Steiner's tough job [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ** The EconomistJanuary 26, 2002 SECTION: EUROPE HEADLINE: A ghastly job DATELINE: pristina MICHAEL STEINER may have worked in tough places before: he once served in Zaire. But overseeing the UN's protectorate of Kosovo from its capital, Pristina, will certainly be the hardest task the abrasive, clever German has ever faced. Indeed, the rude behaviour (including demands for caviare) during a stop-over last year in Moscow that cost him his last foreign-policy post, as adviser to Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, will soon be forgotten if he can do a half-decent job in the Balkan province. After two-and-a-half years of relative peace and intensive international care under the eyes of up to 40,000 armed peacekeepers, Kosovo ought by now to be on the way to economic and political health. But as Mr Steiner will find, there is still an uneasy stand-off between criminals-cum-extreme nationalists and NATO soldiers trying to enforce law and order, and there is no guarantee that the latter will prevail. Like his predecessors as UN proconsul in Kosovo (first, a Frenchman, Bernard Kouchner, and most recently Hans Haekkerup, a hastily departed Dane), Mr Steiner will have to make very hard choices between cracking down on the region's armed ethnic- Albanian groups and looking the other way for the sake of a quiet political life. Turning a blind eye, as Mr Kouchner often appeared to do, may be even harder if the toughest ethnic-Albanian factions in neighbouring Macedonia (where Albanians are a large minority) launch a fresh offensive this spring, using Kosovo as a base. These groups are understood to have spent about $4.5m over the last four months on new weapons, including ground-to-air missiles. But standing up to armed bullies, as Mr Haekkerup tried to do, also carries high personal risks. His young family apparently left the tense atmosphere of Pristina with much relief. Mr Steiner's most immediate task will be to break Kosovo's political impasse. Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate leader who did best in last November's election, has failed to persuade the province's 120 new assemblymen to elect him as president, because his main rivals, Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj, veterans of the war against Serb forces, want a bigger slice of power. Amid the ferment, a pro- Rugova assemblyman was killed last week. GRAPHIC: Run Kosovo? No thanks Copyright 2002 The Economist Newspaper Ltd. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 war crimes case faces collapse [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Milosevic war crimes case faces collapse By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade 26 January 2002 The trial of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in Kosovo is on the verge of collapse because former aides have refused to testify against him.The case hinges on evidence collected by Western intelligence officers rather than the UN's own investigators, and some of the 90 witnesses who provided testimony against the former Yugoslav president have died.Three weeks before it is due to open, Europe's most important war crimes trial since Nuremberg is reported to be in such disarray that prosecutors travelled to Belgrade earlier this week to try to shore up the case. But despite visiting several of Mr Milosevic's allies in their jail cells and homes, the team led by the British barrister Geoffrey Nice came away empty-handed, according to sources in Belgrade. Mr Nice flew to Belgrade on the same flight as Mr Milosevic's wife, Mira, who had been visiting her husband in his cell in Scheveningen in the Netherlands. Mr Milosevic is accused of the murder of 900 Kosovo Albanians and the forced eviction of 800,000 civilians from their homes in 1999. The UN tribunal was adamant yesterday that it was "ready" to try Mr Milosevic for crimes against humanity in Kosovo. But Florence Hartmann, a spokeswoman for the UN chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said the court may decide next week to postpone the case, which is due to begin on 12 February. Prosecutors want judges to join the Kosovo trial with indictments against Mr Milosevic for war crimes in Bosnia and Croatia, for which there is said to be abundant evidence. Judgesare due to discuss unifying the indictments at a hearing on Wednesday. If they do, they would have to postpone the trial to allow more time for preparation of the Bosnian and Croatian cases against Mr Milosevic. Ms Hartmann denied that the Kosovo case was collapsing: "We are ready. We don't have any problem with the Kosovo case," she said. But the case has a fundamental weakness in that the testimonies it relies on are exclusively from Western officials based in Kosovo before Nato air raids began in March 1999, and from ethnic Albanian victims. The credibility of some of these testimonies is in doubt because they were gathered by intelligence officers, and not by the tribunal's own investigators. Members of Mr Milosevic's inner circle could provide the missing pieces of the puzzle, but it is unlikely that any regime insiders, who share Mr Milosevic's Serb nationalist views, would travel to The Hague to testify against the so-called "Butcher of the Balkans". His supporters still describe the armed ethnic Albanian rebellion in Kosovo as "terrorism", and view the trial against Mr Milosevic as a Western conspiracy against freedom-loving Serbs. They fear being branded "traitors of the Serb nation" if they testify. Serb authorities are still balking at Mr Nice's request for two top Milosevic aides be handed over. Nikola Sainovic and Vlajko Stoiljkovic were respectively the official in charge of the security forces in Kosovo and the Interior Minister. The pair, along with their boss, were indicted for war crimes in Kosovo in 1999. The UN team interrogated Rade Markovic, chief of the secret service under Mr Milosevic, in his Belgrade prison cell three times. Mr Markovic is on trial for his alleged role in an assassination attempt against the former opposition leader Vuk Draskovic. Mr Markovic's lawyer, Dusan Masic, said his client was willing to go to The Hague, but analysts doubt that his testimony would benefit the prosecution. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=116523 --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
News, 26.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: European Concern After India's Missile Test India's nuclear-capable ballistic missile test brings on sharp criticism from European leaders, while New Delhi's Republic Day celebrations proceed peacefully in the tense region. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1434_A_419244_1_A,00.html - Deutsche Welle English Service News Saturday 26th, 2001, 16:00 UTC India Marks Republic Day with Heightened Security India has peacefully celebrated the anniversary of its birth as a republic amid tight security at a time of tension with nuclear neighbour Pakistan. No major violence was reported by early evening although in disputed Kashmir there small skirmishes between security forces and militants, during which one rebel was killed. Republic Day is India's main national holiday and authorities had feared militants would take advantage of the day by launching a new assault on a country. Across the world's second most populous nation, tens of thousands of police and paramilitary troops on full alert guarded ceremonies and key buildings. Crowds were also said to be smaller than usual. Meanwhile, Pakistan marked the day by calling for talks with India to end the tense military stand-off. In a message to the Indian Prime Minister, Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf said he wanted the two countries to be good neighbors. The message came one day after New Dehli test-fired a nuclear capable missile. Palestinian Authority Calls for Halt to Attacks; U.S. Reviews Punitive Measures against Arafat The Palestinian Authority has called on militants to stop attacks on Israel after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Friday prompted retaliatory strikes by Israeli forces. Israeli warplanes fired missiles at Palestinian security targets late on Friday, wounding at least two, according to medical officials. The strikes came just hours after a Palestinian suicide bombing wounded at least 25 Israelis. Meanwhile, U.S. President George W. Bush has made his harshest comments yet on Arafat, saying he was disappointed with the Palestinian leader and his efforts to crack down on militants. In the West Bank, a senior Palestinian official said he feared Bush's latest statements about Arafat would give Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a green light to further escalate aggression against the Palestinians. In the meantime, Washington was also looking into ways to punish the Palestinian leader for an arms shipment the U.S. says was intended for the Palestinian Authority. A peace mission to the region by envoy Anthony Zinni has also been suspended. Iranian Police Use Force to Quell Protests Police in Iran have begun to use force to stop teachers in the capital from protesting for better pay. A tense stand-off occurred when one young man was seized by police and finally let go after a crowd of about 250 people began chanting for his release. Witnesses also said several hundred teachers gathered close to President Mohammad Khatami's office, shortly before he was due to meet visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But riot police blocked the way and told the crowd the gathering was illegal, ordering them to disperse. Wage protests have become more common in Iran in the last three years. The demonstrations are seen as a source of potential embarrassment for the Iranian president's government which has been accused of financial mismanagement by those opposed to a campaign of reform for the Islamic Republic. Annan Says Iran Not Harbouring al Qaeda Fighters UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday discounted reports of Iranian political interference in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and praised Tehran for helping to rebuild its neighbour. Speaking during a one-day visit to Iran, Annan also said Iranian policies were inconsistent with harbouring al Qaeda fighters. He was responding to United States' fears that al Qaeda operatives had escaped through Iran. Iranian authorities have denied helping al Qaeda members to escape from Afghanistan or seeking to undermine the interim Afghan government. Iran pledged $500 million over five years to help rebuild Afghanistan at a recent international aid conference in Tokyo. Food Aid Still Urgently Needed in Goma A US special envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo said people there affected by the recent volcanic eruption would need food aid for at least three more weeks. The United Nations has planned to send more than 18 tonnes of grain and other food supplies to the ruined city of Goma, where UN figures state around 100,000 people have been made homeless
FBI plays public relations game at Enron [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,37-2002038428,00.html THURSDAY JANUARY 24 2002 FBI plays public relations game at Enron WALL STREET DIARY BY CHRIS AYRES AS I WRITE, crack teams of stone-faced FBI agents are guarding shredding machines over at Enron's glittering headquarters in Houston. The FBI's timing is impressive: it managed to swoop on Enron's HQ only 92 days and about 11 hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) first began looking for signs of fraud at the now-bankrupt energy trading group. I'm not sure how long it takes to throw a few thousand jumbo-sized folders marked "Enron: possibly incriminating financial data" into the metal teeth of an industrial shredding unit, but I'm confident that it is less than three months. I hope that the FBI's shredder-guards have nothing more urgent to do. The raid on Enron's HQ looks suspiciously like another PR exercise in an investigation that has been all about political histrionics rather than any desire to uncover the truth. No less than ten separate investigations have been launched into Enron's collapse. Meanwhile, President Bush, a man so close to Enron that he may as well have been one of its limited partnership subsidiaries (Dubya III LLC, perhaps) has attempted to turn the firm's collapse into a pensions-reform issue. But no real action has been taken. Enron executives are sitting on the $1.1 billion they raised by selling shares in the company before it collapsed. The court action to freeze their bank accounts, which comes with the weight of New York state's $112 billion (L78 billion) pension fund behind it, has being going nowhere since December 5. The case is unlikely to gather momentum any time soon, because the judge presiding over it mysteriously stood down ealier this month. So, the FBI is guarding shredders that have already done their work; Enron executives STILL have their $1.1 billion; and, more important than all of this, everyone concerned still has their passport and probably knows a good hotel in Monte Carlo. My conspiracy theory is this: nothing is happening because everyone knows Enron probably did nothing illegal. The FBI agents and congressional investigators are going through the motions simply to satisfy the hundreds of thousands of main street voters who lost their shirts, socks and underwear buying Enron stock at $90.56. The fact is, US corporate law allows Fortune 500 companies to hide billions of dollars of debt from investors using all kinds of financial wizardry. Companies can also legally avoid paying unpleasant tax bills on the profits that they have artificially inflated using legal book-keeping tricks. That's why $1 million-per-week accountants exist. As Harvey Pitt, the SEC chairman, has made clear: the US financial system is as pure as the sludge on the bottom of the Hudson River. Enron is just a product of it. Enron and its fee-hungry auditors no doubt broke more than a few rules - which would explain the panicked document shredding. But those who want to see "Kenny Boy" Lay and his chums behind bars may be disappointed. Rudi Giuliani, the hero-worshipped former Mayor of New York, may not share the billionaire status of his successor, Michael Bloomberg, but he will not be shopping at Kmart any time soon. The former mayor, otherwise known as "Rudi the rock", says he hopes to make at least $20 million a year through his new consulting business, imaginatively called Giuliani Partners. Giuliani will offer advice on everything from how to handle a terrorist attack to turning round a city's finances. He says he wants to show corporations "how we took a $40 billion city that was seen as unmanageable and ran it like a business". According to Giuliani, the secret to his success was statistics. "In the Police Department we measured crime statistics every day in 77 precincts of New York city, looking for areas where crime was going up and then assigning resources to bring crime down," he says. Giuliani's crime-fighting philosophy was known as "broken windows" because it rested on the theory that if an area tolerated broken windows it would soon tolerate more serious crime. Perhaps President Bush should put Giuliani in charge of the SEC. One of Giuliani's most defiant gestures as mayor was turning down a $10 million donation to the September 11 fund from Prince Alwaleed, the billionaire Saudi investor. Giuliani tore up the cheque after the prince criticised US foreign policy. But I hear the Saudi prince still carries some clout in New York media circles. For example: a fax from the prince recently landed on the desk of Bill Bolster, head of CNBC International, the business news television channel owned by General Electric. The fax requested kindly that CNBC reposition its satellite so that the prince could receive the channel while on his yacht in the Mediterranean. After some friendly negotiation, Bolster agreed. And so the prince is pr
Recuse Me! Congress Bought Off by Enron [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Recuse Me! Congress Bought Off by Enron John Moyers, TomPaine.comJanuary 23, 2002 Enron-omics at a Glance Compiled by Theresa Amato, President of Citizen Works * In 2001, Enron, a 15 year-old energy-trading corporation, was ranked number seven of the Fortune 500. * In December 2001, Enron laid off 4,000 employees and filed for bankruptcy, the largest such filing ever. * Many employees lost 70 to 90 percent of their retirement savings as they were forced to hold their shares from October 16 to November 13 while Enron's value plummeted to pennies per share. * As late as September 2001, Enron employees and other shareholders were consistently reassured by top management that the stock was stable -- "a bargain" -- and that future prospects were good, while executives sold off $1.1 billion in company shares and amassed personal fortunes. * Enron accumulated more than $1 billion in debt since 1997, debt that top executives hid off the books. * Arthur Andersen doubled as an auditor and as a management advisory services firm for Enron, making more than $50 million in fees in a single year. * When criticism began to surface about its accounting practices, Enron management ordered its law firm to run a limited investigation, not to include "second-guessing," which resulted in an October report finding no wrong doing at Enron or Andersen. * Andersen stood by its reports until shortly before Enron failed, when Enron decided that four years of earnings had to be restated and $600 million - or 20 percent -- of reported profits had to be erased. * Andersen shredded thousands of paper and email documents pertaining to Enron audits. * Of the securities analysts following Enron, only one put a sell recommendation on the stock prior to the date of bankruptcy. * Enron had 3500 subsidiaries and partnerships, and paid no income taxes in four of the past five years because it was able to transfer assets among 881 subsidiaries that were set up abroad in tax-sheltered countries. * According to Public Citizen, from 1989 to 2002, Enron and its employees gave $5.95 million in individual, political action committee and soft money contributions to federal candidates and parties, 74 percent to Republicans and 26 percent to Democrats. * Enron employees were the single largest funding source of George W. Bush's presidential campaign, and gave $623,000 directly to President Bush throughout his career. * According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Arthur Andersen ranked 5th on President Bush campaign's list of corporate donors. Since 1989, Andersen has contributed nearly $5 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions to federal candidates and parties. * Enron officials were invited to participate in six meetings of Vice-President Cheney's energy task force, which endorsed many Enron proposals. Enron chairman Kenneth Lay made calls throughout the fall to the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the White House "providing information" about the company's situation to top officials at each, though reportedly no assistance was granted. Citizen Works is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working to strengthen citizen participation in power. Katie Selenski contributed to this article.
Ten Years in the Twilight Zone by Nebojsa Malic [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m-col.html ANTIWAR, Thursday, January 24, 2002 Balkan Express by Nebojsa Malic Antiwar.com Ten Years in the Twilight Zone A Brief Overview of a Morbid Experiment When the French king and the Holy Roman Emperor signed a peace treaty in Munster, Westphalia, on October 24, 1648, they were hardly aware that by ending Europe's worst war to date they had also established the foundations of the modern system of international relations. The Treaty of Westphalia introduced and enshrined the principle of territorial sovereignty, without which modern nation-states would have been impossible. Three and a half centuries later, their heirs - aspiring to lord over the creation of a new European superstate - chose to casually reject this legacy. On January 15, 1991, the European Union formally recognized the declarations of secession by two of Yugoslavia's federal republics, Slovenia and Croatia, declaring Yugoslavia no longer existed. At best, this was a heavily assisted suicide of an already dying country; at worst, an act of incalculable malice. Whatever it was, it plunged the people of Yugoslavia into the abyss they've been in ever since. EMPIRE RISING Between the outbreak of the Wars of Yugoslav Succession1 and the end (?) of Macedonia's Apartheid Rebellion, both the Balkans and the world changed beyond recognition. The "hour of Europe," heralded by Yugoslavia's enthusiastic executioners, was more like the proverbial fifteen minutes. Having shrugged off the unpleasant distractions of Somalia and Haiti, the United States rolled into the Balkans in full force, leveling anything in its path and rewriting history as it went along. With massive amounts of propaganda supplementing brute force, the United States used the Balkans to assert its position as the world's "indispensable nation," the global Empire incarnate. The Empire's scions claim to have brought "peace" to the Balkans, along with "democracy" and "human rights." All they really brought were subjugation, kleptocracy2 and conquerors' privileges: sex slavery, drug-running and widespread organized crime in general. None of the problems between Yugoslav peoples has been resolved - with the possible exception of Croatian and Albanian distaste for Serbs, largely cured by mass expulsions and, equally, mass murder. COLLATERAL DAMAGE Last November, Bosnia entered its sixth year of existence as the Empire's protectorate divided, impoverished and despairing. To make matters worse, the Empire's erstwhile Arab and Afghan allies, who also helped out during the war in Bosnia, had just committed mass murder in New York and Washington. Soon thereafter, five Algerians and a Yemeni - who stayed in Bosnia and were even granted citizenship by a grateful Muslim regime - had been arrested at US urging, based on the CIA's claims they were connected to Al-Qaeda. The men had violent criminal records in Bosnia, but no hard evidence linked them to terrorism. So the six were released last week - into the custody of the US military. At US urging, they were stripped of their citizenship, then shipped to the luxury cages in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while their families and supporters rioted outside the Sarajevo city jail. A loyal vassal of the Empire for years, the Muslim regime in Sarajevo thus found itself in dire straits. The current government is still mostly Muslim, though it includes many of Bosnia's Croat and Serb Christians. Both facts prevent it from dealing with the issue of its predecessor's dalliances with militant Islam in a forceful manner. On one hand, Bosnian Muslims still depend on support and aid of many Middle Eastern charities. On the other hand, many of those charities are suspected fronts for organizations the US labels "terrorist" - and the US does not tolerate any debate on this particular subject right now. If they crack down on the fundamentalists, the Muslim authorities risk the full wrath of the "holy warriors," with Bosnia's Christians the first likely target. But if they do nothing, the fundamentalist influence will grow and Bosnia might find itself on the US blacklist as "collateral damage" in the War on Terrorism. DIVIDE AND CONQUER The Empire's "help" is also felt in Serbia these days. The future of its union with Montenegro is so obfuscated by Imperial meddling, many people are increasingly willing to settle for any solution, to the benefit of various politicians with illegitimate aspirations. As if that were not tragic enough, Serbia's 18-headed hydra of a government is busy not only plundering its citizens through the destruction of banks, but also destroying the state from the inside. The Serbian Parliament is likely to approve the "omnibus" law proposed by several power-hungry separatist parties in the ruling coalition, giving the northern province of Vojvodina its Communist-era "autonomy." In practice, this would mean creating a separate state w
NOTIFICATION / OBAVESTENJE [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NOTIFICATION / OBAVESTENJE Izvanredne Fotografije o dogadjajima u svetu mozete videti na SNN FotoGalerija ___ This email message is a notification to let you know that High Resolution Photos have been uploaded to ANTIC.org You can access these photos at the: SNN PhotoGallery --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Greed, fear and Saddam Hussein [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Greed, fear and Saddam Hussein Jan 25th 2002 From The Economist Global AgendaMore than a decade after the end of the Gulf war, America would still like to see the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Fearing it may become a target in the American war against terrorism, Iraq is trying to mend fences in the region, even with its fiercest adversary—Iran AP Not following the script THE performance could be delayed a bit but America is still writing scripts for the exit of Saddam Hussein and his regime. This calls for ingenuity. Iraq has been devastated by an 11-year siege, and made friendless by a government that is widely despised, not least by its own people. And yet it seems as firmly ensconced as ever. And it is now looking for friends in unlikely places. This weekend Naji Sabri, Iraq’s foreign minister, begins a visit to Tehran, part of an effort to settle some of the disputes left over from the war the two countries fought for most of the 1980s. A real rapprochement is unlikely, given the legacy of distrust and the opposition groups each country hosts dedicated to overthrowing the government of the other. But Iraq's other neighbours are agitated, sometimes fearful, about the possibility of its forging some sort of alliance with Iran. That is one reason why they are nervous about a change of Iraqi regime. With Iraq's population 60% Shia Muslim, both secular Turkey and Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia harbour fears, for different reasons, of the emergence of a fundamentalist theocracy aligned with Shia Iran. The Gulf monarchies would hardly be happy with a democracy next door, either. Some Americans have spoken of using Iraq's Kurds as a Northern Alliance-like bridgehead to Baghdad. This also makes Turkey nervous. Having squashed its own Kurdish minority, Turkey looks askance at the rewards America might dole out to Kurdish collaborators. It is even more alarmed at the idea of an independent Iraqi Kurdistan that might reignite Kurdish aspirations within its own borders. Perhaps with this in mind, Turkey has taken to muttering about its right to “protect” the tiny minority of ethnic Turks who live in the Iraqi enclave. For the time being, the Kurds too may be uninterested in toppling Mr Hussein. With both Mr Hussein and the Turks currently kept at bay, their may not want to risk the precious freedom they have for unlikely gains in the future. Such tensions help explain Mr Hussein’s staying power. But he is also sustained by a closing of Arab ranks, and by the greed, fear and confusion of many of his foes. Take greed. Iraq's predicament has taken an appalling human and economic toll at home, but many of the regional allies that America would need in a war have profited nicely from Iraq's distress. Although the country has vast oil reserves, sanctions have withered investment and throttled exports, allowing competitors, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, to produce more oil without glutting the market. Over the past decade, Iraq has forfeited potential revenue of some $150 billion, all to the advantage of others. In addition, oil-importing neighbours, such as Jordan and Turkey, enjoy heavily discounted energy supplies from Iraq. And the Kurds of northern Iraq, who live under semi-autonomous UN protection, have grown dependent on the tidy income they earn from the transit of Iraqi fuel. Few doubt that the world would be a better place without Mr Hussein, but a big problem is that those baying for his blood have consistently failed to explain why his removal is an urgent necessity rather than a desirable outcome. Attempts to link the country to the al-Qaeda terrorist network have not borne fruit, which is no surprise considering that jihad-minded Islamists consider Mr Hussein anathema. Nor, in the region, is there much concern about Iraq's illicit weaponry or aggressive tendencies. Kuwait, understandably, remains apprehensive, but Iraq's other neighbours no longer consider Iraq to be a big security threat. The argument that Mr Hussein must go because he hates America and might one day be a danger to it fails to convince Iraq's neighbours of the need for an expedited change of regime. AP Iraqis' burning resentment The proposed means for bringing this change about are even less convincing than the reasons. America does not, to date, have a legal mandate for serious military intervention. Given the reluctance of Iraq's neighbours, it has no place to install the 100,000 or so troops that might be necessary for Mr Hussein's overthrow. And the Iraqi opposition remains as divided and feeble as ever. The Bush administration's recent suspension of funding to t
Madeleine Albright will be in Vancouver [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 24 January 2002 David Morgan N. Vancouver Dear Serb Friends: Madeleine Albright will be in Vancouver on Tuesday 12 February to speak at the Orpheum Theater at about 7:00 p.m. High priced tickets are availble from some misguided group who invites "women of distinction" to speak in Vancouver. The Campaign to End Sanctions Against Iraq (CESAPI) plans to hold a protest demonstration outside the theater. We wish to inform the public about her role in maintaining and ruthlessly supporting the sanctions on Iraq and also to make it known that the Canadian Government has supported this barbarous policy which has resulted in the deaths of about 700,000 children. We will be holding a meeting on Wednesday 30 January at 7:00p.m. at the SFU downtown Harbour Centre Campus at 515 W. Hastings to plan our demonstration. We invite you to join this meeting so that we can coordinate our plans. The room where this meeting will be held will be posted on the notice board in the lobby. Warmest regards, David Morgan ** * David Morgan, * * 240 Holyrood Road,* * North Vancouver, * * BC, V7N 2R5, Canada * * Tel: (604)985-7147 * * Fax: (604)985-1260* * * ** --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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: The Phantom Threat [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 in the Christian Science Monitor Iraq: The Phantom Threat by Scott Ritter DELMAR, N.Y. - At this very moment, US intelligence personnel are poring over documents, uncovering the depth of the anti-American plotting of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. Al Qaeda prisoners are being interrogated in an effort to unlock past secrets and interdict future threats to the United States and the world. As this investigation proceeds, the web of terrorist networks forged by Mr. bin Laden in his struggle against the West is becoming clear. Some of the exposed links are not surprising - including Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Notably absent is Iraq. Given the spate of post-Sept. 11 media reports linking Iraq with bin Laden, one would expect a flood of evidence coming from Afghanistan confirming such a relationship. Even the alleged meetings between Mohammed Atta - a suspected leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers - and an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague are inconclusive. The Czech government has sent conflicting reports concerning this meeting and, even if the meeting took place, the supposed topic of discussion - an attack on a Radio Free Europe radio transmitter used to broadcast anti-Hussein programming - is a far cry from the 9/11 attacks. The lack of documentation of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection in this intelligence trove should lead to the questioning of the original source of such speculation, as well as the motivations of those who continue to peddle the "Iraqi connection" theory. Foremost among them are opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress and his American sponsors, in particular Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, former CIA Director James Woolsey, and former Undersecretary of State Richard Perle. During my service as a UN weapons inspector, I had responsibility for liaison with Mr. Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress to gather "intelligence information" derived from Chalabi's erstwhile network of defectors and in-country sources. This information turned out to be more flash than substance. For example, there was the "engineer" who allegedly worked on Saddam Hussein's palaces who spoke of a network of underground tunnels where crates of documents were allegedly hidden during inspections. Inspectors did find a drainage tunnel. However, despite the fact that no documents were discovered, Chalabi took the tunnel's existence as confirmation that documents also existed, and spoke as if they were an established fact. In the same manner, when Mr. Wolfowitz and company needed a link between Iraq and the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks, Chalabi dutifully trotted out a series of heretofore "undiscovered" defectors who have "information" about the training of "Arab" hijackers by Iraqi intelligence at a facility near the Iraqi town of Salman Pak. The site is reported to be fully equipped with, among other things, a commercial airliner upon which the trainees can practice their trade, conveniently enough, in "groups of five" and "armed only with knives and their bare hands." The facility at Salman Pak does exist; its use as an Al Qaeda training camp is unsubstantiated. More recently, following President Bush's demand that Iraq permit the return of UN weapons inspectors or else "suffer the consequences," Chalabi conveniently produced another "defector" who allegedly had access to Saddam's secret plans to hide underground biological and chemical weapons facilities from international detection. I spent more than six years investigating the organizations the defector claimed to work for, and although elements of his story ring true, the details used to embellish his tale on weapons of mass destruction are impossible to pin down or, in some cases, just plain wrong. The UN stopped using Chalabi's information as a basis for conducting inspections once the tenuous nature of his sources and his dubious motivations became clear. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the mainstream US media, which give prominent coverage to sources of information that, had they not been related to Hussein's Iraq, would normally be immediately dismissed. This media coverage serves policy figures gunning for a wider war. It generates a frenzy of speculation concerning Iraq in the public arena, which accepts at face value this information despite the fact
Record (Kitchener, Canada): Trio of area immigrants honoured for [WWW.STOPNATO.O
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Three men and a mission Trio of area immigrants honoured for sponsoring 1,600 refugees Monday January 21, 2002 BRIAN CALDWELL RECORD STAFF; THE RECORD Ned Krayishnik was watching the nightly news when scenes of a bloody massacre in the former Yugoslavia flashed across his television screen. It had been more than 25 years since he fled the war-torn country himself, learning the language, starting a family and building a successful insurance business in Kitchener. But at that moment, as he tried to absorb the misery in his old homeland from the comfort of his new living room, Krayishnik knew he had to help. He just didn't realize his commitment would last so long or run so deep. In the decade since that 1992 report on civil war in the former Yugoslavia, Krayishnik has sponsored more than 800 people to come to Canada as refugees. "Once you bring one, everybody has a brother or a cousin and it never stops,'' he said. "I would feel guilty if I was able to help them and didn't. You've got to live with that.'' Even in a community well-known for welcoming refugees from around the world, Krayishnik, 58, has distinguished himself with the impeccable results and sheer volume of his sponsorship work. But when he steps to the front of a Kitchener citizenship court today to receive a certificate of appreciation signed by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, he won't be alone. Two other local men -- John Veenema, 71, of Cambridge and Ranko Rakanovic, 63, of Kitchener -- will also be honoured for putting their good names and financial stability on the line to help bring hundreds of desperate people here. "We've kept very close track of them and I can't recall even one case where any of their clients has had to go on welfare or anything else,'' said Klaudios Mustakas, manager of the Citizenship and Immigration Centre in Kitchener. Backed by a church or working with five-member groups, Krayishnik, Veenema and Rakanovic have sponsored more than 1,600 refugees in the last 10 years. To put that in perspective, it's estimated there have been just 30,000 private sponsorships in the entire country during the same period. Each case requires them to guarantee, in writing, that they will assume full financial responsibility for newcomers for the first year. And though they delegate much of the burden to friends, relatives, churches or ethnic organizations closest to the refugees, they also work long hours doing everything from enrolling children in school to finding their parents jobs. Immigrants themselves, Krayishnik, Veenema and Rakanovic share a drive fuelled by sympathy, faith and an inability to say no. But like the many beneficiaries of their efforts, they also have their own unique stories to tell. Ned Krayishnik knew life in the former Yugoslavia would be difficult when he was denied jobs as a young man because of his family's politics. When it got worse as the Communist government cracked down on its perceived enemies, he realized he would have to go or risk being killed. In 1965, then just 21, Krayishnik fled the country illegally and made his way to a refugee camp in Italy, where he languished for a year. By the time he was accepted into Canada, alone and with limited English, his five-foot, 11-inch frame had been reduced to a scrawny 105 pounds. Krayishnik took a dirty, demanding job in a Kitchener factory paying 92 cents an hour. Six months later, his left hand was cut off in an industrial accident. Krayishnik persevered in the factory after months of rehabilitation, sponsoring his wife to immigrate a few years later. When a sympathetic insurance agent suggested he trade his blue collar for a white one, Krayishnik went into insurance sales, thriving in a business that rewarded initiative. He also began helping other relatives get out of Yugoslavia before it was too late. By 1976, Krayishnik had sponsored 30 immigrant families in all and done well enough in business to establish his own insurance brokerage. He was enjoying the fruits of his labour, a successful entrepreneur and father of two, when images on TV caught his attention in 1992. Krayishnik flew to Yugoslavia, taking food, clothing and other supplies to displaced people in camps. When one of them suggested he could do even more by backing his request to come to Canada as a refugee, Krayishnik began what would essentially become a second career. Together with his three brothers -- Andy, Ray and Ron --and wife, Lily, in a so-called group of five, he has since sponsored more than 800 strangers. It's only possible because so many others informally assume the obligation by providing money and support. Krayishnik's name is on all the documents, meaning he's on the hook if anything goes wrong. But because of his one iron-clad rule -- refugees must work and never fall back on social assistance while he is responsible -- it rarely does. "I feel grateful to God that for some reason he reward
Reservists could take over in Bosnia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reservists could take over in Bosnia Garrison working on peacekeeping plan By PAUL COWAN, EDMONTON SUN Officers at Edmonton Garrison are working on a scheme that could eventually have reservists take over peacekeeping duties from army regulars in Bosnia. Edmonton-based Land Force Western Area is putting together a unit composed entirely of reservists to serve alongside regulars of the 1st Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Bosnia this fall. Normally, on peacekeeping missions reservists are distributed amongst regular units. "It's entirely within the realm of possibilities that this could lead to an entire battle group made up of reservists being deployed to Bosnia," said LFWA operations officer Maj. Steve McCluskey. "If everything goes as we hope, they would deploy for Roto 18 which is due to begin March 2006." The 119-strong unit, called the Composite Reserve Infantry Company, will be commanded by the Loyal Edmonton Regiment's Maj. Paul Bury. The Loyal Eddies are expected to make a big contribution to the unit along with other reservists from regiments stationed across LFWA, from Vancouver Island to Thunder Bay, Ont. Bury said a lot of how top brass in Ottawa will judge the experiment depends on the reservists' performance in Bosnia. "There is a lot of attention from various sources but I have no doubt we will succeed," he said. The unit is one of three rifle companies going on Roto 6 to Bosnia with the 1 PPCLI Battle Group. So many reservists want the mission that there aren't enough vacancies within the rifle company. Some may go to Bosnia on Roto 7 with a second reserve rifle company while others will be attached to regular units deploying on Roto 6. McCluskey said around 220 reservists are expected to take part in Roto 6. "There is a cap of 20% reserve participation in missions at the moment but that could start to change," he explained. "Bosnia is now seen as a mature theatre of operations and, while not totally benign, it is not as dangerous now as it was in earlier rotations. The time seems ripe to look at using reservists as more than augmentees." http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-01-24-0016.html --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
IRONIC... THE WEST HAS DESTROYED YUGOSLAVIA [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ANATOLY UTKIN: IRONIC... THE WEST HAS DESTROYED YUGOSLAVIA BETA news agency reported that the political leaders of the Kosovo Albanians had a meeting with the head of the American mission in Pristina, John Menzies, and they achieved agreement about the distribution of the executive positions in the region. Ibrahim Rugova’s Democratic Union of Kosovo agreed to render Hashim Thaci’s position of the premier of Kosovo’s Democratic Party. Rugova's party in its turn, will get the positions of the president of the region and of the chairman of the parliament. NATO’s council is setting out its concern in connection with the new wave of violence and political crisis in Kosovo. The Council expresses the feeling of dissatisfaction with the stalemate situation. The director of the center of the international research of the Institute of the USA and Canada, Doctor of History, Anatoly Utkin, expressed his opinion pertaining the possible development of the situation in the notorious region. Answer: I would like to get back for a start. It is a fact that the Albanian leaders, including Rugova, have always had a goal to intensify the conflict. The Albanians, who lived in Kosovo, have always had a voting right, although they were not using it for ten critical years after the cancellation of the autonomy. That was in vain. They could have got the majority in all the governmental bodies of the region. The Albanian representatives could get 25-30% in the Serbian parliament and gain considerable influence on the decision-making process. Now they are going to use the parliamentary methods for executing their political, separatist goals. The Liberation Army of Kosovo is going to establish the militant Kosovo republic, using the democratic means, and the UN representatives will not be able to interfere. The borders with Albania are open! A huge mass of the Albanian population is heading for Kosovo. The Albanians are free to go to Albania, to rest there and then leave again. The Albanians have a base in the person of the Albanian state and partially in the person of Macedonia. The NATO troops are firmly settled in the region now, which means that the Albanians sense the significant guarantee of their security, the Yugoslavian army will not be able to enter Kosovo. Question: Does anything depend on Belgrade in this situation? Answer: There was a plan to divide Kosovo – it was earlier set forth in Yugoslavia. The Northern Kosovo, the cradle of the Serbian state, was supposed to be handed over to the Serbs. The Serbs are demoralized now. They were so certain in 1990 that the West would help them, since Yugoslavia was set up by the West! Yugoslavia was destroyed by Germany in 1941 and the West recreated it. I once saw the monument to Alexander the First – the first king of Yugoslavia, who was killed by the Croatian separatists in 1934 in Marseilles. The last words the king said, were: “Yugoslavs, turn to the West! The West is the only guarantee of integrity, unity of the Yugoslavian state.” This is very ironic. The West has destroyed Yugoslavia. I once was talking to the former US ambassador to Belgrade, Mr.Anderson. He told me that maybe Milosevic was not a pleasant guy, but Alija Ali Izetbegovic, the former president of Bosnia and Franjo Tudjman, the first president of Croatia were responsible for a lot of blood. Tudjman is a fascist almost. He established the system of one party, without any opposition, and the West did not say a word to the Croatians. Do you remember Oliver Stone’s movie about Yugoslavia? There is a scene there, when a Yugoslav man entered the house of the Bosnian Muslims. An old lady was in bed, and a lot of children around her were thinking they would be raped or killed – that was what the Serbs allegedly did. An American guy, who hated the Muslims and was in the house, went outside at once. The Serb left after him. The Serb said he had cut an old woman’s middle finger an she would die of bleeding. This is how the West was depicting Yugoslavia. We will not be hypocritical, there were such people amid the Serbs, it was the civil war, but the Croatians and the Muslims were not better really. Why did Stone make such a movie? Q: After Slobodan Milosevic had been delivered to the Hague Tribunal, after the events, following that, is it possible to think that Russia finally lost Yugoslavia, as some of our politicians say it? Is Yugoslavia ruled by the West only? A: There are the feelings that will never fade out. I think there are only three nations in the world that like us: the Belarussians, the Greeks, and the Serbs. We can understand each other instinctively: one religion, one historic experience. Anatoly Utkin was interviewed by Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/01/24/25974.html --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^
