>
>the protest, confronted Cianci with the group's eight
>demands.
>
>"Admit that it was a racist shooting," she told the mayor.
>
>Cianci hesitated. "Give us an answer," the crowd insisted,
>"is this racist or not?"
>
>"I am the mayor for all people, I hope," Cianci said. "I
>believe across America racism exists."
>
>"Yes or no? Yes or no?" protesters drowned the mayor out.
>Cianci soon retreated back into the sanctuary of City Hall.
>
>BLACK COPS DISPUTE WHITE COPS' CLAIMS
>
>The white police officers who shot Young claimed they
>didn't recognize him. And they said that the Black officer
>disobeyed their order to put down his service revolver.
>
>But at a Feb. 3 news conference, the National Black Police
>Association disputed that version of the shooting. The
>Ministers' Alliance of Rhode Island invited representatives
>of the NBPA to review the events surrounding Young's death.
>
>Christopher Cooper, a Chicago lawyer, sociology professor
>and former police officer who works with the NBPA, told the
>news conference that had Young been white "he would not be
>dead.
>
>"The NBPA doubts the veracity of the officers' claim" that
>they told Young to put down his gun, "since common sense
>dictates that Officer Young would have dropped the weapon
>and conspicuously announced that he was a policeman."
>
>The statement added that Young's weapon would not have
>been pointed at the police. In fact, all accounts indicate
>it was pointed at the suspect.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <006501bf7a7b$073d7ee0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Lebanese resistance fights on against Israeli occupation
>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 20:45:40 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 24, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>LEBANESE RESISITANCE FIGHTS ON AGAINST ISRAELI OCCUPATION
>
>By Richard Becker
>
>Question: When is it all right to violate international
>law and United Nations resolutions?
>
>Answer: When Washington says so.
>
>Case in point: Lebanon, February 2000.
>
>In early February, the Lebanese resistance stepped up its
>campaign to drive out the Israeli occupation forces. They
>have been fighting to liberate their country from the
>occupiers for more than two decades. That their cause is
>just is not only undeniable, it is also supported by
>international law and world opinion.
>
>In 1978, Israel occupied southern Lebanon as part of an
>imperialist-orchestrated drive to crush the progressive
>Lebanese National Movement and Palestine Liberation
>Organization in Lebanon's long civil war.
>
>The UN Security Council passed Resolution 425 at that
>time, demanding that Israel withdraw from Lebanon, a demand
>the Israelis ignored. Four years later, in fact, they
>launched an air, land and sea invasion of the rest of
>Lebanon, killing more than 30,000 civilians in massive air
>raids that reduced much of the country to rubble.
>
>By 1985, however, a fierce resistance movement had forced
>the Israelis to withdraw southward. Israel established a
>border "security zone," covering about 10 percent of
>Lebanon's national territory. Inside this zone, the Israeli
>army and its puppet militia established a reign of fascist-
>like terror over the population.
>
>At the same time, Israel diverted the precious water of
>the Litani River in southern Lebanon for its own use.
>
>Those who resisted were subjected to torture, execution,
>assassination, and imprisonment under brutal conditions.
>Resistance leaders and fighters were hauled off to jails
>inside Israel, another in the long list of violations of
>international law by the occupiers.
>
>In the face of extreme repression, the Lebanese resistance
>movement only grew stronger with each passing year. Led by
>the Hezbollah (Party of God) organization, but encompassing
>all Lebanese who wanted to fight back, the resistance
>movement has inflicted a rising toll on the occupation
>troops. So much so, in fact, that Israel has been forced to
>look for a way to withdraw, while seeking to protect "its
>interests" in the area.
>
>The new Israeli government of Ehud Barak promised voters
>that it would withdraw from Lebanon during the election
>campaign last year.
>
>Lebanon is also a major issue in the recently stalled
>negotiations between Syria and Israel. Syria, its larger
>neighbor, has a strong influence in Lebanon. Syria's Golan
>Heights region is also under illegal Israeli occupation and
>has been since the 1967 war.
>
>One of Israel's main objectives in the stalled talks was
>to get Syria to disarm and liquidate the Lebanese
>resistance, while guaranteeing Israeli water and security
>interests in Lebanon. This is not the kind of "liberation"
>the Lebanese fighters have shed so much blood for.
>
>There is no guarantee that Israel's pledge to withdraw
>from Lebanon will be carried out. As resistance leader
>Hussein al-Khalil pointed out, Israel has broken many
>promises and reneged on many "guarantees" in its talks with
>the Palestinians.
>
>In early February, the Hezbollah-led resistance stepped up
>the struggle. Several battles left seven Israeli soldiers
>dead and many more wounded. All the attacks took place
>within the "security zone."
