Re: Texas on the Tigris [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton voted to let the president use force in Iraq because she didn't want the president to use force in Iraq. 'Near or Middle or very far East, far or near or very Middle East, Kill, kill, kill for peace...' -- Fugs, 1966. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Observation on demo weekend [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Incredible anti-war demos - impressive taken as a whole. (Many online Bush and Blair reports are accompanied by a demo photo!) An observation: Madrid, London, Sydney, even the march to Cheney's house, have all strongly featured solidarity with the intifada (appropriately enough this weekend). It seems like the Palestinian colors are becoming the universal colors of the Left. And why not? Useful, as I see it, because pairing today's anti-war stance (anti-imperialism) with the intifada avoids a utopian anti-war stance (absolute pacifism) and keeps our focus on ... the good fight. All out on the 26th of October! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://www.utopia2000.org --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
RE: Nuclear waste in the West Bank - should be welcomed! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Alright, that's it for me. Unsubscribe. . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller -Original Message- From: Rolf Martens [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 4:44 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Nuclear waste in the West Bank - should be welcomed! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Nuclear waste in the West Bank - should be welcomed! [05.07.02] [Posting note: This is being sent (also) to the kominform2 mailing-list, whose programme is General class struggle news. To any other subscriber who may reply to it, I shall send a public reply again (if any) *only* to the Usenet news- groups 'alt.society.revolution', 'alt.politics.socialism.mao', 'swnet.politik', 'eunet.politics' and 'alt.politics.socialism' and/or to some *other* mailing-lists including the Mao Zedong one, reached via [EMAIL PROTECTED], in suitable cases also to the Socialism and Communism Forum at http://www.pwrhouse.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forumf=272] WHY WE (AS AN EXCEPTION) SHOULD SAY WELCOME! AND THANK YOU! Not least in the so-called superstructure, in fields of cul- ture and education, in quite a lot of important scientific fields, is there a very sharp class struggle going on in the world today. Here's one small example of this, concerning, quite directly, one rather small (though politically important) area in the world, indirectly however more or less the whole globe too: In some newspaper and Internet articles recently, it has been reported that the racist, wildly aggressive, mass murdering and totally illegal state of Israel is planning also to ...turn the Palestinian Authority-ruled area of the West Bank into a vast dumping-ground for its domestic industrial, chemical and nuclear waste, thereby creating a potentially catastrophic environmental nightmare. As far as actual industrial and chemical wastes are concerned, this of course must be emphatically protested against and combated, just must as all other acts of Zionist aggression. Many kinds of such wastes are quite dangerous to people's health. However, if the Zionists would really dump such substances as are, in precisely all of the multi-moronic mass media of the all the fanatically Zionism-backing US and other imperialists in the world precisely always being called, multi-moronically, nuclear wastes, then this should really be welcomed and in- deed applauded, by the Palestinians and by the supporters all over the world for their just cause of annihilating those mass murderers and their racist state and establishing a democra- tic state in all of Palestine. Why is this? Because of the longtime and still today continued rule of the imperialists, with their multi-moron media, multi-moron school teaching, multi-moron regulations on (e.g.) radia- tion, multi-moron everything that has remotely to do with culture in its widest sense, this long-since established fact may not yet be known to all that many outside some circles of scientists and technicians: *A little more* ionizing radiation than that which people in most areas in the world (including e.g. the West Bank) today are receiving from natural sources - a suitable, not too big, addition to that amount - actually is *beneficial* for their health, and by no means detrimental. What's always being called nuclear wastes (*none of* which of course are *really* wastes, all of which, on the contrary, of course can be put to quite excellent, peaceful, use, al- ready with that technology which there is today) by all the rabidly-reactionary rulers, in all their daily mega-moron poi- son propaganda, comes basically in two kinds: Highly-active, respectively, low-active wastes - or, to call them by their proper name, *residual products* or *ma- terial which has been made more radioactive than normal*, Now *highly-active* wastes, that's mainly such stuff as has been inside a nuclear reactor, and which has therefore or in some other way gotten to be emitting radiation at high levels, very intensively. These are dangerous for humans to be close to, even for some short time, and are therefore, normally at least, kept tightly enclosed in thick-walled containers. Most improbable, and silly indeed, would it be, even for the Zio- nists, just to dump *such* stuff in places to where they might later, hopefully, send some aggressor troops of theirs, such as the West Bank. Only *low-active* wastes, of which there is always much more too - since lots of stuff which has just been realtively close to a nuclear reactor in included in this - could the Zionists reasonably be expected to plan to dump in such an area as the West Bank. And these are *not* dangerous for people to approach, and to stay close to for as long as they might care. Children's perhaps even putting some
Editorial: Independence Day [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Well, I'm in the mood to rant and there's nothing like Independence Day (the 4th of July) -- zillions of US flags everywhere; worse this year than ever -- to get me going. Let me start off by exploding one of the quaint old left myths -- that is, 'the average American' is too thoroughly indoctrinated and stupefied to realize 'how bad things are.' What a paternal assumption. The material is out there (especially in the information age), at least enough of it is out there. Most US citizens can read. Take the continuing oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians: the photos come up on the wires daily -- the bulldozers, the weeping women, the children with rocks facing tanks, the carnage, the miserable tents. 'The problem isn't just that Americans don't know... It is that they don't care that they don't know' (Palestinian doctor quoted in The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid, ed. Carey, Verso 2001, p. 275). It's not that 'the average American' is clueless; the clues are readily available. It's just that the US is a settler nation itself, with a long history of abusing minorities. If the US has been so insensitive about it here, why would 'the average American' give a damn when it happens somewhere else? Look at Israel: it's like looking at the US in the era of Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears (which, for the record, wiped out as many civilians as 9-11). I think 'the average American' chooses to know as little about it as possible. MIM calls it 'calculated ignorance' and I agree. Most of those yellow ribbons in 1991 were on working class neighborhoods and most of those polyester American flags flapping from automobiles in 2001 are in working class neighborhoods. They know the score: they just don't give a shit -- at best. And why should they? I think 'the average American' intuitively realizes that his and her relative affluence is predicated upon exploiting the rest of the world. Sure, it isn't a pretty sight and, sure, sometimes it can make for a guilty conscience, but -- ultimately -- it's the where the affluence comes from. The real laugh is when 'the average American' goes 'tut tut' at all those 'undemocratic' countries -- countries mostly DESIGNED to be 'undemocratic' (by the US) because if they ever could become 'democratic,' all those exploited workers would sure as apple pie 'vote' to get paid a hell of a lot more for making all the stuff for the US they are compelled to make in their sweatshop hellholes. There's always been 'democracy' as long as no one looks further than the manor or the Acropolis, whatever. You want global democracy? Capitalism will have to go -- and so will the relative affluence of the Empire nations, led, of course, by the US. Will 'the average American' choose a reduced level of consumption? There's no precedent in history to make such an assumption. The utopians are the biggest hypocrites on this score. They always want their socialism to be instant, or peaceful, or 'democratic,' or whatever -- a million qualifications with each blueprint -- all the better to give up and wait for heaven. Screw 'em. So then. There's American flag bikinis from sea to stinkin' sea this summer, American flag everything -- and this year is a special year: it's the year of the infinite and perpetual 9-11 tributes (the one moment of US suffering eternalized). And all those old policies of covert operations (like the one that failed in Venezuela) are getting thrown over and the US is going straight to the chase: the First Strike Doctrine. No surprise the US isn't interested in any sissy International Criminal Court or anything. Where's 'the average American' on this issue? At the mall, at the beach, waving a flag. Are they concerned about the planned assassination of Saddam, which would seriously be a violation of international law? Planning a coup against Arafat? Are they fretting about that Afghan wedding party that just got wiped off the face of the earth? Rejecting the ICC? Kyoto? Protecting Kissinger just like the Taliban protected bin Laden? Go on, ask some of those flag waving idiots where they stand on that noise. Speaking as an American to the exploited people of the world: Reason won't work with us, just ask those folks on the Trail of Tears. No folks, you will JUST have to beat us, in whatever manner works, in order to gain your freedom, SEIZE your freedom -- from us. Globalize the intifada! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
G8 Ottawa - 'Capitalism sucks' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- CP. 26 June 2002. G8 Summit - Protest turns violent. OTTAWA -- Chanting anti-war slogans, protesters burned a U.S. flag outside the American embassy Wednesday where several hundred demonstrators opposed to the G-8 summit faced off against police. RCMP officers wearing flak jackets and backed up by more police watching from nearby vans ringed the embassy to hold back about 600 protesters, some chanting Bush is a terrorist and 1-2-3-4, we don't want your fascist war. The crowd tried but failed to burn a rain-soaked Stars and Stripes, but burned another one wrapped around an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush. Police watched but took no immediate action. They pushed back one protester but didn't arrest him after he climbed a fence to hang the Canadian flag alongside the U.S. emblem. Demonstrators opposed to the leaders' agenda took their sometimes-violent march through downtown Ottawa and onto Parliament Hill where their numbers peaked at over 1,000. A police helicopter clattered around the Peace Tower as the protesters -- some naked -- carried their grievances against world's richest countries to the front lawn of Parliament. Half a dozen nude protesters danced on the steps below the Peace Tower, their bodies emblazoned with the slogan Not for Sale. Protesters light marijuana joints on the steps of Parliament. A mid-day cloudburst had done little to slow their march and small groups of demonstrators grew increasingly violent as they moved toward the Hill. Protesters hurling golf balls and heavy, paint-filled balloons cracked a bank window, smashed a television network van and slapped Capitalism Kills stickers on buildings as they marched. Two police cars were also damaged. Police confronted crowds of protesters who were chanting Whose squat? Our squat! as they converged in front of a vacant home occupied by anti-poverty demonstrators. Homelessness and a shortage of social housing in Canada is one of the many issues protesters have been raising. Police arrested one black-clad, body-armoured activist earlier in the day as the demonstrations began and a bicycle officer had his nose bloodied during the scuffle. Police confirmed one man had been detained but would not release his name. Other protesters said he is Bertrand Loiselle of the Montreal-based protest group La Clac. A thunderstorm had scattered a group of about 200 protesters calling themselves the Revolutionary Women's Knitting Circle from their perch in front of a bank on the Sparks Street Mall. But the larger group, estimated at more than a thousand, which had rallied at a midtown park was undeterred by the afternoon lightning, thunder and torrential downpour. Many protesters, represented by an umbrella group Take the Capital, had warned earlier that vandalism and violence was entirely possible during their marches. Capitalism sucks, a 21-year-old philosophy student from Cambridge, Ont., said before the march started. I hope there's chaos, added his friend, a steel factory worker. The only way you get a message across is with machine guns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with photos --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Editorial: Bush's 'democracy' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- So. 'Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leader so that a Palestinian state can be born, Bush declared' in tonight's speech (AP, 24 June 2002, 'Bush Mideast Policy Sets Tough Conditions Palestinians May Be Unable to Meet'). Not surprising, 'Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office endorsed Bush's approach, saying in a statement that when the Palestinian Authority undergoes genuine reforms and a new leadership takes its place at its head ... it will be possible to discuss ways of moving forward by diplomatic means' (ibid.). This whole approach has been in the works for a little while. As usual, Sharon leaked it in advance... 'Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has urged the United States and other nations to appoint an interim Palestinian government... established even against the Palestinians' wishes, the Yediot Ahronot daily reported Thursday. 'The free world must force this government on the Palestinians, the daily quoted him as saying' (AP, 16 May 2002, Sharon: the International Community Must Appoint Interim Palestinian Government). Let's take a closer look at this example of 'forced' democracy... 'Dozens of angry delegates walked out of Afghanistan's grand assembly on Wednesday, saying they were not being consulted, as... [t]he Loya Jirga, a traditional Afghan parliament, is expected to vote later on a new president with Hamid Karzai, interim leader and favorite of the United States, the sole candidate' (Reuters, 12 June 2002, 'Afghan Delegates Walk Out in Protest Over Vote'). The 'sole candidate,' take note. Then... 'Afghan President Hamid Karzai, facing a grand council that made little progress in choosing the country's government, said Monday he will select his own Cabinet and that time had run out for delegates to choose a new parliament' (AP, 17 June 2002, Afghan leader says he will appoint own Cabinet because loya jirga missed deadline). Funny, the US considers this sort of thing a real no-no in Cuba... Not in other places, though. Anyone remember Guatemala, 1954? Chile, 1973? Nicaragua in the '80s? Here's the deal. Democracy doesn't exist. Oh, sure, there's a spot of it here and maybe there, just like in good old Rome -- but it's always smaller than the whole sum of people involved in materially creating it. We've got democracy for the manor but not for the field hands. Democracy, meaning here the ideological facade in front of a particular system of production relations, is always opposed to actually letting its enemies get a vote, too; hell, this sort of truly inclusive democracy just might vote itself (meaning that particular system of production relations) right out of existence. So we get these puppet 'democracies' all over the place. Latin America, South Pacific, Africa, you name it, like big fat ugly mushrooms on a rainy day. Will this happen to the Palestinians, as well? Personally, I doubt it. They seem to have a bit more spine than other oppressed people preceding them in the struggle against colonialism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BarryStoller --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Re: Sharon the Merciless and Arafat the Corrupt [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Independent. 4 May 2002. Sharon the merciless and Arafat the corrupt have nothing meaningful to offer each other. ... That the United States wants to enlist the Europeans, Russia and the UN in its plans for a Middle East peace conference is perhaps the only sign of realism in the initiative. Otherwise, it's the same old twaddle. ... The squalid, corrupt little dictator of Ramallah, Mr Arafat... cannot fulfil his required role of colonial governor -- to control his own people -- while Mr Sharon cannot fulfil his promise to provide Israelis with security. The article above -- full of obeisance to US authority and characterized by a 'fuck-'em-all nihilism -- is the 'same old twaddle.' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Milosevic trial [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 3 May 2002. Kosovo's moderate president clashes with Milosevic in court. THE HAGUE -- Kosovo's president, Ibrahim Rugova, clashed with his nemesis Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal Friday, accusing the former Yugoslav president of massacres against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. But in cross examination, Milosevic labelled Rugova -- who led the non-violent movement for Kosovo's independence from Serbia since 1989 -- of being a pawn of the great powers trying to implement their own agenda. Milosevic told the Kosovo Albanian leader the situation in Kosovo was a result of actions by the international community. Milosevic asked several times, quoting newspapers and books, if Rugova believed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was a terrorist organisation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Milosevic trial - more details [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 3 May 2002. Moderate Kosovo leader clashes with Milosevic in court. THE HAGUE -- Ibrahim Rugova, president of Kosovo and longtime leader of its ethnic Albanian majority, crossed swords with Slobodan Milosevic at the UN war crimes tribunal on Friday, accusing the former Yugoslav president of ordering massacres of his countrymen. In cross-examination, Milosevic hit back by accusing Rugova of being a pawn of great powers trying to implement their own agenda. Strengthened by the court's admonitions to Milosevic to ask only question that dealt directly with the indictment, Rugova repeatedly branded Milosevic's queries as irrelevant. You seem to like that word 'relevant', Mr May uses it a lot too, Milosevic sneered. Milosevic quoted several newspaper articles and books charging that the Kosovo Liberation Army was a terrorist organisation funded by drug money and trained by foreign intelligence services in an overall plan to overthrow Serbia. I don't know anything about that, said Rugova, dismissing the question. Milosevic went on to suggest that German support for Rugova's independence movement harked back to Albanian fascist militias which supported Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler during World War II. Judge May cut off this line of questioning, deeming it irrelevant to the trial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Editorial: What does 'no massacre' mean? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Probably the most disturbing headline slogan I have seen lately -- again and again, especially on Indymedia -- is: 'No massacre, that's why the UN mission was canceled.' It is true that Human Rights Watch and, I believe, Amnesty International have set the terms: 'Massacre, no; war crimes yes.' And, of course, in the interest of journalistic brevity, the headline is often trimmed to 'Massacre, no.' That's what the BBC says, anyway. What does 'no massacre' mean? It means (more or less): only some 50 bodies have been found, not at all 500 -- as was originally claimed. Massacre does not apply to how horrible the deaths were, or how pointless, or how premeditated, or how evil; it applies to SIZE -- and, in this case, the size isn't there (as far as anyone will find out in the near future, anyway). That leaves us with: War crimes. 'Just war crimes.' Or: 'Just the usual war crimes.' Israel, as we all know, has demonstrated limitless occasions of such guilt. Bulldozers burying civilians, human shields, orders to 'put a bullet through each window,' preventing ambulances from rescuing civilians, AND SO ON, all of it 'every day stuff.' Everyday war crimes. But: No massacre. That's different, that's unacceptable. We like our massacres in slow motion -- spread out over decades. Then it's 'just' war crimes. And that's ... well, the US and Israel tell us that's OK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US's NATO expansion: 'the more, the better' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 2 May 2002. US adopts 'the more, the better' formula for NATO enlargement. WASHINGTON -- The United States has signaled it might favor accepting more new members in NATO than currently anticipated, arguing that the more allies we have, the better off we're going to be. It also expressed its determination to press its European partners to boost their military capabilities, including making a contribution to President George W. Bush's missile defense program, despite strong reservations about it in many European capitals. The statements came at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday, which featured Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith among the key witnesses. The issue of bringing new members into the 19-nation alliance will top the agenda at a NATO summit in Prague in November. The applicants include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia and Albania. But although no final selection has been made, experts had been pointing out until recently that about five of these candidates were most likely to make the cut. According to the well-informed Republican Senator Richard Lugar, that unofficial list has now been expanded to seven to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania. But when asked if he believed the alliance could undergo an even larger enlargement', Grossman answered without hesitation: Yes, sir, I do. The events of September 11 show us that the more allies we have, the better off we're going to be, he continued. The more allies we have to prosecute the war on terrorism, the better off we're going to be. Both Grossman and Feith made clear the Bush administration remained dissatisfied with the contribution provided to the alliance by the European militaries, arguing that they lacked sufficient airlift and sealift capabilities and were not doing enough to defend the West against weapons of mass destruction. If we get to a point where it is the truth that the United States fights and NATO cleans up, or the United States fights and the European Union cleans up, that is bad for us, and it is very, very bad for our European allies, Grossman pointed out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Jenin: Guilty conscience for UN, whole world [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 2 May 2002. UN council weighs scaled-down report on Jenin; Palestinians slam U.N. for aborting Jenin mission. UNITED NATIONS and JERUSALEM -- A divided U.N. Security Council weighed asking Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday for a scaled-down report on Israel's assault on the Jenin refugee camp after the Israeli government refused to cooperate with a full-fledged fact-finding mission. A letter drafted by Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani, the council president for May, would ask Annan to collate all available information regarding recent events at the West Bank Palestinian camp with a view to producing, as far as possible, an accurate, thorough, balanced and credible report. Experts from the council's 15 member-nations were reviewing the letter and it was unclear how the body would proceed. Seeking to capitalize on anger among council members at Israel's rejection of a mission it had initially welcomed, Arab delegates had tried to push through a resolution telling Annan to go ahead with the operation and demanding Israel cooperate. But as the council was about to vote, Syria and Tunisia withdrew their draft because they did not have the required nine yes votes among the 15 council members to succeed. The object, diplomats said, had been to maneuver the United States, Israel's closest ally, into an embarrassing veto against a mission it had helped initiate. But at least eight nations were also said to have opposed the measure. After nine hours of on and off negotiations on Wednesday evening, council members went home for a brief sleep before returning for more scheduled talks. Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said Israel was trying to hide its crimes in Jenin and beyond. We know that war crimes were committed in Jenin and other places, he said. ''What is left to be known is the scope of the willful killing of civilians and whether this would constitute a massacre or not. This is a dark spot in the history of the Security Council and the United Nations, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters. The United Nations is destroying its credibility before the peoples of the world, he added. Meanwhile, Israeli government spokesman Dore Gold said It is good now that this committee is not going to engage in this fact-finding mission because there are no facts to find. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Last train to Nuremberg --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US ruling class solidly pro-Israel [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- US ruling class solidly pro-Israel Russian plane down: itchy fingers jittery nerves [EMAIL PROTECTED] AP. 2 May 2002. Congress Moves Toward Israel Support. WASHINGTON -- Congress clasped Israel in a supportive embrace on Thursday as the House and Senate moved toward separate declarations in favor of the Jewish state and a military campaign aimed at dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in Palestinian territory. Israel has been under siege ... from a systematic and deliberate campaign of suicide and homicide attacks by terrorists, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a leading supporter of the measure in the Senate. Their essence is identical to the attacks on our country of Sept. 11, said Lieberman, D-Conn. The rhetoric was similar in the House, where the GOP leadership sent a more strongly worded measure to the floor for a vote. Unlike the Senate bill, it mentioned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by name, accusing him of an ongoing support of terror in the wave of suicide bombings against Israelis this spring. There is no cycle of violence in Israel, anymore than there is a cycle of violence as we respond to terrorists that attacked the United States, said Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the deputy GOP whip. There is a response to terrorism -- the kind of response that is so clearly in line with the response that we had to that cowardly attack on our country. The House acted on a stand-alone bill advanced by Reps. Tom DeLay, of Texas, the House GOP whip, and Tom Lantos, D-Calif. Lieberman and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., offered their proposal as an amendment to trade legislation. Both said the United States and Israel are now engaged in a common struggle against terrorism. Lawmakers, eager to show solidarity with Israel, have long chafed at the silence the Bush administration asked of Congress at a time when American diplomats worked to stave off a wider outbreak of violence in the Middle East. The House bill stated that Israel's recent military operations were an effort to defend itself against the unspeakable horrors of ongoing terrorism and were aimed only at dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian areas, an obligation Arafat himself undertook but failed to carry out. A steady stream of lawmakers spoke in favor of the bills in debates that unfolded simultaneously in the chambers at opposite end of the Capitol. The resolution calls upon all parties to work toward peace, said Smith. But it does say it without equivocation, we stand with Israel on the front line in the war against terrorism, he said. The United States would do no less than Israel has done, he said, if terrorists came into our country, into our shopping malls, into our schools and murdered our children. Israel has not asked for this war any more than we asked for ours against al-Qaida and the Taliban, Lantos told the House. But when democracies come under terrorist attack, it is morally incumbent upon us, as the world's leading democracy, to express our solidarity. That is what this resolution does. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Last train to Nuremberg --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
FARC offensive on global capitalism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 2 May 2002. Colombian Rebels Bomb Train Carrying Coal From World's Largest Open-Faced Coal Mine. BOGOTA -- A rebel bomb derailed a coal train and damaged a stretch of track, halting the transport of coal from one of the world's largest open-face mine, the mine's operator said Thursday. The attack Wednesday night derailed 20 cars of the loaded coal train, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The train carries 70,000 tons of coal daily between the mine and a seaport. Fortunately, the explosion didn't cause injuries, but it damaged a stretch of the rail line, Intercor, the multinational operator of the Cerrejon Zona Norte mine, said a statement. Repairs to the tracks, which run from the mine in northern La Guajira province to Puerto Bolivar on the Caribbean coast, will take about five days. The mine is owned by the CZN consortium, made up of Glencore International AG, of Switzerland; Anglo American PLC, of South Africa; and BHP Billiton Ltd, of Australia. With output last year of 19.4 million metric tons of coal, Cerrejon is the world's largest operating open-faced coal mine, its operator says. In a radio interview, army Gen. Gabriel Diaz blamed the attack on the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The FARC, which raises money by producing cocaine [read: taxes coca agriculture much as the Bush administration taxes abortion clinics], kidnapping and extortion [read: expropriating the rich every chance they get], has stepped up attacks on the country's infrastructure. The Bush administration says it wants to expand military aid to this beleaguered South American nation beyond counternarcotics assistance, including training an army brigade to protect an oil pipeline that has been frequently sabotaged by the rebels. Colombia's 38-year war pits the U.S.-backed military and an outlawed right-wing paramilitary group [note the implied alliance] against the FARC and a smaller rebel faction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Foreign pacifists enter Bethlehem church [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 3 May 2002. Foreign pacifists enter Church of the Nativity. BETHLEHEM -- Ten foreign pacifists managed Thursday to slip into the besieged Church of the Nativity, declared a closed military zone by the Israeli army, an AFP photographer at the scene said. They brought food into the holy site here where some 180 Palestinian gunmen, as well as priests, monks, nuns and other civilians have been trapped for a month. The group consists of four Americans, an Irish woman, two Swedes, a Canadian woman, a Dane and a Briton, one of their number said. They belonged to the same group who brazened their way past Israeli guards last month to get into the then-besieged West Bank headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, their colleagues told AFP. One of them, American Kristen Schurr, explained that the group used diversionary tactics in their assault on the church. Speaking from inside, she said a group of about 35 people had divided into three smaller groups and taken the soldiers by surprise. She said around 10 made it into the church, while the others were arrested. Georgina Reeves, a Briton who lives in the Palestinian territories and who is organizer of the International Solidarity Movement, said outside the church that Israeli snipers were shouting at us, telling us to go back. But we brought in as much food as was possible, and we will stay there as long as the siege ends, she said. An AFP photographer on the scene said he saw the pacifists, loaded down with food, jump the coils of barbed wire and bolt across Manger Square to the church, where the door was opened as they approached. Schurr said the group took rice, lentils, cauliflower, salt and sugar into the church, among other things. A similar bid by the International Solidarity Movement to make it into the church on Sunday failed. Reeves said they were better organized this time, and that those inside the church knew exactly when to expect them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
May Day - Summary [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay -- all of which supported the UN resolution that chided Cuba, on behalf -- say Cubans -- of the United States. Castro, clad in olive military fatigues, continued his recent tough talk against Latin American neighbors he slammed as lackeys and boot-lickers of the United States in a 45-minute speech. They have plotted with the United States to condemn Cuba when none of these nations really is in any condition to criticize Cuba, Castro said. Plagued by hunger, unemployment, corruption and social marginalization, Castro argued, they are the political symptom of the fact the prtevailing political and economic system in Latin America is coming to an end. They are the swan song of neoliberal society, an impassioned Castro said. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of chanting, flag-waving Venezuelans marched for President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday, the first large demonstrations since bloody street clashes last month sparked a failed coup. Chavez supporters - many wearing the red berets made fashionable by the army paratrooper-turned president - held banners labeling the president's opponents fascist dictators. I was in bed crying for two days when they kicked out Chavez. Then when he came back we were so happy, said Haydee Carriella, 55-year-old woman who came out to support the president. The opposition was left like kings without crowns, she said. At the pro-Chavez march, many proudly wore red T-shirts reading Bolivarian circles, as the neighborhood groups are known. The only weapons we have are the lessons we give the poor - to help them fight for their rights, said Angel Yaraguin, a farmer, joining a stream of people marching toward the presidential palace. Meanwhile, Communist authorities in China, which once derided private enterprise as evil capitalism, showed just how much things had changed by canonizing entrepreneurs as model workers, awarding special medals to successful businessmen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Photos from around the world --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Arafat compares Jenin battle to Stalingrad [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 1 May 2002. Arafat compares Jenin battle to Stalingrad. JERUSALEM -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Thursday compared fighting in the Jenin refugee camp to the devastating World War II battle of Stalingrad that destroyed the former Soviet city and killed more than 600,000 people. Jenin has turned into Jeningrad, instead of Stalingrad. Remember something like that, Stalingrad? Now, Jeningrad, Arafat told CNN shortly after Israeli troops lifted their month-long siege of his Ramallah office. Speaking in a firm voice but looking pale, Arafat said he intended to visit areas of the West Bank to see for himself the impact of Sharon's armed incursions, which he described as a crime. If the opportunity was open again, and the tanks were not around me in the morning again, I will go and see what happened in our cities and towns, the disasters and crimes, said Arafat. But Arafat noted that travel to other countries is not the first item for me. I want to go and see, and shake hands with my people who have suffered (from) crimes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
** Israel rejects UN Jenin mission 'for now' ** [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 30 April 2002. Israel Says It Will Not Cooperate With U.N.-Fact Finding Team on Jenin for Now. JERUSALEM -- Israel decided Tuesday not to cooperate with a U.N. inquiry into the fighting at the Jenin refugee camp for now, defying a call by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to allow his fact-finding team to begin working immediately. The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it expected to withdraw from the West Bank town of Hebron later Tuesday after a two-day incursion to search for Palestinian militants. Meanwhile, at Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, there was no sign Tuesday that his confinement was over, despite assertions by Israel's defense minister Monday. Israeli tanks ringed the Palestinian leader's compound and troops enforced a curfew in the adjoining neighborhood. In Jerusalem, Israel's security Cabinet convened for a decision on the fate of the U.N. fact-finding mission to the Jenin camp. The Cabinet said in a statement that Israel had raised several issues with U.N. officials that it considered vital for holding a fair inquiry. As long as these conditions have not been met, there is no possibility of beginning the inquiry, it said. Yarden Vatikai, an adviser to Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, said Israel refused to cooperate with the U.N. team because it had not received assurances that those testifying would not be prosecuted. We agreed to this committee because we said we have nothing to hide but we are receiving something that is more like an international tribunal, something that no sovereign state could agree to, Vatikai said. Israel's defiance left the three-member fact-finding team waiting in Geneva for a third straight day. In Hebron, Israeli troops searched for wanted Palestinians and tanks surrounded Al Ahli Hospital, barring ambulances from entering or leaving, hospital officials said. The chief Israeli army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey, said Tuesday troops faced little Palestinian resistance in Hebron. He said among 120 Palestinians arrested in the city were close to 20 men wanted by Israel. Most of those not on the wanted list were released, he said. Also Tuesday, Israeli troops raided the village of Shawarwa, near Bethlehem, and arrested six Palestinians before withdrawing, the army said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Last train to Nuremberg --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela readies for MayDay [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 30 April 2002. Violence feared as Venezuelan unions prepare for May Day parades. CARACAS -- Authorities fear that marches here by unions supporting and opposing President Hugo Chavez, scheduled for May 1, could result in outbreaks of violence similar to the mid-April unrest that resulted in a brief civilian-military coup. Plans by the rival unions, which at one point will march within 500 meters (1,500 feet) of each other, has led the government to deploy some 1,200 police to keep the peace and make sure the two groups remain apart. The Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), the country's most powerful labor union, has called its members to march Wednesday in celebration of international labor day from its southeast Caracas headquarters to the downtown National Assembly. The other major labor march, by the pro-Chavez Bolivarian Workers Force (FBT), is scheduled to start at a working-class neighborhood in western Caracas and end near the downtown presidential palace of Miraflores. CTV president Carlos Ortega, a fierce Chavez opponent, said that he guaranteed the physical integrity of his workers during the Wednesday march. The CTV represents some 1.3 million workers, mainly public sector employees. FBT coordinator Oswaldo Vera called on the Venezuelan people to come out in the street to join their pro-Chavez march and protest the April 12 coup. On Sunday, Chavez confirmed that a 20% increase of the minimum wage would go into effect on May 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews MayDay coverage! --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US drops former 9-11 - Iraq allegation [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 30 April 2002. Atta Didn't Meet With Iraqi Intelligence Agent as Once Alleged. WASHINGTON -- U.S. investigators no longer believe suicide hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Europe last year, eliminating the only known link between Saddam Hussein's government and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. American and Czech officials had believed the meetings between Atta, the alleged ringleader of the 19 hijackers, and Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim Samir Al-Ani, an Iraqi diplomat widely believed to be an intelligence agent, took place in Prague in April 2001. Some observers said the meetings suggested Iraq's complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks - providing the United States with a reason to attack Saddam. The Iraqi government denied the meetings ever occurred, and charged the reports were fabricated to justify making Iraq a target in the U.S.-led war on terror. U.S. officials said the content of the alleged meetings was never definitively laid out. Some Czech officials said Atta had contacted Al-Ani, who was later expelled from the Czech Republic, to discuss an attack on the Prague building that serves as the headquarters for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. But Czech authorities have since retracted their statements to the U.S. government, saying that no such meetings took place. Atta is now believed to have been in the United States during the time he was supposed to have been meeting with Al-Ani, said a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. As recently as December, however, Czech and U.S. authorities said they believed the meetings took place. But Czech media questioned the claim, and President Vaclav Havel acknowledged the meetings may not have occurred. In addition to being chief among the 19 hijackers, Mohammed Atta also led an al-Qaida cell based in Hamburg, Germany, which included two other hijackers and several more alleged co-conspirators who have not been captured. U.S. officials have established numerous ties between the hijackers and al-Qaida, but none to Iraq's government - and not for a lack of trying. Similar efforts to tie bin Laden to Hussein have yielded few ties. Officials say while opposing the United States is a common goal, bin Laden's motivations are religious, while Hussein's are secular. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US military 'hampered' by overseas laws [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 30 April 2002. U.S. Military Training Hampered by Other Countries' Restrictions, Report Says. WASHINGTON -- Increasing environmental and safety restrictions at overseas facilities are hampering U.S. efforts to keep soldiers trained and ready for combat, congressional investigators reported Tuesday. The restrictions mean that training for U.S. forces stationed abroad often takes more time and money to complete and is not as realistic as it should be, said the report from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, written by Neal Curtin, the GAO's director of defense capabilities and management. Overseas units often have to return to the United States or rely on multinational exercises for their training, Curtin wrote. Curtin's report recommended that the Pentagon commission an extensive study of the problem and coordinate the military's efforts to ease the training problem. A Defense Department official agreed with the GAO's findings. Paul Mayberry, deputy undersecretary of defense for readiness, wrote that coordinating efforts against the shortfalls of overseas training would be helpful. Curtin cited several problematic restrictions at U.S. military training areas in Europe and Asia: • At Koon-ni, an Air Force training range in South Korea, pilots were able to drop live bombs on an island and practice strafing and dropping dummy bombs on the mainland before 1978. Restrictions at the range have increased to the point where strafing is not practiced and only dummy bombs can be dropped on the island, Curtin wrote. • Marines training at their bases in Okinawa, Japan, can only fire their guns in one direction at a designated target, which does not simulate combat. The restrictions are part of an agreement between the United States and Japan in response to Japanese criticism of the U.S. presence at Okinawa. • F-15 fighter pilots training in Great Britain cannot use laser-guided bombs and must fly at different altitudes than they probably would during combat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
May Day 2002 - Greetings [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- That's What I Want To Hear By Phil Ochs (1965) So you tell me that your last good dollar is gone and you say that your pockets are bare; And you tell me that your clothes are tattered and torn and nobody seems to care. Now don't tell me your troubles, no I don't have the time to spare; But if you want to get together and fight good buddy that's what I want to hear. And you tell me that your job was taken away by a big ol' greasy machine; And you tell me that you don't collect no more pay and your belly is growing lean. Now if I had the jobs to give you know I'd give them all away; But don't waste your breath calling out my name if you don't have nothing to say. And you tell me that you don't have nothing to do and you keep on wasting your time; And you say when you want to get your family some food you gotta stand in a relief line. Now it's a sin and a bloody shame 'bout the way they're pushing you 'round; But when you decide not to take no more you know I'll put my money down. 'Cause I've seen your kind many times before And I'll see 'em many times again; Oh but every bad thing that's happened to you has happened to better men. So don't explain that you've lost your way that you've got no place to go; You've got a hand and a voice and you're not alone Brother that's all you need to know. And if you're still wondering what I'm trying to say let me tell you what it's all about; Now nobody listens to a single man when he's walkin' 'round down and out. So if you're looking for an answer he's standing there by your side; And you'll never really know how far you'll go 'til you join together and try. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Israel dictates UN's Jenin findings in advance [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 29 April 2002. Israel lists demands for UN mission to Jenin. UNITED NATIONS -- Israel appealed to the United States on Monday to make sure the U.N. fact-finding mission into the devastation at the Jenin refugee camp would not present conclusions in its final report [!], one of six Israeli demands. A letter from Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was sent as the U.N. Security Council held consultations on Israel's repeated requests for delays of the mission to the West Bank camp. But the council held off action, awaiting an Israeli Cabinet decision on Tuesday. Peres, in his letter, obtained by Reuters, said the team's report should be submitted only as findings and not include observations, the U.N. term for conclusions. U.N. officials would not comment but some earlier had objected to Israel dictating the structure of the final report. Peres also said the report should explicitly mention the word terror in relation to events in Jenin. Mention of international humanitarian law must include references to the right of self-defense and the rights to fight terrorism. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who said it was very urgent the mission go ahead, had expected a decision from the Israeli Cabinet on Monday but the body did not meet. The Cabinet is now expected to make a decision early on Tuesday, U.N. Undersecretary-General Kieran Prendergast said. Peres said Israel would respond to requests to interview its public servants in accordance with Israeli law and at its discretion. Any testimony of other Israelis had to be made available to Israel, prior to completion of the team's report, so Israel could comment [!] on the testimony. Submission of documents to the committee would be based on the discretion of the Israeli government, Peres added. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Last train to Nuremberg --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
