[Peace-discuss] News notes 03/10 [part 2 of 2]

[Carl Estabrook]

[continued from part 1]

**THURSDAY, MARCH 07, 2002

MAKE A DESERT AND CALL IT PEACE. Pashtuns of northern Afghanistan are
fleeing their villages by the thousands, telling tales of murder, rape and
robbery. [NY TIMES]

**FRIDAY, MARCH 08, 2002

WAR AND RESISTANCE. Friday has become the bloodiest day in the 17 months
of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israel, with at least 45
people reported dead.  Following the killing of five Israeli students by a
Palestinian gunman, Israeli forces launched military operations across the
territories.  At least 39 Palestinians were reported dead, with
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat putting the toll as high as 58. [BBC]

PAY THE RICH FIRST.  The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a
stripped-down bill to bolster the economy by providing new unemployment
benefits and modest business tax breaks, including one eagerly sought by
the high-technology industry. The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected
to pass the bill today, and President Bush said he would sign it ... The
legislation would pump $51 billion into the economy this year, $43 billion
in 2003 and $29 billion in 2004, congressional analysts say. Those are
relatively small amounts in an economy that produces about $10.2 trillion
in goods and services annually. The compromise measure would allow jobless
people who exhaust their 26 weeks of unemployment benefits to get 13 more
weeks of aid--and even more in California and other states with especially
high unemployment. The bill's business tax breaks aim to encourage
investment in equipment and software, a boon to the high-tech industry,
which is still suffering even as much of the rest of the economy improves
... Dropped were Proposals to provide tax credits to help the unemployed
buy health insurance & payments to mostly lower-income people who did not
receive income tax rebates as a result of the tax cut enacted last year
... Of the tax cuts retained in the compromise, the most significant was
the one sought by the high-technology lobby: a three-year provision to
make it easier for business to write off the cost of buying equipment,
software and other capital assets. The bill allows businesses to
immediately write off 30% of new capital investments. Computer companies
and other high-tech interests made that a priority because they hope to
boost demand for computers and other electronic equipment by allowing
purchasers to write off a larger share of the cost immediately. That tax
break is worth an estimated $32 billion in 2003 alone, according to
congressional analysts. The bill also would extend a raft of tax breaks
that expired at the end of 2001--including one for employers who hire
welfare recipients and another for financial companies with overseas
income. And it includes $5 billion in tax incentives over 10 years to help
New York recover from the Sept. 11 attacks. [LA TIMES]

AT LEAST HALF THE VICTIMS OF THE WOT. Friday was International Women's
Day. The central theme of the 'Global Women's Strike,' Invest in Caring
not Killing, won support from women involved in struggles against AIDS and
poverty in Africa, hunger and war in Afghanistan, and exclusion of
indigenous women on every continent. [ONEWORLD.NET]

TERRORISM IN OUR OWN HEMISPHERE. General Fernando Tapias, the commander of
Colombia's armed forces, announced Thursday that 144 people had been
killed in military battles with leftist guerrillas and right-wing
paramilitaries since the February 20 collapse of peace talks with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). From Washington, both
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell
suggested President George W. Bush would soon detail his request to
Congress for increased military aid for Colombia. Their statements follow
a vote in the US House of Representatives Wednesday inviting Bush to
introduce ideas to allow Washington to widen US military aid to Colombia,
currently limited to anti-narcotics operations ... Rumsfeld, said Thursday
in Washington that restrictions on US military aid to Colombia have become
"rather constraining," so the Bush administration will likely move to
allow greater flexibility in helping Bogota ... And for the second time in
as many days, Powell -- testifying on Capitol Hill -- signaled Washington
was preparing to expand its military aid. "We may have to ... ask for
changes in authority and new funding to deal with the counter-terrorist
aspect" of Colombia's fight "against these terrorist organizations,"
Powell said. The Bush administration has already requested Congressional
approval of 98 million dollars to help Colombia protect a crucial oil
pipeline that has been a frequent rebel target. [AFP]

US VERSUS UN. Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, will make it clear
during his mission to the Middle East next week that America is prepared
to take unilateral military action to bring about a change of regime in
Iraq. Details of Mr Cheney's tour were revealed as the United Nations
Secretary-General, striving to avoid a new Gulf war, invited Iraq last
night to a second round of talks in mid-April to focus on the return of UN
weapons inspectors ... Iraq has always rejected the UN resolution setting
up the new UN inspectorate, known as Unmovic. But Mr Sabri did not balk
when Mr Annan made it clear that Security Council Resolution 1284 was the
basis of the talks, and the Iraqi minister even referred to it himself at
one point. Diplomats considered it significant that Hans Blix, the Unmovic
chairman, took part in yesterday's talks, and that the six-man Iraqi
delegation included General Hossam Amin, who oversaw the UN inspectors'
previous work inside Iraq. [TIMES UK]

