-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 123 December, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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QUOTE:
"America is a melting pot. Those on the bottom get burned and the scum
rises to the top."
--Edward Abbey
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How to assist RadTimes--> (See ** at end.)
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Contents:
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--Police brutality against third world debt protestors
--The Elites & the "Structures of Political Authority"
--New NRO mandate raises secrecy flag
--Ebola death toll rises to 145 after 15 new deaths in Uganda
Linked stories:
*The worst of the injustice system
*Stocks rally on election news
*Aids epidemic 'worse than ever'
*US Court Allows Political Corporate Donations Ban
*Famous Giant Redwood 'Luna' Slashed by Vandals
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Begin stories:
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Police brutality against third world debt protestors
EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT by PAUL LAVERTY
POLICE ATTACK PEACEFUL MARCH AGAINST THIRD WORLD DEBT
MADRID - SUNDAY 26TH NOVEMBER 2000
It was a beautiful sunny morning. My friend Marco, a law lecturer at a
Barcelona University, popped around for a cup of coffee. He wanted to
bring around a little present for my son Lucas who was born two and half
months ago. He told me he was heading for a demonstration that was about
to take place in the centre of Madrid against third world debt. The march
was due to start in Plaza Cibeles, head down past the Prado Art gallery
and finish at Atocha train station some 10 minutes walk from where I live.
I decided to join him and asked my partner if I should bring Lucas out
with me for some fresh air. Marco thought there wouldn't be too many on
the demonstration and it was likely to be mild and good humoured. As Lucas
is still being breast fed we made a quick calculation of when he would
need his next maternal fix and decided that he would be screaming for his
lunch before I could get back. I decided not to bring Lucas and headed off
with Marco.
On the way over to Plaza Cibeles he told me about the Citizens Network for
Cancellation of Third World Debt. <www.RCADE.org> It sounded a very main
stream broad coalition and similar to Jubilee 2000 back in Britain. They
organised their own very imaginative public consultation to coincide with
the general elections last march. They set up ad hoc voting urns and asked
those voting in the elections to cast their vote for or against abolition
of third world debt. Over a million voted, with Catalunya being the best
organised with 500,000 votes. Predictably, 95% plus voted in favour of
cancelling the debt and organisers seemed delighted with grass root
organisers ability to highlight the fact that debt repayments dwarf
budgets of health and education combined in many developing countries
where infant mortality is a major killer.
On arriving in the plaza by pure coincidence I stood next to an older
group of religious activists and one nun, cross round her neck, from
Extremadura in the south West of Spain. To the other side were a bunch of
mostly young people in their early twenties from Barcelona who were
singing and dancing as they waited for the march to start. I saw a woman
who was about 7 months pregnant and it made me think of Lucas.
A mere half hour late and the march shuffled off. It was a very modest
number, perhaps around two thousand. It was very good natured, with the
usual chants, songs, and array of posters against third world debt.
Along each side of the march were the "policia antidisturbios" which
literally means "anti-disturbance police." These were all big burly
officers who were obviously in good shape. I was fascinated by their dark
blue uniforms which appeared like a tight version of workers overalls
except they have reinforced padding around legs and body for extra
protection. Among their various gadgets they all carried handguns in a
holster and heafty batons some three foot long. Several carried riffles
which appeared to have a strange fat muzzle at one end. I found out later
these were for firing hard rubber balls about the same size as a snooker
ball. They also had helmets with plastic visors.
The distance from Cibiles to Atocha is some one and half kilometres.
Halfway down this beautiful tree lined street which also boasts the world
famous Thyssen museum and Prado Art gallery is a stunning round-about with
a statue of Neptune in the middle. Some 100 yards west of Neptune is the
Parliament building. (Congress of Deputies.)
As the march slowly reached the roundabout there was a sudden burst of
action. About three hundred and fifty of the marchers sprinted between the
police and charged up the street towards the Congress of Deputies
building. The police pulled out their batons and whacked a few as they ran
past and then chased them up the street. The majority stayed behind by
Neptune's monument.
I ran up too. The marchers ran to the steps of the Parliament building and
sat down. By the time I arrived the steps were fully occupied by
approximately one hundred and fifty protesters. I joined the other two
hundred or so who sat on the street in front of the steps.
The protesters huddled together and started chanting "Cancel the debt."
