[Peace] News notes for May 12 (part 1 of 2)

[C. G. Estabrook]

	NOTES ON THE WEEK'S "WAR ON TERRORISM" --
	FOR THE AWARE MEETING 02.05.12

[In accord with Susan's suggestion at this week's meeting, an attempt will
be made to highlight in these notes the propagandistic presentation of the
news, and the concomitant corruption of language.  There is in fact a new
edition of the best single work on the subject, Edward S. Herman and Noam
Chomsky, *Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media*
(Pantheon Press, 2002).
	This week saw suicide bombings in Tel Aviv, Pakistan, and Russia;
an end to the stand-off at the church of the nativity in Bethlehem; and an
apparent hold-up in the Israeli plan to attack Palestinian areas in Gaza,
as well as the call-up of reservists.  An article by Chomsky on the US
role in the Middle East that appeared in this week's *Guardian* (UK) is
included at the end of these notes -- and then for contrast, the Sunday
editorial on the same subject from the editor of Champaign-Urbana News
Gazette, a truly awful performance -- propaganda wrapped in false
naivete... As usual, the comments in caps (and these) are mine.  --CGE]

MONDAY, MAY 06, 2002

EUROPEAN GLOBALIZATION. Right-wing Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who led
his anti-immigration party to a position of prominence in Dutch politics,
was shot six times and killed Monday as he left a radio interview. Dutch
television said the 53-year-old politician was shot in the head, neck and
chest. The attack came nine days before national elections, and opinion
polls had predicted Fortuyn would lead one of the largest parties in
parliament. It was the first time in modern history that a Dutch political
leader was assassinated. "These are things you thought were just not
possible in the Netherlands," said Ad Melkert, new leader of the ruling
Labor Party and its candidate for prime minister. "It's a low-point for
our democracy." Fortuyn, a former academic and columnist who led an openly
gay lifestyle, had dictated debate during the campaign with verbal attacks
on the country's growing Muslim population and strident criticism of the
national government. He called Islam a "backward" culture and laid claim
to leadership of the Netherlands' perennially vacant political right.
Fortuyn (pronounced fore-TOWN) had dissociated himself from Le Pen and
other European extreme right leaders. Fortuyn's popularity has exposed a
deep vein of suspicion of immigrants in Europe's most densely populated
country, about 2 million of whose 16 million people are not native Dutch.
About 800,000 are Muslims, predominantly Moroccans and Turks. Prime
Minister Wim Kok broke off campaigning in the western city of Haarlem.
Several political parties called for a halt in the campaign, but there was
no immediate demand to postpone the vote. The head of the Liberal Party,
VVD, Hans Dijkstal, stopped his party's campaign. In the Netherlands, most
political leaders travel without bodyguards, often using public
transportation. The only exceptions were Kok, as head of government.
Fortuyn, however, had his own bodyguards and his party headquarters in
Rotterdam were always guarded. Last March, his newly formed party stunned
the nation by sweeping 35 percent of the vote in local elections in
Rotterdam, a port city with a large immigrant population. Fortuyn's
hard-hitting campaign against immigration and what he called "the mess"
created by Kok's eight-year coalition, dominated the campaign and
refocused the issues. Fortuyn had recently expressed fears for his safety.
A few weeks ago, protesters threw cream pies laced with urine in his face.
[AP]

CONTROLLING DANGEROUS CLASSES. Governor Jim Hodges of South Carolina
turned "thumbs down" and allowed the State of South Carolina to kill an
innocent man. In doing so he lied about crucial facts to make himself look
good to the public as a tough-on-crime candidate for reelection in
November. Hodges denied Richard Charles "Ricky" Johnson's application for
clemency and he was killed by the State of South Carolina on Friday, May
3, 2002. Despite requests to grant clemency from retired S.C. Supreme
Court Chief Justice Ernest Finney, 13 past presidents of the S.C. State
Bar, 25 former state and federal prosecutors, many state legislators and
civil rights leaders, and an estimated 7,000 concerned citizens, Hodges
rejected Johnson's clemency appeal. [CD]