China denounces CPN(M) 'terrorists' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- KOL. 29 April 2002. China reiterates strong support against 'terrorists.' KATHMANDU -- Acting Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya on Monday said that China has once again expressed its strong support for the Nepalis government's drive against the bloody insurgency waged in the country by [CPN(M)] Maoists. Speaking to Kantipur Online, after concluding his weeklong visit to Russia and China, Acharya also said that the northern neighbor did not specifically raise its concern over the presence of US military officials in Nepal who are presently assessing the Maoist insurgency. We discussed in general, he said. The online edition of India's Sunday Times of India, in its dispatch from Beijing, had quoted diplomatic sources as saying that China was likely to voice its concerns over the matter. Though the Maoist terrorists in Nepal have named their movement after the Chinese Leader, China has been maintaining them simply as terrorists and has also time and again been expressing their regret over the use of name of their leader. Earlier, Russia too had expressed its support to the Nepalis government. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Israel bans UN mission to Jenin [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 28 April 2002. Israel Bans U.N. Mission to Jenin. JERUSALEM -- Israel's Cabinet decided Sunday not to allow a U.N. fact-finding team to come to the region to look into the battle in the Jenin refugee camp, a Cabinet minister said. Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin, briefing reporters after a lengthy Cabinet meeting, said that the United Nations had gone back on its agreements with Israel over the team, and so it would not be allowed to arrive. Rivlin, speaking for the Cabinet, criticized the team's composition and said it was inevitable that the mission's report would blame Israel. This awful United Nations committee is out to get us and is likely to smear Israel and to force us to do things which Israel is not prepared even to hear about, such as interrogating soldiers and officers who took part in the fighting, Rivlin said. No country in the world would agree to such a thing. Palestinians have objected to Israel's delay of the fact-finding team, insisting that the United Nations send it immediately. The eight-member team, appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, has been waiting in Geneva since Wednesday for Israel's green light to fly to the region. Annan had refused to delay sending the mission despite Israel's objections. Annan did not have immediate comment on the Cabinet's decision, his spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said in New York. A U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Annan had spoken to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had earlier visited the region on a peacemaking mission, as well as the team's leader, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. The U.N. Security Council, which last week endorsed the mission, was expected to hold an emergency meeting in New York later Sunday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews Last train to Nuremberg --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Hu Jintao: Mystery man, ordinary guy [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 27 April 2002. Mystery man or just ordinary guy? Hu Jintao keeps the world guessing. BEIJING -- Less is known about Hu Jintao, the likely next leader of China, than any prospective head of a major power since Kremlinologists pored over top-level reshuffles in the Soviet empire. As the current vice president visits the United States this week in a diplomatic coming-of-age, the hopes are he will start showing the man behind the youthful looks and the modest smile. During the Malaysian leg of his trip, Hu took a first step in the direction of more candor by depicting himself as just an ordinary guy and dismissing portrayals of him as mysterious. That description is not fair to me, he told reporters while sightseeing on the Malaysian resort island of Penang. Maybe not, but precious little is known about the 59-year-old who is expected to be put at the helm of the Chinese communist party this fall and become his nation's president about a year from now. Even the place where Hu was born in December 1942 remains open to dispute. The official Chinese biography lists him as a native of eastern Anhui province, a claim now largely taken to mean this is his ancestral home. Other sources say his place of birth is Shanghai, and others again point to the city of Taizhou, 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Shanghai. Sir Winston Churchill's famous description of the Soviet Union as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma could be usefully applied to Hu. If the riddle is the opaque political system that plucked Hu from the communist ranks, the mystery is his personality. The enigma -- and the biggest question of all -- is what he intends to do with China once in power. The first part of the story, on how Hu was elevated to the highest rungs of power from among thousands of potential candidates, had very little to do with his personal qualities, according to observers. What happened, observers say, was that one day in 1992, three communist party bigwigs, including Jiang Zemin, went to see then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping with a list of promising middle-aged cadres. New members of the standing committee of the party's politburo -- the handful of people who decide virtually everything in China -- had to be picked, and when Hu's name came up, Deng's reaction was simple, but decisive. He is a good comrade, the aging patriarch reportedly said. That settled it. Many rumors have circulated as to why Deng was so sure he had found the right man to lead the world's most populous nation for at least a decade. One explanation is that Hu was friendly with Deng's children, powerful representatives of the princeling faction of spoiled offspring produced by China's revolutionary generation. The second big question -- Who's Hu? -- usually elicits answers that offer little solid fact. He is very good, outstanding, said Wang Dazhong, president of Qinghua University in Beijing, where Hu graduated with a degree in hydraulic engineering in 1965. He is very methodical and has a remarkable memory, said a diplomat who has met him. He has a firm grasp of international culture and great facilities on the economic level. Although Hu's formative years were in the turbulent 1960s, when the Cultural Revolution swept across China, this has not made him a dogmatic politician, experts say. He is cautious, but open-minded, said Cheng Li, a professor at New York's Hamilton College, who recently published a book on China's leaders. He is very realistic, which means both liberals and conservatives and even the military like him, he said. Which leads to the third question, about what kind of place will China become as Hu serves out his likely two five-year terms at party general secretary and president. Foreign observers have tried to glean nuggets about Hu's political views, but with little success, a phenomenon observers say is intentional. He is very cautious with the Western media, said Li. If the Western media portray him as a hardliner, that's not good for him, but if they depict him as China's Gorbachev, it would be downright disastrous. One of the few clues is provided by the Central Party School, a secretive institution in the northern outskirts of Beijing designed to groom senior cadres, which Hu has headed for almost a decade. Ancient Chinese art, not busts of Marx and Lenin, greets the visitors to the campus' brand new auditorium, where students get lectures in capitalism and the intricacies of World Trade Organization rules. You can pick market economics as an optional course, a student recently told AFP. According to observers, the school is a miniature version of what all of China may look like under Hu -- culturally conservative, but willing to use modern ideas to improve the economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST
NYT: US plans 'big invasion' in Iraq in 2003 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
government. While the Pentagon has focused on how to remove Mr. Hussein, the White House is also mindful of the effects of a war on oil supplies -- either because the fighting itself would disrupt the flow of oil, or because Saudi Arabia and other Arab producers would feel obliged because of political pressure at home to cut back on exports to the United States. R. Glenn Hubbard, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said the administration had examined the possible effects of a spike in oil prices caused by spreading unrest in the Middle East or an invasion of Iraq. He said a surge in oil prices would probably not by itself have a large effect on the American economy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Solidarity cries over neoliberalism it created [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 26 April 2002. Thousands of Poles protest against labour reforms. WARSAW -- In a very Polish role-reversal, the Solidarity union, once in the forefront of opposition to Soviet-backed communism, is now fighting a rearguard action against liberal reforms proposed by the heirs to their oppressors. Tens of thousands of Polish trade unionists rallied in Warsaw on Friday to protest against the left-wing government's proposed labour reforms, which they fear will add to record dole queues. The march began good naturedly, but later protesters let off a smoke bomb and threw firecrackers outside government headquarters. Despite some pushing and shoving, riot police on the scene did not intervene. The demonstration, organised by the Solidarity trade union, marked its first show of strength since the right-wing government it backed was swept from power by the reformed communists in last September's general election. Workers from shipyards, steelworks and coal mines -- once bastions of Poland's communist command economy -- said legislation now before parliament to ease hire-and-fire rules could force them into the ranks of over three million jobless. If they implement these changes, then we'll automatically lose our jobs, said Slawomir Zales, 39, who has worked in a Silesian coal mine for 19 years. Organisers said 70,000 had come, mostly by bus, to rally on Warsaw's vast Pilsudski Square before marching to parliament and Miller's chancellery. Business groups and Poland's other main trade union, the pro-government OPZZ, have backed the proposed changes to the communist-era labour code. The International Monetary Fund has cautiously welcomed them but said they could go further. Excessive red tape [read: labor rights] and high payroll taxes are major deterrents to investment in Poland as it prepares for the economic challenge of joining the European Union in as little as two years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Solidarity cries over neoliberalism it created [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 26 April 2002. Thousands of Poles protest against labour reforms. WARSAW -- In a very Polish role-reversal, the Solidarity union, once in the forefront of opposition to Soviet-backed communism, is now fighting a rearguard action against liberal reforms proposed by the heirs to their oppressors. Tens of thousands of Polish trade unionists rallied in Warsaw on Friday to protest against the left-wing government's proposed labour reforms, which they fear will add to record dole queues. The march began good naturedly, but later protesters let off a smoke bomb and threw firecrackers outside government headquarters. Despite some pushing and shoving, riot police on the scene did not intervene. The demonstration, organised by the Solidarity trade union, marked its first show of strength since the right-wing government it backed was swept from power by the reformed communists in last September's general election. Workers from shipyards, steelworks and coal mines -- once bastions of Poland's communist command economy -- said legislation now before parliament to ease hire-and-fire rules could force them into the ranks of over three million jobless. If they implement these changes, then we'll automatically lose our jobs, said Slawomir Zales, 39, who has worked in a Silesian coal mine for 19 years. Organisers said 70,000 had come, mostly by bus, to rally on Warsaw's vast Pilsudski Square before marching to parliament and Miller's chancellery. Business groups and Poland's other main trade union, the pro-government OPZZ, have backed the proposed changes to the communist-era labour code. The International Monetary Fund has cautiously welcomed them but said they could go further. Excessive red tape [read: labor rights] and high payroll taxes are major deterrents to investment in Poland as it prepares for the economic challenge of joining the European Union in as little as two years. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Businessman involved in Chavez coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 26 April 2002. Venezuelan businessman accused of plotting against Chavez. CARACAS -- Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin on Friday accused a local businessman of conspiracy to overthrow President Hugo Chavez, after a cache of weapons had been discovered in the man's home. I have always said there was a conspiracy, Rodriguez Chacin told reporters here. It has always been known that Perez Recao was part of a conspiracy. The charges came after a search in the home of 32-year-old businessman Isaac Perez Recao conducted on the night from Wednesday to Thursday yielded heavy weapons, ammunition and other military hardware. You've seen the photos of these sophisticated arms, said the minister. They were in the hands of people linked to the conspirators who were behind the coup d'etat. Rodriguez Chacin also cited a published photograph that showed Pedro Carmona, head of the civilian-military junta that briefly seized power in Caracas earlier this month, flanked by a bodyguard with a rifle. The weapon held by Marcela Sanabria, the man standing behind Carmona, is very sophisticated, the minister explained. It's an M-16 rifle with a telescopic sight and a grenade launcher. Very few members of the armed forces have it in our country. Perez Recao, a scion of a prominent Venezuelan oil family, has fled Caracas with his private jet and his bodyguards. He is currently hiding in Miami, where he arrived from Aruba on April 20. According to Manuel Corao, Miami correspondent of the Venezuelan weekly Al Dia, the businessman is now trying to obtain political asylum in the United States with the help of a lawyer. He has an entry visa to the United States, which is valid until 2007. According to Venezuelan media reports, Perez Recao, who is known for his weakness for fast cars, weapons and hunting, was in charge of a security firm that employed agents of the Israeli secret service Mossad. Licenses allowing Perez Recao to import weapons were secured for him by Rear Admiral Carlos Molina Tamayo, who prior to the coup headed the explosives directorate of the armed forces, the reports said. Molina Tomayo, who took part in the coup attempt and was appointed by Carmona head of the presidential guard, is being held under house arrest pending trial. Carmona himself was reported to have ties to one of the oil companies controlled by the Perez Recao family. According to media report in Florida, other people associated with the Venezuelan coup attempt have been sighted in that US state. They include Jose Rodriguez Iturbe, the foreign minister in Carmona's short-lived government, and attorney Roberto Carmona Borjas, who helped the junta produce some of its decrees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Re: People who equate Slobodan Milosevic with Ariel Sharon [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Nancy Hey: I've noticed a very disturbing trend recently at pro-Palestinian rallies that I've been to, and that is the tendency of certain people to carry signs with slogans on them like Sharon = Milosevic... Alas, it shows the fatal flaw of thinking, common amongst Palestinians (and elsewhere), that the 'the system' only needs repairing. Better analogy: Sharon = Kissinger -- another rat the US will protect to the bitter end. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Ojdani: 'My conscience is absolutely clear' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 25 April 2002. UN war crimes court nets biggest catch since Milosevic. THE HAGUE -- Former Yugoslav army chief Dragoljub Ojdanic surrendered to the UN tribunal Thursday, the most senior war crimes suspect to be turned over for trial since former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic last year. The former general, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo, arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on a regular flight from Belgrade and was promptly transfered to the tribunal's prison facility outside The Hague. He is certainly the most senior military official to have been transfered by Belgrade, tribunal spokesman Jim Landale told AFP. He said Ojdanic would make his first appearence in court on Friday at 2:30 pm (1230 GMT). Before leaving Belgrade on a Yugoslav Airlines flight accompanied by his wife and his lawyer, the retired general said he was setting out to prove his innocence. I have nothing to be ashamed of and my conscience is absolutely clear, Ojdanic said in a TV interview late Wednesday. Ojdanic refused to say whether he would testify against Milosevic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Jenin: 'Put a bullet in each window' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
specifically that once the Palestinians see the tanks, they'll give up, the other sergeant said. Those were the words my company commander told us. The mood changed abruptly, however, on April 3, when the first soldiers set off down Antennae Hill, so named for two large radio towers atop the hill, which slopes toward the two- and three-story houses at the edge of the camp. The Palestinian gunfire was much heavier than the Israelis anticipated and it quickly claimed its first victim, Maj. Moshe Gerstner, felled by a bullet to the throat. We began to understand that the Palestinians are taking this very seriously, said Lanyado, who later that day led a squad of six men into the first row of houses. The other sergeant disputed official assertions that the army had made every effort to empty the camp of civilians. [N.B.] The civilians, they never got a real chance to get out, he said. He recalled that on the fifth day, he was inside an armored personnel carrier broadcasting appeals in Arabic for fighters to surrender. The commander of the vehicle, he said, asked a senior officer who was riding with them why they did not broadcast the appeal on more than one street. [N.B.] According to the sergeant, the officer replied, 'These are my orders. Do you really think the brigade wants to give them a chance to give up?' The sergeant said there were still plenty of civilians inside the camp during the period of the fiercest fighting. On guard duty inside a house one night, he recalled, he heard a baby crying unattended for hours in an adjacent building. Fearing that the mother was dead, he asked an officer to investigate. But the officer said it might be a trap. He said, 'I'm sorry. I wish I could, but I can't,' the sergeant recalled. Toward the end of the battle, he said, he was peering out the hatch of an armored personnel carrier when he noticed a young man in bluejeans crawling on his hands and knees through the rubble. His platoon commander, a lieutenant, who was in another vehicle ahead of him, ordered the man in Arabic to stop, then fired a warning shot. But the man kept crawling toward the vehicles. Fearing a suicide bomber, the lieutenant shot him dead, he recalled. Lanyado said he has been shocked, since hanging up his uniform, by the international storm of criticism over Israeli tactics in Jenin. I'm ready to speak with anyone, to look them in the eye and tell them that I and my soldiers, we were as clean as we could be, he said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Kissinger demo [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Ananova. 