Now online "POWER POLITICS: Oil, Terror & the Afghan War" [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Greetings, The current issue of our magazine is now online. The theme of this issue is: "POWER POLITICS: Oil, Terror and the War Against Afghanistan." Click the links below to read the articles. I hope you'll find this material informative, interesting and useful. Richard Sanders Coordinator, COAT P.S. For info on receiving a hard copy of our magazine, see the end of this email. Issue #46 Press for Conversion! Dec 2001 Published quarterly by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) POWER POLITICS: Oil, Terror and the War Against Afghanistan PIPELINE POLITICS Oil Interests: Bush Obstructed FBI Investigation By V.K.Shashikumar http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ oil_french_book.htm U.S. Agents Told: Back Off the bin Ladens From the Sydney Morning Herald http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ more_on_carlyle.htm U.S.-Taliban Relations: Friend Turns Fiend By Ishtiaq Ahmad, Lecturer, International Relations, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ oil_us_taliban_relations.htm U.S. statement when the Talibhan took Kabul, 1996 By Glyn Davies, U.S. State Department spokesperson http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/us_terror_afg han_history_hajibullah.htm The New Great Game: Oil Politics in Central Asia By Ted Rall, social commentator, cartoonist and columnist. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ oil_rall.htm The Strategic Importance of Central Asian Oil Quotations from: Dick Cheney, Doug Bereutter, Mortimer Zuckerman, Bill Richardson, Richard Perle, Center for Security Policy and the U.S. Department of Energy. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ quotes.htm Strange Bedfellows: The Bush and bin Laden Families.12 By the Intelligence Newsletter http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/bin_laden_tie s_to_bush.htm The Carlyle Group From various sources http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ carlyle_group.htm Bush League: Mixing Oil, Big Money and Politics From various sources http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ oil_bush_cabinet.htm Unocal Testimony on U.S. Interests in Afghanistan By John Maresca, Vice President, International Relations, Unocal Corp. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ oil_unocal_short.htm Unocal links to U.S. military and CIA By Oregon Peaceworks http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ oil_unocal_links.htm HYPOCRISY and STATE TERROR Hidden Agendas of State Terror By John Pilger, Former chief foreign correspondent, UK Mirror. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ us_terror_pilger.htm Northern Alliance By Human Rights Watch http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/real_reasons_ northern_alliance.htm Who is Osama Bin Laden By Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/bin_laden_cho ssudovsky.htm U.S. Provoked the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's National Security Adviser http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/us_terror_afg han_history_brzezinski.htm Hatch would Arm bin Laden Again By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair, co-authors, Whiteout: CIA, Drugs and the Press. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/bin_laden_orr in_hatch%20quote.htm IMPUNITY from INTERNATIONAL LAW Above the Law: U.S.-sponsored Terrorism By Peter Dale Scott, professor emeritus, University of California, Berkeley. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/us_terror_afg hanistan_scott.htm Why the War Against Afghanistan is Illegal By Arnold J.Chien, Associate Researcher, Institute for Health and Social Justice. http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/legality_civi lian_toll.htm I.C.C.: Impunity for U.S. Soldiers? By Adam Porter http://www.ncf.ca/coat/our_magazine/links/issue46/articles/legality_us_a nd_icc.htm Military Courts: Part of a Constitutional Coup By Professor Francis Boyle, Professor,
"Radovan Karadzic - The Most Wanted Serbian Head" by veteran journalist Marko Lo
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- BANJA LUKA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: A copy of the book "Radovan Karadzic - The Most Wanted Serbian Head" by veteran journalist Marko Lopusina is on display at a newspaper stand in a street in Banja Luka on Thursday 17 January 2002. Belgrade officials and NATO Secretary Lord George Robertson denied a statement by Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency earlier on Thursday that Bosnian Serb wartime leaders Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadcic had been arrested by international forces. --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^ <>
News, 24.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 24th January, 2002, 16:00 UTC --- Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: German Flotilla Deployed Against Terror Into the Arabian Sea off the coast of East Africa, German ships have joined the US-led "war on terror". To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1432_A_416920_1_A,00.html --- Israel Denies Involvement in Beirut Assassination Israel on Thursday denied an allegation made by a Lebanese Cabinet minister that it was involved in the killing of former Lebanese Christian militia leader Elie Hobeika. Hobeika was killed outside his home in Beirut when a car bomb exploded. Three other people were killed, and another three wounded in the blast. Hobeika was the leader of a pro-Israeli Christian militia involved in the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The Lebanese minister of displaced people, Marvan Hamadeh, told reporters he believed Israel may have killed Hobeika because he was ready to testify against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. A Belgian court is deliberating whether Sharon can be put on trial in Belgium on charges related to the massacres, which took place while Sharon was defence minister. Aides at Sharon's office have called Hamadeh's accusations of Israeli involvement in Hobeika's assassination "a complete lie." Israel's Burg Vows to Address Palestinian Assembly Israeli parliamentary speaker Avraham Burg has accepted an invitation to address the Palestinian parliament, his spokesman said on Thursday, despite opposition to the visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Palestinian parliamentary speaker Ahmed Korei, who is also known as Abu Ala, invited Burg to address the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) when they met in Paris on Wednesday, a spokesman for Burg said. A date had not been set for the visit. Isreali premier Sharon, who wants to politically isolate the Palestinian Authority, said Burg was bound by a decision of the ruling coalition not to make such visits. Pope Holds Peace Meeting in Italian city Assisi Pope John Paul and some 200 leaders of the world's major religions have arrived at the Italian city of Assisi, the birthplace of the Roman catholic Saint Francis, to pray for an end to war and terrorism. In Assisi, leaders of a dozen religions, including Christians, Muslims and Jews, are expected to pledge that each faith should bring peace, forgiveness, life and love to earth. It is the third such day of peace organised by the Pope during his 23-year pontificate, and he wants to reiterate the message that conflict, murder and violence should never be carried out in the name of God. President Bush Proposes Massive Increase in Military Spending U.S. President George W. Bush has announced a proposed $48 billion increase in military spending next year to buy high-tech equipment for a wider war against terrorism. If approved by Congress it would be the largest increase in two decades. Saying the spending on precision weapons, missile defenses, a military pay increase, unmanned vehicles and high-tech gear for troops could stretch the budget, Bush said the U.S. government would not stint on protecting its people after Sept. 11. The president has already begun to come under criticism from congressional Democrats over the fact that his tax and spending plans, combined with the U.S. recession, will return the government to deficit for the first time since 1997. China Pledges Aid to Afghanistan China's official news agency Xinhua says Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Thursday promised $150 million towards the reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan. Jiang made the pledge to interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai in Beijing. Karzai earlier said international aid to his country would primarily be used for security, education, health, and road building. He added that the government also needed to become functional again. US Troops Still Meet Resistance In Afghanistan US officials say a US soldier was wounded and as many as 15 al Qaeda guerrillas killed on Thursday in a clash in southern Afghanistan. The officials, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters news agency the action occurred in the region around Kandahar. The soldier was part of a a "search-and-destroy" mission by U.S. special forces troops against supporters of fugitive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. German Parliament to Debate Funding for Airbus Order Germany's parliament will debate funding to buy 73 Airbus A400M military transport planes late on
US Blocks Brown-led Drive for Increase in Aid [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 in the Guardian of London US Blocks Brown-led Drive for Increase in Aid by Charlotte Denny, economics correspondent The US government is blocking an international drive led by Britain to increase aid for the world's poorest countries in the wake of last year's terrorist attacks. Washington is already one of the least generous donors - despite being the world's largest economy - devoting just 0.1% of national output to its international aid effort. With less than two months to go before a crucial UN summit on global poverty in Monterrey, Mexico, US officials are trying to neuter the draft declaration which calls for rich countries to raise the amount they spend on helping the 2.8bn people who live on less than $2 a day. The conference, which is strongly backed by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, has been called to discuss ways of helping poor countries reduce poverty, cut infant mortality and provide universal primary education. But the US is seeking to delete any mention of the internationally agreed development goals and of the suggestion that rich countries should meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid. Washington is already one of the least generous donors - despite being the world's largest economy - devoting just 0.1% of national output to its international aid effort. Britain and other, more generous donors, had hoped that the renewed US interest in multilateral action during the war on Afghanistan would help bring about a change of heart regarding aid within the Bush administration. In a speech in Washington last December, Gordon Brown called on the world's richest countries to double their spending on aid as part of a global "Marshall plan" for reconstructing not only Afghanistan but the entire developing world. Without a sharp rise in aid budgets, Mr Brown fears the world will fail to meet international goals by 2015. Some campaigners hoped that this signaled a willingness by western governments to consider radical new measures for raising revenue such as a Tobin tax on foreign exchange transactions or a global carbon tax. But these have been vetoed by the US - even before the latest attempts to water down the draft communiqué. Aid agencies attending preparations in New York this week for the Monterrey summit report that American officials have described the 0.7% target as an "outdated concept", and that they are pressing for it to be dropped from the final declaration. The American attitude has provoked disquiet among fellow donor countries and outrage among the development charities. "It seems the US will only tolerate multilateralism à la carte, and development, global redistribution and the interests of the poor are now off the menu," said Henry Northover, a policy adviser at Cafod, the Catholic aid agency. Instead of discussing increased aid budgets, Washington wants the conference to focus on how poor countries can improve their own economic performance through further market liberalization. The US treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, is skeptical about the effectiveness of international aid efforts, arguing that the money donated is wasted by corrupt and ineffective governments. In Tokyo this week at an international conference on rebuilding Afghanistan, Mr O'Neill warned that support for the interim Afghan government would be withdrawn if donors discovered the money had been misused. The aid agencies say a proposed campaign to raise public awareness of the targets, led by the UN development program, is opposed by the US - which believes it amounts to an infringement of national sovereignty. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 --- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^ startquote.gif Description: GIF image endquote.gif Description: GIF image
WENDY MCELROY: IS THE UN RUNNING BROTHELS IN BOSNIA? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- WENDY MCELROY: IS THE UN RUNNING BROTHELS IN BOSNIA? Is the United Nation's police force in Bosnia turning a blind eye or, even worse, participating in sex trafficking? It certainly seems that, as this new scandal emerges, the corruption reaches upward into the UN hierarchy. If prostitution is illegal in Bosnia, then why - in the presence of some 20,000 NATO peacekeepers and thousands of other U.N. officials, policemen and aid workers - has sexual trafficking in the region become an international scandal? One answer may be that the United Nation's police force may be turning a blind eye or, even worse, participating in the sex trafficking itself. It certainly seems that, as the scandal emerges, the corruption reaches upward into the United Nations. Last summer, American Kathryn Bolkovac, a former Nebraska police woman, was fired from the U.N.'s International Police Task Force. Bolkovac claims it was because she spoke out against the United Nation's involvement in sex trafficking. Through interviews with 85 women coerced into sex, Bolkovac learned that U.N. officers were not only using the women for sex but also seemed to be active in the business end - for example, the forging of documents to transport young girls across national borders. The young girls are from desperately poor nations like Romania. Many reportedly answer ads for "legitimate" work only to be kidnapped, taken across borders and enslaved in brothels that operate with the full knowledge of the local authorities. After Bolkovac advised various U.N. officials about the sex ring, IPTF Deputy Commissioner Mike Stiers decided that Bolkovac was psychologically worn out. Although an extension of her contract had been recommended prior to the e-mail, she was transferred to a suburb of Sarajevo, then fired. Bolkovac stated, "Those responsible ... did not want to hear about this." Douglas Coffman, a spokesman for the United Nations in Sarajevo, denied the accusation, but Bolkovac is the not the first to hurl it. Stories of U.N. corruption were already appearing in the European press. David Lamb, a former Philadelphia policeman working as a U.N. human rights investigator in central Bosnia, leveled even more serious charges. He provided evidence that IPTF members were directly linked to forcing girls into prostitution. Most prominently, he named two Romanian officers who sold women directly to brothels. Lamb filed his findings. He found that "the opposition of the central [U.N.] Mission Headquarters was unbelievable." The Washington Post reported on what happened next. "The United Nations quashed an investigation ... into whether U.N. police were directly involved in the enslavement of Eastern European women in Bosnian brothels, according to U.N. officials and internal documents." Another difficulty in assessing the situation is that U.N. officials do not admit that anything is amiss. When asked about Lamb's allegations against the Romanian officers, Jacques Klein - the U.N. secretary general's special representative to Bosnia - declared, "I have absolutely no evidence, no record, and I'm unaware of any internal investigation into any alleged misconduct involving a Romanian police monitor." A few weeks later, confidential U.N. documents revealed that Lamb had notified several U.N. officials about the two Romanians. Moreover, after Lamb departed, a Canadian officer, the Romanian government and an anti-corruption unit of the United Nations investigated the case in turn. Rosario Ioanna, the Canadian, issued a report similar to Lamb's, complaining that local U.N. authorities tried to close down the investigation. Yet the United Nations refuses to allow the Romanian policemen to be interviewed. Subsequent U.N. investigations appear to be cosmetic. For example, an inquiry was instigated but, according to the Post, investigators didn't bother to contact Lamb or other whistleblowers. Not surprisingly, the inquiry found insufficient grounds to probe further. The character revealed by the United Nations in Bosnia is particularly significant today. The agency is pushing hard to become a global government. In March, the U.N.'s High Level Panel of Financing Development will meet in Mexico and endorse recommendations that are expected to include: a World Taxing Authority, global taxes on fossil fuel and/or on all currency exchange and U.N. supervision of all international finance. As the United Nations pushes for jurisdiction over the globe, it is important to remember how it has acted in Bosnia. The character of an institution, no less than of an individual, is revealed through actions, not words. It is revealed in the small behaviors. Such as the willingness to watch or participate in the selling of young girls into the living hell of Bosnian brothels. The U.S. is the most powerful force opposing the United Nations. If America refuses to meet U.N. demands - and, as yet, the U.S. h
Costs and Consequences of American Engagement in Central Asia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, January 20, 2002 in the Observer of London US in Replay of the 'Great Game'Costs and Consequences of American Engagement in Central Asia Begin to Become Clear by Edward Helmore in Almaty, Kazakhstan They are shadowy figures just visible from the perimeter of the windswept airbase outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek - United States troops unloading supplies. As the war in Afghanistan becomes a mopping-up operation, the US has stepped up troop deployments in the region, in what Russia and China fear is an effort to secure dominant influence over their backyards, a region rich in oil and gas reserves. In the past weeks, diplomats and generals from all three countries have streamed into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The war on terrorism has turned the Central Asian republics from backwaters into prizes overnight. U.S. President George W. Bush (R) welcomes Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to the Oval Office of the White House, December 21, 2001. The two leaders discussed regional 'security issues'. REUTERS/Larry DowningIn a letter to the New York Times last week, former Iraq arms inspector Richard Butler warned that the 'Great Game' between Britain and Russia over the Indian sub-continent in the nineteenth century may now be replayed, with Russia and the US as the dominant players. 'Now the prize is oil - getting it and transporting it - and Afghanistan is again the contested territory,' Butler wrote. From Africa to the Philippines, South America and Central Asia, unease is growing over the way the US is flexing its military and political muscle. In the Philippines, a dispute has erupted over the impending deployment of 650 US troops to help combat the Abu Sayyaf Islamic insurgency. In Saudi Arabia, too, public concern over the presence of US troops and Washington's future global ambitions has led officials to declare that the US may have overstayed its welcome. What worries these countries is that when American troops come, they stay. On a swing through the former Soviet republics last week, US Senate majority leader Tom Daschle confirmed Washington's long-term interests when he told Uzbek leaders that the US presence 'is not simply in the immediate term'. Since October, the US has established open-ended military presences in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and is now understood to be negotiating with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev to send Kazakh troops to Afghanistan and to construct a military base. 'It is clear that the continuing war in Afghanistan is no more than a veil for the US to establish political dominance in the region,' a Kazakh government source said. 'The war on terrorism is only a pretext for extending influence over our energy resources.' Kazakhstan's oil reserves could be the third largest in the world. Moreover, the Afghan conflict has made the prospect of the US-favored route of a pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan a potential reality. Over the past month, the Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji has signaled his country's wariness over a long-term US presence by sending delegations to the former Soviet republics, and by convening a meeting of the regional Shanghai Co-operation Organization (SCO). Reacting to reports that the US was about to deploy in Kazakhstan, the chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, General Fu Quanyou, warned such a move 'poses a direct threat to China's security'. Beijing is understood to be mainly concerned that instability caused by radicals among the Uighur Muslims on its western borders could derail its modernization. Russia has also expressed unease about the growing Western presence - painfully aware that it does not have the resources to pit itself against the US. 'They are unhappy about the US presence, but not too publicly because [President Vladimir] Putin wants to be seen as an active participant in the coalition against terrorism,' says Margot Light, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics. 'The speed at which the US established coalition-backed military forces in the region has served to make the Russian failure all the more spectacular.' Last week on the ancient, frozen Silk Road over the Alatau mountains from Kazakhstan to China, it was easy
World's Highest Tunnel Is Reopened in Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Monday, Jan. 21, 2002. Page 4 World's Highest Tunnel Is ReopenedBy Tom Heneghan Reuters Oleg Popov / Reuters Trucks in a Russian humanitarian-aid convoy pulling out of the Salang Tunnel's southern exit shortly after its reopening Saturday. SALANG PASS, Afghanistan -- Shivering Afghan and Russian officials reopened the Salang Tunnel, the highest in the world, on Saturday after workers cleared tons of debris left over from war there in the late 1990s. Twenty trucks loaded with Russian food and medicines for needy Afghans made up the first convoy to travel south through the dimly lit tunnel under the snow-capped Hindu Kush mountains. Russian and Afghan workers, helped by British and French nongovernmental organizations, cleared the 3 kilometer-long long tunnel and its anti-avalanche galleries in a month to reopen the main artery linking northern and southern Afghanistan. Besides private traffic and trade, the 3,363-meter-high tunnel will be a major conduit for humanitarian aid coming down from Russia and the Central Asian republics and for refugees returning from Pakistan to their homes in the north. The tunnel, built by the Soviet Union in 1956-64, was a major supply route for Soviet troops during the 1980s war. "We greatly appreciate the work of the four organizations that have helped us clear up the tunnel," said Afghan Public Works Minister Abdul Khaliq Fazal during a short ceremony at the northern end of the tunnel. Russian and Afghan workers, some with the French charity Acted, worked together with deminers from Britain's Halo Trust to clear mounds of rubble left after anti-Taliban fighters led by Ahmad Shah Massood destroyed both entrances in 1997. Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Valery Votrotin, who was an engineer at the tunnel during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s, wished the Afghans peace, independence and good relations with their neighbors. Only a few meters from Votrotin, an Afghan soldier held up a flower-framed picture of Massood, who held off both the Soviets and Taliban only to be assassinated by suspected members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida in September. The Salang Tunnel is one of the biggest of a series of development projects Moscow carried out in Afghanistan in Cold War competition with U.S. projects in southern Afghanistan. It cut traveling time from Kabul to the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif by about eight hours. But during the Soviet-Afghan conflict the Salang highway turned into a shooting gallery for Afghans who often waited for Soviet convoys to emerge from the southern end. Massood owed part of his fame to his ability to attack the Salang highway from his nearby stronghold in the Panjsher Valley. Impatient to return home or resume old trade links, Afghans have been crossing through the tunnel for at least a week, some of them walking the whole way with goods piled on their backs. "There were about 7,000 refugees passing through the tunnel from both directions while we worked," chief Russian engineer Nikolai Vdovin said. "We had to work and help them at the same time." ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^ empty.gif Description: GIF image <>
News, 20.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News January 20th, 2002, 16:00 UTC Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: A Year with Georg W. Bush In the beginning it was anything but a warm embrace. When George W. Bush won the US elections, Europe had a "let's wait and see" attitude. Since then the skepticism has disappeared and Europeans are extending their arms. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1434_A_412322_1_A,00.html - Congo Faces Humanitarian Crisis The situation for thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has turned desperate. Three days after the eruption of a volcano in Goma, there is now the threat that lava may have poisoned a principle supply of water in the area. But despite the latest fear, desperately thirsty and homeless people continued to drink and bath in the dirty water of Lake Kivu. Two of Goma's three water pumping stations were also rendered useless by the flood of lava. Relief workers were trying to organise for clean water supplies to be brought into the town. In the meantime, thousands of refugees began returning back to Goma to try to salvage homes amid the rubble. Aid agencies said they were trying to encourage refugees to go to designated sites outside of the city where care was more easily available. Eighty percent of Goma is said to have been destroyed by lava. At least 45 people have died so far due to the volcanic eruption. Germany Pledges Aid for Afghan Reconstruction Germany has said it would pledge 320 million euros over four years in aid to Afghanistan. Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said the aid would mainly go towards rebuilding schools, restoring the legal system and improving the status of women. Berlin had already said it would give 80 million euros in 2002 for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, where it has also contributed troops to the international peacekeeping force. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, has already begun to ask the world for help in getting his devastated country back on its feet. His appeal comes just one day before officials from more than 60 governments and international organisations plan to meet in Tokyo for a conference on Afghan reconstruction. Aid experts estimate that Afghanistan will need $15 billion for reconstruction over the next ten years. U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Rugged Afghan Mountains Two U.S. Marines were killed and five injured in Afghanistan on Sunday when their Superstallion helicopter crashed in rugged terrain north of the capital Kabul. A spokesman said the transport helicopter was on a mission to deliver supplies when it went down about 30 minutes after take-off from Bagram air base. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there were indications that the cause of the crash was due to mechanical problems. Officials have launched an investigation. Exchanges of Gunfire in Middle East as Palestinians Rally for their Leader Exchanges of gunfire between Israeli forces and the Palestinians continued in the West Bank today while thousands of Palestinians rallied together in support of President Yasser Arafat. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli forces exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen near Arafat's offices. Three Palestinians were reportedly wounded, according to hospital sources. Meanwhile in Gaza, more than 3000 Palestinians marched in protest of Israel's confinement of their leader while in the West Bank town of Jenin, up to 3000 Palestinians called for unity in fighting Israeli occupation. The rallies and latest gunfights followed three days of violence in which a Palestinian gunman killed six Israelis at a party on Friday. In retaliation, Israel destroyed a Palestinian radio station over the weekend, saying that it incited violence. The latest tension between both sides has further shattered international efforts to halt nearly 16 months of bloodshed. Britain Demands U.S. Explanation behind Photographed Prisoners Britain has demanded an explanation from the United States about published photograghs showing Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners kneeling and tightly manacled at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement that the prisoners, regardless of their technical status, should be treated humanely and in accordance with customary international law. He has asked U.S. officials to explain the circumstances in which the pictures were taken. Human rights groups have already expressed concern over the prisoners' treatment at the prison camp. Britain said on Friday th
Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States' Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan:A Comprehensive Accounting "What causes the documented high level of civilian casualties -- 3,767 [thru December 6, 2001] civilian deaths in eight and a half weeks -- in the U.S. air war upon Afghanistan? The explanation is the apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into and drop bombs upon, heavily populated areas of Afghanistan." Professor Marc W. HeroldPh.D., M.B.A., B.Sc. Departments of Economics and Women's StudiesMcConnell HallWhittemore School of Business & EconomicsUniversity of New HampshireDurham, N.H. 03824, U.S.A.FAX : 603 862-3383 FULL TEXT: http://www.cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12253 The Long and Hidden History of the U.S in Somalia Stephen Zunes, AlterNet January 17, 2002 The East African nation of Somalia is being mentioned with increasing frequency as the next possible target in the U.S.-led war against international terrorism. With what passes for the central government controlling little more than a section of the national capital of Mogadishu, a separatist government in the north, and rival warlords and clan leaders controlling most of the rest of the country, U.S. officials believe that cells of the Al-Qaida terrorist network may have taken advantage of the absence of governmental authority to set up operation. Before the United States attacks that impoverished country, however, it is important to know how Somalia became a possible haven for the followers of Osama Bin Laden and what might result if the United States goes to war. As one of the most homogeneous countries in Africa, many would have not predicted the chronic instability and violent divisions which have gripped Somalia in recent years. During the early 1970s, Somalia was a client of the Soviet Union, even allowing the Soviets to establish a naval base at Berbera on the strategic north coast near the entrance to the Red Sea. Somali dictator Siad Barre established this relationship in response to the large-scale American military support of Somalia's historic rival Ethiopia, then under the rule of the feudal emperor Haile Selassie. When a military coup by leftist Ethiopian officers toppled the monarchy in 1974 and declared the country a Marxist-Leninist state the following year, the superpowers switched their allegiances, with the Soviet Union backing the Ethiopia Dirgue and the United States siding with the Barre regime in Somalia. In 1977, Somalia attacked the Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia in an effort to incorporate the area's ethnic Somali population. The Ethiopians were eventually able to repel the attack with large-scale Soviet military support and 20,000 Cuban troops. Zbigniew Brzezinski, then-National Security Advisor under President Jimmy Carter, has since claimed that this conflict sparked the end of détente with the Soviet Union and the renewal of the Cold War. >From the late 1970s until just before Siad Barre's overthrow in early >1991, the U.S. sent hundreds of millions of dollars of arms to Somalia in return for the use of military facilities which had been originally constructed for the Soviets. These bases were to be used to support American military intervention in the Middle East. The consequences of U.S. military support for the Barre regime on the Somali people was deemed of little importance by American policymakers. The U.S. government ignored warnings throughout the 1980s by Africa specialists, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations that continued American aid to the dictatorial government of Siad Barre would eventually plunge Somalia into chaos. These predictions proved tragically accurate. During the nearly fifteen years of support by the United States and Italy, thousands of civilians were massacred at the hands of Barre's increasingly authoritarian regime. Full-scale civil war erupted in 1988 and the repression increased still further, with clan leaders in the northern third of the country declaring independence to escape government persecution. In greatly centralizing his government's control, Barre severely weakened traditional structures in Somali society which had kept civil order for many years. To help maintain his grip on power, Barre played different Somali clans against each other, sowing the seeds of the fratricidal chaos to come, which in turn would contribute to mass starvation and spur the ill-fated humanitarian intervention by the United States in 1992. Meanwhile, by eliminating all potential rivals with a national following, a power vacuum was created by Barre that could not be filled when the U.S.-backed regime was finally overthrown in January 1991, an event barely noticed outside the country as world attention was focused on the start of the Gulf War. With the end of the Cold War and the United States now granted bases in the Persian Gulf itself, Somalia fell briefly off the radar screen of U.S. foreign policy. There is widespread agreement among those familiar with Somalia that had the U.S. government not supported the Barre regime with large amounts of military aid, he would have been forced to step down long before his misrule splintered the country. Prior to the dictator's downfall, former U.S. Representative Howard Wolpe, then-chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, called on the State Department to encourage Barre to step down. His pleas were rejected. "What you are seeing," observed the Congressman and former professor of African Politics, "is a general indifference to a disaster that we played a role in creating." A U.S. diplom
News, 19.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News January 19th, 2001, 16:00 UTC Today's highlight on DW-WORLD: Denglish Invades Germany Language purists may cringe at the relentless march of English in Germany, but the global lingua franca is now making worrying forays into the German scientific and research landscape. To read this article on the DW-WORLD website, just click on the internet address below: http://dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1441_A_411555_1_A,00.html Israel Demolishs Voice of Palestine Israeli troops blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station offices on Saturday in retribution for a Palestinian attack. Half the five-story complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah collapsed after Israeli troops detonated explosives they had planted in the building. The army said in a statement that it had "carried out the operation as a reaction to the murderous attack" on a Jewish birthday party in the northern Israeli city of Hadera on Thursday which left six people dead and injured 33 others. The Palestinian attacker was shot and killed by police. Later, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an arm of Yasser Arafat's Fatah Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. The European Union condemned the Hadera shooting as "brutal and unjustified". Israel accuses the Voice of Palestine radio station of inciting violence, while Palestinians say Israel is only trying to silence the media. In December, Israel demolished one of the radio station's transmission towers, but the station continues to broadcast locally. Thousands Flee Volcano In Congo A massive flood of lava from Thursday's eruption of the Nyiragongo Volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo has destroyed more than half of the eastern town of Goma. UN officials estimated at least 45 people died since molten rock began forking from the volcano through 14 villages on its slopes, down through Goma itself and into Lake Kivu on the Rwandan border. Accompanied by ongoing earth tremors, the lava mass, which swallowed entire buildings in its path, continues to flow and emit toxic fumes. Aid organisations estimate up to half a million people have fled to Rwanda. Authorities in the neigbouring Rwandan city of Gisenyi, which is also threatened by the continuing flow, have appealed for international aid for the refugees. They lack food, shelter, and drinking water, after the lava flow made the water of Lake Kivu unfit for drinking. Germany has pledged 300,000 euros for aid efforts, which have meanwhile begun. Afghan Leader Calls on Germany to Lead Peace Force Afghanistan's interim government leader, Hamid Karzai, has called on Germany to take the helm of the international peace force in his country, if Britain decides not to extend its role in six months time. In an interview with the German news magazine "Der Spiegel", Karzai said Germany should take on the leadership role because it had always supported Afghanistan's anti-Taliban forces. Karzai also said he was disappointed with Western aid efforts so far. He warned that promises must be put into action or Afghanistan would fall back into chaos. India and Pakistan Trade Fire Across Border Pakistani and Indian troops traded heavy mortar and gunfire through the night across their tense border in Pakistan's central Punjab province, witnesses said on Saturday. There was no report of casualties. By contrast, no exchange of fire was reported for the third consecutive night along the two countries' ceasefire line separating the disputed Himalyan region of Kashmir. Tensions have been high since a December 13th attack on India's parliament which New Delhi blames on Kashmiri separatist based in Pakistan. Sudanese government signs ceasefire agreement with rebels The Sudanese government and rebels signed an agreement on Saturday in Switzerland for a ceasefire in a key guerrilla stronghold in the 19-year civil war that has claimed two million lives, the Swiss government said. In a statement, the Swiss, who jointly mediated the deal with the United States, said the ceasefire in the Nuba mountains region would take effect within 72 hours and would be supervised by a joint military commission from the two sides. It would initially be for six months. Sudan has been racked by a civil war since 1983. German Chancellor Urges Vigilance in Fight Against Terrirosm German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has urged continued vigilance in the international fight against terrorism. Following a meeting in Madrid with the Spanish Prime Minister and current EU president, José Maria Aznar, Mr. Schroeder praised the efforts undertaken so far to combat terrorism, such as the creation of the new standardized European arre
UNCLE SAM OFFENDED JIANG ZEMIN [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- DMITRY CHIRKIN: UNCLE SAM OFFENDED JIANG ZEMIN There is more trouble, developing in the relations between the USA and China currently. The reason is the exclusive Boeing-767 airliner, made in the USA for the Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. As the Financial Times newspaper wrote, the specialists from the Chinese counter-intelligence found over 20 eavesdropping devices on board the plane, even in the toilet and in the bed of China’s leader. The bugs were found during the test flights, when they interfered in the radio station of the plane. It turned out that the spying devices had the separate sources of power and could transmit the information directly to a satellite. As the people from Jiang’s milieu asserted, Jiang Zemin went totally mad, when he found out about that. Well, they are rather naive, the Chinese. What else were they expecting from the Americans? That the plane will be totally clean, like the new-born child? If they did such a stupid thing – ordered a plane from the Americans, then they will get a flying spy center, to carry the leader of the Chinese people on board. It would be better, if the Chinese examined the plane again, maybe they would find something more interesting there, taking into consideration the fact that the Chinese already have the experience with spy planes. They should have ordered a plane from Russia. We would get the money, and they would get a good plane, with no bugs. Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/01/19/25868.html ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Bretzel [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^ <>
Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Pakistan's Musharraf: Bin Laden probably dead January 18, 2002 Posted: 10:34 PM EST (0334 GMT) Musharraf: I would give the first priority that he is dead ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because the suspected terrorist has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease. "I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a ... kidney patient," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an interview with CNN. Musharraf said Pakistan knew bin Laden took two dialysis machines into Afghanistan. "One was specifically for his own personal use," he said. "I don't know if he has been getting all that treatment in Afghanistan now. And the photographs that have been shown of him on television show him extremely weak. ... I would give the first priority that he is dead and the second priority that he is alive somewhere in Afghanistan." U.S. officials skeptical VIDEO Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf gives an exclusive interview with CNN's Tom MintierPart 1 | 2 | 3 (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) In Washington, a senior Bush administration official said Musharraf reached "reasonable conclusion" but warned it is only a guess. "He is using very reasonable deductive reasoning, (but) we don't know (bin Laden) is dead," said the official, who requested anonymity. "We don't have remains or evidence of his death. So it is a decent and reasonable conclusion -- a good guess but it is a guess." The official said U.S. intelligence is that bin Laden needs dialysis every three days and "it is fairly obvious that that could be an issue when you are running from place to place, and facing the idea of needing to generate electricity in a mountain hideout." Other U.S. officials contradicted the reports of bin Laden's health problems, saying there is "no evidence" the suspected terrorist mastermind has ever suffered kidney failure or required kidney dialysis. The officials called such suggestions a "recurrent rumor." Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in central and southwest Asia, said Friday that he had not seen any intelligence confirming or denying Musharraf's statements on bin Laden's condition. The United States has said that bin Laden is the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed about 3,000 people. Hunt for bin Laden The United States launched its campaign in Afghanistan after the country's ruling Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden. Earlier this week U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he believed bin Laden and Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar were inside Afghanistan but "we are looking at some other places as well from time to time." Rumsfeld noted there were dozens of conflicting intelligence reports each day and said most of them were wrong. Most of the reports are based on sightings by local Afghans that cannot be verified. There are reports that bin Laden and his convoys have been sighted recently by a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle. A senior Defense Department source said the lack of credible information about the two was so severe that many officials believe the U.S. would catch bin Laden or Omar only through pure luck, or an "intelligence break" -- essentially one of their associates turning them in. Top CIA analysts who track bin Laden and Omar have been asked for their best assessment on the two men's whereabouts. That has led to a variety of thoughts, placing bin Laden in Afghanistan, in Pakistan or Iran, on the open ocean onboard a ship, or headed north through Tajikistan or Uzbekistan -- if he is still alive. The videotape seen worldwide several weeks ago of bin Laden talking about the September 11 attacks was made in Kandahar. He then apparently disappeared -- possibly going north to Tora Bora. Franks said there was evidence bin Laden was in Tora Bora but he gave no indication of when that might have been. In October, intelligence off
Did the left lose the war? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Did the left lose the war? Kabul fell in five weeks. The Islamic world has not erupted. So did the left get it all wrong - and does it matter? Andy Beckett Guardian Thursday January 17, 2002 Guy Taylor is a political activist of great height and confidence. He used to be an organiser for the Socialist Workers Party. Nowadays he is a prominent member of Globalise Resistance, a loose network of British anti-capitalists. Since it was set up last February, he has loomed at demonstrations outside arms fairs and meetings of international leaders with his appropriately cropped hair and small, intense glasses. He talks in a clear, level voice, loud and relentless as a stand-up comedian, always optimistic, never stuck for an argument, throwing in the odd joke but without a flicker of self-doubt. In anti-capitalist circles, Taylor and his organisation have become so ubiquitous some rival groups call them "Monopolise Resistance". Since September 11, however, Taylor has felt the need to adjust his political behaviour in a small way. A few months before the attacks on America, while taking part in the protests against last summer's European Union summit in Gothenburg, he bought a new T-shirt. It said "terrorist" across the front. He says he wasn't trying to look menacing - political violence in his view "achieves very little" - but he thought the T-shirt was a neat statement against the official tendency, then just becoming apparent, to brand all anti-globalisation activists as potential bombers and gunmen. He wore it on and off for the rest of the summer. Then, in mid-September, it stopped feeling so clever. He can't quite explain why. "It just seemed..." He pauses. "Inappropriate?" He smiles a little. "You don't want to... pick arguments... offend people unnecessarily." His office is in Mile End, after all, not Hampstead. After several more pauses, enough time for him, usually, to summarise the entire workings of contemporary capitalism, he finally arrives at a position. "I just thought I should be a bit more careful." These are delicate times for the left, in Britain and elsewhere. First, two of its traditional enemies, the Pentagon and New York's financial district, were bloodily assaulted. Then, the leaders of this revolt against American dominance of the world were revealed, almost certainly, to be religious radicals of considerable ideological ambiguousness. Then the traditional instruments of American oppression in the eyes of its critics - bombing and the use of dubious allies - were deployed in response, with apparent success. And a solid majority of the British public approved, as did the great majority of left-of-centre politicians in Britain and abroad. Immediately before September 11, the outlook had seemed reasonably favourable for the left. Around the world, the long business boom of the past decade seemed to be collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. In America, George Bush's government of tycoons and missile enthusiasts had just lost its senate majority and its momentum. In Britain, Tony Blair's attempt to convert the Labour party and the public to free-market thinking appeared to be struggling. Then there were the failings of Railtrack and the Private Finance Initiative, the swelling profile of anti-corporate protests since Seattle, the polemics against international trade and sweatshops selling well in high street book shops, the apparent revival of militancy in some unions - "Anglo-Saxon capitalism was in a state," says Tariq Ali, the veteran leftwinger and critic of America. "Bush was virtually on the floor. Now they've been able to cover it up. From every progressive point of view, September 11 has been a disaster." In November, an editorial in the British leftwing magazine Red Pepper spoke of "a widespread feeling of powerlessness, even paralysis. The daily news makes you want to retreat back under the sheets." In a new book rushed out since the autumn's events, simply titled 9-11, Noam Chomsky, the dissident American academic who is probably the biggest influence on modern anti-capitalists, writes gloomily: "It is certainly a setback... Terrorist atrocities are a gift to the harshest and most repressive elements on all sides, and are sure to be exploited to accelerate the agenda of militarisation, regimentation, reversal of social democratic programmes, transfer of wealth to narrow sectors, and undermining democracy." Taylor puts it more plainly: "Standing protesting outside Gap is a bloody strange thing to do when civilians are being killed in Afghanistan." Other people have been less polite. Within days of the deaths in New York and Washington, anyone, it seemed, who had ever been publicly critical of America or globalisation suddenly found themselves accused of complicity with Osama bin Laden - and worse. In the British press alone, they have been described as "defeatist" and "unpatriotic", "nihilist"
Just call O'Neill 'Mr. Sensitivity' [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Friday, January 18, 2002 in the Madison Capital Times Just call O'Neill 'Mr. Sensitivity' by Dave Zweifel My nomination for the most callous clod of the year award goes to George Bush's secretary of the treasury, Paul O'Neill. Asked last weekend whether he was surprised by the downfall of Enron, he responded he was not. "Companies come and go," he huffed. "It's part of the genius of capitalism." Most certainly, the genius of capitalism. It's apparently part of the genius of capitalism that thousands of working people lose virtually their entire pensions and life savings while their bosses, primarily because of their insider knowledge, cash in to the tune of millions of dollars. It's part of the genius of capitalism that unsuspecting small-time investors, egged on by their interest-conflicted Wall Street analysts, wind up losing their little nest eggs. It's part of the genius of capitalism that a giant accounting conglomerate, which is supposed to provide at least a semblance of oversight, conveniently destroys thousands of documents that might provide some insight into what happened in this capitalistic scandal. But O'Neill's callousness is only representative of the kind of pro-big business attitude that permeates the federal government since George W. Bush became president. While Americans are distracted by a war on terrorism, this administration is terrorizing working people with fewer safeguards for their health and welfare while advancing proposals for huge multinational corporate tax breaks - all aimed, presumably, at further enhancing the "genius of capitalism." If the House Republican "incentive" plan for the economy ever becomes law, Americans will be surprised to find out the scandal-driven Enron stands to reap about $20 million in a tax rebate for the minimum corporate tax that it had to pay under the previous administration. Indeed, capitalism has worked to drive the engines of the American economy, but it has worked only when it also had proper government oversight and enforceable regulations. If Paul O'Neill thinks that capitalism means that hard-working people can be economically trampled by uncaring millionaires, then capitalism is living on borrowed time. The people won't long stand for it. In a country like America, the "genius of capitalism" must apply to all, not a privileged few. Copyright 2002 The Capital Times ### ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Veep Tried to Aid Enron [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Friday, January 18, 2002 in the New York Daily News The Enron ScandalVeep Tried to Aid Enron Key role in India debt row by Timothy J. Burger Vice President Cheney tried to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from a giant energy project in India, government documents obtained by the Daily News show. "Good news is that the veep mentioned Enron in his meeting with [Indian opposition leader] Sonia Gandhi yesterday," a National Security Council aide wrote in a June 28 e-mail. Two other e-mails indicate that President Bush was to bring the subject up with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the idea was scrapped before they met. The documents are the latest indication that there were contacts between the Bush administration and Enron on issues directly related to the company's business. The White House maintains Enron enjoyed no special favors from the White House or Cheney. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans have conceded that they spoke with Enron chief Kenneth Lay last fall about the energy giant's impending failure, but they insist they refused to help. The new documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, indicate Cheney took a key role in pushing the Maharashtra State Electricity Board to make good on the huge debt claimed by Enron for a power plant it built in Dabhol, India. Cheney spokeswoman Mary Matalin denied yesterday that Enron officials prodded Cheney to raise the issue with Gandhi, widow of slain Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and daughter-in-law of assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. "This is not our issue," Matalin said. "It was in the briefing papers, so he asked the question. The vice president didn't remember that topic at all. I asked him directly." White House and other top officials were interested in the Dabhol project partly because the taxpayer-backed Overseas Private Investment Corp. provided insurance against losses resulting from political problems in India. Overseas could face exposure as high as $300 million. The $3 billion Dabhol project was started in 1992 and built amid political wrangling in India that included allegations of bribery. The plant eventually was completed, but it has never been used. It involved at least 40 international finance institutions, including Overseas, and Enron's partners included General Electric and the Bechtel Corp. The e-mails indicate the State and Treasury departments also were deeply involved in making Enron's case. The highest-level contact they verify was Cheney's June 27 meeting with Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress Party. Other e-mails indicate Lay was expected in Washington around that time, but they do not say whether he was in contact with Cheney's office. Lay — whom Bush used to call "Kenny Boy" — has given more than $600,000 to support Bush's political career. Matalin said Lay and Cheney never discussed the Indian debt or Enron's financial condition. The documents obtained by The News showed that the National Security Council had given the Overseas Private Investment Corp. high hopes that Bush would raise the issue with Vajpayee in a Nov. 9 meeting. The investment corporation had sent the White House "talking points on Dabhol prepared for the President's meeting with Prime Minister Vajpayee," according to a Nov. 1 e-mail. But a Nov. 8 e-mail, whose sender and recipient are blacked out, warned, "President Bush cannot talk about Dabhol." White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, who was previously paid $50,000 a year as an Enron adviser, also "was advised that he could not discuss Dabhol." National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, however, was still expected to raise the issue — but did not, another e-mail says. Copyright 2002 New York Daily News ### ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
YELENA GUSKOVA: NOT ONLY THE FEDERATION'S FATE, BUT THE NA=?U
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- YELENA GUSKOVA: NOT ONLY THE FEDERATION’S FATE, BUT THE NATION’S FATE AS WELL IS PUT INComing negotiations between leaders of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of Serbia and Montenegro should dot their “i’s” in the fate of Yugoslav Federation. If it does, in Montenegro a referendum about state and legal status of the republic will be carried out in April. Yet, will Yugoslavia be retained as a united federal state, or the small half-a-million nation will declare its independence? This and some other questions of PRAVDA.Ru correspondent were answered by Doctor of Historical Science, director of International Research Centre on Balkan Crisis by Slavonic Institute of Russian Academy of Science, Yelena Guskova. Yelena Guskova: Now, relations between Serbia and Montenegro enter the last phase of the crisis. In Montenegro, passions are raging, the society is devoted. Milo Djukanovic proposes to turn to “coordination of activities” of internationally acknowledged states of Montenegro and Serbia, while with such coordination, president’s post is not necessary. Belgrade supports such modes of the Federation, in which there will be joint army, common economical space and currency. While central authorities will occupy themselves with foreign policy for all republics’ profit. It is obvious that within the time which is left till the referendum the dispute about Montenegro’s independence will be sharp. Though, in my view, it is too early to speak about inevitability of Montenegro’s separation. During the latest election, supporters of the Federation unity showed themselves as a force which is able to oppose separatism. They deprived Djukanovic of serious arguments for independence. Now he cannot say he is supported by population majority of Montenegro. Recently, I returned from Montenegro, and in my view, most of Montenegrins are aware of the seriousness of the situation, and that on their decision, not only the federation’s fate depends, but the nation’s fate as well. Apropos, in the parliament, I managed to talk to deputy Marovic, chairman of Foreign Relations Committee. According to his forecasts, further correlation of forces is possible in the referendum: a more than 50 percent will express their support to united Yugoslavia, and most of Montenegrins will be among them. 7 to 15 percent, mainly national majorities’ representatives, will vote for independence. Therefore, Marovic supposes, the referendum will not solve the problem, so negotiations will be continued. According to him, only negotiations are able to solve the problem of Yugoslavia’s future. Q. And are there some historical preconditions for Montenegro’s separation from Serbia? Are the Montenegrins right, who single themselves out, as a nation separate from Serbs? A. Most of Russian historians suppose that in spite of different ways of historical evolution, many things draw south Slavic nations together. There were not any serious oppositions. As for Montenegrins and Serbs, many scientist are inclined to regarding them as one nation. Remember, not long ago, in the hard years of international isolation (1992-1995) Podgorica fully supported Belgrade. 75 percent of local population supposed that maintainance of Federal Republic of Yugoslavai would be the most optimal decision for small Montenegro. Nevertheless, in the end of 1980s, in Montenegro a dispute started between supporters of Montenegrins’ distinctive character and that ones who justified historical aspiration of the two nations for unification. The discussion is still continuing. This autumn, in Podgorica a science conference took place devoted to Negos dynasty. Montenegrin scientists divided in their views. First supposed Montenegro had always been independent and now it should restore its independence, while arguments from historical sources were being presented. Others used the same documents to prove unity of Serb and Montenegrin nations and their common way of evolution. Unfortunately, today’s Montenegrin society is submerged in politics. So, historical problem is often used by politicians for their own interests. This phenomenon is not new. The same phenomenon could be observed at the end of 1980s in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina… Today’s prime-minister of Serbia, Zoran Djinjic contributed his mite to complication of situation in Serbia. Earlier, he called to decreasing Montenegro’s participation in Yugoslav state bodies depending on number of citizens, while stated that several hundreds of thousands of Montenegrins cannot have the same rights as several million of Serbs. Yugoslavia should be changed in accordance with the principle: one person – one vote, Djinjic said. According to him, small and poor Montenegro could not fill up 50 percent of the federal government. As a result, the country is on the verge of destruction. Q. If Serbia is able
THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY IN YUGOSLAVIA [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY IN YUGOSLAVIA News agencies distributed information yesterday that Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were arrested. The President of Yugoslavia, Voislav Kostunica, statted this to the Kosovo agency UPI. The US special services arrested Karadzic and Mladic (these people are charged of the crimes against the humanity) after the Belgrade government informed them of their locations; the procedure of delivering the arrested Serbs to the Hague Tribunal has allegedly been started. It was not reported, however, where the arrests had actually taken place and where they were being kept at present moment. Kostunica himself rejected the information afterwards, saying that he had made such a claim and that he had not given an interview to any Kosovo agency. The White House press-secretary, Ari Fleischer, confirmed that he did not have any information pertaining to Karadzic and Mladic’s arrests. The Russian Echo Moskvy radio station reported that the reason for the misunderstanding was a mistake of a translator, who wrote that Mladic and Karadzic had been arrested. As a matter of fact, Kostunica gave an interview to UPI in which he said that the civil authorities of Belgrade were cooperating with the Hague Tribunal and that the American special services were going to arrest those two men. However, as the Yugoslavian Beta news agency reported, there is no such UPI agency in Kosovo. The Kommersant newspaper published some very curious information today. In particular, it was said that “the information pertaining to Voislav Kostunica's statement to the Kosovo news agency was delivered to the office of the ITAR-TASS news company in Rome by the representatives of the leader of the Kosovo Albanians, Ibragim Rugova, in Italy. The office confirmed their connection with Mr. Rugova. The statement made by the Yugoslavian president to the Kosovo news agency was most likely not only a joke. It was clear from the very beginning that Kostunica could not deliver the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs to the Americans, and then he made statements on the subject to the Albanian agency. Therefore, the “statement” can be referred to as black propaganda on the part of Ibragim Rugova’s representatives. If it turns out that the American special services nabbed Rugova Karadzic and General Mladic, then it will be very difficult for Kostunica to prove that he did not participate in their capture and did not say anything to the Kosovo agency. In addition, it was not the first time when false information regarding Karadzic and Mladic has been distributed. This is psychological pressure on Belgrade to try to force the Serbs to deliver the Bosnian leaders to the Hague. It is also definitely pressure on Mladic and Karadzic to make them yield to the Hague Tribunal. There was an attempt in the past to bring down Radovan Karadzic’s reputation in the eyes of Serb society. There was information distributed saying that Karadzic was going to testify in court against Slobodan Milosevic, the ex-president of Yugoslavia. Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru Translated by Dmitry Sudakov ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Yugo President Did Not Say Karadzic Arrested - Aide [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Reuters January 17, 2002 Yugo President Did Not Say Karadzic Arrested - Aide BELGRADE, Jan. 17 (Reuters) - The office of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica denied on Thursday that he had told a Kosovo news agency that wartime Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic had been arrested. ''The president did not say anything like that,'' said Neda Stanisavljevic, who heads the president's information office. ``I can assure you that the President did not give any such statements to any Kosovo agency,'' she told Reuters. When asked whether she could deny that such an arrest had taken place, she repeated her earlier statement. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency, monitored by the BBC in London, earlier said Kostunica had told a Kosovo news agency that special U.S. forces had just arrested Karadzic and Mladic, accused of genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. White House press conference January 17, 2002, Thursday 12:58 PM Eastern Time [excerpt] Q There's a report, Ari, that the U.S. Special Forces have arrested two Bosnian Serb leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Do you know anything about that? MR. FLEISCHER: First I've heard on that report, so I don't have anything on it. --- BBC World | Europe Thursday, 17 January, 2002, 18:09 GMT Yugoslav arrest story denied The office of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has denied that he told a Kosovo news agency that the wartime Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic had been arrested. A spokesman for the president's information office, Neda Stanisavljevic, said that the president had not made any such statement to any Kosovo agency. The report was carried by Russia's Itar-Tass news agency. It said that the two men had been arrested by American special forces. >From the newsroom of the BBC World Service ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
AMERICA'S IMAGE AFTER SEPTEMBER 11 by Srdja Trifkovic [WWW.STOPN
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.rockfordinstitute.org/News/Trifkovic/NewsST011402.htm Monday, January 14, 2002 AMERICA'S IMAGE AFTER SEPTEMBER 11 by Srdja Trifkovic In the aftermath of September 11 America seems to enjoy an overall positive image abroad, according to a comprehensive survey of the decision-making elites around the world. At the same time most global opinion leaders warn that people in their countries hold negative perceptions of U.S. power. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts survey published on December 19, 2001 (http://www.people-press.org/1219012.htm), elites perceive that there is a comparably high level of support for America's "war on terrorism." At the same time large numbers of people in other countries think that U.S. policies around the world-and especially in the Middle East-were a major cause of the September 11 attacks. Even in Western Europe, 36% of opinion leaders say most or many people in their country believe U.S. policies were to blame; that figure rises to 71% in Eastern Europe and Russia, and to over eighty percent in the Middle East. Even more widespread among ordinary people, according to elites, is the view that it is good that Americans know what it is like to be vulnerable. More than two-thirds of opinion leaders say that many people in their countries think so, ranging to a high of 76% in Asia. It is disheartening, though, that the survey attributes positive feelings toward the United States to the perception that America is the land of economic opportunity-not to its supposed ideals, nor to its defense of democracy, human rights and open markets (forget the history, arts, or literature). An overwhelming majority of those questioned-two-thirds of opinion leaders in Latin America and three-quarters in Eurasia and the Middle East-think that economic opportunity is what people in their countries like America, and-presumably-why so many of them want to come here. The high regard for the United States is also due to the popularity of American consumer goods and technology. Dissatisfaction with the United States is largely attributable to how America acts in the world. Particularly in many European countries, including Russia, opinion leaders perceive a good deal of resentment of the United States' might in the world among citizens of their countries, as well as unhappiness with the dominance of U.S. culture, corporations, and the belief that U.S. policies may have contributed to the growing gap between rich and poor nations. Distinct from these concerns is the criticism of U.S. policies in the Middle East. The impression that U.S. policies and actions in the world were a major cause of the terrorist attacks is strongly related to the perception (1) that the United States is overreacting in its response, and (2) a general dislike of U.S. support for Israel. Not surprisingly, public dissatisfaction with America's Middle East policy is perceived to be highest in largely Islamic countries. Citizens of those countries closest to the current conflicts-presumable allies in Pakistan, Egypt, and Uzbekistan, as well as the NATO "partner," Turkey-all have a strongly unfavorable view of U.S. policy toward Israel, and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks. However, these same Islamic states express less concern over American power in general than do citizens of other parts of the world. The Europeans, by contrast, have the greatest distaste for American power in general, and least opposition to American policy in the Middle East in particular. The Russians, however, are perceived as being unhappy with the American hegemony in general as well as its handling of Middle Eastern affairs. On the whole, about four-in-ten opinion leaders outside the U.S. say that many or most people in their country believe that the United States is overreacting to the terrorist attacks. This opinion is most prevalent in the Middle East/conflict area (62%), but a majority in Eastern Europe and Russia also say that many or most people hold this view. APPENDIX: WHAT THE PAPERS SAY The ambivalence of foreign opinion is reflected in the end-of-year commentary in major daily newspapers around the world. The Wall Street Journal's London equivalent, the Financial Times, is reliably gung-ho. It carried a report by Gerard Baker, its Washington correspondent, on December 27, 2001, that emphasized "enduring optimism" of most Americans and their renewed faith in their country: Indeed, the paradox of 2001 is that, in seeking to bring the United States lower, its enemies have succeeded only in building it up. This is not empty political rhetoric. It is an accurate picture of American self-regard today. It would be absurd to suggest that the rest of the world has embraced everything that America stands for in the wake of September 11. The details of how you organize a free society
WSWS : Workers Struggles Around the World [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- WSWS : Workers Struggles Around the World Workers Struggles: The Americas 15 January 2002 Latin America Argentine strikes and protests Hospitals Provincial hospital workers in Buenos Aires began a 24-hour strike on January 10 against the critical shortage of medicine and material they face in the wake of Argentina's December crisis. Seventy Buenos Aires hospitals on strike maintained only skeleton emergency crews. Jorge Yabkowski, general secretary of the Buenos Aires Association of Health Professionals (ASPSBS), described the situation as a "sanitary emergency that keeps getting worse." Striking workers are also demanding that unpaid wages from December be paid for the 12,000 provincial health employees. ASPSBS officials say that the medicine shortage, which includes a critical shortage of insulin, is due to price speculation by laboratories. An emergency shipment of Brazilian insulin took place last week to partially alleviate the crisis. The unemployed On December 10 in the southern city of Neuquen, 80 unemployed youth confronted police in a protest to demand jobs at an industrial park. In Huincul, Neuquen province, 130 families blocked a national highway and picketed to demand jobs. In Tucuman, in the Northwest, unemployed workers blocked several highways, demanding 2,000 jobs. Public employees In Santiago del Estero, more than 400 municipal workers burned tires and refuse in front of Senator Jose Zavalia's home, demanding back pay. The workers have protested for over eight weeks. Previously workers had disrupted the senator's press conference at a local hotel, forcing him to flee through the roof. A mountain of refuse was also burned on December 8 in the Buenos Aires suburb on Lanus by garbage collection workers who have not been paid in weeks. In Mar Del Plata, 2,000 workers marched through the streets of the resort town. National University employees also protested in La Plata over December salaries and year-end bonuses. In San Juan, federal workers struck and blocked public buildings in the city to press demands for back pay. Transit strike In Rosario, workers on 27 bus lines have been on strike since December 8. The drivers rejected a management offer that would have brought their pay up to date in stages. They are refusing to return to work until all their wages are paid in full. In the northern city of Salta, striking bus drivers mobilized and rallied at City Hall, demanding three months unpaid wages. Salvadoran health workers join protests El Salvador's Public Health Ministry employees mobilized on December 10 to demand the rehiring of 1,200 government employees laid off by the current administration. President Francisco Flores insisted that the layoffs were necessary to make the government run more efficiently. Union leaders claim that, while they do not oppose the layoffs, they consider them arbitrary, pointing out that union officials have been made the target of the firings. On January 1, 8,000 were sacked in one day. Previously another 6,000 had been let go. Flores claims that the government will save $32 million through the layoffs. Flores' plan now is to lay off workers who maintain the Health Ministry's vehicles. Their work will be contracted to Star Motors, a company owned by Roberto Murray Meza, leader of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), according to union sources. By the end of January health workers plan to expand their protests to involve 25 hospitals. The Health Ministry employs 18,000 workers in 30 hospitals. Argentines protest new bank restrictions On December 10, over 6,000 people rallied in front of the Government House in Buenos Aires, while many others banged pots and pans in neighborho
Dr. Srdja Trifkovic // CYRUS VANCE, R.I.P. [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- CYRUS VANCE, R.I.P. http://www.rockfordinstitute.org/News/Trifkovic/News&Views.htm January 16, 2002 The news of Cyrus Vance's death on January 12 brought back the memory of a golden autumn afternoon in 1992 we spent discussing the intricacies of the Balkans at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Vance was at that time the U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar's special representative charged with the impossible task of mediating the war in the former Yugoslavia. At that time I advised Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, who had made Vance's acquaintance some years before, and we were to meet again at the lovely lakeside villa of Daniel Boyer, a joint friend. Vance was an old-fashioned liberal of impeccable manners, dress, and speech. But for his accent he could have passed for an English squire of a Whiggish bend, tweeds and half-moon glasses and all; his implicit Anglophilia was evident from a few casual references to books, friends, and places. I had been warned that he did not have any original ideas or profound insights, but I was gratified by his quiet modesty. While his performance as Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State was on the whole lackluster (his contribution to the 1978 Camp David deal between Sadat and Begin notwithstanding), his 1980 resignation from that post-in protest at the ill-fated military operation to rescue the hostages from Tehran-befitted that old-fashioned integrity which had once been the hallmark of the East Coast establishment. When we met Vance was growing weary of the Balkans. A year earlier, in late 1991, he had helped reach a ceasefire in Croatia; but with Bosnia-Herzegovina he faced an impossible task. Unlike the ideologues in Washington and their media cronies, he understood that "Bosnia" was not a real country, much less a nation, but a mini-Yugoslavia devoid of inner cohesion that could not be kept together except by external force. At the same time he could not say so aloud as his brief was clear: square the circle the best you can, but only within the Bosnian framework. Partition would not be allowed. Vance did not have his heart in it. Having developed a healthy disdain for all parties to the conflict, and an understated awareness of the impossibility of the mission, he was glad to have the burden taken off his shoulders with the arrival of David Owen, a failed British politician full of ambition and adrenalin who was sent by the European Union as Vance's fellow negotiator. Owen did not have a problem with the fact that the settlement had to be based on the illogical and immoral recognition of administrative boundaries between Yugoslavia's former constituent republics as fully-fledged international frontiers. Unlike Vance, Owen joined with gusto in the effort to construe "Bosnia" as a test of Western resolve in the epic struggle of multi-ethnicity (the Muslims) versus atavistic, tribal nationalism (the Serbs). The resulting absurdity known as the "Vance-Owen Peace Plan" was Owen's doing, and his failure, not Vance's. Ever neurotically hyperactive, Owen hijacked what passed for the Bosnian peace process by hinting that "Cy's past it"-but he hardly stopped to reflect that Vance did not mind in the least having the limelight taken away. He quietly went along with the plan's key objective-to give the Muslims their chief war aim, a single, centralized Bosnian state-knowing that the Clinton Administration would duly torpedo the whole thing anyway, believing the territorial arrangement too generous to the Serbs. The subsequent fiasco was a personal tragedy to Owen, and a matter of no consequence to Vance. His career was over anyway, and his name beyond reproach. Vance's career had reached its zenith fifteen years earlier when he got the State. His previous career was solid, albeit not exactly distinguished. He was born in 1917 in Clarksburg, WV, got his honors from Yale Law School in 1942, and served as a naval gunnery officer in the Pacific for the rest of the war. After stint as a Wall Street lawyer Vance entered public life at 39 as general counsel to the Senate Space and Aeronautics Committee, where he drafted the legislation establishing the NASA. In 1960 he moved to the Pentagon, and two years later Kennedy appointed him Secretary of the Army. Shortly after Dallas LBJ made him deputy defense secretary under Robert McNamara. Within months Vance had to deal with the escalating Vietnam War, which he supported until the tide of public opinion turned in 1967. Some of Vance's former colleagues never forgave his abrupt change of heart and subsequent resignation from the government. Nevertheless, when Johnson withdrew from the impending presidential race in March 1968 and offered to discuss peace terms with Hanoi, he made Vance deputy to the chief American negotiator, Averell Harriman. The commentary in Washington, ba
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Please check the following information that may be relevant to many Serbian professionals working worldwide as well as refugees from Croatia that have their private property in Croatia. The Centre for Peace in the Balkanswww.balkanpeace.org EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - Director for Development and Aid Co-ordination Unit - Ministry of International Economic Relations, Republic of Serbiahttp://www.balkanpeace.org/temp/add20011203.html APPLICATION FOR FINANCIAL AID - Instructions: How to apply for financial aid if your private property in Croatia needs reconstruction workshttp://www.balkanpeace.org/temp/aid20011203.gif "Nezavisne NOVINE" Toronto, Canada www.nezavisnenovine.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 416/ 466-0888 Fax: 416/ 466-1921 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
KOSOVO: A FIASCO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- KOSOVO: A FIASCO The Albanians are unable to form a government in Kosovo, a province which never has been theirs, as the bickering and political in-fighting among the ex-terrorists continues. The only candidate for the Presidency of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, (Democratic League of Kosovo) has three times failed to receive enough votes to form a government. In last Thursday s count, he failed even to reach a simple majority. The Albanians have so far refused to negotiate with the Serb coalition Return , which received 10% of the vote but has not been invited to form part of a coalition government. The UN mission in Kosovo itself is still without a leader, after the abrupt departure of Hans Haekkerup. The question of Kosovo, like the unbelievable NATO-led attack on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was combating international terrorism, backed in part by Osama Bin Laden s Al-Qaeda, is a fiasco. That Slobodan Milosevic should have been bundled out of the country in an act of kidnapping for fighting terrorist extremists in Bosnia and Kosovo is unacceptable. Now Hashim Thaci, the ex-leader of the terrorist organisation UCK (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves, or Kosovo Liberation Army) and as such a former terrorist, view for a spot in the more acceptable political limelight as Prime Minister of Kosovo , as if such a position ever existed. Rugova will not allow this and for this reason, the destiny of the province of Kosovo as an independent state, a notion created by NATO and a grave mistake which will produce strong political ripples in the Balkan lake in the future, lies in the hands of a former terrorist (Thaci) and a political opportunist (Rugova). Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
What Price American Primacy? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Swans What Price American Primacy? by Stephen Gowans January 14, 2002 Share this story by E-mail What price are Americans willing to pay to preserve the world as it is, with the US as the sole superpower and the country's preeminence unchallenged? Americans, for the most part, have accepted a few thousand dead Afghans as an acceptable price to hunt down Osama bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda network. Over a million Iraqis dead from sanctions is considered an acceptable price to bottle up Saddam Hussein. "We think it's worth it," said former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. So, would it be any surprise if Washington decided a few thousand American lives was an acceptable price to preserve America's primacy? Marc Herold, a University of New Hampshire economics professor who has been monitoring press reports from around the world, estimates that almost 4,000 Afghan civilians have been killed by US bombs, to mid-December. "Civilian casualties? That's not news," explodes a US media grandee, a transparent rationalization for burying a story that tarnishes America's good guy image. "Civilian casualties are a normal part of war." So too are car crashes a normal part of highway driving. So why is my newspaper littered with endless stories about traffic fatalities? Herold says, "US officials again have demonstrated their ability to manage the news and the US media have shown their willingness to be managed." Stenographers for those in power, as one critic puts it. Human Rights Watch, a virtual front for the US State Department, and, alternately, George Soros's Open Society Foundation, dismisses Herold's estimates, and his thoughts. Somewhere in the vicinity of 1,000 civilians have died, says HRW, and the only reason the US media isn't paying more attention is because the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the rebuilding of Afghanistan have crowded the news agenda. A vaguely plausible explanation on the surface, but a nanosecond of reflection breaks the bonds on fettered reason. How does the foreign press manage to fit stories of civilian casualties into the same crowded news agenda? Are they more efficient? Or is it that it's only the US media's sense of national do-goodism that's at stake? The foreign press, with less invested emotionally in the military campaign, can afford to be a little more dispassionate. "Times have changed. We're at war, now," says the gate keeper of one normally critical Web site, to justify the filtering of views that may shake blind, unthinking support of the "commander in chief," America's own version of "Il Duce." Wasn't it Mussolini who ordered the bombing of a desperately poor country (Ethiopia), and then crowed about his great military victory? HRW's job is to establish its credentials by mildly criticizing the government, so that it can let Washington off the hook for big crimes, while masquerading as an impartial NGO. After NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days in the spring of 1999, HRW reported 500 civilian deaths, a ridiculously low estimate considering the scope of the bombing campaign, and lower than anyone else's estimate. Five hundred. That's not too bad, against the 100,000 dead in Kosovo, a number that, under scrutiny, was later to shrink faster than icicles in a Chinook. One-hundred thousand became 10,000, then 2,000, then "We can't find the bodies; they must be cleverly hidden." In the end, HRW let NATO off the hook for civilian deaths, with an admonition to be more careful. Treating Washington with kid gloves may have just a little to do with the fact that the US foreign policy establishment is as firmly tethered to the New York-based organization as a puppeteer's strings are to a marionette. Did you ever wonder who pays for HRW's expensive and professional Web site? A gaggle of directors with links that snake through the State Department and Washington's propaganda arm, Radio Free Europe, offers a clue. Another clue: Speculator George Soros is known as HRW's financier. (See Paul Treanor's, Who is behind Human Rights Watch?) A Force for Good in the World? Whenever the media want to assuage inchoate concern about dropping high explosives on starving Afghans they make some off the cuff remark about how the excesses of the Taliban have been blessedly expunged by a few daisy cutters, the slaughter of prisoners of war, and the obliteration of whole Afghan villages. Hell, that's a bargain to see soccer being played again at the Kabul stadium, in place o
