacking Iraq over the past years, referring to US air strikes on targets in two no-fly zones in Iraq set up by the US-led Western allies after the 1991 Gulf War. The US and Britain have been enforcing the two air exclusive zones since the Gulf War with the claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from the persecution from the Iraqi government. Humadi also reiterated Iraq's rejection of the return of UN arms inspectors. We reject spies and intelligence people to come (to Iraq) as arms inspectors, and they are not allowed back. He claimed that such accusations that the arms inspectors served as spies and intelligence people were not made by Iraq, but by Richard Butler, former head of the now-defunct UN Special Commission in charge of Iraq's disarmament. Butler has acknowledged ... he worked for the (US) Central Intelligence Agency, Humadi said. Iraq has repeatedly rejected the return of the arms inspectors, who withdrew from Iraq ahead of four-day U.S.-British military strikes against Baghdad in December 1998. US Senate Approves 318 Billion Dollar Defense Bill. U.S. Senate on Saturday approved a 318 billion dollar defense bill for fiscal 2002 and a 20 billion dollar compromise anti-terror package which was attached to the defense bill. U.S. Senate on Saturday approved a 318 billion dollar defense bill for fiscal 2002 and a 20 billion dollar compromise anti-terror package which was attached to the defense bill. The defense bill, which was passed on a voice vote early on Saturday, provides the military 27 billion dollars more than the fiscal 2001 measure, but the amount is still 1.9 billion dollars below President George W. Bush's budget request. The bill grants 7 billion dollars for development of the missile defense plan and gives Bush the option of using an additional 1.3 billion dollars for missile defense or switching it to homeland security. It increases the pay for the troops by five percent and boosts health care and retirement benefits for them. The measure also provides 61 billion dollars for new weapons procurement and allows the Air Force to lease up to 100 Boeing 767s to replace an aging fleet of KC-135 air tankers. The Senate killed a Democratic-written 35 billion dollars anti- terror package but approved the 20 billion dollars alternative submitted by the Democratic Party. Bush, who repeatedly threatens to veto anything exceeding 20 billion dollars, congratulated the passage of the smaller anti- terror package, saying the measure honored the agreement he reached with the Congress and resisted unnecessary nondefense spending. We have ensured the funding necessary to recover from the September 11 attacks and to protect and defend our homeland, Bush said in a written statement. Three days after the September 11 attacks, Congress approved 40 billion dollars emergency spending bill. According to the bill, President Bush controls half of the money, but lawmakers must vote anew on the details of the second 20 billion dollars. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a 318 billion dollars defense bill and a 20 billion dollars anti- terrorism package last week. The Senate and the House must work out the differences between the two measures in a conference. The 20 billion dollars package approved by the Senate early Saturday shifted about 7 billion dollars that Bush wanted for defense and other programs to efforts tightening domestic security and helping New York and other areas recover from the September 11 attacks. Congressional sources said one reason Democrats agreed to a smaller anti-terrorism package is that they were unwilling to delay indefinitely a wartime spending bill for the military. According to the new, smaller Democratic anti-terrorism plan, 8. 5 billion dollars will be allocated for countering bioterrorism and other domestic security programs, 4.1 billion
Austin_Muslims: US bullying us into war with Iraq
-- From: Owen Oke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 22:16:52 -0800 (PST) To: American Muslims [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [AM] US bullying us into war with Iraq Americans want a war on Iraq and we can't stop them Bush is looking for the next target and his country is right behind him Hugo Young Tuesday November 27, 2001 The Guardian President Bush's prime purpose now is gearing up America for a wider war. It's not over. It's not over, he told Newsweek, concerned that the people might think otherwise. Afghanistan is just the beginning, he roared to an audience of soldiers at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. America has a message for the nations of the world. If you feed a terrorist or fund a terrorist, you're a terrorist. In Newsweek, he amplified this with reference to one man. Saddam is evil, he declared for the first time. It could take years to catch Osama bin Laden, he allowed. But many other targets are now on notice of merciless aggression. You do not hear a single word of similar intensity from any European leader. Even Tony Blair, while regularly reinvoking the global campaign against terror, seldom talks about the enemy with Bush's slavering passion for specific eliminations. The president is mobilising an American national will such as we have not recently seen. During the cold war it was unquestioning, but static. During Vietnam, it disintegrated. Now the enemy, though invisible, is unmistakable, and the national stirring is deep against him. For the first time, the US was attacked: for the first time, the US doesn't mind if casualties are taken in the name of vengeance or self-protection. For the first time, therefore, public opinion is