-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 183 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --Honor Killings: Lingering Tragedy In The Name Of Honor --Get ready, Quebec City --Want Info? Feds Happy to Share --Mohawks may open border for FTAA protesters --PapaBush, BabyBush, and the Haitian future of the U.S. --Concerns remain about FBI's 'Carnivore' wiretap =================================================================== Honor Killings: Lingering Tragedy In The Name Of Honor <http://www.middleeastwire.com/commentary/stories/20010308_meno.shtml> Middle East News Online By E. Yaghi for Middle East News Online Posted Thursday March 8, 2001 Miyadda is a 13-year-old girl whose legs were amputated. She lost her legs when two men molested her and then pushed her in front of an oncoming train in an attempt to kill her. But the pain that Miyadda suffers is not only physical. "I will never walk again," she said hopelessly. Yet, this is only part of the grave problems that face the young girl. It is more than likely that she will never marry, first because of her physical impairment and second because most men will not have anything to do with a female that they feel has been "violated" by another man or men. An 11 year-old girl was raped by two policemen who also tried to kill her. Thinking she was dead, they threw her body out of their police car in a sparsely inhabited area. Her brutalized form was found by someone passing by and she was rushed to the nearest hospital. Doctors felt certain she would survive the physical abuse she had suffered but days later, the child died. She might have been shamed by family into wishing herself dead. She might have been mortified thinking she would live the remainder of her life condemned by others to be an immoral person, though she was too young to know what the intentions of her aggressors had been and too small to fight off their advances. In a village somewhere to the north of Jordan, a teenage girl was killed for a letter her relatives found that had her name signed at the bottom. The letter was to a married man and the contents were about the love between the man and the teenage girl. Not long after the letter was discovered, the girl was killed by one of her male relatives. After the police investigated the circumstances surrounding the murder of the girl and the letter itself, they discovered that the letter had been written by the girl's best friend in an attempt to make trouble for the married man because he had snubbed her efforts to gain his attention. She signed her friend's name only so that her own would not be used. When she found out that her best friend had been killed because of the letter she wrote and the name she had forged, she kept silent, fearing that she too would be killed by her own male relatives. An innocent girl lost her life because her friend decided to forge her name to a letter she was accused of writing. The male relative who killed her was set free after a short term in prison. Another young girl is held in protective custody because her father raped her. She became pregnant with his child. Her mother never blamed her husband for the rape of her daughter. But she was very angry because the girl reported the rape and the father was arrested as a result. The mother made her daughter drop the charges against her father, and he went free. The girl was kept in custody so that her male relatives would not take her life as a means of cleansing their honor. Honor killings are acts of violence committed against women by family members, generally for what is considered "immoral behavior." An average of 25-30 women are killed in Jordan each year in the name of honor. In most cases, a girl or woman is murdered by a family member for alleged violations of family honor. Human rights and women's activists have called for amendments to Article 340 of the penal code which exempts from punishment or reduces the penalty against those who kill female relatives for acts they consider improper. Many honor killings go unreported or may be recorded as accidental deaths or suicides. Lawyer Muna Zoughbaba of the Jordanian Women's Union stated, "The family would kill and bury their daughters and then report them missing." It is believed that the actual number of honor killings is four times as high as the reported figures. The whole concept of the way honor crimes are carried out is unIslamic. If an immoral act has been committed between an unmarried man and woman, there must be 4 witnesses who can testify to this act. Then if 4 witnesses can be produced, there will be a court hearing and a sentence will be handed down to both parties, male and female. In Islam, immoral acts and behavior are considered the same for both sexes. However, in most Middle Eastern countries, males are not punished for adultery or fornication while females will most likely be killed. Sheikh Izzedin Al Khatib Al Tamimi, who advises King Abdullah on Islamic affairs, said Islam forbids individuals from committing "vigilante" acts to punish adulterers. Male members of a family believe they can only regain their family honor by murdering females for alleged sexual transgressions. Nevertheless, autopsies performed on the victims of honor killings show that 95% of the females killed had no sexual relations at all. At least 50 women are involuntarily detained in protective custody each year so they will not be killed for alleged sexual transgressions Though 15,000 Jordanian signatures called for a change in the penal code that allows killers to escape justice, a draft submitted to Parliament that would have canceled the article in the code that allows leniency for honor killings was rejected by the parliament. An example of the leniency given to those who commit honor crimes can be seen in the case of Fayez. Fayez arranged for the release of his 17-year-old daughter from the detention center where she was staying for her protection. Once his daughter was released into his custody, he slit her throat. The Jordanian criminal court sentenced him to 9 months in