-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 203 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --30 Busted at Rally To Smoke Pot --NYPD, RIAA Action Nets New York Area Pirate Music Distribution Center --U.S. nursing shortage going into crisis --McVeigh factor destroys militias --Pentagon Computers Under Assault --Native peoples voice complaints with ADB --Report: Wireless Snooping on the Rise --Back to war in Mexico --Homeless woman set afire --A new Che leads protest in paradise =================================================================== 30 Busted at Rally To Smoke Pot <http://mostnewyork.com/2001-05-06/News_and_Views/Crime_File/a-110109.asp> By GREG GITTRICH and DON SINGLETON Daily News Staff Writers 5/6/01 Thirty demonstrators were arrested yesterday afternoon when a Manhattan marijuana march ended in violent clashes between protesters and cops. Police hit at least a dozen people with pepper spray after marchers ran through crowded Battery Park pointing out undercover officers arresting participants for smoking pot. "No narcs in the park!" they chanted as they identified the narcotics cops. Other chants included "41 shots!" a reference to the police slaying of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo. The annual pot parade, this time called "Cures Not Wars 2001 The Space Odyssey," began forming at 11 a.m. at Washington Square Park. At 1 p.m., marchers proceeded to Broadway and then headed south toward their intended destinations City Hall Park and Battery Park. Organizers estimated the crowd at 5,000; police say 1,000. The protesters walked south, filling five solid blocks, chanting, "We smoke pot, and we like it a lot," and carrying placards that read "Free the Herb," "Emancipate Cannibis" and "No Ganja, No Peace." Many argued for the legalization of medical use of marijuana; others supported legalized recreational use of the drug. The marchers, mostly young and white, were led by a statuesque woman dubbed Medical Marijuana Barbie, who wore fluorescent pink hair and a pink patterned dress. "Marijuana is peaceful," said Marcus Josepin, 18, of Kearny, N.J. "You never see a crackhead march or a heroin user march." Organizers carried a piñata shaped like Mayor Giuliani's head that was filled with fake joints. By 3 p.m., the marchers reached Battery Park, where they began to light up real joints. Plainclothes cops arrested smokers in twos and threes, placed them in plastic handcuffs, photographed and herded them into waiting vans. At 4:10 p.m., four plainclothes officers were carrying an arrested man toward an area where several police vans were parked, and the man's loud protests and the way the cops were carrying him facedown, his face bouncing on the ground caused scores of people to come running. A few minutes later, another officer tripped as he was removing a man. A uniformed officer rushed in to help the fallen cop to his feet, and when a crowd gathered around him, a lieutenant began spraying the protesters with pepper spray. The demonstrators disbanded shortly after 6 p.m., the time their rally permit expired. =================================================================== NYPD, RIAA Action Nets New York Area Pirate Music Distribution Center <http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=22017> 05-01-2001 NEW YORK - On April 26, 2001, a search and seizure warrant was executed by the 70th Precinct NYPD, with assistance from members of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) New York Anti-Piracy Unit, on the second floor of a Flatbush Avenue building. The location was believed to be a distribution point for unauthorized sound recordings. Four individuals were arrested and 17,000 alleged counterfeit CD-Rs were seized as a result of the action. Illicit recordings of artists such as Luther Vandross, Mya, Rod Stewart, Ginuwine, Janet Jackson and U2 were seized from the location. "As the street vendor season kicks into high gear, it is imperative that we step up our efforts in eliminating distribution sources such as these where street vendors go to obtain their illicit product," said Frank Creighton, Senior Vice President and Director of Anti-Piracy. "The New York Police Department continues to be a tremendous partner in our fight against piracy in the NY region." All four subjects were charged with Trademark Counterfeiting and Failure to Disclose the Origin of a Recording, both felonies. Cases are currently pending in Brooklyn Criminal Court. =================================================================== U.S. nursing shortage 'going into crisis' <http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/05/07/nursing.shortage/index.html> May 7, 2001 From Dr. Sanjay Gupta CNN Medical News (CNN) -- The nursing shortage sweeping the United States may be worse than even the medical community expected. By the year 2008, another 450,000 nurses may be needed to meet demand, according to government projections. More than a dozen states are considering legislation that would address mandatory overtime practices found in many hospitals. Congressman Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California, a state hit especially hard by the shortage, has just introduced national legislation. "It gives the nurses the same kind of protection that airline crews now get," he said. "You wouldn't expect a pilot to fly 18 hours because the danger would be obvious to the passengers, but you expect workers in the medical field, specifically