BUSINESS OF AMERICA IS BUSINESS. According to a new report, many of the
U.S. government's largest contractors have repeatedly broken the law or
engaged in unethical conduct. However, they are never even temporarily
suspended, let alone debarred, from gaining additional government
contracts. Smaller contractors are not so lucky. The Project On Government
Oversight, which investigated the issue for more than a year, identified
that, from 1990 to the present: - The government's 43 top contractors paid
a total of $3.4 billion in fines/penalties, restitution, and settlements -
Sixteen of the 43 top contractors have been convicted of a total of 28
criminal violations; four of the top 10 have at least two criminal
convictions - Only one of the 43 top contractors were ever suspended or
debarred from doing business with the government. That one suspension
action, against General Electric, lasted only five days, when typical
suspension and debarment actions last 18 months to three years. Current
regulations require that taxpayer dollars be awarded only to "responsible"
contractors who have a satisfactory record of "integrity and business
ethics." But POGO's data suggests that this is usually not the case. The
result is that while crime-fighting branches of the government prosecute
lawbreakers, contracting branches reward them. Among POGO's
recommendations to fix problems with the current suspension and debarment
system are that: -A federal agency such as the General Services
Administration maintain a database of violations that government officials
could consult before awarding contracts -Contractors be required to
disclose violations as well as prior suspensions and debarments from doing
business with the government -Small and large contractors be treated alike
and fairly -Suspension or debarment be mandatory for a contractor who is
criminally convicted or had a civil judgment against them more than once
in a three-year period.

BUSINESS OF AMERICA IS BUSINESS (II). On Sept. 21, ten days after the
terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a delegation of insurance
executives headed to the White House to meet with President Bush ... When
the photo op concluded, however, the executives-led by Maurice Greenberg,
chief executive of the American International Group and one of Bush's
biggest fundraisers during the 2000 election-revealed the real reason for
their visit. Although the industry would be able to pay the claims (an
estimated $40 billion to $70 billion) this time, Greenberg and others
wanted to shift future liability to the federal government. The next day,
they took their case before members of Congress-both Republicans and
Democrats-asking for legislation that would cap their liability ... It
didn't take long for the White House and Congress to respond. Two weeks
later, Bush unveiled a plan that would use public funds to pay the brunt
of terrorism-related claims in 2002, while capping the industry's
liability at $35 billion in subsequent years. Democrats, meanwhile,
floated a plan that would have forced insurance companies to pay for the
first $10 billion in claims related to future attacks. After that, costs
would be split evenly between taxpayers and the industry. As Congress
began to debate the measures, the insurance industry did anything but sit
idly by. Companies retained additional lobbyists, ran advertising in favor
of an industry bailout and, despite an informal fund-raising moratorium in
the wake of Sept. 11, wired major political contributions to the national
political parties. Between Sept. 12 and Dec. 31, insurance companies made
nearly $1.8 million in soft money contributions, more than two-thirds to
Republicans. The bulk of that money came during late November and early
December, when legislation that would cap the industry's liability was
struggling through Congress. (On Nov. 29, the House voted along party
lines to approve Bush's plan, while similar legislation stalled in the
Senate.) [CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS]

FILLING THE ENEMIES GAP. The United States has added Cuba, Libya and Syria
to its "axis of evil" - nations it claims are deliberately seeking to
obtain chemical or biological weapons. In a speech entitled "Beyond the
Axis of Evil", US Under Secretary of State, John Bolton said that the
three nations could be grouped with other so-called "rogue states" - Iraq,
Iran and North Korea - in actively attempting to develop weapons of mass
destruction. He also warned that the US would take action. "America is
determined to prevent the next wave of terror," he said, referring to the
11 September attacks in Washington and New York that killed up to 3,000
people. "States that sponsor terror and pursue WMD (weapons of mass
destruction) must stop. States that renounce terror and abandon WMD can
become part of our effort, but those that do not can expect to become our
targets," he said. Mr Bolton, speaking to the Heritage Foundation, a
right-wing political think-tank, also accused Libya of continuing in its
attempts to obtain nuclear weapons. However he singled out Cuba for
particular criticism, saying that the country's threat to the US was
consistently "underplayed". "(Cuba) has at least a limited offensive
biological warfare research and development effort (and has) provided
dual-use technology to other rogue states," he said. Mr Bolton did not
indicate that any direct form of military action would be imposed on such
countries. He said the US would primarily concentrate on working with
other countries such as China and Russia - "unquestionably the two largest
sources of proliferate behaviour internationally" - to prevent the
continued dissemination of such weapons, Reuters reported. The US would
also work on smashing the financial networks, suspect shipments and front
companies that laundered money for the purchase of such weapons, he said.
[BBC]

