UNDERNEWS
Sam Smith
September 4, 1999
The Progressive Review
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EDITOR RETURNS TO SCENE OF CRIME
Your editor is now back in town after an interesting ride aboard the
Bridgeport-Port Jefferson ferry during which he, his wife, and a crew member
were trapped for 40 minutes inside a hot, unventilated, 5x8 steel box
parading as an elevator. We were eventually freed by a force of a large crow
bar. Long Island has never looked so good.
BRITISH COCAINE USE SOARS
OBSERVER, LONDON: Cocaine has become Britain's fastest growing
"recreational" drug among 20-years-olds, according to results published by
the British Crime Survey. For the first time, the survey, which is based on
interviews with 10,000 people, shows that a majority of the population - 52
% - says they have experimented with illegal drugs at least once. The number
of 20-24 year olds who admit using cocaine in the last year has more than
doubled .... The Home Office survey also reveals that smoking cannabis
continues to prove extremely popular with the young, with an increase from
25% to 29% between 1996 and 1998 of those under 30 who say they have used it
in the last year .... The official survey confirms that drug abuse is
relatively uncommon among adults and is generally confined to a short period
of experimentation in the mid to late-teens.
PROZAC DANGER
GUARDIAN, LONDON: Prozac, the anti-depressant taken by millions, was known
by its manufacturers as a possible cause of agitation leading to suicidal
tendencies as long ago as 1978, according to documents released in the US
civil courts .... The Eli Lilly papers, which chronicle the company's
concerns over the restless state of mind of some patients during clinical
trials, were produced during a case in Hawaii, the first of some 200 in the
US alleging links between Prozac, violence and suicide, to have come to a
verdict. The case concerned a couple who retired to Hawaii from California
in 1989. Finding it hard to adjust to the changes in his life, Bill Forsyth
saw a doctor and was prescribed Prozac for a mixed depressive anxiety
disorder. At first Mr. Forsyth said he felt marvelous, but within two days
he was imploring his son and wife to get him into a psychiatric hospital.
Soon after he returned home, he stabbed his wife June to death and impaled
himself on a kitchen knife .... The family's lawyers argued in court that
Eli Lilly had known for years that patients on Prozac, which was launched in
1988, could suddenly become akathisic - a strange, restless and agitated
state of mind in which they can get compulsions to commit violence on other
people and themselves [The lawyers] cited internal minutes from the Prozac
development team in August 1978 which ran: "There have been a fairly large
number of reports of adverse reactions... Another depressed patient
developed psychosis... Akathisia and restlessness were reported in some
patients."
The authorities in Germany, considering Eli Lilly's application for a
license in 1984, were concerned. "During the treatment with the preparation
[Prozac], 16 suicide attempts were made, two of these with success. As
patients with a risk of suicide were excluded from the studies, it is
probable this high proportion can be attributed to an action of the
preparation." Prozac now carries a warning in Germany of a risk of suicide.
MORE STORIES FROM THE GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER
http://www.prorev.com/altnews.htm
WACO MASSACRE
THE OKLAHOMAN: It was April 1994, a year after the Branch Davidian standoff
ended in disaster, when Bob Ricks had his chance to quiz Attorney General
Janet Reno. He had finished his job as chief FBI spokesman during the 51-day
siege outside Waco, Texas, but it still bothered him that the Justice
Department later ordered agents, he said, not to speak about the operation.
Reno was in Oklahoma City to promote a congressional crime bill and met with
employees of the local FBI office. "I said, 'You probably don't realize it,
but in the Midwest, Waco is still extremely a big deal out here, and it's
the subject of much conversation. As you know, we've been ordered not to
respond or say anything, and I think that that could ultimately end up being
a problem,'" Ricks said Friday. The ex-agent said Reno replied, "I don't
think the American people care about Waco anymore."
A Justice Department spokesman said Reno denies making the comment.