24 April 2002. Sit-down protest over Kissinger appearance; Kissinger admits 'mistakes were made.' LONDON -- An anti-globalisation protest has taken place outside London's Royal Albert Hall as thousands of business leaders arrived for a conference. The demonstrators were joined by a group campaigning against Henry Kissinger. A huge puppet depicting Dr Kissinger was erected on the pavement outside the venue by the Get Kissinger Group. It plans to hold a mock trial accusing the 78-year-old of being a war criminal because of his involvement in events in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Scores of protesters banged drums and chanted war criminal and this is what democracy looks like. There was heavy security outside the conference venue but police stood by as the protesters sat on the main road outside the Royal Albert Hall. The theme of the conference was globalisation and had been expected to spark protest from campaigners. The demonstrators later ended their sit-down protest. Henry Kissinger has responded to calls for his arrest for allegedly aiding and abetting war crimes by admitting that mistakes were quite possibly made in administrations in which he served. As Dr Kissinger addressed the Institute of Directors' annual convention in London, protesters staged a demonstration outside the conference hall. They accused him of war crimes involvement in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Earlier human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell made an unsuccessful legal move to have Dr Kissinger arrested under the Geneva Convention. Dr Kissinger says it will be impossible to recall every one of the thousands of cases he dealt with every day when he was in office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews with a photo from the demo --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Newsweek: US was involved in Chavez coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 21 April 2002. U.S. role in Chvez coup understated - Newsweek. NEW YORK --Contacts between U.S. officials and Venezuelan military officers involved in the temporary Hugo Chvez ouster were more extensive than the White House has acknowledged, says an article in Newsweek magazine. According to Newsweek, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is seeking classified cables and other documents detailing contacts between top U.S. officials and Venezuelans involved in the attempt to overthrow Chvez. The Bush administration, which appeared to tacitly endorse Chvez ouster, said last week it met with the opposition in the South American nation in recent months but denied encouraging the coup. In the months before the coup, several dissatisfied Venezuelans visited Washington for closed-door talks with U.S. officials, Newsweek said in an edition due out Monday. The publication adds that billionaire Gustavo Cisneros -- suspected of supplying money for the coup -- used to be one of the biggest supporters of Chvez until the leader tilted to the left. Now the media baron is facing something even scarier: an angry Hugo Chvez, it said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Mumia Abu-Jamal's A20 statement [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Mumia Abu-Jamal's 20 April 2002 comments addressing the D.C. Rally Against War and Racism. When U.S. President George W. Bush spoke about an endless war, some took it as mere political speech or rhetoric designed to gain the top spot on the evening network news. I did not. Bush is an agent of his class: the wealthy oil merchants of the land, and his intentions are to press for an ever wider war in all corners of the earth to make the world safe for capital exploitation and unbridled commerce. This will eventually become a war that reaches into a slew of countries in the Middle East and beyond on behalf of the rich and powerful elites who rule. Make no mistake: this is a war that has nothing to do with democracy. The U.S. enters the region armed to the gills not to defend democracies, but to defend theocracies; to defend kings, princes, and Sultans; to defend U.S. access to the vast oil resources in the region. And how can the U.S. credibly claim to be leading a war against terrorism when the world's largest training academy for terrorists is the School of the Americas in Georgia, where some of the most brutal military dictators in the world are alumni. The U.S. may have since re-named the school, but it has the same essential mission: to create foreign military leaders who are the enemies of democratic and popular movements and who are beholden to their imperial masters in Washington. The graduates of the S.O.A. have proven relentless fighters, to be sure, who are masters of the dark arts of torture, cruel interrogations, rape, and mass murder. And who do they fight but their own people? To millions of people in Latin America the school is known by the popular name 'School of Coups.' There is scarcely an infamous massacre that cannot be traced to its graduates. When the U.S. raves about a war on terrorism, there are millions of Americans to the South who snort in derision, for they know another America which breeds state terrorism. The people who brought you 9/11 were brought to you by the C.I.A. school of terrorism, designed to reek havoc upon the soldiers of the former Soviet Union. They were Jihadis -- recruited, paid, indoctrinated, and armed by U.S., Pakistani, Saudi, and related intelligence agencies to wage a holy war against the former Communist government in Afghanistan. And like the proverbial dogs of war, they turned on those who fed and trained them, to remind them of what they unleashed. And now, with little thought to its true beginnings, the nation is once again embroiled in war -- a war that was born not in Kabul nor in the tropical Orient. This war began in cool office buildings in Washington, where men of wealth and power drew up plans to draw the former Soviets into a neighboring territory into what they called the 'Afghan trap.' And now, as Malcolm X once said, 'The chickens have come home to roost.' You want to stop war? Then stop them where they are born -- in Washington, D.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US involved in coup - new development [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 22 April 2002. Second US officer accused of being involved with Venezuela coup leaders. CARACAS -- A second US officer has been accused of being involved with Venezuela's failed coup against President Hugo Chavez, a charismatic left-leaning populist, a source close to the official investigation told AFP. US Army colonel Ronald MacCammon was with the military coup leaders who briefly managed to topple Chavez, only to have him return amid a swell of support fewer than 48 hours later, the source said. A Pentagon spokesman aknowledged MacCammon, the US army attache in Caracas, and his deputy James Rodgers, had offices at Fort Tiuna, the military headquarters here, but denied they had anything to do with the failed overthrow. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a State Department official in Washington acknowledged the United States had a military group liason at Fort Tiuna until Thursday morning, but added that at some point Thursday they were told by the Venezuelans to leave and they did, along with all the other foreign military officials. Earlier, a military source told AFP in Caracas that US Army Lieutenant Colonel James Rodgers, an aide to the US military attache, was present at Fort Tiuna in Caracas before Chavez was brought to that installation after the coup, and remained there until the self-proclaimed provisional government fell apart. Some Venezuelan military officers interpreted Rodgers' presence as a green light from Washington to unseat Chavez, the Caracas source said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
AI accuses Israel of Jenin war crimes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 22 April 2002. Amnesty accuses Israel of Jenin war crimes. LONDON -- Amnesty International accused Israel on Monday of serious human rights abuses during its occupation of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin and pressed for a full investigation to see if they amounted to war crimes. Basing its allegations on statements from Palestinians and what it said was evidence from its own observers who entered the West Bank town minutes after the Israeli withdrawal, Amnesty said it had clear evidence of serious crimes. We have concluded, on a preliminary basis, that very serious violations of human rights were committed. We are talking here (about) war crimes, Javier Zuniga, the human rights group's regional director, told a news conference. We believe that Israel has a case to answer. Kathleen Cavanaugh, a law lecturer from Galway University in Ireland, said Amnesty's charges came under three major areas: the destruction of property, the use of excessive force and its failure to protect civilian refugees living in the town. She also cited Palestinian witness statements suggesting the army had carried out a number of extrajudicial executions, particularly at the early stages of its incursion. Old people and children caught up in the fighting said they had also been given no chance to flee the scenes of the battle, Cavanaugh said. Forensic pathologist Derrick Pounder from Dundee University in Scotland, who had just returned from Jenin, said the lack of severely injured people admitted to the hospital backed claims that Palestinian doctors and ambulance men had been impeded. There were no severely injured in the hospital, and very few corpses. It is inconceivable that, as well as the dead, there were not large numbers of severely injured, said Pounder, who estimated a conflict of this nature and intensity would have produced roughly three badly injured victims to every one dead. He said he saw 21 Palestinians corpses in Jenin hospital. The casualties were a mixture of civilian and military, he said, and included three women. One was a 52-year-old man, wearing sandals, who had been shot in the chest, and another 38-year-old, wearing ordinary clothes, had been shot in the back and the top of the foot. The claim that only fighters were killed is simply not true, Pounder said. In Jenin, there have certainly been mass killings -- both of combatants and civilians. Pounder said the refugee camp should now be treated as a crime scene, and a full international team of investigators similar to The Hague Tribunal for former Yugoslavia be allowed in to try and piece together exactly what happened. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US coup plots in Iraq [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 22 April 2002. Iraqi Kurds Planning to Oust Saddam. CAIRO -- Leaders of the two main Kurdish parties that control northern Iraq met with U.S. officials last week to coordinate efforts to remove Saddam Hussein from power, according to Iraqi dissidents and Arab press. Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Party, and Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, also discussed plans for a government that would replace Saddam's regime once the Iraqi leader is ousted, the Iraqi dissidents told The Associated Press. On Sunday, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that both Barzani and Talabani met officials from the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA in Germany last week. Quoting a Kurdish source, the paper said both sides met for three days near Berlin and reviewed coordination to launch a strike against Saddam most likely by the end of this year. The Iraqi dissidents told AP on Sunday that Barzani and Talabani also discussed with U.S. officials plans for merging their two governments administrating northern Iraq ahead of a possible move against Saddam. German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Michaelis confirmed Monday that the two Kurdish leaders were in Germany last week but refused to provide further information. A spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin told AP that the United States never comments on intelligence matters. Delshad Miran, a spokesman for the KDP in London, and Fouad Massoum, the British-based PUK's Europe's representative, told AP their two leaders are in Europe but declined to divulge more. If confirmed, it would be the first meeting between the two leaders since their parties fought a bloody war over control of the Kurdish area in 1994. The United States, which imposes a no-fly zone on the enclave to protect Kurds against Saddam's incursion, has been mediating between the two parties. Such a meeting would be a strong signal to Saddam that the Bush administration is determined in its efforts to remove him from power. The 1995 Iraq Liberation Act, passed by Congress and signed by then-President Clinton, made it a matter of law that the United States supports regime change, or the ouster of Saddam. Bush has recently reiterated that goal. Earlier this month, several Iraqi opposition leaders, including representatives from the two Kurdish groups, met in Washington to iron out plans for a post-Saddam government. The Bush administration reportedly is weighing options for deposing Saddam, among them supporting a local insurgency, fostering a coup by the Iraqi leader's closest lieutenants and an outright U.S.-led invasion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Cuba is 'too fun to be a regime' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
to the United States someday but for now there really is no reason. Another Cuba convert is Philip Agee, who became famous for his 1975 tell-all book about his years with the CIA. Now 66, the small, soft-spoken native of Tampa, Fla., had his American passport revoked in 1979 after being ruled a threat to U.S. national security. He entered Cuba on a German travel document and has opened a travel agency to entice foreign tourists. A long time ago I was in the business of telling lies for the CIA. Today, I'm trying to dispel some of those lies, he says. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Iraq: $25,000 for each Jenin homeless [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 21 April 2002. Saddam orders $25,000 for each Jenin homeless. BAGHDAD -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Sunday ordered $25,000 to be given to each Palestinian whose house was destroyed during the Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee camp, the official Iraqi News Agency said. The agency said Saddam had chaired a cabinet meeting that reviewed the situation in the Middle East and the fate of Palestinian people facing a hateful, bloody, criminal Zionist scheme. The agency quoted a statement by the cabinet as saying the president has ordered the allocation of $25,000 for each house demolished in Jenin by the criminal Zionists. A senior U.N. official said on Sunday initial assessments showed that about 800 dwellings had been destroyed and many more damaged in the Jenin camp, making 4,000 to 5,000 people homeless. Saddam earlier this month ordered 10 million euros ($8.8 million) be allocated to support a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation which began in September 2000. Baghdad offers cash to relatives of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli troops and free education in Iraqi universities to Palestinians living in territories under Palestinian Authority rule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
British activist seeks Kissinger arrest [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 21 April 2002. British Activist Seeks Kissinger Arrest. LONDON -- A British human rights activist said he would apply to a London court on Monday for an arrest warrant to be issued against former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on war crimes charges. The action comes days after a Spanish judge called for the Nobel peace prize winning statesman to be questioned by international police about crimes committed by South American military dictatorships in the 1970s and 80s. Peter Tatchell, a political and gay rights activist, said he would seek a warrant at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court for Kissinger's arrest on charges of war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. British law states that violations of the Geneva Conventions are war crimes. There are no immunities from prosecution, Tatchell said in a statement. British police said they were unaware of Tatchell's court application. Tatchell said Monday's warrant, if issued, would allege that Kissinger had commissioned, aided and abetted and procured war crimes in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia while he was President Richard Nixon's National Security Adviser from 1969 to 1973, and secretary of state from 1973-77 under the governments of Nixon and his successor Gerald Ford. German-born Kissinger is due in London on Wednesday to address a meeting of Britain's Institute of Directors. Last week, Spanish High Court judge Balthazar Garzon asked Interpol to question Kissinger in London about whether he knew of human rights abuses by Latin American governments while he was serving in Washington. The judge's order called for authorities to ask Kissinger if he knew of Operation Condor -- a plan by regimes in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay to persecute opponents. Kissinger's spokesman said he would cooperate with the Spanish judge's inquiry but stressed he was seen as a witness and not as accused. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
A20 - update [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 20 April 2002. Protesters for Diverse Causes Join Forces for Day of Demonstrations in Capital. WASHINGTON -- Marching with puppets and placards and armed with many messages, tens of thousands of protesters joined forces on a warm spring Saturday to demonstrate peacefully against everything from U.S. policy in the Mideast to globalization and corporate greed. Protesters massed at sites across the city, then swarmed down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, in an eclectic crowd that mixed young communists, Black Panthers and Raging Grannies. People came in busloads from around the country to show there is active political opposition in the United States. I think the movement is beginning to wake up, said 80-year-old Valerie Mullen of Vershire, Vt., part of the grannies group. She said she came to protest any war. Six-year-old Kira Appleman of Silver Spring, Md., came with her mom and held aloft a sign that said, Palestinian children have rights, too. After starting the day with separate protests around the city, the various groups converged for a concluding rally that brought their causes together. Authorities do not provide official crowd figures for demonstrations in Washington, but by midafternoon Police Chief Charles Ramsey gave a rough estimate of 35,000 to 50,000. It was the spring meeting of world financial powers at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that attracted the protesters to Washington, but anti-globalization forces did not seem to mind sharing the stage with many other causes. The various protests are all connected in the sense that it's all part of how the world economic structure works, said 24-year-old Brad Duncan of Detroit. Protesters marched with two open wooden coffins bearing young sisters of Palestinian descent. When 7-year-old Philastine Mustafa was overcome by the heat, a young boy quickly took her place. My people back home her age are being killed, said Anwar Mustafa, 33, of Philadelphia, the father of the girls. Me and my daughters can spend a little time in the heat to show people who don't know. Not all the groups were in perfect agreement. When Black Panthers chanting jihad and holy war hoisted a Palestinian flag next to a picture Osama bin Laden, a Palestinian activist urged them to take the flag down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Philippines: Talk of US 'extension' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Inquirer News Service. 21 April 2002. Golez: US troops may stay beyond 'Balikatan' exercises. Excerpts. The additional 340 Americans taking part in the RP-US Balikatan 02-1 just arrived Saturday morning and already National Security Adviser Roilo Golez is saying they can stay on even after the military exercise ends in July. Golez said in an interview that the US Navy engineers, or Seabees, could stay until the infrastructure projects they planned to undertake in Basilan had been completed. If they are not yet finished by July, why not (allow them to stay on)? Sayang naman. They are bringing in good equipment. The other day, Golez said the Seabees would try to complete their work within 60 days because the rainy season was expected to begin in June, making their work difficult. Golez said the planned four million dollars worth of infrastructure projects would jumpstart Basilan's economy. Capt. Noel Detoyato, spokesperson of the Armed Forces' Southern Command, on Saturday said the newly arrived US troops had set a 60-day period within which to complete their projects. They will do their projects simultaneously and will rush them before the rainy season starts, Detoyato said in a phone interview. After that, they will leave. They have no intention of staying longer. The US contingent, composed of 280 Navy Seabees and 60 Marines, landed around 7:30 a.m. on Barangay Tabiawan in Isabela City, Basilan. Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar grinned from ear to ear as he watched the Americans disembark and unload heavy equipment from the Okinawa-based USS Germantown. My happiness is indescribable, my dream is now starting to materialize, he told the Inquirer. I know that I can die 10 times and not be able to purchase this equipment for my people. The Americans unloaded eight graders, 11 bulldozers, seven pocket loaders, six compactors, eight cargo trucks, 10 dump trucks, two tractor trailers, a crane, two excavators and a water wheel drilling ridge. But amid the welcoming mood, Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad aired his anxieties to the Inquirer. I really welcome their good gesture, no doubt about that, but I cannot understand why there is a need to extend their stay here. I am now becoming apprehensive of their real intention, he said. Jumoad said he had been made to understand that the US troops were taking part in the Balikatan solely to enhance the Philippine military's capability to crush the Abu Sayyaf, which is still holding hostage an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse. All I knew was that it would be for plain military exercises only, he said. (Now they) will be in Basilan for a long period of time. I'm getting confused. (The extension) was not included in the plan, he said. But Akbar said he wanted the six-month Balikatan exercise extended up to six years. Six months are not enough for a comprehensive program, he said. Six years would be the ideal length of extension. In Malacañang, acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable agreed that the Seabees were not bound to the duration of Balikatan 02-1. Of course they cannot leave if their work is not yet finished, he said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US OKs Afghanistan Red Cross bombings [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- [Just in case we're not already outraged enough...] AP. 18 April 2002. Oct. Bombing Not War Violation. WASHINGTON -- U.S. airstrikes on a Red Cross warehouse in Afghanistan last October did not violate the international Law of Armed Conflict, the U.S. war commander announced Thursday. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. Central Command, investigated two U.S. attacks on the warehouse compound in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The first, on Oct. 16, happened because Taliban fighters were believed to be using the facility and the International Committee of the Red Cross had not informed Central Command that it maintained a warehouse at that location, Franks said. Also, the facility was not marked to give sufficient visual notice of the Red Cross presence, he said. In a brief summary of Central Command's investigation, Franks said that when it was discovered after the airstrike that the warehouse was used by the Red Cross, it was removed from Central Command's list of approved targets. But it was not placed on the command's no strike list, he said. Even though the warehouse was removed from the approved target list and new safeguards were implemented to minimize the chance of such mistaken attacks, the warehouse was bombed by U.S. aircraft again Oct. 26. Franks' summary made no mention of why the target was struck the second time, but it said the investigators concluded there was insufficient evidence to sustain a finding of a Law of Armed Conflict violation. Even so, the Oct. 26 incident met the criteria under Defense Department rules as a reportable incident, Franks said. As a result, Franks on Nov. 30 forwarded the results of his inquiry to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper in the Pentagon for such action as he deemed appropriate. Air Force officials said Thursday they could not immediately determine what, if any, action Jumper took. There have been a number of news reports in recent weeks quoting unidentified Pentagon officials saying the target was hit the second time because an Air Force commander believed he had authority to restrike partially damaged targets even if they were no longer on approved target lists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US involved in Chavez coup - more details [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 18 April 2002. US military attache was with Venezuela coup planners beforehand. CARACAS -- The US military attache in Caracas was with the planners of last week's aborted coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the hours before Chavez was overthrown, a source in the president's office told AFP Thursday. The US military attache was at the armed forces inspector general's office at Fort Tiuna, Caracas's main military base, during the preparation for and up until the coup overnight April 11 to 12, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The attache, whose name was not released, stayed there from 6:30 pm (2230 GMT) Thursday until the coup began at 3:22 am (0722 GMT) Friday. What was a military official doing at this place at this time, with the insurgents? the source asked. A retired general confirmed the report on condition of anonymity, saying that a number of reliable eyewitnesses on the scene had assured him of its veracity. The US Embassy in Caracas had no immediate reaction to the allegations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
