-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 204 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --ADB critics take to streets --New law allows police to keep DNA evidence forever --5 Pounds for a slave girl with a nervous smile --Governments resort to police violence against international May Day protests --Hawaiian protesters get in ADB's face --Supreme Court Nixes Medical Marijuana --Bush creates new office to fight domestic terrorism --RIAA To Music Pirates: Prepare To Be Boarded --Alleged NYC Gang Leaders Charged =================================================================== Wednesday, May 9, 2001 ADB critics take to streets <http://starbulletin.com/2001/05/09/news/story1.html> 'We might be angry but we're not going to let it get out of control' By Jaymes K. Song Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) - Asian Development Bank President Tadao Chino left a luncheon session and went into the street Wednesday to accept a petition from representatives of some 500 protesters marching on the bank's annual board of governor's meeting. Chino met with three representatives who were allowed to pass police barriers fronting the Hawaii Convention Center where the sign-carrying, drum-banging demonstrators briefly halted a planned march through Waikiki. As the protesters shouted "Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The ADB has got to go," the three activists from the Philippines, Laos and Thailand read to him a long statement about changes they are demanding in the ADB's policies of fighting poverty by funding projects such as dams and power plants. Over and over again, Walden Bello, a professor at the University of the Philippines, would interrupt his reading of the statement to say: "Do you understand that, sir?" In the end, Chino only listened to part of it for about 10 minutes before thanking the protesters and telling them that the ADB would consider their concerns. As Chino left, Bello yelled, "You said the same thing during last year's ADB meeting in Thailand. We demand that you listen to us. You must agree to shut down destructive ADB projects." ADB spokeswoman Ann Quon disagreed with Bello's comments that Chino's coming down to talk to the demonstrators amounted to a defeat. "I think that we are open, we are here to listen and we welcome dialogue with all members of civil society," she said. Led by a native Hawaiian blowing a conch shell, the marchers chanting "A-D-B is destructive," protesting bank policies they said promote poverty in Asia and the Pacific. The mood before the march was festive, with people banging on drums and preparing signs aimed at the 3,000 delegates to the bank's annual board of governors meeting. Some 500 demonstrators took part in the march, said Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue. Organizers informed participants of their legal rights and told them not to speak to police nor provoke confrontations. Several dozen plainclothes police officers wearing aloha shirts and flower leis escorted the marchers. "If anything goes down it will be the police who instigate it," said a protester who identified himself as Frank Black. "Everyone here I talked to has been stressing nonviolent peaceful action." Black, who wore a helmet, goggles and a black bandana across his nose and mouth to protect against tear gas, said he belonged to the local chapter of a group called Refuse and Resist. "We're here with our banners and chants and we have something to say," he said. "We might be angry but we're not going to let it get out of control." The demonstrators, including local union members and Hawaiian sovereignty supporters, had the Ala Moana Beach Park virtually to themselves as they gathered Wednesday morning. Beachgoers and tourists apparently heeded advisories about traffic congestion and street closings. Traffic in the area, the most congested in the state, was light for a weekday. Demonstrators were as diverse as their reasons for marching, but most said the ADB's poverty programs hurt poor people instead of lifting them out of poverty. "The ADB in our view is an institution of international finance that furthers this corporate globalization that disempowers people and puts wealthy elites in control," said Erik Haunold, member of ILWU, Local 142. The demonstrators were marching along Waikiki's main thoroughfare, Kalakaua Avenue, to Kapiolani Park, for an afternoon rally against ADB policies and in support of native Hawaiian causes. Hundreds of state, city and federal law enforcement officers and private security guards were stationed along the protest route, with state officials mindful of large-scale protests that have disrupted international policy gatherings since the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Last year's ADB Bank meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, drew 2,000 protesters against a huge wastewater treatment project near Bangkok. In Honolulu, several businesses neighboring the convention center closed for the day and boarded their windows and doors. Most businesses remained open, but carefully monitored the demonstrators outside. Water-filled anti-riot barricades and security guards in Polynesian print vests surrounded the glass-faced convention center, which security officials feared would be vulnerable to attack. The Honolulu Police Department is spending an estimated $4 million to $7 million for security for the conference. The police chief said it was money well spent. "I don't think you can overprepare," Donohue said. But the "March for Global Justice and Indigenous Rights" drew far fewer than the maximum 7,000 participants allowed in a city