Foreign visitors in Washington this week [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Diplomatic traffic Foreign visitors in Washington this week include: Today •Marek Belka, deputy prime minister and finance minister of Poland, who meets Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Deputy Treasury Secretary John Taylor, Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and Undersecretary of State Alan Larson. He also delivers an 11 a.m. lecture today at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Tomorrow •Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who meets World Bank President James Wolfensohn, International Monetary Fund Director Horst Koehler and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman. He also addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On Wednesday, he meets President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. He holds a 2:30 p.m. news conference Thursday at the National Press Club and travels to New York Friday to visit ground zero. Thursday •Alexandar Djurisic, a member of the Montenegrin parliament, who discusses the future of Yugoslavia in a briefing sponsored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. •Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] To contact James Morrison, call 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Frenchman named Kosovo OSCE mission head [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Frenchman named Kosovo OSCE mission head BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A French diplomat, Pascal Fieschi, will take up his appointment as head of the Kosovo mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Monday, OSCE sources in Pristina reported overthe weekend. Fieschi will replace Daan Everts who was OSCE head of mission in the Serbian province now administered by the United Nations from June 1999 until December last year. Fieschi previously served as French ambassador to Ukraine since 1997. Earlier, he held posts in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He will inherit an establishment which had 21 field offices and regional centers but is now undergoing restructuring to cover most municipalities. The task of the OSCE mission is to develop democratic institutions and promote participation by all local communities in the democratic government of Kosovo. OSCE sources said Fieschi joined the French diplomatic corps in 1969. His diplomatic career includes postings in the French embassies in Athens, Prague, St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Canberra, and Moscow. He took part in the negotiations on the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, the founding document of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, which was transformed into the OSCE in 1994. Everts was the longest serving international official in Kosovo. He became mission head immediately after the end of NATO's 11-week conflict with Yugoslavia over Kosovo and the assumption of control of the province by an international peacekeeping force, known as KFOR. He was in charge of organizing the first democratic elections in Kosovo for a parliamentary assembly on Sept. 17 last year. Back to UPI ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^ redarrow-back.gif Description: GIF image
General may testify against Milosevic [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- General may testify against Milosevic BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- One of Serbia's deputy prime ministers, Gen. Momcilo Perisic, said the Yugoslav army chief of staff has repeatedly offered to testify against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in his trial for alleged war crimes. Milosevic helped Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic in his rise to chief of staff. Pavkovic was commander of the Third Army Corps stationed in Pristina before and during the 78-day NATO air campaign on Yugoslavia until June 1999, the period in which Yugoslav army and police forces are alleged to have committed atrocities against Kosovo Albanians. In a caustic attack on both Pavkovic and current Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Perisic told Saturday's edition of the Belgrade newspaper Blic that the two men "are sustaining and defending each other, unaware that by doing so they are hampering many reforms in Serbia and Yugoslavia." Kostunica has retained Pavkovic as army chief since the overthrow of the Milosevic regime in a bloodless popular uprising in October 2000, claiming that this is necessary in order to preserve the continuity and stability of the state. The claim is disputed by most other leaders of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, a misnomer for the ruling 18-party democratic reform coalition, who say the two men have raised obstacles to restructuring the army into a smaller professional armed force and putting it under civilian and parliamentary control. Pavkovic has retorted that this control is ensured by the fact that Kostunica is supreme commander of the army. As he did with Milosevic before, Pavkovic now proclaims Kostunica as army commander even though under the constitution the army is commanded by a three-member Supreme Military Council that also includes the Serbian and Montenegrin presidents. Critics also say that Kostunica, because he is a traditional Serbian nationalist, and Pavkovic, for reasons of his own safety, are hampering efforts by Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and his government and federal DOS ministers to establish full cooperation with the Hague tribunal, including extradition of war crimes suspects and indictees. In doing so, the argument goes, they harm the country's prospects to acquire the necessary financial and economic aid to recover from decades of mismanagement and carry out the required economic reforms. "It is inevitable that the main players in Kosovo will be called to account in The Hague. One of them was exactly Pavkovic as army commander in Kosovo," Perisic told Blic. Milosevic faces charges at his trial starting on Feb. 12 of being in full control of the security forces in Kosovo and so carrying responsibility for their war crimes and crimes against humanity. Milosevic has also been indicted for command responsibility for similar crimes in Croatia and for genocide in Bosnia. "If his chief Milosevic is tried for what was happening in that area (Kosovo), it is inevitable that Pavkovic too will end up in The Hague," Perisic said. This is why Pavkovic is at pains to remain in his present post under Kostunica's protection as long as possible, "but still he will appear before the tribunal sooner or later," he added. Pavkovic is now doing everything to save his head by testifying against Milosevic, Perisic claimed. "It has even come to my knowledge that on several occasions he has offered to testify against his supreme commander," he said. "It would be good for Kostunica to know that this could also happen to him. Pavkovic is the best silk braid round Kostunica's neck." In Ottoman Turkey, sultans were said to be in the habit of sending silk braids to people as a sign of their displeasure and that they wanted them to commit suicide. Perisic was himself the chief of the general staff for five-and-a-half years until October 1998 when Milosevic dismissed him for disagreements over policy and tactics in Kosovo. Some people suggest Perisic is also a war criminal for shelling the towns of Zadar in Croatia and Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina as an artillery commander in the early 1990s. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
The U.S. is Determined to Dominate the World's Richest New Source [WWW.STOPNATO
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, January 13, 2002 in the Toronto Sun Fighting for OilThe U.S. is Determined to Dominate the World's Richest New Source by Eric Margolis NEW YORK -- Partisans of President George Bush's jihad against Islamic opponents have been crowing that the quick military victory in Afghanistan showed that America's power is irresistible. War can indeed be waged with almost no US casualties. The old Afghan hands who cautioned against plunging into Afghanistan were dead wrong, gleefully chorus right-wing hawks. Hardly any of them have ever been to Afghanistan or neighboring regions. All past invaders, beginning with Alexander's Macedonians, found it extremely easy to get into Afghanistan - and exceptionally painful to get out. That is the point this column has been making since early October. It took the Soviet Army exactly two days in late 1979 to occupy Afghanistan, and 10 years to extricate itself. It has taken the United States - admittedly much further away - five weeks to scatter a force of medieval tribesmen and occupy southern Afghanistan. This time around, Russia occupied the north through its proxy forces in two weeks. Though most North Americans believe the Afghan war is over, in fact we are only seeing the beginning of what augurs to be a long, confused, murky struggle in this strategic but chaotic nation. The growing American military presence in Afghanistan means its garrison troops are likely to become embroiled in lethal Afghan tribal politics and face a low but persistent number of casualties from skirmish and accidents - just what happened to the Soviet garrison in the 1980s. Right now, the US has bought temporary loyalty from tribal chiefs, but this situation could quickly change as Afghans chafe under the growing American presence and resent being ordered about by foreigners. Canadian troops in Afghanistan will face the same threats. One thing is clear: the United States is inexorably getting drawn deeper and deeper into South and Central Asia. Empires expand through war or trade. The American Empire - which this column has long called the American Raj - has in recent weeks made a decisive move to the east. Just as the US used the 1991 Gulf War to force its Arab clients to permit stationing of permanent US garrisons in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, so the US is now using the so-called war on terrorism and the hunt for Osama bin Laden to expand its military influence into South/Central Asia. The reason is both simple and complex: oil. Washington is determined to dominate the world's richest new source of oil, Central Asia's Caspian Basin, over which sit the former Soviet states of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. Well before Sept. 11, the US already had special forces operating in Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan. Last spring, Osama bin Laden advised the unworldly Taliban regime to turn down a low bid from the US oil firm Unocal to build a pipeline to export Central Asian oil - awarding it instead to a rival Argentine firm. The US cut off discreet financial aid to Taliban and began updating contingency plans to invade Afghanistan and install a compliant regime. Events of Sept. 11 facilitated this decision. The US is now establishing permanent military bases near Kandahar, where units of its elite 101st Airborne Div. will replace Marines as a semi-permanent garrison. Three other permanent US bases are being prepared. Three more are operational in Pakistan. All these new bases will be linked to and supplied by much larger US military bases in Arabia and the Gulf. Washington will use the same formula as in its Mideast oil Raj: keep friendly dictatorial regimes in power and crush their internal opponents in exchange for military bases, large arms purchases and cheap oil. The Bush administration, egged on by the big oil lobby, is determined to dominate the Caspian Basin gold rush. However, US military forces are already stretched extremely thin; involvement in Central Asia will strain them severely and require a higher defense budget. The US already spends over $30 billion annually to base troops in Arabia and the Gulf - from which the US gets only 7% of its oil. Russia is already maneuvering against the US in Central Asia and Afghanistan. China is watching the arrival of US troops on its highly sensitive western borders and the new US/Indian strategic alliance with moun
TERREUR ET PROSTITUTION EN YOUGOSLAVIE [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- TERREUR ET PROSTITUTION EN YOUGOSLAVIE par Emil VLAJKI Après la « révolution doctobre » de lan 2000, la Yougoslavie est devenue lune des « banane république » des Etats-Unis. Le règne de la coalition au pouvoir est totalitaire ayant la forme de la démocratie électorale. Ceux qui dirigent le pays exécutent à la lettre les « suggestions » de leurs employeurs et ce pour « quelques dollars de plus ». Ils le font avec un zèle si grand que, souvent, ils vont au devant des désires de leur maître. Le Fond Monétaire International et la Banque Mondiale qui sont les instruments du limpérialisme américain, font la lois dans ce malheureux pays. Les usines et les richesses naturelles comme le cimentier en Serbie se vendent à des prix ridicules aux compagnies étrangères et le système bancaire est récemment démantelé pour pouvoir être substitué par les banques occidentales. Lexode des « cerveaux » se poursuit à une vitesse foudroyante et ceux qui restent sont obligés de se prostituer pour pouvoir survivre. La loi nexiste plus. La constitution yougoslave, la Cour constitutionnelle et les juges sont ridiculisés. Les vrais « législateurs » sont les Américains et la chaîne du commandement va de la Maison Blanche jusquaux dirigeants serbes dont les ordres sont exécutés par les forces de la police spéciale. Comme jadis dans le « far west » américain, les gens sont kidnappés et mis en prisons ou délivrés au TPI à la Haye sans aucun ordre judiciaire et sans jugement. Certains, qui aurait pu être gênants pour le nouveau système, sont même tués. Ainsi, le policier Gavrilovic qui collaborait avec Kostunica dans le but de démanteler un grand réseau de corruption, a été tué à la sortie du palais présidentiel. Pendant que les patriotes sont maltraités et menacés de prisons ou encore, mis en prison, les vrais criminels de guerre qui donnaient des ordres de bombarder illégalement la Yougoslavie en tuant les civiles et en empoisonnant le sol, les eaux et la terre avec les produits chimiques et radioactives, eux ils se baladent librement dans ce pays. Cest cela lhumanisme pervers des temps modernes. La liberté de presse pratiquement nexiste plus. Pendant la « dictature » de Milosevic, la plupart des médias était contrôlés par lopposition. Aujourdhui, sauf des rares exceptions, les médias reflètent les vues de « Big Brother » américain. Et cela pour cause car ils sont, pour la plupart, financés par des organismes de couverture (comme la radio B-92) derrière lesquels se trouvent des gens comme Soros dont les positions pro-américaines et pro-albanaises sont bien connues. Il en résulte que beaucoup de journalistes et dautres collaborateurs se sont prostituer en allant contre les intérêts de leur patrie. Une importante partie de ceux qui satanisent quotidiennement leur propre peuple se trouvent à la tête des organisations non gouvernementales et des instituts de recherches. Dans leurs articles, certains journalistes et « intellectuels » vont si loin comme si ils étaient les porte-parole de lOTAN ou des terroristes albanais. Pour leurs services ils reçoivent des compensations généreuses : de largent, les possibilités de donner des conférences à létranger, des stages à lOccident. Lun de ces journalistes de Kraljevo qui avait écrit des mensonges énormes sur le comportement de larmée yougoslave à Kosovo en affirmant que les soldat ne combattaient pas les terroristes, mais tuaient massivement les enfants albanais a même était déclaré comme le meilleur journaliste de lannée sur lInternet ! Le système éducatif sest empiré. Dans les écoles, le marxisme dogmatique a été remplacé par lexercice de la pratique religieuse. Comme dans le roman dOrwell « 1984 », lhistoire se ré-interprète. Les Tchetnics sont devenus bons et les Partisans mauvais. Tito et communisme sont devenus coupables pour tous les maux serbes. En plus, lEtat na pas dargent et cest lOccident qui finance léducation. Et ce nest pas de largent donné. LOccident doit être présenté aux élèves comme étant bon, démocratique, etc. Cependant, lhumiliation du peuple Serbe ne cesse de sagrandir. Dans le manuel dhistoire du 8ème, on peut lire que les pourparlers de Rambouillet étaient une offre honnête faite par lOccident pour résoudre pacifiquement la crise de Kosovo, que la Serbie a refusé cette offre, et que lOTAN navait aucun autre choix que dintervenir militairement ! Vu la prostitution des auteurs de ce manuel et les autres cas semblables, il semble que la honte et la morale nexistent plus dans cette partie du monde. La Yougoslavie se trouve devant sa dissolution. Bientôt sera tenu le référendum à Monténégro, lune des deux unités fédérales, et ce sont les Américains qui vont décider ce qui va en être. Djukanovic est soumis au chantage pour deux raisons. Pendant la guerre avec la Croatie, il était le Premier ministre du Monténégro et il risque dêtre envoyé à la Ha
Read My Lips. Not Even Stupidity Excuses Bush's 'Pakis' Slur [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Saturday, January 12, 2002 in the Toronto Globe & Mail Read My Lips. Not Even Stupidity Excuses Bush's 'Pakis' Slur by Heather Mallick U.S. President George W. Bush this week called his Pakistani allies "Pakis," a word I dislike even using in print. This is an entirely different level of "mangleton" than his previous gaffes, like referring to the "Grecians" or the "Kosovians." God knows what he'd call us if we weren't already called "Canadians." "Cans" maybe. Smart comes in all kinds of different ways, as Bush once said. There's book smart, he said, and then there's "instinct and judgment and common sense," the latter clearly being the kind he favored and yet the kind of which he has none, not a mote, not a wisp, not a dusting. Bush's people hastened to say he meant no disrespect. Bush apologists may believe he had tired of being mocked for his suffixal additives and instead of the predictable "Pakistanians" had simply chosen "Pakis" as a short form. It's easy to snicker at Bush for being stupid, but his stupidity combined with wealth and power has been lethal for so many people. I look at his face and see millions of Americans who have just been told it's all right to use the word "Paki" as long as you mean well. But it's not all right, not under any circumstances. Racism is a rebarbative sin, one of those for which you go straight to the bonfire eternal, no waiting. Recently, at a fairly boisterous dinner party, I was horrified to hear a man I had known for decades -- I knew him as a good man -- say loudly, "Oh, he's just an ugly Jew. Admit it, he's got that ugly Jew face." And no one spoke up. Some people believe in honesty and "the personal is political" moral confrontation that cleanses the Earth of these foul racist humours. Others just kill. I, on the other hand, split into two, watching myself as if I were filming myself in a movie. Kill/not kill/ vituperation/tears? It felt like an hour, but was probably 20 seconds. I reacted with my usual tactic of "freezing out." It's a Bridget Jones self-help strategy. In The Edge of Reason,when she found a little Oriental boy in her boyfriend's bed, stark naked, smiling weirdly and holding out two wooden balls on a string, and a baby rabbit, her policy on possibly criminal boyfriends was: "We do not call them. We do not see them. We simply detach." So I protested at the remark and vainly tried to return to the subject of the "ugly little Jew" whom I defended. And then I detached. The friendship is officially over. It's shameful to be a racist, and it's hideous to be a victim of racism. But there's one person whose feelings are rarely considered: The person who witnesses racial cruelty. A horrible hot wash of shame started at my head and ran down my body. I felt dizzy. I thought of what my Jewish friends would think if they had heard this. Shades of Some of My Best Friends are Jews, but what of that? What would my highly principled mother say? Or my stepdaughters? The worst thing was that my protest aroused not the slightest reaction, these being people who, Bush-like, have no notion that racism is profoundly unacceptable. It's like explaining to a two-year-old why one eats on the table, as opposed to under it. Floor dining is a faux pas of the highest order. The child stares blankly and clings to the table leg. There was the remote possibility that this man, who had only begun to say strange things recently, including some slightly off remarks about blacks and Asians, had fallen mentally ill. One would not wish to be unkind to the unstable. Perhaps he had suffered a stroke and was about to fall to the floor in a manner that would erase the slurs that preceded the collapse. Sadly, this did not happen. It's all very well for Barbara Amiel to complain about the anti-Semitism of the British upper classes. Who'll defend it? Here I sit pondering the anti-Semitism of the Canadian middle classes. Who'll notice it? Flashbacks: I remember sitting in a Paris restaurant listening to an elegantly dressed businessman at the next table talking loudly to his colleague about "un pays sans Juifs." His friend saw the shock on my face and tried to shush him. And I sat paralyzed, realizing my French is such that it was possible the man was decrying the notion of a France without Jews, not extolling it. Maybe stabbing him with a fork would be a Clouseau mistake.
Pentagon Warns of War Lasting Six Years [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, January 13, 2002 in the London Daily Telegraph Pentagon Warns of War Lasting Six Years by David Wastell in Washington AMERICAN military chiefs believe that the global war against terrorism will last at least six years. Pentagon officials are being advised to draw up budgets and plans to buy new equipment on the assumption that the struggle against al-Qa'eda and other international terrorist groups will endure until 2008, and perhaps even longer. Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary, has won President Bush's backing for a sharp increase in military spending. Extra money will be allocated for more of the weapons that have proved useful in Afghanistan, such as unmanned surveillance and attack aircraft. The increased spending will continue whether or not Osama bin Laden is found soon. It follows signs that the Pentagon is wearying of the intense public interest in the hunt for the al-Qa'eda leader, and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader. John McCain, a senator and former chairman of the armed services committee, said on his return from a trip to the Afghan region that he felt frustrated that bin Laden was still at large. He added, however: "He's on the run now. I think he's a threat so long as he's alive, but it's a far different scenario than the one where he had sanctuary and was able to operate with a financial network and a network of terrorists throughout the world." After four weeks in which the Pentagon and the media were constantly on tenterhooks for the imminent capture of bin Laden, a change of tack ordered by Mr Rumsfeld has become evident. Officials say that they will no longer even hint at where they think he might be. There have also been reports of clashes between the Pentagon and the CIA over the quality of intelligence emanating from Afghanistan. Some military officials feared there was a "missed opportunity" when the Pentagon ordered US Central Command to rely on local Afghan forces rather than US troops to try to intercept and capture bin Laden after the assault on al-Qa'eda's Tora Bora mountain hideouts. Not only did bin Laden apparently escape, but so have a series of Taliban leaders over the past two weeks, almost certainly including Mullah Omar, raising questions about the competence or possible corruption of the Afghan forces. Although no politician is yet prepared to risk publicly differing with Mr Bush over the administration's handling of the war, some advisers fear that public patience over the failure to catch bin Laden will evaporate if the hunt drags on too long - or if there is a fresh terrorist attack on the US. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002 ### ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
THE PIPELINE PLOTS [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- "THE PIPELINE PLOTS, PART ONE" by Sherman H. Skolnick 1/9/02 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.skolnicksreport.com Sometimes when you know a lot of the facts and details, it is difficult to escape the idea that you are looking at a sinister scheme. Of course, skeptics and deniers will quickly label you a "conspiracy theorist", even if you are not, thus dismissing what you say. What high level powers do, on a regular basis, cannot simply be a device concocted for a one-time trick. The ultra-rich obviously "breathe together". So, it fits the historical definition of to "conspire". What they do, day by day, year by year, and century by century, is simply their method of operation. Their way of enriching themselves and controlling those of the middle income. Once in a while, their natural collusion is interrupted, sometimes only temporarily, by an upheaval led by the better educated group, the middle class, a Revolution. Starting in the 1990s, even before that, two groups made their plans as to the Caspian Sea energy area, Afghanistan, and the southern Balkans. Oil engineers obviously knew that in a few short decades, the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia will be played out. A growing market for oil and natural gas is Pakistan, Red China, and points east, like Japan. The Caspian area is there to be exploited. Oil, natural gas. One pipeline was planned through the southern Balkans, the split-apart area formerly called simply Yugoslavia. Standing in the way was a strongman, Slobadan Milosevic, who took over more or less with the demise of long-time dictator Marshal Tito who with an iron fist kept the ethnic and religious groups in check. Milosevic was once considered charming and popular. Toppling him started with the Henry Kissinger design of wrecking the Yugoslav banks. Kissinger & Associates have been a nest of clever snakes fronting for Big Oil and dictators and butchers worldwide. So, building on the natural friction between ethnic and religious groups in Yugoslavia, became the excuse for the U.S./British attack on the Belgrade government. The supposed justification, trumpeted in the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press, was the primarily fraudulent stories of "massacres". In the Spring of 1999, that became the reason for bombing and invading Serbia and their province of Kosovo. If not so bloody and tragic, the whole event would be laughable. Mighty military and economic forces of the West pulverized a once united nation which had no air force or navy worth noting, and an army no match for the invaders. Furthermore, Serbia was traditionally pro-U.S. if not also pro-British. In thousands of years, Serbia never attacked or invaded any other country. In violation of the Geneva Convention, to which the U.S. and Britain are signatories, U.S./British forces knowingly bombed and missile-attacked hospitals, schools, and churches. They bombed structures on the Danube, for months thereafter blocking river commerce for a whole section of Europe. The Serbian Radio/Television Building in Belgrade was directly targeted and many of those inside slaughtered. Who would rightfully dare prosecute the U.S./British leaders as war criminals? The International tribunals, made up of yesmen and cowards, are a dead letter. Think about it. If Serbia had an air force and a navy like the U.S., surely they had the right, yes, the duty, to in return, bomb and missile attack the United States. Fair is fair. Hey, the press fakers said it was a WAR. The attack on Serbia benefitted, some say intentionally, the Kosovo/Albanian dope traffickers. Whether you like or dislike what he says or does on other matters, notice something: U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (D., Conn.), became the unregistered lobbyist for the dope-traffickers, the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army. Lieberman, who also ran for Vice President in the year 2000, made speeches fronting for the KLA. [I have rejected the strong warning of Lieberman's cohorts, who demanded I shut up about this, yet they know I am an independent, a loyalist for neither political party.] The blitz against Serbia began right after President Bill Clinton, impeached by House of Representatives resolutions, was turned loose from an Impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate. Some contend key Senators caved in after having been blackmailed. Head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin G.Hatch (R., Utah), reportedly was about to be caught up in the Olympics bribery scandal. The monopoly press covered up this and financial and other scandals implicating several U.S. Senators which would have dirtied up Senators at the time of the Impeachment Trial. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, conducting the Senate hearing in an imperial gold-stripped robe, was himself subject to being blackmailed, such as with
Bush Fuels Oil Conspiracy Theory [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bush Fuels Oil Conspiracy Theory Ted Rall, AlterNetJanuary 10, 2002 Conspiracy theories are funny things: the wackier they sound, the more likely they are to be true. The fires of September were still burning when I, among others, suggested that the Bush regime's Afghan war might have more to do with old-fashioned oil politics than bringing the Evil Ones to justice. Little did I know how quickly I would be proven right. The Taliban government and their Al Qaeda "guests", after all, both were at best bit players in the terror biz. If the U.S. had really wanted to dispatch a significant number of jihad boys to meet the black-eyed virgins, it would have bombed Pakistan. Instead, the State Department inexplicably cozied up to this snake pit of anti-American extremists, choosing a nation led by a dictator who seized power in an illegal coup as our principal South Asian ally. Moreover, the American military strategy in Afghanistan -- dropping bombs without inserting a significant number of ground troops -- all but guaranteed that Osama would live to kill another day. So the Third Afghan War obviously isn't about fighting terrorism -- leading cynics to conclude that it must be about (yawwn!) oil. Bush and Cheney were both former oil company execs, after all, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was corporate counsel at Chevron. Unbeknownst to most Americans, oil fields dot northern Afghanistan near its border with Turkmenistan. But the real jackpot is under the Caspian Sea. Between confirmed and estimated oil reserves, Kazakhstan is destined to become the world's largest oil-producing nation, and will one day dwarf even Saudi Arabia. For the U.S., more production means cheaper oil, lower production and transportation costs, and higher corporate profits. The Kazakhs would be happy to work with us, but their oil is frustratingly landlocked. The shortest and cheapest of all possible pipelines would run from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf via Iran, but lingering American resentment from the 1980 hostage crisis has prevented U.S.-aligned Kazakhstan from getting its crude out to sea. Plan B is a 1996 Unocal scheme for a trans-Afghanistan pipeline that would debouche at the Arabian Sea port of Karachi. As Zalmay Khalilzad co-wrote in The Washington Quarterly in its Winter 2000 issue, "Afghanistan could prove a valuable corridor for this [Caspian Sea] energy as well as for access to markets in Central Asia." Khalilzad has an unsavory past. As a State and Defense Department official during the Reagan years, Khalilzad helped supply the anti-Soviet mujihadeen with weapons they're now using to fight Americans. During the '90s he worked as Unocal's chief consultant on its Afghan pipeline scheme. According to the French daily Libération, Khalilzad's $200 million project was originally conceived to run 830 miles from Dauletebad in southeastern Turkmenistan to Multan, Pakistan. Multan already possesses a link to Karachi. Partly on Khalilzad's advice, the Clinton Administration funded the Taliban through Pakistani intelligence, going so far as to pay the salaries of high-ranking Taliban officials. The goal: a strong, stable authoritarian regime in Kabul to ensure the safety of Unocal's precious oil. In 1998, after Taliban "guest" Osama bin Laden bombed two American embassies in east Africa, Unocal shelved the plan. Chief consultant Khalilzad moved on to the Rand Corporation think tank. Considering the Taliban irredeemably unreliable, Clinton withdrew U.S. support. But as the newly-minted cliché goes, everything changed after 9-11. Now the Taliban are gone, replaced with a U.S.-installed interim government. Rising energy prices helped push the economy into recession; perhaps 90-cent gas will work where interest rate cuts failed. Once again, the pipeline plan is hot. Did Bush exploit the Sept. 11 attacks to justify a Central Asian oil grab? The answer seems clear. On Dec. 31, Bush appointed his special envoy to Afghanistan: Zalmay Khalilzad. "This is a moment of opportunity for Afghanistan," the former Unocal employee commented upon arrival in Kabul Jan. 5. You bet it is: Pakistan's Frontier Post reports that U.S. ambassador Wendy Chamberlain met in October with Pakistan's oil minister to discuss reviving the Unocal project. And a front-page story in the Jan. 9 New York Times reveals that "the United States is preparing a military presence in Central Asia that could last for years," including a building permanent air base in the Kyrgyz Republic, formerly part of the Soviet Union. (The Bushies say that they just want to keep an eye on postwar Afghanistan, but few students of the region buy the official story.) Many industry experts consider Unocal's revived Afghan adventure fatally flawed and expect the U.S. to ultimately wise up and pursue an Iran deal. But thus f
Business this week [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Business this weekJan 10th 2002From The Economist print edition Restarting computer sales Compaq Computer, the world's second-largest PC maker, said that surprisingly strong fourth-quarter sales, particularly in Europe, would produce a modest profit rather than the expected loss. The turnaround might even improve the chances of Compaq's proposed merger with Hewlett-Packard. SAP, Europe's leading software company, said that sales in the fourth quarter had exceeded analysts' expectations, topping euro1 billion ($885m). America's Justice Department confirmed that it was pursuing a criminal investigation into events surrounding the bankruptcy of Enron, the erstwhile energy-trading giant. The company has close links with the Bush administration. Season of no GOODWILL AOL Time Warner is to write off as much as $60 billion in the first quarter thanks to new rules over accounting for GOODWILL. The write-off reflects some of the company's expensive dotcom acquisitions. It also forecast that advertising revenues would decline for at least the first half of the year, confirming the miserable outlook for all media companies. AT&T is to take a provision of $1 billion in the latest quarter, mainly to pay for 10,000 job cuts. The telecoms giant has already laid off half this number and the rest will go in 2002. Merrill Lynch, an investment bank, also said it would take a charge of $2.2 billion in the quarter, the cost of 9,000 redundancies. Accenture, the world's biggest management consultancy, reported that profits for its latest quarter were up by 11% over a year ago to $258m and that it had made its highest-ever quarterly revenues. Perhaps, at a tough time for many businesses, Accenture was able to provide valuable advice on downsizing. EasyJet propelled EasyJet showed the bullishness of Europe's low-cost airlines with plans to buy 75 new passenger jets worth some $4 billion. In an effort to secure a favourable deal, easyJet signalled that it would consider buying from Airbus Industrie rather than Boeing, the usual supplier to no-frills carriers. Club Mediterranée, a French resort group, said it would report losses for 2001 of euro70m ($62m); the company blamed the effects of a sagging world economy, compounded by the events of September 11th. Others blamed a weak business plan. DaimlerChrysler, Mitsubishi and Hyundai unveiled plans to develop and produce an engine to power a range of smaller cars. Significant cost savings are expected as adaptations of the power unit could come to propel more than 1m vehicles. The Detroit motor show was dominated by gloom over expected job cuts at Ford, the world's second-biggest car maker. The Bush administration also announced a new push to encourage the development of fuel-cell-powered vehicles. See article: Fuel cells and cars Out of the picture Patricia Russo, charged with reviving Eastman Kodak's fortunes in the digital age, left after less than nine months as chief operating officer and president and returned from whence she came, to Lucent Technologies. She will become chief executive of the struggling telecoms-equipment company. Vizzavi, a European Internet portal that came rather late to the game, said its chief executive and 100 other staff would go. The joint venture between Vodafone and Vivendi Universal cost some euro1.6 billion ($1.4 billion) to set up but has attracted fewer subscribers than hoped for and has had trouble making money. Investor indifference met Vivendi Universal's stockmarket offer of a 5% stake in the company. Shares fell below the opening price, leaving the two banks underwriting the deal stuck with big holdings. Alcoa, the world's biggest aluminium firm, launched a bid for the 60% that it does not yet own of Norway's number two aluminium concern, Elkem, valuing the company at some $850m. Elkem described the offer as very bad. Norsk Hydro, Norway's leading aluminium maker, agreed to pay euro3.1 billion ($2.8 billion) to Germany's E.ON for its VAW aluminium unit, to make it the world's number three aluminium company. Fashion statement Yves Saint Laurent said that he would hang up his hat. The ageing haute couture guru expressed disillusionment with today's more commercial fashion industry. See article: Yves Saint Laurent retires Stockmarkets around the world have continued their steady recovery since the post-September 11th lows, as investors hope for a swift end to America's recession. Both American and European markets have gained, though Japan is less perky. See article: Is irrational exuberance in the air again? ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to:
For New York Area Serbs [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NEW YORK CITYWIDE PLANNING MEETING FOR FEB. 2 ANTI-WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM PROTESTTUESDAY, JANUARY 15TH Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday7:00 P.M.At the A.N.S.W.E.R. Office39 West 14 Street, Suite 206On Tuesday, January 15th, scores of activists from the New York metropolitan area will be meeting at the office of International A.N.S.W.E.R. to plan a massive organizing effort over the next 17 days, to draw thousands of people to a February 2nd protest against the World Economic Forum (WEF). The meeting will begin at 7:00 P.M. at 39 West 14th Street, Suite 206. International A.N.S.W.E.R. is a broad coalition of organizations and activists who have come together over the past four months to rally public support for social and economic justice as an alternative to war. The coalition is sponsoring a major, legally-permitted protest in front of the Waldorf Astoria, where from February 1 through February 4, several thousand corporate CEOs, bankers and politicians will be attending the WEF.If Dr. King was alive, there is no doubt that he would be helping us to send the World Economic Forum the message that the people of New York City and of the world desperately need jobs, healthcare, housing and human needs - not poverty, exploitation and war.For more information on the planning meeting or the anti-WEF protest contact A.N.S.W.E.R. at (212) 633-6646, or check the website at http://www.internationalanswer.org .IF YOU DON'T LIVE IN NEW YORK AND WANT TO GET INVOLVEDcheck out http://www.internationalanswer.org to find organizers in your area or to become one today!--Send replies to [EMAIL PROTECTED]This is the ANSWER activist announcementlist. Anyone can subscribe by sending any message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>To unsubscribe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Israeli Breaches of Cease-fire [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION Palestinian National Authority Office of the President-Information Israeli Breaches of Cease-fire From: 19.00hrs Wednesday January 9 To: 19.00hrs Thursday January 10 Despite President Arafats speech on December 16, 2001 and its historical content, the occupation forces continue to occupy parts of Palestinian controlled areas & impose a military siege on the Palestinian territories including main and dirt roads. The breaches of cease-fire continue as well as the Israeli army and settler induced aggressions as detailed hereunder: The occupation forces breached the cease-fire [8] times: [6] Palestinians were wounded and [6] were arrested. [20] Trees were uprooted or burnt down & [30] Dunams were bulldozed. [77] Palestinian homes were demolished & [6] vehicles & [4] establishments were destroyed. Palestinian controlled areas were invaded [3] times and bombarded [4] times. § Jerusalem: The occupation forces stationed at Bido military checkpoint tortured tens of Palestinians trying to reach their homes. § Ramallah & AL Birah: The occupation forces continue to occupy & impose a blockade on the city. § Nablus: The occupation forces continue to impose a blockade on the city, opened fire at Palestinian houses causing damage & stormed in Salem village. § Hebron: The occupation forces detonated two vehicles near Fawwar triangle, closed down the triangle, Dora road and the entrance of the refugee camp and prevented Palestinians from reaching the area. § Gaza: The occupation forces arrested six Palestinians near Nahel Oz junction. § Northern Gaza: The occupation forces asked the Palestinian DCO to evacuate the offices of the Palestinians naval DCO. § Rafah: Under the cover of heavy gunfire, The occupation battle tanks invaded and demolished seventy Palestinian houses & two National Security posts & opened fire at Tal AL Sultan area. They also stormed in the fishing port and confiscated all the equipment. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 nukes to be pointed at U.S. [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- China nukes to be pointed at U.S. - - - - - - - - - - - - By John J. Lumpkin Jan. 9, 2002 | WASHINGTON -- China is expected to have between 75 and 100 long-range nuclear missiles pointed at the United States by 2015, roughly quadruple the current number, according to a CIA report released Wednesday. Many of those intercontinental ballistic missiles will be on mobile launchers, helping China maintain a nuclear deterrent against the vastly larger U.S. missile force, says the report, titled "Foreign Missile Developments and the Ballistic Missile Threat Through 2015." Echoing earlier intelligence estimates, the report also says North Korea and Iran will probably have long-range missiles capable of reaching the United States by 2015. These assessments have been used to justify U.S. plans for multibillion-dollar missile defense systems capable of shooting down a limited ICBM attack on the continental United States. The report draws together information and analyses from the CIA and other U.S. intelligence. Currently, China has about 20 silos with CSS-4 nuclear ICBMs capable of reaching the United States, the report says. It also has a few medium-range, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and probably one submarine from which to launch them. The Chinese military is developing three new missile systems, all of which could be fielded by 2010, the report says. The Chinese may also be able to mount multiple-independent re-entry vehicles - MIRVs - on its older silo-based missiles. These enable a single missile to launch warheads at several targets, vastly increasing potential damage. China sees an expanded ICBM force necessary to overcome a U.S. missile defense system, maintaining its ability to strike the U.S. mainland. This would provide a deterrent during a conflict over Taiwan. While U.S. officials insist the missile defense program is to defeat strikes by North Korea and other "rogue" nations, some of those proposed defenses might have been sufficient to shoot down all 20 Chinese ICBMs. Eighty missiles would be too many, however. China also is expanding its short-range ballistic missile force, and will probably have several hundred by 2005, the report says. These are armed with conventional warheads which could be used to bombard Taiwan from the Chinese mainland. North Korea, meanwhile, has halted missile flight-testing until at least 2003, although it continues to develop the Taepo Dong-2, a two-stage missile that would be capable of reaching the western United States. North Korea also probably has one or two nuclear weapons that could be mounted on those missiles, the report says. Iran, meanwhile, might be able to test a long-range missile around 2005, the report says, but more likely won't have the capability to do so until 2010. The report reflects some differences of opinion between U.S. intelligence agencies, with one unidentified agency arguing that Iran won't be able to test missiles able to reach the U.S. mainland even by 2015. Its projections also assume each country's political direction will not change significantly during the next 13 years. Ongoing U.N. prohibitions prevent Iraq from importing most of the equipment and expertise it needs to create an ICBM, the report says, but if those were lifted, Iraq could rapidly develop such weapons with substantial foreign assistance. Russia's strategic missile force will continue to get smaller, but Russia will still have far and away the largest nuclear missile inventory capable of hitting the United States, the report says. Terrorists aren't expected to employ long-range missiles to deliver nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction on the United States, the report says. "Ships, trucks, airplanes and other means may be used," it says. Associated Press http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2002/01/09/china_nukes/index.html ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Official Statements Prove Hague 'Tribunal' Belongs to NATO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/h-list.htm Official Statements Prove Hague 'Tribunal' Belongs to NATO by Jared Israel [Originally posted 30 June 2001] [Updated and expanded 7 January 2002] = Of course you've heard of the ICTY, also known as The Hague 'War Crimes Tribunal.' That's the outfit that kidnaps Serbian leaders (including Slobodan Milosevic) and puts them on 'trial.' Did you think the ICTY was a fair-minded UN court, free to indict anyone charged with crimes in Yugoslavia, regardless of nationality? Think again. Exhibit A: Press Conference by NATO spokesman Jamie Shea. Took place May 17, 1999, that is, during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. "QUESTION: Jamie, I wonder if you could comment on a speech made by Justice Arbour of the International Criminal Tribunal last week, a copy of which I left with your very fine secretary so that you would have reference to it. Judge Arbour in her speech said that as a result of the NATO initiatives being initiated on 24 March the countries of NATO have "voluntarily submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of her court whose mandate applies to the theatre of the chosen military operation and whose reach is unqualified by nationality and whose investigations are triggered at the sole discretion of the prosecutor who has primacy over national courts." Does NATO recognise Judge Arbour's jurisdiction over their activities? "JAMIE SHEA: First of all, my understanding of the UN resolution that established the Court is that it applies to the former Yugoslavia, it is for war crimes committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. "[SHEA CONTINUES] Secondly, I think we have to distinguish between the theoretical and the practical. I believe that when Justice Arbour starts her investigation, she will because we will allow her to. It's not Milosevic that has allowed Justice Arbour her visa to go to Kosovo to carry out her investigations. If her court, as we want, is to be allowed access, it will be because of NATO so NATO is the friend of the Tribunal, NATO are the people who have been detaining indicted war criminals for the Tribunal in Bosnia. We have done it, 14 arrests so far by SFOR, and we will continue to do it. "[SHEA CONTINUES] NATO countries are those that have provided the finance to set up the Tribunal, we are amongst the majority financiers, and of course to build a second chamber so that prosecutions can be speeded up so let me assure that we and the Tribunal are all one on this, we want to see war criminals brought to justice and I am certain that when Justice Arbour goes to Kosovo and looks at the facts she will be indicting people of Yugoslav nationality and I don't anticipate any others at this stage." [Our Emphasis. May 17, 1999 Transcript of NATO press conference by Jamie Shea & Major General W. Jertz in Brussels Transcribed by M2 PRESSWIRE (c) 1999. To see the excerpt above in context of the full transcript, go to: http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/jertzback.htm#h-list_quote ] = Washington Created It; NATO Makes It Possible = Did you think critics were indulging in hyperbole when they said Madeline Albright was "Mother of the Tribunal"? EXHIBIT B: Excerpts from speech by Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, President of the Hague Tribunal, at her award ceremony at the American Supreme Court on April 5, 1999. "[Gabrielle Kirk McDonald:]I am also pleased to be here tonight as a guest of the Coalition for International Justice, which was founded in 1995 with assistance from CEELI and the Open Society Institute. The Coalition has been a great source of support to the Tribunal. CIJ jumped in early and has stayed involved ever since. From running a workshop to assist the defense counsel in the very first trial, through seminars for the judges... (context) "[Gabrielle Kirk McDonald:]Without the co-operation of the states and entities in the former Yugoslavia and the international community as a whole, the Tribunal had no way of bringing even a single accused to trial. "[Gabrielle Kirk McDonald Continues:]Nevertheless, we persevered and did what we could to build the institution. We benefited from the strong support of concerned governments and dedicated individuals such as Secretary Albright. As the permanent representative to the United Nations, she had worked with unceasing resolve to establish the Tribunal. Indeed, we often refer to her as the "mother of the Tribunal". And I am proud of what we have accomplished. After those first years of struggling to simply establish the court, we have now really gotten on with the substance of our mandate." (context) (From http://www.pict-pcti.org/news/archive/April/ICTY.04.05.html to see the quotations in context of the full Speech, go to: http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/kirkback.htm#h-list_quote1 and http://emperor
