[PEN-L:12433] Fw: No U.S. intervention in Colombia!
-- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: No U.S. intervention in Colombia! Date: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 11:21 PM NO U.S. INTERVENTION IN COLOMBIA! NO MORE VIETNAM WARS! The International Action Center will hold a demonstration at the Colombian Mission to the United Nations 140 E. 57th St. in New York City at 5:00 pm to protest the dangerous new escalation of U.S. military intervention in Colombia. The United States government is at war with the Colombian people, said IAC spokesperson Teresa Gutierrez. Colombia is now the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world. The U.S. government is considering a vast increase of up to $1.5 billion for the Colombian government, mostly military. Colombia received $290 million this year. In addition to military aid, the Pentagon has already sent troops to Colombia. U.S. Special Forces are already on the ground in Colombia training counterinsurgency battalions, Gutierrez charged. White House diplomats are preparing the grounds for a regional intervention force, drawing in other Latin American countries in Colombias civil war. This military aid is disguised as part of the war on drugs, Gutierrez explained. But Colombias biggest drug traffickersthe big landlords, the paramilitary death squads and their allies in the military high commandare the ones benefiting from the huge infusion of U.S. cash and hardware. Huge U.S. banks get rich from billions of dollars in drug profits. The International Action Center, founded in 1992 by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, is one of the foremost anti-war organizations in the United States. It has organized demonstrations of tens of thousands against U.S. wars and intervention in Iraq, Cuba, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Haiti, and others. We arent waiting for the Pentagon to turn Colombia into the grounds for the next Vietnam War, said IAC co-director Sara Flounders. Its time for anti-war activists and all progressive people in the United States to resist the Pentagons drive to war. The people of the United States have nothing to gain by being drawn in to the U.S. and Colombian governments war against Colombias working people, Flounders said. The billions of dollars sent to the death squad regime in Bogota could be used in New York City for jobs, housing, drug treatment, or health care. International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889
[PEN-L:12325] Fw: Tribunals planned internationally to indict NATO for war
-- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Tribunals planned internationally to indict NATO for war Date: Monday, October 04, 1999 1:48 PM Commission of Inquiry c/o International Action Center 39 West 14th St., #206, New York, NY 10011 (212) 633-6646 fax: (212) 633-2889 http://www.iacenter.org email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For immediate release October 4, 1999 TO INDICT NATO FOR WAR CRIMES AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA IAC ANNOUNCES HEARINGS ALREADY PLANNED IN 8 COUNTRIES, 25 CITIES Speaking for the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia, International Action Center co-coordinator Sara Flounders said Oct. 1 that organizations supporting her groups initiative were already planning to hold hearings in eight countries and 25 cities. IAC founderformer U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clarkwill be the key speaker at some of these hearings. Clark prepared the complaint against the principal NATO heads of states and militaries responsible for the war and its consequences. The hearings follow the work we started on July 31-Aug. 1 here in New York when 700 people attended the first hearing of the commission, said Flounders. This initial hearing raised the charges against NATO and especially the U.S. government for instigating the war and committing other war crimes. We have now gathered a substantial amount of additional evidence to substantiate the charges, including admissions by NATO commanders that they purposely chose civilian targets in Serbia to bring pressure on Belgrade. Flounders said that hearings scheduled in October in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, in Oslo, Norway and in Berlin, Germany would gather more first-hand accounts of NATO war crimes. But she emphasized that the hearings were not just to gather evidence, but to bring before an ever greater public the truth about NATOs aggression against a small Balkan state. This truth has been hidden by the close collaboration between the corporate media and the government in each of the NATO countries. She said meetings are also set for Atlanta and Athens, Ga.; Milwaukee and Madison, Wisc. in October; and for Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit and Washington in November, along with others in U.S. cities. In Europe groups are bringing charges against their own governments at hearings in Norway, Germany, Austria and Italy, among others. This is only the beginning, Flounders said. We expect there to be other hearings not only in NATO countries but in other places such as Eastern Europe and Asia where there is concern about NATO aggression. The commission plans to hold a culminating tribunal in New York in March 2000, she said. This is the year anniversary of the bombing attack that opened the hot war against Yugoslavia. We will gather evidence from all these hearings worldwide and bring them before a tribunal here, Flounders said. International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 296 New York, NY 10011 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889
[PEN-L:11558] Fw: Demonstrations to Stop the War Against Iraq!
-- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Demonstrations to Stop the War Against Iraq! Date: Thursday, September 23, 1999 11:06 AM Emergency Protest Actions to Stop the War Against Iraq! As part of the internationally coordinated week of activities on Iraq from Sunday, September 26 to Saturday, October 2, there are demonstrations and other activities in New York City, San Franicisco, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis, Oregon, and other cities. Please send your local information in as soon as possible so it can be listed on the web page. Below is information for the New York City demonstration. The text can be used for organizing purposes nationally. Stop the War Against Iraq! Stop the Bombings-Lift Sanctions Now! Stand Up Against Genocide! DEMONSTRATION Thursday, September 30, 5 pm at the New York Times (229 W. 43rd St., between 7th and 8th) Part of the internationally coordinated Week of Emergency Protest Actions, September 26-October 2, 1999. Join the protest September 30, 1999, in front of the New York Times office to protest the ongoing U.S. bombing war inst Iraq and to demand the immediate lifting of economic sanctions that have killed more than 1 million Iraqis since August 1990. What are economic sanctions? They are the decision by rich and powerful countries to forbid poor countries to carry out trade. The poor countries cannot buy or sell products. Their economies shut down. Their workers become unemployed. Food products vanish. Medicine and health care products disappear. Sanctions can kill more people than actual warfare. But the rich countries can kill the people in poor countries without putting their own soldiers at risk. The U.S. has used sanctions and regular bombing of Iraq for nine long years. More than one million Iraqis have died. Those responsible for this policy should be put on trial for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Instead of exposing this criminal policy, the New York Times functions like a propaganda arm of the Pentagon and CIA. We want the truth, not lies! The United States government has carried out more than 10,000 combat or combat support sorties since the conclusion of the so-called Operation Desert Fox Operation between December 16-19, 1998. This is terrorism, plain and simple. The people in the United States are led to believe by the pro-big business media that the U.S. policy of economic strangulation of Iraq, coupled with constant bombings of the country, is caused by the dictatorial and dangerous government of Saddam Hussein. This is part of the propaganda campaign by the criminals to make their victims appear to be the guilty party. The Clinton Administration is waging this against the people of Iraq because the biggest U.S. oil monopolies and banks want to dominate Iraqs huge oil reserves (estimated to be 10% of the entire worlds oil.) These ruthless corporations dont care if there is a dictatorial regime in Iraq as long as it would be a puppet government, like the governments in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel. We demand that the multi-faceted war against the people of Iraq be ended. No bombing! Lift the sanctions! Self-determination for the Iraqi people! Please join in protest in New York City on Thursday September 30, 1999 in front of the New York Times. International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 296 New York, NY 10011 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889
[PEN-L:10584] Fw: Emergency Protest Actions to Stop the War Against Iraq!
-- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Emergency Protest Actions to Stop the War Against Iraq! Date: Thursday, September 02, 1999 1:55 AM Emergency Protest Actions to Stop the War Against Iraq! Internationally Coordinated Week of Emergency Protest Actions Monday, September 27 - Saturday, October 2, 1999 to demand: Stop the War Against Iraq! Stop the Bombings-Lift Sanctions Now! Stand Up Against Genocide! The International Action Center is calling on all its affiliate chapters and member organizations and all other anti-war and anti-sanctions organizations to initiate demonstrations, rallies, vigils and teach-ins during the week of September 27-October 2, 1999, to protest the apparently imminent escalation of the bombing war against Iraq and to demand the immediate lifting of economic sanctions that have killed more than 1.5 million Iraqis since their imposition in August 1990. The French Press Agency (AFP) and other media sources have issued reports that the recent heavy US/British bombing of Iraq is a prelude to a vast escalation of a new bombing campaign. These media sources report that the US and British governments will attempt to issue new ultimatums to Iraq regarding the acceptance of a new weapons inspection regime to take the place of the thoroughly discredited UNSCOM. These media sources indicate that this campaign will be launched after the mid-September meeting of the UN Security Council. The United States government has carried out more than 10,000 combat or combat support sorties since the conclusion of the so-called Operation Desert Fox Operation between December 16-19, 1998. The U.S. is also stepping up its CIA-run destabilization campaign coupled, of course, with the ongoing genocidal sanctions against the Iraqi people. The U.S. goal is to overthrow the Iraqi government (the new official lingo is `regime change') and replace it with a U.S. puppet regime in this oil-rich region. Let us never forget that this was precisely what the U.S./CIA operations accomplished in the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953; against the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954; and against the Allende government in Chile in 1973. No one should be under any illusion. All historical evidence indicates that when U.S. imperialism targets governments for overthrow it is not to replace them with more humanistic, more democratic regimes. The Shah in Iran, the military dictatorship in Guatemala, and Pinochet in Chile--they all slaughtered hundreds of thousands. But they also returned nationalized oil fields, fruit plantations and copper mines to their former Wall Street overlords. This is what made them invaluable "allies" for successive administrations in the White House. We demand that the multi-faceted war against the people of Iraq be ended. No bombing! Lift the sanctions! Self-determination for the Iraqi people! Please join in the international effort to organize emergency actions between Monday, September 27 and Saturday, October 2, 1999. Brian Becker Sara Flounders Co-Directors of the International Action Center International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 296 New York, NY 10011 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889
[PEN-L:10521] AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF KILLING.
