>neighborhood. The article included a list of shooting
>victims as if to imply he had some involvement in the
>deaths, even though no charges were ever filed.
>
>"The improper, unfair and prejudicial publicity, in large
>part furthered and generated by officials involved in or
>closely tied to the prosecution of this case, may have
>already made it impossible for Mr. Al-Amin to receive a
>fair trial," the motion said. The motion also criticized
>law enforcement officials for "leaking" information to the
>media.
>
>According to the April 1 article, the FBI paid informants
>inside Atlanta's Community Mosque where Al-Amin is the
>imam. In a separate investigation, the Atlanta Police
>Department compiled a list of over 100 people associated
>with Al-Amin, most of them members of the mosque.
>
>The FBI investigation is said to have ended in February
>1996. Atlanta police say their investigation ended in
>August 1997. No charges were filed against Al-Amin.
>
>Despite the years-long investigations into every aspect of
>Al-Amin's life, surviving deputy English said that he and
>his partner didn't know who Al-Amin was, nor that he was
>labeled as dangerous by the state. Yet police have now said
>that the words "aggravated assault, possibly armed"
>appeared among the warrant documents the deputies carried.
>
>For more information on how to help, readers can contact:
>Imam Jamil Al-Amin Legal Defense Fund, 547 West End Place,
>SW, Atlanta, GA 30310; (770)521-5386;
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <005801bfa705$985ed4d0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Vieques braces for more struggles vs. Navy
>Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 14:08:26 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>VIEQUES ENJOYS THE QUIET OF VICTORY,
>BRACES FOR MORE STRUGGLES VS. NAVY
>
>By Berta Joubert-Ceci
>
>For one year, as of April 19, the children of Vieques have
>been able to peacefully fall asleep to the soft rumbling of
>the sea--instead of to the ear-piercing sound of exploding
>bombs fired by the U.S. Navy on the small island belonging
>to Puerto Rico.
>
>When F-18 fighter pilots sped through Vieques's airspace
>last April 19--dropping bombs in preparation for the U.S.
>/NATO invasion of Yugoslavia and killing civilian guard
>David Sanes--they could not have known they were initiating
>the most significant anti-war movement in the history of
>Vieques and all of Puerto Rico.
>
>Sanes was the last casualty in the increasingly hostile
>relationship between the Pentagon and the people of
>Vieques. Fifty people from that small island have been
>killed "accidentally" over the years by the Navy's
>practices there. Each death added fuel, leading to the
>great hatred now felt toward the U.S. military.
>
>Sanes's death made this feeling turn into action. And what
>a year of actions it has been.
>
>There was always opposition to the U.S. Navy in Vieques.
>But in earlier years the Pentagon, very skilled in these
>endeavors, tried and somewhat succeeded in dividing and
>pitting Viequenses against each other.
>
>Luz Tirado, a Vieques activist in exile, had her first
>encounter with the Navy at the age of six months, when she
>missed being hit by a stray Navy bullet just after her
>grandmother luckily moved her from her seat.
>
>Tirado recalls that in the 1970s the struggle was more
>"confrontational, face to face."
>
>"It was more difficult because we did not have the broad
>support we have now. The Navy turned us against each other,
>with a psychological war it turned into a mini-civil war.
>
>"But now that has changed and Vieques is showing that we
>are willing to fight until the end."
>
>This unity in action is easy to see. In the April 9 New
>York Times travel section, reporter Claudia Dreifus wrote
>about the island, "The only jarring note was the banners
>hanging, seemingly on every other house and tree, with
>slogans like `NAVY OUT,' `NO MORE BOMBS' and `PEACE FOR
>VIEQUES!!!'"
>
>What was a small group of anti-Navy militants in the 1970s
>and 1980s is now the majority of the people. From Vieques,
>it has spread to the Big Island, Puerto Rico.
>
>Now it is not the struggle of Viequenses alone, but of the
>majority of Puerto Ricans.