There was now little or no movement from the protesters, but dozens of
police vans came screeching around a corner. More riot police arrived and
fitted their helmets.
Approximately twenty five police made their way to the top of the steps
and formed a line between the marchers and the building. At no point did
the marchers try to enter the building or break that line. In fact, they
were all sitting on the steps with their back to the front door and
therefore with their backs to the police who were standing above them.
As the chant "Cancel the debt" rang out I saw the entire row of police,
almost as one, start to kick the protesters in the back. Then to my left,
without any warning whatsoever, five police started laying into the seated
protesters with their batons. They hit them as hard as they could. I was
some 15 to 20 metres from them and had a clear view. Since the protesters
were seated at their feet, with their backs to them, most of the blows
rained down on their heads and shoulders. Then the other police joined in
and started beating the rest of the protesters, both on the steps, and
those seated in front on the road.
Some of the protesters were grabbed and pulled from the group. But to my
genuine amazement the majority of these young people curled up and
remained on the steps as the police continued to beat them. Those in front
of the steps too were being hit but not to the same extent as those on the
steps. Those that were dragged from the steps sat down again on the
street. I saw one young girl, perhaps 17 or 18, who appeared less than 100
lbs, being beaten and dragged from the steps. She got back up again and
sat on the same spot. A police raised a baton to whack her but laid it
down again in total frustration.
Among the chaos something remarkable happened. As the outside lines bore
the brunt of the blows, those lucky enough to be in the middle and not on
the receiving end started chanting "Sin verguenza!" "Sin verguenza!"
Literally, "Without shame" which then built up to a crescendo of "We are
pacifists....we are pacifists...we are pacifists...we are human beings, we
are human beings...." and the protesters held up their bare hands.
Then something even more remarkable happened. Gradually the police stopped
beating the protesters and there was shouts for silence. Most of the
protesters now sat on the road in front of the steps. As the silence grew
I could see and hear the police, who now surrounded the sitting
protesters, try to catch their breath. One was panting from his exertions,
pulled up the visor from his face, and wiped the sweat running down his
cheeks. Some of the protesters were moaning or crying from the blows they
had received.
One of the organisers, a man in his late forties, started negotiating with
what I can only assume was the policeman in charge. There were more calls
for silence and the organiser, who had an ugly gash on his head from a
blow and whose hands were splattered with blood, started speaking to the
still seated protesters. He called for a vote on the following options.
They could read aloud their statement about the third world debt crisis
and then be allowed to join the rest of the marchers still waiting by the
Neptune round-about, or they could continue with their act of civil
disobedience and "suffer the consequences." Those by me understood that
meant they might or might not be arrested, but all understood they would
certainly be beaten up. Given the fact that they were surrounded by
police, with batons drawn, and who were ready to go into action again
there was no possibility of other options being discussed. He asked for a
show of hands.
Not surprisingly, given the beating many had received, a clear majority of
90% against 10% voted to read their statement and then join the rest of
the march in the designated route. In silence, and in front of two TV
cameras, the organiser read out their declaration which amounted to a
summary of their reasons for supporting cancellation of the debt. There
was around of applause and people stood up to leave.
Suddenly some four yards from where I was standing the police grabbed a
man in his thirties. He was well built but quite short. Instead of leading
him away in an ordinary arrest he was grabbed from behind by the throat
and forced to skip along on his tiptoes as the two arresting policeman
were much taller and stronger.
Since this man seemed to be picked out at random, and arrested in such an
unnecessary violent manner, everyone sat down again. The chant went up,
"If you arrest one, you arrest us all." Again there was a stalemate.
After a couple of minutes the police seemed to back off. A gap appeared in
their lines and they stepped back to the sides. Muffled sounds came from a
police magaphone in the distance, but it was impossible to make out the
words. Several beside me shouted "Can't hear you." Then I saw two
policeman step forward with the riffles with the fat muzzles. At first I
wondered if they were going to fire tear gas shells. One seemed to fire in
the air. The other held the gun at waist height and shot into the heart of
the now seated group from about 25 to 30 meters. Panic then ensued as the
protesters realised they were firing rubber balls. The police charged
again hitting people with their batons. They chased the splinter group of
protesters down again towards the main body of marchers still waiting by
Neptune.