permit. ADBwatch member Matt MacKenzie said protesters gave the high estimate to be on the safe side but expected the crowd to total "hundreds." Protesters set to present petitions demanding specific changes in bank-financed projects and complaining about "the way Honolulu has been militarized for this particular conference," said Shalmali Guttal of the Thailand-based group Focus on the Global South. =================================================================== New law allows police to keep DNA evidence forever <http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_288694.html> Thu, 10 May 2001 : The Government's wide-ranging law and order Bill has cleared the House of Commons and is set to become law. The Criminal Justice and Police Bill extends curfews for teenage yobs and tightens the law on harassment, after attacks on workers by animal rights activists. It also allows police to close disorderly pubs and the permanent retention of DNA evidence. The Bill is expected to get Royal Assent either tomorrow or on Monday. MPs have accepted a series of Lords amendments to the Bill, including one which will allow the police and local housing authorities to tackle "crack houses". =================================================================== 5 Pounds for a slave girl with a nervous smile <http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003864436460684&rtmo=lvHzwAnt&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/4/29/wlamb29.html> At an Abidjan market in West Africa young girls and women are sold for a few thousand francs. Christina Lamb witnesses the 'marche de jeune filles' April 29, 2001 FOR a moment, I thought that I had stepped into one of those guilt-inspiring etchings in museums all over Africa, of 19th-century European slave traders buying up women and children. Only this time, I was the main character. Ranged in front of me, seated on wooden benches under the baking Ivory Coast sun, were row upon row of young African women for sale, eyes lit up at the sight of a white woman, all pleading to be the one I would choose. This was Abidjan's marche de jeune filles (market of young girls) and for 5,000 Central African francs - about £5 - I could take one home as my very own servant. Aged between 14 and 30, the girls were dressed in their Sunday best, tight-waisted, large-bottomed suits in bold printed cotton, hair tweaked and plaited into elaborate arrangements, their eyes beseeching as they each stood up to be examined. Some giggled nervously. Others simply looked desperate. Overseeing their sale were four men, slick characters with gold medallions flashing under open-necked shirts, tight jeans, black and white brogues, fake gold watches, and leather-covered mobile telephones on their belts. The market is in the shadow of a highway in the northerfwest suburb of Adjame, next to the affluent residential district of Cocody, home to the only hotel in Africa with an ice-rink (no longer working), and the area to which the men hope to sell the girls. Each man has about 15 girls on his books and claims to sell at least five a week. "You're lucky, madam," said one of the men with a simpering smile. "You're a white woman so they all long to go with you because they think you'll treat them better." That a white master or mistress would be preferable seemed a sickening irony. Over the years reporting from Africa, I have visited the slave forts on the Ghana coast and seen the desperate scratchings on the walls of the cells where thousands of men, women and children were jammed before being shipped to the Americas; the steamy jungle port of Calabar, one of the principal trading posts; and the large tree at Zanzibar where the slave market was held which inspired David Livingstone to fight against slavery. You get used to feeling shame. But, until going to this market last week, I think I had never appreciated just how humiliating it is for people to be on sale, and my stomach turned as the girls all tried to catch my eye or touch my hand. In theory, the women are not slaves. "We're agencies," insisted one of the traders. "You pay us to have them but, once you've taken them home, it's up to you if you pay them." How much would a decent wage be, I asked? "Obviously, you would want an experienced one," he replied. "She could do all your washing, cleaning, cooking and look after your baby. If you paid her £20 a month, she would be extremely happy." He claimed that he would not take a cut of the wages but anti-slavery campaigners, who would like to see the market closed down, insist that this is not true. "The traders make the girls believe they are their property and, even if you buy one, they are only on loan and must pay the traders to cover their costs," explained Desire Kuikui, from the Catholic Children's Fund. "There is little difference from slave-trading of old." In fact, the Ivorian authorities are so sensitive about the market amid the current international focus on child-slavery in West Africa, after the docking in Benin of a boat suspected to have a cargo of child slaves, that when my colleague Justin Sutcliffe started photographing the girls, we were arrested. Surrounded by shouting and drunken police, we were manhandled into a police car and held for five hours in the nearby 27th precinct police station, accused of being spies. Sutcliffe's film was confiscated and destroyed, apart from one that he had managed to hide, and we were interrogated by a series of officers who kept demanding: "What is the tenure of your mission?" Describing what had happened as "a serious incident", they harangued our poor, terrified interpreter for letting us go into "sensitive areas". It was an uncomfortable, if not particularly threatening, experience and, as we sweated it out in the oven-like police station with not even a warm Coca-Cola to quench our parched lips, it was hard to get the picture of all those women on the benches out of my head. Before our arrest, one of the traders had insisted that "the girls are free to leave here any time". That may be true but, according to Apolle, a girl with whom I had a snatched conversation, they have nowhere to go. Claiming to be 17, but looking more like 14, she said she had travelled several days to get to Abidjan from the east of the country. "I was told by a man that he would employ me in a big department store and train me, but when I got here he left me," she said. "Now I have no money to get home and know no one here. My only hope is some nice lady like you buys me." More women end up on display at the market every week, coming from all over the country as well as neighbouring Mali, to the city that styles itself as the Paris of West Africa. At first sight, particularly by night with the glittering lights of the high-rise buildings reflected in the lagoon, Abidjan does look affluent. But, during the past few years, it has become as riddled with unemployment and crime as any West African city and, in the heat of the day, the lagoon stinks. "This market is a function of the socio-political situation of the country," said the youngest of the traders. And perhaps more than anything that is a function of the megalomania of African leaders. Nowhere illustrates that more vividly than Yamoussoukro, the surreal capital of Ivory Coast, created by the late President Felix Houphouet Boigny out of his home village and renamed after his mother. This city in the middle of nowhere has eight-lane highways but no cars and motorway lights which long ago lost their bulbs. Oddest of all, though, is the world's tallest church - 170 metres high with 30-metre foundations. Built in just three years between 1986 and 1989, compared with more than a century for St Peter's in Rome - on which it is modelled - the Basilica de Notre Dame de la Paix cost £200 million and uses marble from Italy and Spain and stained-glass windows from France, as well as French-made lifts to whizz visitors to the top of the dome. It seats 18,000 people but, on a good Sunday, draws just 500 and has absolutely nothing to do with Africa. At the Abidjan slave market, I recalled the words of the church guide. "It is nice to have something stunning in our country," he said. "But maybe it would be nicer if we didn't have ugly things, too." =================================================================== Governments resort to police violence against international May Day protests <http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/may2001/mayd-m03.shtml> By James Conachy 3 May 2001 May Day demonstrations around the world on Tuesday gave voice to growing discontent over poverty, unemployment and the impact of global capitalism on the lives of ordinary people. Alarmed at the rising tide of protest, many governments responded with police violence. A massive police presence, according to some reports outnumbering protesters by 2 to 1greeted May Day rallies in London. Some 6,000 officers were on duty or standing by, and 30 police vans were stationed in Whitehall to prevent demonstrators gaining access to Downing Street, the residence of Britain's prime minister. Several thousand participated in anti-corporate demonstrations organised loosely around the theme of "May Day Monopoly", with small rallies taking place at several London sites featured in the board game. The protests, organised by a variety of anti-globalisation, anarchist and environmentalist groups, were denounced as "spurious" by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who promised "absolute and total backing" to the police in controlling them. London Mayor Ken Livingstone joined in the witch-hunt, claiming the protests were a "deliberate attempt... to promote violence and destruction of property in London". Despite the peaceful character of protests throughout the day, police in riot gear blockaded a crowd of 5,000 in Oxford Circus, the hub of London's premier shopping street. Demonstrators were kept tightly packed into the square for more than four hours in the rain without access to any facilities. Several were injured as police used batons to beat them back and at least 35 were arrested. According to one report on BBC radio, the police would not allow anyone to leave Oxford Circus without first providing their name and address. A wide-ranging surveillance operation was mounted throughout the day, with police video squads on the ground filming all the demonstrators to augment footage gained from surveillance cameras and helicopters. In Zurich, Switzerland, police sealed off the financial district of the city from protestors and, at the conclusion of a peaceful march, surrounded 400 masked anti-globalisation anarchists. After the demonstrators threw rocks and paint bombs, police responded with overwhelming force, firing rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas before launching baton charges. Some 200 arrests were made. Riots and street fighting took place between police and demonstrators in Berlin, Germany, following a ban of the annual "autonome" (anarchist) demonstration implemented by city interior minister Eckart Werthebach. A total of 9,000 police were mobilised to stop thousands of anarchist and anti-fascist demonstrators from carrying out a planned march. Street fighting erupted as police used water cannon and truncheons to clear several