New sedition, intrigues in Venezuela [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 17 April 2002. Venezuelan opposition party to seek trial of Chavez for killings. CARACAS -- A Venezuelan opposition party, Democratic Action, rose up Wednesay against President Hugo Chavez's government, questioning the elected leader's legitimacy and blaming him for genocide in last week's unrest. Chavez is not the legitimate president of the Republic, the secretary general of the social democratic party shouted in a heated National Assembly session, pointing to legal and political reasons. An AD statement said the party would seek to have Chavez tried by national and international bodies for the killings that took place April 11 when his supporters clashed with political foes in downtown Caracas, lawmaker Edgar Zambrano said. Political violence that lasted until Sunday was blamed for 57 deaths and at least 400 injuries, firefighters here said. Zambrano said his party would not support any coup, or the return to power of Chavez who was briefly ousted in a two-day derailed coup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Iraqi clerics: 'Suicide bombings' are virtuous [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 16 April 2002. Iraqi clerics decree suicide bombings are virtuous. BAGHDAD -- Iraqi Muslim religious leaders decreed on Tuesday that suicide bombings by Palestinians against Israelis were a virtuous act of holy war, or jihad. According to the texts of the holy Koran and the Prophet's teachings... Muslim clerics in Iraq view the suicide bombings carried out by the fighters in Palestine to do harm to the criminal Zionists as representing the highest degree of jihad, read a fatwa or religious decree issued by the clerics. Muslim clerics in Iraq bless these suicidal acts and call upon all Muslim clerics to support and back the fighters with their fatwas, said the decree. The state news agency INA, which carried the fatwa, said it had been issued at a meeting of clerics in Baghdad on Tuesday. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was quoted by newspapers on Tuesday as saying that all means are legitimate for a people whose land has been usurped. [N.B.] Palestinians are not killing themselves out of despair but they are turning themselves into bombs because they lack bombs and weapons, Saddam was quoted as saying during a meeting with officials and engineers on Monday. [N.B.] If they had planes, artillery, tanks and missiles they would not need to turn their bodies into bombs or missiles. Saddam last year called on Arab countries neighbouring Israel to provide Palestinians with weapons. Baghdad said last month it was raising payments to the relatives of each Palestinian killed in clashes with Israeli troops from $10,000 per family to $25,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Indymedia: Israel attacks Bethlehem church [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Indymedia. 16 April 2002. Israel attacks Church of the Nativity. BETHLEHEM -- April 16,2002:At approximately 18.30 this evening the IDF began what appears to be a preliminary assault on the Church of the Nativity. Witnesses living in the area reported many loud explosions and gunfire. This has abated however there are flares throughout the area and there is still sporadic gunfire. Journalists in the area are currently in the Star Hotel, which was taken over by the IDF this afternoon. The 5th floor of the hotel was the only vantage point from which to see into Manger Square so they are no longer able to monitor activity in the area. The Bethlehem Star hotel, where the majority of the footage of Manger Square and the surrounding area has been filmed from, has been taken over by the IDF. Inside are Palestinian civilians and international press. They are under strict orders not to go to the fifth floor (the top floor) therefore the journalist are now being prevented from witnessing any activity in and around Manger Square. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Coke, others hire paramilitaries in Colombia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 16 April 2002. Colombian Union Leader Claims Companies Routinely Hire Paramilitaries. MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Hiring paramilitary groups to attack and threaten union leaders is a common practice by foreign companies operating in Colombia, a union activist from the country said Tuesday. Ligia Ines Alzate, a longtime labor activist and General Secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions for the state of Antioquia, spoke to groups in Mobile and Montgomery on Tuesday. That is a strategy that is used, Alzate said through an interpreter in an interview prior to her talk in Montgomery. Alzate said she scheduled talks in Alabama because a Colombian union, Sintramienergetica, has sued Birmingham-based Drummond Co. in federal court. The lawsuit claims that Drummond hired hit men to kidnap, torture and murder three men last year for their ties to the union that represents Drummond workers. Alzate said many foreign multinational companies hire paramilitary groups to target union leaders during contract negotiations or when restless workers protest company practices. These large companies need people off of the land they are developing and they need to quiet protesters, said Alzate through an interpreter. Sandra Alvarez is program director with Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based group working to seek a peaceful end to the conflict in Colombia. Alvarez said she visited union workers at the Drummond mines and the workers say they are still scared to death. Before traveling to Alabama, Alzate spoke in Florida, where Sinaltrainal, a union representing 2,300 food workers, sued Coca-Cola Co. The union alleges that the company's Colombian bottlers work with death squads to kill, threaten and intimidate plant workers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Coup plotters in contact with US embassy [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 15 April 2002. Venezuelan coup plotters were in contact with US embassy: report. WASHINGTON -- Venezuelan military officers, who unsuccessfully tried to topple President Hugo Chavez last week, were in contact with the US embassy in Caracas less than two months ago, Newsweek magazine reported Monday. The report cited Bush administration sources as saying that in late February, dissident Venezuelan military officers had informed embassy officials about planning a coup. The officers were told that this was not acceptable, that a coup was not the way to go, the weekly reported quoting an unnamed source. But according to Newsweek, Chavez was widely seen in Washington as a hostile figure whose erratic leadership threatened US oil supplies as well as efforts to crack down on guerrilla forces tied to drug trafficking and terrorism in neighboring Colombia. The coup, which was launched late Thursday, succeeded in ousting Chavez for two days. The United States expressed no sympathy for Chavez after he was ejected from power early Friday and did not explicitly reject the interim government that replaced him. The people of Venezuela have sent a clear message to President Chavez that they want both democracy and reform[!], the White House said later in a statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
AI: X-Ray PoW treatment cruel and degrading [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 15 April 2002. Amnesty International Condemns Treatment of Guantanamo Detainees. LONDON -- The treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban suspects at a U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay undermines human rights and may be cruel and degrading, Amnesty International asserted Monday. In a 62-page memorandum sent to the U.S. government, Amnesty also accuses Washington of flouting international law by refusing detainees access to legal counsel. The U.S. government must ensure that all its actions in relation to those in its custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay comply with international law and standards, the human rights group said. This is crucial if justice is to be done and seen to be done, and if respect for the rule of law and human rights is not to be undermined. The U.S. embassy in London declined to comment on the report. The camp has been inspected by officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Human rights groups have expressed concern that Washington is reserving the right to try the captives on its own terms and is calling them unlawful combatants instead of prisoners of war - a designation that bring them under the Geneva Convention. According to the memorandum, which was sent to Washington last week and made public Monday, U.S. authorities have refused to provide full information about the circumstances of many of the arrests, including whether they occurred in Afghanistan, Pakistan or elsewhere. Washington has undermined the presumption of innocence through a pattern of public commentary on the presumed guilt of the detainees and has raised the prospect of indefinite detention without charge or trial, the memorandum states. The U.S.A.'s pick and choose approach to the Geneva Conventions is unacceptable, as is its failure to respect fundamental international human rights standards, Amnesty said. A London-based Amnesty spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the organization was repeating a request, first made in January, for access to the camp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Milosevic: Kosovo massacre staged by KLA [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 15 April 2002. Milosevic Says Kosovo Massacre Staged by Rebels. THE HAGUE -- Slobodan Milosevic at his trial on Monday accused separatist Kosovo Albanian guerrillas of fabricating an alleged atrocity by Serb forces in 1999 in a bid to spur a shocked West into attacking Yugoslavia. The killing of about 45 ethnic Albanians in Racak in January 1999 shocked the outside world and was widely credited with stiffening NATO's resolve to launch its 11-week campaign of air strikes against Yugoslavia two months later. The Hague tribunal heard last week from a Western observer that dozens of unarmed men dressed in slippers and rubber boots were found shot in the head at Racak in 1999 after Serb forces entered the village. Milosevic disputed the testimony. Milosevic told the war crimes court that ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas shifted corpses around Racak to an open mass grave as part of a ruse to convince Western observers that Serb forces had butchered villagers. He said Serb forces had only killed KLA guerrillas in gun battles. It may be, as Serb authorities claim, and many Europeans tended to believe, that the victims were in fact killed in the shoot-out reported by police and then aligned to give the appearance of a massacre, Milosevic said quoting from an Italian press report. The 60-year-old accused, who is conducting his own defense at the United Nations court against charges he has rejected as false, vigorously challenged testimony that Racak's villagers had been gunned down. Retired British general Karel Drewienkiewicz acknowledged that a fierce battle had taken place between KLA guerrillas and Serb forces at Racak and that there had been a lapse of some 15 hours overnight before Western observers viewed the scene. Last week Drewienkiewicz told the court he saw men shot in the head at Racak. They had been dressed in carpet slippers and rubber boots. Since his trial opened in February Milosevic has accuses the West and Islamic militant group al-Qaeda of supporting a terrorist campaign by the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army to destabilize the Balkans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US air strike on Iraq - civilian targets hit [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 15 April 2002. US warplanes strike site in southern Iraq. WASHINGTON -- US warplanes struck an air defense site in southern Iraq on Monday in response to Iraqi fire on coalition aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone, the US military said. It was the first US air strike in southern Iraq since January 21. In Baghdad, a military spokesman said US and British warplanes bombed civilian targets in southern Iraq but did not report casualties. Enemy warplanes ... raided civilian installations in Zi-Qar province (375 kilometers, or 235 miles, south of Baghdad) in an attempt to harm Iraq's struggling people, he said, quoted by Iraq's official INA news agency. The raiding planes were driven back to their bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait by anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles, the spokesman said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela to continue supplying Cuba with oil [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 15 April 2002. Venezuela to continue supplying Cuba with oil: Chavez. CARACAS -- Venezuela will continue supplying oil to the government of President Fidel Castro in Cuba, President Hugo Chavez said Monday, only three days after failed coup leaders said they would stop the shipments. The decision by Venezuela's short-lived interim government to suspend oil exports to Cuba was a major threat to the island's economy. Not a single barrel for Cuba, Edgar Paredes, a manager at the state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, had proclaimed Friday. Chavez is Castro's closest ally in the Americas. Venezuela had been selling about 53,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba at a discounted price under an arrangement signed in 2000 between Chavez and Castro. Trade between the two nations went from 463.3 million dollars in 1999 to 912.4 million in 2000, according to the latest official figures, as Venezuela took over from Spain as Cuba's main trading partner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US deepens its hostility towards Chavez [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 15 April 2002. Chavez ordered armed forces to fire on demonstrators: US official. WASHINGTON -- President Hugo Chavez's government ordered armed forces to fire on anti-Chavez demonstrators last week, a senior state department official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. He says he needs to reflect, and one of the things I think he needs to reflect on is what drove him, a man who calls himself a man of the people, what drove him to order his people to be killed by their own armed forces, such an immoral and illegal order they refused to follow, the official charged. I think he should also reflect on his relations with his neighbours, his relations with radical movements around the world, his relations with failed regimes around the world such as Cuba, Iran, and Libya. The comments marked a distinct hardening in tone from Washington, which neither celebrated Chavez's return nor explicitly rejected the interim regime that replaced him for just under 48 hours in a failed weekend coup. The official denied that Washington had maintained contact with coup plotters, after Newsweek magazine reported that they disclosed their plan to authorities at the US embassy in Caracas less than two months ago. [N.B.] He said that members of the opposition, including members of the military, had indeed met with US officials to complain and to tell us about the situation. We expressed our concern about antidemocratic characteristics or aspects of the Chavez administration, while making it clear that the Venezuelan people have the right to choose their own leaders. We continue to monitor events in Venezuela with great concern, State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Chavez: US plane on prison island in coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 15 April 2002. Chavez probes U.S. plane on prison island in coup. CARACAS -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday he would investigate the mysterious presence of a U.S.-registered civilian plane on the island where he was held during a military coup that briefly overthrew him last week. But the populist former paratrooper -- democratically elected in 1998 -- said he was prepared to give Washington the benefit of the doubt over its ambiguous statements appearing to welcome his short-lived downfall. I think they were victims of misinformation, Chavez told a news conference, referring to the U.S. government with uncharacteristic diplomacy, adding he guaranteed no interruption of Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States. U.S. officials made it known that they were not unhappy to see the ouster of Chavez, a close friend of Cuba's Fidel Castro who is fond of anti-American rhetoric. They greeted his swift return to power at the helm of the world's fourth-largest oil exporter with reservation. When asked about Chavez's return U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said on Monday, We want to see a return [!] to democracy. [N.B.] A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said the political future of Chavez and Venezuela remained uncertain. For his part, Chavez said he was fascinated by the presence of a plane with U.S. markings on the Venezuelan Caribbean island of La Orchila where he was held after Friday's coup. At the time, the military was trying to persuade him to resign and fly into foreign exile. I saw the plane. It bore the markings of a private plane from the United States, not an official plane. This is being investigated. What was it doing there? Chavez asked. He said a number of Venezuelan nationals hostile to his rule were known to be living in the United States. They left here with a lot of money which they robbed, he said. Chavez added that U.S. Ambassador Charles Shapiro was aware of the presence of the aircraft on La Orchila. The ambassador recognized in fact that there was a plane in La Orchila with U.S. markings, Chavez said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US: 'Legitimacy...is not just a majority of votes' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 15 April 2002. U.S. withholds support for reinstated Chavez. WASHINGTON -- The United States on Monday withheld support for reinstated Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying his return to power over the weekend did not amount to a full restoration of Venezuelan democracy. The Bush administration was clearly pleased when the military forced President Chavez out of office early on Friday of last week and appeared caught by surprise when the tide turned again in Chavez's favor on Sunday. A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said the political future of Chavez and Venezuela remained uncertain. It's not totally clear exactly where certain players are and what the status of things is... There is no absolute in terms of where the situation stands, he said. Another senior official cast doubt on Chavez's legitimacy. [N.B.] He was democratically elected. He won a majority of votes. Legitimacy is something that is conferred not just by a majority of votes, however, he said . The United States has a long history of intervening to overthrow leftist and populist leaders in Latin America. Venezuela is especially important to U.S. interests because it exports 1.5 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S. market. The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a liberal think-tank on Latin American affairs, said the Bush White House was the big loser from events in Venezuela. Whether there is evidence or not, there is not a political person in Latin America who doesn't believe that the CIA played some kind of role in the short-lived ouster of Venezuela's President Chavez, it said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Editorial: 9-11 is Over! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Let us stop a moment and yell: Viva Chavez! Let us consider how quickly the US White House supported the coup. Let us consider how quickly the IMF supported the coup. Almost as if they felt they HAD to move fast, too add some greasy sheen of legitimacy to an conspicuously dubious endeavor. And let us consider how they were caught, so quickly, with their (metaphorical) pants down. Let us consider Cuba's small but inspirational role in all of this, too. Cuba which has been so quiet about Camp X-Ray (even though the world has expressed its shock); Cuba which has been so quiet about Jenin (even though the world has expressed its shock) -- ah, now Cuba comes through again. The first to defend the obvious: Chavez = democracy. Now, let us return our attention to the painful and the horrible: The ZioNazi slaughter of the Palestinians. Which seems to NEVER end. Yes, it's a downer to return our attention there ... with democracy so alive in the streets of Caracas, and all -- but, we must ... and there is even hope in so doing. Because we see (so much of) the world united in opposition to the real axis of evil: Sharon-IMF-Bush. And the opposition is growing. We've seen the photos: Muslims, Commies, even white-bread liberals are UNITED in condemnation -- and resistance. What is Palestine -- but another Vietnam? And: Someone once called for 2, 3, even more Vietnams. 9-11 is Over. That quick-shit con-rap about the US calling all the shots, setting all the terms and doing whatever the hell it wants anywhere in the world has COME TO A CLOSE. We Can Win! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller, Editor http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Chavez assumes presidency, calls for peace [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 14 April 2002. Chavez assumes presidency in televised ceremony in the presidential palace. CARACAS -- A teary-eyed Hugo Chavez assumed the presidency of Venezuela in a dramatic ceremony at the presidential palace Sunday, his voice choked with emotion after his removal from office during a two-day coup d'etat. I am still stupefied. I am still trying to assimilate the process, Chavez said, speaking directly into the television cameras. Chavez returned by helicopter from detention on a Caribbean island early Sunday and entered the presidential palace in Caracas where he is expected to resume the presidential functions he was ousted from two days ago. We can write I don't know how many books for Venezuelan history and for the world of what this counterrevolutionary process is about, said Chavez in a defiant tone. Chavez was sworn in wearing civilian clothing and spoke at length of continued civilian-military collaboration. These events that brought blood and pain should be a lesson for all, Chavez said, in apparent reference to the violent demonstrations that led up to the coup and continued during his captivity. I call for peace. I call for calm, for rationality, for the unity of the country, he said, in a conciliatory tone that his supporters also used earlier in the day when addressing the deeply-divided Venezuelan people. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US renews threatening talk towards Chavez [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 14 April 2002. U.S. offers tough message to Venezuela's Chavez. WASHINGTON -- The United States, which did not condemn the military coup that ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, greeted his return on Sunday with a stern message that his policies were not working and he should be more responsive to his people [read: the capitalists and labor aristocrats]. I hope Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him that his own policies are not working for the Venezuelan people, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on NBC's Meet the Press news program. We do hope that Chavez recognizes that the whole world is watching and that he takes advantage of this opportunity to right his own ship which has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a long time, Rice said. On Sunday, an official at the U.S. State Department said the U.S. was monitoring the situation closely. On Friday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Details are still unclear, but what we do know is that the actions encouraged by the Chavez government provoked a crisis. . U.S. officials insisted, however, that they did not know in advance of the chain of events that led to Chavez's departure And they said they did not consider his ouster a coup, even though military leaders installed a new government. This was in contrast to the Latin American leaders from the 19-member Rio Group, who condemned what they called the interruption of constitutional order, called for clean democratic elections and said it was too early to decide if they could recognize the new interim government as legitimate. Rice, while offering to work with the Organization of American States, or OAS, and other countries in the region to help move Venezuela through this crisis, warned on Sunday that Chavez must respect constitutional processes. This is no time for a witch hunt this is time for national reconciliation in Venezuela and we are working with our partners in the OAS and in the region to try and help Venezuela through this very difficult time, she said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