WHAT TERROR IS GOOD FOR (II). Today, almost six months after the attacks
on New York and Washington, the US is putting in place a network of
forward bases stretching from the Middle East across the entire length of
Asia, from the Red Sea to the Pacific. US forces are active in the biggest
array of countries since the second world war. Troops, sailors and airmen
are now established in countries where they have never before had a
presence. The aim is to provide platforms from which to launch attacks on
any group perceived by George Bush to be a danger to the US ... Washington
announced at the weekend the establishment of yet another base in Central
Asia, a region where before September 11 there was no US presence. The new
base will be at Manas in Kyrgystan. Until recently, US troops in that
country would have been unthinkable, both as a former part of the Soviet
Union and also close to the Chinese border. The base will have 3,000
personnel - troops, communications specialists and technical support - and
combat aircraft ... the US has established bases, each manned by 3,000
troops, in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. US troops are also stationed in
Pakistan, close both to the Afghan and Iranian borders. The US
administration says publicly that it will leave the Central Asian bases
after the "war on terrorism" is over but privately officials admit they
are there to stay. As well as bases, the US is sending in military
advisers to a host of countries. In another move into the former Soviet
empire, the US announced in the last week that it is to send to Georgia up
to 200 advisers plus Huey helicopters to help battle elements of al-Qaida
as well as Chechen rebels. The US, in its hunt for al-Qaida fighters, has
been patrolling the waters that encompass Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Within the last week, Saana, the Yemeni news agency, disclosed that the US
is to send 100 military advisers to Yemen to help its republican guard
take on tribal leaders alleged to be sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. US
special forces are believed to be in the Sudan working with opposition
groups from Somalia, gathering information about possible al-Qaida
supporters in Somalia. In the Philippines, 660 US soldiers are helping to
train and equip 3,800 Filipino soldiers in the fight against Islamist
rebels, the Abu Sayyaf group, in the mountainous island of Basilan. Ivo
Daadler, an international affairs specialist at the Brookings Institute in
Washington, predicted the war will last for years, if not decades, and
will be "all-consuming," like the cold war ... Saudi Arabia, already keen
to see the US pull out of its existing bases in the kingdom, is unlikely
to allow the US to launch an attack on Iraq from its territory. Instead,
the US will have to look elsewhere, to Kuwait and Turkey. [GUARDIAN UK]

"WHAT ARE YOU FOR?" SUGGESTIONS FROM SAM SMITH: 
	- Treating what happened on September 11 as a crime rather than an
act of war. In this case, our efforts could have been directed at dealing
with the criminals rather than expanding the empire, building oil
pipelines, destroying the constitution, establishing a surveillance state,
etc. Using the criminal metaphor would have had the added advantage of
reducing the number of suspects and targets from about a billion to a few
thousand, something that would have improved our relationships with the
Muslim world.
	- Obeying international law.
	- Ending aid to Israel until it stops misusing it so badly.
	- Giving as much time and consideration at the White House and on
cable TV to "peace experts" as is currently being given to "military
experts."
	- Forget the nonsense about not being able to negotiate until
there is an end to violence or not being able to negotiate with one's
enemies. This oft repeated bromide is the same as saying that you're not
going to negotiate at all, because if there were no violence and no
enemies you wouldn't need negotiations.
	- Support Palestinian statehood.
	- End the embargo against Iraq which is killing about the same
number of innocent civilians every month as were killed during the World
Trade Center attack or during our invasion of Afghanistan.
	- Use this time of crisis to show others and ourselves the true
values of American democracy and its constitution rather than doing
everything possible to undermine and destroy them.

WE DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY THEM ON THE PLANTATION. The Bush administration said
Wednesday that welfare recipients who are required to take community
service jobs would be entitled to the minimum wage, backtracking on one
controversial element of its welfare plan. Under the welfare plan unveiled
last week, the administration made it clear that these jobs should not be
covered by minimum wage and other worker protections laws. But on
Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a
statement that "this administration has absolutely no intention of
abandoning those very important protections. President Bush and I will
insist that welfare recipients receive at least the minimum wage for the
hours that they work, including community service jobs," Thompson said.
[AP]