The rest of the march continued without incident till they reached Atocha
station. Organisers got together, and via mobile phones they managed to
locate the whereabouts of friends who had either been brought to health
centres or hospitals for treatment or arrested. I don't know how many were
arrested though it seemed to me they were more interested in beating
protesters than arresting them.
I met my friend Marco. He was sitting on the front row when the police
opened fire with the rubber balls. The young woman he was sitting beside
and talking to was hit on the side of the face with the rubber ball and
had to be carried off by friends for treatment. Marco told me, "We were
sitting down and facing the police. Luckily she turned round to speak to
me, otherwise the ball would have hit her full in the face." I don't know
if she was badly hurt or not. It is not surprising she was hit in the head
given the fact I saw the police man hold his gun horizontally at waist
height and fire it in to a crowd who were sitting.
At Atocha the mood was very subdued. I met the nun again with some of her
friends. "Now you know what kind of Government we have here." I wondered
around the demonstrators and listened to them speak. I saw many lift their
jackets and shirts to let friends examine their backs and shoulders. I saw
at least six with ugly baton marks. Several had a cuts and bumps on their
heads. I saw dozens and dozens being struck repeatedly.
Did I see any violence by the demonstrators? I saw one big demonstrator
who was being attacked by two policeman with batons. He started kicking
back as blows rained down on him. He was grabbed by three friends and
pulled into the middle of the group where he was held by his palls till he
calmed down. Apart from that I did not see one single violent incident by
a protester. I didn't see one single item being thrown. I didn't see one
single act of vandalism to property.
For the record, I was truly surprised at their restraint given the level
of violence against them. But more than that, I was amazed at their
physical courage.
What I did see was planned and systematic violence by the police against
pacifist demonstrators who organised civil disobedience on the steps to
the Parliament building which I assume to be out of bounds and therefore
illegal.
Something really caught my attention. There were several cameras filming
the entire incident. It did not inhibit the police at all. The evidence is
there for all to see, if there is any interest in making the
"anti-disturbance police" accountable for their actions, but more
importantly, those that give them orders.
(Written by Paul Laverty immediately after the march in Madrid on the 26th
November 2000.)
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The Elites & the "Structures of Political Authority"
By CARL BLOICE
Two years ago, on the "most partisan and flimsy of reasons," the Republican-
controlled Congress voted to impeach the President, the first time in history
the Articles of Impeachment had been invoked against an elected President,
observes Chalmers Johnson in his intriguing new book "Blowback."* While the
matter was being debated, President Bill Clinton carried out missile attacks
on Afghanistan, the Sudan and Iraq. The effect these moves, writes Johnson
was "a further weakening" of "the structures of political authority."
"Congressional willingness to resort to so untested device as impeachment
combined with a president willing to try to divert attention through warlike
actions suggests a loss of prudence, even a recklessness, on the part of
American elites that could be fatal to the American empires in a time of
crisis," writes Johnson, a University of California at San Diego professor.
Johnson's words were penned before Florida.
As this being written, our country's elites have been reduced to an
internecine battles pitting the two major political parties "like two
turkeys going at it in mud" over a relative handful of votes and dire
warning about the instability of their shared political authority.
Thanksgiving Day readers of the New York Times were treated to columnist Bob
Herbert accusing the apparently intransigent Republicans of "coming
dangerously close to breaking faith with the system." "That is not the
American way," he wrote. "That is breaking faith in the system." On the
opposite page, the Times editors warned that the GOP "risks undermining the
rule of law and the office he hopes to occupy."
"The resolution has dawned," wrote Gerard Baker in the Financial Times
Thanksgiving edition, that "... if things go on as they are now, it will be
the country that suffers a loss far greater than any individual's failed
ambition." He continued, "The hostility of the exchanges threatens to poison
the country's political institutions in a way that could be even worse than
the partisanship of the impeachment drama."
The ruling class has worked its way into a fine mess and from which it is
finding it difficult to extract itself. It's actually been somewhat amusing
to watch. The Los Angeles Times which has taken a far less alarmist view of
the affair than the NYT says it has "taken on aspects of farce," a Saturday
Night Live version of Alice in Wonderland. "Only it's not very funny and the
stakes are all too real," conclude the LAT editors. The stake are indeed
high, the most important centering on the public's confidence in the system
and the people in charge.