>
>Ismael Guadalupe, leader of the Committee for the Rescue
>and Development of Vieques, told Workers World, "The
>significance of this struggle has not only been the
>stopping of the Navy practices, but the enormous consensus
>of the people behind it."
>
>This struggle has broken the isolationist policy that
>Puerto Rico has been subjected to for 100 years since the
>U.S. invasion. The United States has tried to portray
>Puerto Rico as a non-Latin American country, somehow in a
>geographical and cultural limbo. Independent relationships
>with other Caribbean and Latin American countries have
>always been discouraged.
>
>But Guadalupe says other Caribbean and Latin American
>countries are increasingly interested in Vieques. In recent
>months this struggle has been on the agenda of several
>international gatherings, including the Sao Paulo Forum.
>Vieques' plea has also gone to Europe, where solidarity
>actions have taken place.
>
>More than anything else, Vieques underscores the colonial
>nature of the relationship between Puerto Rico and the
>United States.
>
>Jorge Farinacci, former political prisoner and
>spokesperson for the Socialist Front, told Workers World:
>"The biggest accomplishment in this struggle is the change
>in the consciousness of the people. It has made people well
>aware of our relationship with the U.S. and how the U.S.
>mistreats us.
>
>"This struggle, together with the one against
>privatization a couple of years ago, has provoked changes
>of a political nature that will bear fruit in the future,"
>Farinacci concluded. "There is no longer a loving
>relationship between the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S.
>government."
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <005e01bfa705$b1a949c0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Why Koreans celebrate April 15
>Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 14:09:08 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>WHY KOREANS CELEBRATE APRIL 15
>
>By Deirdre Griswold
>
>The Korean people have a long memory. The earth-shattering
>events of the last century that led to colonial occupation,
>war, liberation, the division of the country and yet
>another imperialist war, are burned into their collective
>consciousness.
>
>Koreans also have a fondness for dates and anniversaries.
>Most of all, they treasure the milestones along their
>difficult road that mark their triumphs and
>accomplishments.
>
>In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea--the
>socialist north of the divided land--no date is more
>important than April 15, the birthday of Kim Il Sung. Kim
>was the commander of the forces that battled both Japanese
>colonialism and then U.S. intervention. He also led the
>ideological struggle to forge a workers' party as the
>prerequisite to genuine liberation, and was north Korea's
>president until his death in 1994.
>
>Kim Il Sung was the most outstanding in a whole generation
>of Korean resistance fighters who became legendary because
>of their great self-sacrifice and honor amid the most
>perilous conditions.
>
>Kim Il Sung's name cannot be separated from the socialist
>aspirations and achievements of the DPRK. During his
>lifetime, north Korea collectivized the land, rebuilt the
>cities from the ashes of war, initiated important
>industrial development, established free and universal
>education and health care, and guaranteed every person a
>job and a home.
>
>All this was done on the basis of socialized, not private,
>property.
>
>This year, as Koreans celebrate Kim Il Sung's birthday in
>the north--and in the U.S.-occupied south, where such
>actions must be taken in secret because of the repressive
>"national security" laws--they will also be telling the
>world that they are proud of and confident in their new
>leader, Kim Jong Il, who is following in the socialist
>footsteps of Kim Il Sung.
>
>The capitalist media in the U.S. have for decades
>speculated that socialist north Korea would fall apart.
>They have never gotten over the fact that the world's
>biggest nuclear power failed to defeat the DPRK in a brutal
>and counter-revolutionary war lasting three years.
>
>More recently, they can't explain the DPRK's strength even
>after the destruction of the neighboring Soviet Union, even
>after the death of Kim Il Sung, even after three years of
>disastrous weather conditions that destroyed crops and
>infrastructure. All their predictions of north Korea's
>imminent demise have failed to materialize.