SOCIAL CONTROL. An estimated 92,000 women and 135,000 children have been
adversely impacted by a 1996 amendment barring felony drug offenders from
receiving assistance-based federal entitlements, according to a report by
Washington DC's Sentencing Project. Felony drug offenders, including most
anyone convicted of growing or selling even small amounts of marijuana,
are ineligible to receive cash assistance and food stamps for life under
the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. According to the report, 42 states enforce
the ban in full or in part.  Of those, California imposed the ban on the
greatest number of women - some 38,000 - between 1996 and 1999.  Among
states that fully enforce the lifetime ban, California, Georgia and
Missouri imposed it on the greatest number of female drug offenders. Eight
states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation lifting the
ban. In 1998, Congress passed a similar amendment to the Higher Education
Act barring federal aid to any applicant who has ever been convicted of a
drug crime, including minor pot offenses.  No other criminal conviction
triggers such a ban. To date, more than 48,000 student applicants have
been partially or fully denied aid under the law. [NORML]

SOCIAL CONTROL (II). Police made more than 11,000 drug arrests on college
campuses in 2000, an increase of more than 10 percent from the previous
year, according to newly released data from U.S. Department of
Education.  Drug violations far exceeded the total number of arrests for
violent crimes - including aggravated assault, robbery and forcible sex
offenses. [NORML]

MEANWHILE, HERE AT HOME. Policymakers are running scared and trying to
distance themselves from the Enron "taint" but it runs deep. And there are
rumblings of another imminent meltdown among the corporate high
flyers: Archer Daniels Midland, the Supermarkup to the World. Still
controlled as a family fiefdom, ADM has outraged huge state pension funds
in Florida and California which hold millions of shares of the company's
stock, by failing to provide transparency in accounting during the long,
drawn out price fixing scandal. ADM stock prices nose-dived from the mid
20's into the single digits, missing the entire bull market, while unseen
millions were spent to mount an enormous legal counterattack which aimed
at stalling the government investigation and maintaining ADM's contracts
with USDA (even after a guilty plea) . . . No one wants another tragedy to
engulf the country like Enron - but no one has really wanted to look into
ADM either. When the price fixing scandal first broke in mid-1995, the
Department of Justice started an investigation into multiple fraud
evidence (on tape) and allegations, but this soon dissolved under
political pressure into a bizarre, laser beamed criminal takedown of the
government's primary informant. Key higher ups, such as Dwayne Andreas,
received immunity as part of a $100 million plea agreement/fine.
[AGRIBUSINESS COUNCIL]

RIGHTS? WHAT RIGHTS? A federal judge brushed aside a jury's advisory-only
verdict Friday, saying customs inspectors looking for drugs were
reasonable in subjecting a traveler to a four-hour strip search. Last
August, jurors recommended that Kathryn Kaniff, 36, of Washington Island,
Wis., be awarded $129,750 in damages after finding that she was subjected
to "willful and wanton" treatment by O'Hare International Airport customs
officers in December 1997. Inspectors suspected Kaniff, who was returning
from Jamaica, was smuggling drugs. They spent four hours questioning her,
searching her luggage, strip searching her and X-raying her but found no
drugs. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer said Friday the search may
have been painful but was reasonable. [AP]

**SATURDAY, MARCH 09, 2002

WHAT WAS THE WAR FOR? The five-month war in Afghanistan has become the
U.S. military's longest sustained engagement since Vietnam ... So far, 13
Americans have been killed in hostile situations in Afghanistan. The
United States has about 5,300 soldiers in the country and about 60,000
military members in the region supporting the effort. By comparison,
during the six-week Gulf War in 1991 that pushed Iraqi forces out of
Kuwait, there were 147 American combat deaths. More than 500,000
U.S. troops took part in the war. The Vietnam War lasted the better part
of a decade, with more than 47,000 soldiers killed in combat. The Kosovo
conflict in the spring of 1999 was an anomaly. No Americans died and no
U.S. troops were used on the ground during the 78-day NATO-led air war
... The war ended quickly, however, after Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic's unexpectedly agreed to NATO terms to halt the
fighting. Pentagon officials will not estimate how many Taliban and
al-Qaida fighters have died in Afghanistan since U.S. airstrikes began
Oct. 7, though the number probably is in the thousands. Several hundred
have been killed in the latest operation alone, military officials have
estimated. The United States has detained an additional 525 fighters, with
225 in Afghanistan and 300 at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. {Both the Gulf War and the Afghan conflict started with massive
bombing campaigns. Unlike the Gulf War, most of the bombs dropped on
Afghanistan were guided to their targets by lasers or satellites. Guided
weapons mean pilots can fly fewer missions, drop fewer bombs, put fewer
U.S. troops at risk, kill fewer civilians - and more effectively destroy
enemy facilities.} ... "We are going to be engaged in this for many months
to come," said analyst John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org ... Rumsfeld and
other defense officials are quick to say U.S. troops will not soon be
leaving Afghanistan. 