unambiguously ready to come in behind whatever intervention a president decides he must propose. One proof of this is what encroachments on their liberties Americans are willing to put up with. Protests against the repressive gospel according to the attorney general, John Ashcroft, are few and far between. A country that guards its constitutional freedoms with meticulous passion is prepared to surrender them with pious indifference. So easy is such submission to raison d'?tat that the quiet torture of recalcitrant suspects surely cannot be far behind. Europeans should reflect on this as a measure of the hard-eyed national commitment that differentiates the American mood from that of any other country. This, rather than the diplomatic niceties of coalition building, will mainly determine what happens next. Though a division over policy is not yet visible among the allies, the gulf of perception seems likely to become significant. The temper of the times will remain sternly hot in the US while, barring more terrorism, it eventually cools in Europe. Far from this campaign yielding a new concert of civilised nations, it will emphasise the deafening control of the trumpeter and conductor. The British piccolo, in particular, will find it harder to be heard. The band continues to play in rough harmony, but only on condition that it follows the unilateral beat of the big bass drum. In three theatres, you can see this starting to happen. Afghanistan itself has become an American operation. Sure, they needed allies in all adjoining countries, and worked to get them. There's been a huge amount of transatlantic traffic. When aspiring partners, from Italy to Japan, thirsted to get in on the action and prove their manly commitment, they were nominally accepted, their troops probably never to be used. When even the German Greens, at the weekend, voted to take part, a Rubicon of lasting importance to Germany and Europe was crossed. But Washington remains in unimpeded charge. Behind coalitionist talk, that's how they want it. They speak, moreover, for a different aftermath. Again the verbiage tries to soften this. But when Mr Blair talks about rebuilding Afghanistan and not forgetting it in the peace, it's plain he is sincere whereas Bush's people mouth the words and do not really mean them. There's nothing wrong with nation-building, but not when it's done by the American military, said Condoleezza Rice not long ago, speaking as the president's closest foreign policy aide. Though Washington is pledged to a large chunk of the $10bn aid Kabul has been promised, it's unlikely to stay and oversee the maintenance of a stable, semi-decent regime to spend it. That's not what the new Bush doctrine, a results-oriented, short-vision construct, is all about. Second, the world itself will not, I now guess, benefit from a new internationalism. After September 11, many of us wrote optimistically otherwise. A unilateral foreign policy was surely dead and buried. When it comes to collaborating against terror, that may remain so. Washington's withdrawal from the Middle East peace process is also no longer an option. But the other litmus tests seem likely to be failed. Swift smashing of the Taliban can't plausibly be seen as a
USA. [IAC] Ramsey Clark Speaking NYC Thu 12/13
From: Action Center [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 13:05:19 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [IAC] Ramsey Clark Speaking NYC Thu 12/13 The Antiwar Movement Responds to Ashcroft's Targeting of Immigrants Civil Rights Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark to speak at a Public Forum titled What is Really Behind the 'War on Terrorism'? Thursday, December 13, 2001 6:30 PM Community Church of New York 40 East 35th Street (between Madison and Park) New York City $5-$10 donation Speakers Include: Mara Verheyden-Hilliard Partnership for Civil Justice Larry Holmes Co-Director, International Action Center Dr. Asha A. Samad Immigrant Refugee Rights Coalition Yoomi Jeong Korea Truth Commission Gamil M. Tawfik Arabic Channel (TAC) Daniel Vila NY Coalition for Peace and Justice Next Thursday evening, December 13, 2001, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark will be joined by a panel of legal activists, anti-war organizers and others convening a public forum titled What is Really Behind the War on Terrorism? Before September 11, Attorney General Ashcroft was notorious for both his public support of the Confederate south and his deep desire to end abortion rights, said Teresa Gutierrez, a co-director of the International Action Center. Now, using the cover of a false 'war on terrorism' one that will have claimed the lives of thousands of civilians in Afghanistan through bombing and/or refugee starvation Ashcroft is seizing the moment to spearhead a vast attack on civil rights, civil liberties, immigrants and other people of color. This week the INS announced its plan to turn over to the FBI 314,000 names of people at risk of deportation, to be placed on the National Crime Information Center database. INS Commissioner James Ziglar said on Wednesday: If you don't want to be one of the guests in a detention center while we're getting your documents together, you might want to just go on home. The so-called war on terrorism is a thin cover for the long-held right-wing desire to criminalize immigrants and expand the power of the government to harass them, said Gutierrez. Gutierrez said Ashcroft's actions have strengthened racism and anti-immigrant violence. On Tuesday, hours before the FBI raid on the Holy Land Foundation office in Chicago, that city's Arab American Community Center was hit by arson. The office space of the Committee for a Democratic Palestine was totally gutted. Now is the time for the progressive movement to come together and fight for civil liberties and against racism. -- Send replies to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __
