[Peace-discuss] News notes, 12/2 (Part 1 of 2)

[C. G. Estabrook]

NOTES ON THE WEEK'S NEWS, FOR AWARE MEETING, 12/2 (Part 1 of 2)

[NB: This week's notes are organized chronologically, day by day.  Each
note is followed by an indication of its source.  At the end of the notes
is an edited version of an interview with Noam Chomsky.]

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2001 

Amber Amundson, whose husband Craig was killed in the attack on the
Pentagon, wrote shortly after the attack, "I call on our national leaders
to find the courage to break the cycle of violence." Sentiments like these
have come from others who lost spouses, children, brothers or sisters.
This week some of these mourners are going beyond words, joining a walk
that will link the two cities that were struck. Their message to all they
meet as they walk or assemble along the way: Our grief is not a cry for
war.  The group of survivors and friends will set off at 9AM Sunday,
November 25, from the front gates of Georgetown University in Washington,
DC. They will arrive the next Sunday, December 2, in New York City. In
between they will walk some distances and shuttle others, stopping in
Baltimore, Philadelphia, Paterson and other locations to take parts in
events being organized by local churches and other groups. [VOICES IN THE
WILDERNESS]

AT least 35 US special forces soldiers were killed and many injured in a
firefight with pro-Taliban troops in southern Afghanistan, a Pakistani
newspaper, The News, has reported. The News quoted unnamed sources as
saying the Americans took heavy casualties in an attack launched on
Thursday on the Taliban militia and troops of the al Qaeda network of
terror suspect Osama bin Laden. The US troops were backed by helicopter
gunships in the attack "but were caught by surprise and had to withdraw
quickly," the daily said. "At least 35 personnel of the US Special Forces
were killed and many injured" in the battle," The newspaper said 35 bodies
and an unspecified number of injured were flown by helicopter to Jacobabad
Airbase in Pakistan. Ten C-130 transport planes were ready to fly the
bodies back to the United States, it said. [AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE]

Here are some of the questions the US Justice Department wants asked of
5,000 Middle Eastern men in the United States. Federal officials say none
of the men are considered suspects...  *Identity. In addition to name,
date and place of birth, and citizenship, officers will ask to see
passport and visa. They will make notes about travel history and visa
status. They will be on the lookout for false identification.  *Telephone
numbers. Officers will try to get all phone numbers used by the man, his
family and close associates...  *Foreign travel. Officers will ask what
foreign countries were visited, and the dates and reasons for those trips.
They will ask whether he or anybody he knows has ever visited
Afghanistan...  *Reason for being in the United States. If the man's
status is tourist, officers will ask what cities, landmarks and other
sites he has visited or plans to visit. If he is here as a student, he'll
be asked about his studies and plans.  *Knowledge of weapons. Officers
will ask whether he or anybody he knows has access to guns, explosives,
harmful chemicals, or biological or chemical weapons, or has training or
expertise in such weapons.  *Reaction to terrorism. The man will be asked
how he felt when he heard about the Sept. 11 attacks and whether he
noticed anybody who acted in a surprising or inappropriate manner. He'll
be asked whether he knows anyone who is sympathetic to the hijackers or
other terrorists, and "whether he shares those sympathies to any degree."  
*Knowledge of terrorism. Officers will ask whether he "knows anyone who is
capable of or willing to carry out acts of terrorism," or anyone raising
money for terrorist activity, including by criminal activity such as drug
trafficking or fraud. They'll also ask whether the man or anyone he knows
has received any training that "could be applicable to terrorist
activities, whether it be training at terrorist camps, flight lessons or
other training programs in the United States or abroad."  *Advocates of
violence. Officers will ask whether the man "has heard of anyone
recruiting persons to engage in violent acts against the United States or
its citizens," or anyone who is advocating "jihad."  *Terrorists overseas.
Officers will ask whether the man is aware of people in his homeland
advocating terrorism or able to help the United States in its fight
against terrorism.  *Sources of false documents. The man will be asked
whether he is aware of anyone who possesses false identification or is
involved in selling or supplying others with such documents. [DETROIT FREE
PRESS]

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2001

US Marines land near Kandahar. Some 1,500 troops arrive by helicopter near
Taliban stronghold. [MSNBC]