Charlie Brown and the Brownshirts [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Charlie Brown and the Brownshirts by Stephen Gowans Decades ago, the old Nazi, Hermann Goering, leaned into his microphone at the Nuremberg trials and held forth on war and propaganda. The Nazis, with their Reichstag fire, their humanitarian intervention in the Sudentenland, their stories of Germany under attack from within and without, were masters of propaganda. "Why of course the people don't want war," began Goering. "That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along." The Nazi leader paused, then continued. "All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger." Goering may have added that there are some among the led who are quite willing to join the leaders of the country in denouncing the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. I’ve met a number of them. Today's willing Brownshirts troll Internet opinion sites, on the look out for "the enemy," anyone who raises objections to a war that’s murdered an estimated 4,050 Afghan civilians, and promises to murder more, Afghan, and Somali, Iraqi, and who knows who else, in this, a year president George W. Bush promises to be a "war year." Once the enemy is found, he is berated in notes replete with sophomoric rhetorical tricks, ad hominem argument and appeals to authority and what the majority believe. "You’re a nut-case," or "your views are irrational," or "you sound just like Chomksy and let me assure you, most people see Chomksy as absolutely bananas." While the Brownshirts profess to be great patriots, their country's founding fathers would be shocked by the simple-minded, unthinking and reflexive willingness of 21st century Americans to blindly follow their "commander in chief", America's own version of "Il Duce." It was Jefferson, the revolutionary, who once mused about the salutary effects of replacing the government every now and then, especially one that had inverted the desired order of the people over the government, rather than the other way around. "When my commander in chief says line up, I line up," remarked one anchorman. Jefferson’s ghost must have writhed in agony. It would take American historian Howard Zinn to remind Americans that the president isn’t their commander in chief, he’s the military’s. But the media, hostile to dissenting views, even those consistent with that most revered of American documents, the constitution, weren’t going to give Zinn a platform to spout his "nut-case" views. It’s an open secret at the American Civil Liberties Union that most Americans, if asked to approve the Bill of Rights, would reject it. Ever since Washington embarked a century ago on its project of building a globe girding empire, Americans have found their esteemed founders’ views alien, frightening and dangerous. And definitely "unpatriotic." Certainly "unhelpful." Benjamin Franklin warned about giving up civil liberties for security: you’ll soon find yourself without either. Were he alive today, old Ben would be denounced, someone else to be harangued by the Brownshirts. Ashcroft wouldn’t like him, either. Most troubling of all is the collective insanity that impels Americans to let themselves be lied to over and over. Given their leaders' addiction to lying (about Hiroshima being chosen for the first atomic explosion because "it is a military base, and we wanted to minimize civilian casualties," about the reasons for bombing North Vietnam, about approving Indonesia's invasion of East Timor and subsequent slaughter of East Timorese, about the Bay of Pigs, about bankrolling the Mujahadeen before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, about arms for the Contras, about the Sudanese pill factory destroyed by cruise missiles being a biological weapons factory, about who engineered the coup that ousted Chile’s elected president Salvadore Allende, about UN weapons inspectors in Iraq not being US spies, about genocide in Kosovo, about the real reasons for bombing Yugoslavia) you’d think Americans would be a tad less trusting. Instead, their willingness to believe their leaders goes on unceasingly, just as strong as ever. Are Americans massively uninformed or just pathologically incapable of learning from experience? Journalists -- stenographers of those in power -- have much to answer for. And Washington’s elite, architects of much of the misery in the world (including that in the US), have much to answer for, as well. Charlie Brown, who, without fail, fell for Lucy’s assurances that she wouldn’t pull the ball away at the last minute, is perhaps the closest metaphor for the American people, as distinct from the sociopaths who rule over them. Naively trusting, always willing to believe
Iraq paper slams Lieberman [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/01/06/bc.iraq.usa.paper.reut/inde x.ht ml Iraq paper slams Lieberman January 6, 2002 Posted: 1837 GMT BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) -- An official Iraqi newspaper on Sunday attacked U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman over his remarks on the necessity of U.S. action to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as part of the war on terrorism. Lieberman, a Democrat, and Republican John McCain recently signed a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush urging him to make Iraq the next target in the "war on terrorism" following the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. Last week the pair led a delegation of senators to Ankara, Turkey, where they vowed any action against Iraq would be taken in consultation with Turkey and other countries in the region. "I expressed the point of view, which I think is felt by many in the United States, that the war against terrorism will not end until Saddam Hussein is removed from power in Baghdad," Lieberman told reporters in Ankara. "This arrogant Jew has launched a campaign against a number of Arab countries ... concentrating his attack on Iraq, inciting the American administration against it," Al-Thawra, newspaper of the ruling Baath Party, said in a front-page editorial. "He is still, without any occasion, attacking Iraq and the Palestinian organizations, accusing them of terrorism and declaring insolently his support for the Zionist entity," the newspaper added. Bush recently warned Iraq to allow United Nations weapons inspections to resume or "find out" the consequences. The U.N. says sanctions, imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, cannot be lifted unless Baghdad allows inspectors back into the country to check for weapons of mass destruction. Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
News, 7.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 07th January, 2001, 16:00 UTC Violence on Kashmiri border continues as Blair arrives in Pakistan Four Pakistani civilians have been wounded by Indian shelling, this is according to police sources, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Pakistan on a mission to defuse tension between the hostile neighbours. One Indian and five Pakistani soldiers were also killed along the line of control in Kashmir in a fresh exchange of fire between troops of the two countries. Fearing a conflict, some 20,000 Pakistani villagers have reportedly fled their homes near the border with India in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir over the last week. Blair is to hold talks with President Pervez Musharraf on the military standoff with India. His trip follows talks in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who Blair said was willing to talk with Pakistan if it rejected terrorism in all its forms. Solana takes up talks in Middle East A senior European Union official, picking up where a U.S. envoy left off, has pursued talks with Israel and the Palestinians in the latest international effort to build on a lull in violence. But a row continued to rage between Israel and the Palestinians over the Israeli military's seizure of a ship which it said was carrying Iranian-supplied arms to the Palestinian Authority, an allegation the Authority and Tehran denied. Javier Solana, the European Union's top foreign policy official, followed fast on a four-day visit by U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni, who is trying to end 15 months of bloodshed. Zinni flew home after brokering security talks between Israeli and Palestinian representatives. He is scheduled to return next week. U.S. jets bomb suspected al Qaeda training camps U.S. jets have bombed suspected Osama bin Laden training camps in eastern Afghanistan and on the ground special forces have pursued scattered fighters of the al Qaeda network set up by the world's most wanted man. British paratroopers arrived in Kabul to bolster a foreign force with a United Nations mandate to ensure security in a capital battered by years of civil war and by U.S. jets in the last few months. In another devlopment tribal elders in Khost in eastern Paktia province postponed a meeting to decide what to do with a teenager believed to have shot the first U.S. soldier killed in the war when the 14-year-old disappeared. Scharping praises role of German armed forces in Afghanistan German Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping has highlighted the international responsibility of the German armed forces in the Afghanistan mission a day before an advance team leaves for Kabul. Scharping wrote in commentary in the mass-circulation tabloid newspaper "Bild", that Bundeswehr troops came as "helpers" not as "occupiers". He added that the fight against the Taliban and international terror had still not been won yet. But the German minister said a lot had been achieved, especially the respect of basic rights for women and children. An advance force of 70 German and 30 Dutch paratroopers are scheduled to leave for Afghanistan on Tuesday, after heavy snow in Turkey delayed the military operation by 24 hours. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation pledges to combat terror China, Russia and four Central Asian states, seeking to revive their role in the global war on terror, have pledged to combat terrorism in all forms at home and abroad. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation also hailed the demise of the Taliban regime, hoping it would end Afghanistan's days as a source of terror and narcotics, and stressed there should be no meddling in the country's affairs. Meeting for the first time since the former Shanghai Five welcomed Uzbekistan last June and renamed itself, the ministers also established a crisis-response mechanism under which they would meet to coordinate positions and consider joint action. Argentina hopes currency devaluation will reverse recession President Eduardo Duhalde has bet on currency devaluation to reverse a recession despite fears it could boomerang into inflation and corruption as Argentines began to raise prices, hoard goods and hunt for black market dollars. Duhalde, a populist Peronist power broker offering himself as political savior for the poor after food riots shook Latin America's No. 3 economy, decreed on Sunday a devaluation of the one-to-one peso peg to the dollar by nearly 30 percent. Duhalde, the fifth president since mid-December, hopes the devaluation will cheapen exports and labor, unshackling an economy from a peg blamed for a four-year recession that has already heralded the biggest sovereign debt defau
Croatia Spies on Mobile Phones Throughout Balkans [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Croatia Using Advanced US-Installed Intelligence Technology 3 January 2002 Belgrade Glas Javnosti (in Serbo-Croatian), p. 4 [Unattributed report: "Croatia Spies on Mobile Phones Throughout Balkans"] The world's most advanced Watson system for analyzing intelligence data and advanced US equipment for listening in on digital communication have lately been installed in Croatia. The Croatian intelligence service received the Watson system and surveillance equipment from the United States for use in the fight against terrorism and illegal migration. The equipment and installations have been mounted in all major Croatian towns. After [Croatia's 1995] Operation Storm, dissatisfied that surveillance equipment was being used for internal political purposes, the United States started gradually pulling out their equipment and personnel, so that for a time Croatia was in a total information blackout. However, the [11 September] terrorist attacks on the United States changed all this. Surveillance equipment received by Croatia in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States also effectively covers the territories of the neighboring countries: tabs are being kept on telephone conversations and other forms of communication (electronic mail, fax messages) being conducted by way of all kinds of digital and analog communication equipment, especially mobile phones. The equipping of Croatia with hi-tech espionage installations shows that the United States today regards that country as the region's foremost partner of the antiterrorist coalition. This is also recognition of Croatia's long years of cooperation in the exchange of intelligence data with the US intelligence service. This is especially true in the case of exchanging intelligence on the presence of terrorist groups and individuals in Bosnia-Herzegovina over the past years. With the arrival of the new equipment and technology, Croatia has become the biggest source of intelligence in southeastern Europe for the needs of the antiterrorist coalition. Cooperation with the US intelligence service has intensified several-fold. The Croatian intelligence service, in cooperation with the Americans and the SFOR [Stabilization Force] Command in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been instrumental in keeping under surveillance and arresting collaborators of Bin Ladin's network in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It has greatly reduced the transfer of foreign nationals across the Croatian border, and as the Zagreb Nacional magazine learns, claiming that discovery and arrest are imminent for war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, who are already being kept under successful surveillance from Croatia by the new espionage equipment. The US side had noticed that, because of an inability to invest in equipment for electronic surveillance within the NSEI [National Electronic Surveillance Service], the Croatian intelligence service was no longer capable of offering quality information, as it had done last year. This made the installation of the new equipment and the Watson system for automatic analysis of intelligence data in fact mutually advantageous. Nacional's source confirms that electronic surveillance had lately been in deep crisis, but the advent of the new surveillance equipment and new programmatic solutions for databases as surveillance support have changed the situation overnight. After the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the US Administration declared war on terrorism using all weapons. It designated Croatia, because of its prior positive record in intelligence exchange, as a very important partner in this part of Europe, especially because of the presence of mujahedin and foreign terrorists in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and attempts at illegal migration to the west via Croatia.From the early days, Croatia has been actively involved in the antiterrorist coalition, not only declaratively, but also through specific activities in intelligence exchange. Over the past two months, Croatian President Stjepan Mesic met with the greatest and most important world leaders, presenting a series of proposals for the struggle against terrorism and trying to win recognition for the role played by Croatia in the antiterrorist coalition. Mesic also recently met with US President Bush, who paid tribute to Croatia for its struggle against terrorism. And while he has been rather misunderstood and ignored at home, the international coalition against terrorism has recognized the importance of Croatia in the antiterrorist coalition, and the United States, as the leader of the coalition, has made an effort to provide technological assistance. The importance attached by the United States to strengthening the Croatian surveillance system by providing the state-of-the-art Watson program for analyzing intelligence data is best illustrated by the fact that General Michael Hasden [name as published], director of the US Nation
US fears Iraq radar can see stealth plane [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/01/06/wafg2 06.xml US fears Iraq radar can see stealth plane By Sean Rayment (Filed: 06/01/2002) UNITED STATES defence chiefs may have to review their strategy for phase 2 of the war after it emerged that Baghdad could have acquired a radar system capable of detecting America's multi-billion-pound fleet of stealth bombers. The radar is believed to be the same Czech-built type http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml;$sessionid$H4DCDGI AACI CP QFIQMGSFFOAVCBQWIV0?html=/archive/1999/03/30/wair130.html">used by Serb forces to shoot down a US F117 Nighthawk stealth bomber and seriously damage another during the war in Kosovo in 1999. US intelligence chiefs believe that Iraqi generals attempted to buy a system for £176 million from the Czech Republic in 1997 but the deal collapsed after it was exposed by the CIA. The Telegraph, however, has learnt that after the closure of the Czech defence company Tesla-Pardubice in 1998, two of its Tamara radar systems, which Iraq wanted to acquire, "disappeared", and might have been acquired by rogue arms traders working for Baghdad. A former employee of the company said last night: "Tesla-Pardubice closed in 1998. It had two radar systems that had not been sold but they have disappeared. Nobody knows where they are." Rob Hewson, the editor of Jane's Air Launched Weapons, said the weight of circumstantial evidence indicated that Iraq had probably acquired a radar system capable of "seeing" stealth bombers. He said: "The Pentagon is faced with the prospect that Iraq may have a system that can see stealth bombers and they are very, very worried." The disclosure is likely to affect the next stages of the war against terrorism and influence whether the US decides to carry out a full-scale attack against Saddam Hussein's regime. Last week it emerged that stocks of US air-launched cruise missiles had been virtually exhausted after attacks on Kosovo and Sudan, further hampering Pentagon plans for an attack against Iraq. The B2 stealth bomber and the F117 stealth fighter both played vital roles in the Kosovan and Afghan wars and, together with the mass use of cruise missiles, they are part of a crucial first phase of US attack plans. Such is the sensitivity surrounding stealth aircraft that even the mere suggestion that an enemy power may have the capability to detect or shoot one down is enough to ground the 20-strong fleet. A spokesman for the US Department of Defence, said: "It stands to reason that Iraq would want to get its hands on a radar system capable of detecting stealth bombers. " In the Gulf war, it was the early F117 attacks that put most of their air defence systems out of commission. But we don't know whether they have such a system at the moment." The Czech radar system uses passive detection to pick up electronic emissions from stealth aircraft. A spokesman for the Czech Embassy confirmed that when the company went bankrupt in 1998 it still had at least two Tamara systems, but he refused to comment on whether they had disappeared. The B2 stealth aircraft is painted with a substance that absorbs radar waves, producing an image on a radar screen the size of a large marble. The Serb forces, however, demonstrated what can be achieved by being able to detect stealth aircraft. During the Kosovo conflict, the Serbs are believed to have plugged powerful computers into their air-defence radar system that help to reveal the flight paths from the faint stealth radar signatures. When a stealth bomber was suspected to be flying through their area they saturated the sky with missile and heavy machine-gun fire and managed to shoot one down. Osama bin Laden has been named Iraq's Man of The Year, according to the official Iraqi press, because of the way in which he has "raised the image of Islam and defied the might of the USA". ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Nato unit set to track merchant shipping [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The following was published in the January 07 2002 edition of Lloyds List Nato unit set to track merchant shipping Merchant vessels from Nato countries operating in the Eastern Mediterranean, where there is heightened naval surveillance activity, are being asked to report their details to a new shipping centre established at Northwood, Middlesex. While there is said to be no intelligence of any increased terrorist threat to the Suez Canal, the naval forces have been deployed because of its strategic significance and will track shipping bound for the waterway or which have used it northbound. Lloyd's of London has indicated that the presence of naval forces in the area will act as a deterrent and have a beneficial stabilising influence on insurance premiums in the region. Data reporting is on a voluntary basis only and applies to all merchant ships from Nato countries or Nato partner countries and the information is requested 24 hours before a vessel enters an area bounded by Longitude 28 deg.E and Port Said. The reporting period will be until the beginning of May and participating ships are asked to contact the shipping centre by e-mail ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), fax (44 1923 843575) or phone (44 1923 843574). Details will include data on the ship, her voyage, operator and cargo. The information will be used to develop a shipping plot for monitoring and surveillance by Nato naval forces in the region and reduce the need for VHF communications between merchant ships and naval units. The Shipping Centre will provide information to warships while acting as a point of contact for merchant vessels. (Comment:- Of course, al-Qua'eda shipping will not comply!!) ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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's First Big Scandal Rises from the Ashes of Enron [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, January 6, 2002 in the lndependent/UK Bush's First Big Scandal Rises from the Ashes of Enron by Rupert CornweII It may not yet quite be the "cancer on the presidency" of which John Dean warned Richard Nixon in the early days of Watergate. But the collapse of the energy conglomerate Enron is suddenly shaping up as big, big trouble for George Bush. All the ingredients of a classic Washington scandal are there: the biggest corporate failure in history, a chief executive on such good terms with George Bush that the President refers to him as "Kenny Boy" and a history of massive contributions by the Houston-based Enron to the White House campaigns of Bush the father and Bush the son. The final element fell into place last week with the announcement of a full-scale Senate investigation, complete with subpoenas for top Enron executives including Kenneth Lay (aka "Kenny Boy"), representatives of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm which singularly failed to spot the impending disaster, and perhaps senior figures in the Bush administration as well. Even the cast of characters is comfortingly familiar. Enron's lead attorney, for instance, is Robert Bennett, the $500-an-hour DC superlawyer who featured in Washington's most recent presidential scandal when he represented Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit. That led directly to the Monica Lewinsky saga. By any yardstick, Enron is a massive financial scandal, a tale of concealed debt and shell companies, incompetent auditing and scanty regulatory oversight – not to mention the sudden impoverishment of thousands of employees obliged to hold their pension savings in now worthless Enron shares, even as senior executives cashed in stock and stock options for up to $1bn (£700m) during 2000 and 2001. Until now, however, Enron has been the dog which failed to bark – or, more exactly, was ignored as the media concentrated on Afghanistan and barely dared mention such goings-on as the presidential approval ratings hovered around the 90 per cent mark. Enron unraveled in November, but not until 28 December was Mr Bush first asked about the debacle. All that is about to change as the news focus starts to shift from the anti-terror campaign to domestic politics. Not only is this a mid-term election year in which the Democrats need just half-a-dozen seats to recapture the House of Representatives, but thoughts are already turning to the 2004 White House race. In all these calculations, Enron could prove a factor. Already, at least three Congressional committees have been sniffing around the affair. But the main investigation will be conducted by the Senate's governmental affairs committee, headed by the Democrat Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Mr Lieberman, it will not be forgotten, was Al Gore's vice-presidential running mate last time and is is widely believed to have ambitions for the top job in 2004. Thus far, Mr Lieberman has followed the Washington scandal script to a T. Echoing investigators of Watergate, Iran-Contra and Whitewater before him, he promises solemnly that his probe will be even-handed, "a search for the truth, not a witchhunt". But, he warns, "we're going to go wherever the search takes us". If so, it could be a most interesting journey. Enron has been a fountain of money for politicians of every hue. Since 1990, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors such donations, it has made campaign contributions of $5.8m (£4m), three-quarters of it to Republicans. The biggest single beneficiaries, unsurprisingly, have been the two Texas senators, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Phil Gramm, whose wife Wendy sits on the Enron board. Like most big corporate donors, it has hedged its bets. On Capitol Hill, 71 of the 100 current senators and nearly half the 435 congressmen have received contributions. The investment paid off with a vengeance, when Enron secured exemption for its energy derivatives business under a 2000 Act regulating commodity futures trading. But the Bush family has been a special object of its attentions. Mr Lay was listed by the Bush-Cheney campaign as one of the "Pioneers" who raised at least $100,000 (£70,000) for the election, while Enron gave $100,000 to the inauguration gala, a contribution matched by "Kenny Boy" and his wife. Potentially most damaging is its possible backstage role in the formulation of Mr Bush's energy po
More Than Bush Bargained For?......by Eric Margolis [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, January 6, 2002 in the Toronto Sun More Than Bush Bargained For?American Involvement Has South Asia on the Brink of Nuclear War by Eric Margolis U.S. President George Bush's crusade against terrorism is going splendidly - except for a few minor hiccups, such as that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida remain elusive, the Russians have reoccupied half of Afghanistan, perhaps thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed by U.S. bombs and India is now threatening war against Pakistan. Last Sept. 23, concerned that U.S. intervention in Afghanistan might spark a war between India and Pakistan, this column warned of the dangers of an "enraged U.S. bull in South Asia's nuclear china shop." Ten weeks later, India and Pakistan are on the edge of a nuclear conflict that could kill millions and spread radioactive dust around the globe. The chain of events that led to this crisis is now plainly visible. America's "war against terrorism" and invasion of Afghanistan upset the delicate balance of enmity between old foes India and Pakistan, who have fought three major wars. The Bush administration, seeking new allies for its crusade against Muslim opponents, rashly signed a military alliance with India to fight "terrorism." To India, "terrorism" meant Kashmiri independence-seekers battling Indian rule and their patron, Pakistan. The Bush administration, unaware of the dangers facing it, had inadvertently stumbled into the 55-year old Kashmir dispute between three nuclear powers - India, Pakistan, and China - just as it was getting drawn ever deeper into Afghanistan's murky tribal politics. Still unidentified terrorists staged a series of outrageous attacks on Indian targets, including the parliament in New Delhi, designed to bring simmering tensions between the two old foes to a boil, and upset India's new alliances with the U.S. and with Israel. Bin Laden's al-Qaida may have been involved. The attackers remain unidentified, though India claims they came from two Kashmiri militant groups harboured by Pakistan. India threatened to attack Islamic militants based in Pakistani territory, as it has repeatedly done in the past. If the U.S. could attack Afghanistan because the elusive bin Laden was presumed hiding there, then India, according to President Bush's own self-proclaimed rules of international retribution, had just as much right to attack Pakistan. The Indians, of course, were absolutely correct. But the U.S. is now urging restraint on India, a virtue it failed to show in Afghanistan. CHINA CONCERNED Off on the sidelines, China, another player in this drama, is also urging restraint on all concerned. Yet, at the same time, China is growing increasingly alarmed by what now looks like a permanent presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and the threat of an Indian attack against its most important ally, Pakistan. China's unease is being heightened by the accelerating strategic arms race with India, which in 1998 proclaimed China its "No. 1 enemy." India recently introduced its new Agni-II nuclear-armed missile that can hit most of China's major cities. The U.S. has aggravated Indian-Chinese tensions by sharply tilting toward India and winking at its secret nuclear programs, while keeping Pakistan under a punishing sanctions regime. Washington clearly intends to use India in the game of Asian strategic chess as a potential counterforce against China. Russia is levering its revived strategic alliance with India to advance its geopolitical interests in South and Central Asia, most notably in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, finds himself squeezed between Indian threats and U.S. pressure. Musharraf has been trying to appease New Delhi without appearing to do so. Last week, in an embarrassing new low for Pakistan's image, Musharraf, who stoutly denied in the past that his nation gave anything more than "moral support" to Kashmiri insurgents, lamely announced his intelligence service would cut off arms and financing to "foreign" mujahedeen in Kashmir. The Indians, who have long accused Pakistan of "cross-border terrorism" and sending mercenaries into their part of Kashmir, crowed with triumph while Islamabad ate crow. PAKISTAN ALONE As India continued to mass troops on Pakistan's border, the U.S. repeated threats, made in September, to ruin Pakistan by cutting off the
Russian patriarch asks Russians to pray for the whole of mankind [WWW.STOPNATO.O
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Russian patriarch asks Russians to pray for the whole of mankind MOSCOW. Jan 6 (Interfax) - On Christmas eve, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia asked all Russian Orthodox believers to pray more zealously for their Fatherland, for their neighbors and for the whole of mankind. "We are still experiencing many difficulties and problems - poverty, social vulnerability, the threat of terrorism and crime, the propaganda of immorality, the epidemic of alcoholism and drug addiction, and other appalling vices," the Russian patriarch wrote in his Christmas message. "As the root of all of these evils is the injury of the human soul, it is impossible to change society for the better without faith, hope and love," Alexy II wrote. The Russian patriarch expressed serious concern about the current international situation. "In our turbulent world, people are again fighting against each other, and thousands of civilians in different countries have fallen victim to the evil will. God also sent many trials to Russia, which was befallen by floods, storms and droughts last year," he wrote. "But even in the worst of circumstances Christians must never forget the Savior's words, 'Don't be afraid and keep believing,' addressed to each of us," the Russian patriarch said. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
We Seek Him Here, We Seek Him There [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Saturday, January 5, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail We Seek Him Here, We Seek Him ThereThe hunt for Osama bin Laden offers those who script U.S. foreign policy a way to distract us from awkward links to the Saudi regime by John MacArthur Now that Osama bin Laden has revived his fading movie career in the surprise hit of the season -- a remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel -- film enthusiasts might be curious to know what the producers who run the U.S. government are contemplating as a sequel. After more than two months of bombing, the overthrow of the Taliban, and several thousand corpses, the Arab Leslie Howard apparently remains at large -- in charge of a mobile studio -- which leaves the writers at DreamWorks East scrambling for a new plot. If I had to bet, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and White House media expert Karl Rove will set the action in fourth-world Somalia, where, like Afghanistan, sinister tribal warlords from central casting grow thick on the ground and extras cost very little to hire. Black Hawk Down,the film, provides a useful outline for a new screen treatment, although the Rumsfeld/Rove writing team will need some fancy plot twists to guarantee a PG rating -- no American soldiers can be shown to die in vain, as they did in the Bush/Clinton version that premiered in 1993. Perhaps they can work in a feminist angle -- something like The World War for Women's Rights. Whatever the scriptwriters have in mind, U.S. moviegoers won't get to see any of the documentary footage that this and past U.S. administrations have taken during the shooting of so many fine feature films produced under the series title, The War Against Evil: Innocent America Strikes Back. Too bad. Movies about making movies can be fascinating, like Burden of Dreams,which chronicled the production of Werner Herzog's epic Fitzcarraldo. Given that American politics are more and more cinematic in their conception -- that is, more dreamlike in their distortion of reality -- a movie about the movie could well be the only way to understand American policy. In such a documentary, we would be taken onto the backlot to view the intimate relationship between the U.S. Government and the Persian Gulf potentates who sell the oil that fuels the SUVs that fill American theater parking lots. This footage would be compelling: Not only is the aristocratic Mr. bin Laden a product of the Saudi Arabian elite, he's also a former CIA asset in the war against Soviet rule in Afghanistan. To grasp the intricacies of the White House screenwriter's mind, we need to venture briefly into documentary reality. Mr. bin Laden is still making independent movies because, in the past, Washington preferred it that way -- the Pimpernel roaming free was more useful to the Americans and to the Saudis than Mr. bin Laden dead or in jail. America's wealthy clients in the Saudi royal family have long played a double game, solemnly denouncing "state terrorism" by Israel while funding various Islamic terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda and Hamas, through secret accounts and "charitable foundations." The Saudi royals do this to buy off their own dissident mullahs and the wretched faithful of the Wahhabi Muslim sect, who object to hypocritical displays of piety by their publicly puritanical and privately louche rulers. "Look," whispers the House of Saud in mosques all over the Kingdom, "we say one thing to the U.S. state department and we do something completely different. We're not really in league with the infidel; we're Muslims good and true." As reported in The Washington Post, this double game had gone so far by 1996 that the Saudi government refused the Sudanese/U.S. offer to submit Mr. bin Laden to the Saudi criminal justice system, despite his well-known ambition to overthrow the monarchy and evict American troops from sacred Muslim soil. But so sterling was the Arab Pimpernel's reputation as a holy warrior against Communist and Western decadence, that the royal family decided it was safer not to place him on trial. In Saudi Arabia, equal justice under law would almost certainly have required a public beheading of Mr. bin Laden, or at least the amputation of one or more of his limbs. The Wahhabi "street" might well have objected to Mr. bin Laden's martyrdom. So the Pimpernel departed Khartoum for Kandahar, his bank accounts and wardrobe intact. And the Clinton administratio
Where Power Talks [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
---
Where Power Talks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59691-2002Jan3.html
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, January 4, 2002; Page A27
It was a sign of the gathering power of radical Islam. Strictly
interpreted Islamic law, as practiced (with public executions and
amputations) in places like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, was near to
becoming the law of the land in, of all places, Kuwait. Kuwait --
liberated by the United States, moving toward democracy, yet caught in
the rising tide of radical Islam.
No longer. Kuwait has just abandoned the move to install sharia. Indeed,
it has suddenly swung the other way, banning scores of Islamic charities
that support religious extremists.
What happened? The spontaneous eruption of Western-style liberalism? The
sudden emergence of an Islamic Reformation?
No. The answer is simple: Afghanistan. "America's success in Afghanistan
[has had] a ripple effect," wrote the Wall Street Journal correspondent
in Kuwait City, " . . . rolling back the tide of political Islam in the
religion's heartland."
"The secular people . . . are triumphant now," said the leader of an
ultrafundamentalist sect in Kuwait. "We grieve about the defeat of the
Taliban. Our people are depressed."
It is hard to recruit for the Taliban -- or for the Taliban model in
Kuwait -- when that regime has been blasted to pieces, its leaders
scattered and scurrying after so much bravado and boasting and basking
in the great blow to the infidel on Sept. 11.
Religious fanaticism thrives on its sense of inevitability, on its aura
of triumph and divine appointment. Nothing, therefore, deflates it like
military defeat.
For years, Islamic extremism went from victory to victory, from the
Iranian revolution of 1979 to the radicalization of Sudan and
Afghanistan to the world-shaking success of Sept. 11. Then it finally
met real resistance in Afghanistan, home of the most radical Islamic
state, and was utterly broken in nine weeks by American power. Gone is
the mandate of heaven.
