UNDERNEWS December 8, 1999 Free-range journalism from Washington's most unofficial source ----------------------------------------------------- Editor: Sam Smith The Progressive Review 1312 18th St NW (Fifth Floor) Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779 E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PROGRESSIVE REVIEW INDEX: http://www.prorev.com/ UNDERNEWS: http://www.prorev.com/indexa.htm SUBSCRIBE: Reply with "subscribe" as subject UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' as subject ----------------------------------------------------- WORD CORPORATION: Inglorious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility -- Ambrose Bierce MORE THAN TEAR GAS? >From a report by the Direct Action Medical Collective, one of the groups that provided first aid during the Seattle demonstrations. KIRK JAMES MURPHY, MD: Individuals exposed to chemical weapons in the late afternoon and evening of December 1st at two locations downtown blocks adjacent to Pike Place Market and the Seattle neighborhood of Capitol Hill evinced and reported a pattern of symptoms which is inconsistent with the pattern of symptoms which may be ascribed to irritating agents. This "atypical" pattern of symptoms includes the rapid onset of: mydriasis (pupillary dilation) with resultant impairment of visual acuity; tachycardia (rapid heart rate) with some palpitations; new-onset hypertension (high blood pressure) in one individual; nausea, vomiting, diarrhea (persisting for days after exposure); abrupt or immediate onset of menstruation (asynchronous with usual menstrual cycle); muscular fasciculation (twitches); muscular dyscoordination; lethargy, confusion, disorientation, diminished concentration, nocturnal hallucinations. Moreover, some casualties reported an abrupt experience of loss of muscular tone and strength that sometimes (but not always) immediately preceded a loss of consciousness; one observer of these affected individuals reported uncontrolled, spasmodic movements in those affected. Some individuals exposed in the Pike Place Market area reported that the aforementioned symptoms came immediately after exposure to a non-irritating agent which was did not cause pain, lacrimation, or burning on mucous membranes. . . . The pattern of symptoms is not consistent with known mechanisms of action of the irritant chemical weapons OC, CS, or CN. The pattern, however, is consistent with disruption of neurotransmitter activity. Lamentably, the single most compelling explanation for the observed findings is the (deliberate or accidental) inclusion of "incapacitating agents" which disrupt neuronal function in the chemical munitions discharged by law enforcement agencies in Seattle during the WTO protest. While direct cholinergic effects or indirect (inhibition of acetylcholinesterase) effects arising from synergistic combinations (of OC, CS, and CN) cannot be ruled out at this time, the experience and observations Medical Collective members, together with the aforementioned information, appears to most robustly support the hypothesis that the casualties described above resulted from exposure to cholinesterase inhibitors used as chemical weapons in crowd control. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on December 4 that the Seattle Police Department had to replenish its chemical weapons stocks by going to outside sources. Various individuals have reported being told by individual law enforcement officers that chemical weapons in addition to OC, CS, and CN were deployed by various entities; these anecdotal accounts are not yet confirmed. Any information regarding the use of chemical munitions in addition to OC, CS or CN, as well as information regarding the discharge of chemical weapons by agencies other than the Seattle Police Department would be helpful. . . . If you were exposed to chemical weapons during the WTO protests and have the pattern of "atypical" symptoms discussed below, please make a written, signed, and dated account of your exposure, including details such as the (approximate) location in which you were exposed and the date and part of the day (morning, midday, afternoon, evening) of your exposure, as well as the nature of your symptoms. Please send such accounts to the email above and to the ACLU unit investigating law enforcement actions in Seattle during the WTO protests. KIRK JAMES MURPHY, MD: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] GREAT MOMENTS IN OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM In a front page story on the Seattle demonstrations, the New York Times referred to "tree huggers," and without the quotes. The NYT is a major consumer of trees. GULF WAR (CONT'D) ASSOCIATED PRESS: Brain scans of soldiers who believe they suffer form Gulf War illness indicate evidence of brain damage, possibly from chemical exposure during the 1991 conflict, researchers reported. "This is the first time ever we have proof of brain damage in sick Gulf War veterans," said the lead researcher, Dr. James Fleckenstein, a professor of radiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. DETAILS The following is a sample of the anthropology of roadside America offered by this site. One of our own favorite pieces of roadside sculpture is a huge Indian just south of Freeport, ME, on Route 1, known universally as the "BFI" or "big, fucking Indian," as in "it's just about two miles south of the BFI." ROADSIDE AMERICA: Big Johns are well-meaning hulks, hoisting car-sized bags filled with groceries in the parking lots of their Big John food stores. Often mistaken for Muffler Men, the Big Johns peacefully coexist with their roadside brethren. Big Johns are 30 feet tall, usually