Well-placed US officials tell Newsweek that Iraq's Saddam Hussein is not
likely to feel the full wrath of America's military power any time soon.
More likely to be targeted next in the terror campaign are facilities in
Somalia or even the Philippines, reports National Security Correspondent
John Barry in the December 3 issue of Newsweek. The Navy has been running
reconnaissance flights over Somalia, where it is believed Al Qaeda may
have at least one training camp. And the United States already has a
handful of Special Forces in the Philippines that are attempting to help
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's government fight the Al Qaeda-backed
insurgency there. Unquestionably, say senior US officials, there is a
debate inside the Bush administration about how to deal with Saddam, but
no final decision has been reached. "Everyone is agreed that Saddam
Hussein poses a threat ... and that the US should take more decisive
action," says one source. "The question is, what action? The more you
study the problem, the tougher it looks." One obstacle, writes Barry, is
casting Saddam as a terrorist, as there is no hard evidence of ties
between the aggressively secular Saddam and the Islamic fanatic Osama bin
Laden, officials say. For now, the weight of opinion inside the
administration is that "coercive diplomacy" aimed at trying to get UN
inspectors back inside Iraq is the best first step. [NEWSWEEK]

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2001

Newly landed US Marines went into combat for the first time late Monday,
sending helicopter gunships to attack armored vehicles near their new base
in southern Afghanistan. The AH-1W Cobras assaulted 15 tanks and armored
personnel carriers and destroyed some of them, a Marine spokesman said,
indicating combat continued as he spoke with reporters shortly before
midnight local time. [AP] The Marines are more heavily armed than the US
commandos who have been operating in Afghanistan are.

Caves in Afghanistan -- one of Bin Laden's most formidable hideouts --
featured "a bakery, a hotel with overstuffed furniture, a hospital with an
ultrasound machine, a library, a mosque, weapons of every imaginable
stripe"--at least that's what it had back in the 1980s, when it was
"originally built as a depot and military base" by the US... [NY TIMES]

The struggling US economy slid into recession in March ... The
announcement by the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed that a
record expansion that began in March 1991 -- after the last nine-month
recession that began in mid-1990 -- was snapped exactly a decade later ...
It will be the 10th recession for the world's largest economy since the
end of World War Two. The institution said economic activity peaked in
March 2001, adding: "A peak marks the end of an expansion and the
beginning of a recession.'' A member of the panel, Ben Bernanke, told
Reuters, "The key factor was aggregate employment which peaked in March.
The other factors related to manufacturing, such as industrial production.
Sales peaked earlier, suggesting the manufacturing recession had already
began, but only by March did it appear to have spread to the rest of
economy for a broader recession." [REUTERS]

The White House has announced that President Bush would block a strike by
15,000 mechanics at United Airlines set to begin next month. Bush's
spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said the president was prepared to do "whatever
it takes" to prevent a walkout. The White House announcement followed the
decision by the International Association of Machinists to reject binding
arbitration and announce plans to strike the nation's number one air
carrier, following 23 months of stalled negotiations for a new labor
contract. IAM officials charged the company with failing to bargain in
good faith in order to block wage and benefit improvements ... United
executives immediately hailed the president's announcement, which clearly
weakens the position of the workers and undercuts their leverage in
negotiating a decent contract ... This is the third time this year Bush
has intervened or threatened to intervene on behalf of the airlines to
block strikes by workers, including Northwest mechanics, Delta pilots and
American flight attendants. In March after stopping a strike by Northwest
mechanics Bush declared, "I intend to take the necessary steps to prevent
airline strikes from happening this year." [WORLD SOCIALIST WEBSITE]

US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham leaves for Russia ... The main
purposes of the Secretary's first visit to Russia will be to attend a
ceremony to open a Caspian pipeline transportation consortium's oil trunk
line and hold talks with his Russian counterparts, the US Department of
Energy announced last Wednesday. At first, Mr Abraham will visit
Novorossiisk, where the pipeline opening ceremony will take place on
November 27. The pipeline links the huge Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan's
west with the port on the Black Sea coast. The pipeline has been built by
an international consortium which, along with the governments of Russia,
Kazakhstan, and Oman, also includes eight large companies from six
countries, among them the US Chevron, Texaco, and Exxon-Mobil. The US
Energy Department's announcement pointed out that the construction of the
trunk line enabled participants in the consortium to make major
investments in the Russian economy to the tune of 2,500 million dollars.
[ITAR-TASS]

"I think Iraq should be the principal next target because it poses the
biggest threat to the United States," said Richard Perle, chairman of the
Defense Policy Board and Bush campaign adviser. "I think the only way you
are going to get Saddam Hussein out of there is violently." Perle believes
the regime in Iran must also be overthrown but believes it could be
achieved without direct US military pressure. "I think if we destroy the
Taliban and then Saddam Hussein the others will be more tractable," he
said. [WASH TIMES] [A good illustration of the "demonstration war"
principle that has long guided US policy.]