TUESDAY, MAY 07, 2002

WHO'S RUNNING THIS SHOW? The papers all mention that the White House
reiterated that CIA Director George Tenet will soon travel to Israel to
assess how best to reconstitute Palestinian security forces. [SLATE]

BUT THE SCANDAL IS NOT WHAT'S ILLEGAL, IT'S WHAT'S LEGAL. Enron documents
released yesterday showing that the now-bankrupt company used various
techniques to manipulate California's energy crisis last year. Previously,
Enron's execs had denied that they did any such thing. One Enron memo
talked about a strategy dubbed the "Death Star," which was described as a
method for billing clients "for moving energy to relieve congestion
without actually moving any energy or relieving any congestion." [NYT]

NOW BACK TO THE MILOSEVIC TRIAL. Bush administration formally renounced
U.S. support for the International Crimes Court, which has been
established to prosecute potential war criminals. The White House argued
that the court doesn't have effective checks on its power and could end up
having "politically motivated" prosecutions. [NYT]

YOUR TAX MONEY IN COLOMBIA. The death toll in an isolated village where
rebels and paramilitaries were battling rose to 108 -- including 40
children -- while troops began to move into the region. President Andres
Pastrana, while visiting the area Sunday, put the toll at 108 and said
many of the victims were infants, children and old people. U.N. officials
said they warned the government that a tragedy was about to occur before
the fighting started. "It's lamentable that the government authorities
ignored the early warning," the United Nations said in a prepared
statement. Among the dead were dozens who had taken refuge in a church in
the village of Bojaya on Thursday. Authorities said the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, fired homemade mortars into the church.
It was unclear if they were aiming for the church. Pope John Paul II sent
a message of condolences to the families of the victims, saying he was
profoundly saddened by the guerrilla attack and condemned "these new acts
of terrorism that commit an outrage against peaceful cohabitation and
offend the sentiments of the dear Colombian people." People fleeing the
violence began trickling into Quibdo, the capital of Choco state, some 58
miles south of Bojaya, on Sunday. Juan Evaristo Mosquera, 70, abandoned
his small farm in the village of Puerto Conto to flee with his son,
daughter-in-law and four grandchildren on Friday. The family took two days
to reach Quibdo by boat, stopping periodically because of fighting. "We're
good people, we've always lived in peace -- poor, but in peace," he said.
"Now we're just poor." Choco is the poorest, and one of the most violent
states in Colombia. The rebels and paramilitaries are fighting in the
region for control of strategic drug trafficking routes, officials say.
Military officials said that troops began heading into the region Sunday
afternoon and church officials confirmed that residents had seen
helicopters and military planes fly over late Sunday. Neither the military
nor the police have outposts in the tiny riverfront village, which is
reachable only by air or river. The bishop of Quibdo, Fidel Cadavil,
learned three weeks ago that the paramilitaries had entered the area --
formerly controlled by the rebels. "We alerted local and national
authorities of the danger for the civilian population of the
confrontations that were imminent," he told The Associated Press. It was
unclear how, or if, the government responded to the warning. Pastrana and
high-ranking military commanders met with local authorities in Quibdo
Sunday to plan the rescue mission. "What happened here was genocide on the
part of the FARC," he said. Rescue workers airlifted 18 seriously injured
victims out of the village Saturday but officials worried that the small
village hospital in Vigia del Fuente, across the river from Bojaya, was
overwhelmed. Authorities said at least 40 of the dead were infants and
children. Albeiro Parra, spokesman for the diocese in Quibdo, said some 80
people were still missing Sunday. A town priest, previously feared
kidnapped, was located Sunday evening. Many have reportedly fled into the
jungle around the village. Parra urged the authorities not to send the
military into the region, fearing that anyone who might have been taken
hostage might be hurt or killed during a military operation. "The response
should be humanitarian, not military," he said. Luis Angel Moreno,
director of the government's Solidarity Network in Choco state, said his
office was working with the Red Cross to send 5,000 individual rations
from Quibdo eight hours up the Atrato River by boat. There is no telephone
communication and only limited radio contact with Bojaya, 235 miles
northwest of Bogota. Colombia's 38-year-civil war pits the FARC and a
smaller rebel group against the paramilitaries and government forces.
Roughly 3,500 people -- most of them civilians -- are killed in fighting
each year. [AP]