nurses, involuntarily on short notice, to put in unconscionable hours of work." Irene Telarico, a nurse and supervisor at Grady Memorial Hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in Atlanta, Georgia, couldn't agree more. "In my career, I believe I have worked at least 20 (hours), with mandatory overtime, 20 hours straight," Telarico said. Grady now uses voluntary overtime, that is, nurses may be asked to work extra hours or shifts, but are not required to do so. However, many hospitals require overtime. And that leaves a lot of room for error. "It's tiring and you worry about performing," Telarico recalled. "When I'm on the 18th hour and I've got sick people I'm worried about and I'm medicating, I'm worrying." Her voice is echoed by the thousands of nurses, many represented by the American Nurses Association. "There are hospitals that are unable to schedule surgeries on a timely basis. There are emergency rooms that are going on diversion because they are very busy and there may not be adequate numbers of registered nurses, perhaps in emergency care where many patients may need to be admitted," said Mary Foley, the association's president. Older nurses leaving profession The shortage is hitting at a particularly bad time. The fastest growing segment of the population is the elderly, the group that demands the most health care. More experienced nurses, mostly middle-aged women, are leaving the profession at an alarming pace. "This is a profession going into crisis," said Telarico. She cites the physical stress. "I have to feed them three meals ... take care of their meds. I have to do a.m.-p.m. care ... and that's really hard when you're trying to manage all of the patients. And we can't shut our doors." Telarico also finds the profession emotionally draining. "We deal with a lot of stress and trauma and sometimes we might lose a child or an adult that reminds you of your daughter or your grandfather or your grandmother." As a nurse, Telarico faces trauma on the jobas a recruiter, she faces a similar kind of struggle. "I think there's an easier way of earning a living. I mean, so many people will find they'll go to some other medical profession ... that won't cause you to be on your feet for 12 hours." Lawmakers are listening to voices such as Telarico's and are taking the complaints seriously, in the wake of several nurses' strikes across the United States. Legislation has been proposed nationally to address the problem. But they're not waiting for legislation in Walnut Creek, California. Public and private organizations, including the state's welfare-to-work program, have joined hands in a first-of-its-kind effort, dubbed the "Career Ladder," to help solve the shortage. "It is a program that's funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, through the county, to provide training to the Kaiser workforce to help them essentially move up on a career ladder," said Elizabeth Brashers with Kaiser Hospitals, who helped start the program. Getting paid to learn Al Andino had a most unusual climb up the Career Ladder. He spent more than 20 years with Kaiser, mostly in the environmental service department, working in housekeeping and other related services. The father of three found the new program attractive, because it paid participants their full-time wages while they attended. The group goes through a 10-week program of 40 hours per week that encompasses class instruction and clinical experience. Upon completion, graduates are Nursing Assistants. Now a "Care Partner," as Kaiser calls him, Andino works in a Walnut Creek hospital, and is proud of what he's achieved. "I enjoy it. I love it, especially over here working with kids." The program might slowly help change the face of nursing. Joan Braconi, with the nurses' union, works closely with Kaiser and the welfare-to-work program to recruit people for the new initiative. "The purpose of this program was to first deal with the staffing crisis, secondly to offer members career opportunities and also to help diversify the workforce," explained Braconi. The first class of 20 graduated in March 2001. While lawmakers and hospital officials look for answers to the looming shortage, many young people still are considering other careers. "I think there's an easier way of earning a living. I mean, so many people will find they'll go to some other medical profession ... that won't cause you to be on your feet for 12 hours or 8 hours, or cause you to do the physical labor that this type of position takes," said Grady's Telarico. ------------- The following CNN Medical News staffers contributed to this story: Executive Producer Susan Deutchman Lilly, Producer Jonathan Lynch and Associate Producer Stephanie Smith. =================================================================== McVeigh factor destroys militias <http://www.azcentral.com/news/0506militia06.html> Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic May. 6, 2001 Eric Frizzell fondly remembers the heady days of the Yavapai Militia. More than 100 people from Black Canyon City to Chino Valley would gather twice a month to watch high-tech doomsday videos or grainy, black and white video of the Bataan Death March. They would create a stir among sheriff's dispatchers in Prescott by launching war games. They reveled in new weapons and old war stories. Heck, Frizzell said, he even rose to the rank of general in one militia group he was affiliated with in Florida. Outrage flared after Randy Weaver's