How far America has come. Remember the initial post-Sept. 11
why-do-they-hate-us angst? How could we possibly defeat this powerful,
fanatical, ingrained, battle-hardened, religiously grounded enemy? We
discovered the answer: satellite-guided thousand-pounders with the odd
daisy cutter thrown in.
Osama knows. "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by
nature, they will like the strong horse," he explained on that famous
home video. How to win a holy war? Bomb the holy warriors -- and overawe
the fence-sitting spectators.
It is touching to watch American officials trying to win friends with PR
and protestations of goodwill toward Islam. Muhammad Ali has been
recruited for a 30-second spot. Former U.S. ambassador Christopher Ross
spent 15 minutes on al-Jazeera TV making our case in Arabic. It was,
reports Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, a bust. Said one Arab
commentator, "His performance was terrible. . . . He was like a robot
who speaks Arabic." No surprise, and not Ross's fault. The task is
hopeless. It is like trying to change American public opinion about al
Qaeda with an Osama appeal delivered in English.
What talks in the region? Power. Look around. Yemen, home to terrorists
who blew up the Cole, and run by a government that had stymied American
investigators, has begun a military campaign against its own al Qaeda
elements. Some of the factions in Somalia have united to go after al
Qaeda as well. Under heavy post-Afghanistan American pressure, both
Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority have begun to put some curbs on
the terrorists they harbor.
Why? A new understanding of the value of human life? A new appreciation
of their enemies' grievances?
Of course not. Fear. Respect for American power. The Somalis and the
Yemenis know that if they do not go after al Qaeda, the laser-guided,
precisely addressed bombs might fall on them.
In 1996 bin Laden declared war on America, glorying in its "impotence
and weaknesses" for running out under fire from Beirut (Marine barracks
bombing, 1983), Aden (hotel bombings, 1992) and Mogadishu ("Black Hawk
Down," 1993).
He got it wrong. And the world now knows it. Afghanistan demonstrated
that America has both the power and the will to fight, and that when it
does, it prevails.
Yes, bin Laden is still on the loose, and that is important, because he
could still direct terrorist attacks. But the demonstration effect of
the Afghan war has already deeply changed the Near East. The area's
leaders understand that their future lies with us, not him. Accordingly,
they are listening to us.
How far will they go in fighting radical Islam with us? As far as we
will push them. We must not relent. We must summon the will and
determination to demand that they go all the way -- to eradicate al
Qaeda and the other terrorists within their midst -- or else start
scanning the skies for B-52s.
C 2002 The Washington Post Company
==^===
News, 5.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 5th January, 2002, 16:00 UTC Mideast tension high despite Zinni efforts U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni met Palestinian officials on Saturday, emerging still optimistic about truce prospects despite heightened tensions over Israel's seizure of a shipload of smuggled arms. Suggesting progress in American efforts to end 15 months of bloodshed, Mr.Zinni said the sides would resume trilateral security talks on Sunday, broken off in December after a wave of violence wrecked an earlier push for a ceasefire. But disputes over the arms shipment, which Israel insisted was bound for the Palestinians, overshadowed the top-level talks and underscored the troubles ahead. Ship seizure clouds U.S. peace mission in the Middle East Israeli navy dock workers in the Red Sea port of Eilat have unloaded a ship that the army said was seized trying to smuggle tonnes of weapons to Palestinians during a renewed U.S. peace mission. The Palestinian Authority denied any knowledge of the ship and said it considered the announcement an Israeli effort to sabotage the visit by U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. Israel said the vessel was carrying 50 tonnes of mostly Iranian-supplied arms destined for Palestinian-ruled territory. The ship was seized in international waters in the Red sea, while Mr. Zinni was meeting Palestinian President Yasser Arafat as part of Washington's latest effort to end more than 15 months of Middle East bloodshed. Pakistan, India foreign ministers meeting-official Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are meeting on the sidelines of a South Asia summit in Kathmandu, Nepal a Pakistani official confirmed on Saturday. The meeting of the Indian foreign minister and his Pakistani counterpart is an apparent diplomatic breakthrough as the two countries had previously said they were unlikely to hold a bilateral meeting to discuss escalating tension over Kashmir. The leaders of the two countries, whose troops are massed on either side of their joint border, are at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Kathmandu.India accuses Pakistan of fomenting revolt in disputed Kashmir, but Pakistan says it only extends moral and diplomatic support to separatists. India blames Pakistan-based groups for an attack on Indian parliament last month. Bushfires blaze on in Australia Thousands of firefighters hope for rain and cooler weather after having battled through the night against two huge bushfires threatening mountain towns to Sydney's west and beachside hamlets to the south. Some 10,000 firefighters, most of them volunteers, are trying to contain about 100 fires, the majority lit by arsonists, on fronts totalling over 2,000 km along Australia's east coast. Two massive blazes posed the greatest threat, one along the Blue Mountains west of Australia's biggest city, Sydney, and another on the New South Wales state's south coast. The fires, the worst and most widespread in Australia's history have destroyed 172 homes and destroyed an area twice the size of greater London. UN says Sierra Leone disarmament all but complete The United Nations' biggest peacekeeping force hopes to disarm the last remaining fighters in Sierra Leone on Saturday, allowing one of the world's poorest nations to recover from a brutal civil war. Over 42,000 fighters have handed in guns in the past year, but those in some eastern areas stopped disarming in December. Their decision followed bloody clashes in diamond centres, whose gems have funded the war and forced the U.N. to extend its year-end deadline for completing the process. They resumed disarming after a local deal to stop illegal mining. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan authorised the creation of a special war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone last Thursday. It will have the task of prosecuting about 20 ringleaders of atrocities in the war, during which thousands of women and children had their hands and feet hacked off. Somalia under surveillance The U.S. military has stepped up aerial surveillance along the coast of Somalia to keep an electronic eye on suspected extremist training camps and sites where Osama bin Laden and his top aides could take refuge. U.S. officials however cautioned that while Somalia was considered among the top centers for extremist activities, the reconnaissance by U.S. surveillance planes did not mean the African state was the next U.S. target after Afghanistan. Zimbabwe mob attacks opposition office and MP's home Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Saturday accused youths loyal to President Robert Mugabe of attacking one of its offices and the home of a legislator, as violence rises ahead of presidential elections set for March. The Movement for Democratic Change or MDC said about 300 youths from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party attacked its headquarters in Chitungwiza at sunset on Friday, injuring several people.It said the youth
Why Clinton's pious lecturing is hard to swallow/American Zi=?U
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.ummahnews.com/viewarticle.php?sid=2381Why Clinton’s pious lecturing is hard to swallow2001-12-31 15:27:48Ghazala Ibrahim for Ummahnews31 December 2001Bill Clinton’s recent visit to Britain was a reminder to me, as to many other Muslims how he will be remembered in the Islamic world as a foreign policy failure. His ‘lectures’ in London, Manchester and elsewhere showed a bitter and troubled man sanctimoniously preaching to people against living in their separate "little boxes" such as "man-woman", "British-American" and "Muslim, Christian [and] Jew.".. ...In Somalia, America intervened (unsuccessfully) with the arrogance of a colonial power only to have its armed forces withdraw in humiliation. Elsewhere, America under Clinton sent Cruise missiles to poverty-stricken Afghanistan and Sudan because they were said to be harbouring Osama bin Laden. He, we were and are told, was responsible for the Embassy Bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. Nevertheless, then as now, where was the proof?In all this, what is baffling is why anyone for example expected Clinton, now raising money for Israel, to have delivered a just settlement for the Palestinians whilst he was US President? Being inextricably linked to one of the parties in the dispute (i.e. Israel), he was clearly unfit for the job.His administrations were largely manned by prominent members of the American Zionist/Jewish lobby such as Madeleine Albright (Secretary of State), William Cohen (Secretary of Defense), Alan Greenspan (Chairman of Federal Reserve Bank).Then there was George Tenet (CIA Chief), Dennis Ross (Special Middle East Representative), Robert Rubin (Secretary of Treasury), James P. Rubin (Under Secretary of State), Richard Holbrooke (Special Representative to NATO), Samuel ‘Sandy’ Berger (Head National Security Council), Stuart Eizenstat (Under Secretary of State), Mark Penn (Asia Expert to NEC), Martin Indyk (Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs), Peter Tarnoff (Deputy Secretary of State),Not forgetting Judith Feder (National Security Council), Stanley Ross (National Security Council), Samuel Lewis (National Security Council), Lanny P. Breuer (Special Counsel to The President), Leon Panetta (White House Chief of Staff), Joel Klein (Assistant Attorney General) and Dan Glickman (Secretary of Agriculture),Or Sidney Blumenthal (Special Advisor to First Lady), Evelyn Lieberman (Deputy Chief of Staff), Charlene Barshefsky (U.S. Trade Representative), Susan Thomases (Aide to First Lady), Gene Sperlin (National Economic Council), Ira Magaziner (National Health Care), Alice Rivlin (Economic Advisor), Janet Yellen (Chairwoman, National Economic Council), Rahm Emanuel (Policy Advisor), Doug Sosnik (Counsel to President), Jim Steinberg (Deputy to National Security Chief), Jay Footlik (Special Liason to the JewishCommunity) and Robert Nash (Personal Chief).There were yet more: Jane Sherburne (President's Lawyer), Sandy Kristoff (Health Care Chief), Robert Boorstin (Communications Aide), Keith Boykin (Communications Aide), Jeff Eller (Special Assistant to Clinton), Tom Epstein (Health Care Adviser), Richard Feinberg (Assistant Secretary Veterans), Hershel Gober (Food and Drug Administration), Steve Kessler (White House Counsel), Ron Klein (Assistant Secretary Education), Madeleine Kunin (Communications Aide).And David Kusnet (Dept. AIDS Program), Margaret Hamburg (Dir. Press Conferences), Many Grunwald (Liason to Jewish Leaders), Karen Adler (Dir. State Dept. Policy), Dan Schifter (Director Peace Corps.), Eli Segal (Deputy Chief of Staff), Robert Weiner (Drug Policy Coordinator), Jack Lew (Deputy Director Management and Budget), David Lipton (Under Secretary of The Treasury), Kenneth Apfel (Chief of Social Security) and David Kessler (Chief of Food & Drug Administration).Not forgetting Seth Waxman (Acting Solicitor General), Howard Shapiro (General Counsel for the FBI), Lanny Davis (White House Special Counsel), Sally Katzen (Secretary of Management and Budget), Kathleen Koch (Heads FBI Equal Opportunity Office) John Podesta (Deputy Chief of Staff), Alan Blinder (Vice Chairman of Federal Reserve), Abner Mikva (Counsel to President Clinton), Richard Feinberg (Special Assistant to President Clinton -National Security Council), Ricki Seidman (Deputy Communications Director), Phil Leida (Economic Adviser), David Heiser (staff director), Alice Rubin (volunteers), Leon Fuerth (National Security Adviser to Vice President Gore), Robert Reich (Secretary of Labor), Don Steinberg (Special Ambassador for Humanitarian De-mining), Mickey Kantor (Commerce Secretary), and last but not least Ron Klain (Chief of Staff for Al Gore).This is a long, though not an exhaustive list. There were
Is Bin Laden the Lord of the Rings? [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.ummahnews.com/viewarticle.php?sid=2406 Is Bin Laden the Lord of the Rings? 2002-01-02 17:43:14 Professor Ira Chernus 2 January 2002 As I was mining deep in the recesses of www.whitehouse.gov , I unearthed this gem: Reporter: Does [bin Laden] have political goals? The President: He has got evil goals. And it's hard to think in conventional terms about a man so dominated by evil. Is Osama bin Laden really the Lord of the Rings? That question ran through my head for three hours, as I watched a fellowship of brave warriors battle the forces of evil. Was I watching The Lord of the Rings, or network coverage of the war on terrorism? The villains have no political goals, for only human beings can have political goals. These inhuman forces do evil simply for its own sake. They are the cosmic principle of evil: dark, dark, dark. You dare not think of them in conventional terms, lest you be accused of taking their side. All that stands between us and this implacable darkness is a small band of ordinary guys doing extraordinary deeds in their unconventional hit-and-run style. Always vastly outnumbered, they never lose a battle and hardly ever a single life. Are they really that good? Or is it just because they embody the cosmic principle of goodness? Their devotion to honor, decency, and each other is exemplary. And they invite us to come back to the theatre next Christmas to see them defend the oh-so-white city, where we all hope to live peacefully ever after. If you have seen the movie and followed the war news, you can no doubt extend the list of parallels. This is dead serious. How many dead, in Afghanistan alone, the Pentagon will make sure we never know. The president's job is to hide the fact that bin Laden does have political goals. He wants U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia, an end to bombing and sanctions in Iraq, and no more U.S. support for Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. More broadly, he wants to curb U.S. influence in the Muslim world. How many American lives are worth losing, to maintain our powerful influence in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world? If that became a matter of public debate, the Bush administration and its war might be in real trouble. So the administration dehumanizes the enemy, casting bin Laden as the dark prince of evil. Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union "the empire of evil." But at least he admitted that the Soviets had a political vision for which they waged cold war. Bush dares not even go that far. He can only call us to a war against Sauron and the evil forces of Mordor, a war with no end in sight. If we believe in his mythic vision, we can not even begin to think about the political issues involved. The shocking fact is that most Americans do seem to believe in it. Have we watched too many movies pitting pure shining good against the mindless metaphysical principle of evil? Is there a seamless infotainment web stretching from Lord of the Rings to the nightly news? Or does the immense success of Lord of the Rings and all its imitators point deeper, to the thousands of years that humans have told stories about absolute good fighting absolute evil? The vast Christian lore of God against Devil is only one corner of this much vaster, world-wide legacy of myth and legend -- the same legacy that bin Laden himself draws on so successfully. So far, at least, the lure of simplistic myth has worked for the Bush administration like a charm. A mere hint that El-Qaeda might have political motives sets off panic alarms among the patriotic citizenry. To raise any political question is to think about the enemy in conventional terms; i.e., to treat them as human beings, not inhuman orcs doing Sauron's bidding. That thought would open up too many disturbing doors in the public mind. Easier to call it treason, set the mind at rest, and go to the movies. This is the peace movement's greatest challenge. As long as the enemy is cast as an inhuman force of cosmic evil, we can not raise public consciousness about alternatives to war. The pro-war forces know that and count on it to keep the war going. We must insist, over and over, in every way we can, as loudly as we can, that the contest is political, not mythic or metaphysical. The victims of this war are dying in the real world, not the Hollywood dream factory. We can and should condemn the use of violence to gain political ends. We can and should debate the validity of Islamist political principles and goals. Many of us will wholeheartedly oppose them. But first we must help to stop the killing. To do that, we must insist that even the people whose principles and goals we most oppose are human beings, not monsters from Mordor. Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder Copyright C ummahnews.com 2001 ==^ This email was sent t
"Why Not a Scarlet Letter for Serbs?" by Stella L. Jatras [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- 3 January 2002 Why Not a Scarlet Letter for Serbs?by Stella L. Jatras There should be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable thinking person that the Foreign Operations Appropriation Act, Funding for Serbia, is a recipe to further punish and humiliate the Serbian people. In order to receive funding, the Foreign Operations Appropriation Act specifies that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will (1) cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia including access for investigators, the provision of documents, and the surrender and transfer of indictees or assistance in their apprehension; (2) take steps, that are consistent with the Dayton Accords, to end Serbian financial, political, security and other support which has served to maintain separate Republic Srpska institutions; and (3) take steps to implement policies which reflect a respect for minority rights and the rule of law, including the release of all political prisoners from Serbian jails and prisons. Although provision (1) has not changed, further restrictions, as was shown in bold, have been added to both provisions (2) and (3). The original Dayton Accord nowhere specifies that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia may not maintain separate financial, political, security and other support to Republic Srpska institutions. If enacted, this provision would literally cut off the Republic of Srpska from Yugoslavia, a gross miscarriage of justice. Provision (3) states that policies should be implemented which reflect a respect for minority rights and the rule of law, including the release of all political prisoners from Serbian jails and prisons." Nowhere does the appropriations act state what constitutes "political prisoners," and in such an event, any member of the Kosovo Liberation Army who is in prison or in jail due to murder, rape, drugs, and atrocities committed against the minority population remaining in Kosovo, could be considered a "political prisoner," and therefore, released. Consider the foreign policy differences: U.S. POLICY TOWARDS AFGHANISTAN vs SERBIA - Although we do not have custody of Osama bin Laden, we are already working closely with the Northern Alliance to help them on their road to "democracy." Does the word, "democracy" even exist in Islamic countries? The first action the U.S. took was to reinstate Afghanistan's king. Although democracy has been returned to Serbia through free elections, there will be no aid to the Serbs until everyone, to the satisfaction of Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, is sent to The International War Crimes Tribunal. While sentences of Croatia’s war criminals, as well as Bosnia’s Muslim and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians are either being reduced or dropped altogether, Carla del Ponte is obsessed with sending every Serb who ever wore a uniform (and some who have not), to The Hague. Why not just paint the Scarlet Letter "S" for "Serb" on the forehead of every Serb and be done with it? - For rebuilding of Afghanistan? Billions of U.S. tax dollars. For Yugoslavia? Virtually nothing. Considering NATO's bombing cost the Serbs and neighboring states billions and billions of dollars in destruction, the paltry "up to" $115 million offered is intended to further humiliate and demean the Serbian people. Keep in mind, where Yugoslavia was once a developed nation, NATO pilots, primarily American, bombed Serbia back to the stone age. However, Afghanistan never left the stone age. - Afghanistan needs only to be shown the way! It needs our understanding and our compassion; whereas our Yugoslav policy consists of threats, punishment, humiliation and endless demands. - President Bush asked every American child to send $1 to help the suffering Afghan children. As we recognize that children are children everywhere, there has been no compassion shown towards the suffering of Serbian children. Even the Greek arm of Doctors Without Borders was expelled for helping Serbian children. - President Bush has repeatedly stressed to the Afghan people and to the entire Islamic world, that they are not the enemy; that this is a war against Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and against Muslim terrorism (although the word "Muslim" was immediately removed after intense pressure from the Islamic community.) In contrast, President Clinton wanted to make sure that the Serbian people understood that they were as much an enemy as their president, Slobodan Milosevic. This contempt was never more obvious than when Lieutenant General Michael Short, Allied Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said, "I think no power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can't get to work because the bridge is down - the bridge on which you held your rock concerts -- and you all stood with targets on your heads. That needs to disappear at 3 o'clock in the morning." - President Bush continual
MACEDONIA/GREECE - IT'S ALL IN THE NAME [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- MACEDONIA/GREECE - IT'S ALL IN THE NAME Talks were held on Thursday in Skopje between FYR Macedonia and Greece to solve this problem once and for all: what to call the new republic. Since Macedonia seceded from the Yugoslav Federation in 1991; Greece has waged a campaign in the international media against the use of the same name as its northern province by any foreign power. Suspicious that the new republic would impose territorial claims over Greek Macedonia, Athens refused to recognise it and imposed an economic blockade. After seven years of UN-sponsored talks, the International Crisis Group has come up with a solution. Macedonia shall use the name "Republika Makedonija (Ma-ke-DO-niya)" and this will be used by all countries, except Greece, which can use a different name. In return, the Republika Makedonija would respect and honour the legacy of Greek culture within its borders. This is the agenda for the meeting between the two sides. If approved, it will be yet another diplomatic triumph in the Balkans, a settling of accounts between two neighbours who have realised that they can co-exist in harmony. Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Serbians have been wrongly vilified as ethnic cleansers [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Serbians have been wrongly vilified as ethnic cleansers Geoffrey Wasteneys The Ottawa Citizen Thursday, January 03, 2002 Re: Mob almost killed 18 troops in Bosnia, Dec. 29. This article by David Pugliese will serve to upset the politically correct stereotype of the civil war in Bosnia as one in which only Serbians are indicted as ethnic cleansers. In fact the Serbians have always been reasonably tolerant, and it was Slovenes, Croats and Kosovo Muslims who indicated a desire for separate identities and removal of Serbian minorities. Croats often spoke of their desire for a nice, clean country presumably devoid of Serbs, Hungarians, Vlachs and Albanians. A recent disclosure of the minutes of a Croatian cabinet meeting recorded president Franjo Tudjman confessing that he was not aware that the villages in the Medac pocket (where they had clashed with Canadian peacekeepers) were mainly Serbian and agreeing that Croatian forces had acted wrongly, while agreeing with one of his ministers that the final solution was the expulsion of all Serbians from Croatia. Perhaps we will now get some definitive account of the Croatian slaughter of Muslims at Mostar. Perhaps the public will learn that when Bosnians Serbians were accused of destroying mosques, the real culprits were Muslim mujahideen from Saudi Arabia (financed by Osama bin Laden), who were horrified at the decorations used by the heretic Muslim Bosnians. There are nearly 900,000 Serbian refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in Serbia, under the care of the United Nations' commission on refu-gees, and they are a matter of great concern. There are no Serbians in Slovenia, about 50,000 are left in Croatia and a smaller number in Kosovo, where they are protected by peacekeepers. Kosovo leader Ibrahim Rugova has indicated no desire for the return of Serbians. Geoffrey Wasteneys, Ottawa © Copyright 2002 The Ottawa Citizen http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/letters/story.asp?id=%7b0D03E42C-3D37-4E7D-B5F8-2893261D02C4%7d ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^ spacer.gif Description: GIF image
RE: AYN RAND - DEFENDER OF CAPITALISM [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- NO, you are right miroslav -Original Message- From: Barry Stoller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 04 January 2002 14:20 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: AYN RAND - DEFENDER OF CAPITALISM [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Ayn Rand is a 'defender of capitalism'? Wow, what a news flash. How profound. Must this list accept JT's ridiculous spam? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Thousands of Afghans Likely Killed in Bombings [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Thursday, January 3, 2001 in the Toronto Globe & Mail Thousands of Afghans Likely Killed in Bombings by Murray Campbell The Afghan village of Qalaye Niazi vanished in a rain of bombs, with only craters, remnants of mud walls and scraps of flesh and hair to show that it once existed. The people who used to live there say as many as 107 civilians died when U.S. warplanes, including a B-52 bomber, swooped down early Sunday. The Pentagon says the village in eastern Afghanistan was a haven for al-Qaeda and Taliban loyalists and that, in any event, the estimate of casualties is "unfounded." Such conflicting information has been a staple of the three-month-old Afghan war and, critics say, has served to obscure the toll exacted from civilians. There is no agreement yet about how many ordinary Afghans have died from the U.S.-led bombardment, but one American academic estimates that the toll stands at 4,050 -- surpassing the number of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. The Pentagon has played down the number of civilian dead, dismissing many early reports as Taliban exaggerations. The bombing campaign is controversial in Afghanistan, with some members of the interim government suggesting it be stopped. Washington has refuses, and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai said this week the bombing must continue, to "finish terrorists completely." The bombing campaign remains largely uncontroversial in the United States, where President George W. Bush's war on terrorism enjoys strong support. Marc Herold, a University of New Hampshire economics professor who has monitored the campaign, said yesterday that U.S. officials again have demonstrated their ability to manage the news and mainstream U.S. media have shown their willingness to be managed. "It's been a concerted effort to keep this kind of news off the front pages," he said. "The record of the Bush administration is pretty clear: This is a non-topic." Prof. Herold has gathered media reports (many of them unverified) from around the world for his estimate that 4,050 Afghan civilians have been killed in the bombing. Other organizations, whose monitoring has been less rigorous, offer lower figures. Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based organization, offers an estimate of at least 1,000 civilian deaths, while the Reuters news agency said that perhaps 982 people have died in 14 incidents. Prof. Herold's estimate, updated to include Qalaye Niazi and four other recent incidents, follows his initial calculation three weeks ago that 3,767 Afghan civilians had died since the first bombs fell on Oct. 7. He said he decided to study the effects of the bombing because he suspects that modern weaponry is not as precise as advertised, and because he found hardly any mention of civilian casualties in the U.S. media. He noted there have been news reports that Washington was spending millions of dollars to buy exclusive rights to accurate satellite images of the areas under bombardment. "Preventing the images of human suffering caused by the U.S. bombing from reaching U.S. audiences creates precisely what the Pentagon and Bush seek -- a war without witnesses." Sidney Jones, Human Rights Watch's Asia director, suggests there are several reasons for the muted reaction to the Afghan civilian toll. She said other Afghan topics -- the rebuilding of the country and the hunt for Osama bin Laden -- crowd the news agenda. © 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
World Jewish Congress Reorganizes [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- World Jewish Congress Reorganizes By Associated Press January 2, 2002, 4:31 PM EST NEW YORK -- The World Jewish Congress, which led the effort to gain $11 billion in restitution for Holocaust victims, says it has reorganized its executive structure to focus on global terrorism. Secretary General Israel Singer will become chairman of the 21-member executive committee, and Elan Steinberg, WJC staff director for the past 15 years, will move to executive vice president, Steinberg said Wednesday. Avi Becker, director of the WJC's Jerusalem office, will assume the secretary general's title. "The Holocaust restitutions will remain our legacy, but we feel it is the right time to move on," Steinberg said. "The central issue now is security, the threat of worldwide terrorism and the menace to all democratic institutions." The leadership changes follow WJC President Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s recently announced decision to step down in 2002. The WJC has about 250,000 members in the United States and represents Jewish organizations in 80 countries. Copyright C 2002, The Associated Press ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
ALBANIANS CALL FOR INDEPENDENCE OF KOSOVO [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- ALBANIANS CALL FOR INDEPENDENCE OF KOSOVO Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, who is likely to become the province’s future President , declared in Pristina on Saturday that he is to request the United States of America and the European Union to formally recognise the full independence of Kosovo. In a New Year message, Rugova declared that the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, the largest Albanian political grouping, will “work intensively on the formal recognition of the independence of Kosovo, with our friends in America and the European Union, to contribute to the calming of the situation in this part of Europe and the world”. He added that “In fact, Kosovo is already independent but we are seeking formal recognition and integration into NATO and the European Union”. Rugova said that his main objectives were to build a democratic and tolerant society, with security and the integration of other ethnic groups. He will have his work cut out. The second largest Albanian party, whose president is the ex-UCK leader Hashim Thaci, abandoned the parliament, leaving a void which has yet to be filled. A coalition government has still not been formed after the elections in November and as a consequence, Kosovo continues to not have a President as the Albanians bicker among themselves. The point is that the Albanians never had a united political programme. What they wanted was the Serbs out of Kosovo, the birthplace of the Serbian nation, since these were the only people who knew how to keep the Albanians under control. NATO’s illegal and murderous campaign against Yugoslavia, which incidentally left large swathes of Kosovo contaminated with Depleted Uranium, created the notion of the monster which 500 years of Balkans history had been trying to prevent: a Greater Albania. Kosovo was never Albanian, although these people infiltrated and bred so prolifically that they now constitute 90% of the population. The purpose of the Albanian wife is to bear as many children as possible, wherever that may be, preferably outside Albania since living conditions in any of its neighbours are far better than at home. Albanians, like Afghans, are not one people, but rather a collection of tribes which call themselves “Shqiperije” (Eagle People). The language itself has very little written tradition and was tacked together into a grammar only in the twentieth century, being a mixture of Gheg and Tosk, two tribal dialects. The notion of Albania (a word foreign to either of these dialects) is anywhere that the “eagle people” live. To recognise the full independence of Kosovo would be paramount for a foreign power to demand that the USA recognise the right of Mexico over Texas or California. It would be a victory for terrorism, providing new fuel for the fires in Corsica, the Basque Country, Brittany, the Liga Nord, Aztlan, Scots nationalism, Welsh nationalism, and any other fringe separatist group. That the Albanians should have their own institutions within a Yugoslav Federal Province of Kosovo, acting under the auspices of Belgrade, would seem reasonable. The atrocities committed by certain rogue Serbian elements were as lamentable as those caused by the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) against its own people. Many were the Albanian girls who fled into Serbian areas to escape being forced into prostitution rings by this group. That the UCK, basically a terrorist organisation with strong links to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda, should be handed a moral victory by granting full independence, would be an insult to all those who expressed their horror at the September 11th events. Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
America's Empire Rules an Unbalanced World [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Copyright C 2001 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com America's Empire Rules an Unbalanced World Robert Hunter Wade International Herald Tribune Thursday, January 3, 2002 LONDON Suppose you are a modern-day Roman emperor, the leader of the most powerful country in a world of sovereign states and international markets. What sort of framework of international political economy arrangements do you create so that without having to throw your weight around more than occasionally, normal market forces bolster the economic preeminence of your country, allow your citizens to consume far more than they themselves produce, and keep challengers down? You want autonomy to decide on your exchange rate and monetary policy in response only to your own national objectives, while having other countries depend on your support in managing their own economies. You want to be able to engineer volatility and economic crises in the rest of the world in order to hinder the growth of centers that might challenge your preeminence and in order to allow your vulture funds periodically to buy up their assets at fire-sale prices. You want intense competition between exporters in the rest of the world that gives you an inflow of imports at constantly decreasing prices relative to the price of your exports. You want to invite the best brains in the rest of the world to come to your universities, companies and research institutes. You befriend the middle classes elsewhere and make sure they have good material reasons for supporting the framework. You make it unlikely that elites and masses should ever unite in nativistic reactions to your dominance or demand "nationalistic" development policies that nurture competitors to your industries. What features do you hard-wire into the international political economy? First, free capital mobility. Second, free trade (excepting imports that threaten domestic industries important for your re-selection). Third, international investment free from any discriminatory favoring of national companies through protection, public procurement, public ownership or other devices, with special emphasis on the freedom of your companies to get the custom of national elites for the management of their financial assets, their private education, health care, pensions, and the like. Fourth, your currency as the main reserve currency. Fifth, no constraint on your ability to create your currency at will (such as a dollar-gold link), so that you can finance unlimited trade deficits with the rest of the world. Sixth, international lending at variable interest rates denominated in your currency, which means that borrowing countries in crisis have to repay you more when their capacity to repay is less. This combination allows your people to consume far more than they produce; it periodically produces financial instability and crises in the rest of the world, which hold back the crisis-affected countries and also cause other governments to hold more of your currency and therefore help to finance your deficits; and it allows your firms and your capital to enter and exit other markets quickly. You also need, of course, a bail-out mechanism that protects your creditors and displaces any losses from periodic panics onto the citizens of the borrowing country. To supervise the international framework you want international organizations that look like cooperatives of member states and carry the legitimacy of multilateralism, but are financed in a way that allows you to control them. A Machiavellian interpretation of the U.S. role in the world economy since the end of the Bretton Woods regime around 1970? Certainly. In reality, America's engineering of its dominance has at times been for the general good, when it used its clout to "think for the world." But often its clout has been used solely in the interests of its richest citizens and most powerful corporations. This latter tendency has been dominant lately. We see it in its new single-minded unilateralism in international relations, much exacerbated by the mixture of rage at Sept. 11th and gung-ho jubilation at "success" in Afghanistan. And we see it in what the United States is now ramming through the international supervisory organizations. The United States has engineered the World Trade Organization to commit itself to negotiate a General Agreement on Trade in Services, which will facilitate a global market in private health care, welfare, pensions, education and water, supplied - naturally - by U.S. companies, and which will undermine political support for universal access to social services in developing countries. And it has engineered the World Bank, through congressional conditions on the replenishment of IDA, the soft-loan facility, to launch its biggest refocusing in a decade - a "private sector development" agenda devoted to the same end of accelerating the private (and nongo
The Balkans DU Cover-Up [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Article by: envirodoc Monday 31 Dec 2001 Summary: Discussion on Balkans contamination and health effects coverup Reference at indymedia website: http://urbana.indymedia.org//front.php3?article_id=3601 Source: http://www.thenation.com = The Balkans DU Cover-Up by ROBERT JAMES PARSONS Last November, when stories first appeared in the European press of deaths from leukemia among Italian soldiers who had served in the Balkans, alarm bells started ringing across the Continent. The leukemia was--and still is--believed by many independent experts to be caused by radiation from depleted uranium (DU) arms used in the Balkans during the war. Since most European countries are members of NATO, most of them have troops stationed in or near areas believed to be contaminated. In France, the February 2000 broadcast of a documentary about DU triggered a steadily increasing demand for more and better information. At the same time, reports were surfacing in Belgium of illness among that country\'s troops stationed in the Balkans. Early this year, Spain and Greece announced they will screen their soldiers for contamination, and Portugal has decided to remove its troops entirely from Kosovo. Country after country summoned US ambassadors or dispatched delegations to NATO headquarters in Brussels in search of more information about DU. But NATO--which in effect means the United States--has stuck to the Pentagon\'s oft-repeated refrain: If there is a problem, soldiers\' health should certainly be studied, but it is impossible that DU is involved because its radiation is so low as to be utterly harmless. A major reason for Pentagon evasiveness is the almost 200,000 Gulf War vets apparently suffering from the variety of illnesses lumped together as Gulf War Syndrome who have filed claims against the VA for service-related illnesses. Three-quarters of that group are now classified by the VA as disabled, and almost 7,000 of the original total have died. In the case of contamination by Agent Orange in Vietnam, the Pentagon ended up admitting claims from anybody who had served in the theater after use of the defoliant had begun. If this were repeated in the case of Gulf War Syndrome, most of the almost 700,000 vets who served on the ground in the Persian Gulf would be eligible to press claims. Further, in addition to helping solve the serious problem of what to do with nuclear waste, DU weapons play a key role in the US military\'s concept of a \"no loss\" war. If such arms performed brilliantly against tanks in the Iraq war, they performed equally brilliantly against the Serbian regime\'s huge underground installations (\"hardened targets\" in military jargon) in Kosovo, where NATO has admitted to using some nine and a half tons of DU. Hence, far from planning to remove DU from its arsenal anytime soon, the Pentagon wants to increase its use. Thus, duly attentive to its own interests, the US government has consistently pressured its NATO allies and the UN--which has assumed responsibility for Kosovo--to keep the lid on DU contamination investigations (to the extent that such inquiries cannot be thwarted outright). Such pressure, however, has not stopped information from slowly leaking out, as evidenced by the French documentary and the reports from Belgium. But until the Italian government decided in December to launch an official inquiry into DU use in Kosovo, there was no general awareness of the danger among the European public. Significantly, Britain, whose government has long been at odds with its own veterans over Gulf War Syndrome and is the only country other than the United States to admit to using DU, has been a low-key but insistent supporter of the Pentagon line. Much, in fact, is already known about DU. Contrary to what the Pentagon keeps insisting, the \"depleted\" in the name depleted uranium does not indicate uranium bereft of all but weak, hence harmless, radiation. Rather, it is depleted of its contents of the uranium isotope U-235, which, because it is fissionable, is used for bombs and for fuel in nuclear reactors. What\'s left, U-238, is 40 percent less radioactive but still extremely dangerous. Anybody handling DU metal must wear clothing resistant to high-level radiation, hermetically sealed and equipped with a respirator. The Pentagon itself knows the dangers. On July 22, 1990, the US Army made public an exhaustive study of armor-piercing DU munitions (quoted in the Military Toxics Project\'s 2000 report \"Don\'t Look, Don\'t Find\"), which warned of respirable DU oxides, created during combat, that could cause cancer and kidney problems. It further warned that \"following combat, the condition of the battlefield and the long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic energy penetrators for military applicat
