-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Lesson From Usenet Police arrested Malcolm Davidson, a 27 year old white male, resident of Wilmington, NC, in a pumpkin patch very late on Friday night. Davidson will be charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, public indecency, and public intoxication at the County Courthouse on Monday. When passing the pumpkin patch, he decided to stop. "You know, a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one around here for miles. At least I thought there wasn't," he stated in a phone interview from the County jail. Davidson went on to state that he picked out a pumpkin that he thought was appropriate for his purposes, cut a hole in it, and proceeded to satisfy his alleged "need." "I guess I was just really into it, you know?" he commented with evident embarrassment. In the process, Davidson apparently failed to notice the Wilmington police car approaching and was unaware of his audience until officer Brenda Taylor approached him. "It was an unusual situation, that's for sure," said officer Taylor. "I walked up to [Davidson] and he's . . . just working away at this pumpkin. "I just went up and said, 'Excuse me sir, but do you realize that you're doing it with a pumpkin?' "He got real surprised as you would expect and then looked me straight in the face and said: 'A pumpkin? Damn.... is it midnight already?' " ===== ----- Spy Scandal Spies, Bankers, and Guns The Bellasi affair just gets bigger INVESTIGATIONS into the most damaging spy scandal ever uncovered in Switzerland are to be extended to the top echelons of the military and political establishment. Federal prosecutors are already examining dossiers that could link prominent bankers, diplomats and industrialists to a multi-million-pound conspiracy at the heart of the Swiss intelligence services. With new skeletons tumbling from government cupboards almost daily before a riveted public, what began as an apparently straightforward case of embezzlement has now evolved into what appears to be a far more serious conspiracy. The Swiss minister of defence, Adolf Ogi, admitted that the affair had "assumed a scale which we could never have dreamed of" and said that the consequences could be "unimaginable". Government law officers displayed at the Swiss parliament building in Berne on Friday almost 200 guns seized in a suburb of the federal capital a week earlier. The cache was found in a flat rented by the man at the centre of the scandal, Dino Bellasi, a former secret service accountant. It included sniper rifles, AK47s, Heckler and Koch sub-machineguns and pistols equipped with silencers, plus large quantities of ammunition. According to some media reports, Bellasi said that the weapons were intended to equip a secret military unit to be created within the Swiss army. There is also speculation that the guns were destined for use by criminal gangs or the intelligence services of the Milosevic regime in Belgrade. Bellasi, 39, was arrested earlier this month and charged with stealing and "laundering" �3.5 million from the central bank. It is alleged that he had set up a scheme involving the submission of invoices to pay for the movements of non-existent troops and military seminars that never took place. Although he had resigned "for health reasons" a year ago, the scam apparently continued and only came to light when his successor stumbled across a particularly outrageous bill. At first, investigators believed that they were dealing with a simple, if embarrassing, case of fraud, but under questioning Bellasi apparently began to confess, implicating numerous others in the affair. Although his security clearance had been low level, he claimed to have confidential documents naming influential figures who provided information to the secret service in return for being excused their annual stint of reserve duty in the "citizens' army". Public outrage grew after leaks claimed that Bellasi had said he was ordered by senior intelligence officers to buy the weapons. A week ago Mr Ogi announced the temporary suspension of the head of Swiss military intelligence. He said Peter Regli had asked to be suspended because he did not wish "to stand in the way of the investigation in the Bellasi case". Although Mr Regli denounced his former subordinate for spreading "an enormous, grotesque web of lies", the attorney-general's office confirmed that "grave accusations" had been levelled at him and others. A parliamentary committee is already investigating allegations that Mr Regli was involved in the sale of defence technology to front companies set up in Switzerland by South Africa's former apartheid regime. As one of the characters created by the author and former British spy, John le Carr�, for his Smiley stories observes during a risky espionage mission in Berne: "Thank God they are only neutral, know what I mean?" The London Telegraph, August 29, 1999 Land of Mochtar Riady Indonesia Is Falling Apart East Timor gets ready to vote AS the people of East Timor prepare to vote tomorrow on their future, a spate of rebellions and racial bloodbaths across the Indonesian archipelago are threatening to pull the world's fourth most populous country apart at its ethnic seams. In the most serious challenge to Jakarta's grip on power over the 17,000 islands and 210 million people, insurgents in the staunchly Muslim region of Aceh are waging a guerrilla campaign for independence. Bolstered by funding from emigr� businessmen, growing popular support among the four million Acehnese