HOW TO FIGHT THE WAR. The Bush administration, in a secret policy review
completed early this year, has ordered the Pentagon to draft contingency
plans for the use of nuclear weapons against at least seven countries,
naming not only Russia and the "axis of evil"--Iraq, Iran, and North
Korea--but also China, Libya and Syria. In addition, the U.S. Defense
Department has been told to prepare for the possibility that nuclear
weapons may be required in some future Arab-Israeli crisis. And, it is to
develop plans for using nuclear weapons to retaliate against chemical or
biological attacks, as well as "surprising military developments" of an
unspecified nature. These and a host of other directives, including calls
for developing bunker-busting mini-nukes and nuclear weapons that reduce
collateral damage, are contained in a still-classified document called the
Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which was delivered to Congress on
Jan. 8. [LA TIMES]

**SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2002

WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. Israel helicopters and gunboats have totally
destroyed the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza.
The operation came early on Sunday morning, hours after a Palestinian
suicide bomber killed 11 and injured more than 50 at a busy cafe in West
Jerusalem. Two Israelis were killed and 50 injured in another attack in
northern coastal town of Netanya, when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire
at passers-by.  Working in reverse chronological order to detail
Saturday's Israeli-Palestinian continued tensions, the papers recount the
10:30 p.m. suicide bombing at a popular Jerusalem cafe, the two-gunman
attack on a Netanya (north of Tel Aviv) hotel two hours earlier, and much
less prominently, the Israeli bombing of Yasser Arafat's compound sometime
in the morning. At least 12 (LAT), 13 (WP), or 14 (NYT) Israelis were
killed, including, according to the NYT's first paragraph and the WP's
last, a baby. The Islamic group Hamas took responsibility for the
Jerusalem bombing, which took place across the street from Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's residence, and the WP gives details on the bomber as being
a Palestinian student named Fuad Ismail Hourani. The Netanya episode,
meanwhile, where two gunman-one dressed in an Israeli uniform-threw a
grenade into a hotel lobby and opened fire with automatic rifles, is being
attributed to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. At the hotel, one of the three
Israeli casualties, according to an intriguing NYT note, was a
Israeli-Arab man, "initially thought to be a third gunman." The paper
doesn't indicate whether this thought was the impetus behind the man's
death or just a thought that took place in the affair's investigation
stage. [SLATE]

FIGHTING TERRORISM (II) "We must keep up the attacks by land, sea and air
until they ask for a cease-fire," Interior Minister Eli Yishai told Israel
TV as he inspected the remains of the Moment cafe in Jerusalem. "We must
not stop the attacks of the closures until they reach the situation that
the civilians there ask their leaders to draw the right conclusions."
[WASH POST]

FIGHTING TERRORISM (III) NYT columnist Thomas Friedman, the worst in the
business, justifies Israel's murders on straight racist gounds:  Because
there are so many more Muslims than Jews to be killed, and weapons of mass
destruction are becoming so much smaller and so much cheaper, it won't be
long before [someone] wipes Israel off the map. He quotes UIUC
right-winger Stephen P. Cohen on the Istraeli occupation as
"civilizational war -- this Israeli-Palestinian war is not just a local
ethnic conflict." Friedman agrees: "You can smell it in the incredibly
foul wind blowing through the Arab-Muslim world these days. It is a wind
that is fed by many sources: the (one-sided) Arab TV images of Israelis
brutalizing Palestinians, the Arab resentment of America's support for
Israel and its threat against Iraq, the frustrations of young Arabs with
their own lack of freedom and jobs." [NY TIMES]

FIGHTING TERRORISM (IV). The United States unexpectedly announced Sunday
it was pulling 400 troops out of a battle against al Qaeda rebels near
Gardez as a major split emerged among Afghan forces involved in the
fighting. In a series of dramatic, rapid-fire developments in the biggest
battle of the five-month-old Afghan campaign, a U.S. military spokesman
said 400 of 1,200 troops in the area were being withdrawn as part of a
repositioning exercise ... The area's top local commander, a Pashtun,
demanded hundreds of mainly ethnic Tajiks reinforcements sent from Kabul
be withdrawn from the battle and sent home. [REUTERS]

	***

Published in the March 25, 2002 issue of The Nation 

Kucinich Rocks the Boat by John Nichols 

Dennis Kucinich never doubted that millions of Americans had deep concerns
about George W. Bush's ever-expanding war on ill-defined foes abroad and
on civil liberties at home. But the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair
admits he underestimated the depth of the discomfort until February 17,
when he delivered a speech to the Southern California Americans for
Democratic Action, in which he declared, "Let us pray that our country
will stop this war." 