wife and son were shot to death by government agents at Ruby Ridge in Idaho and David Koresh's flock was incinerated near Waco, Texas. Then, Timothy McVeigh, who had once visited Prescott seeking guidance in forming a militia in the Kingman area, bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. A year later, federal agents busted 12 members of a Valley militia group, the Vipers, on conspiracy, weapons and explosives charges. "The whole militia movement in this state just basically disintegrated into chaos after that," said Frizzell, a Cordes Junction telemarketer. "Most people just got out, and the rest went so far underground that they haven't been heard from since." Which has pretty much been the story of militias nationwide. McVeigh's desire to be the Lexington of the next American Revolution has instead led to the demise of the movement, those who study militias say. But that's not the only reason. The Republic of Texas and Montana Freemen movements were brought to their knees after numerous arrests and long prison sentences for their leadership. A lawsuit effectively ended Richard Butler's Aryan Nation White-supremacist group in Idaho when it was bankrupted by a civil rights lawsuit after security guards attacked two passers-by. Cas Mudde, an expert on international right-wing movements and a political science professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said the worst fallout for U.S. militias is that they were abandoned by "sizable moderate elements" in the aftermath of Oklahoma City and the other recent problems. "The militia movement lost its fairly good reputation," Mudde said. "There is little chance it will regain it, either, as Oklahoma stands out as a defining event in recent U.S. history and anything related to the militia movement will inevitably be linked to Oklahoma and McVeigh." According to the Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Ala., which monitors the country's hate groups, the number of militia Web sites decreased by 50 percent in 1999 and many of those that remained had not been updated in years. The law center, which documented 27 militia groups in Arizona in 1996, now says only five remain. Donald "Mac" MacPherson, a Valley attorney who has represented tax protesters and militia members in the past, says that even acknowledging five militias in Arizona is overstating the situation. "It's all quiet on the Western front. I haven't heard of any active militia groups in Arizona," MacPherson said. Once-influential militia leaders in Arizona and Nevada such as former Phoenix policeman Jack McLamb, former Vietnam Green Beret Bo Gritz and former Arizona legislator Jerry Gillespie have all left the area for Idaho, he said. "By the same token, tax-protest and gun-advocacy efforts have never been stronger, and those are close cousins to militia activity," McPherson said. But the militias are in a world of hurt. Even the Northern Michigan Regional Militia, which with 1,000 members claimed to be one of the nation's largest and which received widespread publicity after the Oklahoma City bombing, announced last month that it was disbanding because of lack of interest. Al Shearer, a hate-crimes investigator for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, said he saw a large slowdown in militia activity after the Oklahoma City bombing. "It seemed like a lot of people were embarrassed to align themselves with militias after that," Shearer said. "And now, when you look at militia message boards on the Internet, it seems like everything is just kind of fat, dumb and happy. I saw one posting the other day wondering about the availability of lime for latrines. Then, there's always Aryan maidens looking for (relationships with) Aryan warriors." All of which shows that events like Waco and Ruby Ridge are quickly fading from memory, Shearer said. "When you combine that with no big talk lately about gun control, that pretty much does it for issues. The primary concern there is the fear of losing firearms," Shearer said. Or, an economy turned sour, said Bill Strauss, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix. "A bad economic situation always breeds some ugly mind-sets," Strauss said. "But as it stands now, what militia activity that remains is primarily in the Midwest with just a few pockets here in the Southwest." Strauss said investigators for the league also saw more evidence of militia stress during a gun show at the state fairgrounds last month: The Militia of Montana passed out materials in attempts to recruit members in Arizona. "I guess when the mission is to battle it out with the federal government, it's not too popular of a cause," Strauss said. There also have been infighting problems, said Stephen Gehring, a Payson paralegal and former militia member. "Much of the decline of the militia movement can be attributed to the mixing of religious beliefs and law. Now, they've created this big fruit salad, and they're all just a bunch of nuts," he said. Gehring said that he has seen the dark side of assisting radical, anti-government groups. He said he was asked to help the Montana Freemen set up a legal basis for establishing a new currency, shortly before they faced an extended siege by federal agents. "The more I studied and wrote about this, the more my findings proved that they were wrong, and it made them angry," Gehring said. Shortly after returning to Payson, Gehring said he lost $150,000 worth of possessions when a fire started by