clad in checkered shirts, blue jeans, an apron and comical bulbous black shoes. And when -- God knows why -- a Big John store goes out of business, someone repurposes the big guy. That appears to be what happened to the BJ in Cape Coral, Florida, which lords over a strip mall now. His grocery bags are missing, but he's otherwise up to spec. A roving Big John is rumored to be in Lake View, Mississippi, pressed into seasonal service like a portable M-Man. ROADSIDE AMERICA http://www.roadsideamerical.com FEEDBACK PETER RYAN: A humble and admirable group here in Pennsylvania called Books Through Bars, run on a shoestring by Elizabeth Quigley, a local educator, provides educational materials and used paperback books to prisoners around the country. Most requested by prisoners are dictionaries and books on Black Studies. They always appreciate help with postage costs. Books Through Bars PO Box 201 Quakertown Pennsylvania 18951 LOOSE CHANGE THE GUARDIAN: The Sicilian Mafia is convulsing world stock markets by laundering hundreds of millions of pounds undetected through the internet, Italian police have revealed. Vast sums are dissolving into cyberspace and reappearing as stocks and shares in a criminal hijacking of electronic commerce. Surges in stock markets and even the euro's roller coaster ride are being attributed to the Mafia's mastery of online trading and banking. Gangs in other countries are eluding investigators by joining in an embryonic criminal network that is inventing techniques to exploit the internet's freedom, according to a leaked report submitted to the Italian government. LAW SUITS OF THE WEEK Stewart Gregory of Cincinnati, Ohio, is suing NBC, the "Tonight Show" and host Jay Leno, saying he was "battered" and "forcefully struck" in the face on Sept. 11, 1998 when the warm-up comic who preceded Leno on the show blasted a freebie T-shirt into the audience with an air gun. Gregory, who is representing himself without a lawyer, seeks damages in excess of $25,000 for his "pain and suffering, disability, lost wages, emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment", as well as punitive damages. OVERLAWYERED: http://www.overlawyered.com An actual photo of the Starbucks toilet seat that allegedly did permanent damage to a customer's penis as well as the full legal complaint is now available at Smoking Gun. SMOKING GUN http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/starcrush2.shtml LAWYERS TARGETED BY VOTERS? OVERLAWYERED: In off-year elections held through the south this fall, the National Law Journal reports, many candidates scored with voters by pointing out that their opponents were plaintiff's lawyers themselves or were backed by that group. All but one of ten Louisiana legislative candidates who were labeled as trial lawyers lost, and losses by two attorney incumbents contributed to the GOP takeover of the Virginia general assembly . . . Charles R. "Chick" Moore, a former president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, lost in a challenge to an incumbent who breezed home with 62 percent of the vote. Moore complained that it was unfair for the opposition to call voter attention repeatedly to his status as a trial lawyer, since he was trying to campaign on the issue of education. GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN PARENTING CBS: The search continues for the last two teens from a group of eight who ran away from a wilderness shock camp for troubled youth in Utah on Saturday . . . Five of the teens, cold and hungry, were caught Monday near the Nevada border and returned to juvenile detention. Three of the teenagers were brought back without their shoes on so they wouldn't run again. The teenagers overpowered their camp counselors on Saturday and headed for the desert, just west of Cedar City, Utah. It was at least the third time this year boys had escaped from the program. But never before had an entire group turned on the staff or resorted to violence, officials said . . . Parents pay $15,500 to send a boy on the wilderness outing. CBS http://www.cbs.com/flat/story_207976.html DRESSING WHILE BLACK DETROIT FREE PRESS: Two Detroit men suing a national retailer in a trial that begins today say they hope their lawsuit sends a message to other blacks that they don't have to accept injustice. Paul Woods, 20, and Darius McCaskill, 21, say that on Jan. 11, 1998, they were singled out at an American Eagle Outfitters store at the Oakland Mall in Troy because they are black. They say they were ordered to take off and surrender their sweaters after shopping at the mall. They were detained by mall security and then handcuffed by Troy Police. Troy police later concluded the two men did not steal anything. Their sweaters were returned. DETROIT FREE PRESS http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/neagle7_19991207.htm GOLD RUSH AD TO BE PUBLISHED TOMORROW IN ROLL CALL BY THE GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE: On July 24, 1998, before the House Banking Committee, and six days later before the Senate Agricultural Committee, Chairman Greenspan made the following statement: "Central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise." Ever since that comment was made, there has been a growing controversy about whether the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have been actively involved in the gold market. There has been speculation that the U.S. government, through your agencies, has been seeking to lower the gold price to rescue certain financial interests, much as the Fed orchestrated the rescue of Long-Term Capital Management last year. Aggressive bullion dealers, hedge funds doing the gold "carry trade," and unwise