prison. =================================================================== >Get ready, Quebec City > > Preparations for next month's Summit of the Americas have turned >Canada's constitutional mantra of peace, order and good government on its >head, MICHAEL VALPY writes. > >Talk is cheap. Tear gas is what really packs a punch > >By Michael Valpy >The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 10, 2001 > http://www.globeandmail.com > >The Summit of the Americas to be held in Quebec City next month will show >Canadians a new face to their democracy: A city sealed behind concrete >walls and a chainlink fence, a waiting prison and scarcely an elected >politician in sight. > >Indeed, the summit -- with tens of thousands of protesters expected -- may >well become the most dramatic illustration of the new politics of the >street that Canada has ever known. A democratic expression starkly in >opposition to the orderly, sedate parliamentary deliberations of national >mythology. > >Likely not since the 1919 Winnipeg general strike and the Great Depression >marches of the unemployed has an event so galvanized the energies and >imaginations of Canadians on the left side of the political spectrum. Or, >if not the left, what political scientists call the postmodern, >postmaterialist end of the spectrum. > >The Quebec summit is taking shape as an event, a rite of political >expression, a statement on the state of the country and the world. It is >not so much a planned reprise of the 1999 battle of Seattle that shut down >at the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting, but something softer, >more Canadian, more like a political Woodstock, a political Expo '67. > >It is our constitutional mantra of peace, order and good government being >rejected as fraudulent and turned on its head. > >In order for this gathering of 34 heads of state and government to >transpire, security authorities have announced that they will seal off the >centre of Quebec City behind a 3.8-kilometre perimeter barrier and transfer >the 600 inmates of a local prison elsewhere to make room for arrested >protesters. > >In the past, cities were sealed against alien invaders, not against their >own citizens. > >The summit's chief players will not be elected politicians but >demonstrators and police -- in the thousands -- along with diplomats, deal >negotiators and international trade bureaucrats. Also present will be a >whole new Canadian elite of activist lawyers, economists, scientists and >social-justice advocates; they are the emergent political representatives >of social-activist constituencies who have the expertise to critique >complex trade pacts and challenge their governments' support for global >commerce. > >Canadians have lost deference for their traditional political institutions >and leaders. They have become surprisingly ready -- more ready than >Americans -- to engage in protests, boycotts and civil disobedience, >according to political-science studies. > >A proposed free-trade agreement of the Americas heads the summit's agenda. >It is this FTAA, along with satellite issues of national sovereignty, >global social justice, environmental degradation and the power of >transnational corporations, that is attracting opposition. > >Dissent in Quebec City, at its extreme, will mean not words but rocks. >Order will mean tear gas, pepper spray, truncheons, arrest. > >Lawyers are carrying out political education by conducting workshops in >Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and New York on what demonstrators legally >can do and what they should do when arrested. > >Political expression in this new democracy falls under the rubric of >"direct action" -- not votes and the ballot box, but mass demonstrations >and civil disobedience. Protest workshops are being held (along with >political teach-ins on the complexities of free-trade agreements) in >Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and likely other cities. > >Free speech, the free marketplace of ideas -- those essential elements of >democracy -- will be protected at Quebec City, if at all, not by some >ancient rules of Parliament and cherished values acknowledged by the >authorities and the governed alike, but by lawyers watching for police >violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. > >The Constitution's protections of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, >association, even religion will all be at risk. One church inside the >summit security perimeter will possibly be off limits to many of its >parishioners. > >Also threatened is the Constitution's protection of the security of the >person. Three people handing out anti-FTAA leaflets in Quebec City a few >weeks ago were charged under a municipal bylaw that authorities later >acknowledged they had misused. > >A bylaw passed by the adjacent municipality of Ste. Foy banning the wearing >of scarves or other headgear obscuring the face was withdrawn only after >civil-rights advocates protested strenuously. > >On Jan. 27 -- possibly foreshadowing what will happen around the summit >dates -- Canadian customs and immigration officers stopped 10 New York >state residents who were en route to Quebec City to a meeting about summit >protests. The officers removed anti-FTAA literature from their van and >photocopied it, threatened one woman with a strip search and refused to let >the group in. > >Police have said they are monitoring the Web sites of protest groups and >have hinted that some organizations have been infiltrated. They also have >refused to provide details on how the security perimeter will operate -- >details that would allow lawyers to determine whether civil rights could be >violated and to apply to the courts for a preventive injunction. > >Once the summit begins, volunteer legal teams will be stationed at border >crossings, jails and public gatherings, watching for rights violations and >ready to help people deal with authorities. > >In nature, vacuums are abhorred. In politics, it is no different. > >The surrender of political and economic power