a "two-stage device at 3:30 in the morning" destroyed his home and legal-research library. No arrests were made in the arson case, Gehring said. But Frizzell, the former militia commander, said the last thing he would expect is any more significant violence from the right. "They've buried themselves," Frizzell said. "I recently got some mail from the Montana Militia. I felt like writing them back and telling them to grow up." ---------- Reach the reporter at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (602)444-8057. =================================================================== Pentagon Computers Under Assault http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51965-2001May6.html By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 7, 2001; Page A02 A series of sophisticated attempts to break into Pentagon computers has continued for more than three years, and an extensive investigation has produced "disturbingly few clues" about who is responsible, according to a member of the National Security Agency's advisory board. The NSA consultant, James Adams, says U.S. diplomats lodged a formal protest with the Russian government last year after investigators determined that the cyber attacks, which they code-named "Moonlight Maze," appear to have originated from seven Russian Internet addresses. But Russian officials replied that the telephone numbers associated with the sites were inactive and denied any prior knowledge of the attacks, according to Adams. "Meanwhile, the assault has continued unabated," Adams wrote in this month's Foreign Affairs magazine, published by the Council on Foreign Relations. "The hackers have built 'back doors' through which they can re-enter the infiltrated systems at will and steal further data; they have also left behind tools that reroute specific network traffic through Russia." Adams described Moonlight Maze as "the most persistent and serious computer attack against the United States to date." He also disclosed that it has triggered "the largest cyber-intelligence investigation ever." But U.S. investigators, he wrote, still do not know "who is behind the attacks, what additional information has been taken and why, to what extent the public and private sectors have been penetrated, and what else has been left behind that could still damage the vulnerable networks." Both the FBI and the U.S. Space Command, which has primary responsibility for defending Pentagon computers, declined comment. But one source close to the case confirmed that the attacks are continuing and said U.S. investigators know far more about them than Adams indicated. A State Department official also confirmed that a dmarche was issued to the Russians over the apparent attempts at computer espionage. U.S. defense and intelligence officials have expressed increasing concern about the possibility that foreign countries or terrorists might use cyber-attacks to counter America's overwhelming military superiority. Ronald L. Dick, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, told Congress last month that the military services recorded more than 1,300 serious cyber-attacks in 1999 and 2000. The FBI, he said, has 1,219 pending cases involving cyber-crime, including 102 "computer intrusions into government systems." Many cyber-attacks are mainly nuisances. They involve defacing Web pages or trying to overwhelm servers, which can be costly but do not threaten government secrets. Moonlight Maze is different. It was first uncovered in March 1998, when network security specialists at the Defense Information Systems Agency discovered that attackers had entered unclassified Pentagon networks through a technique known as "tunneling," in which malicious codes, or instructions, are embedded within programs for routine computer operations. Because the attackers' commands are disguised in this fashion, they are difficult for systems administrators to detect. A General Accounting Office report on the Pentagon's computer security, issued in March, described Moonlight Maze as "a series of recurring, 'stealth-like' attacks . . . that federal incident-response officials have attributed to foreign entities and are still investigating." A year and a half ago, in the government's first official comment on the case, the FBI's top computer security official, Michael A. Vatis, told Congress that attacks appearing to originate in Russia had stolen "unclassified but still sensitive information about essential defense technical research matters." Officials at the Pentagon and NSA have called the intrusions "massive" and said they caused significant disruptions on important but unclassified government networks, including the Pentagon's Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network, or NIPRNET. Dion Stempfley, a former Pentagon computer security analyst who helped detect Moonlight Maze, said Friday that he was not surprised that the attacks were continuing, given the sophistication of the attackers' tunneling techniques. Now a principal security engineer at Riptech Inc., a computer security firm, Stempfley said U.S. law enforcement officials initially decided to track the attacks only "passively." Part of their caution stemmed from legal concerns about whether "hack-backs" that might have crippled the intruders' capabilities could have been construed as an act of war, if the intruders were state-sponsored, he said. Stempfley said the sophistication and persistence of the Moonlight Maze attacks are not