By essentially excluding the views of the left and the right of center, the
Bush and Gore campaigns moved the restricted the national political debate to
only that which was acceptable to the center. Having done so, the power
groups surrounding each of the two candidates believe they each have the
right to represent the manufactured consensus. Not surprising considering the
amount of money they each laid out for the opportunity. But there is far more
on the table in Florida than the personal ambition of two outrageously
ambitious men, for to the victory goes the spoils.
Taking a battle over less than a thousand votes to the Florida State Supreme
Court and the United State Supreme Court is as unprecedented and reckless as
the attempt to impeach the President or attacking other nations to divert
public attention. The President in question is a Democrat and the Senate that
vote impeachment is Republican. The Florida Supreme Court Democrat-dominated.
The Nation's Supreme Court that could overrule it is hardly so. Whatever the
eventual outcome of the battle partisanship will be seen as far more
important than legitimacy.
A time of crisis may be upon us sooner than later. With serious economic
problems clearly on the horizon public confidence is fast eroding amid this
partisan bickering. In reality the current gyrations of the stock market are
provoked by declining profit rates but small investors threatened with losing
their shirts are already blaming it on the troubles in the Sunshine State.
As the days wear on there is further weakening of the structures of political
authority. The ebb in public confidence was obvious long before this election
in the increasing numbers of people who have stopped bothering to vote. If
they need justification for their absence from the polls consider this bit of
astonishing cynicism from the page of the New York Times. Regular columnist
Thomas L. Friedman, who comes down heavily on the side of Al Gore, wrote
November 11: "Mr. Bush needs to remember that there is a difference between
what you can say about your opponent during the campaign and what you can say
about him after the election is over, with the outcome too close to call, and
with each side legitimately seeking to ensure that every vote is properly
tabulated. Smearing your opponent during the campaign is politics as usual;
smearing him during the recount after a vote to close to call is a threat to
our institutions and the next presidency." Really?
And people like Friedman see fit to lecture the world about the virtues our
particular form of democracy.
* Blowback, the Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Metropolitan
Books, New York, 2000.
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New NRO mandate raises secrecy flag
November 28, 2000
by Loring Wirbel
Englewood, Colo. - A commission created to examine the future of the National
Reconnaissance Organization has recommended that the agency set up a highly
classified office to spearhead advanced research. The commission also concluded
that the NRO-arguably the largest intelligence agency in the United States in
budget terms-should outsource more of its satellite intelligence from
commercial
companies.
The National Commission for the Review of the NRO recommended that an Office of
Space Reconnaissance be established that would be granted top-secret
procurement
status, with oversight by only the highest levels of government.
The plan is drawing criticism from some groups, who warn that increasing the
secretive nature, scope and budget of the NRO without instituting new
accountability measures is risky.
Created in 1960 to manage space-based reconnaissance programs, the NRO today
commands a classified annual budget believed to exceed $6 billion, placing it
ahead of the CIA and National Security Agency in fiscal size, although not in
head count. The NRO review commission, co-chaired by Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.)
and Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.), was created in response to a budget scandal in
1995-96 that prompted the resignation of the NRO's director and deputy director
after the organization was unable to account for more than half its annual
budget. The secrecy regarding the budget at the time was deemed excessive.
In its executive summary, the commission report suggests that the NRO faces
unprecedented threats to its mission from the global pace of technological
advancement and the agency's increasing exposure to public scrutiny. The
government did not publicly acknowledge the agency's existence until 1992,
although published reports on the NRO and its structure have surfaced
periodically for more than 20 years.
"Widespread knowledge of the NRO's existence and public speculation on how NRO
satellites are used [have] aided terrorists and other potential adversaries in
developing techniques of denial and deception to thwart U.S. intelligence
efforts," the report states. "Similarly, other technologies, such as
fiber-optic
communications, render certain NRO capabilities obsolete."
The only way to maintain a lead in space technology, the commission concluded,
is to get key White House officials directly involved in the creation of an
Office of Space Reconnaissance, which would operate in separate, secure
facilities away from the NRO's Chantilly, Va., headquarters. In short, the
commission said the NRO must have the consistent attention of the U.S.
president, the secretary of defense and the director of central intelligence if
it is to succeed.