>
>They have misled people in this country by defaming and
>reviling the leaders of the DPRK. What most people in the
>U.S. don't know, because they have never seen it on
>television or read about it in the newspapers, is that the
>people in north Korea have enormous loyalty and affection
>for their leaders. Their unity around the leadership has
>been a material factor in the DPRK's ability to withstand
>adversity.
>
>The Korean people consider leadership of the greatest
>importance, and are amazed that a tremendous country like
>the United States can be led by such a shabby group of
>politicians, who have done nothing to distinguish
>themselves except collect large sums of money to get
>elected.
>
>There are many twists and turns in the relationship
>between the U.S. government and the DPRK. But every
>military threat by the U.S. has been answered by heightened
>vigilance on the part of the DPRK. Kim Jong Il has paid
>particular attention to making sure that Korea's military
>is prepared to defend the country against any aggression.
>
>The Korean leaders have made it clear again and again that
>they seek an end to the permanent state of war imposed on
>them--Washington has never agreed to a peace treaty to end
>the 1950-53 war. They have long sought an easing of
>tensions so that there could be movement toward the
>peaceful reunification of the north and south.
>
>At the moment, what may well be an historic meeting
>between Kim Jong Il and the president of south Korea, Kim
>Dae Jung, has been announced for June.
>
>June 24 is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the
>war. After 50 years of struggle, the DPRK, its leaders and
>its people continue to show the greatest determination to
>continue on the path of independence and socialism laid out
>by Kim Il Sung.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <000d01bfa70a$d4c476a0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Yugoslavia: U.S. bombing amounted to ecocide
>Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2000 14:45:54 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Apr. 20, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>PANCEVO, YUGOSLAVIA: U.S. BOMBING AMOUNTED TO ECOCIDE
>
>By John Catalinotto
>Pancevo, Yugoslavia
>
>For weeks during last year's U.S.-led NATO bombing assault
>on Yugoslavia, virtually all of Serbia was covered with a
>gray, smoky haze. It ended eerily in the north, where a
>different weather system blows in over Yugoslavia's border
>with Hungary from across the plains of the Ukraine and
>Poland.
>
>The smoke causing this haze poured out of bombed oil
>refineries and petrochemical and fertilizer plants in the
>key industrial regions of Yugoslavia. U.S. generals
>commanding the NATO air armada ordered these bombings not
>because they were valid military targets, but in an attempt
>to demoralize the Yugoslav population.
>
>This assault added a new word to the list of war crimes:
>ecocide. The murder of the environment.
>
>The HIP-Petrochemical Pancevo plant manufactures polyvinyl
>chloride and ethylene and also produces chlorine. On March
>30, Assistant Technical Director Dmitar Krivokuca showed
>the still severely damaged plant to visitors and described
>what happened a year ago.
>
>WORKERS AT PLANT WHEN MISSILES STRUCK
>
>"Most of the workers from all shifts were at the plant
>when the missiles hit late in the evening of April 15,
>1999," Kivokuca said. "We had taken in a full load of vinyl
>before the bombing started and were trying to use up as
>much as possible and move the rest someplace safer.
>
>"We had special teams on hand to help with rescues, should
>bombs or missiles hit the plant."
>
>Nodding toward where a bomb had struck, Kivokuca said: "I
>was 150 meters away from the missile when it hit, operating
>special equipment. Six missiles hit the plant within 12
>minutes, and a seventh hit three hours later."
>
>The vinyl chloride monomer plant and ethylene plant took
>direct hits. Indirectly, heavy and destructive explosions
>damaged the chlorine and polyvinyl chloride plant.
>
>Some of the buildings have since been repaired. But the
>complex of cylindrical tubes and spherical vessels making
>up the plant still stand, damaged beyond repair as any
>delicate system would be by such a blast.
>
>NATO missiles hit the plant a second time three days
>later, on April 18, 1999. The chlorine and vinyl plant are
>still closed, costing workers 1,200 of the original 3,200
>jobs at HIP.