CIA plots with Israelis in Bethlehem standoff [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- BBC (with additional material by Reuters). 14 April 2002. Palestinians reject Bethlehem deal. BETHLEHEM -- The Palestinians have rejected a proposal by Israel that militants holed up inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem hand themselves over for trial in Israel or go into exile abroad. Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Israel had given the proposal, under which the gunmen could surrender and be tried in an Israeli military court or go into exile forever, to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. A member of a negotiating committee set up by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said both ideas were unacceptable. [N.B.] As the siege continues and with the US secretary of state trying to resolve the wider crisis, the CIA is reported to have been discussing possible options with the Israeli secret service. The Palestinians have rejected an Israeli suggestion that the militants go into exile in a third country. One of the negotiators, Salah al-Taamari, said Palestinians had no intention of sending people into exile again. He said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in no moral position to talk of people with blood on their hands. The Palestinians say they are still prepared to begin direct negotiations with the Israelis immediately. They insist Israel must allow them to have church representatives on their negotiating team before they will talk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Iraq pressures Iran to help Palestinians [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 14 April 2002. Saddam urges Irangive oil revenue to Palestinians. BAGHDAD -- Iraqi President Saddam Hussein urged Iran on Sunday to give part of one month's oil revenues to the Palestinian people, Iraqi state television said. Iran has previously called for a one-month oil embargo... and Iraq has implemented and stopped pumping oil for a month, it quoted Saddam as saying during a cabinet meeting. But Iran has not taken any practical step to implement the call... and has not stopped pumping for one month, Saddam said. Saddam announced on April 2 that he was stopping oil deliveries for a month, or until Israel withdrew from its military incursion into the West Bank to clamp down on an 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation. Iran is currently urging others to offer part of their (oil) revenues of one month to the Palestinian people... and this is good... but let it pay too, he said. We hope first that Iran will pay part of its oil revenues of one month to the Palestinian people, and we hope the Arab League will be ready to receive the sums which we hope Iran will pay, to be transferred to the Palestinian people. Saddam also hailed the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli offensive. The Palestinians have high morale and they are determined to resist, he said. The Palestinians are heroes who deserve that we greet them and hail their resistance every day and praise their continuation of their intifada against the Zionist entity until Palestine is liberated, he said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Russia: New CIA spy allegations [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 14 April 2002. Russian defense worker: CIA drugged me while I searched for relatives. MOSCOW -- A Russian government defense employee at the center of the latest spy scandal with the United States was drugged and recruited by the CIA while seeking information about long-lost relatives, he said on state-run television Sunday. The employee, identified only as Viktor, told RTR television he was trying to fulfill his dying father's wish to contact relatives who fled to the United States decades earlier and wrote a letter back. That letter in the 1950s was ignored at the KGB's request. Viktor's face was blacked out during Sunday's broadcast. Russia's Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, said last week it foiled an alleged U.S. espionage effort involving Viktor. The accusations came after a string of spy scandals in recent years and amid preparations for a U.S.-Russian presidential summit next month. In the interview with RTR, Viktor said he decided against contacting the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to fulfill his father's wish last year because he works for a Russian Defense Ministry installation and thought such a visit would raise suspicion. Instead, he approached an embassy in another ex-Soviet republic. The FSB has not named which country. Embassy employees promised to help Viktor and arranged another meeting. I started to understand in the middle of the conversation that they were trying to recruit me, Viktor told RTR. But I cannot describe how the conversation ended or how I ended up at the Russian Embassy. Viktor later was found on a public bench suffering from shock and amnesia, RTR said. The Russian Embassy sent him to Moscow, where the FSB concluded that U.S. officers had slipped him psychotropic drugs in drinks and cookies in an effort to extract information. Under FSB control, Viktor then received instructions and secret packets from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The Russian security service identified Viktor's contact as Yunju Kensinger, a third secretary in the embassy's consular department, and reported its discoveries to the U.S. Embassy. The embassy did not respond, RTR said. Kensinger -- who allegedly never met with Viktor but instead used secret drop points and messages in invisible ink, according to the security service's press office -- left Moscow last month. CIA officials and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow have declined to comment on the allegations, which were first reported last week. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews 9-11 is Over! We Can Win! --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela: Class struggle to be continued [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 14 April 2002. Venezuela's Chavez conciliatory, supporters loot. CARACAS -- Fiery Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez returned to the presidency in a conciliatory mood on Sunday after a failed military coup, but hundreds of his supporters celebrated by looting shops and attacking an opposition-dominated town hall. The Roman Catholic Church said security forces killed 23 people in riots on Saturday night, but there was no official word on casualties. State television said nine people died. Venezuela's Roman Catholic Church slammed the security forces for brutality in trying to put down pro-Chavez protests, many of which deteriorated into looting expeditions. We energetically condemn the 23 murders which occurred during the night of April 13 in several poor areas of the city, said the Archdiocese of Caracas in a news release. Chavez's Vice President Diosdado Cabello said many of the populist's opponents had fled abroad in the past few hours. Wealthy parts of Caracas were very quiet, as the better-off stayed at home. Several dissident executives at state-owned oil company PDVSA, who had spearheaded last week's massive anti-Chavez protests, told Reuters they had gone into hiding. There's a confrontation of social classes here. There's a lot of hatred, said 43-year-old worker Carlos Ibarra. Dozens of looters were still dragging away the few remaining goods of shops on a street in the middle-class eastern neighborhood of La Florida on Sunday. Police and National Guard troops stood by helplessly, not risking more serious disturbances by making arrests. The people were worried because Chavez wasn't coming back and so we went to look for food, said a 30-year-old woman, who declined to give her name, as she prepared to carry away bags bursting with spices, cooking oil and other food items. It's food for my kids, she said. The gritty Catia neighborhood, one of Caracas's largest slums, resembled a war zone on Sunday. Mile upon mile of shops had been sacked and their battered metal shutters were painted with Nothing left here or Already looted. A slogan on a wall expressed the reaction of many poor Venezuelans to the U.S. position. Yankees, game over. Yours lost, it said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela posters: 'It's a class struggle' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 14 April 2002. Chavez supporters party. CARACAS -- Clad in red berets and waving Venezuelan flags, hundreds of people celebrated outside Venezuela's presidential palace Sunday, in testimony to the popularity that helped sweep President Hugo Chavez back to power after a two-day coup. We haven't budged from here, the victory is ours, said Eyuminada Bolivar, 50, who said she had been posted outside the presidential palace since dawn, shortly after Chavez returned to office and delivered an emotional hour-long speech. Residents of modest neighborhoods of Caracas and other cities of Venezuela held an impromptu party outside the presidential offices, with music blasting and food for sale. Posters carried by the crowd and slogans painted on surrounding walls read It's a class struggle, Out with the coup participants, Down with tyranny, and Viva Chavez. Many members of the crowd called for justice for the military officers and business leaders who ousted Chavez early Friday, in the shortest coup in Latin American history. Where is the OAS and human rights? read graffiti in red paint sprawled on the wall of a building in downtown Caracas. Wearing a red beret, the symbol of Chavez's Fifth Republic political movement, Aurora Urbina, 47, proudly carried an enormous photo of her leader. They kidnapped him, the rich wanted to snatch him away from us, but we have gotten him back, she said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Iran: US gave 'green light' to Venezuela coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 13 April 2002. Iran Sees U.S. Behind Chavez's Venezuela Ouster. TEHRAN -- Iran, which had built up friendly ties with deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said Saturday the fiery populist's ouster by the military was in part hatched by the United States. [N.B.] State television said Washington was concerned that Venezuela -- the world's No 4 oil exporter and a leading supplier of petroleum products to the U.S. -- would heed a call by Iran to cut oil supplies for one month to countries that support Israel. Noting that Chavez's foreign policies were contrary to American interests in Latin America it said the flamboyant ex-paratrooper's fall reminds one of the American-backed coup by General Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973. Chavez had visited fellow OPEC-member Iran and was warmly received in a country strongly opposed to Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and recently labeled by President Bush part of an axis of evil. The White House, clearly pleased by Chavez's departure, said it did not consider his ouster a coup and said the Venezuelan people rose up for the protection of democracy. But for Iranian television, the most important reason for America's concern was the issue of oil...There was an increasing probability that Venezuela would also support the stoppage of supplies, suggested by Tehran. Iranian newspapers also saw the American hand in Chavez's downfall. Some reports indicate the United States gave the green light for the coup d'etat and that Chavez was deposed because of his avowed anti-American policies, wrote Resallat, a conservative daily. For Jomhooriye Eslami, Chavez's ouster was the culmination of a concerted effort in which the United States played no small part. The deposing of a government that favored a policy aimed at cutting the production and raising the price of oil is no accident. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Coup leader on the run [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP (with additional material by Reuters). 13 April 2002. Interim Venezuelan president seeks protection in military fort: official. CARACAS -- Venezuela's interim president, Pedro Carmona, opted for the protection of a military fort in Caracas Saturday, leaving the presidential palace, which was surrounded by thousands of protesting supporters of ousted president Hugo Chavez, the administration spokesman said. (Carmona) is protected within Fort Tiuna, Jesus Briceno told Union Radio from the presidental palace. That is the same fort where Chavez was held Friday. Earlier, several dozen Venezuelan soldiers at a barracks opposite Miraflores presidential palace raised their weapons and berets and hailed a crowd backing overthrown President Hugo Chavez as provisional government ministers fled the palace on Saturday. A Reuters journalist inside the palace accompanied a minister of the government which took power after Friday's coup as officials fled through a tunnel. The newly appointed transitional president, Pedro Carmona, was at military headquarters elsewhere in Caracas, officials said. The group of soldiers visible at balconies and windows at the barracks waved as the crowd of several thousand pro-Chavez protesters shouted Victory, victory for the people! Two soldiers standing guard at the palace gates also waved to the crowd. At one point a group of about six soldiers left the barracks and posted a Venezuelan flag outside, drawing wild cheers from the crowd. Meanwhile, Chavez was taken Saturday to the Caribbean island of La Orchila, off Venezuela's coast, his daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez told a Cuban television station by telephone. Speaking from Venezuela and citing very good sources, Chavez said they are harassing him, treating him badly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuelan officials in Cuba reject coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 13 April 2002. Venezuelan officials in Cuba reject illegal provisional gov't. HAVANA -- Venezuelan diplomats and military officers in Cuba have rejected the illegal interim government of oil executive Pedro Carmona, sworn in a day after president Hugo Chavez was ousted in a coup, the Venezuelan military attache said Saturday. We reject and categorically refuse to recognize the installation of the new de facto government in Venezuela, declared Colonel Kerman Rodriguez, who was one of the lieutenant-colonel-turned-president's military academy classmates. Reading from a statement to be signed by Venezuelan students, diplomats and military officials in Cuba, Rodriguez charged that Carmona's illegal administration attacked the Venezuelan people's liberty, sovereignty and independence when it took power Friday. Carmona left the presidential palace Saturday, seeking protection at a military fort in Caracas, after the grounds were surrounded by thousands of protesting Chavez supporters. Speaking at an event in the town of Guira de Melena, south of Havana, Rodriguez criticized Venezuela's military coup and expressed support for Chavez. He blasted Venezuela's decision to cut oil exports to Cuba as ridiculous, because that oil was paid for cent by cent and we can buy it somewhere else. Rodriguez accused the United States of being the coup instigators and said that a joint US statement with the government of Spain shows clear support for such a coup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'Vice president will lead Venezuela' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 13 April 2002. Vice president will lead Venezuela; assembly head. CARACAS -- The president of Venezuela's newly-restored National Assembly, William Lara, said vice president Diosdado Cabello will become interim president until ousted leader Hugo Chavez can officially resign before the legislature. Earlier, the current interim leader, business executive Pedro Carmona, reinstated the legislature after Venezuela's army commander said that was a condition of the army's support for his regime. It was not immediately clear what Lara's announcement would mean for Carmona, who left the Miraflores presidential palace for a refuge in the Fort Tiuna military base after the palace was surrounded by thousands of Chavez supporters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Coup leader resigns; Chavez in transit [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 13 April 2002. Diosdado Cabello, Chavez VP, sworn in as president of Venezuela. CARACAS -- Pedro Carmona, who took power after president Hugo Chavez was ousted from power, announced late Saturday that the legislature had named Chavez Vice President Diosdado Cabello to the post of president of Venezuela. Moments before, Carmona had resigned in an address broadcast on RCR radio in Caracas. The national legislature has decided to assign the post of president to Vice President Diosdado Cabello, after the interim president presented his resignation to the Venezuelan people, said Carmona, speaking of himself in the third person. The announcement restores the succession under the Venezuelan constitution that had been interrupted by Carmona's provisional government for a mere thirty hours. [N.B.] Officials said a delegation of supporters of ousted president Hugo Chavez was enroute to the Caribbean island of La Orchila to escort him back to Caracas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Coup leader, cronies arrested; joy in streets [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 13 April 2002. Diosdado Cabello sworn in as Venezuela president; Chavez men reinstated. CARACAS -- Interim Venezuelan president Pedro Carmona, who took office after Hugo Chavez was ousted from power, announced late Saturday that the legislature had named Chavez's vice president Diosdado Cabello as the country's new president. [N.B.] Carmona was then arrested, along with his top ministers and top military supporters. Moments before, Carmona had resigned in an address broadcast on RCR radio in Caracas. Caracas television stations immediately showed jubilant crowds, many of which had moments before threatened violence. Police sirens wailed in the streets as citizens set off fireworks. General Lucas Rincon was returned to his post as commander of the armed forces, which he held under Chavez, said Vice Rear Admiral Hector Ramirez, who had been named defense minister under the provisional government. Former Chavez ministers said that the entire Chavez cabinet, with the exception of Chavez himself, had met at the Miraflores palace, during a hurried message they delivered over the state-owned television network. We are retaking control of the nation's institutions, reestablishing constitutional order. We have spent many difficult hours but the rightist dictatorship has been defeated, said legislator Juan Bareto. We are going to reconcile the country. Vargas told AFP that a group of Chavez supporters was on its way to Venezuela's Orchila island in the Caribbean sea to bring Chavez back to Caracas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela: Rich versus Poor [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 13 April 2002. Stream of Riot Victims in Venezuela. CARACAS -- Edgar Paredes frantically pulled his bloodied brother, Luis, from the back of the bloodstained family car and cradled him in his arms, begging for a stretcher at Caracas' Perez Carreno hospital. His brother was shot Saturday during a protest in which demonstrators began demanding the release of Venezuela's detained President Hugo Chavez -- one of countless victims of rioting in the Venezuelan capital Saturday. We have every right to protest, but they are gunning us down out there, said Edgar, his lothes soaked in blood as he held his wounded brother. He didn't know who shot him. Police fired repeatedly at protesters in various Caracas slums. Saturday and hospitals throughout the city's poorest areas were inundated with victims of on Saturday. Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said there had been nine people killed and about 40 injured in politically related violence Saturday. Cars and ambulances delivered victims in a steady stream at Perez Carreno in La Yaguara, one of Caracas' poorest and most dangerous districts. We are at the point of collapse, said nurse Margarita Delgado. On a normal day we receive 20 or 30 patients here. Today were are receiving four or five times that many. Screams of pain, agony and sorrow filled emergency rooms. Tearful and frantic family members waited outside, anxious for word of whether their loved ones were still alive. The casualties ranged from a 12-year boy to a 70 year-old woman. In many cases, traffic jams produced by the rioting and looting, or simply by people fleeing violence, made it difficult, if not impossible, to get the wounded to hospitals. The interiors of many cars bringing in victims were stained with blood. Already angry about Chavez's arrest, victims were further incensed by the fact that private Venezuelan television and radio stations did not report Saturday's disturbances -- or pro-Chavez protests -- in poorer areas such as the slums of western Caracas. The local media aren't showing what is happening here. They complained about Chavez ... but they are worse,'' said Hector Flores, 52, a chauffeur observing the events at Perez Carreno. This (new) government usurped power, and now it is repressing the people. Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters streamed down from the hillside slums to voice their support Chavez, gathering in front of the presidential palace. Announcers did urge viewers to stay calm and not be provoked by rumors of political unrest. Shortly after he took office in 1999, Chavez issued a decree requiring all public hospitals to attend to people without insurance. Under previous governments, the poor often were turned away. For such actions Chavez was beloved by many. Earlier Saturday, a pathologist at the Caracas morgue said 30 bodies had been brought by early Saturday, most with bullet wounds. Tears streaming down her face, Juana Chirinos, 50, watched the ambulances pull in to Pedro Carreno Hospital and muttered repeatedly, My God. My God. While we bring in our dead one after the other, the rich people in the east are having drinks and fanning themselves, she said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Chavez: 'I have NOT resigned!' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NYT. 14 April 2002. Venezuela Leader, Ousted 2 Days Ago, May Be Back. Edited. CARACAS -- The day after an interim government led by the military and powerful business sectors took control here, thousands of angry protesters seemed close to forcing the return of the ousted populist president, Hugo Chávez. The demonstrators took over the presidential palace and several television stations. The swelling crowds -- at turns shouting in anger and dancing with joy -- complained that Mr. Chávez had been forced from power in a coup. By midnight, officials loyal to Mr. Chávez were delivering triumphant nationally televised speeches in celebration of their return to power. In a written statement from the military base at Turiamo, where he had been in the custody of military officers, Mr. Chávez issued a statement at 2:45 p.m. that was directed to the Venezuelan people, and whoever else may be interested. I, Hugo Chávez Frias, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the statement read, have NOT resigned the legitimate powers given to me by the people. The cabinet is back in place, said 60-year-old Miguel Reyes, one of the protesters who stood watching a parade of Chávez officials return to the presidential palace. Referring to Mr. Chávez, he added, We are waiting for the president to show up, and then we will go home. What we want is our president, said José Osvaldes, screaming on the street. Carlos Duque, 41, said: You can't take someone who is democratically elected by the people, and then put in a dictatorship of convenience. We want to get back the president of the republic. The protests made clear that support for Mr. Chávez continued strong in the poorest sections of the city, in tumbledown slums and open-air commercial districts that helped propel him to power. Shouting so hard that some of them cried, the protesters delivered a message that was strident but simple: Mr. Chávez's presidency came through the people's votes and could not be undone by special interests. In a gritty commercial district on the west side of this city that has long been considered Mr. Chávez's stronghold, his support remained strong. A conversation with a subway technician, José Varela, and his fervent expressions of support for Mr. Chávez, drew a crowd. As he spoke, some began to chant Mr. Chávez's name. Others brought out posters of the ousted president. People's eyes turned angry as they talked about recent events; many began waving their fists in the air. The people are with Chávez! shouted Luis GarcÃa, 55, an auto mechanic. Another man shouted, What they did to him was a coup! He has not resigned, said Carolina Avila, one of the merchants. To me, he is still our president. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Belgrade demo against 'war crimes' bill [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Hundreds demonstrate in Belgrade against war crimes bill. BELGRADE -- Around 300 supporters of Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party demonstrated in Belgrade Friday after a senior party member attempted suicide rather than face extradiction to the UN war crimes tribunal. The protesters are angry at a new law adopted by the Yugoslav parliament which will see war crimes suspects handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The legislation officially entered into force Friday. The demonstration, held in front of the federal parliament in the capital, comes after Vlajko Stojiljkovic, a close confidant of Milosevic and former interior minister shot himself in the head outside the Yugoslav parliament on Thursday evening. Waving Serbian and Yugoslav flags, the demonstators shouted Vlajko, Out hero, in what a leading socialist member Oskar Kovac said was only the first of a number of planned demonstrations scheduled to be held across Yugoslavia. Stojiljkovic did not commit suicide, he has been killed by the war crimes law, Kovac told a press conference in Belgrade. The former minister was said to be in a critical state early Friday afternoon. Stojiljkovic has been charged by the tribunal alongside Milosevic and three others for his part in atrocities committed by Serb troops in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. The new legislation will allow for the transfer of Yugoslav nationals who have been indicted by the tribunal as well as non-Yugoslavs wanted by the court who are found to be living in the country. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela: Extreme reaction [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Venezuelan junta announces suspension of legislature; Interim government overturns 49 of Chavez' controversial laws. CARACAS -- Venezuela's civilian-led provisional government Friday announced the suspension of the unicameral National Assembly created under the 1999 constitution promoted by ousted president Hugo Chavez. The interim government earlier revoked 49 decrees by Chavez. The December decrees covering energy, fishing and land reform helped solidify the business and labor coalition that opposed Chavez, leading to bloody protests amid which he left office Thursday under military pressure. The self-declared interim president, Pedro Carmona, also fired Chavez's comptroller, prosecutor and administrative solicitor, and dropped the Bolivarian from the country's official name, putting a symbolic end to Chavez's Bolivarian revolution. Chavez had renamed the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in honor of Simon Bolivar, who led the territory out of Spanish rule. Carmona, on Friday repealed 49 controversial economic laws passed by the ousted government of Hugo Chavez, under special powers authorized by the National Assembly. A commission made up of sectors from industry, including the crucial oil industry, and agriculture will be set up to monitor the move, according to a decree read out by Venezuela's new Attorney General Daniel Romero. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
IMF backs Venezuela coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. IMF says ready to assist new Venezuela administration. WASHINGTON -- The IMF said Friday it stood ready to assist the new administration in Venezuela following the collapse of former president Hugo Chavez's government. We stand ready to assist the new administration in whatever matter they find suitable, International Monetary Fund spokesman Thomas Dawson told a regular news conference. An IMF mission visited Caracas in December and a small team was there now as part of an annual review of the economy, Dawson said. We would hope that these discussions can continue with the new administration, he added. The IMF regretted the loss of life in Venezuela, the Fund spokesman said. Obviously we are concerned about the human developments down there, the loss of life and so on, Dawson said. Venezuela does not rely on any IMF economic program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Chavez: 'I am a jailed president' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 12 April 2002. Daughter says Venezuelan president did not resign. HAVANA -- The daughter of Venezuela's former President Hugo Chavez told Cuban state television on Friday that her father had not resigned and was the victim of a coup. You have to help me, look for a lawyer ... I am a jailed president, Maria Gabriela Chavez said her father told her in a telephone conversation on Friday morning, just hours after he fell from power. Venezuela's provisional government said Chavez resigned on Friday after military officers insisted he leave office. It is a lie, all lies, he said he never resigned, that a group of military took him away and he is being held incommunicado, the daughter said, characterizing Venezuela's new government as a dictatorship of the extreme right. In her telephone interview from Venezuela with Cuban TV in Havana, Maria Gabriela Chavez said she last spoke to her father at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT). She said she and her family were fine although virtually hidden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Chavez' surrender denied [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Venezuelan minister denies Chavez' surrender. CARACAS -- Information Minister Teresa Maniglia denied reports Friday that President Hugo Chavez had surrendered, telling AFP by telephone that he was still inside his presidential office. Chavez did not surrender and is still inside his presidential office at the Miraflores palace, Maniglia said moments after Globovision television flashed a message saying the embattled president had surrendered to three generals. Meanwhile, Venezuelan police said Friday that the death toll from the latest anti-Chavez demonstration in Caracas had risen to 11. At least 95 persons were injured, the immense majority from gunshot wounds, in the protest Thursday, police chief Miguel Dao said in a radio interview. [N.B.] Dao spoke as a police unit under his command was raiding a building in the San Bernardino neighborhood apparently belonging to the district's mayor Freddy Bernal, a close associate of embattled President Hugo Chavez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Chavez arrested; businessman to head govt [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Chavez arrested in Venezuela after stepping down; Top Venezuelan businessman to head transition government. CARACAS -- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was placed under arrest Friday afer resigning under pressure from the military which blamed him for street rioting that left 11 dead. The military asked businessman Pedro Carmona to head a transitional government, putting an end to Chavez's three-year administration that had pitted the president against the establishment. Chavez, 47, stepped down after a three-day national strike culminated Thursday in a violent street protest that killed 11 people and wounded 95, sparking a revolt among the military top brass and the government. Chavez was taken to the Fort Tiuna military facility, in the southern part of the city, where he will remain for the moment... until we find a more appropriate detention site, Army Commander in Chief Efrain Vasquez told reporters. Armed Forces Chief General Lucas Rincon announced Chavez' resignation at 3:15 am (0715 GMT), ending hours of uncertainty and conflicting reports on Chavez whereabouts. The military leadership regret the sad events that took place in this capital yesterday ... and requested that the president of the republic resign from office, which he accepted, Rincon told reporters after announcing Chavez's resignation. Finally, I want to call on the glorious Venezuelan people to stay calm and to the army to set an example of civility, rejecting any incitement to violence. Keep faith in your national armed forces, Venezuela's top general said. Not long after, Pedro Carmona, president of business leaders association Fedecameras, announced that Venezuela's civilian society and military establishment had asked him to head a transitional government. The 60-year-old economist said he would announce the members of the transition cabinet later Friday. Fedecamaras was one of the organizers of a three-day strike begun Tuesday against Chavez' labor policies. During the upheaval late Thursday and early Friday, military leaders made it clear they would not take up arms against Chavez, who first took office in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000, but expected him to resign peacefully. Chavez' resignation was preceded by that of Finance Minister Francisco Uson, who is an army general, and of Deputy Minister for Public Safety Luis Camacho Kairuz, who heads the National Guard. Both were joined by 10 other high-ranking military officers in rebelling against Chavez. Colonel Marcos Salas said late Thursday that Chavez' wife, Marisabel, was able to leave the country, a decision taken on humanitarian grounds. There were no disruptions at Maiquetia International Airport, where an airport spokeswoman said flight schedules were normal, but that the terminal was under heavy military protection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'Chavez did not resign, he was arrested' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Chavez did not resign, his last education minister says. CARACAS -- Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez did not resign but was taken prisoner, his last education minister said Friday. Chavez told the military staff he was not resigning, that they could go ahead with their coup and take responsibility for it, said Aristobulo Isturiz, who was with Chavez at the Miraflores presidential palace until he was taken to Fort Tiuna base, just hours after the elected leftist president's government collapsed. They took him away under arrest, Isturiz said, denying press reports Chavez was in hiding and that authorities were searching for him. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US approves of Venezuela coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Chavez government provoked the crisis: White House. WASHINGTON -- The government of oil-rich Venezuela caused the crisis that precipitated president Hugo Chavez's downfall after bloody street fighting, the White House spokesman said Friday. What we do know is that actions encouraged by the Chavez government provoked the crisis, spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters after Chavez resigned under military pressure on the heels of street fighting that left at least 11 dead and 95 injured in Venezuela, the number three US oil supplier. The government suppressed what was a peaceful demonstration of the people, with supporters, on orders firing on unarmed demonstrators, he stressed, adding that the United States is saddened by the loss of life. Chavez's government had, in recent days, failed to show full respect for the peaceful expression of political opinion, and as a result, the spokesman said, president Chavez under pressure has resigned the presidency, though he refused to characterize the collapse of Chavez's government as a coup. Fleischer stressed the important energy relationship shared by the United States and Venezuela, noting that the South American nation, the fourth leading oil exporter, has historically been a dependable supplier of energy to the United States. While Washington will continue to monitor events closely, the Bush administration also looks forward to working with all democratic forces in Venezuela to restore the essential elements of democracy, Fleischer said. The people in Venezuela spoke, and (Hugo) Chavez resigned in response, a senior State Department official said earlier. We will be keeping in close touch with the regional community on this in terms of the democracy clause under the Quebec agreement and the OAS and be looking at how things develop, the official said on condition that he not be named. On the demise of Chavez's government, the official added: This is really a matter for the Venezuelan people. And I think the people spoke, and Chavez resigned in response. European capitals meanwhile expressed concern over Chavez's forced resignation and urged the South American country's military to rapidly hand power back to civilian rulers. In France, foreign ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau condemned the attack on institutional order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuelan officials: Chavez ousted in coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Venezuelan officials charge Chavez ousted in coup. CARACAS -- Venezuela's comptroller general and attorney general Friday charged president Hugo Chavez was pressured out of power in a coup d'etat. We are in a situation of a coup d'etat that has taken place in Venezuela. Constitutional order has been interrupted, comptroller Clodosvaldo Russian, still on the job, told reporters at a press conference in his office. Under the country's constitution, if the president resigns he is supposed to be replaced by the vice president or if that is impossible, the speaker of the National Assembly, which has not taken place. Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez said the president has not resigned, we have not seen any clear evidence of any such resignation, and President Chavez continues to be the president of Venezuela. Rodriguez complained that Chavex was being held incomunicado and that his office has not been permitted to contact Chavez. This is a situation in which there is a total and absolute violation of the inter-American Human Rights Convention, he said. If he is being deprived of his personal freedom, what crimes did he commit? Is the resignation a crime... and if he resigned, and that is a crime, why is it that my office is not being permitted to interview him, in violation of his civil rights, the attorney general asked. Chavez told the military staff he was not resigning, that they could go ahead with their coup and take responsibility for it, said Aristobulo Isturiz, the education minister who was with Chavez at the Miraflores presidential palace until he was taken to Fort Tiuna base, just hours after his government collapsed. They took him away under arrest, Isturiz said, denying press reports the elected leftist former paratrooper was in hiding and that authorities were searching for him. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela suspends oil exports to Cuba [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Venezuela suspends oil exports to Cuba. CARACAS -- Venezuela will suspend oil exports to Cuba, directors of the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela oil company announced Friday, just hours after the ouster of Havana's ally, Hugo Chavez, from the presidency. Not a single barrel of oil for Cuba, said Edgar Paredes, a director of the giant oil company, known as PDVSA. Venezuela had been selling about 53,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba at a discounted price under an arrangement signed in 2000 between Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Venezuela: Human rights violations after coup [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 12 April 2002. Venezuela's ombudsman denounces human rights violations after Chavez ouster. CARACAS -- Venezuela's Ombudsman German Mundarain denounced Friday a massive violation of human rights in the wake of Chavez's departure from power, saying that vengeance attacks on his supporters were taking place. We believe that there is a massive violation of human rights that must cease for the good of all our citizens and the good of the country, Mundarain declared on Union Radio. It is a massive violation of human rights linked to a crusade of vengeance, the ombudsman added. His address was made shortly before new President Pedro Carmona, a business executive, was sworn in as interim Venezuelan leader. Mundarain expressed particular concern at the way lawmakers and ministers who benefit from special immunity have been arrested, adding that governors, municipal counselors and mayors were all being subjected to similar treatment. A number of arrests were shown on private television stations. Mundarain said his office had opened an investigation into the events unfolding in Venezuela. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Moldova: CP newspaper bombed [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 11 April 2002. Moldova Bomb. CHISINAU -- A bomb exploded overnight in front of the Communist Party newspaper, injuring a guard and causing damage to the building, police said Thursday. The bomb shattered the windows of the Comunistul newspaper building and nearby apartment buildings and slightly injured a 70-year-old guard. Police on the scene said it was a small bomb, probably made of plastic explosives. The ruling Communist Party blamed the attack on extremist elements who want to destabilize the country and are also believed to have kidnapped an opposition lawmaker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
PA: 'Stop these Nazi massacres of our people [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 11 April 2002. Palestinians Urge U.N. Probe Into Jenin Killings. RAMALLAH -- Palestinians called on Thursday for the United Nations to investigate the killings in Jenin refugee camp. Mohammed Dahlan, a senior aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told Reuters the Palestinian Authority had sent letters appealing to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and heads of other international organizations for an investigation. Palestinians have accused Israel of carrying out massacres in Jenin and elsewhere, and have said 500 Palestinians, some of them in Jenin camp, have been killed in Israel's 13-day-old offensive in the West Bank. Jenin camp, like other West Bank areas, has been declared a closed military area, barring journalists from obtaining their own independent accounts. We asked him (Annan) to form an investigation committee to probe the war crimes, the ethnic cleansing policy and the massacres of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Jenin camp committed by the Israeli army, Dahlan said. The Palestinian Authority issued a statement calling on the international community to dispatch international monitors and to stop these Nazi massacres against our people. Israel has opposed an international observer force in the region. Residents in the camp, speaking by telephone, described seeing bodies lying in the narrow alleys during the fighting. In the street that I walked through, there were also bodies of children and women as well. I was horrified. I don't know how many, said Yosra, who declined to give her family name. During the fighting, Palestinian ambulances were not allowed to enter the camp to evacuate wounded and dead. Thousands of protesters marched in the Gaza Strip on Thursday protesting over the Jenin killings and chanting slogans praising the Palestinian fighters for their resistance. We will sacrifice our souls and blood for Jenin, a banner read in Gaza City, where one of the demonstrations called for by the Palestinian Authority was held. Sabra and Shatila, Jenin, what is next? read another. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Crisis point in Venezuela [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 11 April 2002. Chavez orders troops around presidential palace to stop clashes; Venezuela's Chavez stops broadcast on three tv channels. CARACAS -- Venezuela's embattled President Hugo Chavez said Thursday he had ordered troops to surround the Miraflores presidential palace to protect his sympathizers against protesters calling for his resignation. These people think they are going to be able to come here and get Chavez out and they think the armed forces are going to support a rebellion, said Chavez in a broadcast that began around 4:00 pm (2000 GMT). The march can't get here, with thousands of people outside, we can't permit that, he said in a message to the nation. Chavez announced Thursday that broadcasts by three private television channels had been suspended on grounds they were inciting people to violence. Chavez announced the measure in a public broadcast, shortly after police said a journalist had been shot dead, as around 50,000 people held a protest march in a plush district of eastern Caracas. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Bush 'believes Sharon is a man of peace' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 11 April 2002. United States calls Sharon 'man of peace.' WASHINGTON -- The White House on Thursday called Ariel Sharon a man of peace, rejecting a report that U.S. support for the Israeli prime minister was eroding due to his failure to fully withdraw Israeli forces from Palestinian areas. The president has, does and will continue to work directly with Ariel Sharon to achieve peace in the region, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters. The president believes that Ariel Sharon is a man of peace. Fleischer made the statement of support in response to a Washington Post report saying Sharon's backing in the White House was ebbing as a result of his defiance of U.S. President George W. Bush's call for a withdrawal. The Post quoted an unnamed official as questioning Sharon's long-term ability to make peace and said some in the White House had begun making a distinction between support for Israel and support for Sharon. Without specifically mentioning the Middle East, Bush on Thursday expressed optimism over U.S. peacemaking efforts. I believe that if we're patient and resolved and united that out of this evil will come lasting peace -- peace in regions of the world that might appear now that cannot be peaceful, Bush said. Top leaders in the U.S. Congress earlier expressed support for Israel and Sharon after meeting with Bush over breakfast, saying it was important U.S. policymakers maintain a united front while Powell was in the Middle East. I don't think there has been any diminution of support, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said afterward. He had been asked whether support for Sharon was eroding within Congress or the White House. Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi said, This is a delicate time ... We should not be expressing a lack of confidence in any of the players right now. U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri said, We will stand with Israel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'Chavez out of power,' military coup alleged [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters. 12 April 2002. General Says Venezuela's Chavez Out of Power. CARACAS -- A Venezuelan general said on Thursday that President Hugo Chavez's government had abandoned its functions and the South American country was under the control of the armed forces. National Guard Gen. Alberto Camacho Kairuz made the announcement on local television after senior military officers blamed the president for violence during a huge anti-Chavez protest march in which at least 10 people were killed. All of the country is under the control of the national armed forces, Camacho said. The government has abandoned its functions, he added. Camacho, accompanied by other officers, said he did not know exactly where Chavez was, but he made a public call for a group of armored cars around the Miraflores presidential palace to withdraw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'Chavez surrenders' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP (with additional material by AP). 