ANOTHER SYMBOLIC ISSUE. In a briefing to the Supreme Court, the Justice
Department stated that it's "the current position of the United States
that the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals to possess
and bear their own firearms." According to the papers, previous
administrations held that the Second Amendment does not apply to
individuals. [NYT]

ABSOLUTE SHAMELESSNESS.  President Bush will name former President Clinton
to lead a delegation to East Timor later this month to celebrate that
country's impending independence. The papers say that Clinton, as the Los
Angeles Times puts it, "played an important role in East Timor's road to
freedom." [THAT'S TRUE: HE SUPPORTED MASSACRES THAT TRIED TO PREVENT IT.]
As the WP explains, after the 1999 vote for independence, "Clinton sent
peacekeepers to East Timor amid the violence that followed." [A BLATANT
LIE.]

THURSDAY, MAY 09, 2002

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STOP WORKING FOR WASHINGTON.  CIA Tries to Kill
Ex-Afghan Warlord.  A former Afghan prime minister is believed to have
escaped a CIA missile strike in the first known attempt to kill a
factional leader suspected of plotting against the U.S.-backed government.
Though not known to be part of the Taliban or al-Qaida, Islamic leader
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was considered a fair target because he was
threatening American troops and had offered rewards for their deaths,
officials said Thursday. "I can assure you when we go after individuals in
the theater of war, it is because they intend to do some harm to America,"
President Bush said. The CIA fired a missile from an unmanned Predator spy
plane Monday near the capital, Kabul, in hopes of killing Hekmatyar, U.S.
defense officials said on condition of anonymity. The Hellfire missile
didn't get him but is believed to have killed some of his followers,
officials said. Hekmatyar's whereabouts could not be learned Thursday.
"Hekmatyar is somewhere in Afghanistan but we don't know in which area he
is living," said Qutbuddin Hilal, a senior member of his hardline
Hezb-e-Islami party living in Peshawar, Pakistan. Hilal denied that the
group was plotting an attack on Afghanistan's government, saying Hekmatyar
supports interim leader Hamid Karzai. But Pentagon officials said there
was intelligence that Hekmatyar had been making plans to strike the Afghan
government, perhaps Karzai himself, and American troops in Afghanistan. In
the shifting politics of Afghanistan, Hekmatyar is a former warlord,
one-time prime minister, former recipient of American military aid and
current leader of a hardline Islamic group. He is thought to maintain
close ties with elements of Pakistani intelligence operating without the
sanction of President Pervez Musharraf. Anthony Cordesman, a defense
analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a
Washington think tank, said there could be little question about the
legitimacy of targeting Hekmatyar. "What we're talking about here is
someone at the absolute margin of violence in Afghan society - in his own
way someone as extreme as Osama bin Laden," Cordesman said in an
interview. "He has a history that has proved about as conclusively as
anyone can that this is a violent, vicious man who deserves to be a
target." Hekmatyar was a major recipient of U.S. weapons and support
during the war against Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan in the 1980s. And
he is now described as virulently opposed to the U.S. role in Afghanistan
- or to the presence of any foreign army. Hekmatyar has claimed he still
has U.S.-made Stinger missiles and controls a loyal militia in his
homeland that would be ready to follow him. The Central Intelligence
Agency has played a major role in the Afghan campaign, gathering
intelligence and sending in its paramilitary to work with local tribal
leaders who have mounted their armies against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
The CIA also has operated Predators fitted with missiles - making it the
first war in which the U.S. government has used the drones to field
weapons. CIA officials declined comment Thursday on the missile strike.
Several weeks ago, Hekmatyar's son told a news conference in Peshawar that
Hekmatyar wants elections as soon as possible because his Hezb-e-Islami
party is very popular. The party announced in early March that it had sent
a delegation to meet with Karzai in Kabul to iron out differences. But in
April, hundreds of people linked to the group were arrested in Kabul in an
alleged overthrow plot. It included plans to set off bombs throughout the
capital, officials said at the time. Hekmatyar was a guerrilla commander
in the 1980s fight against the Soviets and served as a prime minister in
the fractious government that took power after routing of a pro-Soviet
Afghan administration in 1992. Ruthless power struggles between his forces
and those of rivals laid waste to whole neighborhoods of the Afghan
capital and killed tens of thousands. Hekmatyar fled to Iran after the
Taliban took Kabul in 1996. Hekmatyar called for jihad against the United
States in November. Iranian authorities closed his offices there in
February and ordered him out in a move that appeared a gesture toward the
United States and Karzai. Hekmatyar has been an opponent of both the
Taliban and the anti-Taliban northern alliance. U.S. officials think he
may be trying to form an alliance of convenience with remnants of Taliban
or the al-Qaida. Hekmatyar, 52, is a Ghilzai Pashtun from Kunduz province
in northern Afghanistan. He speaks several languages, including English,
has two wives and several children.