Book review from the Economist on Line The morality of warfare Is closer necessarily worse? AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF KILLING. By Joanna Bourke. Granta; 564 pages; £25 LIEUTENANT William Calley seemed bewildered when he was prosecuted for organising the massacre, accompanied by sadism and sexual violence, of about 500 unarmed civilians in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai in March 1968. I had killed, but so had a million others, he wailed. It couldnt be wrong or else I would have remorse about it. Having recently had a scolding from his colonel for allowing men, women and children or other Viet Cong soldiers in our area to escape, he was determined, he said, to act as ruthlessly as Saul had in the Old Testament, when he set out to utterly destroy the Amalekites. Mr Calley himself was not the only person who fumed or protested over his indictment and eventual conviction for premeditated murder. Eight out of ten Americans disapproved of the conviction or sentence, according to one opinion poll. Some insisted the massacre could never have happened. Any atrocities in this war were committed by the communists, said the governor of Alabama. Others, including many of those in a position to know, made the opposite point: there was no reason to single out the My Lai killings from a general pattern of behaviour by American troops in Vietnam or in other 20th-century wars. Anyone now pondering the moral and judicial issues raised in the aftermath of the Kosovo war should read Joanna Bourkes scholarly, spine-chilling and almost encyclopedic account of the agonies (and occasionally the joys) of combat as experienced by English-speaking soldiers in two world wars and Vietnam. She maintains (though her case is not quite proven) that atrocities in Vietnam were easily matched by those committed by the Americans, Britons and Australians in the other two conflicts. Only because part of American society dissented from the war in Vietnam did a climate exist in which horror stories could come to public knowledge. Or so Ms Bourke argues, recalling public rallies in 1971 at which more than 100 Vietnam veterans bore witness to atrocities they had seen or even helped to commit. After 1945, when American troops entering Germany engaged in orgies of rape and murder, there had been no appetite for collective self-examination. She also reports the scepticism among war veterans, whatever they think of the causes in which they fought, over the ability of civilian judges to reach fair conclusions about the deadly calculations of war. How can anyone judge who has never seen his buddies mangled or been shot at himself? asked an Australian military trainer in 1946. Most of the book is about combat at close quartershow men were trained to kill, why they fought (for comrades and the respect of comrades, mostly) and what role doctors and clergymen played in combat. But it is also studded with reminders that different moral and psychological issues can arise in standoff warfare: the launching of bombs and missiles from a safe distance. Not even the most hardened Vietnam vet could match the sang-froid shown by the navigator of the Enola Gay, who after doing his bit to annihilate close on 100,000 people in Hiroshima, recalls that he had a bite and a few beers, hit the sack and, so he claims, never lost a moments sleep for the next 40 years. Admittedly, some bombers were less sanguine; the book also quotes airmen who observe (more as a passing thought than in self-reproach) that, if Germany had won the war, they might be facing a war-crimes prosecution for carpet-bombing civilians. As Ms Bourke reminds us, different sorts of
[PEN-L:10378] Fw: Normal Profits: was FWD: Re: Baker on IP
I always thought that a normal proofit was defined as a profit just large enought to get an item produced. E.g. If I can make a two dollar profit producing it I will do it. For a one dollar profit I will not. One dollar is a normal profit. Thus, in an economic, but not accouting, sense, normal profits are counted as part of costs. It is also, as Michael asserts, the level to which profits will be driven in a perfectly competitive market Was I teaching it wong all those years? Or have I missread something here. Frank From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:10373] Normal Profits: was FWD: Re: Baker on IP Date: Wednesday, August 25, 1999 10:45 AM Bill, there is a good reason that nobody answered your question below. Nobody has ever defined it precisely. On an abstract level, it supposedly means the profit in a perfectly competitive market, another abstraction without any empirical content. "William S. Lear" wrote: THE REAL DRUG CRISIS by Dean Baker ... The most basic principle in economic theory is that goods should sell at their marginal cost of production (including a normal profit). In the case of patented drugs, prescriptions that are produced for as little as $1 each can sell for hundreds of dollars as a result of patent protection. The rationale for this gap is that the firm has to be able to recover its research costs, which are often quite significant. I've always wondered how one stipulates "normal profit". Is it some percentage of cost? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:10367] Fw: Sanctions, Covert Action, Destabilization, and Bombings
-- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Sanctions, Covert Action, Destabilization, and Bombings Date: Monday, August 23, 1999 11:25 AM SANCTIONS, COVERT ACTION, DESTABILIZATION, AND BOMBINGS: The U.S. Plan to Overthrow the Government of Iraq STATEMENT from the INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER on the UNICEF report released Thursday, August 12 on the continually increasing mortality rates for children in Iraq On Thursday, August 12, UNICEF released a report detailing a two-fold increase for infant and child mortality in Iraq over the past decade. This adds to a litany of reports that have been released during this period detailing the dire health situation in Iraq. It is with these reports that a growing international anti-sanctions movement has demonstrated that the U.S.-led UN sanctions have caused massive destruction throughout Iraq--that they are, in fact, a weapon of mass destruction. In the past nine years, over 1.7 million people in Iraq have died as a direct result of the sanctions. 250 die each day. Every child in Iraq suffers from some degree of malnutrition. A simple cut can lead to death because of contaminated water and lack of even the most basic medicine. For the past nine years, it is the U.S. that has led the effort to continue the UN-imposed sanctions. This is not headline news. But this UNICEF report has been. Why is that? When people find out the true effects of the sanctions and the U.S. intentions in the region, they join the anti-sanctions movement. The U.S. and other backers of the sanctions don't want this, so they attempt to manipulate the facts to justify continuing sanctions. And how are the doing this? The report claims that it is to the credit of the oil-for-food deal that infant and child mortality is lower in the north than in the central and south of Iraq. There are many factors that contribute to malnutrition, including access to medication and health care facilities, education, and water. According to the WHO, in 1989-90, 96 percent of the population in Iraq had access to clean drinking water. By 1994, it had dropped to 45 percent. Eighty percent of disease in Iraq originates in contaminated water. It is the south of Iraq that is downstream from the country's capital of Baghdad, meaning the water is far more contaminated. Water contaminated from the central city of Baghdad with far under the required amount of chlorine must travel through pipes damaged heavily during the war and left unrepaired because the sanctions prohibit the importation of the necessary parts and equipment. And again, 80 percent of disease originates in the water. The UN's own agenciesFAO, UNICEF, WHO, WFPreport that 250 people die every day as a direct result of the sanctions. They report that Iraq's distribution of aid receives an A' rating. They conduct over 650 observations of day of Iraq's civilian sector. And they report that it is the UN committee that is delaying contracts for the oil-for-food program. THE U.S. ROLE IS DESTABILIZATION The U.S. has clearly admitted that it has a destabilization plan for Iraq, in public speeches and in the recent allocation by Congress of $97 million to fund Iraqi opposition groups. Each component of the attack on Iraq is a part of this strategy, be it the bombing blitzes, the imposition of the no-fly zones, or the sanctions. This same strategy has been used by the Pentagon and CIA many times in the past: from 1950 to 1953 against the elected government of Mossadegh in Iran, leading to its overthrow and the bloody reign of the Shah; in 1954 against the democratically elected government of Arbenz in Guatemala, leading to a U.S.-engineered military coup and the subsequent slaughter of over 100,000 Indian people; from 1970 to 1973 against a democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile which ended in the coming to power of the dictatorship of General Pinochet and the murder of 30,000 Chileans. In each case, those governments were replaced by U.S. puppets that looted the countries' land and resources for the benefit of Western corporations and transformed the territory into a staging ground for CIA operations in the respective regions. This is precisely what they seek in toppling the government of Iraq. You do not have to be an ideological or political supporter of the Iraqi government to mobilize militant opposition against this kind of imperialist interference. The International Action Center believes that the Iraqi people must be free to determine their own destiny without CIA subversion, sanctions or war. Understanding this must be the basis for any genuine international solidarity movement with the people of Iraq. The U.S. policy of economic destabilization and overthrow in Iraq will not lead to a democratic
[PEN-L:10219] Fw: Re: Re: Racial Profiling the Media (wasRe:Race...)
This whole thing is getting pretty darn rotten! I can not beleive what I'm reading. Is this really the highly respected PEN-1? Frank-- From: Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:10213] Re: Re: Racial Profiling the Media (wasRe:Race...) Date: Thursday, August 19, 1999 10:51 AM I thought Michael Perelman is Black ! CB Yoshie Furuhashi [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/19/99 01:42AM Michael Perelman wrote: I have not experienced racial profiling. When I went back to school and let my hair and beard grow, suddenly I was stopped with great frequency. When was that? (I've always wondered how old you are.) Maybe that's a counter-culture profiling that Michael Hoover could relate to Send us a photo, and we'll see if the police were justified in stopping you! :) Yoshie
[PEN-L:10212] Hitler Endorsed by 9 to 1 in Poll on his
I thought that this would be of interest to those who participated in the long and very interesting discusssion on Fascism which ran on this list for a couple of weeks a short time back' The New York Times runs a column every day titled "This Day in History", in which it reproduces articles published on that date 10, 20 thrity fifity etc years back. Attached is an article which ran in the front pages of the New York Times on Aug. 19, 1934 It, to gether with a picture of page one of the New York Times of Aug 1934, can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/990819onthisday.html == The New York Times August 19, 1934 page 1 Hitler Endorsed by 9 to 1 in Poll on his Dictatorship, but Opposition Is Doubled Absolute Power Is Won 38,279,514 Vote Yes, 4,287,808 No on Uniting Offices 871,056 Ballots Spoiled Negative Count Is Larger in Districts of Business Men and Intellectuals Hamburg Has 20% Noes Reich Bishop at Victory Fete Says Hitler's Anti-Semitism Is Fight for Christianity By Frederick T. Birchall Special Cable to The New York Times erlin, Monday, Aug. 20 -- Eighty-nine and nine-tenths per cent of the German voters endorsed in yesterday's plebiscite Chancellor Hitler's assumption of greater power than has ever been possessed by any other ruler in modern times. Nearly 10 per cent indicated their disapproval. The result was expected. The German people were asked to vote whether they approved the consolidation of the offices of President and Chancellor in a single Leader-Chancellor personified by Adolf Hitler. By every appeal known to skillful politicians and with every argument to the contrary suppressed, they were asked to make their approval unanimous. Nevertheless 10 per cent of the voters have admittedly braved possible consequences by answering "No" and nearly [text unreadable] made their answers, ineffective by spoiling the simplest of ballots. There was a plain short question and two circles, one labeled "Yes" and the other "No," in one of which the voter had to make a cross. Yet there were nearly 1,000,000 spoiled ballots. 38,279,514 Vote "Yes." The results given out by the Propaganda Ministry early this morning show that out of a total vote of 43,438,378, cast by a possible voting population of more than 45,000,000, there were 38,279,514 who answered "Yes," 4,287,808 who answered "No" and there were 871,056 defective ballots. Thus there is an affirmative vote of almost 90 per cent of the valid votes and a negative vote of nearly 10 per cent exclusive of the spoiled ballots which may or may not have been deliberately rendered defective. How Chancellor Hitler's vote declined is shown by a comparison with the result of the Nov. 12 plebiscite on leaving the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations. The tabulation follows: Yesterday Nov. 12 Yes 38,279,514 40,600,243 No 4,287,808 2,101,004 Invalid 371,058 750,282 Per cent of noes 9.8 4.8 These results therefore show that the number of Germans discontented with Chancellor Hitler's course is increasing but is not yet seriously damaging to it. He is the Fuehrer [leader] of the Reich with absolute power by the vote of almost 90 per cent of the Germans in it but the number of dissentients has doubled since the last test. It is not yet a matter for international concern but there
[PEN-L:10171] Western airstrikes in Iraq 'kill 19'
From Electronic Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk Western airstrikes in Iraq 'kill 19' By Hugo Gurdon BRITISH and American military jets killed 19 people and wounded 11 yesterday in attacks on northern and southern Iraq, said Baghdad officials. If the report is accurate, the death count was one of the highest for a single day in clashes following the four-day Desert Fox raids. Those were carried out by the United States and Britain last December after Iraq expelled United Nations weapons inspectors. Yesterday's action was reported to have been staged by the jets in response to enemy fire. The Pentagon would not comment on the reported deaths, saying only that the attacks followed Iraqi "provocation". The US European Command in Germany confirmed that F-16s and F-15s bombed missile sites in the northern no-fly zone, near the city of Mosul. But there was no confirmation of a report from the Iraqi News Agency of a separate raid in the South in which 11 people were said to have been killed. The Ministry of Defence later denied that British aircraft had taken part in the raids. 1 August 1999: Britain urges easing of sanctions to end UN impasse on Iraq 31 July 1999: US planes attack Iraq for fifth day running 28 July 1999: American planes hit Iraqi sites 20 July 1999: Iraq claims 17 civilians killed in US strike 21 December 1998: 70-hour blitz doubles tally of Desert Storm 17 December 1998: Allies launch blitz on Iraq © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 1999. Terms Conditions of reading. Commercial information.
[PEN-L:10050] U.S. Bombs Iraq
Sunday August 15 7:12 AM ET U.S. Bombs Iraqi Radar Site BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. planes enforcing a no-fly zone over Iraq bombed a radar site Sunday after coming under anti-aircraft fire, the U.S. Air Force's European Command said. F-15 aircraft dropped laser-guided bombs on the site south of the Saddam Dam in northern Iraq in self-defense after Iraq used its air defenses between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., the German-based command said in a statement. All aircraft returned safely. The bombings are the latest in a series of incidents involving American and British warplanes and Iraqi air defenses after Baghdad said in December it would not recognize Western-enforced no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The monitoring of the northern no-fly zone, code-named Operation Northern Watch, is a joint U.S., British and Turkish operation Friday, Iraq launched surface-to-air missiles and used anti-aircraft artillery against Northern Watch planes. U.S. planes bombed two sites around the northern city of Mosul, European Command said. Earlier Stories Iraq Fires Missiles At Western Aircraft (August 13) Iraq Fires Missiles At Western Warplanes (August 13) U.S. Says Iraq Fired Missiles At Air Patrol (August 13) U.S. Air Force Bombs Iraq Sites For Second Day (August 10)
[PEN-L:10025] Re: Re: US Has been bombing Iraq all year
Yoshie: Regarding the ongoing bombing of Iraq you wrote: "Given the simultaneity of the attacks against Iraq and Yugoslavia, it is a shame that we couldn't generate a united opposition to both on the grassroots activist level. (Lots of people who protested agaisnt the Gulf War were uninvolved in protests against NATO.) If we had, the protests would have been a lot bigger. Any thoughts on this?" Yoshie I'm still confused and dejected about the lack of any significant protests. But the Iraq bombings during the time of the Kossovo campaign were not noted even on the back pages of the nation's dailies .The Pro NATO campagin propaganda was so effective that many of this nation's Anti-Gulf War activists and its most fervent and sincere leftists bought into it. I'm ashamed to admit it, but had it not been for the excellenet postings on this list I too would have bought into it all I've attached a related piece from today's Boston Globe Best Wishes Frank Iraq fires at Western air patrols By Reuters, 08/14/99 NKARA, Turkey - Iraqi gunners stepped up resistance to Western air patrols yesterday, firing surface-to-air missiles at warplanes monitoring a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, a US Air Force officer said. It appeared to be the first use of such missiles since December of last year, when Iraq actively started challenging US and British planes patrolling the no-fly zones over its south and north set up after the 1991 Gulf War. ''To the best of my knowledge this is the first time they have used those weapons since December 28,'' the spokesman at the warplanes' Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey said. He did not say how many missiles had been launched. All the Operation Northern Watch aircraft had departed the area over northern Iraq safely, he said. In Baghdad, Iraq said Western planes attacked sites in northern Iraq yesterday before antiaircraft defenses and missile units forced them to return to their bases in Turkey. ''Ten hostile formations ... flew over regions in provinces of Duhok, Arbil, and Nineveh and attacked our service installations,'' the official Iraqi News Agency quoted a military spokesman as saying. ''Our brave missile and ground resistance forces intercepted those crows and forced them to leave our airspace and return to the bases of evil where they came from in the Turkish territories,'' the spokesman said. Clashes between Iraqi air defenses and the US and British jets are frequent but generally involve Iraqi antiaircraft artillery fire or simple lock-ons with radar guidance systems. A US F-16 jet responded to the missile launch yesterday by firing a high-speed antiradiation missile, and F-15s and F-16s dropped guided bombs on an artillery site and a communications site around the Iraqi city of Mosul. This story ran on page A4 of the Boston Globe on 08/14/99. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
[PEN-L:9967] PEN-L:9958] Self-criticism
Jim Craven posted a self-critic for the rage he expressed over the truly hellish conditions so many North and South American people live and die in. I think all of us on the list should be posting self-criticisms for our lack of rage. Lady luck has been riding on my shoulder all of my life. One of my big winnings at the "Roulette Table of Life" was to spend a great deal of time in the Soviet Union. I had the good fortune to work at the American National Exhibition in Moscow during the summer of 1959 and was a close up witness to the famous Nixon-Khruschev debate. Since that time I attended numerous conferences there and for many summers led student tour groups there. Now what I am coming to is this: In all of my many visits there, to many places and cities, I never saw anything coming anywhere close to the horrendous human suffering that Jim describes in his two recent postings , and which any American (who dies not engage in a massive amount of self-denial) can find in his own city or town. Yet among all of the "leftists" I have been acquainted with over the years, I have heard far more rage expressed over the conditions of the poor "Suffering Soviet Citizen" than over the conditions of those living so wretchedly on this nation's reservations, ghettos, migrant labor camps etc, And now that the condition of those "Suffering Russian People" has drastically worsened, and they too now experience unemployment, hunger, homelessness, lack of health care, and utter dispair, I hear no outrage coming from the left. I want to thank Jim Craven once again for his excellent postings. Frank
[PEN-L:9957] Fw: Now, a bit calmer
I want to thank Jim Craven for his very excellent thought provoking
posting.