in Canada from Parliament to >the rule books of the World Trade Organization and the North America >free-trade agreement -- rule books to which the public has no access -- has >altered the shape and behaviour of political opposition in the country. > >No democratically elected supranational body -- comparable to, say, the >European Parliament -- oversees or has authority to intervene in the >operations of the WTO, NAFTA or the proposed FTAA. > >Federal parliamentary opposition to the trade agreements has been virtually >non-existent or, in the case of the New Democratic Party, flabby and >belated. > >The provinces constitutionally could challenge federal commitments to >international trade agreements that have an impact on areas under their >constitutional jurisdiction. They haven't. The former Ontario NDP >government of Bob Rae promised a court challenge of NAFTA, but didn't >follow through. > >Disputes between member countries of the WTO and NAFTA are resolved by >appointed tribunals that function in private. > >Under NAFTA's Chapter 11, corporations have the right to sue governments >whose environmental regulations or other public-policy directions are >perceived to be an impediment to commerce -- an authority the federal >government openly admits was a mistake to grant. > >Federal-government regulations are now routinely scrutinized by officials >of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade before they >are published to ensure that they comply with WTO and NAFTA commitments. >Regulations account for about 60 per cent of federal law. > >In advance of the Quebec City summit, no text of the proposed FTAA has been >made public, which is essential for effective opposition. Opponents are >limited to criticizing what they think an agreement might or might not >contain. There could, for example, be language parallel to NAFTA's Chapter >11, but critics have no way of knowing. > >Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has given two major speeches -- at the >Organization of American States in New York and the Quebec Chamber of >Commerce -- in which he has said the summit is not just about trade, it is >also about promoting democracy and human rights in the Americas and >encouraging prosperity throughout the region. > >However, opponents from non-governmental organizations such as Michelle >Swenarchuk argue that there is no evidence the summit is about anything >other than an FTAA. > >Ms. Swenarchuk, a lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association >and an expert on trade agreements and other international covenants, is one >of those essential people in the new democracy who provide critics of >economic globalization with substance for their arguments. > >It is the lack of substance in Mr. Chrétien's statements she finds >disturbing. > >Ms. Swenarchuk said the Prime Minister could have made specific >recommendations around strengthening international law to protect human >rights. He could have talked about concrete proposals to support Latin >American NGOs working to strengthen democracy. > >She said Mr. Chrétien could have proposed a development fund for the >Americas to help smaller economies to adjust structurally to a free-trade >agreement. > >But from all appearances, she said, Mr. Chrétien isn't planning anything of >the kind. "If there's no money behind [what the Prime Minister is saying], >then there's just rhetoric. We're pretty sure there is none [no money]. If >there was, [Finance Minister Paul] Martin would have signalled it in his >financial statement just before last year's election." > >The federal government is not insensitive to the political mood at home, >nor is it ignoring what happened at the chaotic 1999 WTO ministerial >meeting in Seattle, where 50,000 demonstrators filled the streets. > >Marc Lortie, an able press secretary to former prime minister Brian >Mulroney and now Mr. Chrétien's personal representative to the summit, said >the government has gone out of its way to involve civil society -- the buzz >word for public-interest organizations -- in planning for the summit. > >In an interview, he said he has had many meetings with representatives of >about 50 NGOs over the course of more than a year. It was important to the >government that the public be engaged in the summit process and that >"voices of opposition that were not traditionally included" be heard, he >said. > >Mr. Lortie added that dialogue with civil-society groups had helped the >government to develop its position on such issues as human rights, and >anticorruption language in the FTAA text. > >And while he acknowledged that not all groups are satisfied with the degree >of consultation and some "were not prepared to be engaged with the >government," he described the consultations as "a very satisfying >experience" in which he felt he could genuinely reassure participating >organizations that their views had been listened to. > >Mr. Lortie has not been alone in reaching out. Trade Minister Pierre >Pettigrew has met at least twice with organizers of Quebec City's People's >Summit, which will run as a counterbalance to the official summit. Foreign >Affairs Minister John Manley has had smaller encounters with key NGO >leaders away from public and media scrutiny. > >The government's efforts have been viewed with some cynicism. For example, >at a consultative meeting in Ottawa last month, the atmosphere was a little >grumpy. > >NGO representatives pressed officials to release the FTAA text, but Mr. >Lortie said the Canadian government could not do so unilaterally. > >And a number of NGO members scoffed when he described the huge police >presence at last year's OAS meeting in Windsor as necessary to protect >delegates from a "threat." > >As much at issue for democracy as the government's signing on to free-trade >agreement is the state's response to public protests against them. > >Montreal civil-rights lawyer Julius Grey, a leading opponent of the Ste. >Foy scarf bylaw, said it is one thing for the police to close off a major >road for a few hours for a bicycle race, but