Capitol Hill's loudest voice for bombing Iraq? That would be Al Gore's old
running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman. The Connecticut pol heads a caucus of
war-hawk Dems. Some of them are eyeing the 2004 presidential campaign,
hoping to use the issue of Iraq to outflank Bush [from the Right, as
Clinton did to Bush I on Israel and Cuba] and look like a bunch of tough
guys. Lieberman argues the US must be "unflinching in our determination"
to "target Iraq as part of the war against terrorism." Lieberman wants to
push Bush into declaring its US policy to remove Saddam Hussein. "He is
not just a thorn in our sides, he is a threat to American lives," he said
between fundraisers in New Hampshire earlier this month. "If we give him a
chance and don't defeat him, he will truly attack us before long." Other
Dems, backed by the conservative Democratic Leadership Council, want Bush
to expand his war against terrorism ... Senator Joseph Biden, chair of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee ... Massachusetts senator John Kerry
... Senator Robert Torricelli of New Jersey ... [VILLAGE VOICE]

A new Justice Department rule published without announcement in the
Federal Register announces that the "government [may] keep a foreigner
behind bars even after a federal immigration judge has ordered him to be
released for lack of evidence" ... DOJ has long thought that federal
immigration judges are too lenient. [NY TIMES]

The FBI has so far denied a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a
coalition of 21 Arab-American and human rights groups demanding a list of
who is jailed, where and why. Earlier this month, six members of Congress
made a similar request . . . "People don't want to step forward to help
with bail," said Randall Hamud, a San Diego lawyer who represents three
detained students, one of whom has been released. "They're afraid if they
give money, they'll be put on an FBI hit list." [NY TIMES]

Some former FBI agents critique the government's anti-terrorism dragnet as
the wrong approach. "It's the Perry Mason School of Law Enforcement, where
you get them in there and they confess," said that. "It just doesn't work
that way." [WASH POST]

Odds -of dying in an auto accident: 1 in 7,000; -of dying of heart
disease: 1 in 400; -of dying from cancer: 1 in 600; -of dying in a
terrorist-caused shopping mall disaster if you shopped two hours each week
and terrorists destroyed one mall per week: 1 in 1,500,000; -of dying in a
terrorist caused plane disaster if you flew once a month and terrorists
hijacked one plane a week: 1 in 135,000; -of dying of as a result of the
current anthrax attacks: 1 in 55,000,000. [PROGRESSIVE REVIEW]

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2001

Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, greeted a US peace mission
yesterday by shunting aside the Jewish state's most seasoned negotiator,
the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, and replacing him as Israel's
peace negotiator with a hardline general who led a death squad. William
Burns, the US assistant secretary of state for near east affairs, and
Anthony Zinni, the retired marine corps commander, have come to the region
to try to impose a cease-fire after 14 months of this Intifada. Mr Sharon
handed a leading role to Meir Dagan, a former general who served under his
command in Gaza, and who reputedly drove the first Israeli tank into
Beirut during the 1982 invasion. Mr Sharon considered making him chief of
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. In the 1970s he headed a unit in
Gaza that assassinated dozens of wanted Palestinians, forming the model
for the death squad units of the Israeli army who have gunned down or
blown up Palestinian militants during this uprising. During Israel's war
in Lebanon he helped to create its proxy militia, the South Lebanese Army.
The appointment of a fellow hawk with a bloody military record as lead
negotiator is seen as a clear message to Washington, the Palestinians -
who have cruel memories of Gen. Dagan - and to Mr Peres and other Labour
members of Mr Sharon's government. The US mission arrives amid a fresh
spasm of violence and heightened tensions, underlined yesterday when a
Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at the Erez border crossing to Gaza,
injuring two soldiers. The attack was the second attempt by Hamas in two
days to avenge Israel's assassination at the weekend of their military
commander in the West Bank, Mahmoud Abu Hanoud. Also in Gaza, Palestinian
hospital officials said five children, including an 18-month-old baby,
were wounded by shrapnel overnight when Israeli tanks shelled the Khan
Yunis refugee camp. Five children were killed in the southern town on
Thursday by an explosive device the Israeli army admitted was planted by
its soldiers. [GUARDIAN]