hundred demonstrators from a crossing in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. Several dozen demonstrators were arrested and a number injured. Prior to the May Day ban the Berlin head of police Gernot Piestert declared that the police would intervene "in an offensive and consequent manner". At least 150 arrests were made. Representatives of civil rights organisations expressed fears that the unprecedented ban of a May Day demonstration and ensuing conflicts was a planned provocation on the part of the Berlin Senate to precipitate new measures to restrict the right to demonstrate and assemble. At the same time a large contingent of Berlin police shielded the few hundred members of the neo-fascist NPD (National Party of Germany) who carried out their own demonstration in the east of the city under the central slogan of "Jobs for Germans first!" Protracted clashes also took place between police and anti-fascist youth in Frankfurt-Main as large numbers of police escorted a march of NPD members through the city. Journalists described this May Day as the most violent in Germany for a decade. Across the country, some half a million people took part in nearly 1,000 demonstrations, according to official figures of the German Trade Union organisation (DGB). An estimated 100,000 rallied in Vienna, Austria, demanding job security. Large crowds took part in traditional marches in France, Italy, Spain and other European Union states with concern over unemployment among the main slogans. Some 20,000 marched through Istanbul, Turkey, denouncing the treatment of political prisoners and government economic policies. An estimated 300,000 people took part in May Day rallies in 480 cities across Russia, calling for higher wages, improved social security and price controls. In Siberia, an area hard-hit by industry and mine closures since the restoration of the capitalist market, over 50,000 were reported to have demonstrated. Throughout Eastern Europe, rallies denounced the vast social decay that has accompanied the return of capitalism. Asia-Pacific On the other side of the globe in Australia, mounted and special operations police conducted provocative attacks on 1,500 anti-globalisation and environmentalist protestors who blockaded the stock exchange in Sydney. At least 34 were detained and numbers of protestors battered. Smaller blockades took place at the exchanges in Melbourne and four other cities, with more than 30 arrests in Brisbane. A separate trade union march in Melbourne drew some 10,000 workers. In Pakistan, the police and military pre-empted planned anti-government protests by imposing de-facto martial law in Karachi and banning all outdoor demonstrations. Up to 1,000 members of opposition parties were arrested in morning raids. Traditional May Day activities in the Philippines were overshadowed by the bitter street fighting between police and supporters of ousted president Joseph Estrada. President Gloria Arroyo reacted by declaring a "state of rebellion" in the capital Manila and arresting senior opposition figures on the grounds of conspiracy. In South Korea's capital Seoul, 15,000 riot police used batons and water cannon to block a march on government buildings by 20,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The police in Seoul deployed 56 camera crews across the city to videotape the rally, with images broadcast throughout the day over the Internet and individuals identified for potential arrest. KCTU-organised rallies and marches took place in most Korean industrial cities, under banners demanding the ousting of President Kim Dae-jung over police brutality and an end to International Monetary Fund (IMF)-directed economic restructuring. Indonesian police attacked a rally of 2,000 workers in the West Javanese city of Bandung as they marched on government offices. At least half a dozen protesters were injured. A rally of 5,000 in Jakarta demanded a 100 percent increase in wages and attacked the impact of IMF-dictated restructuring since 1997. More than 2,000 police and paramilitary looked on. Rallies of over 3,000 workers took place in the industrial cities of Medan, Semarang and Surabaya, calling for wage rises and improved working conditions. In other parts of Asia, rallies proceeded without incident. Thousands demonstrated in central Bangkok, Thailand, to protest the growth of unemployment, expected to rise by 1.4 million this year as layoffs mount due to the downturn in the US. In Taiwan, some 5,000 workers marched through Taipei against the growth of unemployment. In Japan, an estimated 1.36 million workers joined trade union rallies at which union leaders attacked the new Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for proposing economic reforms that will drastically increase joblessness. Workers attended trade union May Day rallies across India. In New Dehli, workers burned an effigy of the finance minister, denouncing "his proposal for amendments in labour laws under the pressure of the WTO". Other marches took place in Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh. In Nepal, a mass rally called for the resignation of the government. The Americas and Africa In South America, tens of thousands of workers rallied to protest poverty, falling wages and unemployment, estimated at 10 percent in much of the continent. Some 1.5 million people took part in May Day activities in Sao Paulo, Brazil, under banners condemning the free trade agreement for the Americas. The events paralysed the northern sections of the city. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, unemployed workers established street barricades in industrial areas to protest against joblessness. In Colombia, rallies took place in 30 cities against the 18.8 percent official unemployment and continuous paramilitary violence. A large rally in Santiago, Chile, denounced unemployment and government steps to freeze wages. Workers demanded jobs in Montevido, Uruguay, where an outbreak of foot and mouth disease has led to mass layoffs in meat packing plants. Thousands assembled in Mexico City to protest the plans of new president Vicente Fox to extend taxes to food and cutback health care and social benefits. Workers carried effigies of Fox and the country's Labor Secretary, the latter wearing a crown of swastikas. In Long Beach, California, police fired rubber bullets and arrested 100 anarchist demonstrators who disrupted traffic to protest the treatment of immigrant workers. Some 1,200 people marched in Portland, Oregon calling for an end to corporate greed and an investigation into the police shooting of a Mexican immigrant last month. May Day protests focusing on the plight of immigrants in the US also took place in New York, Boston and Chicago. Rallies were held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and other Canadian cities. In South Africa, large crowds attended rallies of COSATU, the trade union federation, where speakers attacked the ANC government for overseeing a "job bloodbath" and planning the privatisation of state-owned industries. Across Kenya, workers boycotted official May Day celebrations en masse to protest the collaboration of the trade unions with the austerity policies of the government. At the conclusion of the official event in the capital Nairobi, riot police dispersed the small crowd to prevent opposition politicians addressing them and criticising the union federation. Riot police also attacked workers in Harare, Zimbabwe, when they tried to prevent groups connected with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe taking over the rally. Crisis of perspective The recourse to state repression against many May Day rallies testifies to the lack of any solution to social inequality on the part of capitalist governments and free market ideologues. A decade ago, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, they proclaimed that capitalism was the only form of social organisation that could provide prosperity and democracy. But this has given way to open admissions that the gulf between rich and poor is an inevitable consequence of the operations of the global capitalist system. While the rallies and protests reflected wider concerns and unease about the state of the world and the impact of global capitalism, the leaders of political parties, trade unions and environmental groups who organised and addressed the demonstrations had no solutions either. Their slogans and speeches were characterised by appeals to nationalism and the defence of their "own" national state. It is important to recall that the Marxist movement first called for the staging of international rallies on May 1 in 1889. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, May Day was explicitly conceived as a demonstration of working class unity in the common cause of replacing capitalism and the national-state with a more advanced, socialist society based on global economic planning and co-operation. But far from calling for the unification of workers internationally against the depredations of capitalism, the protest leaders appealed to national governments to protect workers in one country at the expense of workers elsewhere. The unions in Australia used May Day to agitate for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) slogan, "Fair Trade, not Free Trade". This translated into the call for the protection of local industries from foreign competition and the denunciation of government for weakening the nation by signing world trade agreements. Trade union head Leigh Hubbard declared: "We're sick to death of seeing factories closed and being shipped off shore. We're sick of governments standing round saying sorry we can't do anything. We're sick to death of seeing our national government sign away its right to regulate the national economy to unrepresentative organisations like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the IMF. That has got to change." In Russia, demonstrators carried portraits of Stalin and banners calling for a return to the autarkic, highly regulated Stalinist state and condemning the Putin government for its "anti-national policy". In South Korea and India, denunciations of the WTO and IMF were coupled with demands for the exclusion of foreign companies with definite anti-American overtones. In Germany, neo-Nazis marched under the xenophobic slogan of "jobs for Germans", while in Taiwan, Malaysia and Iran the official trade union federations demanded the expulsion of foreign workers as the solution to unemployment. In France, the trade unions drew up a long list of targets including British supermarket chain Marks and Spencer, McDonalds and other foreign corporations. Sri Lanka, which has been torn apart by civil war for 18 years, provided one of the most graphic illustrations of the reactionary logic of nationalism. May Day rallies in that country were divided on party and communal lines. While support for demonstrations staged by the parties of the ruling Peoples Alliance was low, the largest rally, attended by some 20,000 in the capital Colombo, was organised by the Sinhala extremist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The speakers combined denunciations of globalisation as a foreign conspiracy to take over Sri Lanka, with agitation to step up the government's racist war. Elsewhere, 10,000 predominantly Tamil estate workers, facing wage cuts and repression, attended a union-organised rally. Against the dead-end of nationalism that sets worker against worker on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion and language, the great principles of socialist internationalism, which animated the founding of May Day, must be revived as the basis for a genuine unified struggle against the outmoded profit system. =================================================================== Hawaiian protesters get in ADB's face http://hawaii.