price speculation disguised as hedging by gold mining companies are most frequently cited as the beneficiaries of this government intervention in the gold price. As with LTCM, there is concern about severe risk to the world financial system, this time because of irresponsible gold lending policies of central banks. The Question Demands An Answer: Is the government of the United States intervening in the gold market and, if so, why? Chairman Greenspan, we will take you at your own word that you are intervening in the gold market as you said you would if the price rose. The Federal Reserve Bank's Open Market Committee may have the authority to deal in gold coin and bullion, but all purchases and sales, according to 12 USC 263- 359, "shall be governed with a view to accommodating commerce and business." If, rather, the Federal Reserve Bank or the Treasury Department is depressing the gold price in order to help various and numerous gold short sellers, it is a clear and illegal violation of the bank's purpose clause. The government's intervening to help one side over another in a private contract is illegal, fraudulent and unconstitutional. For the U.S. central bank to use its powers to benefit one class of citizens to the harm of another class of Americans is a gross violation of the Constitution's equal protection clause. GOLD ANTI-TRUST ACTION COMMITTEE http://www.gata.org LOOK WHO'S NOT COMING FOR DINNER -- The Baltimore Sun reports that W.J. Clinton will skip the Panama Canal transfer ceremony in two weeks because the White House has been "spooked" by allegations that the canal transfer will benefit Communist China. A company widely believed to be an arm of the Chinese military, Hutchison-Whampoa, was given strategic ports on both ends of the canal by the Panamanian government. Hutchison-Whampoa's head Li Ka-Shing is a business colleague of Wang Jun, the Communist Chinese arms dealer who met with Clinton at a White House fundraiser. Li Ka-Shing's and Hutchison-Whampoa are names that pop up repeatedly in documents obtained by Judicial Watch from the Commerce Department. Worldnet Daily has reported that Li participated in Ron Brown's infamous 1994 trade mission to China, planned by John Huang. -- ADMIRAL THOMAS MOORER (RET), NEWSMAX: Under Panama's agreement, Hutchinson Whampoa will control . . . who is allowed to pilot ships through the canal and can assign their own pilots . . . and they'll also be able to refuse access to the Canal by any ship for 'business reasons'." -- CNN: Some members of Congress are worried that China is positioning itself to take over the canal through a Hong Kong-based company, Hutchison-Whampoa Ltd . . . Clinton brushed aside these concerns but in so doing he appeared to misspeak when he left the impression that the canal was being turned over to China and not Panama. "I think the Chinese will in fact be bending over backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and able and fair manner... I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal," he said. UNSEPARATION OF POWERS "Stroke of the pen. Law of the Land. Kinda cool." � Paul Begala, former Clinton advisor, speaking of executive orders. "Clinton is pushing the envelope. He's consistently trying to take more power than Congress gives him." � David Schoenbrod, New York Law School professor quoted in the LA Times "We've switched the rules of the game. We're not trying to do anything legislatively." � Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt quoted in the Washington Times CLINTON SCANDALS JERRY SEPER, WASHINGTON TIMES: When the Democratic National Committee welcomed Johnny Chung and a guest to a 1996 fund-raiser for President Clinton, the DNC knew the guest was not only a Chinese businesswoman but also a high-ranking officer in the People's Liberation Army. Federal law enforcement authorities told The Washington Times yesterday that DNC chairman and former Army 2nd lieutenant Donald L. Fowler, in a previously undisclosed conversation, even joked with Liu Chao-ying before the Los Angeles fund-raiser that as a lieutenant colonel herself and the daughter of China's top general, she outranked him. The White House, which ignored warnings from its own national security advisers that Chung was a "hustler" and should be kept away from the president, has said it was unaware of Col. Liu's background or her ties to the PLA. WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washingtontimes.com THE IDEA MILL UPI: Maine is getting ready to legislate a program to promote the sale of environmentally safer vehicles. A bill will be come up in the Legislature in January to offer tax rebates of up to $3,000 for those who buy "green." A blue, white and green decal that says "Cleaner Cars for Maine" will be stuck on the windows of about five dozen models . . . To qualify for the sticker, vehicles must get at least 30 miles per gallon of gasoline and their pollution emissions must conform to California standards. IMPORTANT CIA FILE NEEDS HOME RALPH MCGEHEE WRITES: Due to health problems I am moving early next year and must divest all of the holdings of CIABASE including nearly one thousand books on intelligence, numerous Congressional studies; e.g. the 13 books and volumes of the Church Committee report, newspaper and magazine articles going back to the earliest days, all copies of various specialty publications such as Covert Action Bulletin, Counterspy, and others. Anyone interested please contact me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or by mail to Ralph McGehee, 422 Arkansas Avenue, Herndon, VA, 20170. LABOR NEWS Rachelle Burress, a 21-year old hospital cafeteria worker at the University of Virginia was sent home from