[Peace-discuss] News notes 021124

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Notes on the week's news
	from the "War on Terrorism."
	for the AWARE meeting,
	Sunday, November 24, 2002

[Sun. 11/17] The week began with the new House of Representatives
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, advertised as a "liberal," pledging to
support Bush if the United States goes to war in Iraq. [REUTERS]

[Mon. 11/18] The White House says that Iraq's continued firing at British
and American planes constitutes a "material breach" of the new UN
resolution. (UN secretary-general disagrees.) [NYT]

[Mon. 11/18] The Pentagon announces that it is preparing plans to put us
troops in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, to lull Turkish concerns, &
in addition is preparing a big aid package to turkey, including forgiving
that country's debts.  (Turkey now contends with Colombia as the third
largest recipient of US military & foreign aid, after Israel & Egypt.)

[Mon. 11/18] Killings in Israel & Palestine: "this war is not being waged
to save our homes or our country, but to protect the settlers-and while
they are there, blood will flow."  [YEDIOT AHRONOT]

[Tues. 11/19] Dovish former general Amram Mitzna won Israel's Labor Party
leadership ballot, pledging to remove Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip
within a year if he becomes prime minister in a general election 10 weeks
away. (At least 1,670 Palestinians and 640 Israelis have been killed in
the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000.) [REUTERS]

[Sat. 11/23] Meanwhile, Israeli PM Sharon's envoy Dov Weisglass, left for
the United States Saturday night in preparation for Monday's meeting with
US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice over Israel's request for
special economic and security assistance - in excess of $10 billion.

[Mon. 11/18] A secret federal appeals court, appointed by chief justice
Rehnquist, expanded the government's ability to conduct wiretaps and
physical searches.  The administration contended that for the first time
it could mix criminal investigations and counter-intelligence ones,
because of last year's patriot act.  The court agreed.  "One more part of
an alternative legal system that is emerging to handle terrorism cases --
a system that lets Americans be investigated and locked up without any of
the normal protections of the justice system." [WP]

[Wed. 11/20] On a vote of 90-9 the Senate voted decisively Tuesday to
create a homeland security department.  The bill had grown from 5 to 500
pages and included protection for Eli Lilly from lawsuits, millions for
Tom Delay's Texas A&M, and a repeal of the ban of off-shore corporations'
getting government contracts.  Minority leader Trent Lott said the bill
had to be passed that way because "the terrorists are not going to wait
for a process that goes on days, weeks or months," he said.  "I don't want
to be singing 'jingle bells' here Dec. 21." [AP]

[Sat. 11/23] Congress adjourns without extending unemployment benefits, so
a million people will be cut off beginning 3 days after Xmas; neither
house nor the White House will take responsibility.

[Thu. 11/21] The pharmaceutical industry was one of the biggest donors to
Republicans during the election campaign.  Executives from major drug
companies met last week to talk about how to block proposals that promote
the use of cheaper, generic drugs. [NYT]

[Thu. 11/21] The NATO summit extended formal invitations to seven east
European countries, including three Baltic nations once part of the USSR.  
The principal issue to the media was whether G.W. bush is a moron or not.

[Sat. 11/23] The US announced Friday it is holding Abd al-Rahim
al-Nashiri, a top al-Qaida operative and the suspected "mastermind" behind
the bombings of the USS Cole and the American embassies in east Africa.  
Al-Nashiri was taken into custody sometime earlier this month, but up
until now, u.s. Officials had said only that they were detaining a "senior
al-Qaida official."  [So much for complaints during the election that the
W.O.T. was being ignored.] In the NYT, the coverage of the arrest explains
that al-Nashiri became "surprisingly cooperative" once he found himself in
an American "interrogation center" at an undisclosed location overseas.

[Sun. 11/24] Material witness law being used for imprisonment without
trial at least 44 people-including seven US citizens-have been jailed as
potential grand jury witnesses, but nearly half have never been called to
testify. The witnesses were detained under an obscure federal statute that
allows prosecutors to seek an arrest warrant if a potential witness's
testimony is "material" to a criminal proceeding and they are deemed a
flight risk. A justice department attorney tells the WP that detainees
aren't specifically required to give testimony before a grand jury, but
that they can be compelled to provide other information, like
fingerprints, hair samples, and other evidence that later can be used
against them.  Critics in turn say the government is abusing the law in
order to detain and investigate people without charging them with a crime.
[NYT]

[Sun. 11/24] The Supreme Court will reconsideration of the law governing
Miranda rights.  A farm worker who was shot five times after a run-in with
police sued after he was pressured to talk to the officers' supervisor
while on the way to the hospital.  He contends that Miranda rights prevent
him from being coercively questioned by law enforcement.  Police, on the
other hand, assert that Miranda rights do not block such questioning, just
the right not to have forced confessions used at trial.  The bush
administration has sided with police.  [LAT]

[Sun. 11/24] A monthly meeting between some of Texas oil producers finds
surprising ambivalence toward the possibility of conflict.  Though an Iraq
war stands to be a boon for domestic energy companies, even Bush's top
supporters-none of whom wanted to be named-aren't sure if the u.s. Should
go after Saddam or not.  [LAT]

[Sun. 11/24] "Pentagon chiefs have pinpointed a six-week "window of
opportunity" in which to launch a war against Iraq.  Officials are now
openly briefing diplomats that they "want to light the blue touchpaper".
If a blitz is authorized, all the signs point to a December 16 start --
with the "window" stretching beyond Christmas until the end of January.  
Cool clear weather and long winter nights would be ideally suited for a
hi-tech bombing campaign.  Planes and troops could move under the cover of
darkness, minimizing the risk of casualties.  The campaign would involve
hundreds of jets -- including British warplanes -- cruise missiles and
stealth bombers. The Americans plan to pound Iraq for a month before
launching a massive ground invasion from Kuwait in the south and turkey in
the north.  British and Irish diplomats based in Washington were called in
last week for the latest update in the plans.  They will be raised in a
special House of Commons debate tomorrow."  [SUN UK]

	***

Published on Friday, November 22, 2002 by the Canada Newswire

President Bush May Be "Moron": Stupidity Experts

TORONTO, Nov. 22 /CNW/ - A high-ranking federal official may be correct in
an assessment of US president George Bush as "a moron" say a group of
Canadian stupidity experts.

"Technically, a moron is someone who is stupid but looks normal," said
Albert Nerenberg, a Toronto-based film director who is completing a
television documentary titled Stupidity. A controversy has erupted over
newspaper reports that a top Canadian federal aide called Bush a "moron"
for his hard-line stance on Iraq at the current NATO meeting in Prague.

"Much has been said recently about Bush arriving at a point where he looks
presidential," said Nerenberg. "What's intriguing about morons is that
they can pass as just about anyone, but inside they're still morons."

The original term moron was coined by an American Psychologist in New
Jersey during the early part of the century. Moron was added to the US
version of the IQ test to screen out people who looked intelligent but
weren't. A moron was considered to have an IQ between 50-75.

"Sadly, we may be the world's only current stupidity experts," said
Shannon Brown, producer of Stupidity and an executive at Trailervision.
"There is very little true research on the important subject of stupidity,
and the only self-proclaimed expert, James Welles, a Florida-based author,
was recently arrested on serious charges for doing something extremely
stupid."

Stupidity features interviews with Noam Chomsky, John Cleese, Bill Maher
and former Bush speech-writer David Frum, and is being commissioned by the
Documentary Channel and the CBC. A trailer for Stupidity can be found at
www.trailervision.com

  ==============================================================
  C. G. Estabrook, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
  office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466
  <www.carlforcongress.org>
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