Frank
--
From: Craven, Jim [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: [PEN-L:9944] Now, a bit calmer
Date: Wednesday, August 11, 1999 8:55 PM
Last night I was watching the History Channel "Hitler's Henchmen" about
Keitel. They were interviewing former soldiers on the Eastern Front and
German citizens all of whom came up with the usual "We didn't know". "We
heard rumors but..." And the bottom line was that for them, at least up
to
the point when the bombs started coming back to Germany and the body bags
started flowing back home (like Vietnam) Germany wasn't that bad at all;
they weren't Jewish, or Homosexual, or Communists, or Trade Unionists, or
Socialists, or Gypsies, or Progressives; they didn't say or do anything
really radical.
So when I hear about all these bourgeois freedoms (and I enjoy many
because
of my station and because I can "pass") and I hear about how far removed
from nazi Germany we are, and I hear about how unique America is and how
"It
Can't Happen Here.", I have to say, "It" is happening here... Right Now.
depending on who you are.
Has anyone seen the estimates of Central and South American refugees who
were forcibly deported back to face--and be killed by--the death squads
from
which they were refugees (while all sorts of anti-communist criminals,
even
currently wanted war criminals, werre being welcomed)? What is the
difference between herding thousands of people into gas chambers versus
taking the gases and chemicals to areas occupied exclusively by the
targeted
victims? Does anyone thisnk there is no relationship between full-blown
nazi-like (actually run by real wanted nazis) fascism in Chile, Bolivia
(Cocaine Coup of Barbie et al), Argentina, Indonesia etc etc and the
"wealth" and "prosperity" for a chosen white few (and some non-white
compradors) in America? Does it only matter if full-blown fascism is
going
on within the territorial limits of the U.S.?
How many have been on an Indian Reservation on this list? Have you seen
the
broken-down HUD homes with radon gas levels at 5 times the condemnable
levels with whole families living in them? Have you seen the Indian
Health
Clinics grossly over-worked and under-staffed/equipped dealing with
illnesses that flow directly from conditions that are knowlingly created
and
maintained to "solve the Indian problem" by getting rid of all Indians?
Are
the conditions of misery among African-Americans, conditions we know can
only produce early and horrible deaths, really different in nature or
effect
from the conditions that the nazis engineered to solve the "Jewish" or
"Gypsie" problems by eliminating the target groups as groups and all
individuals of those groups as members of those groups? How many have
seen
Tribal elections rigged by the Feds to put in sell-out Indians guaranteed
to
facilitate the wholesale elimination of "protected"Indian lands. cultures
and eventually individual Indians? Have you seen the documents leaked out
of
BIA that resemble in exact tone and content, the minutes of the Wansee
Conference or the infamous Hossbach Memorandum laying out the "Final
Solution?"
I'm sorry, but maybe you just don't know or perhaps some don't care.
Fascism
doesn't just drop out of the sky one day. The foundations of fascism, in
every single past and present case, legal, political, economic, social,
technological, cultural etc are progressively laid under various
covers--usually national security etc--and usually by
conservative/proto-fascist forces before the advent of full-blown
fascism.
Do you really think that the types of scum who ran ITT, manufacturing
Focke
Wulf fighters shooting down American and Allied Airman and then daring to
collect $27 million in reparations in 1967 for the allied bombing of
"German" Focke Wulf plants would hesitate one moment to put in any and
all
aspects of nazi-like fascism if that were what was required to protect,
consolidate and expand monopoly capitalism in America? Would they prefer
it?
Of course not--bourgeois democracy, with its "velvet glove" and alluring
and
mind/soul-numbing diversions and illusions ("necessary illusions") and
illusory "freedoms" (freedom de jure means nothing in a system that
commodifies everything and in which your rights can only be "protected"
by
expensive lawyers).
But for me, expecially after one of my little trips to Browning and
elsewhere, when I hear about how far America is from nazi Germany, it
feels
like it would for a Jew in Germany hearing, "It's not really that bad,
"It
couldn't be", "That couldn't happen", "This is a cultured nation" from a
quiet and very insulated non-Jewish German.
The instruments of genocide are often different and much more
sophisticated;
but really, people are dying early and very horrible and very preventable
deaths all over this country and
[PEN-L:9886] U.S. Bombs Iraq For Second Day
Tuesday August 10 7:16 AM ET U.S. Air Force Bombs Iraq Sites For Second Day BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. planes bombed two Iraqi communication centers near the northern city of Mosul Tuesday after being fired upon by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery, the U.S. Air Force's European Command said. The attacks on sites to the north and northeast of Mosul, the second U.S. strike in the region in as many days, took place between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Iraqi time, the German-based command said in a statement. It said all aircraft charged with monitoring the no-fly zone over northern Iraq returned safely. It added that the extent of damage caused by the F-15 and F-16 jets, which dropped laser-guided bombs on the targets, was still being assessed. The bombings are the latest in a series of incidents involving American and British jets and Iraqi air defenses after Baghdad said in December it would not recognize Western-enforced no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The monitoring of the northern no-fly zone, codenamed Operation Northern Watch, is a joint U.S., British and Turkish operation.
[PEN-L:9852] Fw: speech by Brian Becker--Commission of Inquiry Hearing
-- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: speech by Brian Becker--Commission of Inquiry Hearing Date: Thursday, August 05, 1999 2:43 PM Presented by Brian Becker, Co-Coordinator of the Commission of Inquiry, at the July 31, 1999 New York City Independent Commission of Inquiry Hearing to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia. We would like to open the closing plenary session of the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia. We will hear in this session from Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. attorney general, who will present a 19-count indictment of President Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and other high officials in the U.S. government and military and NATO officials for Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity. The United States government leaders speak so piously about human rights in countries that they have decided to attack. This is part of war propaganda, but it is also designed to divert attention from their own history. We all learn in school and the government leaders tell us and it's repeated in the media that the United States became a rich and powerful country because of the so-called "magic of the free market." Because of the purported virtues of capitalism. Or sometimes they tell us it's because of their love for democracy, or "the rule of law." These supposed virtues are supposed to have lead to such a spontaneous and creative outpouring of human energy that it made the United States a wealthy and powerful country. But what is the truth? For more than three centuries U.S. capitalism grew largely from the accumulation of wealth from slave labor. Millions and millions of African people worked as slaves, as human chattel, and it was their unpaid labor that led to a vast accumulation of capital and wealth. Was this slavery legal according to U.S. law? Yes it was. But do we consider it any less of a crime against humanity? Of course not. In the United States slavery was legal, but the system of slavery was a criminal affront to humanity. The rulers in the United States speak in the name of legality and about the rights of national minorities. But they neglect to mention that the wealth of this country was also derived from the theft and the genocidal ethnic cleansing of millions of Native Indian people. They neglect to mention that these Indian people were deliberately massacred throughout the continent of North America and that the few survivors were forced into reservations, deprived of their language, and of their culture. It was the theft of their rich, bountiful land that made the corporate establishment of the United States very rich indeed. How dare these same forces lecture the people of Yugoslavia and denounce the government in Yugoslavia and Serbia for failing to uphold the national minority rights of Albanian people in Kosovo. The United States and NATO launched this war against the Yugoslav people in 1999 for about the same reason they invade Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Phillipines in 1898-99. They want to turn Central and Eastern Europe into a haven for a new kind of colonial domination. They don't care about the lives of working people in Yugoslavia any more than they did about the rights of workers and farmers in Cuba, Puerto Rico, or the Philippines. Colonialism, the negation of soveriegnty and independence must be considered by history to be one of the great crimes against humanity. And look what's happening today in Kosovo under U.S./NATO occupation. Who should be held responsible for the cascading violence sweeping through Kosovo? The reign of fascist terror in Kosovo against Serbs, Roma people and pro-Yugoslav ethnic Albanians is now in full swing. As reports of murder, beatings and house burnings have finally filtered into the Western media, local refugee officials in Kosovo report that over 80,000 people have fled in the last three weeks. Yugoslav officials estimate that another 70,000 Serbs had fled Kosovo during the 78 days of NATO bombing. Until the U.S./NATO occupation forces entered Kosovo on June 8, the village of Belo Polje was an entirely Serb town. Today it lies in smoldering ruins. Soldiers wearing the uniform of the Kosovo Liberation Army murdered Serb civilians, and then looted and torched the whole village, according to June 28 dispatches from a San Francisco Chronicle reporter at the scene in Belo Polje. NATO soldiers did nothing to stop the mayhem, the Chronicle reported. It is the KLA that initiated the insurgency to separate Kosovo from Yugoslavia. Their history of fascist terror is well substantiated. Even the New York Times carried a long piece by Chris Hedges on June 25 documenting the KLA's murderous role. But State Department spokesperson James Rubin blandly responded,
[PEN-L:9824] Russia Criticizes Attacks On Iraq
Russia Criticizes Attacks On Iraq No-Fly Zones UNITED NATIONS, Aug 4, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russia's Security Council representative criticized on Tuesday U.S. and British attacks in no-fly zones over Iraq but the discussion that followed was inconclusive, council sources said. Russia often raises the issue during closed-door council consultations after Baghdad says such raids have caused civilian casualties, the sources said. Russia argues the no-fly zones, established by the Western powers after the 1991 Gulf war, are illegal and the air strikes harm civilians and damage the Iraqi economy. Iraq said nine people were killed and 23 wounded last Friday in raids on the country's northern and southern no-fly zones. The previous day it said eight civilians were killed by air attacks in southern Iraq. The air strikes have become commonplace since December 1998 when U.N. weapons inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq, citing Baghdad's failure to cooperate, and Iraqi anti-aircraft forces began challenging the air patrols. Council members said the United States on Tuesday gave its usual response that the zones were set up to protect Iraqis from the depredations of their own government. This is a reference to attacks by Iraqi troops after the Gulf war against Kurdish dissidents in the north of the country and Shiites in the south. The United States also said allied planes only attacked installations that targeted them with radar or launched ground-to-air missiles. China and Malaysia were also said to have called for an end to the no-fly zones while Bahrain said the situation only emphasized the need for the divided Security Council to come up with a unified policy on Iraq. Iraq's news agency reported Tuesday that Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf sent letters asking the United Nations and the Arab League to press the United States and Britain not to bomb civilian sites in the no-fly zones. He also said Iraq held responsible all states whose planes carried out "these criminal acts" and those whose territories were used by the planes, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey. ((c) 1999 Reuters)
[PEN-L:9828] Children living below poverty line
From Wall St. Journal Aug. 4, 1999 p. A4.. An article by Shailagh Murray titled "Poverty seen rising for some children after Welfare Act starts off "The number of children of single mothers living in extreme poverty jumped in the first year after the 1996 welfare-to-work Act, a study shows." The article goes on to cite the Children's Defense Fund, on the basis of US Census data, states that the number of children living below half the federal poverty line rose 347,000, or 26% to 1.8 million in 1997 as compared with 1.5 million in 1996. It represents the reversal of what had been a four-year decline in extreme-poverty trends. Article also reports that in Chicago yesterday, President Clinton hailed Welfare to Work programs and announced that welfare rolls have fallen to 7.3 million from 14.1 million in 1993.