FURTHER UNEASE ABOUT KILLING. Gov. Parris Glendening imposed a moratorium
Thursday on executions in Maryland until the state completes a study of
whether there is racial bias in the use of the death penalty. Only one
other state that has capital punishment, Illinois, has imposed a similar
moratorium. Glendening, a Democrat who is barred from seeking a third term
this November, issued a stay on the execution of Wesley Eugene Baker and
said he would stay any other executions that come before him. Baker, 44,
had been scheduled to die by injection sometime next week. In announcing
his decision, the governor repeated his support for the death penalty in
especially heinous crimes, but said that "reasonable questions have been
raised in Maryland and across the country about the application of the
death penalty. It is imperative that I, as well as our citizens, have
complete confidence that the legal process involved in capital cases is
fair and impartial," the governor said. Glendening had been under pressure
to halt executions until he receives a study that is due to be completed
in September by a researcher at the University of Maryland. Baker is one
of 13 men awaiting execution in Maryland, and critics say the death
penalty is more likely to be imposed if the defendants are black and the
victims are white. Nine of the 13, including Baker, are black, and many of
the victims were white, including the woman Baker was convicted of
killing. Glendening said he would not lift the moratorium until the study
is completed and reviewed by the state legislature. He said he expects the
moratorium will remain in place for about a year, unless the next governor
resumes executions after taking office in January. Lt. Gov. Kathleen
Kennedy Townsend, who also supports the death penalty in limited cases,
had asked Glendening last week to impose the moratorium. She recently
announced she is running to succeed him. Illinois Gov. George Ryan
declared the nation's first moratorium in 2000, citing the release of 13
death-row inmates whose convictions were flawed. Last month, a commission
appointed by Ryan recommended reforms to reduce the possibility of
wrongful convictions, including cutting the number of crimes eligible for
the death penalty and videotaping police interrogations. About 3,700
people are on death row for crimes committed in the 38 states that allow
the death penalty. Baker was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the
1991 murder of Jane Tyson, 49, who was shot in the parking lot of a
Baltimore County shopping center, where she had taken her 4-year-old
granddaughter and 6-year-old grandson shopping for tennis shoes. Baker
does not deny taking part in an attempted robbery when Tyson was killed,
but his attorneys say there is not enough evidence to show he fired the
gun. Gregory Lawrence, a co-defendant, was sentenced to life in prison.
Baker's lawyer, Gary Christopher, had filed two petitions with Glendening
on Tuesday, one asking that his sentence be reduced to life in prison and
one asking for a stay while the university study is completed. Glendening
has allowed two men to die by lethal injection, but commuted the sentence
of a third, Eugene Colvin-el, to life without parole a week before his
scheduled execution two years ago. Glendening said then that he was not
absolutely certain that Colvin-el was guilty of the murder for which he
was sentenced to death. [AP]