Early spy-satellite missions were successful precisely because the
president and
CIA director played a direct role in shepherding them through the budget
process, the report states. "This would require that the secretary of defense
grant this [new space reconnaissance] office special exemptions from standard
DOD acquisition regulations," the report concludes. "It would rely heavily upon
the DCI's [director of central intelligence] special statutory authorities for
procurement.
"It would be under the direction of the NRO director but would operate in
secure
facilities separate from NRO activities. It would create and defend a separate
budget element within the National Foreign Intelligence Program and have
its own
security compartment."
One option the commission rejected was the development of an "NRO statute" in
Congress that would give the agency special authority in Washington. Getting
Congress involved in defining such a statute might make matters worse, the
commission concluded.
The Federation of American Scientists <www.fas.org/irp> and
<www.fas.org/spp> was
quick to react to the report. Steve Aftergood, director of FAS' Secrecy
Project,
warned that a call for expanding the agency's size, without explicitly spelling
out how accountability will be improved, lays the groundwork for future abuses
of the classification process.
"There is a good rule of thumb that if you are going to increase the power and
authority of a government organization, then you also need to increase its
accountability accordingly," he said. "The commission proposes to increase the
NRO's budget and procurement authorities but fails to provide any corresponding
increase in accountability."
The commission cited recent terrorist acts, such as the Nairobi embassy bombing
and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, as evidence that intelligence needs have
expanded significantly in scope and complexity since the end of the Cold War.
But the absence of a unified adversary like the Soviet Union has made it
difficult for the agency to get the budget it needs, the commission concluded.
"The disappearance of a single large threat has provided a false sense of
security, diverting our attention from national security issues and, for the
NRO, resulting in underinvestment," the report states. "Unfortunately, this
false sense of security has been accompanied by a particularly ill-timed
lack of
policy direction to the NRO from senior officials."
At the same time, the report goes on, various military and nonmilitary
customers
of NRO intelligence have been demanding levels of information from the agency
that far exceed Cold War requirements.
While independent analysts said they were pleased to see the issues
discussed by
the commission, many expressed concern that creation of another NRO level might
yield an "untouchable" segment of the intelligence community.
Aftergood of FAS said the commission had responded to the real problem of too
many low-level government officials demanding intelligence information from an
agency stretched to the limit. But "there is something a little naive in the
assumption that by replicating the secrecy and the independence of the NRO's
early days one can also replicate its early successes," he said.
Tech plans
Under the plan, the NRO would likely expand its work in technology such as
extremely advanced electro-optical imaging, including semiconductor sensors and
charge-coupled device arrays, holographic imaging techniques and multispectral
fusion (the process of creating images that fuse several imaging frequency
bands
at once).
In signal intelligence, the NRO's expanded efforts could embrace work on smart
antenna arrays, extremely sensitive wideband antennas, very low-power antennas
and parallel processing for intelligence collection and distribution. In all
cases, the commission said, the work should place the NRO at least two
technological generations ahead of other nations' intelligence agencies.
NRO director Keith Hall has sought to balance the need for secrecy in advanced
programs, particularly in space-based signals intelligence, with the need to
provide more open contacts to commercial industry. For example, some in the
intelligence community have argued for years that the government should
practice
"shutter control" to ban commercial companies from developing imaging
satellites
with resolution below 1 meter. But Hall has succeeded in encouraging the NRO to
purchase such imaging products from private companies, in essence outsourcing
part of the nation's intelligence arsenal.
The review commission encouraged the NRO's partnerships with private industry,
recommending the continued purchase of 1- and 0.5-meter images from commercial
companies. It even called for greater efforts to open up reconnaissance
programs-particularly mature programs supporting tactical missions of the U.S.
military-to improve the transparency and overall accountability of the NRO. And
it suggested that Presidential Directive-23, which limits the exports of
intelligence information, be reassessed to take into account the global
availability of imaging data.
At the same time, the commission warned that too many government customers of
the NRO consider its intelligence images to be "freebies." Intelligence
customers must be reeducated to understand that all images, whether generated
from government satellites or outsourced from commercial satellites, carry with
them an associated cost.
Creation of a space reconnaissance office within the NRO could prove to be a
vehicle for increasing the competition among corporate contractors for NRO
business, said John Pike, a former FAS space analyst who has formed a space
analysis company, Pike Consultants Inc.