Philippines. Arroyo accepts ceasefire with NDF-NPA
From: Barry Stoller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] Arroyo accepts ceasefire with NDF-NPA AFP. 9 December 2001. Philippine leader agrees to Christmas truce with communists. MANILA -- Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said Monday that her government is entering into a Christmas ceasefire with communist guerrillas. The National Democratic Front (NDF) on Sunday declared a month-long unilateral Christmas truce effective December 15. Arroyo said she will lay out the details of the truce when she addresses a meeting with business, labor and political leaders later Monday to discuss economic policy. I will announce that today is the start of the government ceasefire, she said over DZRH radio here. Arroyo did not say if the truce also covers the government campaign against Muslim separatist insurgencies in the south. The NDF leads the Maoist New People's Army, waging a 32-year armed campaign against the Manila government. In the past, both sides had declared mainly symbolic unilateral ceasefires to mark the Christmas season in this largely Roman Catholic Southeast Asian nation of 78 million people. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __
Ireland: 19 Cops Injured In Sinn Fein Youth Protest - Xinhua
From: Stasi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] Ireland: 19 Cops Injured In Sinn Fein Youth Protest - Xinhua XINHUA - Peoples Republic of China 19 Policemen Injured in Protest in Northern Ireland === LONDON, December 9 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen police officers were injured on Sunday after fireworks and stones were thrown at the police and army at an army watch tower in Armagh, south of Northern Ireland, according to a BBC report on Sunday. The incident happened during a demilitarization protest on Sunday organized by Sinn Fein Youth at the tower. Two of the policemen injured were taken to hospital by air. Local participants in the protest said that they were unhappy that demilitarization promised by the British government had not happened as quickly as they had hoped. At Drummachavall in south Armagh, police fired two baton rounds when protesters tried to breach security fencing. In October, work began to dismantle four security installations immediately after the IRA's decision to put some of its weapons beyond use. It was the first response from the UK Government to the IRA announcement, which breathed new life into the peace process. Demilitarization was a key demand from Sinn Fein during discussions before the breakthrough. Enditem _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __
Venezuela on eve of class showdown
From: Barry Stoller [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] Venezuela on eve of class showdown AFP (with additional material by Reuters). 9 December 2001. Venezuela's Chavez warns he could get tough with strikers. CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned Sunday that he would not hesitate to get tough if necessary, the day before a planned 12 hour national strike backed by both the business and labor communities. I have decided to maintain a truly democratic stance ... if an extreme situation develops, if the leadership, this privileged minority, try to alter the democratic process, I will have no choice but to come down hard ... I won't hesitate, the president warned in his weekly radio address. Chavez spoke on the eve of the planned strike, called to protest his economic policies. In turn, Chavez has called on his supporters to hit the streets in a dueling protest. This is the first time a Venezuelan president has squared off against both labor and business since Marcos Perez Jimenez was deposed in 1958. Tomorrow we will show that no one can shut down Venezuela, no one can stop this revolution, Chavez said. He called on his supporters to attend a massive rally in the capital, Caracas, on Monday to back his government. They are awakening a force which is out there, the determination of the people to defend this revolution, Chavez said in a four-hour edition of his radio and television show Hello President. Responding to complaints from two callers about press criticism of his government, Chavez accused local media owners of abusing the liberty of expression. We have appealed to the morality of the media tycoons and asked them to behave reasonably, but they will not change, the president said. One possibility is to apply the constitution, and to that end we are drafting a media content law. Declaring himself the president of all Venezuelans, but especially the poor, Chavez has dismissed his critics in the business community as an avaricious minority defending its own economic interests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __
Afghanistan: A Superpower Displays It's Fighting Calibre