>
>While workers are aware of the dangers from the damaged
>plant, they prefer to remain working at the restarted parts
>of the plant than to be unemployed.
>
>Kivokuca pointed to the holes on the sides of the
>spherical storage tanks. "Shell fragments opened those
>tanks, releasing huge amounts of ethylene-dichloride and
>hydrochloric acid. Also, large amounts of mercury escaped
>into the soil, underground waters and the Danube River."
>
>The fire resulted in the release of phosgene--a poisonous
>gas produced by the burning vinyl-chloride--into the air.
>Eighteen people were poisoned and had difficulty breathing.
>A part of the population of Pancevo had to be moved.
>
>"We do not yet know the long-term consequence of the
>changes here," said Kivokuca.
>
>HIP's report on the damage revealed that 460 tons of
>vinyl-chloride monomer had been released into the air by
>the explosion and fire. One thousand square meters of
>ethylene-dichloride, 200 kilograms of mercury, 70 tons of
>hydrochloric acid, and 40 tons of sodium hypochloride were
>released into the Danube.
>
>In addition, 1,100 tons of ethylene dichloride, 60 tons of
>hydrochloric acid, 100 tons of caustics and 40 tons of
>sodium hypochloride were released into the ground water and
>soil.
>
>There is no longer heavy smoke pouring out of fires. The
>rapid flow of the giant Danube River has washed much of the
>toxic materials downstream. But heavy metals like mercury
>remain in the soil, destined to contaminate the food chain.
>
>Even an expensive process to clean the soil and ground
>water, developed in the Netherlands, cannot guarantee that
>all toxins are removed, said Kivokuca.
>
>The severe sanctions the United States and NATO have
>imposed on Yugoslavia hamper all efforts to reverse the
>environmental damage caused by the U.S.-led war.
>
>ENVIRONMENTAL WARFARE
>
>Also at the HIP plant March 30, Serbian Assistant Minister
>of Environmental Protection Gordana Brun filled out the
>picture of the environmental damage to the region.
>
>"The NATO aggression against Yugoslavia is a unique
>worldwide example of ecological warfare. It not only
>annihilated the flora and fauna of one of the largest
>biological treasurehouses of the continent, it also
>endangered broader regions in the Balkans and in all of
>Europe.
>
>"In addition, it threatens worldwide consequences,
>including adding to global warming and the erosion of the
>ozone layer."
>
>She said that far from hitting only military targets as
>U.S. military strategists claim, NATO bombs "hit civilian
>targets in over 60 percent of the cases, in the most
>densely populated regions of Serbia."
>
>These targets included industrial zones that brought the
>greatest risk to Serbia's ecology such as Pancevo, Baric,
>Belgrade, Novi Sad, Krusevac, Kragujevac and others.
>
>Her assessment of the danger was supported by a United
>Nations study released in June 1999, which states the
>bombing of Pancevo itself "may pose a serious threat to
>health in the region, as well as to ecological systems in
>the broader Balkans and European region. ...
>
>"Many of the compounds released in these chemical
>accidents can cause cancer, miscarriages and birth defects.
>Others are associated with fatal nerve and liver diseases.
>The pollutants which have been released could also have a
>negative effect in the short and long term on the nutrition
>chain," said the UN Interagency Needs Assessment Mission
>study.
>
>Brun said that NATO targeting these industrial areas,
>along with using depleted uranium weapons, violated the
>1907 Hague Convention, the Geneva Convention, the UN
>Charter, NATO's charter and the laws of NATO member states.
>It added up to ecocide.
>
>The International Action Center is planning to hold a
>final hearing June 10 in New York on 19 charges accusing
>U.S. and NATO political and military leaders of crimes
>against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The
>indictment was written by former U.S. Attorney General
>Ramsey Clark.
>
>The murder of the environment will surely be one of the
>crimes under examination.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
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