The leading corporate players in the satellite intelligence business are Boeing
Corp., Harris Corp., Lockheed-Martin Corp., Raytheon Corp. and TRW Corp. In
recent years, however, Lockheed-Martin has fallen out of favor, particularly on
the imaging side, as a string of problems have beset its satellites and launch
platforms.
In September 1999, a team comprising Boeing, Hughes, Raytheon, Harris and Kodak
won a contract for the NRO's Future Imagery Architecture, the design for a
next-generation imaging satellite. Lockheed-Martin protested the award to the
General Accounting Office and warned that layoffs could result at its Waterton
Canyon facility, near Denver.
Pike said that the commission report contained some none-too-subtle criticisms
of the Future Imagery Architecture program, which he believes could include
three electro-optical imaging satellites and up to 24 associated radar
satellites. If the space reconnaissance office is created, he said,
Lockheed-Martin and TRW might be able to leverage the controversy to bring
their
sidelined Discoverer II satellite program back into play.
Discoverer II was a space-based radar network platform that the NRO was to have
developed with help from NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency.
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Ebola death toll rises to 145 after 15 new deaths in Uganda
November 28, 2000
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) _ Fifteen people infected with Ebola have
died in northern Uganda, including a relative of one of the
victims, bringing the death toll to 145 since the outbreak began in
September, the Health Ministry said Monday.
Francis Omaswa, director general of health services, said in a
statement that 17 new Ebola cases had been registered in two main
health centers in Gulu, 360 kilometers (225 miles) north of Kampala
and the focal point of the outbreak. The first case was confirmed
in October, though cases have been traced back to September.
The new deaths occurred between Friday and Monday, some of them
among the 24 patients who had been confirmed to have contracted the
virus, Omaswa said.
Among the victims was the 44-year-old man who died on Saturday
in a hospital in Masindi, 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of
Kampala, where four of the eight people infected with the virus had
already died.
``He died on Saturday and comes from the same family of those
who died earlier,'' Dr. Imaan Mutyaba, the medical supervisor, said
by telephone from Masindi.
Authorities had hoped to contain the disease in Gulu, where the
outbreak was first confirmed Oct. 14.
The virus has since spread to the southwestern town of Mbarara,
where four people have died since Nov. 2, and in Masindi, where the
first Ebola case was confirmed on Nov. 12. Both were linked to a
soldier and a woman who had been in Gulu and then left.
The fever caused by the Ebola virus is transmitted through body
fluids. The disease can cause severe hemorrhagic fever and is often
fatal. While there is no cure, patients aggressively treated for
dehydration have a good chance of survival.
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Linked stories:
********************
The worst of the injustice system
<http://www.facts1.com/stories2/stories2.htm>
If anyone wants more depressing grist for commitment, check out the newly
revised list of the 100 most outrageous convictions under CA's 3-strikes
laws, which can give 25-life for petty crimes.
********************
Stocks rally on election news
<http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeatBIZ.asp?/news/158521.asp>
Stocks rose Tuesday, with technology and blue-chip shares rallying amid
optimism that the U.S. presidential election will be resolved soon
following court rulings Monday.
********************
Aids epidemic 'worse than ever'
<http://itn.co.uk/news/20001128/world/03aids.shtml>
The global spread of AIDS has far outstripped the worst estimates of
medical experts, according to research published by the UN. The number of
people infected with AIDS worldwide is expected to rise to more than 36
million this year.
********************
US Court Allows Political Corporate Donations Ban
<http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/s/20001127/courtpolitics.html>
The Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the
long-standing ban on corporate contributions to federal political
candidates. The justices without comment or dissent sided with the
federal government and let stand a ruling by a federal appeals court in
Philadelphia upholding the constitutionality of the federal election
campaign law.
********************
Famous Giant Redwood 'Luna' Slashed by Vandals
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/11/28/MN117539.DTL>
<http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/28tree_a1empirea.html>
An environmental saga that transfixed the world took an ugly turn yesterday
when it was revealed that Luna, a 1,000-year-old redwood that was home for
two years to tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill, has suffered a deep
chain-saw cut that could prove fatal. No suspect for the act of vandalism
has been identified, but authorities say an investigation is continuing.
********************
======================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
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sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions 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, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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