From: Stasi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Afghanistan: A Superpower Displays It's Fighting Calibre HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ATTACK ON AFGHANISTAN MILITARY: A superpower displays its fighting calibre MILITARY PROWESS: Financial Times, Dec 8, 2001 By STEPHEN FIDLER The rapid collapse of the Taliban under withering American air power has emphasised a trend with profound ramifications far beyond Afghanistan: growing US military predominance. On the evidence of the US military campaigns of the past 10 years, in Iraq, the Balkans and Afghanistan, the gap between the military capabilities of the US and the rest of the world is huge and is growing. This has important and uncomfortable consequences for America's allies and its potential adversaries - as well as likely effects on future foreign policy decision-making in Washington. Much of the gulf is caused by the sheer magnitude of American defence spending. Paul Kennedy, the Yale historian, says that the US now accounts for 36 per cent of all military spending around the world, and it spends more than the next nine nations in line on defence. Other figures show that the US together with military allies in Nato and in the Pacific account for 85 per cent of the world's military spending. Such domination is unprecedented. This is the largest share of military expenditures around the globe in all of history, says Prof Kennedy, surpassing that of Philip of Spain and the Roman Empire. But the predominance is also qualitative. Some 95 per cent of the bombs dropped by the US in Afghanistan were precision weapons, compared with about 6 per cent in Desert Storm a decade ago. Moreover, US officials say the Afghanistan war represents a technological leap in precision weaponry even compared with the Kosovo campaign two years ago. Moreover, the quality of personnel is also high. Mr Kennedy, a visitor to the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, where mid-level officers from all the services go, says he has been very impressed by the intellectual quality of what goes on there, a standard to which he says only the British even come close. These people are studying Thucydides, Machiavelli, Clausewitz, Basil Liddell Hart, and asking, 'What does this mean for us?' The discomfort for allies comes in their increasing inability to contribute to the US war effort. The military contribution of allies in the campaigns of Desert Storm, Kosovo and Afghanistan has declined progressively. That is in part because Kosovo exposed the shortcomings from the US perspective of having military targets vetoed in political capitals. But it was primarily because most of the offers Washington received were not of much use to its high-technology war effort, or could even have got in the way. Gerhard Schroder, the German chancellor, took political risks to win domestic approval to dispatch German forces that have not been needed. The French government was also unhappy that its offer of forces were not required. You are talking about a Potemkin military alliance where the US does 98 per cent of the fighting, the British 2 per cent and the Japanese are steaming around Mauritius, Mr Kennedy says. Other governments will have been watching closely too. Wayne Merry, a former senior US diplomat in Moscow, says the US successes have further weakened the Russian general staff, who predicted disaster in Afghanistan. It is likely, he says, to give President Vladimir Putin further ammunition in his efforts to shake up top military echelons. China, astonished by American technical prowess in Kosovo, is also likely to take note. Military specialists said China had been anyway undergoing a military modernisation, partly helped by Russia, but believe Afghanistan may serve to emphasise military caution in Beijing. Both countries, fearing a possible future strategic confrontation with the US, may decide that their only answer is their nuclear deterrent, such specialists said. Meanwhile, they argued that America's non-state adversaries - such as Osama bin Laden and his successors - might find it increasingly difficult to find a safe haven around the world. But after watching the Afghan cam paign, they might be increasingly convinced that the only way to attack America is to replicate Mr bin Laden's strategy. This so-called asymmetrical warfare may thus continue to be the main threat to the US in the coming century. But the Afghan campaign may have an effect also on US policymaking. Some foreign policy observers believe US domination will encourage Washington to use its military as an instrument of diplomacy by other means. Such an outcome would disturb many around the world, not least the US military. Already Afghan successes have encouraged some conservatives to urge the administration to turn its military attention to Iraq, and replicate the combination of air power and local ground forces to oust Saddam Hussein from Baghdad. Mr
Israel/Palestine. Netanyahu and other Israel gems
From: Mazin Qumsiyeh To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 7:08 PM Subject: [AL-AWDA-News] Netanyahu and other Israel gems Binyamin Netanyahu, a leader of the Likud Party and an ex-prime minister of Israel has been all over the news lately. Why did no one ask him about these incredible statements he made in Hebrew but available in English and widely cited. - He was giving a speech to dozen's of Likud Party members in Eilat. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz (7/15/01) reported that: ... giving his audience a bit of advice on how to deal with foreign interviewers [Netanyahu said]: 'Always, irrespective of whether you're right or not, you must always present your side as right.' - After the peace process with the Palestinians stipulating no unilateral changes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Quoted in Ha'aretz 11/24/1998) said There is no such thing as a freeze [on construction] Our policy is to grow and expand...This issue must be coordinated behind closed doors with the army and not in front of the media. - Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories. Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, tells students at Bar Ilan University, From the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989. Instead of being asked about his policy of home demolitions while prime minister or about these statements, he was presented by many supine US media outlets as a terrorism expert and asked ad nauseum about how Israel can deal with Arafat in countless interviews in which the toughest question asked of him was if he will re-run for Prime Minister! Please do share these quotes with your source of news and views. Now for a couple of other ignored information (items below): 1) From Haaretz: Israel rejects partial truce offer by Islamic Jihad, Hamas 2) Amnesty International latest Press Releases Afghanistan: Inquiry into Qala-i-Jhangi fort killings must not be swept under the carpet 3) An older article from Haaretz by Meron Benvenisti that is still very relevant today. The narrative blaming Yasser Arafat now joins a whole string of myths: the Tel Hai myth, the myth of the runaway refugees in 1948, the myth of the War of Independence as a defensive war that broke out because of an invasion by Arab armies, the myth of the few against the many, and the myth of the liberation of the homeland from the British boot - just to mention a few of the many myths that have been created here to deal with the reality that gave birth to many crises and second thoughts about the situation. Sincerely, Mazin Qumsiyeh http://Al-Awda.org Haaretz 12/9/01 Source: Israel rejects partial truce offer by Islamic Jihad, Hamas By Amos Harel, Aluf Benn, and Dalia Shehori, Ha'aretz Corresondents and agencies Islamic militant groups said in a statement Sunday they will halt attacks within Israel for a week if the IDF ends strikes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. A senior Israeli security official dismissed the offer and said Israel had no choice but to continue to act in self-defense as long as the Palestinian Authority failed to fight terrorism and make arrests. We are giving the enemy a period to stop its assassinations, destruction, killings and bombardments, said a statement by the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and two groups affiliated with Fatah. In return, we will stop our martyrdom attacks and armed attacks within the borders of the occupied land of 1948 during this period, which will begin as of midnight December 10 until the end of the month of Ramadan. ___ AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Latest Press Releases Afghanistan: Inquiry into Qala-i-Jhangi fort killings must not be swept under the carpet Publish date: 05/12/2001 Amnesty International today reiterated its call for an urgent inquiry into the large-scale killing of captured Taleban fighters and others at a fort on the outskirts of Mazar-i Sharif. It urged the US and UK to consider requesting a preliminary investigation by either the United Nations or the International Fact-Finding Commission. The events at the Qala-i-Jhanghi fort must not simply be brushed under the carpet, like so many other killings before them, Amnesty International said. In letters to the US, UK and the United Front (Northern Alliance), the organization pointed to UN Security Council resolution 1378 which specifically calls on all Afghan forces to adhere strictly to their obligations under human rights and international humanitarian law. As it appears that this provision may have been breached, Amnesty International is calling on the US and UK, as members of the Security Council, to request a UN investigation, which should involve relevant human rights mechanisms including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special
Colombia: 3 Reports - Xinhua
From: Stasi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] Colombia: 3 Reports - Xinhua XINHUA - Peoples Republic of China 1) Six Killed in Clashes Between Colombian Govt Forces, Guerrillas 2) Colombian Government Seeks Resumption of Peace Talks With FARC 3) Colombian Guerrilla Group Asked to Free Dying Boy's Father 1) Six Killed in Clashes Between Colombian Govt Forces, Guerrillas === BOGOTA, December 8 (Xinhua) -- One soldier and five guerrillas were killed when Colombian government forces and the leftist rebels clashed in the central province of Meta on Saturday. The commander of the army's 7th Brigade, Gen. Hernando Alonso Ortiz, told reporters that the clashes occurred when a group of gunmen were trying to kidnap some civilians after robbing them of their vehicles at a false military post near the town of Acacias. Ortiz said the abduction attempt was finally thwarted due to the rapid reaction from the troops. The commander said these gunmen belonged to the country's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which is operating around the area. Enditem 2) Colombian Government Seeks Resumption of Peace Talks With FARC == BOGOTA, December 8 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's chief peace commissioner Camilo Gomez on Saturday headed to the demilitarized zone in the south of the country to resume peace talks with the leftist rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the local radio Caracol reported. Caracol quoted official sources as saying that Gomez was traveling to the 42,000-square-kilometer neutral zone, which President Andres Pastrana ceded to the guerrilla group three years ago, to meet representatives of the FARC's top leader Manuel Marulanda. On October 17, FARC unilaterally suspended peace talks with the Colombian government, saying it would resume talks on condition that the government made its stand clear whether