[PEN-L:9755] Re: 1/3 of Russians in Poverty;
According to Izvestiya of July 21, 1999 p. 6, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Living standards reported that 57% of all Russians had incomes below the minimum subsistence level. That level averaged 985 rubles $40 per month for all of Russia and 1,304, $53) for Moscow. In Moscow, 25% the population had below subsistence incomes and in St Petersburg 50%. By way of contrast only 4.1% of all Russians had incomes of over 4854 rubles (threshold for the well off and wealthy)(about $200 at current rate of exchange). In Moscow 23% of the population had incomes above the "well off and wealthy threshold" which in Moscow is 6534 rubles($267). In St Petersburg only 1.75% had incomes over the "well of and wealthy" threshold -- From: meisenscher [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Recipient list suppressed Subject: [PEN-L:9747] 1/3 of Russians in Poverty; US Blocks Query on VX Gas;Colombian Strike Looms Date: Friday, July 30, 1999 11:04 PM IN THIS MESSAGE: 1/3 of Russians in Poverty; US Blocks Query on VX Gas; Colombian Strike Looms Study: 1/3 of Russians in Poverty By Nick Wadhams Associated Press Writer Friday, July 30, 1999; 11:20 a.m. EDT MOSCOW (AP) -- More than one in three Russians is living below the official poverty line, according to government figures released Friday, the latest sign of the wreckage left by last year's economic meltdown. About 35 percent of the population, or 51.7 million people, received monthly salaries below Russia's minimum subsistence level of 872 rubles ($36) during the first half of the year, the Russian Statistics Agency said. That figure was up from 22 percent living in poverty during the same period last year, when the minimum monthly subsistence level averaged out to about 429 rubles ($71 at the time). Some economists say the figure overstates the poverty problem somewhat because many Russians make money in the economy's informal sector and don't declare their income to the government. Still, the figures reflect the dramatic decline in living standards that has been taking place throughout this decade. The financial crash last August resulted in widespread job layoffs and pay cuts, sent inflation soaring, and pushed millions more into poverty. In more fallout from the crisis, imports crashed by 46 percent in the first six months of 1999, while exports fell by 11 percent, the agency said. After the ruble devaluation, many imports became prohibitively expensive for Russians. The agency didn't give exact foreign-trade volumes, but monthly figures show exports totaled $34.4 billion against imports of $19.6 billion, for a trade surplus at around $14.8 billion for the first half of the year. Russia's trade surplus was just $900 million from January to June of 1998. © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press === U.S. Blocks Questions About VX Gas By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press Writer Friday, July 30, 1999; 4:16 a.m. EDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States has blocked China and France from asking weapons inspectors questions about the use of small quantities of the deadly VX nerve agent left in a Baghdad laboratory. Hasmy Agam, Security Council president and Malaysia's U.N. ambassador, had circulated a letter to Secretary-General Kofi Annan with questions to the U.N. inspectors from France and China, which asked for proof that VX wasn't used to contaminate Iraqi missile warheads. The United States on Thursday objected to France's questions, which U.S. officials felt trivialized the issue of disarming Iraq and focused unfairly on weapons inspectors from the U.N. Special Commission, or UNSCOM. The letter to Annan has not been sent. The issue of VX became a flash point for the Security Council last year when the United States found traces of the nerve agent on fragments of Iraqi missile warheads. Iraq has admitted producing 3.9 tons of VX agent, but has denied loading the deadly agent into missile warheads. Seven vials containing tiny quantities of VX were among the chemical and biological material left in a Baghdad laboratory when inspectors pulled out of Iraq in mid-December on the eve of U.S. and British airstrikes. Iraq barred them from returning. France, China and Russia -- Iraq's closest allies on the Security Council -- urged the council to have the samples analyzed, intimating inspectors may have laced Iraqi warheads with the agent. But the majority of the 15-member council agreed with the weapons inspectors, who said the VX could only be used to calibrate equipment used to test for the nerve agent, posed no danger, and should be destroyed. A team of independent chemical experts sent to Baghdad to make the laboratory safe went ahead and destroyed the VX samples on Tuesday. But China and France wanted UNSCOM to answer questions about why VX was in the lab and why most of it wasn't
[PEN-L:9752] US planes attack Iraq for fifth day running
From Electronic Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk july 31, 1999 US planes attack Iraq for fifth day running AMERICAN war planes bombed anti-aircraft artillery sites in Iraq's northern "no-fly" zone for the fifth day running yesterday after coming under fire during a routine patrol. The US European Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany, said F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, acting in "self-defence", bombed sites north and north-west of Mosul, Iraq's second city. All the aircraft returned safely to the Incirlik air base in south-eastern Turkey after the strike, and the military was assessing damage to Iraqi forces, the statement added. Incirlik is home to American and British aircraft which patrol the northern no-fly zone imposed on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf war to protect the region's Kurdish population. 28 July 1999: American planes hit Iraqi sites 28 July 1999: Iraq claims 17 civilians killed in US strike
[PEN-L:9650] Fw: Speakers and Topics for the Commission of Inquiry
--
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Yugoslavia list [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Speakers and Topics for the Commission of Inquiry
Date: Monday, July 26, 1999 10:07 PM
Commission of Inquiry
at the International Action Center
39 W. 14th St., #206 New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-6646 fax: (212) 633-2889
{ HYPERLINK http://www.iacenter.org }http://www.iacenter.org email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
INDEPENDENT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY TO INVESTIGAE
U.S./NATO WAR CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF YUGOSLAVIA
A more detailed program will be distributed later in the week.
Stay tuned
PANELS AND TOPICS INCLUDE
Targeting civilians and environmental destruction
Violations of international laws and conventions
The Rambouillet Accords and the conspiracy to go to war
Why the Chinese Embassy was bombed
How the Pentagon used the war to further militarize the U.S. economy
The war at home
War propaganda and media lies
How the U.S. and Germany enflamed ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia
U.S occupationliberation or colonial enslavement?
U.S. geopolitical strategy for Eastern Europe and the former USSR
SPEAKERS INCLUDE
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general
Felix Wilson, Cuban Interests Section
Michael Parenti, author
Maude Le Blanc, Haiti Progres
Elombe Brath, Patrice Lumumba Coalition
Dr. Sapphire Ahmed
Shani Rifati, Roma activist
David Jacobs, Canadian Lawyers Group
King Downing, attorney
John Kim, NY Veterans for Peace
Monica Moorehead, Workers World newspaper
Michel Chossudovsky, economist and author
Gloria La Riva, Director, NATO Targets
Heather Cottin, Serbian-Jewish Friendship Committee
Barry Lituchy, CUNY
Roland Keither, OSCE Monitor in Kosovo
Sara Flounders, International Action Center
Brian Becker, International Action Center
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[PEN-L:9618] U.S. Bombed Iraq
Monday July 26 9:12 AM ET U.S. Says It Bombed Target In Northern Iraq BONN (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes bombed a communications center in northern Iraq Monday after coming under attack from anti-aircraft batteries, a spokeswoman for the U.S. European Command in Germany said. All aircraft returned safely after F-15 and F-16 jets dropped laser-guided bombs between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Damage to the site north of Mosul, which served as a relay station for Iraqi radar, was being assessed, the spokeswoman said. The bombings are the latest in a series of incidents involving U.S. and British aircraft after Iraq said in December it would not recognize Western-imposed no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The United States, Britain and Turkey cooperate in what is known as Operation Northern Watch to police the northern zone. The U.S. planes operate from bases in Turkey.
[PEN-L:9575] A Simple Solemn Farewell
The headlines of today's local paper (Portland Press Herald) read "A Simple, Solemn farewell" The article describes how Kennedy "Family members watched from the deck of a Navy destroyer as a brass quintet played a hymn...The flag was lowered to half mask as ...mournersflanked by sailors in dress whites gathered on the stern of the USS Briscoe...A Navy honor guard was also on hand to fire a rifle volley...The service was conducted in private...amid orders that planes keep five miles away. Boats were allowed no closer than a mile." As I read this I could not keep my mind from straying to the 17 Iraqi civilians killed by US Bombers last Sunday, and trying to picture just what kind of funeral they had, and what would be the fate of their family members Frank
[PEN-L:9580] Jackson's Case for the Removal Act
President Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal Act First Annual Message to Congress, 8 December 1830 It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages. The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it Promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community. These consequences, some of them so certain and the rest so probable, make the complete execution of the plan sanctioned by Congress at their last session an object of much solicitude. Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly feeling than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people. I have endeavored to impress upon them my own solemn convictions of the duties and powers of the General Government in relation to the State authorities. For the justice of the laws passed by the States within the scope of their reserved powers they are not responsible to this Government. As individuals we may entertain and express our opinions of their acts, but as a Government we have as little right to control them as we have to prescribe laws for other nations. With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw tribes have with great unanimity determined to avail themselves of the liberal offers presented by the act of Congress, and have agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi River. Treaties have been made with them, which in due season will be submitted for consideration. In negotiating these treaties they were made to understand their true condition, and they have preferred maintaining their independence in the Western forests to submitting to the laws of the States in which they now reside. These treaties, being probably the last which will ever be made with them, are characterized by great liberality on the part of the Government. They give the Indians a liberal sum in consideration of their removal, and comfortable subsistence on their arrival at their new homes. If it be their real interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be at liberty to do so without the inconveniences and vexations to which they would unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and Mississippi. Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country, and Philanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert it, but its progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb the last of his race and to tread on the graves of extinct nations excite melancholy reflections. But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room for another. In the monuments and fortresses of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated or has disappeared to make room for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there anything in this which, upon a comprehensive view of the general interests of the human race, is to be regretted. Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the conditions in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests
[PEN-L:9581] Indian Removal
Indian Removal Extract from Andrew Jackson's Seventh Annual Message to Congress December 7, 1835 The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet remain within the settled portions of the United States to the country west of the Mississippi River approaches its consummation. It was adopted on the most mature consideration of the condition of this race, and ought to be persisted in till the object is accomplished, and prosecuted with as much vigor as a just regard to their circumstances will permit, and as fast as their consent can be obtained. All preceding experiments for the improvement of the Indians have failed. It seems now to be an established fact they they can not live in contact with a civilized community and prosper. Ages of fruitless endeavors have at length brought us to a knowledge of this principle of intercommunication with them. The past we can not recall, but the future we can provide for. Independently of the treaty stipulations into which we have entered with the various tribes for the usufructuary rights they have ceded to us, no one can doubt the moral duty of the Government of the United States to protect and if possible to preserve and perpetuate the scattered remnants of this race which are left within our borders. In the discharge of this duty an extensive region in the West has been assigned for their permanent residence. It has been divided into districts and allotted among them. Many have already removed and others are preparing to go, and with the exception of two small bands living in Ohio and Indiana, not exceeding 1,500 persons, and of the Cherokees, all the tribes on the east side of the Mississippi, and extending from Lake Michigan to Florida, have entered into engagements which will lead to their transplantation. The plan for their removal and reestablishment is founded upon the knowledge we have gained of their character and habits, and has been dictated by a spirit of enlarged liberality. A territory exceeding in extent that relinquished has been granted to each tribe. Of its climate, fertility, and capacity to support an Indian population the representations are highly favorable. To these districts the Indians are removed at the expense of the United States, and with certain supplies of clothing, arms, ammunition, and other indispensable articles; they are also furnished gratuitously with provisions for the period of a year after their arrival at their new homes. In that time, from the nature of the country and of the products raised by them, they can subsist themselves by agricultural labor, if they choose to resort to that mode of life; if they do not they are upon the skirts of the great prairies, where countless herds of buffalo roam, and a short time suffices to adapt their own habits to the changes which a change of the animals destined for their food may require. Ample arrangements have also been made for the support of schools; in some instances council houses and churches are to be erected, dwellings constructed for the chiefs, and mills for common use. Funds have been set apart for the maintenance of the poor; the most necessary mechanical arts have been introduced, and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, etc., are supported among them. Steel and iron, and sometimes salt, are purchased for them, and plows and other farming utensils, domestic animals, looms, spinning wheels, cards, etc., are presented to them. And besides these beneficial arrangements, annuities are in all cases paid, amounting in some instances to more than $30 for each individual of the tribe, and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly divided and prudently expended, to enable them, in addition to their own exertions, to live comfortably. And as a stimulus for exertion, it is now provided by law that "in all cases of the appointment of interpreters or other persons employed for the benefit of the Indians a preference shall be given to persons of Indian descent, if such can be found who are properly qualified for the discharge of the duties." Such are the arrangements for the physical comfort and for the moral improvement of the Indians. The necessary measures for their political advancement and for their separation from our citizens have not been neglected. The pledge of the United States has been given by Congress that the country destined for the residence of this people shall be forever "secured and guaranteed to them." A country west of Missouri and Arkansas has been assigned to them, into which the white settlements are not to be pushed. No political communities can be formed in that extensive region, except those which are established by the Indians themselves or by the Untied States for them and with their concurrence. A barrier has thus been raised for their protection against the encroachment of our citizens, and guarding the
[PEN-L:9589] Cherokee Trail of Tears