>
>This point is an important one because in 1996, following
>a period of intense fighting and heavy Israeli bombing,
>including a deadly attack on Lebanese refugees, an "April
>Ceasefire Understanding" was arranged by the U.S. and other
>countries. The main points of the "Understanding" were: 1)
>combatants, not civilians, were legitimate targets; and 2)
>all combat would be restricted to the occupied southern
>zone.
>
>The new resistance offensive adhered to that agreement,
>but Israel's response was to bomb many areas of Lebanon,
>targeting civilian facilities in direct violation of the
>1996 agreement. Three power plants were destroyed in
>northern Lebanon, wounding 18 civilians and knocking out 50
>percent of the country's power supply for up to six months.
>
>U.S. RESPONSE
>
>Despite the new and on-going violations of international
>law and agreements by Israel, Washington predictably blamed
>the Hezbollah and Syria for the latest crisis.
>
>State Department spokesperson James Rubin said on Feb. 10:
>"We stand by our previous statements that the initiation of
>these battles was by Hezbollah."
>
>Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated on the
>following day: "Hezbollah is an enemy of peace ... I have
>talked to the Syrian Foreign Minister about using all
>possible influence that they might have. They've tried but I
>think they need to work harder"to restrain Hezbollah.
>
>This display of unbridled imperialist arrogance drew angry
>responses from both Syria and Lebanon.
>
>Syrian state radio commented that "this biased U.S.
>attitude is all the more extraordinary because it concerns a
>barbarous attack on an independent Arab state."
>
>"It is Israel that needs to be reined in," the radio
>commentary continued, "and prevented from launching fresh
>attacks before peace talks can resume, and not a resistance
>group fighting its occupation."
>
>The Syrian Al-Baath daily newspaper wrote: "It is Israel's
>crimes and criminal threats against Lebanon that are
>incompatible with peace. The crimes of the Israeli
>government of Ehud Barak against Lebanese civilians and
>infrastructure are intended either to drag the region
>towards an explosion of full-scale war or to spread
>defeatism among the people of Lebanon and Syria."
>
>In a joint statement, Lebanese Prime Minister Salim al-
>Hoss and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara expressed
>their "astonishment and annoyance at the statements of U.S.
>officials ... which presented as the aggressors those who
>are there defending their people on their own soil, and as
>the victims those who are continually pounding other
>people's territory."
>
>Despite its blatant violations of UN resolutions (40 in
>all), Israel has never suffered international sanction. It
>has been protected by Washington and much, much more. The
>U.S. officially gives Israel $3 billion to $4 billion every
>year, over half of it military aid. The Pentagon has helped
>Israel become a high-tech, nuclear-equipped military power.
>
>U.S. taxpayers, i.e. workers, have been forced to fund the
>U.S./Israeli wars of aggression against the Arab people for
>more than half a century.
>
>Why? Because Israel is Wall Street and Big Oil's
>indispensable cop in this key strategic region.
>
>Many in the Middle East and around the world have noted
>the seeming "double standard" of U.S. policy in the area.
>
>When Iraq occupied Kuwait in 1990, following a long and
>bitter dispute, the U.S. responded with extreme action.
>First, it pushed through the Security Council a total
>blockade of Iraq, and six months later launched a
>devastating military attack on that country. Now, nine years
>after Iraq left Kuwait, the blockade remains in place,
>bombing continues on a regular basis, and a million and a
>half Iraqis have died as a result.
>
>All of this was done in the name of "international law,"
>"stopping an illegal occupation," "defending human rights,"
>etc. Yet, just a few hundreds of miles away, the U.S.
>supports and funds the continued illegal occupation of
>Palestine and parts of Lebanon and Syria.
>
>All the U.S. rhetoric about peace, democracy and the rule
>of law is shown by this contrast to be nothing but the most
>unbridled hypocrisy. From any moral standpoint it is a
>double standard.
>
>But, of course, morality has nothing whatsoever to do with
>imperialist foreign policy.
>
>The Washington national security establishment, and those
>it serves, have only one real standard: furthering the
>interest of huge banks and corporations, and making the
>world safe for them to exploit.
>
>But the Lebanese resistance is not intimidated. "As long
>as there are Israeli forces in southern Lebanon our
>resistance will continue," stated Hussein al-Khalil. "Our
>main aim is that Lebanon will be free of occupation. We will
>conquer the Israelis, and they will be seen to be the big
>losers in this war."
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <006b01bf7a7b$1d55edc0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Is CIA behind Yugoslavia assassinations?
>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 20:46:17 -0500
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Feb. 24, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>IS CIA BEHIND YUGOSLAVIA ASSASSINATIONS?