her for wearing one of the orange and blue $8 buttons distributed by the Living Wage Campaign. Supervisors told her not to return to work until she takes off the button, but Burress has declared that "I will not return to work until I can wear that button." The Living Wage Campaign is providing Ms. Burress with financial support; and with the Campaign she is exploring the possibility of legal action. JUST POLITICS RALPH NADER & GARY RUSKIN, LA TIMES: Congress has refused for years to place many of its most useful materials on the Internet . . . We get mainly what they want us to know, not what we need . . . The Library of Congress maintains the Thomas Web page (http://thomas.loc.gov), which is great for historians. But why not also make available the most useful, up-to-date congressional materials, so that citizens could easily obtain the information they need? . . . Remarkably, Congress has yet to place on the Internet a searchable database of congressional votes, indexed by bill name, bill subject, bill title, member name, etc. Such a database would be inexpensive to produce and simple to maintain. CONGRESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT Http://www.essential.org/orgs/cap/cap.html DRUG BUSTS THE ECONOMIST: Allowing medical use [of marijuana] is seen by Mr. McCaffrey as a smoke-screen for ideas of that sort. Before the Maine vote he wrote in the Maine Sunday Telegram that the proposed new law was "unnecessary and dangerous". He pointed out that the psychoactive component of marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, has long been available as a drug under the brand name Marinol. "Just as people who are ill don't grow their own penicillin from moldy bread," wrote Mr. McCaffrey, "individuals can't guarantee the purity and dosage of THC by growing crude marijuana." Marinol has its drawbacks, however. Nauseous patients find it hard to keep down; others find it ineffective or, by contrast, too potent. "It turns you into a zombie," says one AIDS patient for whom it was prescribed. Patients smoking marijuana find it easier to regulate their dosage themselves. Marinol is also expensive, at $10 a tablet (normal dosage is two tablets a day), and s not covered by health insurance. It has recently been reclassified as a Schedule III drug, meaning that it is available on repeat prescription. This is not the first time, says Sam Smith, editor of the liberal Progressive Review, that "a drug has been legalized after the pharmaceutical corporations figured out how to do artificially and at a big profit what nature once offered for the picking." A recent Bristol University study shows that law enforcement officers in England view marijuana as harmless. Ninety-five police officers were asked to rank 11 substances in order of addictiveness and marijuana was considered the least addictive, just behind coffee. Crack, heroin, cocaine, tobacco, and alcohol were the top five most addictive substances. Marijuana ranked 10th (out of 11) in being considered a harmful substance by the officers, just behind alcohol and ahead of coffee. Crack, heroin, and cocaine were considered the top three most harmful. The California Coalition Against Prohibition and other community groups are fighting the pending eviction of 69-year-old Vernolia McCullough from her Oakland home. McCullough herself has never been charged with a crime, though police say they have recorded numerous marijuana sales in front of her property, some of them by her numerous relatives. She is scheduled to be evicted on December 2nd under the federally sponsored Community Prosecutor Program, aimed at conglomerating federal, state and local resources against alleged sources of public nuisance and blight. In addition to the eviction, the government is seeking to forfeit McCullough's home under federal law, which unlike state law does not require a criminal conviction. California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer says the Community Prosecutor Program is promoting "the cowardly and disgraceful tactic of civil forfeiture in its bankrupt war on marijuana. The government is seeking to render an old lady homeless for failing to prevent activity that its own police have been unable to prevent, without even charging her with a crime. In effect, it is trying to shift the burden of its own failed prohibitionist policy onto the shoulders of local property-owners." ------------------------------------------------ For a free trial subscription to UNDERNEWS send your postal address with zip code. Copyright 1999, The Progressive Review. Matter not independently copyrighted may be reprinted provided TPR is paid your normal reprint fees, if any, and is given proper credit. Because of its quantity, TPR's mail is not always answered, but it is always read. The editor is cheered or remorseful as appropriate and posts some of the more interesting messages at http://www.prorev.com/letters.htm. * * * * * * * * * * THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 1312 18th St NW (5th Floor) Washington DC 20036 202-835-0770 Fax: 202-835-0779 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Editor: Sam Smith INDEX : http://prorev.com RECENT UNDERNEWS : http://prorev.com/indexa.htm TODAY'S HEADLINES: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm THE REVIEW FORUM: http://prorev.com/letters.htm For a free trial subscription to both our bi-monthly hard copy edition and our regular e-mail updates send e-mail and terrestrial address to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To order "Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual" (WW Norton): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0393316270/progressiverevieA/