Final-Recipient: RFC822; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Action: failed Remote-MTA: DNS; galaxy.csuchico.edu Last-Attempt-Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:50:36 -0400 (EDT) http://rosecity.net/tears/trail/tearsnht.html HTML HEAD META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Mozilla/4.04 [en] (Win95; U) [Netscape]" META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Rose City Net - Danny Farrow" META NAME="KeyWords" CONTENT="cherokee, trail, tears, payne, home, christian, warrior, path, poem, princess, chief, missouri, illinois, river, troops, gold, hills, vally, georgia, north carolina, tennessee, kentucky, arkansas, oklahoma, cherokee, indian, jackson, park, mississippi river, mississippi, trail of tears" TITLEThe Cherokee Trail of Tears - National Historic Trail - 1838-1839/TITLE META NAME="description" CONTENT="National Historic Trail The Cherokee Trail of Tears 1838-1839 Federal Indian Removal Policy Early in the 19th century, the United States felt threatened by England and Spain,who held land in the western continent. At the same time, American settlers clamo" /HEAD BODY TEXT="#993300" BGCOLOR="#FF" LINK="#FF" VLINK="#FF" ALINK="#FF8080" BACKGROUND="stripe.gif" CENTERBFONT SIZE=+4National Historic Trail/FONT/B/CENTER CENTERIMG SRC="thetrai2.jpg" ALT="The Trail of Tears" HEIGHT=200 WIDTH=610/CENTER CENTERBFONT SIZE=+3The Cherokee Trail of Tears/FONT/B/CENTER CENTERBFONT SIZE=+31838-1839/FONT/B/CENTER HR NOSHADE WIDTH="100%" CENTERBFONT SIZE=+2Federal Indian Removal Policy/FONT/B/CENTER PIMG SRC="space.gif" BEarly in the 19th century, the United States felt threatened by England and Spain,who held land in the western continent. At the same time, American settlers clamored for more land. Thomas Jefferson proposed the creation of a buffer zone between U.S. and European holdings, to be inhabited by eastern American Indians. This plan would also allow for American expansion westward from the original colonies to the Mississippi River./B Pnbsp; TABLE ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0 TR TDIMG SRC="jackson.jpg" ALT="Andrew Jackson" HEIGHT=131 WIDTH=113 ALIGN=LEFT/TD /TR TR TD CENTERBPresident/B/CENTER CENTERBAndrew Jackson/B/CENTER /TD /TR /TABLE IMG SRC="space.gif" BBetween 1816 and 1840, tribes located between the original states and the Mississippi River, including Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, signed more than 40 treaties ceding their lands to the U.S. In his 1829 inaugural address, President Andrew Jackson set a policy to relocate eastern Indians. In 1830 it was endorsed, when Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to force those remaining to move west of the Mississippi. Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living between Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west after the U.S. government coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Many were treated brutally. An estimated 3,500 Creeks died in Alabama and on their westward journey. Some were transported in chains./B Pnbsp; HR NOSHADE WIDTH="500" CENTERBFONT SIZE=+2The Cherokees/FONT/B/CENTER TABLE ALIGN=RIGHT BORDER=0 TR TDIMG SRC="scott.jpg" ALT="General Winfield Scott" HEIGHT=132 WIDTH=111/TD /TR TR TD CENTERBGeneral/B/CENTER CENTERBWinfield Scott/B/CENTER /TD /TR /TABLE IMG SRC="space.gif" BHistorically, Cherokees occupied lands in several southeastern states. As European settlers arrived, Cherokees traded and intermarried with them. They began to adopt European customs and gradually turned to an agricultural economy, while being pressured to give up traditional homelands. Between 1721 and 1819, over 90 percent of their lands were ceded to others. By the 1820s, Sequoyah's syllabary brought literacy and a formal governing system with a written constitution. In 1830--the same year the Indian Removal Act was passed--gold was found on Cherokee lands. Georgia held lotteries to give Cherokee land and gold rights to whites. Cherokees were not allowed to conduct tribal business, contract, testify in courts against whites, or mine for gold./B Pnbsp;IMG SRC="space.gif" BThe Cherokees successfully challenged Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court. President Jackson, when hearing of the Court's decision, reportedly said, "[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can./B Pnbsp; HR NOSHADE WIDTH="500" CENTERBFONT SIZE=+2The Treaty of New Echota/FONT/B/CENTER TABLE ALIGN=LEFT BORDER=0 TR TDIMG SRC="ridge.jpg" ALT="Major Ridge" HEIGHT=152 WIDTH=125/TD /TR TR TD CENTERBMajor Ridge/B/CENTER /TD /TR /TABLE IMG SRC="space.gif" BMost Cherokees opposed removal. Yet a minority felt that it was futile to continue to fight. They believed that they might survive as a people only if they signed a treaty with the U.S./B Pnbsp;IMG SRC="space.gif" BIn December 1835, the U.S. sought out this minority to effect a treaty at New Echota, Georgia. Only 300 to 500 Cherokees were there; none were elected officials of the Cherokee Nation. Twenty signed the treaty, ceding all Cherokee territory
[PEN-L:9407] US warplanes continue killing in Iraq
From World Socialst Web Site US warplanes continue killing in Iraq Seventeen dead, eighteen injured near Najaf By Martin McLaughlin 21 July 1999 Use this version to print American fighter bombers inflicted their bloodiest attack on Iraqi civilians in nearly six months Sunday, killing 17 people and wounding 18 more along a highway near the city of Najaf in the South of the country. It was the highest civilian casualty toll since 24 people were killed by missiles which slammed into a residential neighborhood in the city of Basra, also in the South, last January. Local residents told a photographer for the French news agency AFP that four missiles crashed into vehicles on the road, causing terrible carnage, mainly among women, children and the elderly. The dead included a pregnant woman and her husband in their car, and six members of a single family in an all-terrain vehicle. A seventh person in the same vehicle, a six-year-old boy, had to have his hand amputated because of his injuries. The US Central Command claimed that the American planes had hit a missile battery near Abu Sukhayr, 200 miles south of Baghdad, and a military communications site near Al Khidr, 150 miles southeast of the capital. Abu Sukhayr is near the site of the massacre along the Najaf road. It was at least the fourth such air strike on Iraqi targets during the month of July. Previous strikes took place on July 2, July 8 and July 13, all in northern Iraq in the area around Mosul, that region's largest city. American and British officials reacted to the casualty reports from Najaf with practiced cynicism. State Department spokesman James Rubin declared, repeating his mantra during the bombing of Yugoslavia: In these actions, every effort is taken to avoid any casualties to civilians or damage to civilian property. British Defence Minister George Robertson accused the Iraqis of causing casualties by firing anti-aircraft missiles unsuccessfully at US and British warplanes. These weapons then fell back to earth and hit Iraqi civilians, he said. Similar claims were made by US and British spokesmen during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the extensive civilian casualties in Baghdad and other cities, caused by air strikes, were initially blamed on Iraqi anti-aircraft fire. The US and Britain have carried out dozens of bombing raids on Iraqi targets since the four-day air war last December, after the withdrawal of United Nations weapons inspectors from the country. Two justifications have been advanced for the raids: preventing Iraq from building atomic, biological and chemical weapons, and enforcing compliance with the no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq. Both claims are no more than pretexts, riddled with contradictions. Last week the Washington Post reported that an internal US government study had found no evidence of any Iraqi effort to develop weapons of mass destruction in the eight months since the UNSCOM inspectors were removed. As for the no-fly zones, these were imposed unilaterally by the US, Britain and France after the Persian Gulf War, and were never approved by the UN Security Council, or even presented for a vote, because of Russian and Chinese opposition. They have no standing under international law and are a flagrant violation of Iraq's sovereignty. When the zones were first declared, US President George Bush claimed that his goal was to protect the Shiite Moslem population of southern Iraq and the Kurdish population of northern Iraq against military reprisals by Saddam Hussein. The
[PEN-L:9364] How to handle virus?
I apologize to the list for the infected attachment to the the message on Russian Agriculture [PEN-L:9288]. The disastrous effects of Russian Ag. Reform) That is was infected came as quite a surprise to me. I do a McAfee scan virtually every day, and have never had a virus reported. As It will be a couple of weeks before I can get any help 'from the mainland", I wonder if anyone could offer some advice to this computer novice on how to handle it. Frank
[PEN-L:9372] Fw: Re: RE: Re: JFK Jr and the Hubris of the Rich
Eugene Coyle wrote , July 19, 1999 3:24 PM Like Jim I am an experienced pilot -- with maybe more actual crashes than he has -- and thought about JFK Jr's flight quite a bit over the last few days. I have an instrument rating and have myself become a bit disoriented at times and struggled to maintain trust in the instruments and not in my senses. The trip was foolish to undertake. I'm recalling the hangar stories that the most dangerous pilots are those with around 100 to 200 hours -- like Kennedy -- and doctors. (Medical doctors, not Ph. D.'s.) The latter kill themselves at a disproportionate rate attributed to arrogance. So Kennedy might have had two strikes, low time plus arrogance, and the third strike was the haze. My personal take on this whole affair is this: An expereicned pilot is one who has had the dumb luck to survive, and thus learn from, all of his mistakes. Frank
[PEN-L:9386] Re: Re: How to handle virus?
Doug: I thank you for the message. As regards how to cure it, a message I got yesterday ( copied below) indicates that there are ways of cleaning it. I'm an absolute novice here, but I thought possibly the message might be of interest Frank Virus Incident Information Database: mail.box Author: Frank Durgin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Andvig/OU=Person/O=World Bank@WorldBank Subject: [PEN-L:9288] The disastrous effects of Russian Ag. Reform Date: 7-19-1999 The file attachment final ag art.doc you sent to the recipients listed above was infected with the W97M/Marker.gen virus and was successfully cleaned.
[PEN-L:9288] The disastrous effects of Russian Ag. Reform
Economic reform has ravaged the Russian countryside and, in some ways, far more than World War II did. In 1945 gross agricultural output in the USSR was down by 31% from the prewar level. In 1996 and 1997,by way of contrast, it was down by some 38% from the pre-reform 1986-1990 average. In 1998, a year of severe drought, it was down 45.1% from the pre-reform average. And while the scale of the current decline is slightly more severe than that triggered by World War II, it has been far more severe than the 24% decline triggered by the collectivization in the 1930's. The decline in net agricultural output, a concept that factors in the depletion of the machine parks and livestock, soil degradation etc (all described below) has been of a much larger but undetermined magnitude. Given the exceptionally cold spring in the principal growing regions and another record breaking hot summer, the prognosis for the 1999 harvest is bleak. Attached is a free standing commentary I was invited to do sometime back for a volume to be published sometime this summer. The commentary is primarily a statistical portrait of the disaster. I followed the directions I was given by one of the co-editors ,i.e., do not propose cures, nor comment on the chapter devoted to cures. A few weeks ago I received notice that the other co-editor (Lawrence Klien) felt that the piece was not "solid enough" to stand alone and that it would be used as an appendix to the chapter devoted to remedies. I would be listed as one of the chapter's co-authors. I responded by withdrawing my piece. The volume in question is. REBUILDING RUSSIA A Balanced Approach to Economic Transition edited by Lawrence R Klein (University of Pennsylvania) Marshall Power (Harvard University) foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev . REBUILDING RUSSIA A Balanced Approach to Economic Transition edited by Lawrence R Klein (University of Pennsylvania) Marshall Pomer (Harvard University) foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev World Scientific Publishing Company . 300pp (approx.) Pub. date: Summer 1999 ISBN 981-02-3853-3 US$58 / £35. J.K Galbraith's pre-publication review is as follows; "No writing (or oratory) in history has been more replete with bad advice than that given Russia in the last decade. Here, for a change, is something very good: the best, in fact, that truly competent and responsible American and Russian scholars have to offer. I strongly recommend it."John K Galbraith As I said, the commentary is attached. It may be a question of ego, but honestly do not know where one can find a more complete picture of the degree to which reform has ravaged the Russian countryside. final ag art.doc (Microsoft Word Document)
[PEN-L:9310] Fw: Virus Report to Sender
-- From: WBLN0024 [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Frank Durgin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Virus Report to Sender Date: Monday, July 19, 1999 12:50 PM Virus Incident Information Database: mail.box Author: Frank Durgin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Andvig/OU=Person/O=World Bank@WorldBank Subject: [PEN-L:9288] The disastrous effects of Russian Ag. Reform Date: 7-19-1999 The file attachment final ag art.doc you sent to the recipients listed above was infected with the W97M/Marker.gen virus and was successfully cleaned.
[PEN-L:9252] Fw: military keynesianism redux
-- From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:9241] military keynesianism redux Date: Friday, July 16, 1999 5:42 PM Nicholas von Hoffman recently published an article claiming that there are more than 738,000 police in the U.S., 1 for every 24 people. Is that number in the ball park. It was not clear who was counted. Prison guards? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] As can be seen by the data provided by Max and Doug, 738,000 is an understatement. Doug mentioned the armed guards on all of the nation's campuses. One also finds them in shopping malls, at the entrances to various institutions (museums, corporate headquarters, banks etc. Peek in the yellow pages for a listing of the large number of private security agencies in your locality. I do not have statistics available, but I remember that more than ten years ago the number of private police in the US had already exceeded the number of public police. and was continuing to grow. Another aspect of this same question might be the large number of private investigation agencies. Look in the yellow pages. you'll get a rude surprise. Frank
[PEN-L:9253] Turkey shoot continues
Home - Yahoo! - My Yahoo! - News Alerts - Help Friday July 16 1:51 PM ET Iraq Says Western Planes Attacked Sites In North BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said Western warplanes attacked sites in northern Iraq Friday before anti-aircraft defenses forced them return to their bases in Turkey. The U.S. Air Force's European Command said U.S. planes bombed a communications site near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Friday after being fired on by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery. ``Nine hostile formations ... flew over regions in the provinces of Duhok, Arbil and Ninevah and the enemy attacked civil and service installations in the said provinces,'' the Iraqi News Agency quoted a military spokesman as saying. ``Our brave ground resistance forces intercepted them and forced them to leave our airspace to the bases of aggression in Turkey,'' the spokesman said. Such attacks are not uncommon in the no-fly zone imposed by U.S. and allied aircraft over northern Iraq. The attacks on the site southeast of Mosul took place between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Iraqi time (3 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. EDT), the German-based command told Reuters. It said all aircraft charged with monitoring the no-fly zone over northern Iraq left the area safely. It added that the extent of damage caused by the F-16 jets, which dropped laser-guided bombs on the target, was still being assessed. The Iraqi spokesman also said other planes flew over the southern provinces of Basra, Meisan, Dhi Qar and Muthanna without reporting any incident. Friday, Iraq urged the Arab League to press Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to stop allowing U.S. and British aircraft from using their airbases to patrol a no-fly zone over the south of the country. In a dispatch from Cairo, INA said Iraq's representative at the Arab League, Sultan al-Shawi, had submitted a memorandum to Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid, criticizing Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Shawi told Meguid that U.S. and British warplanes based in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had carried out 288 sorties between July 1 and July 8. Western air strikes on Iraq have become regular since Baghdad decided last year to challenge U.S. and British jets patrolling northern and southern no-fly zones set up by Western powers after the 1991 Gulf War. The zones, which Baghdad does not recognize, were imposed to protect minority groups from attack by Iraqi forces.