necessarily signs of state sponsorship, because many hackers demonstrate both skill and stubbornness. But the continuation of the attacks, Stempfley said, could be an indication that Moonlight Maze is "state allowed," meaning that Russian authorities are permitting, if not directing, the attacks. Fred Cohen, a computer security expert at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, said he was not surprised that the attacks have continued. But there is nothing so sophisticated about Moonlight Maze that federal security officials cannot protect their networks, Cohen said. "If somebody is into a system and you want to stop them, you can stop them," he said. =================================================================== Native peoples voice complaints with ADB <http://starbulletin.com/2001/05/06/news/story3.html> Many protested globalization at a UH cultural rights forum By Diana Leone Star-Bulletin RAVADEE PRASERTCHAROENSUK wants the Asian Development Bank to know what she -- and thousands of her countrymen in the Samut Prakarn province of Thailand -- think of a $230 million wastewater project it is financing there. "I don't have any confidence at all," she said yesterday at the Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Cultural Rights, hosted by the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance (KAHEA). Studies conducted about the sewage treatment needs of the area -- one of Thailand's most heavily industrialized -- suggested from two to 13 plants, Prasertcharoensuk said. Yet the project is going ahead with one plant to treat a wide variety of wastes from industry, as well as household sewage, she said. "People have asked for more information, but it's not very clear." Prasertcharoensuk was one of several international guests who spoke to Native Hawaiians and environmentalists during KAHEA's three-day event at the University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies that concludes today. About 150 people attended yesterday's sessions, which included talks by Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, as well as guests here to protest the Asian Development Bank. Maude Barlow said her group, the 100,000-strong Council of Canadians, questions the philosophy and actions of organizations like the ADB, World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund because they attempt to force the whole world to adhere to one economic model. That model, she said, promotes "the unfettered right of corporations to trade and invest across borders without different types of standards and laws" and without respect for the people of each world region. Barlow, who some call the "Ralph Nader of Canada," said she expects significant turnout for anti-ADB protests. Sweet Matthews, who lives on Oahu and the Big Island, said her main focus in protesting the ADB will not be to protest in front of the Hawaii Convention Center, where the bank's meetings will be held. Instead, she wants to hear what ADB protesters from other countries have to say about its activities when they rally Wednesday afternoon in Kapiolani Park. And she wants to share the story of the Hawaiian nation with them. Hawaiian rights activist Puanani Rogers of Kauai said there is a link between Hawaiians and indigenous people of the developing world. "I see it as a window of opportunity for kanaka maoli to get our message out to the world that here in Hawaii, we are seeking freedom and independence from all governments and corporations." Teacher Keoni Wilhelm of Oahu, who will be a first-aid volunteer for Wednesday's march, sees globalization as affecting him on a personal level. He said that though his family traces Hawaiian roots "back to time," his generation faces the question of, "Can we afford $250,000 to buy a house? We're being pushed out of our own home by the influx of newcomers with money." =================================================================== Friday May 04 01 Report: Wireless Snooping on the Rise <http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nf/20010504/tc/9489_1.html> By Jay Wrolstad, Wireless.NewsFactor.com A warning to mobile phone users: Big Brother may be listening. Wiretaps for cell phones and other wireless devices represented a majority of all telephone surveillance requests approved by U.S. courts for law enforcement agencies in 2000, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, an arm of the federal judiciary. The agency's annual Wiretap Report said wireless devices accounted for 60 percent of the 1,190 wiretaps authorized by the nation's state and federal courts last year. The most common surveillance method was phone wire communication, which includes landline, cellular, cordless and mobile phones. Telephone wiretaps accounted for 81 percent (927 cases) of intercepts installed in 2000, the report stated, with cellular or mobile phones involved in 691 of those wiretaps. Electronic wiretaps, which include digital display pagers, voice pagers, fax machines and e-mail accounted for 8 percent (89 cases) of all intercepts. Microphones were used in 5 percent of intercepts (52 cases), and a combination of surveillance methods was used in 6 percent (71 cases), according to the report. Privacy Threatened, Groups Say The report prompted a response from the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other privacy groups, which sent a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft demanding greater protection for citizens and requesting