Many of the bills rushed through Congress after Sept. 11 include limits on
victims' right to sue airlines, aircraft makers, airports, the city of New
York -- and even, for several weeks, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda ... some
plaintiffs' lawyers fear they may provide a model for future proposals to
limit civil lawsuits ... lawyers have also grumbled in recent weeks over
the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which was part of the airline
bailout bill signed into law Sept. 22. The more recent aviation security
act, which puts airport security in the hands of federal employees, has
more limits on suits. The earlier victim compensation law puts a cap on
airlines' liability for the four crashes at the limits of their liability
insurance, around $1.5 billion per plane. In addition, by requiring
victims and their families to choose between the administrative
compensation scheme funded by the government and traditional lawsuits, the
plan substantially limits the potential liability of everyone else.
Plaintiffs who sue in court waive the right to be paid by the government
... No exception was made for suits against the terrorists. So a plaintiff
who sues bin Laden (in the face of obvious difficulties in collecting any
judgment) could be held ineligible for the federal compensation program
... The aviation security bill, signed into law Nov. 19, closed the bin
Laden loophole. It also extended protection to other parties, should they
be sued. The beneficiaries were United Airlines; American Airlines; the
Boeing Co., which manufactured the planes; the operators of Logan, Kennedy
and Dulles airports; and the operator of the World Trade Center.
Recoveries are held to their liability insurance limits. New York's
liability is limited to $350 million. Conspicuously left without any
protection were the private companies that handled airport security on
Sept. 11. This summer, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA)
was lobbying for a Patients' Bill of Rights with a new right to sue HMOs.
Now that Sept. 11 has swept the Patients' Bill of Rights -- along with
most everything else -- off the congressional agenda, ATLA finds itself in
the more familiar position of fighting off proposals for piecemeal
limitations on the right to sue ... Some changes do go beyond the events
of Sept. 11. In October, President Bush signed an executive order giving
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson the authority to
indemnify government contractors, including the makers of drugs and
vaccines used to prevent or to respond to bioterrorism. Drug companies are
also lined up to ask Congress to include liability protection in
bioterrorism legislation that is under consideration. The move could widen
protections for drug companies that already exist. For example, BioPort
Corp., the sole US manufacturer of anthrax vaccine, has a contract that
indemnifies it for adverse reactions and claims that the vaccine doesn't
work properly. Many lawyers doubt that the company, which has a history of
failing to meet federal quality standards, could expand production without
also expanding the company's liability protections. A federal
administrative program already exists to process claims by those injured
by childhood vaccines. The Maryland-based National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program also limits damages available to some victims and
sharply curtails the role of plaintiffs' lawyers.

The prison revolt [sic] near Mazar-e Sharif is still going on, and five
American commandos were seriously wounded after a US plane dropped a bomb
too close to their position. American and British commandos were "battling
the Taliban inside the fort" ... at the time the papers filed their
stories, about 30 Taliban (out of an original cast of about 500) were
still alive in the fort. [NY TIMES]

The US and Britain disagree about what they think their troops should be
doing in Afghanistan. The US is focusing on smoking out Bin Laden, while
Britain and others are pushing for more humanitarian operations ... about
6,000 British soldiers have been waiting for the US to give them the
go-ahead to go in. Yesterday, they were taken off 48-hour alert, meaning
they're not going anywhere soon. [WALL ST JOURNAL]

In a speech (with an aspect of the Nuremberg Parteitag) before the 101st
Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell KY, President Bush in a flight jacket
comments that Saddam Hussein should let weapons inspectors into Iraq. And
what happens if Saddam balks? "He'll find out," said the President.  Bush
also said that any country "that develops weapons of mass destruction that
will be used to terrorize nations," will now be granted terrorist status.
He has never mentioned this criterion before. Still, Bush said he wasn't
changing positions. "Have I expanded the definition?" he asked.  "I've
always had that definition, as far as I'm concerned." [ALL] Apparently
he's not aware that Israel has developed hundreds of high-tech nuclear
weapons in violation of US law.  (The US supports the Israeli economy.)