[PEN-L:9254] Blackshirts fuel Kremlin fears of Nazi revival
Elelctronic Telegraph July 17,1999 Blackshirts fuel Kremlin fears of Nazi revival By Marcus Warren in Voronezh RUSSIA'S neo-Nazis are on the march, taking to the streets and preaching their message of hatred with a zeal viewed with growing alarm by the Kremlin. Black-uniformed toughs from the most well-organised group are particularly visible in the south and have covered one of its largest cities with their swastika-like emblem and sinister slogans. Parallels between the Russian National Unity movement and the Nazis are too striking to ignore: virulent anti-Semitism, the uniform, a stretched-arm salute, and a war cry "Glory to Russia" in addition to a cult of the group leader, Alexander Barkashov. Yet they operate with impunity in Voronezh, a city almost wiped off the face of the earth in fighting between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht during the Second World War and a Communist stronghold to this day. Visitors could be forgiven for concluding that the group's red and white symbol - based on an ancient Slav design according to RNU claims - is the city's coat of arms. It decorates almost every lamppost and covers bridges and walls. Members have held party conferences and parades in Voronezh and regularly turn out in uniform to distribute their newspaper Russian Order to passers-by. Last winter local members patrolled the streets, SS-style, in long leather trenchcoats with alsatian dogs at their side. Recruiting films show members practising with firearms and learning martial arts at a network of secret camps throughout Russia. A number of anti-Semitic outrages, most recently a stabbing in Moscow's main synagogue, the increasingly high profile of groups such as RNU and the reluctance of local authorities to take action against them are worrying the Kremlin. Boris Kuznetsov, President Yeltsin's representative in Voronezh said: "I am extremely dissatisfied with the reaction of our local authorities to this sort of extremism. Basically, there is no reaction." Gauging RNU's size - or even how much support it enjoys - is not easy. Members despise journalists and when they do talk to outsiders like to hint at a huge number of secret sympathisers in the police, security services and army. RNU may have less than 10,000 full members nationwide. But they are only the highly motivated core of a much bigger movement, running to tens of thousands of supporters, untried recruits and young people. "The media tell lies and creates an image of a gang of bandits and society rejects," one member of the Voronezh organisation said."But society supports us." Vladimir Firstov, a former member who set up the Voronezh branch but has now split from the party, said: "RNU is not political, it is more of a sect. It has its own internal laws and doctrines and exists mainly to recruit acolytes for the faith." Touchstones of the faith include violent anti-semitism, dressed up as opposition to "Jewish fascism" which aims "to destroy the Russian people", and hatred for all non-Russians, especially those from the Caucasus. Tim Brown in Madrid writes: A 500-strong mob led by skinheads wearing swastikas and other neo-Nazi emblems attacked shops and vehicles owned by Moroccan immigrants in a second night of violence in the industrial town of Tarrassa outside Barcelona. 6 June 1999: Exodus as thousands flee from Russian anti-Semites 3 May 1999: Moscow synagogues bombed 17 May 1998: Synagogue bomb marks sinister rise of Russia's neo-Nazis 15 May 1998: Fascists blamed for synagogue bomb 24 August 1996: Jews fearful after Moscow bomb
[PEN-L:9230] Iraq still being bombed
Friday July 16 7:15 AM ET Air Force Says It Bombs Northern Iraq Site BONN, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. planes bombed a communications site near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Friday after being fired on by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery, the U.S. Air Force's European Command said. The attacks on the site southeast of Mosul took place between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Iraqi time (3 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. EDT), the German-based command told Reuters. It said all aircraft charged with monitoring the no-fly zone over northern Iraq left the area safely. It added that the extent of damage caused by the F-16 jets, which dropped laser-guided bombs on the target, was still being assessed. The bombings are the latest in a series of incidents involving American and British jets and Iraqi air defenses after Baghdad said in December it would not recognize Western-enforced no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The monitoring of the northern no-fly zone, code-namedOperation Northern Watch, is a joint U.S., British and Turkish operation.
[PEN-L:9203] Fw: Charge U.S./NATO with War Crimes-July 31, NYC
-- From: iacenter [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Charge U.S./NATO with War Crimes-July 31, NYC Date: Thursday, July 15, 1999 11:01 AM International Action Center 39 W. 14th St., # 206, New York, NY 10011 212-633-6646 Fax: 212-633-2889 Web: www.iacenter.org email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear Friend, We wanted to take some time to explain the new project that we have initiated called the Commission of Inquiry to investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes. We believe that this Commission of Inquiry has a great and historic task to achieve. Ramsey Clark and other expert witnesses will indict and present testimony on July 31 in New York City accusing Bill Clinton, General Wesley Clark, and others with war crimes against the people of Yugoslavia. On July 31, there will be a series of panels and workshops. There will be exciting presentations. There will be analysis and discussion. Literature and video resources will be available to be used for local organizing efforts. Ramsey Clark will be the key note speaker presenting the multi-count indictment. We are also making time so that local anti-war activists and organizers from throughout the country can have a chance to meet and plan for Commission of Inquiry hearings in their cities. We are not simply trying to reveal the truth about U.S./NATO war crimes before, during, and after the war. We are also trying to educate and mobilize broad public opinion to oppose imperialism. The war is not over. The U.S./NATO occupation of Kosovo and the cessation of the bombing campaign is not, in our opinion, a sign that peace has arrived in the Balkans. The U.S. goal is to destroy all of Yugoslavia and to continue its march through Central and Eastern Europe, into the Caucuses, and into the former southern republics of the Soviet Union. We are organizing to have Commission of Inquiry hearings in cities throughout the United States, every NATO country, Russia, and around the world. We are heartened that this call for an independent War Crimes Tribunal is resonating on all seven continents. All who have suffered the ravages of colonialism, racism, and imperialism are finding a way to establish a new international network of coordinated activity in this field. Exploratory committees for Commission of Inquiry hearings have been formed in several European countries, in Canada, and in India. This process begins on July 31 with a day-long hearing of the Commission of Inquiry at the Dubinsky Hall at the Fashion Institute of Technology campus (27th Street and 8th Ave._see enclosed leaflet). After hearings are held in other cities over the next months, there will be a culminating International War Crimes Tribunal in New York City (date to be announced) where collected material is presented to an international panel. This is a vast undertaking. We have set up an international research effort conducting investigations into twenty-five broad categories of war crimes and related subjects. We are collecting public documents, interviews, eyewitness testimony, expert testimony, video footage, photos, and other materials to document the charges of Crimes Against Peace, Crimes Against Humanity, and War Crimes. Please see our web page, www.iacenter.org, for a list of the charges and updates on the Tribunal. Join This New International Movement As you know, the IAC played a major role in initiating and organizing protest activities and demonstrations between March 24 and June 5. More than 10,000 people marched on the Pentagon on June 5, and the three-hour rally was broadcast live on C-SPAN and then rebroadcast. A similar mass demonstration was held in San Francisco on June 5, as well as in cities around the world. Hundreds of thousands of people opposed this war. They distributed leaflets, put up posters, helped get out mailings, did phone banking, and generously contributed their hard-earned dollars for this effort. It was amazing that in such a short time a new mass anti-war movement started to take shape. We couldn't have done it without your help. We greatly appreciate your contributions in the many ways you made them. The building of a grass roots anti-war movement_on a worldwide scale--is the foundation for the struggle against imperialism, racism, and injustice. We believe that the Commission of Inquiry to investigate U.S./NATO war crimes can play an important role in sustaining and building this international movement. To be a powerful movement we must be able to assess and analyze the system that is promoting war, while developing effective literature and outreach resources that connect the issue of war with the growing problems of poverty, racism, and oppression. For instance, the Pentagon used the Yugoslavia war to push through an expansion of the U.S.
[PEN-L:9212] The back-to-the-Soviet Union candidates
From The Economist July 10-July16 Ukraine Grim choices K I E V NEARLY eight years after independence from the Soviet Union, many of the candidates in Ukraines presidential election, due in October, say they want to go back, more or less, to the old days. And at least three out of the seven most serious say they want to recreate the Soviet Union in one guise or anotherwith Ukraine inside it. Even candidates who claim to want reform, President Leonid Kuchma included, hark back to the Soviet Union in other respects. Mr Kuchmas heavy-handed tactics smack of the era when a vote of 99% in favour of the incumbent was pretty average. Ukraine must follow the European road, he said recently. Changing the president would mean changing the political course: I have no right to let that happen. Hardly the spirit of democracy. Certainly, if various of the proclamations by other candidates are to be believed, Ukraine would veer sharply in another direction under several of Mr Kuchmas rivals. Parliaments speaker, for instance, Oleksandr Tkachenko, has been full of enthusiasm for the (so far mainly theoretical) reunion of Russia and Belarus, clearly implying that Ukraine should join it. Piotr Simonenko, head of Ukraines Communist Party and another candidate for president, favours that three-country link too. Natalia Vitrenko, running for the Progressive Socialist Party, wants the entire Soviet Union put back together. Each of these three old-guard candidates is well up with Mr Kuchma in the opinion polls. An analyst at the East-West Centre, a think-tank in Kiev, sayswith some justificationthat the forthcoming election could decide whether Ukraine has a future as an independent state. The back-to-the-Soviet Union candidates certainly have supporters, especially in Ukraines east and south, where ethnic Russians (numbering about 10m out of Ukraines 50m people) and Ukrainians with old-left sympathies are most numerous. In 1991, even they voted for independence, thinking that Ukraine was being exploited by the rest of the Soviet Union and that independence would bring prosperity. Eight years on, GDP has fallen by two-thirds. Easterners are particularly despondent. NATOs war over Kosovo has also helped set Ukrainian minds against the West. Though the Socialist Partys Oleksandr Moroz, a former speaker of parliament, is casting himself as a Scandinavian type of social democrat (albeit with the expectation of winning a lot of communist votes), the prevailing mood may also prod him into pandering to nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Of the wily old operators, Mr Kuchma apart, only Yevhen Marchuk, a former KGB boss for Ukraine, is still clearly pro-western. In his determination to fight back, Mr Kuchma is playing dirty. Last month the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which tries, among other things, to encourage democratic habits, said his tactics could harm Ukraines relations with western institutions. Some of the presidents men have told television bosses that, if they give presidential challengers air-time, they may lose their licences or find that advertisers withdraw their business. The electoral commission has been helping the president, too. For example, it made life hard for Mr Moroz by stalling for a month over whether it would hand his party the forms it needed to get the minimum 1m voters signatures entitling him to run. Were facing a deliberate, planned campaign to stop me taking part in the election, complains Mr Moroz, who says some of his partys buildings have been set on fire and his supporters attacked. Recent events in Donetsk, the coal-mining area in the east that is a hotbed of anti-Kuchma feeling and happens also to be the countrys most populous region, have been particularly murky. Ivan Ponomarev, the head of the regions assembly and an enemy of Mr Kuchmas, mysteriously resigned in May. The chief beneficiary has been Viktor Yanukovich, the regions
[PEN-L:9113] Quarter Million Inmates Mentally Ill
Monday July 12 12:46 AM ET U.S. Says Quarter Million Inmates Mentally Ill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An estimated 283,800 inmates held in U.S. state and federal prisons and local jails last year suffered from mental illness, including nearly one in six of the inmates held in state facilities, the Justice Department said Sunday. In its first comprehensive report on mental illness in correctional facilities, the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said nearly 20 percent of incarcerated violent offenders were identified as mentally ill. The report found that offenders identified as mentally ill were more likely than the general inmate population to have committed a violent offense. The report said an estimated 13 percent of mentally ill prisoners in state facilities had committed murder and 12 percent had committed rape or sexual assault. When compared to other inmates, the mentally ill reported higher rates of prior physical and sexual abuse and higher rates of alcohol and drug abuse by a parent or guardian while growing up, the report found. Sixteen percent of inmates held in state prisons or local jails or on probation at midyear 1998 either had a mental illness or had stayed at least overnight in a mental hospital, unit or treatment program, the report added. The Bureau of Justice Statistics said it identified people with mental or emotional problems based on information from personal interviews with a representative sample of offenders. The report found that the highest rate of mental illness was among white females in state prisons. It said 29 percent of that population was mentally ill, while 40 percent of the white female state prisoners age 24 or younger was mentally ill. Twenty percent of black women and 22 percent of Hispanic women in state prisons were found to be mentally ill, the report said.