Bush's Enron Ties [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bush's Enron Ties Edward B. Winslow, AlterNetJanuary 2, 2002 Almost 30 years have elapsed since the "third rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee headquarters on June 17, 1972 that opened the dam of the Watergate scandal. The press and members of Congress largely ignored the crime, as then President Richard M. Nixon kept the nation's focus on the war in Vietnam. Similarly, with the press and Congress distracted by President George W. Bush's war in Afghanistan, they are ignoring another scandal. No third rate burglary, the Enron Corp. scandal involves millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Bush, U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and other members of Congress. The cozy relationship between the Bush White House and Enron enabled Kenneth L. Lay, then Enron's CEO, to meet in secret with Vice President Richard Cheney to help mold the nation's energy policy. Bush's presidential campaign received $1.14 million from Enron. Shortly after taking office, President Bush waged a battle against the imposition of federal price controls in California that allowed Enron to price-gouge consumers by extending the energy crisis in California, costing the state billions of dollars. Enron reported increased revenues of almost $70 billion from the previous year. Bush also resisted attempts to crack down on Enron's utilization of its 2,830 offshore subsidiaries in countries with lax banking-regulation laws. The consumer-rights watchdog organization Public Citizen alleges that some of these offshore havens helped Enron defraud its stockholders. Moreover, while Sen. Gramm was working the Congress to pass legislation favorable to Enron (and collecting nearly $260,000 in campaign contributions from the company), his wife Wendy Gramm first was chairperson of a regulatory committee overseeing Enron's business activities and later a paid member of that company's board of directors. Enron paid her between $915,000 and $1.85 million, according Public Citizen. Sen. Gramm has announced his decision not to seek reelection for another term in the senate. Enron, whose stock price plummeted from almost $85 per share to $0.25 per share within one year, forced its employees to invest their retirement plans in the company stock while corporate executives were free to make out like bandits by selling their stock when it was near its peak before anyone caught wind of the company's impending collapse. Jeffrey K. Skilling, who resigned his position as Enron's chief executive in August, sold more than $30 million worth of his stock in the company this year. Lay, who was Skilling's predecessor, was able to unload about $23 million worth of his Enron stock. Meanwhile, employees, who invested in Enron stock through their company's 401(k) plan, were prohibited in diversifying into other securities. They lost their shirts while 500 of the company's top executives divided up $55 million worth of bonuses. The remaining 20,000 employees were given severance packages of not more than $4,500 each. Eventually, during the Watergate scandal, members of Congress began to take a closer look at what first appeared to be an event that was unrelated to the White House. Armed with much more evidence of a White House conflict of interest than Watergate, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) has opened a Congressional investigation on the Enron matter. In a letter dated Dec. 4, 2001 to Vice President Cheney, Waxman expresses concern about the administration's secret meetings with Lay and the company's subsequent failure. Waxman also mentions "the fact that senior Enron executives were enriching themselves at the same time that Enron was lavishing large campaign contributions on President Bush and the Republican Party and apparently influencing the administration's energy policies." Public Citizen urged Congress to bring Sen. Gramm and Wendy Gramm along with Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill to give sworn testimony about what they know about possible accounting fraud and the use of offshore tax and bank regulation havens. The consumer-rights organization also called for President Bush, Vice President Cheney and political adviser Karl Rove to answer questions about whether discussions involving energy price controls, energy regulations or tax havens took place with Enron executives. Specifically, what investigators need to determine is who knew what and when did they know it? As Waxman wrote in his letter to the vice president, "It is appropriate to ask whether Enron communicated to (Cheney) or others affiliated with (his) task force information about its precarious financial position. This is especially important since this information was apparently hidden from investors and the public" Edward B. Winslow 2239 Meade St. Denver, CO 80211 303-964-0820 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^
DMITRY LITVINOVICH: MILOSEVIC IS CHARGED OF ALL DEADLY SINS [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.U
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- DMITRY LITVINOVICH: MILOSEVIC IS CHARGED OF ALL DEADLY SINS The litigation on the case of former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic is getting a new development. Chief prosecutor of the International Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, signed a new indictment against Slobodan Milosevic. He is now being charged with participating in crimes in Croatia during the beginning of the 90s. The ex-president has already been accused of crimes against the humanity in connection with the events in Kosovo in 1999, when the Serbian security forces were struggling with the Albanian militants. The new indictment concerning the war in Croatia during 1991-1995 does not include any articles about genocide. The prosecutors are going to declare that Milosevic committed military crimes during the attempts to set up the so-called Greater Serbia. He will also be presented with revised charges pertaining to the crimes committed in Kosovo. These charges are based upon new information from the excavations of the grave sites found on the outskirts of Belgrade. Milosevic totally denies his guilt and calls the litigation a farce. His lawyers are trying to prove that the Hague Tribunal is an illegitimate board, since it was established on decisions made by the 15 members of the Security Council and not by the U.N. General Assembly. Here, it would be good to cite Milosevic’s first interrogation at the Hague Tribunal: JUDGE RICHARD MAY: Mr. Milosevic, I see that you're not represented by counsel today. We understand that this is of your own choice. You do have the right, of course, to defend yourself. You also have the right to counsel, and you should consider carefully whether it's in your own best interests not to be represented. These proceedings will be long and complex, and you may wish to reconsider this position. Under these circumstances, if you wish to have time to reconsider whether you want to have counsel, we would be prepared to give it to you. Do you want some time to consider now whether you wish to be represented? SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC (in English): I consider this tribunal a false tribunal and the indictments false indictments. It is illegal, being not appointed by U.N. General Assembly. Therefore, I have no need to appoint a counsel to an illegal organ. JUDGE RICHARD MAY: Mr. Milosevic, you are now before this tribunal, and you're within the jurisdiction of it. You will be tried by the tribunal. You will be accorded the full rights of the accused, according to international law, and the full protections of international law and the statue. SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC (in Serbo-Croatian): This trial's aim is to produce false justification for the war crimes NATO committed in Yugoslavia. The biased nature of the Hague Tribunal causes irritation rather than surprise. There is an impression that the court was considering one part of the pending case only. The tribunal judges the crimes committed against the Muslims, as if they were the only aggrieved party. The brutality was equal, both on the part of the Serbs and the Muslims, but the Tribunal, however, does not wish to take this into account. The sensational statements from one of the attendants of the tribunal, who said their activity was not going to stay within the framework of former Yugoslavia, brings a crooked smile on your face. Most likely, the next target will be Chechnya or Abkhazia. Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
News, 1.1.2002, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 01st January, 2001, 16:00 UTC Introduction of Euro Currency Successful say Banks The introduction of euro banknotes seems to have got off to a good start, with demand for the new bills strong and banks reporting barely a hitch in the logistics. EU Commission President Romano Prodi hailed the launch of the euro, saying the identity of the new currency will be strong, leading to more growth, efficiency and competition. Every citizen of the Euroland's 12 member countries will have "a piece of Europe in the palm of the their hands", said Prodi. The euro currency became legal tender overnight for more than 300 million residents. Opting out are Britain, Denmark and Sweden. Europen Central Bank president Wim Duisenberg said the euro launch would generate up to one per cent in additional economic growth. Even threats of strikes at banks in France and Italy when business resumes on Wednesday after the New Year holiday failed to dampen confidence that the change would go smoothly. Meanwhile some major department stores in the United Kingdom have said they will accept the new euro currency, and in even in Switzerland residents were queueing to swap their Swiss Francs. India Offers Peace Talks, Pakistan says Situation Highly Explosive India on Tuesday offered peace talks if Pakistan dropped its "anti-Indian mentality" but Islamabad said New Delhi was still massing forces and the situation remained "highly explosive". Despite fears of war, the nuclear rivals renewed a 1991 pact not to attack each other's nuclear facilities. In a new year message to his nation, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said he did not want war and would consider talks on disputed Kashmir -- at the heart of the latest tensions -- but only when Pakistan acted against cross-border terrorism. Pakistan said British Prime Minister Tony Blair planned a peacemaking visit to both countries next week, while accusing India of continuing its military build-up along the border. India denied the charge, saying its defensive build-up was "more or less complete". The stand-off has raised fears of a fourth war between the nuclear rivals, who have already gone to war twice over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state. Argentina calls Emergency Meeting to Pick New Leader Argentina's Peronist Party called an emergency session of Congress on Tuesday to name another new president to try to lead the nation out of a chaotic four-year recession. After Sunday's shock resignation of the second president in barely a week, the Peronist senator Eduardo Duhalde is seen as the favourite. On Sunday, Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, who'd replaced Fernando De la Rua, resigned after serving only one week as interim president. Duhalde, if picked, could see out De la Rua's intended term in office until December 2003. Argentine police are girding for more unrest, especially outside banks, judicial and public transport centres. On Friday there were renewed protests in Buenos Aires and other cities when the courts upheld limits on bank customers' cash withdrawals. A week ago Argentina suspended repayments on massive foreign loans. Thousands Protest Zambian Election Results Zambian police fired teargas on Tuesday to disperse thousands of protesters who tried to march on President Frederick Chiluba's official residence, demanding that he nullify last week's election result. The clashes came as 10 opposition parties went to court to pursue their claim that Chiluba's ruling party rigged last week's presidential poll in favour of its candidate Levy Mwanawasa. Latest results from the Electoral Commission showed Mwanawasa of the Movement for Multiparty Democray (MMD) strengthening his lead, despite widespread accusations the MMD is to blame for graft, mismanagement and divisive tribalism. The Zambian authorities are expected to announce the winner of the cliffhanger elections later today, in what has been the closest since Zambia's independence from Britain in 1964. Advance ISAF Team Flying to Afghanistan An advance team of the U.N. peace force for Afghanistan, ISAF, has flown from London, heading for an as-yet-unnamed Afghan airport after days of delay. The German defence ministry said an Airbus was carrying 150 personnel, including nine Bundeswehr officers. In Oman, they would switch to a British aircraft. This follows agreement between ISAF's designated British commander John McColl and Afghan interior minister Yunis Kanuni on an ISAF force to comprise 4,500 soldiers from 17 nations. Tribal forces in Helmand province claim to be nearing Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar near Baghran. The U.S. military has denied that U.S. planes killed 107 civilians while bombing a village in the eastern Afghan Paktia region on Sunday. A U.S. spokesman said it was a "known" al-Qaeda-Taliban compound. Sharon Blocks Katzav Speec
Deadliest Year in Palestinian Territories Since 1967 War [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Tuesday, January 1, 2002 by OneWorld.net Deadliest Year in Palestinian Territories Since 1967 War by Jim Lobe The year 2001 was the bloodiest for Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since Israel conquered those territories in the Six-Day War of 1967, according to a new report released Monday by the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem. A total of 345 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli security forces in the territories during the course of the year, of whom 38 were under the age of 15. It was also one of the deadliest years for Israelis living within the country's 1967 borders, according to the report. Seventy-nine Israeli civilians were killed within the 'Green Line' by Palestinians during the year. That total accounted for almost one third of the 260 Israeli civilians killed within the country's old borders since the first intifada, which broke out 14 years ago. The Palestinian toll recorded by B'Tselem did not include six Palestinians who were killed Sunday by Israeli troops in two separate incidents in Gaza. The Israeli authorities said they were slain in clashes, but Palestinians denounced them as executions. Sunday's killings dampened hopes that a two-week-old reduction in Israeli-Palestinian violence could be sustained long enough for a ceasefire to take hold. As a precondition for talks on implementing a United States plan for a permanent ceasefire and an eventual resumption of peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has demanded that there be no violence from the Palestinian side for at least one full week. Israel's insistence that the six were killed while carrying out operations against Israelis will set the clock back yet again. Sunday's killings were also the worst incident of violence since Friday's launch in Jerusalem of the Israeli-Palestinian Coalition, which aims at reviving the peace constituencies in each camp following the the latest intifada which started in September 2000 when Sharon, then leader of the opposition, made a controversial visit to the site of one of Islam's holiest shrines, the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The Coalition, led by Palestinians Sari Nusseibeh and Hanan Ashrawi, and several Israeli opposition legislators, including Yossi Beilin and Yossi Sarid, is calling for a final peace accord based on the creation of a Palestinian state, Jerusalem as the capital for both nations, and the removal of Israeli settlements from the occupied territories. The new grouping has been buoyed by recent polls showing that about two-thirds of Israelis strongly favor a resumption of peace talks, and more than 70 percent of Palestinians support Yasser Arafat's recent call for a ceasefire. "We are not willing to continue to be held hostage by extremists from both sides," said Israeli author David Grossman, one of the founders of the Coalition. "We all know what the framework of the only possible permanent settlement is. Why not arrive at it now and prevent thousands of tragedies?" The grim statistics of the tragedies over the past year were the subject of the B'Tselem report. In addition to the 351 Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli security forces, 103 members of the Palestinians security services were killed in the occupied territories by their Israeli counterparts. Seven Palestinian civilians, including a two-month-old baby, were killed by Israeli civilians during the year, the report said. Also in the occupied territories, 65 Israeli civilians, including six under the age of 15, were killed by Palestinians. Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were also killed there during the past year. Along with the 79 Israeli civilians killed inside Israel proper, according to the report, 16 members of the Israeli security forces were killed there during the year. The worst monthly total was December when 23 civilians were killed in two suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa. The additions of the past year put the total number of Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories killed by Israeli security forces and settlers since the al-Aqsa intifada began, at 601. In addition, 138 members of the Palestinian security forces have been killed during the same 15-month period. Since the intifada began, a total of 83 Israeli civilians and 40 Israeli soldiers and police have been killed by Palestinians in the occupied territo
Corrupt Russian elections turning voters into cynics [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- The Globe and Mail (Canada) 1 January 2002 Corrupt Russian elections turning voters into cynics Promise of democracy has been supplanted by bribery, ballot-stuffing and murder By GEOFFREY YORK MOSCOW -- It was a fairly typical Russian election. A bomb exploded at a Siberian polling station, killing one person. Another bomb exploded near the apartment of a controversial candidate, an alleged organized-crime leader and nightclub devotee known as Pasha the Disco Lights. A rival candidate, the notorious aluminum baron Anatoly Bykov, campaigned from the isolation of his solitary-confinement cell in a Moscow prison, where he was awaiting trial on charges of conspiring to murder his former business partner, the same alleged kingpin who was the target of the bomb blast. In the end, it turned out to be a happy week for both Siberian tycoons. Mr. Bykov captured 53 per cent of the vote in his Krasnoyarsk district in the Dec. 23 regional election, despite the handicap of his prison cell. His former partner, Pavel Struganov (a.k.a. Pasha the Disco Lights), lost his bid for office but survived the bomb and won a legal victory: Police freed him after he was arrested at a club on suspicion of planting the polling-station bomb. For many Russians, the Siberian election was an entertaining saga of crime and violence. But in a week that marked the 10th anniversary of the Soviet Union's collapse, the election was a reminder of the shabby and deteriorating state of Russian democracy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Russians flocked to the polls to support candidates who promised democracy and freedom. Today, Russian elections are routinely marred by cynicism, bribery, fraud, apathy and frequent state control of the outcome. Most Russians are so cynical about politics that they don't even bother voting. But since elections would be invalid if fewer than a required number (usually 25 or 50 per cent) of eligible voters went to the polls, authorities have resorted to a combination of bribery and fraud to ensure the minimum turnout. In an election last month in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, authorities blatantly gave away financial benefits to lure voters to the polls. City officials stood at polling stations, handing out coupons for a 100-ruble discount (about $5) on the electricity bills of anyone who voted. Voters could also enter lotteries for prizes. The head of the regional election commission said the Yakutsk handouts were a form of illegal bribery, but no one was prosecuted. Voters were equally apathetic in Moscow, where authorities offered free movies and cheap food to attract voters in city elections. In both elections, authorities later said that the number of voters had reached the minimum necessary -- but only after a mysterious last-minute surge of votes in near-empty polling stations, which led to the widespread suspicion that officials had manipulated the results. In both elections, the regional governments appeared to have fixed the results. Pro-government candidates won easily. In Moscow, supporters of the pro-Kremlin mayor won 33 of the 35 city seats after negotiating a power-sharing agreement. Most of the major political parties had agreed in advance to form a coalition, dividing up the seats among themselves. Faced with elections that never seem to matter, a growing number of Russian voters are alienated from the process. In the Yakutia region, 8 per cent of voters rejected all of the candidates, voting for "none of the above." In Moscow, 15 per cent voted against all candidates. Much of the alienation and apathy is because of the pervasive corruption and fraud that make a mockery of many elections. Russian governments, even at the highest level, are increasingly skilled at controlling results and manufacturing whatever vote tallies they want. Last year, a six-month investigation by a Moscow newspaper found evidence of large-scale fraud in Vladimir Putin's presidential-election victory. It concluded that Russian officials had used tactics such as ballot-stuffing, vote-buying, bribery and administrative pressure, and it said that at least 2.2 million votes had been falsified -- enough to ensure that Mr. Putin captured a first-round victory. Cynicism has reached such heights that Russians barely pay attention to the bizarre scandals and reversals of their politicians. The former bad boy of Russian politics, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, caused barely a ripple this month when he dropped his ultranationalist stance and announced that he supports the United States. Mr. Zhirinovsky, who had spent most of his career denouncing the United States and threatening to drop nuclear bombs on it, switched his position after Mr. Putin adopted a pro-Western foreign policy. Mr. Zhirinovsky said his party would abandon its anti-Western slogans, and he even suggested a U.S.-Russia merger. "The Cold War does not exist any longer," he declared. Russians paid lit
Let This Be a Brave New Year [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Published on Sunday, December 30, 2001 in the Observer of London Let This Be a Brave New YearAt home and abroad we have learnt that peace and stability depend on moving beyond our insular mindsets Editorial One searing image has supplanted even the plumes of smoke over the twin towers of the World Trade Center as the telling symbol of our times. It is the gaunt, bearded picture of Osama bin Laden mouthing murderous threats against non-believers from the security of his cave. It is a sealed mind in a sealed hideout intent on proclaiming the justice of his cause to the end, whatever mayhem, havoc and suffering ensues. In a world never more in need of mutual respect between cultures and peoples, the terrorist leader personifies all that menaces such values. This year has been one of sealed minds. Al-Qaeda is the most sinister and deadly, but the hardening of cultural, political and religious arteries has been shockingly evident everywhere. Military victory alone cannot give the Israelis the peace and security they crave; no victory is conceivable for the Palestinians without recognition that Israel is here to stay. The self-defeating war continues. In America, technological weapon superiority has encouraged conservatives to think that the moment has come for the US - by military force - unilaterally to construct the order it wants in the Middle East. They believe they must side with Israeli militarism, depose Saddam Hussein, and carry the 'war against terrorism' to the Yemen, Somalia and Sudan. And America has served notice on Russia that it will withdraw from the anti-ballistic missile treaty and develop its own National Missile Defense System - even though the events of last September underlined that the most potent threat comes from driven individuals and simple technologies. Instead of strengthening the international system of security treaties, the US is striking out on its own. The failing of this mindset is that it is wholly preoccupied with putting America first. It offers no global leadership. The same myopia is evident in international trade, aid and finance. Global aid to Africa has fallen by two-fifths over the 1990s. A trivial increase in grants by developed countries to improve health in poorer ones would have a dramatic impact on life expectancy and disease. Yet US Treasury Secretary Paul Neill remains unmoved by calls for a new $50 billion Marshall aid program to assist poorer countries. The necessary US contribution would be a fraction of the $65bn of corporate tax breaks that Republican Washington is currently forcing through Congress. It is claimed that companies like Boeing and GE, who paid less than 3 per cent of their revenues in tax last year, are suffering from enterprise-stifling taxes. Yet as we enter 2002, the global economy is suffering its biggest ever national default - in Argentina - and its biggest ever corporate collapse - at Enron. Japan has experienced the biggest fall in industrial output since the 1930s, and the US the longest fall in output since the 1930s too. Meanwhile, Republicans are using the occasion not to stimulate the American economy, where the need is transparent, but to help their corporate backers. The importance of the wider world is being overlooked yet again. Thus 2002 promises to prove one of the riskiest years both economically and politically since the 1970s. Those risks could be turned into calamities if sealed minds prevent recognition of our essential interdependence. On the other hand, the same awareness of the need for collaborative action and the scale of the potential calamity creates a massive opportunity. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown saw this in their championing of a modern Marshall Plan. Before 11 September such an idea would have received short shrift. Now it is seen - except in the US - as a vision that should be backed. If the international momentum grows, it may even be difficult for the US to stand aside. The difficulty, as always, is to persuade those who have sealed themselves off from such arguments to change their minds without loss of face. Part of the problem is that multilateralism and international collaboration are necessarily unheroic and inherently full of compromises. Yet over the 1990s the world began to show that such approaches can work. In Kosovo and Timor international intervention has limited what would otherwise have been ethnic killing
News, 31.12.2001, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News Dec.31st, 2001, 16:00 UTC Pakistani Authorities Detain Militants Pakistan police raided the offices of two militant groups in the southern city of Karachi and detained a second militant leader opposed to India's rule in Kashmir as the nuclear-armed neighbours engage in their biggest military buildup in almost 15 years. Police arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad on Sunday night. Both are blamed by India for involvement in the bloody December 13 attack in New Dehli that killed 14 people. Pakistan also detained Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who gave up the Lashkar leadership last week amid Indian demands for action against the two groups. Both groups have denied responsibility for the attact on India's parliament. -In the divided and disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, India said two of its soldiers had been killed and five wounded in an overnight exchange across a volatile ceasefire line. Both India and Pakistan have said that they do not want a fresh conflict. U.S. Bomb kills Villagers U.S. aircraft bombed a village in eastern Afghanistan and killed more than 100 residents, villagers said on Monday. The attack, in the early hours of Sunday morning, was believed to have involved one B-52 bomber and two helicopters. Villagers said up to 107 people had been killed, but it was difficult to identify victims because of the damage. At least 10 people were wounded. U.S. troops had been invited to witness the damage caused by the attack. Afghan Security Force Agreement Afghanistan's interim government said an agreement has now been reached on the deployment of a multinational security force in the country. The first troops of the International Security Assistance Force are expected to arrive in Afghanistan at the beginning of January. Meanwhile, a senior US official said fresh intelligence suggested that Osama bin Laden was probably still alive, despite weeks of US efforts to destroy him and his al Qaeda terrorist network. Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Bin Laden was probably still in Afghanistan, although other Afghan officials have suggested that he may have fled to Pakistan. US bombing raids have continued over the past few days against suspected Taliban centres. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press on Sunday quoted witnesses as saying that at least fifteen people had been killed in US bomb attacks in the last two days. Forty-seven members of S.Africa family die in crash At least 47 members of a single South African family were killed when their truck overturned on the way to a family gathering. Police said the accident occurred on Sunday night when the family were travelling to visit ancestors' graves. About 120 people had been on the truck, including children, and several family members were rushed to local hospitals with injuries. Witnesses reported that the driver lost control of the truck when he tried to change gears on a downward slope and failed. The truck overturned when he applied the brakes. Accusations fly after Zambia's Election Zambian opposition leaders, protesting against what they say is the rigging of the country's close-fought presidential election, called for mass action to force the chief justice not to recognise the result. Reverend Nevers Mumba, speaking on behalf of Zambia's 10 opposition parties, said they had asked their supporters to come to the Supreme Court. Latest results give Anderson Mazoka of the opposition United Party for National Development a slim lead. The swearing-in of the new president has been re-scheduled for Wednesday. Palestinians promise Revenge for Killings Israel's killing of six Palestinians in the Gaza Strip drew promises of revenge on Monday from militants defying President Yasser Arafat's call to halt attacks on Israelis. The six men were killed in confrontations on Sunday. The committee, which includes members of Arafat's Fatah and the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad organisations, said Ismael Abu al-Qumsan, its leader in the northern Gaza Strip, and two other gunmen were killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army said they were killed trying to cross into Israel. Israeli forces also killed three Palestinians in a separate Gaza incident on Sunday. A senior Palestinian security official accused Israel of "assassinating" all six. The violence broke a two-week lull that began after Arafat, under intense international pressure to rein in groups behind suicide bombings in Israel, called for a ceasefire and his security forces began rounding up dozens of militants. At Least 290 Killed in Peruvian Fireworks Blaze The blaze started by a fireworks exp
Israel lures Argentina's Jews [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Israel lures Argentina's Jews By Joshua Brilliant United Press International TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Jorge Leibovich, his wife and three children stepped off an Iberia flight this week that brought them from Argentina to a country that offered them not only an immigration visa and automatic citizenship, but is also covering the cost of the move and tens of thousands of dollars toward buying an apartment: Israel. Top Stories The Leiboviches were among the first 63 new immigrants who arrived this week following the riots that have gripped Argentina. They have been preparing the move for months, but will benefit from new incentives Israel announced last Sunday to attract more of Argentina's Jews. The incentives to attract overseas Jews grow out of the Zionist ideology that the Jews, whom the Romans forced out of their ancestral land in the beginning of the Christian era, should return. "We are responsible for the fate of every Jew from the moment he announces his desire to immigrate to Israel," Philosophy Professor Asa Kasher wrote this week in the Maariv newspaper. Israelis are suffering from an economic depression and spreading unemployment. However, reflecting the Zionist ideology, Kasher insisted that the Jewish people ought to help potential newcomers before they depart their countries of origin, on their way to Israel, and after they arrive, "despite every economic hardship that Israel's citizens feel." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is seeking to attract 1 million new immigrants over the next 10 years. The latest plans seek to focus on Argentina because of the economic conditions there, South Africa because of the rising violence, and France where there is an increasing Arab population, Jewish Agency officials said. Most of Argentina's Jews belong to the middle-class, which that country's economic crisis has hit hard. Some 200,000 Jews live in Argentina, and the Jewish Agency said it believes one out of four are now poor. It is estimated that some 1,700 Jewish families lost their homes. Some people moved to cheap hotels while others live under bridges, in public squares and parks. The number of welfare recipients in the Jewish community increased from 4,000 to 20,000, the agency said. The economic crisis body hit Jewish institutions, too, reducing funds for social, educational and other programs, the former president of the Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations, Ruben Beraja, told United Press International. Jorge Leibovich said he lost his job as an accountant a year ago. His 14-year-old daughter, Mariela, recalled living in fear that burglars would break into their home as the country's economy deteriorated. Another immigrant from Argentina, Miriam Elbaum, who took the same flight as the Leiboviches, said her husband was a taxi driver. "There is no work. You don't see any money. Nobody pays anything," she said. Another immigrant, Freddy Roth, said he had to close his store two years ago. It sold eyeglasses, cameras and hearing aids. "My brother and sister told me to come to Israel and not stay in Argentina," the 60-year-old Roth said. It was not only the economic situation that got them moving. There was an increasing disillusionment with the political system and the endemic corruption, Alberto Indij, an active member in the Jewish community, said in an interview in Buenos Aires. The Argentine Jews should be particularly welcome in Israel. "Most of them are professionals, academics," the Absorption Ministry's Director-General Ronen Plotz told UPI. Plotz noted that some 1 million people came from the former Soviet Union in the past decade, and every wave of immigration spurred economic development. In the past week alone some 900 immigrants arrived, according to a senior Jewish Agency official, Ephraim Lapid. Eighty percent of them came from the former Soviet Union and some 70 people arrived from Ethiopia, Lapid told UPI. However many of those new immigrants are not Jewish. They take advantage of Jewish family ties, or ancestry, to improve their standard of living. Argentine Jews are different. Many studied in Jewish schools, some speak Hebrew. Many have visited Israel before and some said they had thought of immigration, or aliyah, years ago. The Argentine economic crisis spurred the Israeli incentive program, while similar plans for South African Jews are still awaiting the attorney general's approval, Plotz said. The Jewish Agency said it sent 18 emissaries to Argentina and employs 50 local people there. The standard Israeli offer to new immigrants includes airfare, transferring household goods and generous help in acquiring an apartment. Some new immigrants are housed in absorption centers where they learn Hebrew and get used to their new country. Under an agreement s
Yugoslav army chief draws criticism [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Yugoslav army chief draws criticism By Stevan Zivanovic UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Yugoslavia's controversial army chief of staff, Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, on Saturday criticized his Top Stories detractors for interfering in military affairs. He was appointed by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and confirmed by his successor Vojislav Kostunica three days ago, amidst protests from other leaders of the Serbian governing democratic coalition, or DOS. During a visit to a motorized brigade in Bujanovac close to the boundary with Kosovo, Pavkovic said, "I think it is inappropriate for any institutions in this state and any political parties to show interest in what personnel changes are going to be in the army." Most DOS leaders said Kostunica had made a mistake in retaining Pavkovic who they said escapes civilian control and has been named by The Hague war crimes tribunal prosecutors as a suspected accomplice in alleged crimes against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. The general rejected claims that the army is beyond civilian political control. "We have the president of the state who is also commander of the armed forces in peacetime and war and who is a civilian. Through professional organs, he commands and controls the army." Under the Yugoslav constitution, the army is commanded and controlled by a three-man supreme military council made up of the federal president and the presidents of the two federal republics -- Serbia and Montenegro. The federal president chairs council meetings, but decisions are taken by consensus. Immediately after announcing that the Yugoslav army had won the 11-week war over Kosovo against a NATO-led international force which had already entered the province in mid-June 1999, Pavkovic proclaimed Milosevic mastermind of the victory. Pavkovic went on to campaign politically in favor of Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia and his wife Mira Markovic's Yugoslav United Left party, YUL. Boris Tadic, deputy leader of Serbia's largest parliamentary Democratic Party and spokesman for Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, was reported Saturday to have said, "We cannot go into the Partnership for Peace with old-time people who turned the army into a political party institution and who made political speeches and were intimate with the family of the former president." The federal parliament this week allotted $750 million to the army, or two-thirds of the federal budget for 2002, but Defense Ministry officials complained they had no idea how the money will be spent. Deputy Federal Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, effectively the government leader, said, "I think the federal government and the Defense Ministry must control the money spent by the army and Pavkovic is the obstacle to that. "We'll accept the decision (by Kostunica to keep him as army chief), but we'll not abstain from this supervision." Referring to The Hague tribunal, Pavkovic told the soldiers, "Members of the army have no reason to fear that institution. We have no reason to cover up war crimes if there were any or to hide their perpetrators. ... We'll do all to uncover such possible crimes and those we knew had taken place during (NATO's) aggression we have already prosecuted in civilian courts." ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
India, Pakistan rattle their nukes.......By ERIC MARGOLIS [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- December 30, 2001 India, Pakistan rattle their nukes By ERIC MARGOLISContributing Foreign Editor For the first time since the Cuban missile crisis of October, 1962, two nuclear-armed powers, India and Pakistan, are in a direct military confrontation that could lead to a massive conventional war - and even to full-scale nuclear conflict. The armed forces of both old foes are on high alert and deploying to forward positions. India and Pakistan say their nuclear-armed missiles are ready to strike. When War at the Top of the World, my book on Afghanistan and the Kashmir conflict first came out in 1999 (2000 in the U.S., U.K., and India), people asked, "Who cares about that region?" I sought to explain, usually in vain, that this little-known part of the globe was about to erupt. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan, according to CIA studies, would kill two million people immediately, and injure 100 million. Equally apocalyptic, a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, and attacks on one another's nuclear power reactors, would send a cloud of radioactive dust around the planet. India and Pakistan have fought three wars over the divided mountain state of Kashmir, the majority of whose 11 million inhabitants are Muslims. For the past 12 years, a score of Muslim insurgent groups have waged a fierce guerrilla war against some 600,000 Indian soldiers and paramilitary troops in Indian Kashmir. India calls the Muslim insurgents "Pakistani-supported terrorists," a position lately adopted by the United States. Pakistan calls them legitimate "freedom fighters" battling for the independence of Kashmir. India rejects UN demands for a plebiscite to determine Kashmir's future. The Kashmir insurgency has been an extremely dirty war. Some 50,000 have died, mainly civilians. Indian forces have resorted to brutal reprisals, arson, torture, murder of suspects, and gang rape of Muslim women. Kashmir insurgents have slaughtered Hindus, causing 250,000 to flee the Jammu region, and assassinated many state officials. Indian forces disguised as Kashmiri mujahedeen have even attacked Sikhs in an effort to turn them against Muslims. India has long threatened to attack Pakistan, which it accuses of arming and supporting the Kashmiri mujahedeen. In fact, Pakistani intelligence, ISI, has quietly backed some - but not all - of the militant groups, as well as Sikh separatists and Christian insurgents in India's eastern hill states. India, in turn, stirs up sectarian violence inside Pakistan. THE LAST STRAW For India, the last straw came just before Christmas, when as yet unidentified militants attacked India's parliament building in New Delhi. This assault followed attacks against Delhi's trademark Red Fort and against the Kashmir parliament in Srinagar. India accused two new Pakistan-based Kashmiri insurgent groups - Lashkar-e-Toyiba and Jash-e-Mohammed - of staging the attacks with Pakistani backing. Interestingly, according to my information, neither of these extreme groups are run by Pakistani intelligence. But Pakistan was plunged into confrontation with an outraged India. The attack on parliament in Delhi was an intolerable outrage. India's cautious prime minister, Atal Vajpayee, is under intense pressure to strike Pakistan - or at least the bases of insurgents in the Pakistani portion of divided Kashmir. Hindu fundamentalists, led by Home Minister L.K. Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes, are beating the war drums. Even India's usually conservative generals are itching to teach Pakistan a lesson. Pakistan is issuing its own threats and massing troops. The confrontation with India is a boon for Pakistan's military strongman, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, diverting public anger over Pakistan's recent debacle in Afghanistan and its unpopular new role as an American base. Unfortunately for Pakistan, Musharraf retired or sidelined the army's best generals under U.S. pressure just before the confrontation with India. India is moving troops, armour and aircraft to forward attack positions along its 1,000-mile border with Pakistan. India's three powerful armour-heavy "strike corps" are poised to sever Pakistan's vulnerable waist in the Bahawalpur-Rahimyar Khan sectors. India's increasingly potent navy is ready to blockade Karachi, Pakistan's main port and entry point for oil. ADVANTAGE INDIA India's 1.2-million man armed forces, with 3,400 tanks and 738 combat aircraft, outnumber and outgun Pakistan's 620,000 troops, 2,300 tanks and 353 warplanes. India's arsenal is mostly modern Russian equipment, while Pakistan's is obsolescent. Equally important, Pakistan's limited industrial base allows only a short war, while India's much larger economy can sustain a long conflict. The U.S. is leading frantic diplomatic efforts to prevent war. But passions are running very high. The most likely war scen