>
>By Bill Wayland
>
>Yugoslav Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic was gunned down
>in a Belgrade restaurant Feb. 7. The assassination was "part
>of a chain of organized terrorism orchestrated from abroad,"
>charged Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic at a Feb.
>9 press conference.
>
>It coincided with a new wave of terror against Serbs who
>have refused to leave their homes in the NATO-occupied
>province of Kosovo.
>
>Over the past three years at least a dozen Yugoslav
>officials have been assassinated. Most were members of the
>Yugoslav United Left or the Serbian Socialist Party. Is this
>a CIA "executive action" campaign to destabilize the
>government of Yugoslavia?
>
>Last October, at a session of the information committee of
>the United Yugoslav Left, Goran Matic had warned that
>"subversive and terrorist actions are being planned abroad
>in order to destabilize the country's political and economic
>system," the Yugoslav press agency Tanjug reported. Matic
>charged that Washington's policy would "increasingly rely on
>destructive and illegal activities ... relying on an
>existing network of secret agents."
>
>During the U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last spring,
>U.S. missiles destroyed the bedroom of Yugoslav President
>Slobodan Milosevic, and the Pentagon openly declared
>Yugoslav political leaders to be military targets. This was
>in brazen violation of the Geneva Convention, which
>prohibits political assassination. To set the stage for the
>bombing, the CIA-backed "Kosovo Liberation Army" murdered
>dozens of Kosovar Albanians, Serbs, Roma and others who
>opposed secession from Yugoslavia.
>
>As well as being Yugoslavia's defense minister, Bulatovic
>was a leader of the Montenegro Socialist People's Party,
>which wants Montenegro to stay part of Yugoslavia. The U.S.
>and NATO have been encouraging a separatist movement in
>Yugoslavia, as they did previously in Slovenia, Croatia,
>Bosnia and, most recently, Kosovo. The Pentagon has gone so
>far as to warn the Yugoslav government not to "interfere" in
>Montenegro's affairs.
>
>Montenegro has been a part of Yugoslavia since that
>country was founded.
>
>>From the 1961 murder of Congo President Patrice Lumumba
>through the repeated attempts on the life of Cuban leader
>Fidel Castro, from Operation Phoenix in Vietnam to the
>murder of tens of thousands of Latin Americans by CIA-
>supervised death squads, the CIA and Pentagon have long used
>assassination as an instrument of war and policy.
>
>The CIA overthrow of Salvador Allende's pro-socialist
>government in Chile in 1973 was preceded by a wave of
>political assassinations.
>
>Nor can we forget the FBI-CIA domestic assassination
>program--the COINTELPRO murders of members of the Black
>Panther Party, the American Indian Movement and other
>activist organizations in the 1960s and 1970s. There is
>evidence that Dr. Martin Luther King was among COINTELPRO's
>victims.
>
>The corporate-owned major U.S. news media have not even
>raised the question of a U.S. hand in the assassinations in
>Yugoslavia. Ignoring the Yugoslav government's statements,
>they have implied the victims were involved in criminal
>activity--a classic "make `em look dirty" means of blunting
>outrage--or insinuated the Yugoslav government itself had
>carried out the murders.
>
>The media made similar allegations about the January
>murder of anti-NATO Serb nationalist leader Zeljko
>Raznjatovic, popularly known as Arkan.
>
>This is the same corporate news media that uncritically
>repeated wild and now disproven Pentagon allegations of mass
>murder by the Yugoslav army in Kosovo, claims used to
>justify last spring's undeclared war.
>
>They have refused to report nongovernmental efforts to
>investigate NATO war crimes in Yugoslavia, such as the
>Independent Commission of Inquiry founded by former U.S.
>Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
>
>They have completely censored any news of the recent U.S.-
>orchestrated presidential coup in Ukraine, which threatens
>to bring U.S. troops to Russia's border.
>
>This level of media complicity with the State Department
>and Pentagon has not been seen since the height of the Cold
>War in the 1950s.
>
>In New York City, the International Action Center, which
>organized the protests in the U.S. against the bombing of
>Yugoslavia, issued a statement condemning the Bulatovic
>assassination and the new attacks on Serbs in Kosovo.
>
>The statement pointed out that the "past few weeks have
>also seen a pro-NATO coup against Ukraine's parliament, the
>U.S. Navy seizure of a Russian ship in the Persian Gulf, and
>the State Department's declaration of support for anti-
>government forces in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.
>
>"The Pentagon has revived its `Star Wars' program and is
>planning NATO military exercises in July in Ukraine,
>Bulgaria and Estonia. For decades the Washington war makers
>have dreamed of the military conquest of East Europe and
>what was once the Soviet Union. Now they appear to believe
>they can make this dream a reality. They must be stopped."
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
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