it is another to block off a >whole city for five days for a political conference -- especially when the >public does not know how the city will be blocked off, whether the security >perimeter will be a checkpoint or an actual preventive barrier to people's >movements. > >"What's the legal authority?" he asked. "Is it convention? Custom? >Emergency law?" > >Mr. Grey said it appears that a joint RCMP and Sûreté du Québec committee >is making the decisions without any validation from political authority. > >He said Quebec Public Security Minister Serge Ménard has assured him that >he will look into it. "Ménard is genuinely a good lawyer and he's going to >try to provide the information," he said. > >He added that he understood Mr. Ménard's decision to clear out a prison. >"He has to have room under hygienic conditions [without] moving them >[arrested protesters] all over the province." > >Toronto civil-rights lawyer Clayton Ruby will be leading a workshop for >Quebec City-bound protesters in Ottawa this month on the criminalization of >political dissent in Canada. > >Mr. Ruby said pepper spray has become the automatic tool of police across >the country to quell political protests. "I cannot find anything governing >the use of it," he said. "It seems to be totally unregulated other than by >the Criminal Code, which says police cannot inflict grievous bodily harm >except in certain circumstances," by and large pertaining to when police >lives are in danger. > >He said a decision by the British Columbia Court of Appeal had defined >grievous bodily harm to include the affliction of serious pain. That, he >said, would include the application of pepper spray. > >"These leaders," Mr. Ruby said of the official summit delegates, "they are >so illegitimate that a city has to be sealed off to protect them." =================================================================== [See website for embedded links.] Want Info? Feds Happy to Share <http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0%2C1283%2C42387%2C00.html> by Julia Scheeres Mar. 13, 2001 The government should examine its own privacy practices before pointing a finger at the commercial sector, a report published Monday said. "The Federal government is the largest collector and user of citizens' personal and private information," said Jim Harper, operator of Privacilla.org. "It's hard enough to control your personal information in the commercial world, it's impossible to protect it in the governmental world." While legislators debate information-privacy guidelines on Capitol Hill, few have criticized information sharing by government, Harper said. A survey by Privacilla found that new government information-sharing programs were announced 47 times within the last 18 months, or a little more than once every two weeks. Under the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act, government agencies must publish a notice in the Federal Register before sharing files containing citizens' personal information. But the Act only covers records involving federal benefits or federal personnel and excludes many more, including certain law enforcement and tax files. The report comes a day ahead of a Federal Trade Commission workshop examining how businesses merge and exchange consumer information in Washington. The FTC should also examine how government collects, disperses and stores private citizens' data, Harper said. "There's a huge amount of information-sharing going on that the public and policy makers don't have a grasp on," he said. "Government poses a greater threat to privacy than the private sector." While sharing databases may streamline government and cut costs, it may also lead to questionable practices, privacy advocates argue. Just look what happened when the Census Bureau shared information with the military during World War II and 112,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese origin were rounded up and dumped into internment camps. A more recent example occurred in San Diego, where the County Board of Supervisors ruled that social services data could be shared with the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the purpose of locating undocumented immigrants, said Beth Given, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "When you participate in a social services program you have absolutely no expectation that the data you provide for the health and well-being of your family is going to be given to a federal agency for the purpose of apprehending you," Givens said. Although many of the worst-case scenarios resulting from data sharing are purely hypothetical, government attempts to compile comprehensive dossiers on citizens worry privacy advocates. "What would happen if we were to enter a period of political, social and economic turmoil?" Givens said. "Is there any assurance that the data would not be used for social control purposes? I think the answer is no." One key lawmaker also expressed concern about the government's privacy practices. "If the government is going to monitor the information-sharing practices of the private sector, I'd like to know who's going to monitor the government," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX). Last year, the House Government Reform Subcommittee gave the federal government a "D-minus" in computer security after a security breach left medical records at the Department of Veteran's Affairs wide open to hackers, and the General Accounting Office found that the government failed to live up to the FTC's privacy standards for commercial interests. "When Big Brother is keeping tabs on you, it's natural to be a little concerned," said Armey. "But it's even worse when the government can't protect sensitive information from prying eyes." =================================================================== Mohawks may open border for FTAA protesters http://www.