In a message dated 3/13/02 12:50:32 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>On 9/11, the most powerful nation in the world, equipped with the most > >sophisticated spying technology available and a $396 billion defense > >budget was brought to its' knees by a handful of rouges with 99 cent box > >cutters. In my opinion, there is something very foul smelling about > >that. I believe that in time, the truth will come out. The mayor of New > >York, Time Magazine's man of the year, ordered thousands of tons of WTC > >steel sold and melted down before a proper investigation of the greatest > >crime scene the country has ever witnessed could be conducted. Much of > >it was sent to South Korea where Bush/Bin Laden's Carlyle Group has a > >massive investment. Something foul smelling about that too. In my > >opinion, an 85% approval rating only proves one thing. Einstein was > >correct when he said: "Two things are infinite, human stupidity and the > >universe, and I am not sure of the latter."
--- Begin Message ---If you have received this e-mail, then you are on the mailing list of the Center for an Informed America. If you feel you have received this in error, please send back a reply asking to be removed from the list. If this message was forwarded to you and you would like to receive future mailings, e-mail a request to be added to the list.
US sends suspects to face tortureDuncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Tuesday March 12, 2002
The GuardianThe US has been secretly sending prisoners suspected of al-Qaida connections to countries where torture during interrogation is legal, according to US diplomatic and intelligence sources. Prisoners moved to such countries as Egypt and Jordan can be subjected to torture and threats to their families to extract information sought by the US in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The normal extradition procedures have been bypassed in the transportation of dozens of prisoners suspected of terrorist connections, according to a report in the Washington Post. The suspects have been taken to countries where the CIA has close ties with the local intelligence services and where torture is permitted.
According to the report, US intelligence agents have been involved in a number of interrogations. A CIA spokesman yesterday said the agency had no comment on the allegations. A state department spokesman said the US had been "working very closely with other countries - It's a global fight against terrorism".
"After September 11, these sorts of movements have been occurring all the time," a US diplomat told the Washington Post. "It allows us to get information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil."
The seizing of suspects and taking them to a third country without due process of law is known as "rendition" ....
[Editor's Note: It's also known as "kidnapping."]A Yemeni microbiology student has also been taken in this way, being flown from Pakistan to Jordan on a US-registered jet. US forces also seized five Algerians and a Yemeni in Bosnia on January 19 and flew them to Guantanamo Bay after the men were released by the Bosnian supreme court for lack of evidence, and despite an injunction from the Bosnian human rights chamber that four of them be allowed to remain in the country pending further proceedings.
<snip>
'Inadequate' US troops pulled out of battleground
From Catherine Philp in Leg Diwawl, Afghanistan
March 12, 2002
The Times (UK)HUNDREDS of American troops were pulled out of the ground battle with al-Qaeda forces because they failed to adapt to the guerrilla tactics required for fighting in the mountains, according to their Afghan allies.
More than 1,000 Afghan troops rushed to the front line yesterday to take up the slack after the withdrawal of 400 US troops from the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.
The American military has described the withdrawal as a tactical reappraisal of their battleplan, but Afghan commanders told a different story of inexperienced American soldiers unable to advance through the unfamiliar mountains to track down al-Qaeda and Taleban foes.
“They were not trained for the kind of fighting we do in the mountains and, in these conditions, their kind of fighting is useless,” Commander Allah Mohammed said. “They were weakening our morale, it was better for them to go” ....
Shah Mahood Popal, their deputy commander, believed it was self-preservation that stopped the Americans from launching a more decisive attack .... "They should stick to bombing,” he said ....
Afghan commanders believe that the US has exaggerated the number of casualties in the bombing campaign, saying that at least several hundred al-Qaeda forces are up in mountain caves ready to fight back.
“We have been very close to their positions and we have seen no dead bodies,” Commander Mohammed said ....
Shahi-Kot has been called the last bastion of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, but there is evidence that other pockets of resistance still exist in provinces to the south .... “This battle will not be the last,” one former official said. “The network is far from dead.”
<snip>
The Paul Revere Forum: National Security Whistleblowers Speak
Remarks by Frank Serpico, retired New York City Police Detective
February 27, 2002
Canon House Office Building, Room 402
Project on Government Oversight<snip>
I must confess that since the first time I heard myself referred to as a whistle-blower, I cringed, and I am still uneasy with that term. It sounds demeaning. Demeaning for so noble a cause .... [Paul] Revere lit or arranged for the lamps to be lit and hung high in the tower. He was a lamp lighter and that is the term I much prefer than whistle-blower. LAMPLIGHTER. We can still holler and shout but we have to light the lamps that shed the light on corruption, injustice, ineptitude and abuse of power ....While in my sick bed recovering from a gunshot wound, received in the line of duty under dubious circumstances, the police department harassed me hourly with bed checks. I was subjected to all sorts of humiliation. While traveling I was detained, strip searched and warned by Customs Agents, --"if we want you we got you" was their message. Somehow they knew of my supposedly secret meetings with top police investigators. Finally, after retiring, I was run out of Switzerland due to pressure brought to bear by none other than the FBI. A clear indication of the cooperation among government agencies to prevent the exposure of corruption in one of their crony organizations. I do not mean to discourage anyone but it is best to know what you may expect for your courage and forthrightness. Cornel West says it takes more courage to muster the exercise of critical intellect than to fight on the battlefield ....
Today it is becoming harder to speak out, with the inception of the Patriot Act, the president has legislated free speech to be a crime ....
Today, as always, it is clearly a case of ordinary citizens against the corporate giants like Enron, the Carlyle group and the so-called war on terrorism. Just last week John Poindexter, of Oli North and Iran contra guns for hostages fame was appointed to head the new 'big brother' Information Awareness Office. God help us ....
On 9/11, the most powerful nation in the world, equipped with the most sophisticated spying technology available and a $396 billion defense budget was brought to its' knees by a handful of rouges with 99 cent box cutters. In my opinion, there is something very foul smelling about that. I believe that in time, the truth will come out. The mayor of New York, Time Magazine's man of the year, ordered thousands of tons of WTC steel sold and melted down before a proper investigation of the greatest crime scene the country has ever witnessed could be conducted. Much of it was sent to South Korea where Bush/Bin Laden's Carlyle Group has a massive investment. Something foul smelling about that too. In my opinion, an 85% approval rating only proves one thing. Einstein was correct when he said: "Two things are infinite, human stupidity and the universe, and I am not sure of the latter."
<snip>
--- End Message ---