The Topps trading card company now makes an "Enduring Freedom" series
featuring the likes of the FBI director, Condaleeza Rice, and F-16s ...
NPR's Bob Edwards lovingly interviewed a 12-year-old and talked warmly
about trading their cards, thus doing his part for Bush agitprop.
[PROGRESSIVE REVIEW]

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2001

In a field strewn with about 50 bodies, an Associated Press photographer
Wednesday saw that some corpses had their arms tied with cloth - contrary
to claims by a key northern alliance commander that none had been tied up.
Full details may never be known of the [so-called] uprising by Taliban who
were being held prisoner at Qalai Janghi fortress near the city of
Mazar-e-Sharif or of the fierce assault that ended the rebellion. Red
Cross workers on Wednesday began hauling bodies away, and with the remains
likely went much of the evidence of what happened.  The questions include
how the prisoners - including Pakistanis, Chechens, Arabs and other
non-Afghans - got access to weapons, and whether some prisoners were
executed after northern alliance troops gained control or died in the
battle.  Nearly all the Taliban prisoners involved in the uprising were
killed, alliance officials say - perhaps around 450 fighters, though the
precise number was uncertain.  The uprising was put down with the help of
US airstrikes, US special forces and other covert troops believed to be
British ... Northern Alliance Gen. Rashid Dostum insisted the prisoners
were treated properly but had nonetheless rebelled ... Dostum is one of
Afghanistan's most feared and notorious warlords. When his fighters took
Mazar-e-Sharif from the Taliban in 1997, they threw prisoners into wells
and tossed in grenades to finish them off, the United Nations reported.
The Taliban settled the score when they recaptured the city in 1998; a UN
report charged the Islamic militia with executing thousands of people,
many under severe torture ... This time, hundreds of alliance fighters
streamed toward the fortress and several dozen US special forces troops
were seen moving into the fortress and coordinating airstrikes from
outside.  The Americans wore desert camouflage and carried guns with laser
scopes. Other troops, apparently British, did more to attempt to blend in
- covering their faces with black-and-white checkered scarves. [AP]

Controversial plans to place alleged al-Qaida terrorists before American
military tribunals at a US naval base in Cuba and on the Pacific island of
Guam are being drawn up in Washington amid growing fears over the fate of
thousands of prisoners in Afghanistan. As the Northern Alliance deployed a
tank to kill the last of the 400 foreign fighters who staged a revolt in a
fortress at Mazar-i-Sharif, the Pentagon confirmed ... that al-Qaida
suspects could face trial beyond the US mainland. Alarm was increasing
yesterday at the prospect of the trials, which will have the power to
impose the death penalty. The Pentagon is looking at Guam, which was ceded
to the US by Spain in 1898, and the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in
southern Cuba, as potential venues ... [or] the tribunals may be held
aboard US ships at sea. The plans will prove premature for many prisoners
in Afghanistan who are likely to die before they are passed to the US
authorities. There is evidence that the Northern Alliance has reneged on
its commitment to detain foreign Taliban fighters in Kunduz. Some fighters
faced summary execution in the northern city when it fell to the alliance
on Monday. [GUARDIAN]