Bosnia's Serbian sector is struggling [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bosnia's Serbian sector is struggling By Joshua Kucera THE WASHINGTON TIMES BANJA LUKA, Bosnia - Bosnia's Serbian entity has lower wages and higher unemployment than the rest of the country. Top Stories Its leaders are constantly harangued by the international community for having not arrested a single war crimes suspect. Even local Serbs have become doubtful that their government can do much for them. So when Slobodan Milosevic was indicted last month on genocide charges in connection with the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, it was a blow the Republika Srpska (R.S.) didn't need. The reaction from here in the capital was swift. "Whether Milosevic defends himself or not, the R.S. government must overturn this accusation in his name and in the interests of Republika Srpska," said Sinisa Djordjevic, the prime minister's adviser to the war crimes tribunal at The Hague. "Defending the charges is important, because Muslims and Croats still insist that the R.S. was created on genocide and ethnic cleansing, and is thus politically illegitimate." Republika Srpska authorities were already facing an impatient international community, which has ramped up its criticism that the government in Banja Luka is corrupt, incompetent and bent on creating a monoethnic state. International officials charge that the government has done nothing to arrest the two most-wanted suspects in Bosnia - Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. Privatization has gone slowly and favors those with political connections. In the national parliament at Sarajevo, politicians from the Serbian entity routinely block legislation that would give the central government more power. Croats and Muslims who want to return, officials say, are discouraged from doing so in a manner organized by the government. Six years after the war in Bosnia ended, the country is still governed by the United Nations, but the internationa body is trying to devolve its power to the central government and the two other entities: the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska. But non-Serbs have long called for a more unified Bosnia. Their arguments have gained strength in recent months as criticism of the Republika Srpska has reached a fever pitch. Leading the charge has been U.N. High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch. He met senior government officials last month in Banja Luka. "If the politics of isolation continue to be pursued, the R.S. will remain a deserted island that cannot survive," he told Sarajevo television station Studio 99 this month. "If reforms are not implemented, there will be no Republika Srpska," he said. "Therefore, I will be watching very carefully the developments there." The think tank International Crisis Group also had harsh words for the Republika Srpska in a recent report. "The logical solution would be the dissolution of Republika Srpska due to its manifest unreformability and its incompatibility with the basic democratic development of the Bosnian state. However, such a radical step is currently neither feasible nor even desirable. The way ahead is to demand much, much more of the R.S." The root of the problem, international officials and analysts say, is the nationalist Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), founded by Mr. Karadzic. In the last elections, the SDS won handily, but international officials engineered a government ruled instead by their choice, Mladen Ivanic, and including many SDS members in nominally nonparty "expert" roles. Although Mr. Ivanic is favored by the internationals and makes statements they like to hear, he is thought to be too weak to fend off the SDS elements in his government. SDS members have consolidated control of many bureaucratic and municipal administrations in the Republika Srpska and can obstruct policies they don't approve of, international officials say. In addition, their invisible role in the government gives them considerable leeway. "The SDS stands up in parliament and criticizes the government like they're not part of it. They're trying to have it both ways," said one international official here. The government's most high-profile "failure" is that Mr. Karadzic and Mr. Mladic continue to live freely, if hidden, in Bosnia. Although Mr. Ivanic this month called on all war-crimes suspects in the country to surrender, local journalists continue to report that they are being protected by R.S. army units. Both men remain popular in the Republika Srpska. Books about them are on most of Banja Luka's bookstands, and opinion polls show only 5 percent of residents think they should be arrested. Mr. Mladic and Mr. Karadzic "are important, they're symbols of war crimes, and the R.S. is in a very bad situation because they're still free. We can't solve any other important problems because the international community is constantly talking about them," said Branko Peric, a political jou
Business this year [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Business this year Dec 20th 2001 From The Economist print edition Economic woes The world economy suffered a worse-than-expected downturn. Since December 2000, The Economist's panel of forecasters has lowered its estimates of GDP growth almost everywhere. America and Japan fell into recession in 2001; so did Germany. Among G7 rich countries, Britain weathered the year best. See article: The risk of world recession World stockmarkets continued a sedate decline until hit by September 11th. That triggered a sharp fall followed by a rally as hopes grew of an early economic recovery. Slashed interest rates and cheaper oil made that plausible; weak investment and high consumer debts raised doubts. Mexico and some Central European markets were steadier; Russia soared. See article: World stockmarkets World leaders agreed after long negotiation in Doha to launch a new trade round. See article: The Doha round Industrial decline The world airline industry split into two. Mainstream carriers were all heading for record losses even before September 11th slashed traffic by 25%. But no-frills, low-fare carriers such as Southwest in America and Ryanair and easyJet in Europe prospered. See article: The aviation aftershocks from September 11th The wheels came off the car industry. Ford fired its chief executive, Jacques Nasser. Volkswagen named Bernd Pischetsrieder its new boss. DaimlerChrysler's woes continued in America; General Motors, Ford and Fiat retrenched in Europe. See article: America's car industry Steel producers continued to be plagued by inefficiency and overcapacity, as prices slipped to 20-year lows. Two of America's biggest producers, LTV and Bethlehem Steel, filed for bankruptcy. Their plight moved America's government to threaten tariffs of up to 40% on steel imports. That, said the EU, would spark a trade war. See article: US steel producers talk mergers The European Commission blocked the biggest-ever industrial merger, between two American giants, General Electric and Honeywell. Americans were infuriated and aghast that the deal, already approved at home, could be thwarted in Europe. See article: Mario Monti, Europe's fearless diplomat Enron, a once high-flying American energy trader, fell to earth amid questions over its off-balance-sheet debts and murky accounts. Its collapse, the biggest bankruptcy in American history, triggered multi-million-dollar lawsuits against the company, its executives and its auditors. See article: Auditors under fire Judging technology Microsoft appealed against a judgment ordering it to be split in two for acting as an illegal monopolist. The appeals court rejected the break-up, but upheld the finding that Microsoft had broken the law. A new judge ordered Microsoft's opponents to propose alternative punishment. Some of Microsoft's foes, including America's Department of Justice and nine states, agreed a settlement. But nine states refused to go along with it. See article: The Microsoft settlement Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, two computer makers, announced their intention to merge. The plan was widely criticised, not least by the Hewlett and Packard families, who said they would oppose the deal. Carly Fiorina, HP's chief executive, said she would press ahead regardless. See article: Can the HP-Compaq deal be saved? France's Vivendi, the least exposed of the media giants to the world advertising slump, continued an American shopping spree. Gerald Levin, architect of the merger of Time Warner and AOL and the combined group's chief executive, annnounced that he would resign in 2002. Rupert Murdoch failed to get his hands on DirecTV and so a significant satellite-TV presence in America. The company fell instead to EchoStar, though the deal awaits regulatory approval. See article: Media and the economic downturn Tough for banks It was a tough year for investment banks, as a sharp decline in merger activity, initial public offerings and share-trading volumes hit profits. Commercial banks used their huge balance sheets to offer cut-price loans to companies in return for securing investment-banking mandates. If this continues, the pure investment banks may struggle to stay independent. As profits fell, many bankers lost their jobs; bonuses on Wall Street are expected to be 30% down from a year ago. See article: Investment banking The terrorist attacks on September 11th led to the biggest losses ever in insurance and reinsurance. Terrorism became the risk that no insurer wanted. France is set to launch a reinsurance scheme like Britain's government-backed, mutually owned firm that reinsures terrorist risk. America is shying away from a similar permanent role. See article: The biggest bill of all It was a year of problems, and promise, for the drug industry. Blockbusters,
FBI Offers Reward For Atm Theft Info [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1411680,00.html FBI Offers Reward For Atm Theft Info Saturday December 29, 2001 5:10 AM NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A Jersey City man is suspected of stealing $5 million worth of $20 bills he was supposed to use to restock automated teller machines, the FBI said. Michael Schwartz, 36, is believed to have fled with the cash, which came from a California financial institution and weighed 350 pounds. He owned and operated Direct Connect ATM and Schwartz Armored LLC, two businesses established within the last two years, and had a contract to restock more than 160 ``stand-alone'' ATMs throughout New York and New Jersey, the FBI said. Schwartz was last seen Dec. 2 and is thought to be traveling by car with his two Siamese cats named Bonnie and Clyde. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Fisk heads Downing Street list of media sceptics [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Fisk heads Downing Street list of media sceptics By Mary Dejevsky 22 December 2001 Robert Fisk, The Independent's Middle East correspondent, occupied first and second places in a list of "10 media views which have proved to be wrong" on the war in Afghan-istan. The list is in a publicity document issued by Downing Street to mark 100 days of the "war on terrorism". Entitled "100 Days ... 100 Ways", the document – presented in characteristic, easily digestible No 10 format – included lists of "10 challenges now facing Afghanistan", "10 things that have changed in Afghanistan since toppling the Taliban" (led by "people can listen and dance to music") and "10 chilling Bin Laden/ al-Qa'ida statements". Excerpts from articles by Robert Fisk headed the 10th and last list, which enumerated views expressed in the media that opposed British support for the campaign. The two articles cited were published on 11 and 8 November. In one, Mr Fisk said that: "So far, he [bin Laden] hasn't put a foot wrong." In the other, he asked: "If the US attacks were an assault on 'civilisation', why shouldn't Muslims regard the Afghanistan attack as a war on Islam?" Other writers and commentators quoted in the list included John Pilger in the Mirror, George Monbiot in The Guardian, and Susan Sontag in The New Yorker magazine. All questioned the wisdom of the campaign and cast doubt on its prospects of success. A counterpart document was issued by the White House on the same day. Entitled "The first 100 days", it was prefaced by a quotation from President George Bush: "We are supported by the collective will of the world". The document forbore to comment on media assessments of the campaign. http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=111356 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Fine tuning [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Fine tuning A man and woman are getting all snugly in bed. The passion is heating up, but then the lady stops saying: "I don't feel like it, I just want you to hold me." The guy barks "WHAT??" The lady explains that he must be in tune with her emotional needs as a woman. Then he realises that nothing was going to happen that night and he might as well deal with it. So the next day the man takes her shopping at a big department store. He walks around and has her try on three very expensive outfits. She can't decide. He tells his woman to take all three of them. Then they go over and get matching shoes worth $200 each, then they go to the Jewellery Department where she gets a set of diamond earrings. The lady is so excited. She thinks her guy has flipped out, but she does not care. She goes for the tennis bracelet. He says "you don't even play tennis, but OK if you like it then let's get it." The woman is jumping up and down so excited she cannot even believe what is going on. She says "I am ready to go, lets go to the cash register." The man stops and says, "No, I don't feel like buying all this stuff now." The woman's face goes blank. He continues..."I just wanted you to HOLD this stuff for a while." The look on her face is indescribable and she is about to explode. The guy says, "You need to be in tune with my financial needs as a man". ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
Robert Fisk: Brace yourself for Part Two of the War for Civilisation [WWW.STOPNA
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Robert Fisk: Brace yourself for Part Two of the War for Civilisation 'The US air strikes have now killed more Afghans than the hijackers killed westerners and others' 22 December 2001 It needed my old Irish journalist colleague, Vincent Browne, to point out the obvious to me. With a headache as big as Afghanistan, reading through a thousand newspaper reports on the supposed "aftermath" of the Afghan war, I'd become drugged by the lies. Afghan women were free at last, "our" peacekeeping force was on its way, the Taliban were crushed. Anti-American demonstrations in Pakistan had collapsed – we'll forget my little brush with some real Afghans there a couple of weeks ago. Al-Qa'ida was being "smoked out" of its cave. Osama bin Laden was – well, not captured or even dead; but – well, the Americans had a videotape, incomprehensible to every Arab I've met, which "proves" that our latest monster planned the crimes against humanity on New York and Washington. So it needed Vincent, breathing like a steam engine as he always does when he's angry, to point to the papers in Gemma's, my favourite Dublin newsagents. "What in Christ's sake is going on, Bob?'' he asked. "Have you seen the headlines of all this shite?'' and he pulled Newsweek from the shelf. The headline: After The Evil. "What is this biblical bollocks?'' Vincent asked me. Osama bin Laden's overgrained, videotaped face stared from the cover of the magazine, a dark, devilish image from Dante's circles of hell. When he captured Berlin, Stalin announced that his troops had entered "the lair of the fascist beast''. But the Second World War has nothing on this. So let's do a "story-so-far". After Arab mass-murderers crashed four hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania, a crime against humanity which cost more than 4,000 innocent lives, President Bush announced a crusade for infinite "justice" – later downgraded to infinite freedom – and bombed Afghanistan. Using the gunmen and murderers of the discredited Northern Alliance to destroy the gunmen and murderers of the discredited Taliban, the Americans bombed bin Laden's cave fortresses and killed hundreds of Afghan and Arab fighters, not including the prisoners executed after the Anglo-US-Northern Alliance suppression of the Mazar prison revolt. The production of the bin Laden videotape – utterly convincing evidence of his guilt to the world's press, largely, if wilfully, ignored by the Muslim world – helped to obscure the fact that Mr Evil, seemed to have disappeared. It also helped to airbrush a few other facts away. We could forget that US air strikes, according to statistics compiled by a Chicago University professor, have now killed more innocent Afghans than the hijackers killed westerners and others in the World Trade Centre. We could forget that Mullah Omar, the mysterious leader of the Taliban, has also got away. We could ignore the fact that, save for a few brave female souls, almost all Afghan women in Kabul continued to wear the burqa. We could certainly close our eyes to the massive preponderance of Northern Alliance killers represented in the new UN-supported, pro-western Government in Kabul. We could clap our hands when a mere 50 Royal Marines arrived in Afghanistan this weekend to support a UN-mandated British-led "peace" force of only a few thousand men who will need the Kabul government's permission to operate in the city and which, in numbers, will come to about one-third of the complement of the British Army destroyed in the Kabul Gorge in 1842. The "peace" force thinks it will have to defend humanitarian aid convoys from robbers and dissident Taliban. In fact, it will have to fight off the Northern Alliance mafia and drug-growers and warlords, as well as the vicious guerrillas sent out to strike them by bin Laden's survivors. If nothing else, the Taliban made the roads and villages of Afghanistan safe for Afghans and foreigners alike. Now, you can scarcely drive from Kabul to Jalalabad. Presumably, the CIA will let us pay the Alliance mobsters for their war in Afghanistan. One of the untold stories of this conflict is the huge amount of money handed out to militia leaders to persuade them to fight for the US. When Taliban members changed sides for an Alliance payment of $250,000 and then attacked their benefactors, we all dwelt on their treachery. None of us asked how the Alliance – which didn't have enough money to pay for bullets a few weeks earlier – could throw a quarter of a million bucks at the Taliban in the middle of a fire site. Nor how the Pashtun tribal leaders of Kandahar province are now riding around in brand-new four-wheel drives with thousands of dollars to hand out to their gunmen. I wasn't surprised to read that a Somali warlord is now offering his cash-for-hire services to the US for the next round of the War
Bin Laden: 'We are at the start of our military action on America' [WWW.STOPNATO
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Bin Laden: 'We are at the start of our military action on America' Robert Fisk 28 December 2001 The first time I met Osama bin Laden inside Afghanistan, it was a hot, humid night in the summer of 1996. Huge insects flew through the night air, settling like burrs on his Saudi robes and on the clothes of his armed followers. They would land on my notebook until I swatted them, their blood smearing the pages. Bin Laden was always studiously polite: each time we met, he would offer the usual Arab courtesy of food for a stranger: a tray of cheese, olives, bread and jam. I had already met him in Sudan and would spend a night, almost a year later, in one of his mountain guerrilla camps, so cold that I awoke in the morning with ice in my hair. I had been given a rough blanket and my shoes were left outside the tent. Whenever we met, he would interrupt our interviews to say his prayers, his armed followers – from Algeria, Egypt, the Gulf Arab states, Syria – kneeling beside him, hanging on his every word as if he were a messiah. On 20 March, 1997, I would meet him again. Although only 41 at the time, his ruggedly groomed beard had white hairs, and he had bags under his eyes; I sensed some infirmity, a stiffness of one leg that gave him the slightest of limps. I still have my notes, scribbled in the frozen semi-darkness as an oil lamp sputtered between us. "I am not against the American people," he said. "Only their government." I told him I thought the American people regarded their government as their representatives. Bin Laden listened to this in silence. "We are still at the beginning of our military action against the American forces," he said. I remembered those words as I watched those aeroplanes scything into the World Trade Centre towers. And I remembered, too, how in that last meeting he had seized on the Arabic-language newspapers I was carrying in my satchel (a schoolbag I use in rough countries) and scurried to a corner of the tent to read them for 20 minutes, ignoring both his fighters and myself. The first time we met, in Sudan, I persuaded bin Laden – much against his will – to talk about those days. And he recalled how, during an attack on a Russian firebase not far from Jalalabad, a mortar shell had fallen at his feet. He had waited for it to explode. And in those milliseconds of rationality, he had – so he said – felt a great sense of tranquillity, a sense of calm acceptance, which he ascribed to God. One of his armed followers in Afghanistan took me up the "bin Laden trail", a terrifying two-hour odyssey along fearful ravines in rain and sleet, the windscreen misting as we climbed the cold mountain. "When you believe in jihad [holy war], it is easy," the gunman informed me, fighting with the steering wheel as stones scuttered from the tyres, bouncing down the valleys into the clouds below. It was two hours more – this was in 1997 – before we reached bin Laden's old wartime camp, the jeep skidding backwards towards sheer cliffs, the headlights illuminating frozen waterfalls above. Bin Laden is a tall, slim man and towers over his companions. He has narrow, dark eyes that stared hard at me when he spoke of his hatred of Saudi corruption. Indeed, in my long conversation with bin Laden in 1996 – on that hot night of mosquitoes – the Saudi kingdom and its apparatchiks probably consumed more time than his views of America. History – or his version of it – was the basis of almost all his remarks. And the pivotal date was 1990, the year in which Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. "When the American troops entered Saudi Arabia, the land of the two holy places, there was a strong protest from the ulema [religious authorities] against the interference of American troops. "This big mistake by the Saudi regime of inviting the American troops revealed their deception. They had given their support to nations that were fighting against Muslims. After it insulted and jailed the ulema... the Saudi regime lost its legitimacy." Bin Laden paused to see whether I had listened to his careful, if frighteningly exclusive, history lesson. "I believe that sooner or later the Americans will leave Saudi Arabia, and that the war declared by America against the Saudi people means war against Muslims everywhere..." He also told me that "swift and light forces working in complete secrecy" would be needed to oust America from Saudi Arabia. In the following two years, bin Laden was to form his al-Qa'ida movement and declare war on the American people – not just the government and army of the United States. http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=111839 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your m
Afghan government demands end to bombing [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Afghan government demands end to bombing Mark Oliver and agencies Friday December 28, 2001 Afghanistan's new government today demanded that the US cease its bombing raids once all the few remaining Taliban and al-Qaida bases have been destroyed. Speaking to Reuters, Mohammad Habeel, a spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, said: "Their remaining forces are few in number and may be annihilated in a maximum of three days. Once this is done there is no need for continuation of the bombing." In its first air strike in three days, Washington said last night that its planes destroyed a compound used by the Taliban south-west of Kabul, but the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said 25 villagers were killed by bombs in the same vicinity. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, said the compound was near the town of Ghazni and that the US had "very good indications" Taliban leaders were inside. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's newly appointed deputy defence minister, warned of potential problems from the Taliban as "enemies inside". In an interview reported today by the Associated Press, General Rashid Dostum said that Taliban fighters who have "simply changed their turban colour" and melted into the population represent a threat to the stability of Afghanistan and its interim government. Arguably underlining his point, it was reported today by the AIP that unidentified assailants fired four rockets overnight at the eastern city of Jalalabad. Two rockets targeted a military installation, but there were no reported injuries, the news agency said. Gen Dostrum said: "The Taliban cannot wage war against us, but they can still create huge problems like committing acts of terrorism and kidnapping our people." The ethnic Uzbek warlord was a key member of the Northern Alliance that helped overthrow the Taliban and a major power broker in northern Afghanistan and its main city, Mazar-e-Sharif. His appointment on Monday was seen as an attempt by interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, to bolster support for the transitional government, which took office last weekend. Gen Dostum had been angry because the key ministries all went to an ethnic Tajik group from the Panjshir valley. The new Afghan government claims terror suspect Osama bin Laden has slipped into Pakistan where he is being protected by followers of radical Islamic leader Maulana Fazalur Rehman, a long-time ally. However, Mr Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party, dismissed the assertion as a "joke" and an attempt to divert the US campaign away from Afghanistan now the Taliban has been defeated. http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,625369,00.html ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
KFOR troops clash with Kosovo Serbs [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- KFOR troops clash with Kosovo Serbs BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- French troops of the NATO-led international peacekeeping force KFOR in Kosovo clashed with several hundred Serbs in the northern town of Mitrovica during a house-to-house search for weapons, the Srna news agency reported. The troops used stun bombs and tear gas and fired in the air to disperse demonstrators. KFOR issued no statement by Friday morning and it was not clear if there were casualties on either side. Srna said the incident started at 10 p.m. Thursday when residents of a block of flats gathered to protest against the way the search was being carried out. They were joined by hundreds of Serbs living in the northern part of Mitrovica and confrontations lasted until early Friday when the troops hurled tear gas canisters and stun bombs at the crowd. During the night, KFOR and international police suspended all foot patrols and vehicles from the Mitrovica streets. KFOR patrols returned to the streets after daybreak. The town of Mitrovica is divided by the River Ibar into predominantly Serb-populated northern part and the mostly ethnic Albanian southern sector. There has been sporadic violence between the two communities since KFOR took control of Kosovo in June 1999. KFOR officials believe that the Serbs have large quantities of weapons hidden in the area. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
News, 29.12.2001, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 29.12.2001, 16:00 UTC India Pakistan - Tensions Rise Officials said on Saturday hundreds of villagers on the border of nuclear neighbours India and Pakistan have fled their homes, as the two nations declared themselves in favour of peace while preparing for war.Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said he would do his utmost to avoid armed conflict but vowed to pursue India's claim that Pakistan-based Kashmir militants were behind a deadly attack on India's parliament on December 13. Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar said there was a high possibility that some small action could set in motion a chain of events that would result in conflict. Pakistan said it was willing to hold a summit with India in Nepal next week but India demanded what it called resolute Pakistan action against terrorism first. Meanwhile India and Pakistan have reinforced their joint border with troops and equipment, including tanks, fighter jets and artillery in the biggest such build-up in almost 15 years. Argentina - more Demonstrations Argentine demonstrators clashed with police outside the presidential palace and looted furniture in Congress on Saturday in anger at the new government's handling of a deep recession barely a week after protests forced out a previous president. Thousands of people protested against interim President Adolfo Rodriguez Saa's decision to keep unpopular banking curbs and his appointment of some officials widely seen as corrupt. Rodriguez Saa, who stopped payments on Argentina's foreign debt after being appointed last Sunday, called an emergency Cabinet meeting on Saturday morning. Unpopular restrictions have led some to fear their life savings may be seized outright by the cash-strapped government. USA Rejects Call to Halt Bombing The United States has rejected a call from the new Afghan interim government to promptly end the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. President George W. Bush said all options should remain open as the search continued for Osama bin Laden. The American TV channel ABC has reported that regular U.S. ground troops will soon replace U.S. special marines in the Kandahar area, possibly in mid-January. Eight senior German Bundeswehr officers have delayed until Monday their departure for Kabul. They'll do reconnaissance for the ISAF, the U.N.-mandated multinational force being assembled for Afghanistan. Slow Poll Count in Zambia Initial results from Zambia's elections held on Thursday suggest a narrow lead for the ruling MMD party's candidate Levy Mwanawasa but opposition figures allege vote-rigging, saying they won't concede. Amid slow counting, the government said a swearing-in of a new president would be delayed until next Wednesday. Zambia's electoral commission said Mwanawasa had 149,493 votes compared to 148,628 for opposition candidate Anderson Mazoka. But, Mazoka claimed instead that EU monitors' figures showed that he had won, adding he would not accept "election fraud". No results have emerged from Zambia's parallel election for parliament where analysts expect a coalition. Mwanawasa is the heir of outgoing President Frederick Chiluba. Apartheid Era Lawsuit Pending Holocaust claims lawyer Ed Fagan says South African non-governmental organisations he's advising plan to file apartheid reparation claims early next year against European and U.S. financial institutions. In an interview with DW-Radio, Fagan said institutions, such as Swiss banks, had profiteered by financing South Africa's former apartheid government in defiance of U.N. sanctions. The lawsuit would seek to establish a fund worth "tens of billions of dollars" to compensate individual victims, Fagan said. Last month, President Thabo Mbeki said South Africa's current government would not take legal action against foreign nations. He was responding to plans by Jubilee South Africa, an alliance of non-governmental groups. Australian Bushfires Continue Australian firefighters, close to Sydney, had a calmer-than-expected day on Saturday, but the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts for Sunday are causing serious concern. Firefighters were expecting gusty north-westerly winds Saturday, but instead got a north-easterly which is blowing at up to 40 kilometres an hour. The change came as a welcome relief to fire service personnel in some areas, where fires have literally turned back on themselves. In other areas, firefighters have had to reposition themselves as the direction of the blaze changed.A spokesperson for the Rural Fire Service says the fires have so far burned out more than 250,000 hectares and that more than 100 fires were still raging
DEL PONTE DECLARES MILOSEVIC GUILTY! (BEFORE TRIAL BEGINS) [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
Title: Message HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- DEL PONTE DECLARES MILOSEVIC GUILTY! (BEFORE TRIAL BEGINS) Carla del Ponte, the Swiss lawyer acting as the chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, which is not recognised by the United States of America, has been hounding Yugoslav ex-President Slobodan Milosevic and the members of his regime implacably, showing a degree of venom mixed with personal spite, which raises suspicions as to whether there is more to this vendetta than meets the eye. Carla del Ponte was behind the illegal kidnapping of Slobodan Milosevic after a hurried meeting of part of the Yugoslav cabinet decided to spirit the ex-President out of the country during the night, so as to be eligible for the international aid package, conditional on Milosevic’s detention. It was thus that Slobodan Milosevic arrived at the International penal Court at The Hague, whose juridical status is not recognised by many countries, among them the USA. Accused or war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, Slobodan Milosevic is, under international law, innocent until he is proven guilty. However, Carla del Ponte declared in an interview with the BBC Today programme on Thursday that “Milosevic is guilty…he is responsible for all these horrible crimes that were committed”. Such a declaration, in public, from someone who is supposed to be a lawyer, is a personal disgrace and an insult to the profession. Furthermore, Carla del Ponte made political statements, calling Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica “a big obstacle” to the arrest of General Ratko Mladic, Chief of Staff of the Republika Srpska forces in Bosnia. The fact is that while Kostunica is acting within the letter of the law, Carla del Ponte is not. President Kostunica declares that co-operation with The Hague will be forthcoming, but naturally within the framework of existing legislation. Where such legislation does not exist, new laws must be made, under the norms stipulated in the Constitution. For this reason, he terms Milosevic’s extradition to the Netherlands “unconstitutional”, given that the ex-President was kidnapped against the ruling of the Supreme Court of Serbia. Carla del Ponte, frustrated that she did not manage to convince the presiding judge to join the cases against Milosevic together in one, now vents her rage that the political and military leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, are still at large. She insinuated that the Yugoslav authorities are protecting the latter “It is scandalous that Mladic can move freely in Belgrade”, claiming that he had been seen days previously in a restaurant, with a military escort, and derided the NATO peace-keeping forces in Bosnia for not catching the former, saying she “cannot accept” that it is beyond their abilities to find and arrest Karadzic. Next time Carla del Ponte visits Belgrade, where she must be as welcome as a drunken intruder at a funeral, she would do well to take some lessons in international law from President Kostunica. Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
News, 28.12.2001, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 28th December, 2001, 16:00 UTC Agreement reached as to how and when UN peacekeepers are to deploy in Afghanistan Afghanistan's interim Defence Minister Mohammad Fahim and British Major General John McColl, have agreed, how and when a long-awaited international security force will be deployed in Afhganistan. Fahim said the troops will be based near the Kabul airport, with 200-300 troops operating from a location in the city centre. He added about 3,000 soldiers will be deployed with around 1,000 men assigned to a security detail and the rest will be for logistical and humanitarian purposes. US warplanes continue attacks as new Afghan government demands an end to the bombing American warplanes on Friday destroyed a compound near the town of Ghanzi, 50 kilometers south of Kabul, which the Pentagon believes was used by senior Taliban commanders. The news comes just hours after the new administration in Afghanistan called for an end to the US air attacks. Responding to the report, General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US military has not been formally asked to end its bombing campaign. Meanwhile, the US Army has taken over the operation of Camp Rhino from the Marines who are shifting their operations to Tora Bora region. The airport at the facility has been turned into a makeshift prison, where another 25 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were taken to, on Friday. Officially 62 people are being held. Israeli troops kill suspected suicide bomber The Israeli army on Friday shot and killed a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber in the Gaza Strip. The militant group Islamic Jihad claimed the dead man as one of its own saying he was killed after ambushing a group of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers at a major road junction in the Palestinian-ruled area. Meanwhile, the Israeli army lifted its cordon around Bethlehem but maintained its travel ban on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Palestinian officials have declined comment on either incident. Complete fire ban now in force as more than 100 bushfires threaten more homes in Australia A total fire ban, the first to be declared since the devastating fires of 1994, for all parts of New South Wales, Australia has just come into force. 7,000 firefighters across the state continue to battle more than 100 bushfires which are still burning out of control. Officials are also concerned about a blaze on the central coast west of Gosford where a large fire has broken through containment lines and is threatening homes near Spencer and Gunderman. Meanwhile, the chief of the newly established bushfire arson task force says there is little evidence so far to suggest arson has caused any of the fires. Police on Friday, arrested three teenagers on suspicion of lighting bushfires, however, the juenvilles have not been formally charged. More fighting in Kashmir More fighting has been reported in Kashmir. The Associated Press reported a small arms battle along the "Line of Control" had lasted more than 5 hours. Officials have also ordered thousands of villagers to leave the border area. Meanwhile, the Group of 8 leading industrial nations has added its voice to international calls for India and Pakistan to resume negotiations to avoid a full fledged war between the two nuclear powers. G8 Foreign Ministers released a statement in Moscow where they also demanded Pakistan crack down on terrorist groups operating from within its borders. EU publishes list of terror organizations Spain which takes over the rotating European Union presidency on Tuesday has announced the expansion of the EU's list of terrorist organizations. The list, names 12 groups and 30 individuals, including Palestinian militant groups Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The list also includes European based terrorist groups such as the Basque separatist group ETA, and armed groups in Northern Ireland, such as the Real IRA. By establishing a common list of terrorist groups, European law enforcement agencies hope to improve co-ordination in tackling them. Milosevic's Daughter Goes on Trial for Shooting The daughter of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic went on trial on Friday accused of endangering public safety by firing shots as her father was taken to prison on April 1. The Beta news agency reported that Marija Milosevic is alleged to have fired five shots from an unregistered pistol, at security officiers as her father was being taken from his villa in Belgrade after a 36-hour standoff. Beta said the bullets hit the car of a government negotiator who had persuaded Milosevic to surrender on charges of corruption and abuse of office. No one was hurt in the incident. Price of oil jumps as OPEC announces production cut The price of oil surged on Friday after OPEC announced it will cut oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day for six months. The cart
OPEC Says Will Cut 1.5M bpd as of Jan. 1 [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- OPEC Says Will Cut 1.5M bpd as of Jan. 1 By Manuela Badawy and Tom Ashby Reuters CAIRO, Egypt -- OPEC oil producers are set to seal an unprecedented alliance on output restrictions with rival independent suppliers to prop up crude prices, cartel ministers said Thursday. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said OPEC ministers had a consensus to reduce supply by 1.5 million barrels per day from Jan. 1 at their meeting Friday. "We have a consensus for 1.5 from Jan. 1," he told reporters in Cairo. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in November that it was prepared to implement the restrictions to counter an economic downturn that is sapping world petroleum demand -- but only if non-OPEC producers made reductions of 500,000 barrels daily. Big independent producers like Russia and Norway stood accused by the cartel of taking a free ride on three rounds of supply cuts made already this year by OPEC. OPEC, in control of nearly two-thirds of world exports, had sliced 3.5 million barrels a day since January and was worried it was losing market share. Naimi said there was no doubt now that the five non-OPEC nations, which also include Mexico, Oman and Angola, would deliver on promises made in recent weeks to remove a combined 462,500 bpd. The cuts are likely to be imposed for six months, although OPEC will review policy at a mid-March meeting. Naimi said OPEC was aiming to push prices back up to between $20 and $25 for a barrel of its crude -- equivalent to about $22 to $27 for international benchmark Brent blend. Brent in early London trade on Friday rose $1.21 a barrel to $20.55. Russian benchmark Urals was up $1.17 a barrel to $19.43. OPEC's success in getting non-OPEC to help shoulder the burden of its supply management campaign puts to rest the threat of an all-out price war that in mid-November pushed Brent below $17 a barrel. Oil had fallen from $28 for Brent since the Sept. 11 attacks darkened an already gloomy economic outlook, hitting petroleum demand. Now it looks likely that importing nations, struggling to combat recession, will see energy bills rising again. "These are the largest ever non-OPEC contributions to OPEC's efforts to maintain the price of oil," said consultant Gary Ross of New York's PIRA Energy. "Producers that control 80 percent of the world's crude exports are now working together for higher prices." "This will dramatically tighten crude markets and cause prices to continue to move higher," he said. The new curbs will cut production by the cartel at its lowest for 10 years. Key to OPEC's success in lifting prices will be compliance with the restrictions. The latest data for November puts adherence with this year's earlier cuts at more than 80 percent. The 10 members with quotas -- Iraq excluded -- pumped 23.8 million bpd, or 600,000 bpd in excess of official limits. Naimi said crude sales from Saudi Arabia, easily OPEC's biggest supplier, would be lowered in line with its new quota immediately. Worries are that Russian oil companies may find ways to bypass the lower crude export quotas imposed by Moscow for the first quarter. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 bombing kills 40 civilians in Afghan village [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- http://www.abc.net.au/international/stories/s448568.htm Posted: 28/12/2001 4:40:14 AM US bombing kills 40 civilians in Afghan village Some 40 civilians were killed and 20 injured when United States planes pounded a village in eastern Afghanistan, residents said. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said earlier that 25 people were killed, mostly women and children, in the attack on Naka village in Paktika province at 1.00am local time. However, residents arriving in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, located on the Afghan border, said the toll was much higher. "There is no justification for the attack as there are no Al Qaeda or Taliban Al Qaeda or Taliban in our village," resident Abdul Samad said. Abdul Samad and another resident Jalal Ahmad, said that in addition to the 40 men, women and children killed, the bombing completely destroyed 30 homes as well as many head of cattle. AIP quoted witnesses as saying one of the houses destroyed belonged to Taliban commander Mawlawi Tauhaw. The commander was not at home. US-backed Afghan forces ousted the ruling Taliban from its last stronghold of Kandahar on December 7. ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D 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 ==^