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=27570 [independent media centre] [FTAA Border Caravan] Activists meet w/Mohawk Nation to discuss border crossings (english) by NYC-IMC Mar 12 '01 Ya Basta!, NYC DAN, NYC IMC, Philly Direct Action, and the People's Law Collective met with Tyendinaga Mohakws, OCAP (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty - a militant anti-poverty group), Kingston's People's Community Union, and Guelph Direct Action to discuss solidarity with indigenous struggles and an ingenious twist on how to get American activists across the border safely. Representatives of NYC DAN, NYC Ya Basta!, IMC NYC, Philly Direct Action Working Group and the People's Law Collective met in Cornwall on Saturday with Tyendinaga Mohawks, Members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), and the Guelp Direct Action Group and the People's Community Union (PCU) in Kingston. BACKGROUND: The PCU called a month or so ago for a caravan to Quebec City that would start in Kingston, traveling along the US/Canada border and blockading crossings if American activists were turned back from entering Canada. Since then contacts were made with Mohawk Warrior organizers and OCAP who expressed interest. As well, interest was expressed by NYC activists, and contacts have been made in Upstate NY. A meeting was arranged to discuss the ideas. This was an information not decision making meeting WHAT CAME OUT OF THE MEETING: 1. Mohawk Warriors will attempt by whatever means necessary to open the Canadian side of the border at Cornwall on April 19th time TBA to allow the passage of Activists into Canada, This is being billed by them as a "Day of Rage". 2. The Mohawks will use this as an assertion of their sovereignty, as the bridge crossing this border is on Mohawk Land. Currently, Mohawks allow use of the crossing 364 days a year, and open it once a year to assert sovereignty. [ "Close" it once a year makes more sense -- M.] 3. The Mohawks, OCAP, and the PCU are also using this as a chance to build coalitions and organize towards a larger campaign to unseat their rightwing asshole premier, Mike Harris. 4. Mohawks have also expressed their willingness to support those who have problems on the US side of the crossing as that is Mohawk land as well. 5. Meetings are currently being held in the Houses of the Warriors in Akwesasne to cement support there. The Mohawk organizer stated strong beliefs that there would be full support for this action there amongst the Warrior houses. This will be finalized by the end of the week including a statement to the public. 6. From the Canadian Side Americans will be free to join with Canadian activists including some from the PCU and OCAP (some members will stay in Cornwall, or return to their homes, OCAP is mainly mobilizing for Cornwall) in a large scale caravan to Quebec City. 7. Canadians are still discussing plans to shut the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway if necessary. We still advise that Burlington be used as the jump off and strongly advise those interested to be at that convergence by the 17th for training, or by the 18th spokescouncil meeting at the latest. =================================================================== Online Journal - http://www.onlinejournal.com 03-14-01: PapaBush, BabyBush, and the Haitian future of the U.S. March 14, 2001 Gathering up my luggage and leaving the airport building, I was stunned. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight, sound, and smell of the scene before me. The squalor was so intense; it was as though the bomb had already dropped on Port au Prince. The burning from thousands of household garbage fires and rank odors from open sewer ditches that ran alongside the roadway assaulted my nose. The clatter of wretched little diesel truck engines, burning oil and patched together for the umpteenth time competed with the shouting from aggressive cabbies, ushering me toward their decrepit vehicles, hoping for a fare. Port au Prince is an expanse of shanties and tents as far as the eye can see, a pit of poverty ringed by a mountainous ridge. Think San Fernando Valley the day after. The makeshift shelters look like they were thrown together yesterday, from the wreckage of a city. But, this is no catastrophe. This is just the way it is, and has been for some time. I had landed in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I think back to my brief stint as a missionary to Haiti in the early '80s as I search for a context from which to express my dismay at the direction this country has taken under Bush. There is much to be learned from Haiti, and its history, to gain an understanding of our perils here and now. Before the scene at the airport, I looked down at the countryside from the air. I saw an entire landscape denuded of all but the scruffiest little trees. Great erosive ditches ate away entire mountainsides. I later learned that this land was once a rich mahogany forest. Unsustainable clear-cutting had pillaged this natural resource early in the 20th century. That beautiful occasional table from your grandmother's estate? The wood was probably taken from this land in the '20s. Rapacious capitalists from that era took their money, and ran. Now anything worth burning for cooking fuel is cut down and reduced to charcoal. How can you guard a forest? Haiti's burgeoning population needs cooking fuel right now! The quarter century it takes to grow a great mahogany tree cannot be accommodated. There are many vicious cycles in Haitian poverty, and the inability to regrow this natural resource is just one of them. The proud craftsmen who made bowls, furniture, architectural adornment and art from mahogany rely on imports if they are the top few, but are usually reduced to the use of monkey pod, a trash wood. Like the Haiti of 100 years ago, we are richly blest with natural resources. And, like them, we are in the process of stripping the land for wealth today, poverty tomorrow. The oilmen will drain our natural resources from the Alaskan wilderness to the Gulf of Mexico, then move from the depleted U.S., as easily as a reptile sheds its skin, to Kazakstan or wherever else quick profits lay under the earth. Haiti is a particularly stark example, but we could also