legislation to rein in surveillance by the government. The letter requested that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and other surveillance laws be updated, pointing out that mobile phones can be used to pinpoint a person's location with great accuracy. "Nonetheless, the legal standard that applies when law enforcement seeks access to location information is unclear," the letter stated. Assisting Law Enforcement The CDT contended that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has used the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) -- adopted by Congress in 1994 to allow law enforcement access to private communications, to expand its law enforcement capabilities. The FBI's questionable activities included turning wireless phones into tracking devices; mandating that phone companies collect signaling information for the government; and allowing interception of packet communications without privacy protections, according to the CDT. CALEA requires telecommunications carriers and equipment manufacturers to build into their networks technical capabilities that will help law enforcement with authorized interception of communications and call identification data, the CDT said. That data is defined as "dialing or signaling information that identifies the origin, direction, destination or termination of each communication generated or received by a subscriber by means of any equipment, facility or service of a telecommunications carrier." Carnivore Targeted In its letter, the ACLU also took issue with the FBI's use of the Carnivore e-mail snooping system, saying the system gives law enforcement agencies direct access not only to communications involving the target of a court order, but also to the communications of many nontarget subscribers of an Internet service provider. "Law enforcement should make the Carnivore hardware and software available to an ISP that needs it, so that Carnivore is under the control of the ISP, restoring a form of check and balance to the process," the letter stated. "This would bring surveillance of electronic communications more in line with the longstanding practice of conducting surveillance of wire communications, wherein law enforcement agents are not allowed into the central office switches of telephone companies," the ACLU said. =================================================================== World Report 5/14/01 Farewell to all that Back to war in Mexico by Andrea Mandel-Campbell MEXICO CITYIn just 48 hours, the prospects for imminent peace in conflict-ridden Chiapas seemed to slip from Mexican President Vicente Fox's grasp. Five months of carefully scripted negotiations with the Zapatista National Liberation Army were dealt a possibly fatal blow with the passage last week of an indigenous-rights law. Dubbing the law "a betrayal," Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the indigenous guerrilla group, declared an end to dialogue and the resumption of the Zapatistas' seven-year armed uprising. The new law, the last condition for renewing stalled peace talks, was seen by the Zapatistas and their supporters as falling far short of an understanding reached during peace negotiations in 1996. Instead of granting sweeping rights to Mexico's 10 million indigenous people, the watered-down version approved by Congress severely restricts communal rights to land and natural resources as well as limiting the regional autonomy sought for Indian communities. The modified law grants Indian communities preference to natural resources, but not sole rights, and it allows for private land ownership. Local self-government based on indigenous "practices and customs" would also be subject to constraints of state and municipal law. The constitutional amendments must still be approved by a majority of Mexico's 31 states and federal district. But even President Fox has become dubious, admitting the new law is "insufficient" and suffers from "some gaps that need to be improved." His about-face, which comes just days after declaring the legislation a "great step forward," could also signal the fastest victory turned defeat of his new presidency. =================================================================== Homeless woman set afire Associated Press Tuesday, May 8, 2001 ATLANTIC CITY - A homeless woman was set on fire as she slept but survived because she was wearing so much clothing, police said. "She had six layers of clothing on and the fire only burned through four," said Sgt. Michael Tullio, a police spokesman. Anna Williams, 83, a sometime- resident of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, was attacked about 3 a.m. Saturday near a bus stop. Two passers-by used their hands to extinguish the fire, which never reached Williams' skin. Williams pointed to a group of men, and the Good Samaritans flagged down police officers Sean Sutley and Daryl Dabney, who arrested one of them minutes later, Tullio said. Todd Mossman, 18, of Ventnor, was charged with aggravated arson and aggravated assault. He was being held yesterday on $5,000 cash bail. "I thought I'd heard everything, but this is absolutely senseless," said Tullio. "It's one of the most depraved things I've seen in my 22 years on the department." Williams lived at the rescue mission for a period during February and March but left on her own, president William Southrey said. "She had a gambling problem, and she said she'd been living on the streets. She couldn't remember her last