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=220&group=webcast Thu May 10 '01 Anti-democracy security forces in Honolulu ensured minimal disturbance to ADB ministers who are meeting to impose structural adjustment on still more client states, yet the made-up Hawaiian welcome was overshadowed by native calls for independence from a militaristic America A few hundred protesters accompanied thousands of security forces past the meeting place of the ADB and through Waikiki, as most folks stayed away from this armed camp this day. That's about $14,000 per protester spent by local police and tourism groups to ensure tranquility here. The media coup of the day was a web address for hawaiiankingdom.org on a banner held by Lynette Hi`ilani Cruz of the Ahupua`a Action Alliance, that flashed across global TV. What news there was came mainly from Hawaiian independence activists expressing solidarity with peoples in ADB client states because of similarities with their own U.S. status. A Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) march blowing the pu (conch shell) led the March for Global Justice, and noted anti-globalization expert Walden Bello got some face time with the ADB president as marchers decamped briefly and without incident in front of the Hawai`i Convention Center. Local cops unabashedly photographed each marcher. Meanwhile, the alternative NGO forum called "Another World Is Possible" is drawing huge crowds all week and providing an outlet for global NGO's who are boycotting the "kinder, gentler" ADB's call for meetings with NGO leaders. =================================================================== Supreme Court Nixes Medical Marijuana MAY 14, 2001 By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court handed medical marijuana users a major defeat Monday, ruling that a federal law classifying the drug as illegal has no exception for ill patients. The 8-0 decision was a major disappointment to many sufferers of AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. They have said the drug helped enormously in combatting the devastating effects of their diseases. Justice Stephen Breyer did not participate because his brother, a federal judge, initially presided over the case. ``In the case of the Controlled Substances Act, the statute reflects a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception (outside the confines of a government-approved research project),'' Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the unanimous court. Thomas noted the act states marijuana has ``no currently accepted medical use.'' The federal government triggered the case in 1998, seeking an injunction against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative and five other marijuana distributors. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, brother of the justice, sided with the government. All the clubs except the Oakland group eventually closed down, and the Oakland club turned to registering potential marijuana recipients while it awaited a final ruling. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court, ruling that medical necessity is a legal defense. Charles Breyer followed up by issuing strict guidelines for making that claim. Voters in Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington also have approved ballot initiatives allowing the use of medical marijuana. In Hawaii, the legislature passed a similar law and the governor signed it last year. The cooperative argued that a drug may not yet have achieved general acceptance as a medical treatment, but may still have medical benefits to a particular patient or class of patients. Thomas said the argument cannot overcome the intent of Congress in approving the statute. ``It is clear from the text of the act that Congress has made a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception,'' Thomas wrote. ``Unwilling to view this omission as an accident, and unable in any event to override a legislative determination manifest in a statute, we reject the cooperative's argument.'' Advocates of medical marijuana say the drug can ease side effects from chemotherapy, save nauseated AIDS patients from wasting away or even allow multiple sclerosis sufferers to rise from a wheelchair and walk. There is no definitive science that the drug works, or works better than conventional, legal alternatives. Several states are considering medical marijuana laws, and Congress may revisit the issue this year. A measure to counteract laws like California's died in the House last year. Thomas was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The case is United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, 00-151. ----------- On the Net: Supreme Court site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov For the appeals court ruling in U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html, and click on 9th Circuit. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative: http://www.rxcbc.org =================================================================== May 10, 2001 Bush creates new office to fight domestic terrorism <http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0501/051001t1.htm> By Tanya N. Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] President Bush announced plans Tuesday to counter weapons of mass destruction through a new Office of National Preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Bush ordered FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh to create the new office, which will coordinate all federal programs dealing with terrorist threats and incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Vice President Dick Cheney will oversee the effort. "Prudence dictates that the United States be fully prepared to deal effectively with the consequences of such a weapon being used here on our soil," the President said. In February, FEMA teamed up with five federal agencies to develop the Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan, which outlines how the federal government intends to respond to terrorism, particularly acts that involve chemical or biological weapons. It also provides guidance for federal, state and local agencies on preparing for and dealing with potential threats and incidents. The FBI and the Departments of Defense, Energy and Health and Human Services, along with the Environmental Protection Agency are also involved in the plan. The development of the new office will have no direct impact on the Concept of Operations Plan, according to Marc Wolfson, a spokesman on domestic terrorism for FEMA. "The vice president has been asked to lead this effort and they are going to be looking at everything," Wolfson said. "I'm sure they will be looking at that plan." On Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary began a series of hearings to examine the efforts of more than 40 different federal agencies with responsibility for combating domestic terrorism. In a written statement released prior to the hearings, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the committee's chairman, expressed concern about the nation's level of preparedness for such attacks. "Our lack of preparedness stems in part from the inability, and sometimes unwillingness, of the federal agencies to coordinate their efforts," Gregg said. The General Accounting Office released a report in March that found that government agencies are better prepared to respond to terrorist attacks because of FEMA's guidance. =================================================================== 05-10-2001 RIAA To Music Pirates: Prepare To Be Boarded <http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=22425> RIAA Yearend 2000 Anti-Piracy Statistics Show Significant Increase in Illicit CD-R Seizures, Arrests and Indictments WASHINGTON, May 9, 2001 - The yearend 2000 Anti-Piracy figures released today by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) revealed a significant increase in the number of online pirate sites the organization addressed as well as a marked increase in illicit CD-R seizures. The report further indicated that the trade group's targeting of anti-piracy resources have resulted in a notable rise in piracy arrests and indictments. "This past year we have taken significant strides in our war against illicit CD-R piracy," said Frank Creighton, RIAA Senior Vice President and Director of Anti-Piracy. "While offenders are increasingly turning to the digital space to further their illegal operations, many are finding that we are already there and well prepared to deal with them." Commercial Internet Pirate Sites The RIAA's Internet Enforcement team has identified and removed an increasing number of music sites illegally offering copyrighted material through various commercial Internet service providers. The number of commercial sites in the U.S. generating Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices rose 408% over last year. There was also a tremendous increase in the number of notices sent to link sites facilitating the downloading of unauthorized files in 2000, rising to 2,560 by the end of the year. Further, illegal online auctions removed from the web increased by 853% compared to figures released in 1999. "These numbers speak well of the resources we have dedicated to the Internet. Unfortunately, they are also indicative of the many ways that people are misusing technology to pirate music," added Creighton. "These trends are troubling, but not insurmountable." Counterfeit CD Seizures Soar Counterfeit and pirate CD-Rs seized in 2000 increased by 79% over the figures released this time last year, resulting in an unprecedented 1,669,394 counterfeit/pirate CD-Rs seized. "Operation Clean Streets," put into action in April 2000 to address the distribution of unauthorized sound recordings on the streets of New York City, has resulted in 1,035 arrests over an eight-month period, primarily at the retail level. This is compared to 316 arrests at the retail level, in this region, for all of last year. The 1,035 arrests resulted in the confiscation of approximately 600,000 unauthorized CD-Rs. According to Creighton, "while there is still much work to be done, we expect the recently added resources to continue to produce impressive results in the coming year." In coordination with a renewed focus on retail piracy across the Nation, efforts at the manufacturing level did not suffer, with 633 CD-R burners confiscated during the year. A conservative estimate of the collective manufacturing capacity of these factories would be approximately 9.5 million CD-Rs in one year, representing a potential economic loss to our industry of close to 150 million dollars. Bogus CD Shipment Orders Plummet