look at Duluth, MN, or Cardiff, Wales, after the iron or coal, respectively, had given out. See that movie, "The Full Monty," again, this time as social commentary, not comedy. Our fortunes are tied to the land, its vegetable, animal, and mineral wealth. As mortal, material beings, we cannot escape it. But, we can require our leaders to have a vision beyond the next election, beyond the next quarterly financial report. As it stands now, if anyone raised the issue of intergenerational sustainability at a board meeting, or an MBA class, he would be met with blank stares and snickers. This is wrong. We could have an economy that weren't one half-step ahead of an environmental apocalypse. We need to require leaders to think and act on these terms, if we are to avoid the lesson of Haiti. Like the Haitian erosion, half of our topsoil is now gone. We'll see most of the rest go within our children's lifetime. The air pollution in Houston rivals Port au Prince. Our own old growth forests will fall under the chainsaw now that the family that made jokes about the Spotted Owl is back in power. Rachel Carson warned us. Albert Gore, a visionary statesman, spoke of needed sacrifice to reverse dangerous pollution and global warming trends. Gore was punished, twice, in failed presidential bids because we in the comfort-driven U.S. don't want to hear the truth. Our craven desire to run from Gore's courageous truth created the media myth that Gore lies. Gore's book derived its title from an illustration. The picture was on a booklet about ecological priorities by Bush, Sr.. The illustration showed the Earth on one side of a scale, gold on the other. We forget the cautionary tale of King Midas: you can't eat gold. Earth is in the balance, and the earth lost the presidential election of 2000. We've sold out. Shameless rapscallions, we'd rather scold our Clinton tarbaby than face ourselves. The monkeywrenchers are our conscience, but we'll hunt them down and lock them up, full of righteous indignation at these so-called eco-terrorists. I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know deep down, am I? Because of our willful shortsighted selfishness, we're headed toward Haitian-style ecological collapse. Working Poor and Idle Rich Socially, Haiti is made up of almost all desperately poor, and a demographically tiny light-skinned Elite that have a lot of French in their ethnic heritage. Petionville, overlooking Port-au-Prince is studded with their stately long ranch houses, which would make any resident of affluent Woodland Hills, CA, proud. The Presidential Palace in Haiti is more opulent than the White House. Trends are in place that make Haitian demographics a real possibility in the US's future. The great Republican lie is that if you work hard, you will get ahead in the U.S.. It then follows that the poor are lazy, and the rich (try not to laugh) exceptionally industrious. The truth is embedded in our language, in the commonplace terms working poor and idle rich. To rise up economically, hard work is necessary, but not sufficient. Fair wages are derived from an economically just society, not just output. The underpinnings of economic justice in a free market system are strong unions, competition for workers, steady, stable employment, and captains of industry who are decent citizens and patriots. Every generation must fight anew to maintain a balance between opportunity and regulation, reward and exploitation. Under this Republican leadership, power imbalances between employer and employee are reaching dangerous levels. How soon we forget that every worker benefit: living wages, health insurance, workplace safety, even paid sick time, was fought, and fought hard by management. Only union strength prevailed against the tendency of capitalism to sink workers to a subsistence level. But unions have not spread into the new service and information worker class. Republicans are hostile to unions. Reagan broke PATCO. Bush, Jr., just allowed Mexican scalawags to compete with Texan Teamsters on U.S. highways. As I write this, Bush is threatening to break up an imminent strike by NorthWest's mechanics. Republicans argue that competition for workers replaces unions to buoy up wages. This too, is disappearing. Corporate compensation managers conduct surveys and share information with competitors about wages, having the effect of price fixing and deflating wages. When the worker's skill is abundant, or the economy soft, workers lose more ground. Without unions, employers increasingly have all the cards. Time was you could retire from the company who first hired you decades later. No more. You can move up by changing jobs, you think, but the compensation manager will only allow you to earn a few percentage points more. This will be offset by the loss of accrued benefits, like vesting. A growing economy can help you advance, but the wealth you generate will go in largest measure to the CEO's princely wage, and the shareholders. Plus, in a downturn, or any other bad fortune like a boss who dislikes you, you can be fired for good reason, bad reason, or no reason at all. Employment at will is the law of the land. Republicans have fought alongside their business contributors to derail any Democrat initiative that would infringe on management's right to be socially irresponsible, such as proper notice of plant closings. In the past, great industrialists blunted the worst capitalist excesses, though vision and conscience. Henry Ford so designed his wage structure that his average worker, if he were frugal, could own the vehicle he produced. It was the only way to create demand for a mass-produced product: make it affordable, but also make a market for it. Today, that vision has gone. In the U.S., the average family cannot afford the average new American car. There are no great philanthropists in sight, like Rockefeller and Carnegie. Today's American billionaire runs a multi-national corporation; his loyalty to the U.S. is tenuous at best. Buchanan said of them, "they have no loyalty to anybody." Gates is the exception that