[PEN-L:9122] High Imprisonment Rates Fuel Crime
High Imprisonment Rates Could Fuel Crime By Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, July 12, 1999; Page A01 TALLAHASSEEThings were looking up in Frenchtown. After years of spiraling out of control, crime had been declining sharply in this neighborhood of rickety frame houses and tumbledown carryouts that forms the historic hub of this city's African American community. Observers credited a variety of aggressive police tactics, including more and longer prison sentences for offenders. But in 1997, the declining crime rate in Frenchtown began to level off, failing to keep pace with drops in similar Tallahassee neighborhoods. And researchers analyzing crime trends here have fingered an unlikely culprit: the high number of Frenchtown residents sitting in prison cells. Research here supports a controversial theory being advanced by an increasing number of criminologists, who have concluded that although high incarceration rates generally have helped reduce crime, they eventually may reach a "tipping point," where so many people in a given neighborhood are going to prison that it begins to destabilize the community and becomes a factor that increases crime. "Until recently, nobody has really thought about incarceration in the aggregate," said Dina R. Rose, one of the researchers studying the relationship between incarceration and crime in the Frenchtown area. "Many people assume that incarceration reduces crime. But when incarceration gets to a certain density, that is when you see the effects change." Rose, a sociologist at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice, found that in high-crime Tallahassee neighborhoods that were otherwise comparable, crime reductions were lower in those with the greatest number of people moving in and out of prison. With high incarceration rates, she argues, prison can be transformed from a crime deterrent into a factor that fuels a cycle of crime and disorder by breaking up families, souring attitudes toward the criminal justice system and leaving communities populated with too many people hardened by the experience of going to prison. Frenchtown provides abundant evidence for the thesis. There are few men available to volunteer in the youth programs at the Fourth Avenue Recreation Center. And every day, dozens of men line up in front of a soup kitchen run out of a small frame house in the heart of Frenchtown. Robert J. Roeh, who runs the soup kitchen, estimates that four out of five of those who show up for the free meals have some type of prison record. "Going to prison keeps you locked up without bars for the rest of your life," he said. "We need to look at some other sanctions for people." Dale Landry, a former police officer and Marine who heads Tallahassee's Neighborhood Justice Center, an alternative corrections program, said the volume of people going to prison has reached the point where it hurts the very communities it is intended to help. "When a crime is committed, an offender should be held accountable," Landry said. "But the way we do it now, when a crime happens there is a damaged relationship between people who live in this community. We need to work on fixing these relationships. But when we send people away, those relationships remain broken, but we are left with a false sense of security that the prisons are working." It is a problem recognized by local police, who have increasingly turned to community policing in an effort to mediate some of the social problems that often arise in conjunction with crime. "We are looking at a lot of these issues," said Maj. George Creamer, head of the Tallahassee
[PEN-L:9101] Re query
I want to thank Max, Brad and Henry for their helpful responses to my query, "Is there some rule of thumb which sates how many dollars the tax harvest falls for each $billion decline in GDP?" Henry stated that total tax receipts( fed, state and local) are some 36% of GDP. But given the progressivity of the income tax, won't tax receipts fall off by more than 36 cents for each dollar of GDP decline? Are there any known estimates of the magnitude. Thank you Frank
[PEN-L:9080] query
Is there some rule of thumb which sates how many dollars the tax harvest falls for each $billion decline in GDP? Thank you Frank
[PEN-L:9083] Departing aid chief scolds US on its global role
Departing aid chief scolds US on its global role By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 07/09/99 WASHINGTON - From J. Brian Atwood's perspective, two numbers out of Washington are combining to send a dangerous message to the world: The Clinton administration's forecast of a $1 trillion budget surplus and Congress's refusal to repay $1 billion in UN dues. Atwood, the Wareham, Mass., native who leaves his job today as US foreign aid chief, said in an interview yesterday that the world's disfranchised increasingly are looking at ever-richer America as "arrogant" for hoarding its bounty. After overseeing the Agency for International Development during a six-year decline of funding for foreign assistance, Atwood will head international development programs at Boston's Citizens Energy Corp. beginning in August. But Atwood, 56, has been using the last days of his government pulpit to speak with a degree of candor rarely heard in official Washington. He called the government's foreign affairs budget a "joke," blaming Congress for whittling foreign assistance in the AID budget from $7.5 billion in 1993 to $6.9 billion last year and for cutting agency staff by a third. He has said no one is speaking out about the troubling global trend of a widening gap between rich and poor. Further US aid cuts could hinder the push for emerging democracies because fewer people are reaping democracy's fruits, he said. Atwood took the job at Citizens Energy, which was founded by former US representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, after realizing that his nomination as US ambassador to Brazil never would come up for a vote before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican who is chairman of the panel, and Atwood had long feuded over the senator's plan to merge AID into the State Department. In his spacious office in the Ronald Reagan Building, which still had pictures on the walls yesterday, Atwood said he hoped his words would inspire development professionals and perhaps a presidential candidate or two to raise the issue of helping the less fortunate. "When someone leaves a job like this, they all of a sudden have a platform. It is important to try to provoke people into thinking about what is right and what is wrong. ... It just seems to me that I have almost an obligation to speak out. There are probably no other voices in this town that are going to speak out on behalf of the poor around the world." The United States, he said, "needs to be shaken out of our lethargy" and begin helping the world's poorest. "We'll be lost if we don't, and the resentment toward the US will only grow." He urged the United States to immediately pay back its UN debt without conditions. The Senate has passed a bill that would earmark $800 million for the United Nations as long as the body reduced the US contribution to 20 percent from 25 percent of the UN's budget. With the predicted $1 trillion US surplus, Atwood recommended putting $10 billion a year for five years toward development in the neediest parts of the world. Atwood, a career diplomat long connected to the Democratic Party, said he wasn't upset about leaving Washington this way. His new job, he said, would keep him doing the work he enjoys most. This month, Kennedy and Atwood plan to travel to Angola and Nigeria to help steer corporations toward development projects. People want to portray him as angry, "but I really don't feel that way," Atwood said. "It was just fate. It wasn't meant for me to go to Brazil at this time. I was prepared to go. I was excited about going. But what I'm going to be doing in Boston is, I think, going to be more important. ... If I went to Brazil, no one would hear my voice on these issues." This story ran on page A02 of the Boston Globe on 07/09/99.
[PEN-L:8884] Pharmaceutical companies dump useless drugs in Albania
WSWS : News Analysis : Europe : The Balkans Pharmaceutical companies dump useless drugs in Albania By Debra Watson 3 July 1999 Use this version to print The World Health Organization (WHO) has charged that Western pharmaceutical companies are dumping tons of unusable surplus and expired drugs into Albania for the Kosovo relief effort, simply to reap generous tax breaks from their governments and to avoid paying substantial costs of disposing of hazardous waste. A WHO audit of humanitarian drug donations received in Albania during May 1999 was conducted in collaboration with Pharmaciens sans Frontières (PSF). Indro Mattei, a member of the Swiss Disaster Relief Unit working with the WHO Humanitarian Assistance Project Office in Tirana was one of the two pharmacists conducting the audit. "We estimate that 50% of the drugs coming into Albania donated by non-medical organizations are inappropriate or useless and will have to be destroyed. We are very concerned that some pharmaceutical companies are using this humanitarian crisis to get rid of unwanted stockpiles." In April 1999, the Albanian health authorities relaxed import controls to speed up the entry of urgently needed drugs and medical supplies to meet the needs of the 460,000 Kosovar refugees and the continuing needs of the rest of the Albanian population. Even before the refugee crisis, the Albanian health care system depended heavily on drug donations, being able to cover only 20 percent of the drug and medical supply needs of its hospitals. In December 1997, an article in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) chronicled similar bogus drug-donations in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1996. Using a grant from Medecins sans Frontières-Belgium, Philippe Autier, M.D. from Milan and Patrick Berckmans, M.D. and Gerard Schmets, Ph.D. of Brussels investigated rumors about massive quantities of irrelevant drugs that arrived in Mostar, Tuzla, Gorazde, Sarajevo, and Bihac, cities that were key targets for humanitarian assistance. The authors estimated that 50 to 60 percent of the 27,800 to 34,800 metric tons of drugs and medical materials that entered Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and mid-1996 were inappropriate. Although miscellaneous donations of small amounts of drugs accounted for 60 percent of all inappropriate donations, they also documented dumping of large quantities, which accounted for 35 percent of such inappropriate donations. They used the example of France to illustrate the large amount of medical waste that needs disposal every year in the industrial countries. In that country, they wrote, the 22,500 metric tons of unused medicines each year equal 40 percent of the annual drugs sold. "Our investigations nonetheless underscore that inappropriate medical donations to Bosnia and Herzegovina were common, as they were to Armenia and Mexico after their earthquakes, or to Africa during its food crisis, and to the former Soviet Union. Individuals and organizations have many reasons for sending medical supplies to a disaster area. Charitable gifts may lead to tax deductions and represent a convenient way to dispose of waste medical supplies without having to pay for their destruction. Publicity about humanitarian aid usually promotes the image of the people or organizations involved." Added to the cost of destroying the unusable drugs are health and environmental hazards, as well as the costs of storing, handling, sorting, and managing the useless and unusable medicines.
[PEN-L:8885] Fw: Eye witness account of the impact of war and sanctions
From World Socialist Web Site Eye witness account of the impact of war and sanctions on Iraq "It really is a New World Order imposed by Britain and the US" A two-part interview with journalist Felicity Arbuthnot by Barbara Slaughter Part One 5 July 1999 Felicity Arbuthnot is a freelance journalist, who has visited Iraq on many occasions since the end of the Gulf War. She has just returned to Britain from her eighteenth visit. In the first of a two-part interview she explained to Barbara Slaughter how she became involved. Like many others I had opposed the Gulf War. I knew that, like the war in Yugoslavia, it was about the strategic interests of the western powers and not about either Saddam Hussein or "little Kuwait". At the end of the war I thought, "We did our best and failed. And now the rebuilding of the country will begin." A few months later I attended a press conference given by Magne Raundalen, a Norwegian professor in child psychology, and Eric Hoskins, a Canadian public health expert, on child trauma in Iraq. They were the first people to report what was actually going on. Nothing was being done to help and I felt impelled to go to Iraq and see for myself. A week later I was in Baghdad and I was appalled by what I saw. It was a country which had, as James Baker had threatened, literally been reduced to a pre-industrial age; a country, which had been highly dependent on modern technology, was just being left to rot. What was unique was that this was done in the name of the people of the United Nations. It will go down in history as one of the great crimes of the twentieth century, along with the Holocaust, Pol Pot and the bombing of Dresden. This was my 18th visit to Iraq since the Gulf War. The last four have been very close together: last October, January/February, I went back at the end of March and then again in May. Each time I am struck by the deterioration. Each time there is another horror. In March it was the daily bombing of the infrastructure. The electricity has just died. Many people can't afford candles and use makeshift lamps. People put a wick in a bottle with oil and quite often the bottle explodes. The injuries have soared. The burns are horrendous and there is no treatment, not even cling film as an emergency measure to cover the wounds. There are no painkillers. There is no plastic surgery. There were two other things I noticed. Like with every embargo in history, there was a small amount of profiteering in money dealing. You have a fraction of the population at the top of the regime who have family abroad sending in dollars. There are restaurants springing up. You can get Christian Dior sunglasses, absolutely anything. Yet 98 percent of the population don't have a way of sterilising burns. The other thing that struck me was the breakdown in the spirit of these very brave people. They feel that it is never, ever, going to end. Yet when I became ill on this trip, they were so concerned. I suddenly collapsed in the hotel foyer in Mosul and was virtually unconscious. My interpreter and my driver kept letting themselves into my room, touching me on the head and saying: Are you all right? Shall we get a doctor?" They were saying, You keep coming back here and Iraq has made you so ill." I was in and out of consciousness for about 18 hours. I don't know what caused it. I just think the atmosphere is poisoned. The colleague I was with was also affected.