With continued collaborative efforts on the part of the recording industry and the Optical Disc replication industry, CD plant manufacturers around the country continue to utilize RIAA's recommended good business practices to reduce the amount of unauthorized discs hitting the marketplace. This year the amount of unauthorized CDs confiscated dropped to 90,027 from 182,023 in 1999, a nearly 50% reduction over last year's figures. "The preventive measures that have been put into place by optical disc replicators to include the adoption of RIAA's recommended business practices, substantially contributes to the decline in illicit orders brought to our attention," notes Creighton. Supporting The Soundbyting Campaign The original Soundbyting Campaign started in 1998 with 10 schools participating in the pilot program. Approximately 350 schools now participate in the Soundbyting program. The RIAA's SOUNDBYTING Campaign, which includes a kit for university and college administrators as well as a web site, provides the core materials to serve as a framework for discussion of music and the Internet. Its purpose is to raise awareness that reproducing and distributing music illegally is akin to stealing, and such actions have serious ethical and legal consequences. This program has recently been expanded to the high school and graduate levels. The RIAA continues to outline what is allowable and to provide informative material about copyright law through its university and college materials and on the SOUNDBYTING website (www.soundbyting.com). Civil Litigation Activities Due to advances in Internet technology, the civil litigation team has been faced with establishing new legal precedents. These suits were initiated for various types of illegal conduct, including precedent setting cases involving the unauthorized creation of commercial music databases (MP3.com) and the deliberate aggregation of links to illegal music downloads (MP3Board.com). A summary judgment against MP3.com was entered in favor of the plaintiffs in the case on April 28, 2000, and settlements have now been negotiated with all of the original plaintiffs. The case against MP3Board.com is currently entering the trial phase. The legitimate online music marketplace was also advanced in 2000 as a result of legal victories in the high-profile Napster case. Following last year's legal efforts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed with a federal district court that Napster is liable for contributory and vicarious infringement of copyrighted material. On March 6, 2001 Federal District Court Judge Marilyn H. Patel issued a modified preliminary injunction in the case requiring Napster to remove Plaintiff's works from its system. These efforts have not only sent a clear message that online piracy will not be tolerated, but have also created the legal framework from which we can ensure that a legitimate market for online music will continue to flourish. Finally, suits were filed against two companies involved in the manufacturing or causing the manufacture of hundreds of infringing titles. The first Media Group, a California-based CD replication facility is ongoing, while one against Halland, a California-based CD compilation company has settled. =================================================================== May 10, 2001 Alleged NYC Gang Leaders Charged NEW YORK (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation - Prosecutors announced a sweeping indictment against the Bloods street gang and its female counterpart, vowing to dismantle ``the most entrenched street gang in New York City.'' The racketeering indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan charged 15 members and associates of the United Blood Nation and Bloodettes gangs, including the alleged leaders, with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, extortion and robbery, among other charges. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said Tuesday that the indictment will go a long way toward eradicating the gangs' influence in New York City. Prosecutors said the gang is separate from the Bloods on the West Coast. The 31-count indictment names Omar Portee as the alleged Bloods leader and Paulette McCartha as the alleged leader of the female gang. Twelve of those indicted are in custody, including Portee, who pleaded innocent Tuesday. His attorney, Robert Dunn, told The New York Times that Portee said he didn't know many of the others indicted. ``Based on what I know to be his economic circumstances, it would seem to be inconsistent with anyone who would be the architect of such a wide-ranging criminal enterprise,'' Dunn said. The gang was formed in 1993 while Portee was jailed on an armed robbery conviction, White said. Portee was released in June 1999 after serving his full sentence. ``He is considered the godfather _ he's the person when someone wants to know about the Bloods and committing crimes, he's the person they go to,'' said William Allee, the New York Police Department's chief of detectives. =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ====================================================== "The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -Thomas Paine ====================================================== " . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . " -Samuel Adams ====================================================== "You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no results." -Gandhi ====================================================== "The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable." -H.L. 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