proves the rule, marrying his conscience. Relying on the sudden remorse of monopolists about to meet their maker is thin ice to skate on when the icy water of Social Darwinism-taught and believed in every business school in the country-rushes beneath. Besides, any worker would prefer a fair portion of the wealth he generates all along, rather than the return of some of the money robbed from him in the first place, in the form of charity. But, no matter: the Republican repeal of the estate tax will put that bequeathment not with organizations like the United Negro College Fund or the Nature Conservancy, but to offspring like George Walker Bush, one of the American Elite with a billionaire father. Declines in union strength and worker empowerment has resulted in ever thinner benefits like HMO coverage, and in the impoverishment of the bottom half of wage earners in the U.S. The trend has continued for at least a quarter century. Only Clinton's brilliant handling of the economy raised living standards for the lower classes. The reversal was modest, and brief. How long will it take before our social structure resembles Haiti? With the anti-union and regressive taxer Republicans in charge, the middle class will continue to sink. Republicans signaled as much when they derailed the recent ergonomics initiative, preferring to reward their corporate base and so provoke a half-million worker injuries. Facing all these facts, it is hard not to extrapolate a two class society in America's future: the haves and the have-nots-just like Haiti. The U.S. Is Looking More Like Haiti While taking in the extreme injustice between rich and poor in Haiti, it is natural to wonder aloud why the people don't revolt. But, be careful what you say there, as Haitians commonly caution foreigners that the walls have ears. Here, in Bush's U.S. we can talk all we want, but we may as well be mute. It takes money to have a voice. We give corporations the voice of a million citizens in our public debates, granting them a stentorian voice through their influence on our opinion-forming media and the purchase of politicians like Bush (R-Enron), Cheney (R-Halliburton) and Rice (R-Chevron). Seven corporations own all mass media. If they don't want us to know something, it doesn't get said. The corporate-owned media lockstep is as effective at the suppression of the truth as the Tonton Macoutes. The silence is deafening. How many times have stories been rumored about a member of the Bush family, only to disappear? The NY Times was investigating whether W had dealt cocaine during his Yale years, but all witnesses feared to speak for the record. Disinfo.com had a page that named names of the Flynt-claimed Bush abortion. It is gone. As Democrats.com courageously notes, CNN censored its own transcripts on same. Also gone is the CNN discussion board on Bush, though the Clinton and Gore boards remain. And this is from the formerly so-called liberal media. Bush said it outright: "there ought to be limits to freedom," and fought to close the satirical gwbush.com. Zack Exley, the heroic private citizen behind the website, resisted. We need many more like him if freedom of the press is to survive. Already, the best sources for frank reporting on U.S. politics comes from overseas, like Britain's Guardian. In Haiti, there is a strong dose of fatalism in the public ethos. Progress, personal betterment, and societal advancement are unimaginable by the common people. The President is the top, Elite are in their rightful place, as are Blancs, and everyone else at the bottom. Once, I (I'm white) tried to get some exercise in the Haitian countryside by walking some miles rather than taking a taxi. The common folk weren't just appalled, they scolded me for crossing a societal line. No wonder democracy is difficult with this attitude. This complacency finds its echo in the U.S., where only 50 percent choose to vote, less in local or mid-term elections. Overall, voter turnout is in steady decline, fed by Republican negative campaigning, echoing the conventional wisdom that politicians are just no good. Haiti a quarter century ago saw the transfer of power in Haiti from PapaDoc to his son, Jean-Claude "BabyDoc" Duvalier. Sound familiar? This President-for-life didn't need elections, everybody loved him. Or, so we were told. His picture with his pretty wife was in every shop. You didn't know if the shopkeeper's reverence was real, or for his safety. Late at night, the air conditioner buzzing for auditory cover, a Christian minister confided in me that all was not well. I later learned he went into hiding. I never did find out his fate. Finally, in the late '80s, BabyDoc's incompetence and pressures from the still-democratic U.S. drove him from power, and Haiti dared to hope for a popularly elected multi-party government. May we achieve the same in 2004. But, democracy is fragile. Aristide only lasted a year, ousted in 1991 by a military coup. As Bush, Jr., said, "this would be easier if it were a dictatorship, so long as I'm the dictator." When I learned of Bush's faith-based initiatives, I had an odd moment of deja vu. In Haiti, faith-based initiatives are about all they've got. The infrastructure of health care delivery, education, and economic development in Haiti comes from religious and other charities. For examples, H=F4pital Albert Schweitzer, Grace Hospital, and Habitat for Humanity. The government does little. Charitable outreach keeps the Haitian government from taking responsibility for its populace; the place is so thick with missions. Lacking nationalized health care, just like us, vaccinations and preventative care are sporadic in Haiti. A child of 5 in Haiti is called an escapee; diseases like tuberculosis claiming so many young. Anyone there will give a ready confession of faith to a Blanc (white person) for treatment or food. Making aid conditional on faith produces only cynical parroting of that faith, not sincere conviction. Mature missionary organizations have learned that the only way to genuinely reach a Haitian for Christ is to help