THE OKLAHOMAN: http://www.oklahoman.com/cgi-bin/shart?ID=370047&TP=getarticle
DALLAS MORNING NEWS: A U.S. district judge ordered government lawyers
Thursday to turn over all evidence pertaining to the 1993 Branch Davidian
siege by Oct. 1 or face contempt-of-court charges. The order by Judge Walter
Smith of Waco came in response to a U.S. Justice Department motion this week
challenging his authority to demand control of the evidence being sought in
a wrongful-death lawsuit .... "The court's purpose is to secure the evidence
so that neither the parties to the pending civil litigation, the media or
the public will perceive that the government may have the opportunity to
conceal, alter or fail to reveal evidence," Judge Smith wrote.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS:
http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/waco/0903waco2judge.htm
JOSEPH FARAH, WORLD NET DAILY: One of the original witnesses against the
Branch Davidians was Bill Buford, the agent in charge of the Little Rock,
Ark., branch of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Buford was,
also, according to Arkansas sources, a friend of Bill. The Waco case was
apparently very important to Buford as an affidavit states he was working on
New Year's Day calling former Branch Davidians seeking to find evidence of
sexual abuse .... Documents show Buford is noted as one of two "senior raid
planners." He was also one of the BATF agents wounded during the Feb. 28
assault, but he is perhaps the only BATF agent to be visited in the hospital
by none other than top Treasury Department official Roger Altman. Altman was
the long-time "Friend of Bill" appointed to be deputy secretary of the
Treasury and chief executive officer of the Resolution Trust Corporation. He
resigned in August 1994 due to his interference in the Whitewater
investigation. At the time of the Waco raid, Roger Altman was the second
highest-ranking official at the Department of the Treasury. The BATF is a
bureau within the Treasury Department
WORLD NET DAILY
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_btl/19990903_xcbtl_wacos_litt.shtml
CLINTON SCANDALS
MENAGE A TROIS: The Clinton's sweetheart real estate deal illustrates once
again that the law is no better than those who write and enforce it. In
today's Washington, anything goes and when, it doesn't, the law is simply
reinterpreted to make sure it does.
To get a handle of the absurdity involved in this house business, imagine
one of your friends co-signing your mortgage note so you can buy yourself a
nicer house than you could possibly afford given your financial condition.
Make it a $1.7 million house and homebuyer who is $5 million in debt and any
argument that the deal is altruistic become comedic. There is only one sane
reason to do such a thing and that it because you expect something in return.
Years ago giving a pol something of value was called a bribe, kickback, or
payoff. Then the lawyers and politicians got hold of the laws and start
rewriting them so that it wasn't enough that you gave a politician something
of value, but there had to be a provable quid pro quo or, in this case, an
easily determined dollar value to the gift. Then the lawyers and politicians
would stand before the media and declare something to be ethical because it
met their deeply corrupted standards. And the media could be counted on not
to see through the scam.
MEET THE CLINTON'S PARTNER
BUSINESS WEEK, DECEMBER 22, 1997: The U. S. Attorney's Office in Washington
is trying to learn more about how McAuliffe earned a lucrative fee in
helping Prudential Insurance Co. of America lease a downtown Washington
building to the government. Prudential just settled a civil case involving
that lease for over $300,000 without admitting any liability .... The Labor
Dept. is probing McAuliffe real estate deals that were bankrolled by a union
pension fund .... And Labor Dept. probers are looking at possible conflicts
of interest in at least two of McAuliffe's Florida real estate deals that
were bankrolled by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers pension
money. Investigators want to know why McAuliffe got what look like very
sweet deals.
WASHINGTON POST, JANUARY 12, 1998: McAuliffe, the premier Democratic
fund-raiser of the decade, has spent much of the past 12 months dealing with
hostile Republican investigators, federal prosecutors and adverse news
stories. He has emerged as a key, but enigmatic, figure in two overlapping
federal investigations: the broadening inquiry into illegal fund-raising on
the part of the Teamsters union conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in
New York, and the Justice Department's investigation into alleged 1995-96
Democratic presidential fund-raising abuses. In addition, the U.S.
Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia investigated McAuliffe's role
in the award of a $160.5 million federal lease, but decided against bringing
criminal charges.
McAuliffe has given depositions to federal prosecutors and congressional
investigators, but he has not been called to testify publicly, and he has
not been charged with any crime .... McAuliffe's success has come from his
knack for being in the middle of a deal while maintaining a critical
distance. For almost 17 years as broker, lawyer, promoter and facilitator
McAuliffe had estimated with uncanny precision the sustainable distance
between contributor and candidate, as well as between seller and buyer.
TWO THIRD PARTIES TO MERGE
The DC Green Party and the DC Statehood Party have voted to merge. The
decision is not only unusual for third parties, but creates one of the few
biracial Green parties in America or Europe. The DC Statehood Party was
started by the militant civil rights leader Julius Hobson in 1971. It has
had members holding public office for more than 25 years. Its early
platforms presaged Green politics launched in the 1980s. The DC Green Party
was founded in the 90s as part of the surge of Green activity in the wake of
the 1996 Nader for President campaign. The new DC Statehood Green Party be a
member of the Association of State Green Parties
[Your editor helped to get both these parties going and has long argued that
the DC Statehood Party was really the first Green party in the world. It
just got its name wrong. Sort of like Victor Borge's uncle who died
penniless after inventing a soft-drink called "Six-Up" Said Borge, "Little
did he know how close he came."]
CONTACTS: Scott McLarty: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or Kevin McCarron:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
DRUG BUSTS
Switzerland's marijuana prohibition may be a thing of the past as government
officials have promised to decriminalize marijuana use and possession. Drug
use will remain illegal for children under 18 years of age. A Swiss
government study shows 27 percent of 15-35 year olds in the country use
cannabis. "The consumption of cannabis can't be avoided through
prohibition," the Swiss Department of the Interior said in its proposal. "We
aim to adapt legislation to reality in the area of drug consumption." The
proposal stated cannabis, "does relatively little damage to health," and
under certain circumstances "can have a therapeutic effect." The Swiss
government has also suggested criminal penalties for the use of harder drugs
such as cocaine be eliminated as well. In June, voters approved legislation
to legally provide heroin to addicts if they have a prescription.
The public health committee of the Maine Medical Association will recommend
that the organization opposes the November referendum on the legalization of
medical marijuana. Included among the committee's complaints against the
referendum were that the list of diseases approved for medical use was too
long, and that marijuana was a "gateway drug leading users to frequently use
stronger illicit or harmful drugs."
LAND OF THE FREE
WASHINGTON TIMES: Thirteen Oklahoma parents have filed civil suits against a
Head Start center for giving their preschoolers genital exams and taking
blood samples without parental knowledge or consent. The exams were given as
part of the children's routine school physicals. But they "were performed
over the explicit objections of the children and after the children
expressed fear and demanded the presence of their parents," says one of two
lawsuits filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Tulsa, Okla. The 13
families are low-income, said Christopher W. Goree, a Tulsa lawyer
representing the families. Most of the children are black, while others are
Hispanic, American Indian or white .... The Tulsa case is similar to one in
East Stroudsburg, Pa., in which nearly 60 sixth-grade girls received genital
exams as part of their school physicals without their parents' knowledge or
consent .... In August, a federal court ruled that the exams were
"unreasonable searches" and a violation of the girls' Fourth Amendment
rights.
WASHINGTON TIMES: http://www.washtimes.com/culture/culture1.html
MORE NEWS http://www.prorev.com/indexa#04
WHERE HOWIE KURTZ GETS HIS NEWS
ALBANIAN MAFIA MOVES INTO KOSOVO
WHERE THE PHRASE 'WD-40' COMES FROM
HOW MANY CONGRESSMEMBERS HAVE BEEN BANKRUPT?
THE FASTEST AND SLOWEST CITIES
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