or not the guerrilla group is a terrorist organization. Pastrana has reiterated his determination to seek a negotiated solution to the 37-year guerrilla war, which has claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade alone. Enditem 3) Colombian Guerrilla Group Asked to Free Dying Boy's Father BOGOTA, December 8 (Xinhua) -- The mother of a Colombian boy on Saturday reiterated her petition to the country's largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to free her dying son's father. Francia Edith, mother of the boy, said she hoped the FARC's leaders could release Andres's father, a police officer, who has been in rebel captivity for nearly two years, at Christmas as a humanitarian gesture in order to satisfy the dying minor's hope to see his father for the last time. Doctors say the boy's farther, Jose Norberto Perez, is the only possible kidney donator to save the life of his 12-year-old son Andres, who could die within days. However, the rebels insisted on their demand to swap Perez for guerrilla member Ignacio Gonzales Perdomo, who is also allegedly ill. Andres's mother has regretted the guerrilla's hard-line position, saying it would be the least thing that you can do for the life of a human being. In June, FARC released 363 police and military officials in exchange for 11 rebels. They are currently holding about 50. FARC and the government have been engaged in on-off peace talks since October 1999 aimed at ending 37 years of civil war. Enditem
Korean Central News Agency Dec 9
TODAY'S NEWS (December.09.2001 Juche 90) [CONTENTS] * Seminar on exploits of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Suk held * Japan's political suppression of Chongryon under fire * Implementation of north-south joint declaration called for * International day of broadcasting for children marked * Japan warned not to act rashly * U.S. imperialists warned not to act rashly Seminar on exploits of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Suk held Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- A seminar on the immortal expoits of leader Kim Jong Il and the great communist revolutionary fighter Kim Jong Suk was held by the Egyptian committee for the study of idea of Juche on November 26. Yahiya Jakariya Hairallah, chairman of the committee, in a report said that Kim Jong Il, regarding the military affair as the most important state affair, has led the socialist cause of the DPRK to victory with his army-based politics, the peculiar political mode pushing forward all the affairs of the country with the army as its pillar. It is the result of the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il that the Korean People's Army has firmly defended the country and performed feats in building a powerful nation, he said. He noted that Kim Jong Suk is a woman commander of Mt. Paektu who embarked upon the revolutionary struggle at her early age and made immortal contributions to the sacred war for the liberation of the country. Meanwhile, there was held a seminar on the subject of characteristics and might of army-based politics of the great comrade Kim Jong Il at the Chiclayo, Peru, Association for the Study of the Juche Idea on Nov. 21. Japan's political suppression of Chongryon under fire Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- An emergency meeting of officials of the Osaka prefectural headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) was held on December 1 to denounce the unreasonable political repression of Chongryon, according to the December 7 issue of Joson Sinbo published in Japan. The meeting heard a report and speeches. Then followed an address by the chairman of the headquarters. He said that no matter how desperately the Japanese reactionaries may work to destroy Chongryon the compatriots in Japan would surely emerge victorious in the struggle to defend it as long as they have leader Kim Jong Il and the powerful socialist homeland. He called upon the officials and compatriots to single-heartedly unite and smash the anti-Chongryon moves of the Japanese authorities and thus firmly defend the organization and implement the decision of the 19th congress of Chongryon to the letter. Implementation of north-south joint declaration called for Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- The June 15 North-South Joint Declaration published in Pyongyang last year is a milestone which most correctly indicates the principles, ways and immediate tasks for achieving national reunification in conformity with the nation's aspiration after reunification and the specific conditions of the country. Rodong Sinmun today says this in a signed article, and goes on: National independence is the main idea, spirit and core of the north-south declaration. The independent reunification of the nation will certainly be achieved when all the compatriots pool efforts and wisdom in the struggle, while strongly rejecting foreign forces' interference into the issue of the national reunification from the Juche-oriented viewpoint and stand that they are responsible for their own destiny. It is the way of peacefully reunifying the country in the interests of the north, the south and the whole nation under the actual conditions of Korea to work in the direction of achieving reunification by founding a unified federal state, keeping the ideologies and systems in the north and the south as they are. The joint declaration indicates the way of solving the issue of the country's reunification most reasonably and fairly as it aims at achieving reunification by federal formula. The declaration is one for the great unity of the nation and reunification that helps achieve the trust and harmony between the north and the south and national unity and reunification as soon as possible. National reunification is certain to come when the whole nation continues to vigorously advance along the road indicated by the declaration, the article stresses. International day of broadcasting for children marked Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson today devotes a signed article to the international day of broadcasting for children. Children can grow up happily free from any worries only when their rights are guaranteed and