12 April 2002. Chavez surrenders to three generals: television. CARACAS -- Embattled President Hugo Chavez surrendered to three generals at the presidential palace of Miraflores, Globovision television flashed on its screen early Friday. A few moments ago, Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Chavez surrendered, the television station said. A Globovision reporter said that Chavez surrendered to three generals at the Miraflores presidential palace, and the armed forces chief of staff would do the same shortly. The announcement appears to confirm that Chavez has resigned from office after several generals on Thursday called for his resignation in the wake of a massive protest against him that turned violent, leaving nine dead and 95 wounded. Chavez's family flew from a Caracas military base to the western city of Barquisimeto earlier in the day, said Air Force Col. Marcos Salas. Finance Minister and Army general Francisco Uson said Chavez was worried and in contact with his family. Small tanks guarded the palace as caravans of armored troop vehicles patrolled Caracas streets and highways. In Washington, the White House had no immediate comment, spokesman Taylor Gross said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US to 'intensify involvement' in Philippines [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 10 April 2002. Rumsfeld Nears Decision to Intensify U.S. Military Involvement in Philippines. WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday he is nearing a decision on intensifying anti-terrorism aid to the Philippines, where 160 U.S. Special Forces troops are helping train and arm Filipino soldiers battling the Abu Sayyaf terror group. There is a reasonable likelihood that we will be doing it sometime in the period immediately ahead, Rumsfeld told reporters after a ceremony in the partially rebuilt section of the Pentagon that was attacked Sept. 11. Once we figure out what we think makes sense from our standpoint, we'll want to talk to the Philippine government for final approval, he said. Talks with lower-level Philippine officials have produced a general comfort level with the concept of intensifying U.S. military help, he said. He would not discuss details, but other defense officials said Wednesday that one part would involve sending about 300 members of a Navy construction battalion from Okinawa, Japan, to drill wells and improve roads on Basilan Island. It's a mixed bag; there are a series of different things the United States would do to increase its assistance, Rumsfeld said. One idea proposed to Rumsfeld is to get U.S. Special Forces trainers involved with Philippine troops closer to the combat zones. The trainers currently are working with battalion-sized units and are authorized to fire only in self-defense; the proposal is to push the level of training down a notch, to company-sized units, an arrangement that would bring U.S. soldiers in closer proximity to Abu Sayyaf fighters, one defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Left-wing groups in the Philippines oppose the U.S. military presence, saying it violates constitutional restrictions on the presence of foreign troops in the former American colony. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
US threatens Chavez [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 10 April 2002. US warns it could seek diplomatic isolation of Venezuela if rights violated. WASHINGTON -- The United States warned Wednesday it could seek to isolate Venezuela diplomatically should President Hugo Chavez's embattled government fail to protect the freedom of expression or labor rights. President George W. Bush is increasingly concerned about the possibility of destabilization in Venezuela, the number three US oil producer, and fears an expansion of the general strike underway -- which began Tuesday -- could affect oil exports, according to a State Department official who spoke privately. The real concern is that Venezuela could become ungovernable because opposition to Chavez is weak and offers no real alternative political program, the official said. With a crisis in the Middle East, and with Iraq's new idea of using oil as a political weapon, the strengthening of OPEC and the fact there is no clear option to follow Chavez, Washington has taken a hands-off position to avoid any interruption of its oil supply, said Georgetown University professor Francisco Nieto. The United States continues to seek a preservation and strengthening of those economic and energy relations as the Venezuelans themselves work their way through their problems, a senior White House official said, noting that Caracas never stopped shipping oil to the United States, even during the worst days of the oil embargo of the 1970s. Still, US policy toward Venezuela has taken a new and significant turn, the State Department official stressed. No longer (do we) just evaluate Chavez based on what he does; his words are very important as well. Chavez started bumping up against some of ... our core values, undermining the media and free press, which is vital, the State Department official added. They've been under attack down there. Chavez promised a leftist revolution when he came to power in 1998, and cast himself as an anti-US leader while keeping the United States as the country's main economic client. Yet in October, Chavez -- the lone significant ally Cuban President Fidel Castro has in the Americas, and who has paid visits to Iraq and Libya -- irked the United States by accusing it publicly of killing innocent children during bombing raids in Afghanistan. The United States has no intention of intervening in domestic Venezuelan affairs, the State Department official stressed, aiming only to cool off some of the confrontation between Chavez and his opposition by seeking assistance from within the region, particularly from the leaders of Mexico and Brazil. The hemispheric democratic charter, which establishes a plan to deal with democracies at risk, is the mechanism in which to do so, the State official said, Venezuela must [ostensibly] adhere to respect for a free press, labor rights and political activity as set out in the democratic charter of the Washington-based Organization of American States, the White House official concurred. Where the political activity in the country is carried out in accordance with the new hemispheric OAS democratic charter that was approved in Lima (in September), that's the framework in which Venezuelans are attempting to sort out their political differences, he said. Anything other than that will not be acceptable, not only to US but to all the members of the Inter American System. Chavez has definitely isolated himself more and more. We've noticed that because there are fewer and fewer people that we can go to and do business with in his govenment, the State Department official said. It's really difficult to see him holding on until February 2007. I think his term ends without his trying to seek some sort of modus vivendi with the opposition, the State Department official said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
'Severe human rights violations' in Jenin [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NYT. 9 April 2002. Palestinians' Plight in Battered Refugee Camp Brings Warning. JERUSALEM -- International aid workers and a leading Israeli civil rights group issued warnings tonight of a looming crisis for people in the isolated Jenin refugee camp, a densely populated one-square-mile warren of 10,000 inhabitants that has been the site of this week's fiercest occupation by Israeli forces. Two hundred women and children suffering from dehydration emerged from the camp today, aid workers said. Food, water, electricity and ambulances have been blocked from the area for five days, Palestinian officials said. [N.B.] An Israeli human rights group said that Israeli forces have demolished Palestinian homes, including several with people still inside them. The fierce fighting in Jenin appears to have taken the operation's highest toll, leaving 9 Israeli soldiers and 50 to 100 Palestinian fighters dead [a 9 - to - 10 ratio]. Palestinian civilians interviewed by telephone described eerily empty streets, gunfire all around and Apache attack helicopters continuously hovering overhead. Since 7 a.m., I have been counting about 40 rockets being shot on refugee camps, said Najeh Jarrar, a 60-year-old college professor who said he was cowering with his wife and child between their bathroom and kitchen. We don't know where the bullets will fall. In a rare example of public criticism, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross demanded that Israeli forces allow aid convoys access to the area. The wounded can't be tended to, the dead can't be brought out of the camp, said Stefan Ziegler, a Red Cross official who was able to reach the outskirts of the camp today. The water has run out. At least a half-dozen bodies have been buried in the yard of the Jenin government hospital, which sits just outside the camp, aid workers said. In a telephone interview tonight Dr. Muhammad Abughali, the hospital's director, began shouting when an Israel rocket landed nearby. Oh my God, did you hear that? he said breathlessly as the sound of an explosion echoed over the line. This is a missile! This is a missile! Dr. Abughali said his staff had given 200 hungry and thirsty women and children milk and food after they left the camp today. He said the bombing seemed to have slowed this afternoon, but parts of the camp have been heavily damaged. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a leading civil rights group, issued a statement last night accusing the army of severe human rights violations in Jenin. Tally Gur, spokeswoman for the association, said they have received reliable reports of houses being demolished with people inside them. We know that it has happened several times, not just once, she said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Milosevic trial - more details [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 9 April 2002. Kosovo damaged heritage scrutinized at Milosevic's trial. THE HAGUE -- A Harvard professor and recognised expert on the Ottoman history of the Balkans told the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic on Tuesday that Serb forces had deliberately destroyed Islamic religious sites in Kosovo during the 1998-99 conflict. Andras Riedlmayer, a historian heading a team of experts that has conducted a survey of the destruction of Kosovo's cultural heritage, said more than a third of the province's some 600 mosques had been destroyed during the war. Theological schools, Islamic libraries and tombs were also damaged during Yugoslav military offensives against ethnic Albanian rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), he said. But Milosevic challenged Riedlmayer's testimony, charging that his findings were instructed by the UN tribunal, as parts of the report were added to the war crimes indictment against him last October. Milosevic listed names of sites allegedly destroyed during the NATO bombings. Presiding judge Richard May adjourned the hearing until Wednesday, calling on Milosevic to wind up his questioning quite soon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Sharon: 'Military offensive will continue' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP (with additional material by Reuters and Ha'aretz). 9 April 2002. Sharon Says Israel's Military Offensive Will Continue. JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday that Israel's military offensive in the West Bank would continue until Palestinian militias have been crushed. It was a tough campaign, a campaign that we are continuing, Sharon said in remarks broadcast on Israel Television. Israel launched a fresh incursion overnight in Dura near the city of Hebron and Palestinian sources said about 70 people had been detained. Witnesses said troops had also entered the village of Kafr Ra'i near Jenin and shelled a police station. Even Tulkarm and Qalqilya were kept cut off from the outside world after Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers left under cover of darkness. The Israeli Defense Ministry said a blockade around the two cities would be tightened. Meanwhile, a woman from Haifa was injured Tuesday afternoon after she was shot in the hand when a group of left-wing demonstrators who were protesting on the outskirts of Jenin came under fire from an Israeli citizen disguised as a soldier. The group of protesters were heading for the IDF checkpoint at Jalameh, to protest the IDF's occupation of the city, when the shooting began. Hundreds of activists, including Arab MKs had been making their way to Jenin since early Tuesday morning, bringing humanitarian aid, including food, clothing and medication, to be distributed amongst the refugee camps in the Jenin area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Israel attacks Bethlehem church [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 8 April 2002. Fire in Compound of Church of Nativity After Gunbattle. BETHLEHEM -- Israeli troops ringing the Church of the Nativity fired Monday upon one of Christianity's holiest shrines, throwing a smoke grenade into the compound that sparked a fire near an adjacent church. A Palestinian policeman, who was trying to extinguish the fire, was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper, said a fellow policeman in the compound. The Israeli military said Palestinian gunfire wounded two Israeli border police officers. Israeli officials and senior Franciscans in Rome, whose clerics are among those inside, appeared increasingly at odds as the standoff stretched into a seventh day. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told parliament hours after the pre-dawn violence that soldiers would surround the church until the gunmen release the clerics, whom he described as hostages, and surrender. The Franciscans, however, accused Israel of violating a pledge not to attack the church. They maintained that the clerics aren't hostages and will remain in the compound throughout the standoff. The fire burned in a second-floor meeting hall above the courtyard of St. Katherine's, a Roman Catholic church in the compound adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born. The blaze, which burned for an hour before a fire crew could arrive, destroyed a piano, chairs, altar cloths and ceremonial cups. It sent plumes of smoke into the sky, which glowed orange as the sun rose. While the people were trying to put out the fire, Israelis opened fire and killed one Palestinian whose body is still inside the church, said Father Amjad Sabara. [N.B.] A Palestinian policeman, who gave only his first name, Salah, said an Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian policeman, 23-year-old Khaled Syam, in the head as he went to put out the fire. Palestinian firefighters were stopped and searched before being allowed to go to Manger Square to put out the fire. They weren't allowed inside the compound, but witnesses said they sprayed water over the wall to extinguish the blaze. A senior Israeli officer said Palestinians rang the church bells before dawn, signaling gunmen in a bell tower of the compound to fire on two Israeli border police manning a nearby rooftop lookout over the church. The two border policemen were injured and scrambled inside an attic where they threw a smoke grenade into the compound, starting the fire, the officer said on condition of anonymity. Gunmen inside the compound fired rifles and threw hand grenades, and soldiers returning fire killed one Palestinian, he said. [N.B.] A Catholic missionary news agency in Rome quoted the Rev. Giovanni Battistelli, the Franciscan's top representative in the Holy Land, as saying: Nobody opened fire from inside the basilica compound. It was an attack carried out by Israeli forces. Father Gianfranco Pinto Ostune, a spokesman for the Franciscan Church in Rome, said Franciscan friars in the compound found material unequivocally belonging to the Israeli army. A Palestinian policeman, who would not give his name, said four M-16 assault rifles and two Israeli army bulletproof vests were found on a rooftop. Battistelli said the Franciscans, among some 60 clerics inside the church, would stay put to protect the site. If they left, he said, (Israeli) soldiers would be free to attack. A spokesman for the office of the Custodian of Catholic sites in the Holy Land characterized it as an Israeli attack in violation of every canon of human decency. I've been warning for days now that an attack is imminent and on behalf of my brothers calling on the church and the world to intervene with the Israeli government, the Rev. David Jaeger told Associated Press Television News in Rome. What we heard instead (was) lying - promises day after day, hour after hour from the Israeli government to the whole world that they will never attack. Sharon, who is under growing U.S. pressure to immediately withdraw from West Bank Palestinian cities, said Monday the army will not leave Bethlehem yet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Israel occupation expands to Dora [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 9 April 2002. Israeli Forces Move Into the Southern West Bank Town of Dora, Witnesses Say. JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops and tanks moved into the southern West Bank town of Dora early Tuesday, witnesses said. The new incursion came as troops were pulling out of the northern West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Qalqiliya amid increasing U.S. pressure for Israel to wrap up its 12-day offensive against militants in the West Bank. Witnesses in Dora said that tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the town before dawn as helicopters provided cover from the air. The sound of gunbattles could be heard, witnesses said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Afghan civilian victims of US bombs gather [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AP. 7 April 2002. Bombing Victims Gather in Kabul. KABUL -- Most came from rubble-strewn corners of this city -- bowed women hidden under veils, whose shoulders shook as they told their stories; vacant-faced men who pressed their pleading letters into the hands of whoever happened by. The gathering of civilian victims from the American bombing campaign also drew Afghans from distant villages, including a father and 8-year-old daughter who alone survived in an extended family of 18 when their two houses were struck in November. About two dozen such survivors were brought together by the U.S.-based advocacy group Global Exchange in Kabul last week for psychological counseling sessions at a city hospital. On Sunday, 60 survivors held a rally at the gates of the U.S. Embassy. Those who suffered are all angry and sad. They're saying, `We weren't in a military area, or near a checkpoint. Why did the Americans bomb us?' said Baz Mohammad, one of 10 Afghans who surveyed areas of Afghanistan for Global Exchange in search of civilian victims of the bombing campaign, which began last October as the United States waged war to bring down the Taliban government. The limited survey, in eight of Afghanistan's 29 provinces, has produced about 450 claims for compensation. About half of them involve loss of life, said Marla Ruzicka, the Global Exchange representative in Kabul. No official count has been made, but some estimates of the number of civilians killed by American bombing range in the low thousands. Pentagon officials said repeatedly during the bombing that any civilian deaths were the result of unavoidable collateral damage from attacks on military targets, or were people killed by bombs that went astray. The U.S. Embassy has told the Global Exchange activists to submit such claims to the embassy, but they never let us know the status of the claims, complained Ruzicka. The advocacy group suggests the United States should pay $10,000 per family to rebuild homes and compensate for the loss of breadwinners' and others' lives. The Republican leader of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Kabul last week was asked by reporters about compensation for Afghan bombing victims. We will support it in Congress as a legitimate cost of doing business, that is, waging war, said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California [!!]. The facts were recounted calmly by 8-year-old Amina, the girl who came to Kabul with her father from the northern district of Khanabad. She was alone in the kitchen making tea when a bomb struck, killing her five brothers, two sisters, mother and grandmother elsewhere in the house, she said. As she ran toward her uncle's house next door, a second bomb hit there, killing all seven inside. She was wide-eyed and strong-voiced as she told of the Nov. 18 bombing. But her father, the man who had to bury his family's dismembered pieces in a common grave, was unable to talk about it. Baz Mohammad, the surveyor for Global Exchange, was asked why the site might have been bombed. Who knows? he said. Their house was six miles from the front lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Indymedia update - serious atrocities [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Indymedia. 6 April 2002. Update: War in Jenin. Yesterday at Al Razi hospital in Jenin, doctors and medics watched on helplessly as 28-year-old Nidal Al Haj bled to death inside the hospital yard. Dr. Ali Jabareen from the hospital explained how;the medics waited for a long time, but they could get to him because of the shelling. Hospitals report a shortage of oxygen and other medical supplies. Our sources in Jenin report the a dreadful humanitarian situation. The Israeli army has attacked continuously throughout the night, the refugee camp and the city. Apache helicopters have attacked and seriously damaged around 50 houses in the western side of the camp, 20 people are reported injured, bleeding in the street. Reports from the inhabitants are that there are 15 dead bodies in different locations, but again ambulances came under attack when trying to gain access to these bodies; this time with ammunition from the helicopters. The latest news from Jenin is that the Israel army is systematically bulldozing houses in the refugee camp, which is home to some 15,000 Palestinians in an area of one kilometre squared. This is happening at the same time they are dropping tear gas from helicopters on the camp. For two days the camp has resisted the Israeli invasion so now the nature of the invasion has changed. In an unprecedented breach of human rights, Israeli occupation soldiers announced in the afternoon that they would cease their fire in order to allow the women and elderly to get water only to arrest them and use them as human shields later on. Since the residents have had no water for days, a number of women and elderly men came out of their homes. However, as they reached the camp's entrance, where Israeli tanks and personnel carriers are, they were all detained. Shortly after that, residents reported hearing the Israeli forces calling out on the microphone to the resistance fighters and security officers to surrender in order to save the lives of the detained civilians. [N.B.] The detainees were seen strapped to the tanks and personnel carriers, which resumed their bombardment campaign shortly after that call for surrender. Strikingly, the Israeli officer previously heading the Jenin reoccupation offensive was reprimanded and removed from his duty after having failed to take over the camp in the past four days. Currently, Shaul Mofaz, Israel's Chief of Staff, heads the brutal operation personally. Palestinian officials have thus held him directly responsible for the atrocities taking place in the Jenin refugee camp. THE OCCUPATION FORCES ARE BULLDOZING HOMES WITH THE INHABITANTS INSIDE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