out of unconditional love, and let that alone be one's testimony of faith. Eighty-five percent of Haitians adhere to a religion called Voodoo. Its practices, like our rising Biblical Literalism, are based on harsh laws of conduct and fear. Charitable appeals from my mission on my return asked for funds for a hefty, all terrain crew truck needed to transport workers to distant villages. My organization builds churches, health clinics and schools. I wondered why they needed 50 percent above the cost of the vehicle in the U.S.. I was told this was to meet stiff Haitian tariffs on imports. I'm no trade expert, but it seems to me that usurious trade barriers haven't helped the Haitians, just taxed their economy and enriched their government officials. So, I wonder, if NAFTA and WTO are so bad, how could Clinton have improved the lot of workers, despite them? In the election's aftermath, we were compared to a banana republic. I hope this article has shown you how apt this comparison could be. Let us learn the lessons of Haiti, and be moved to help those in distress. But also, we'd be fools not to take the necessary actions to assure that we avoid their fate. As it stands now, we are well on our way! =================================================================== Concerns remain about FBI's 'Carnivore' wiretap <http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/03/12/carnivore.concerns.idg/index.html> By James Evans March 12, 2001 (IDG) -- There are still plenty of legal, technical and philosophical concerns to explore with the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation's controversial "Carnivore" Internet surveillance tool, according to panelists who spoke about the sniffer technology during the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference. Some of the technical and legal points hinge on what data Carnivore is capable of capturing when it is implemented, panelists said. Carnivore, which is now referred to by the FBI as DCS1000, is a software program that monitors packets of data passing through an ISP's (Internet service provider's) network. "The problem from legal angles is that it captures all sorts of IP (Internet Protocol) information," said panelist Mark Rasch, vice president for cyberlaw at Predictive Systems in Reston, Virginia, and the former head of the Computer Crime Unit at the U.S. Department of Justice. It can offer information such as what Web sites a user has visited, cookies, time of searches and log on/log off information, he said. With any wiretap technology, the goal is to minimize or get as specific as possible on what is being looked for, he said. Carnivore has automated the process of looking for specific information and that opens up possibilities for greater use. It is relatively quick to set up and comes at minimal cost, Rasch said. That is why it is crucial that federal hurdles already in place that limit utilization of Carnivore remain, said panelist Harold Krent, a law professor and associate dean for faculty and interprofessional activities at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology. Without requirements for law enforcement, there is potential for rogue or negligent applications of the sniffing technology, said Krent, who helped review Carnivore last year. According to Krent, the FBI used Carnivore between 25 and 30 times last year. Approximately 25 percent of the time, it was used in situations where it was approved by individuals for their own protection, such as in stalking cases. Two types of searches can be done, he said. One type is a "pen register," which provides addressing information, and the other type is the full-content search, he said. Most of the searches last year were pen register searches because law enforcement officials do not have to show probable cause to get a court order to look for the information, Krent said. A full-content search requires a judge's approval. The FBI and U.S Department of Justice also have internal reviews that often can require law enforcement to wait up to six months before the sniffer technology can be used for investigatory reasons. Federal officials must prove that less invasive search methods could not be used instead, Krent said. On the technology side, there is the question of whether Carnivore can determine the target it is looking for from a non-target, said panelist Matt Blaze, who is with the secure systems research department at AT&T Labs and has testified before Congress on Carnivore. It could be a technological pitfall for evidence gathering by law enforcement, he said. One example is if dynamic IP addresses are being used, he said. If Carnivore is supposed to look at a specific IP address for an individual and it actually has been assigned to someone else, it could pose a serious problem, he said. Another potential technological concern is creating fraudulent packets for Carnivore, he said. There is a question of whether Carnivore could distinguish real network traffic versus traffic generated to trick the technology, he said. As far as philosophical questions go, there is the point of trusting the FBI with the technology, said panelist David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which has sued the FBI for access to information on the Carnivore program. The sniffer technology provides the FBI with access to all traffic on an ISP. The public has to trust that federal law enforcement will only look at data necessary for its investigation, Sobel said. A greater check on the government would be to give the ISPs the Carnivore program and let them run it for federal law enforcement when necessary, he said. It is unclear what the future holds for Carnivore, as Sobel shared a quote from newly appointed U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that suggests he believes that federal law enforcement agencies already impose too much on the lives of private citizens. =================================================================== "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. 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