AG John Ashcroft today provided for the first time the names of 93 people
charged with crimes arising from the government's investigation.  Mr.
Ashcroft also released an accounting of the 548 people, most from Middle
Eastern countries, who remain in custody across the United States on
immigration charges that arose in the terror investigation. But that list
included only the nationalities and the charges not the names ... Mr.
Ashcroft spoke a day before the Senate Judiciary Committee is to begin
hearings into the government's law-enforcement efforts, including the
detention of hundreds of people on immigration charges and the continuing
interviews of 5,000 Muslim men.  The committee's chairman [is] Senator
Patrick J. Leahy [D-VT] ... Mr. Ashcroft, who is expected to testify
before the committee next week, insisted that rights have been protected.
"While I am aware of various charges being made by organizations and
individuals about the actions of the Justice Department," he said, "I have
yet to be informed of a single lawsuit filed against the government
charging a violation of someone's civil rights as a result of this
investigation." [He's been withholding the names and even the locations of
those arrested!] Of the 93 people named as criminal defendants, about 60
are in custody, a Justice Department list indicates. The others have been
released on bond or are being sought. None have been charged with
terrorism or involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. Most of the charges are
relatively minor, like credit card fraud or making false statements when
applying for passports ... But Mr. Ashcroft pointed to several who seemed
to have links to the 19 men suspected of hijacking the four planes used in
the Sept. 11 attacks. One man, he noted, was charged with helping two of
the suspected hijackers obtain fraudulent identification cards, while the
names of two other men were found in a car left by another suspected
hijacker at Dulles International Airport.  One of the men whose name was
found in the car, Osama Awadallah, a 21-year-old college student, was
granted bail today in New York by a federal judge who questioned the
strength of the government's case against him. Mr. Awadallah has been
charged with lying before a grand jury when he denied knowing Khalid
al-Midhar, one of the men suspected of hijacking the plane that crashed
into the Pentagon, and prosecutors had sought to hold him without bail.
But the judge, Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan,
ruled that he could be released on $500,000 bond, saying, "this defendant
is charged with making false declarations not with terrorism, or aiding
and abetting terrorism, or conspiring with terrorists." The identities of
many of the 93 people had already been released, including the 22 men
charged in October with obtaining fraudulent licenses to drive commercial
trucks loaded with hazardous materials. Most of those men were charged in
Pittsburgh, and remain in custody.  While providing the new numbers and
details, Mr. Ashcroft continued to withhold the identities of 548 people
arrested for immigration violations. He said he was required to release
only the names of those charged with criminal violations, except for 11
people whose arrests have been sealed by a federal judge.  Mr. Ashcroft
said that some of the 600 in jail were members of Al Qaeda and that their
arrest had probably foiled additional attacks. He would not say how many
or give their names, but law enforcement officials suggested they were
mostly the 11 held under seal, mostly in New York. Mr. Ashcroft asserted
that the law allowed him to withhold the names of those charged under the
immigration code. They were identified in a separate list only by their
places of birth, the immigration violations they are charged with and the
dates they were arrested. Of the 548, the greatest number, 208 were from
Pakistan with the next largest group, 74, from Egypt. Mr. Ashcroft seemed
irked with the complaints about the Justice Department's withholding
details. He said he was not releasing the names of those charged with
immigration violations because that would aid Osama bin Laden by revealing
which associates were in custody [!]. "I am not interested in providing,
when we are at war, a list to Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network of
the people we have detained that would make any easier their effort to
kill Americans" [sic], Mr. Ashcroft said.  "We might as well mail this
list to the Osama bin Laden Al Qaeda network as to release it. The Al
Qaeda network may be able to get information about which terrorists we
have in our custody, but they'll have to get it on their own."  On Monday,
he had said he would not release the names of those arrested because it
would violate their privacy rights and would damage their reputations by
putting them on a kind of blacklist. [NY TIMES]

ROBERT FISK: Chilling new evidence suggests that more than 1,000
Palestinian survivors of the Sabra and Chatila camp massacres in Beirut
were "disappeared" within 24 hours of the slaughter, often in areas under
direct Israeli military control. The testimony - which describes in detail
how the victims were last seen by their families in the hands of Israeli
troops and Israel's militia allies - will be among the material to be
considered by a Belgian judge, who could decide today whether the Israeli
Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, should be prosecuted for the slaughter.  Mr
Sharon was judged "personally responsible" for the massacre by the Israeli
Kahan Commission in 1983. Its report concluded that hundreds of
Palestinian civilians, including women and children, were all butchered
between 16 and 18 September in 1982.  But among the female witnesses cited
by lawyers in Belgium, who are seeking the indictment against Mr Sharon,
are at least five who claim that more than 100 men were detained by the
militiamen and handed over to the Israelis alive. They were never seen
again.  Separately from the court action, film taken by a television crew
at the time, which has recently come to light, appears to show Israeli
officers in the presence of Phalangist gunmen - long after the Israelis
knew their Phalangist allies had carried out the massacre, which caused
worldwide outrage and led Mr Sharon, then Defense Minister, to resign.
There has always been a discrepancy between the number of bodies found in
Sabra and Chatila - up to 600 - and the number of civilians registered as
missing - more than 1,800. Until now, it was assumed that all the victims
had been murdered by Phalangists and that many had been secretly buried.
[INDEPENDENT]

For the tenth year in a row, the UN General Assembly voted Tuesday for an
end to the trade sanctions that the US imposed on Cuba soon after Castro's
1959 revolution.  The vote was 167 to 3 -- identical to last year's record
vote: Israel and the Marshall Islands voted with Washington, and three
nations abstained -- Latvia, Micronesia and Nicaragua ... "It's a vote
similar to last year but in a totally different context when the world has
been told that every country must decide if it is with the United States
or against it,'' Cuba's foreign minister said. [REUTERS]

[continued in part 2]