DOING WHAT HE'S TOLD. In a televised speech yesterday Yasser Arafat
ordered his security forces "to confront and prevent any terrorist
operation directed against Israeli civilians from any Palestinian side
whatsoever." [BBC]

OCCUPATION AS USUAL. Tanks were poised outside Gaza and Israel called up
military reservists Thursday ahead of an expected retaliatory attack for
Palestinian suicide bombings, even as a deal was reached to end the
standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. Palestinians arrested 16
members of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that claimed it carried out a
deadly suicide attack earlier this week, a first sign that Yasser Arafat
was taking action against terror groups. Tanks were parked off Gaza, the
home base of the Hamas militant group, and Israeli forces around the strip
were being beefed up Thursday night. But Hamas leaders in Gaza - a sliver
of Mediterranean coastline two-thirds of which is under Palestinian
autonomy - said they were going about life as usual. Hamas founder Sheik
Ahmed Yassin went ahead with the afternoon wedding reception for one of
his seven daughters, his son Mohammed said. A Yassin deputy, university
lecturer Mahmoud Zahar, said he was staying at home to prepare exams and a
Hamas spokesman, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said his schedule was filled with TV
interviews. Mohammed Dahlan, Yasser Arafat's security chief in Gaza, said
the Palestinians were expecting an attack. "Everyone is prepared and our
people know how to confront the occupation," said Dahlan, who has been in
the West Bank town of Ramallah for months. "We said this before, and we
mean it now - if the occupation forces carry out an aggression, we will
face this aggression." Late in the day, an Israeli official said a deal
was reached whereby 13 suspected militants inside Bethlehem's Church of
the Nativity would be divided among several countries. The Cypriot foreign
minister and Palestinian sources said the militants would be taken first
to Cyprus and later go elsewhere. Under the deal to end the 38-day
standoff at the traditional birthplace of Jesus, Italy and Spain would
take some of the militants, while the remainder would be spread among at
least four other countries, the Israeli official said. Others inside the
church would be allowed to go free. Also Thursday, the Israeli Cabinet
approved unspecified reprisals in response to Tuesday's bombing in a pool
hall in a Tel Aviv suburb. Fifteen Israelis were killed in the attack, the
deadliest since Israel launched its West Bank military offensive March 29
in response to a wave of suicide bombings. The reserve call-up was smaller
than the one that preceded that operation, during which troops occupied
six of the eight main Palestinian towns in the West Bank for periods of up
to several weeks and fought running battles with Palestinian gunmen.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres hinted Israel might have a more limited
operation in mind this time, "striking at centers from which the suicide
attackers come, or the houses from which they come, or the nests from
which the organization of suicide bombers comes." Military sources said
the operation will be centered on Gaza, but may not be restricted to the
strip ... Fighting in densely populated Gaza would be much more
complicated and could expose troops to greater risks. European Union envoy
Miguel Moratinos condemned the suicide attack, but said the EU was "very
concerned" it could lead to increasing violence and a new military action.
The EU was working with the United States, Russia and the United Nations
to try to prevent that, he said. Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat
criticized the expected operation. "Such an attack will lead to disastrous
consequences for the Palestinian people there," he said. "This will be
adding fuel to the fire." In a televised address Wednesday, Arafat said he
had ordered his security forces to arrest Palestinian terror groups.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Thursday the
Palestinian Authority "has already taken some measures to control the
security situation." In Gaza City, Hamas officials reported that 16 of
their members were arrested Thursday by Palestinian police. [AP]

[continued in part 2]