and an influx of new weapons smuggled through Thailand from Cambodia, the Free Aceh Movement rebels are fighting to create their own Islamic state in the lush, oil-rich northern tip of Sumatra. The Indonesian military is attempting a brutal suppression of the uprising and has put the territory under virtual siege, employing the sort of violent tactics it honed in the jungles of East Timor. But its strategy, which has claimed thousands of lives over the past 10 years, has only strengthened local backing for the guerrillas in a province that even the Dutch struggled to pacify when they were the colonial power. More than 3,000 miles away, Papuan tribesmen are also fighting for independence in Irian Jaya. And across the country, there have been a series of bloody clashes between rival ethnic and religious groups, most notably on Ambon in the Spice Islands where about 300 people have died in Christian-Muslim confrontations this year. In East Timor, last week's violence by Indonesian army-backed pro-Jakarta militia seems certain to be followed by even worse bloodletting after the results of the United Nations-run referendum are announced. The vote is expected to set the troubled territory on the road to independence. In the capital Dili yesterday, militia men menacingly cruised the decrepit, boarded-up streets in open-back trucks, armed with home-made weapons and automatic rifles. A pro-independence official claimed that pro-Jakarta gunmen shot dead an opponent in a drive-by shooting, the latest in a spate of killings as the campaign closed. Across Indonesia, violence has spiralled since long-time leader President Suharto was overthrown last year in a revolt that weakened the authority of the military-dominated government. The turmoil has deepened as newly-elected MPs bicker over the choice of a new president. There are now fears in Jakarta that the expected secession of East Timor could mark the first stage in the unravelling of Indonesia. And that explosive threat is already causing alarm in other Asian capitals and in neighbouring Australia. Jakarta will grudgingly accept the breakaway of the former Portuguese colony it invaded in 1975. But any further separatist moves would throw the country's raison d'�tre into doubt: for what unites the rest of Indonesia - with its 400 ethnic groups spread from Aceh to Irian - is that it was formerly the Dutch East Indies until independence in 1949. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a senior adviser to B J Habibie, the interim President, said: "Aceh is very different from East Timor. If Aceh were allowed to declare independence, there would be no legal or historical justification for not allowing the other 25 provinces to go their own way." Hasan di Tiro, the Free Aceh leader, in exile in Sweden, draws very different conclusions, he said: "The notion of Indonesia is absurd. It's just another name for the Dutch East Indies with new rulers: Javanese instead of Dutch." President Habibie's decision to grant the East Timorese a plebiscite was a highly risky political manoeuvre. Acehnese are now demanding their own referendum: the word is even painted on roads in the region. But there is no prospect of that. Indeed, in a new army crackdown launched in June, hundreds of houses have been burned and more than 200 people killed as Indonesian soldiers target villagers alleged to back the rebels. In the worst recent atrocity, at least 56 people were killed by the military in the village of Beutong. The local army commander claimed that his men killed 31 rebels who attacked them with machetes, while the other 25 corpses were planted "to implicate the military". But villagers and human rights groups say it was a massacre of unarmed civilians. More than 140,000 people have been forced from their homes during the last decade and the teeming refugee camps provide a fertile recruiting ground for the Free Aceh movement. Aceh has a long history of independence dating back to the 13th century when it became the first foothold for Islam on the archipelago. It sits strategically on the Strait of Malacca shipping lane and has lucrative oil and gas reserves: but of the �2 billion that Aceh contributes to Jakarta's coffers each year, it receives back only �200 million for its own use. Miss Fortuna Anwar says the new government recognises the need to allow greater autonomy, tackle local grievances about resources and religion and rein in military abuses. "We believe that if we address those issues, then most Acehnese will feel that they are part of Indonesia," she said. But many in Aceh say that Jakarta has had its last chance. As new troublespots flare across Indonesia, there is little sign that the upcoming presidential vote in the newly-elected national assembly will calm the crisis. The frontrunner remains Megawati Sukarnoputri, an enigmatic mix of pro-democracy reformer and fervent nationalist. Her father, Sukarno, the first leader of an independent Indonesia, promised the Acehnese strong autonomy after 1949 - and promptly went back on his word. A Western diplomat said: "Indonesia is going to become a much more chaotic and unstable place. Jakarta is not going to be able to enforce its will across the archipelago in the way it did under Suharto. There will be a lot more local power-brokers and lot more local troublemakers. Jakarta's biggest fear is that the country could start to fall apart." The London Telegraph, August 29, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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