address, and she didn't have any emergency contacts," Southrey said. Such attacks are not unusual, he said. "So often, it's made to look like the homeless are the aggressive ones," Southrey said. "Mostly, they're the prey, not the predator." =================================================================== A new Che leads protest in paradise <http://www.consider.net/forum_new.php3?newTemplate=OpenObject&newTop=200105070021&newDisplayURN=200105070021> by Helena Smith Monday 7th May 2001 It looks like a sleepy Caribbean island, but Vieques is where the US tries out its bombs and uranium-tipped bullets. And the natives are restless. By Helena Smith Close your eyes and think of the Caribbean. Picture-postcard Caribbean, with wavy palm trees and coco shells on secluded sands, and a turquoise sea. It's not paradise, but in some parts of Vieques you get fairly close. "You must go to Vieques," advises Morgan, an earnest, pony-tailed psychologist, within hours of my arrival in Puerto Rico. "It is one of our most beautiful islands. You must go and tell the world what is happening there." By now, the entire world knows what is happening in Vieques: there have been huge protests against the US military based on the island, followed by mass arrests. The world's superpower has a battle on its hands - a battle that has turned US citizens against their own navy. It is a fight, say the expats, over rum punch and pina coladas, which has all the makings of a showdown between David and Goliath. And that is before Agent Orange and depleted uranium have entered the conversation. For while this subtropical isle, east of Puerto Rico, is as seductive as any of the Spanish Virgin Islands, large parts of it are in fact firmly out of bounds. It is true that, on tourist maps, each end of the island is marked with the words "Danger: Restricted Area" and with the unmistakable icon of a falling, finned bomb. However, before all the troubles, "you could use the spectacular beaches on both of the US bases" - so says a man who goes by the name of Long John in what is not, I keep telling myself, a bizarre Hollywood script. "Now it looks bad. Some people wanna get hurt. We could have blood here, real blood, like." It is not hard to see why the 9,000 or so people who live on Vieques are distressed. The island's populated areas remain remarkably untainted by fast-food joints, high-rise buildings and motorways. But 60 years of bombing by the US navy have wreaked havoc on its eastern tip. It is a veritable wasteland, groan environmentalists. Gaping gashes that were once shores, slopes and lagoons now ooze the toxic remains of fragmented missiles and unexploded shells. "It resembles a battlefield from the First World War, where the ground and a great part of the vegetation has been reduced to dust," says Rafael Cruz Perez, a chemical engineer who once served as an artillery officer in the US army. But as the US navy sees things, Vieques is simply unique. Two-thirds of the island is under its control, and this holiday destination is now the last place on earth where US marines can combine three-dimensional warfare - aerial bombardment, off-shore gunnery practice and amphibious attacks. Since the 1940s, Washington has pumped about $3bn worth of infrastructure into the island, erecting the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility. As one naval officer puts it: "Vieques . . . is absolutely vital to our national security." Indeed, the island served as a rehearsal zone during the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and Kosovo wars. Nato - in the form of British, Dutch and French warships - frequently joined the practice runs. Vieques was also used as a staging ground for the invasion of Grenada in 1983. The US navy's strategic interest in the region dates back to when the Puerto Rican archipelago was part of the spoils of the 1898 Spanish-American war. But now, it seems, the locals have had enough. Recent studies show that cancer rates are 27 per cent higher on the island than they are in Puerto Rico, which lies around eight miles to the west. Cardiovascular disease among children is also on the rise. Tourism is down. Unemployment is soaring - the result of the marines buying all the sugar plantations to set up the base. And as if that were not enough, the navy has been forced to admit that it "accidentally" fired 263 depleted uranium-tipped bullets, in violation of federal rules, on a training range near a civilian area. Other lethal chemicals, including Agent Orange, have also been unloaded on to the island by naval pilots over the years. "More explosives and experimental weapons have been dumped on Vieques from jets, ships, tanks, you name it, than the accumulated amount used in all of the wars in which the US has participated," booms Robert Rabin, the island's self-appointed crusader. "What we are about to see is a new, intense round of struggle. The navy doesn't understand that, when it resumes manoeuvres that nobody wants later this month, the answer is going to be mass civil disobedience." If sleepy Vieques is among the more improbable settings for a native uprising, then Rabin, a former Bostonian high-school teacher, makes for an equally unlikely revolutionary. Rabin leads the unexpected cast of characters who now appear bent on challenging US power. And what's more, he is deadly serious. "This time round is not like before: there is overwhelming consensus on the matter," he tells me, ensconced in the island's fort