Recalling the Congressional vote authorizing the President's response to
the September 11 terrorist attacks--a resolution supported by Kucinich and
all but one member of Congress, California Democrat Barbara Lee--the
Ohioan thundered, "We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask
that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be
avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not
authorize the Administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it
pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a
permanent war economy. Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war
economy." 

Kucinich's "Prayer for America" speech was interrupted by repeated
standing ovations. But the real measure of the message's resonance came as
the text of the speech circulated on the Internet--where a genuine
worldwide web of opposition to the Administration's actions led to the
posting of Kucinich's words on websites (including www.thenation.com) and
dispatched them via e-mail. Within days, Kucinich received 10,000-plus
e-mails. Many echoed New Jerseyan Thomas Minet's sentiments: "Since the
'Axis of Evil' State of the Union Address, I have been searching like
Diogenes with his lantern for one honest person in Congress who would have
the guts to speak out about the attack on Democracy being mounted by the
Bush Administration. It has been a frustrating search indeed, and I was
just about ready to give up hope when I ran across 'A Prayer for America.'
Thank God for this man's courage." Others simply read, "Kucinich for
President." 

For Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor who led Democratic opposition to
the US bombing of Yugoslavia and proposed establishing a Cabinet-level
Department of Peace, speaking out against military adventuring is not
new. But he says he's never experienced so immediate and enthusiastic a
response. "We can't print out the messages as fast as we are receiving
them," he says. "But I've read through a lot of them now, and they touch
on the same themes: The Administration's actions are no longer
appropriate, and it is time for Congress to start asking questions. The
people understand something most of Congress does not: There is nothing
unpatriotic about challenging this Administration's policies." 

Kucinich was not the first Congressmember to express concern about Bush's
plans. Lee cast her cautionary vote in September. In October, responding
to reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Representative Jim
McDermott criticized the speed with which the Administration had taken
military action and the failure of the White House to adequately consult
Congress. In December, Kucinich, McDermott and Lee joined five other House
Democrats in signing a letter to Bush, written by Representative Tammy
Baldwin, which noted, "We are concerned by those in your Administration
and among our own ranks in the Congress who appear to be making the case
for broad expansion of this military campaign beyond Afghanistan. Without
presenting clear and compelling evidence that other nations were involved
in the September 11 attacks, it is inappropriate to expand the
conflict." Another letter, by Representative Peter DeFazio, called on the
White House to comply with the War Powers Resolution before expanding the
war. In February Senator Robert Byrd said that Congress should no longer
hand the President a "blank check." Senate majority leader Tom Daschle
suggested the war "will have failed" without the capture of Osama bin
Laden--a statement rebuked by Republicans, who want no measure of success
or failure applied to this war. 

But Kucinich's speech was a clarion call. "For most people, Kucinich's
speech represents the clearest Congressional criticism they have heard
about the conduct of the war, and of the Administration's plans to expand
it. That's enormously significant," said Midge Miller, who helped launch
Senator Eugene McCarthy's antiwar challenge to President Lyndon Johnson in
1967. "Citizens look for Congressional opposition to organize around--they
look for leaders to say something. When I read Kucinich's speech, I
thought, This could be a turning point." 

It has certainly been a turning point for Kucinich. Overwhelmed by
invitations to speak, he says his top priority will be to work with
Baldwin and others to encourage a broader Congressional debate over
international priorities, Pentagon spending and the stifling of
dissent. Expect battles in the House Democratic Caucus, where minority
leader Dick Gephardt has been more cautious than Daschle about criticizing
Bush. But Kucinich thinks more Democrats will begin to echo Senator Byrd's
challenge to blank-check military spending in a time of tight
budgets. Kucinich plans to encourage grassroots activists to tell members
of Congress it is not merely necessary but politically safe to challenge
"the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected
President and his unelected Vice President." 

Kucinich, whose working-class district elected a conservative Republican
before him, is confident Democrats from even the most competitive
districts can safely join him in questioning the war. "The key," he says,
"is to recognize that there is a great deal of unity in America around
some basic values: peace and security, protection of the planet, a good
quality of life for themselves and for others. When people express their
patriotism, they are not saying--as some would suggest--that they no
longer believe in these things. There's nothing unpatriotic about
asserting human values and defending democratic principles. A lot of
Americans are telling me this is the highest form of patriotism." 

	***

Noam Chomsky: "...In the United States, there is a level of questioning,
openness, protest, and concern about these actions which is beyond
anything in my memory at any remotely comparable stage of a military
confrontation." --on the BBC, February 27, 2002

	[end]