TOBIN TAX - WHAT A JOKE
The call for a Tobin tax - a tax on financial transactions - is not anti-capitalist, as some in the anti-globalisation movement seem to think It is all very well being against something but if this is to be anything more than permanently protesting against some never-ending problem you've got to be for something too. Most of those who organise the anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation protest demonstrations don't seem to have thought it through this far, and those that have show themselves not to be against capitalism. What they are against is what some of them call neo-liberalism by which they mean the return of laissez-faire economic policies. What they are for is to go back to a more regulated capitalism. They merely want states to intervene to try to control capitalism, to make it more human, to suppress what they see as its worst excesses. A case in point is the French-based organisation, with branches in many other countries, ATTAC whose vice-president is Susan George, author of such readable and informative books as How The Other Half Dies and A Fate Worse Than Debt. Their hobby horse is a call for the so-called Tobin Tax, as is reflected in their full name: Association for a Tax on financial Transactions and for Aid to Citizens. James Tobin was (actually, he's still alive) an American Keynesian economist who, after the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement on exchange rates collapsed in 1971 when America floated the dollar, proposed a tax on currency transactions as a way of reducing speculation. Here's how he has recently described his proposal: This tax aimed to limit exchange rate fluctuations. The idea is simple: on each operation a minimum levy is made equivalent to, say, 0.5 percent of the transaction. Enough to put off speculators. For many investors place their money for very short periods in currencies. If this money is suddenly withdrawn from the market, countries have to raise their interest rates considerably so that their currencies remain attractive. But high interest rates are often catastrophic for the internal economy, as the crises which hit Mexico, South East Asia and Russia in the 1990s show. The Tobin tax would give back some margin for manoeuvre to the central banks of small countries to fight against the tyranny of financial markets (interview with Der Spiegel, reproduced in Le Monde, 11 September 2001). Tobin got the idea from Keynes who had suggested a national tax on internal financial speculation as one of his reforms to get out of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The idea was to encourage money-capital to be invested productively instead of being used for unproductive speculation. Tobin was given a Nobel Prize for Economics in 1981 (not that this is worth much in academic terms; it's little more than a monetary prize), but no government took up his proposal. In fact, for it to work, all governments would have to take it up. That was why he suggested it should be paid to the World Bank or the IMF. The Bretton Woods agreement had laid down fixed rates of exchange between currencies, in particular with the dollar which in turn was tied to a fixed amount of gold ($35 an ounce). Devaluations and revaluations were allowed; in fact that is what a devaluation was: a formal downward change in a currency's fixed rate of exchange with other currencies. This system collapsed at the beginning of the 1970s when the Nixon administration announced that the US was no longer prepared to exchange gold at $35 an ounce. So began the present period of floating exchange rates. Today, the rate of exchange of a state's currency is determined by market forces: the demand for it in relation to the desire to sell it, which in turn depends essentially on a state's balance of trade. The more it exports the higher will be the demand from foreigners to buy it (to pay for the exports) while the higher its imports the more will be the supply for sale as importers sell it for foreign currencies (to pay for the imports). This is not to say that states don't try to maintain a more or less stable rate of exchange. They do, but their only weapons now are short-term interest rates or getting their central bank (and/or some other central bank or banks) to buy and sell their own currency. But these are not always that effective as was demonstrated by Britain's ignominious exit from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 under pressure from speculators led by George Soros. The collapse of Bretton Woods coincided with the last years of the long post-war boom, and was in fact a sign that it was coming to an end. When the boom did end, or rather, fizzled out corporations found themselves with large cash mountains made up of money they would normally have re-invested but which they didn't because it was no longer profitable to do so. This money thus became available for currency and other forms of financial speculation. Essentially, speculation is the use of money-capital, not to invest in