museum cum operational base, where he is the resident director of cultural events. "Now that the cold war is over, the navy can't go round saying that we're Russian, Cuban and Chinese spies who only want to disrupt life in America. People don't buy that any more. They have seen for themselves what the bombing means and they don't want it." Called "Che" by his admirers, Rabin has been able to draw from a groundswell of support since two errant 500lb bombs killed a civilian security guard on the grounds of the navy's Camp Garcia, two years ago. The killing prompted protesters to stage a year-long sit-in at the installation. Pacifists and adventure junkies came a-flocking from across the US. Last November, Puerto Ricans elected a new governor who ran on an anti-navy platform. "You always know when the navy is getting nervous because it resorts to its bag of dirty tricks," Rabin growls. "There's a lot of psychological warfare going on, nasty telephone calls, poison-pen letters . . . Vieques is crawling with special forces operatives and agents from the FBI." The navy has initiated an unprecedented public relations campaign. Glossy pamphlets have rolled off the presses, extolling its ecological record on the island, starting with a sea-turtle conservation project that has seen thousands of hatchlings being released into the wild. Airtime has been bought on local radio and TV. The navy is not alone in clearly loathing "Che". Down at Al's, a favourite watering hole for gringos who happen to be former military men, Rabin is brushed off, curtly, as "that well-known Marxist". "Rabin just hasn't understood that it all boils down to money," says Long John. "Only a small part of the base, the target range, has been destroyed. What these people want is to kick the navy out and build a Club Med and other big hotels instead." But it is the reawakening of Puerto Rico's Independence Party - and the political capital it has made out of the imbroglio - that suggests the superpower is up against something bigger. The Independistas are a proud and fierce lot: men and women who view themselves as an integral part of the Latin American family of nations. And they have made no bones about how they see the navy's eviction from Vieques as a prelude to ridding Puerto Rico of the US armed forces, federal courts and its murky status as a colonial commonwealth. Half of the island's inhabitants may survive on American food rations and social security benefits but, according to Ruben Berrios, the Oxford-educated leader of the Independistas, Puerto Rico still has "a basic problem". "And that is the dependence and subordination inherent in colonialism, not only legal and political, but also economic, cultural, social and psychological," he says. "Independence would release the full spiritual energies of a nationality whose self-esteem has been trampled on." For many, the US sealed its formal occupation of Puerto Rico - so necessary in extending its influence over Latin America - by granting islanders US citizenship in 1917. But while Puerto Ricans remain exempt from federal income tax, they cannot vote in presidential elections and have little more than observer status in Congress. The emergence of superstars such as Ricky Martin has not stopped the flow of complaints that they are treated as "second-class citizens" by their compatriots. For the protectorate's three political parties - each defined in terms of its stance on the island's political status - Vieques now poses a huge turning point in US-Puerto Rican relations. "Vieques has become a rallying point for other causes because it is a symptom of Puerto Rico's unresolved issue of democracy," points out Pedro Rosello, a former governor of Puerto Rico. "When you have four million citizens who are basically disenfranchised, you will have symptoms like these." Part of the problem, too, is that Puerto Ricans have never been united over their future. Indeed, in repeated referenda they have always elected to keep the status quo. "There's no doubt Puerto Ricans vote with their pocketbooks and not with their hearts," says Professor John Coatsworth, Harvard University's pre-eminent specialist on Latin American affairs. "If they were free to do so, they would vote for independence or a kind of autonomy that is certainly more than what they have at present." For "Che" Rabin and his rag-tag army, things are looking up. So far, the new powers that be on Puerto Rico are backing the insurgents. The Dalai Lama has wished them well. The Green Party has brought the case before the Dutch parliament, and agitators against other US bases - from Japan to Britain, Hawaii to the Philippines - have taken up the cause. With the US navy digging in, resuming exercises for the first time since 1999, a heady sense of optimism fills the otherwise picture-postcard atmosphere of Vieques. "The whole point is that we get arrested," declares "Che" Rabin, his eyes sparkling. "This becomes a huge, unstoppable, full-scale civil disobedience act. We don't care what we have to come up against; it can be federal marshals, marines, the coastguard or even forces from the inter-planetary police." While the revolutionaries cannot count on this, they believe that, one way or another, suffering will bring them closer to the Caribbean paradise they so dearly want. --------- Helena Smith is a Nieman fellow at Harvard University =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. 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