[PEN-L:8216] IRAQ: NEW U.S. ATTACKS
From New York Times On Line June 23 '99 IRAQ: NEW U.S. ATTACKS For the second day in a row, U.S. fighter jets bombed radar installations around the city of Mosul in the northern no-flight zone after being fired at by antiaircraft guns, the U.S. Air Force's European Command said. It said all aircraft left the area safely. (Reuters)
[PEN-L:8104] Mobs put City under siege
eletronic Telegraph ISSUE 1485 Saturday 19 June 1999 Mobs put City under siege By David Millward, George Trefgarne and Peter Foster Carnival turns into nightmare Protest part of global plan Strange mix of defiance and pot plant barricades AN anti-capitalist demonstration in the City of London deteriorated into violence yesterday as protesters pelted police with bricks and bottles and attacked financial institutions, causing widespread damage. After more than six hours of rioting and vandalism by up to 4,000 protesters, one woman was known to be in hospital after falling under the wheels of a police van. There were also reports that four police officers received hospital treatment and a male protester was also injured in an incident with a police van. Shops, buildings and monuments in the Square Mile were left damaged or defaced. The "Carnival Against Capitalism" was organised to attract environmental protesters and opponents of capitalism to the City, one of the world's leading financial centres. In its early stages yesterday morning, the demonstration passed with little trouble as massed ranks of cyclists brought traffic to a standstill and other protesters staged sit-ins in a number of buildings. Police and staff in the institutions adopted a low-key approach in what was, generally, a good-natured atmosphere. After lunch, however, when it became evident that many protesters had been drinking heavily, the mood became violent. A large crowd gathered outside Liverpool Street station, with police avoiding any conflict, but then split into four groups, which moved in different directions through the City. The City of London force - which deployed up to 800 officers, many in riot gear, with support from the Metropolitan and British Transport police - said these groups started to use "gratuitous and unprovoked" violence against officers. Cars were attacked, buildings, statues and seating were damaged. A bar was attacked and a branch of McDonalds in Cannon Street was wrecked. Tube and mainline stations were closed as police tried to contain protesters who, in some cases, seemed bent on confrontation. In some of the worst violence, several hundred protesters smashed down the doors of the Liffe building, London's futures market. They were repelled by security staff who reversed the escalators, sending the demonstrators tumbling
[PEN-L:7884] Biggest one-day slaughter in war
Biggest one-day slaughter in war NATO cluster bombs kill hundreds of Serb troops By Martin McLaughlin 10 July 1999 The US-NATO air war against Yugoslavia culminated Monday in the biggest one-day slaughter since the bombing campaign began, with as many as 600 Yugoslav Army soldiers killed when their column was hit by cluster bombs from a single B-52 bomber. American and NATO officials said two battalions of Yugoslav troops had left their bomb shelters to engage a Kosovo Liberation Army force that had crossed the Kosovo-Albania border near Mt. Pastrik. The soldiers, who numbered between 800 and 1,200, were caught in the open on the mountain hillside. According to the Washington Post account, "Initial aerial assessments showed such massive annihilation that fewer than half the targeted troops are believed to have survived." Cluster bombs scatter hundreds of powerful explosive charges when they detonate, each charge capable of inflicting multiple casualties. The bomb is used as an anti-personnel weapon and is particularly effective against massed ground troops. The massacre on Mt. Pastrik was the worst of a series of mass killings by NATO warplanes during the eleven-week bombardment of Yugoslavia. NATO officials estimated last week that 5,000 Yugoslav soldiers had been killed and 10,000 wounded, and the death toll has increased significantly this week, with hundreds of casualties each day from intense bombing, especially in Kosovo. The stepped-up bombing has been closely coordinated with the KLA's activities on the ground, demonstrating the role of the guerrilla force as a direct instrument of US-NATO policy. The KLA launched an offensive in late May, which failed to hold much territory inside Kosovo. Nor was it really intended to. Its purpose was to engage Yugoslav Army forces in combat and have NATO warplanes annihilate them from the air. According to one summary given out by NATO, bombing this week has destroyed 29 tanks, 93 armored personnel carriers, 209 artillery pieces, 11 air defense artillery positions, 86 mortars and many other military vehicles. Given the manpower required to maintain and operate such weapons, this translates into thousands of casualties. KLA guerrillas have also carried out an increasingly aggressive series of terrorist attacks on Serb targets in Kosovo, especially on passenger buses traveling between the cities. A Serb bus driver was killed Tuesday when KLA gunmen ambushed a passenger bus bound from Pristina, the Kosovo capital, for Belgrade. Another bus driver and four passengers were wounded in a second attack just outside Pristina, while a Serb passenger was killed in an attack Sunday on a bus near Kosovska Mitrovica. These shootings go beyond retaliation against Serb police and government officials involved in attacks on Kosovar Albanians. The KLA is clearly seeking to intimidate the Serb minority in Kosovo and create the conditions for a full-scale flight of the Serb population once the Yugoslav Army is withdrawn and NATO troops and KLA guerrillas take over the province. As many as 200,000 Serb civilians would become targets for a new round of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. The gruesome death toll on Mt. Pastrik is reminiscent of another military slaughter in the waning days of another US war against a small and completely out-gunned opponent the Persian Gulf War against Iraq. After a six-week aerial bombardment and a four-day ground war that destroyed much of the Iraqi army, there was a wild flight of thousands of soldiers and civilians from Kuwait back across the border into Iraq. Navy and Air Force jets caught one long column of fleeing Iraqi vehicles on the Kuwait to Basra highway and pounded it mercilessly with bombs and machine-gun fire. As we described it at the time: "Soldiers seeking to flee north away from the fighting were attacked without mercy. Pilots flying missions against the highway between Kuwait City and Basra, the main evacuation route for Iraqi troops, described the systematic bombing and strafing as 'shooting in a sheep pen.' The road, clogged by four lanes of one-way, bumper-to-bumper traffic, was carpet bombed by B-52s dropping 1,000-pound bombs, and repeatedly hit with laser-guided missiles and 'smart' bombs" ( Desert Slaughter, p. 229) Like the attack on the "Highway of Death," there was no military necessity for the cluster-bomb attack on Yugoslav conscripts on Mt. Pastrik. The Yugoslav government had already capitulated to the US-NATO air war and committed itself to a complete withdrawal from Kosovo, while discussions were stalled in Macedonia over the exact timetable and modus operandi for implementation. The immensity of the slaughter, however, sheds light on the legitimate concerns of Yugoslav military officials over the terms of the withdrawal and their desire to secure guarantees for the safety of their retreating troops. This assault was above all staged to demonstrate the ruthlessness of American and
[PEN-L:7883] (no subject)
Thursday June 10 7:05 AM ET U.S. Marines Face Anti-NATO Protest In Greece By Karolos Grohmann EVZONI, Greece (Reuters) - A huge banner saying ``U.S. killers go home'' greeted U.S. marines heading for Kosovo when they landed in Greece Thursday, but there were no other anti-American incidents as they traveled across the country. Greece is a member of NATO but it is also a traditional friend of the fellow-Christian Orthodox Serbs and has contributed no troops or aircraft to NATO's Yugoslav campaign, which has been highly unpopular among the Greeks. ``The first thing we saw on the beach was a giant banner which had 'U.S. killers go home' written on it,'' a marine told Reuters as members of the 2,200-man force entered Macedonia at this frontier post after travelling through Greece. ``We are a peacekeeping force. There is a misunderstanding here,'' the marine said. Previous protests blocked the passage of U.S. troops heading through Greece for neighboring Macedonia for a time. Greece this week blocked the disembarkation of the 2,200 marines for several days, saying they could only cross its territory when it was certain they would enter Kosovo as peacekeepers only. The government in Athens has been particularly wary of letting the U.S. troops through this week, seeking to win favor with voters before European Parliament elections Sunday. The marines had been kept waiting since last Sunday aboard three U.S. ships off the port of Thessaloniki. Before they landed on Litohoro beach near Thessaloniki, the main transit point for NATO troops and supplies into Macedonia, hundreds of Greek riot police pushed about 500 demonstrators back from the beach. The protesters, mostly from the Greek Communist Party, chanted slogans like ``Yankees go home'' and ``American murderers'' as they were pushed back. The marines traveled some 175 miles across northern Greece to the Macedonian frontier to join the NATO-led force of some 50,000 troops preparing to enter Kosovo. There were no more protesters at the Greek-Macedonian border and the marines' progress through Greece appeared to have gone without a hitch. Reporters at the border saw two convoys cross with marines in buses and at least 12 of the amphibious assault craft they had earlier used to land at Litohoro beach near the port city of Thessaloniki. ``These marines will be among the first to enter Kosovo,'' a NATO official told Reuters as the first members of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force waded up the beach at Litohoro. Earlier Stories U.S. Marines Land In Greece On Way To Kosovo (June 10) Yugoslavs Sign Kosovo Pull-Out Terms (June 9) Bombing Set To Stop As Kosovo Peace Signed (June 9) Yugoslavia To Start Pullout In Hours -- Minister (June 9) Serbs To Start Kosovo Pullout Thursday-Yugo Formin (June 9)
[PEN-L:7772] Air Strike Kills Four in Iraq
Monday June 7 12:47 AM ET Iraq Says Western Air Strike Kills Four BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq said four people were killed and five were wounded Sunday when Western planes bombed targets in a no-fly zone in the south of the country. ``Four citizens met martyrdom and five others were wounded in Abu al-Khasib and Qurna region of Basra province today due to U.S. and British planes' bombing,'' the Iraqi News Agency quoted a military spokesman as saying. The spokesman said one of the planes was hit by Iraqi anti-aircraft defenses. ``At 10:05 a.m. (0605 GMT), 15 hostile formations violated our airspace coming from Saudi and Kuwaiti skies,'' the spokesman said. He said the planes bombed a civilian installation in Abu al-Khasib region, killing one person and wounding two. ``The hostile formations attacked one of our military sites in Samawa region and were intercepted by our ground resistance defenses,'' the spokesman said. He added that Iraqi defenses ``hit one of the hostile planes prompting one of the hostile formations to carry out a barbarous and brutal act of bombing a farmer's house in Qurna...leading to the martyrdom of three citizens and the injury of another three.'' The spokesman said the planes left Iraqi airspace at 11:45 a.m. (0745 GMT), but ``eight hostile formations'' returned about four hours later and flew over Muthanna, Dhi Qar and Basra provinces. There was no immediate confirmation of the attacks from the United States or Britain. U.S. and British planes regularly patrol no-fly zones over southern and northern Iraq set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The zones, which Baghdad does not recognize, were imposed to protect minority groups from attack by Iraqi forces. Iraq said three people were killed and two were wounded when Western planes bombed civilian and military targets in northern Iraq Saturday. Earlier Stories U.S. Says Allied Planes Attack Iraqi Targets (June 6)
[PEN-L:7688] Russian Envoy Branded 'Traitor'
St Petersburg Times #471, Friday, June 4, 1999 TOP STORY Russian Envoy Branded 'Traitor' By Andrei Zolotov Jr. STAFF WRITER MOSCOW - The Kosovo peace plan accepted Thursday by Yugoslavia may have champagne corks popping in the West, but back in Russia Special Envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin faces a tough task defending the plan and his role in the negotiations. The Russian public and politicians have been frustrated by his failure to win substantial concessions from NATO, and the settlement plan announced Thursday is almost certain to be seen as a near total capitulation to the Western military alliance. The deal - which says NATO air strikes may continue until the beginning of a Serb withdrawal is verified and leaves unclear who will exercise the "unified control and command" of international security personnel "with an essential NATO participation" - looks like a surrender of Russian demands for an immediate halt to the bombings and for putting the United Nations firmly in charge of peacekeeping. At least on the ever-growing anti-Western flank of Russian politics, the peace plan is perceived as Chernomyrdin's failure to defend Yugoslavia's and Russia's interests against heavy pressure from Washington and other NATO powers. Upon his return to Moscow on Thursday evening, Chernomyrdin, apparently aware of the harsh criticism, appeared to try to shift responsibility toward President Boris Yeltsin, who approved the instructions for the Russian delegation. "Russia has not retreated from those principles that were worked out under the direction of [Yeltsin]," he said. Even before the details of the Bonn agreement were released, left-wing and nationalist State Duma deputies began their session Thursday morning by lashing out at Chernomyrdin. The Duma voted to invite high-level representatives of the Foreign and Defense ministries, as well as Yugoslav ambassador to Moscow, Borislav Milosevic, for immediate hearings. But after Yeltsin's representative in the Duma, Alexander Kotenkov, insisted that no one would report to the Duma before negotiators reported to Yeltsin, the hearings were postponed until 5 p.m. Friday. Fueling the harsh reaction of the deputies were media reports that Russian generals who were part of Chernomyrdin's negotiating team disagreed with the envoy. Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, who is in charge of the military's foreign contacts and is known for his hawkish position on Yugoslavia, was a member of Russian delegation. Chernomyrdin and Ivashov denied that there were disagreements. Ivashov, however, said the military part of Russia's delegation was "not quite satisfied with the imposed role of NATO and the diminishing of Russia's position in the conflict settlement." Agrarian faction leader Nikolai Kha ritonov accused Chernomyrdin of carrying out a "Munich conspiracy" by appeasing NATO. "Even the generals who were at the negotiations with Chernomyrdin are puzzled," Kha ri to nov said at the Duma session. While representatives of Chernomyrdin's Our Home Is Russia party attempted to defend their boss, nationalist Deputy Vladimir Zhirinovsky attacked both the former prime minister and the Agrarians, saying that "a gas specialist should not be working in foreign policy," nor should agricultural lobbyists meddle in Balkan affairs. The Duma opposition's negative reaction to Chernomyrdin's efforts is not entirely new. Earlier this week, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov labeled Chernomyrdin not a special envoy, but a "special traitor." "I have not heard from Chernomyrdin any coherent programs connected with a Yugoslavia settlement,"
[PEN-L:7625] Re: Re: Re: What I would love to see...
J. Devine: I know very well they were by Jim Craven. I miss your point Frank
[PEN-L:7622] Buchanan on the Balkans
From Johnson russian list Date: Tue, 01 Jun 1999 From: "Wladislaw George Krasnow, PhD" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Organization: Russian American Goodwill Associates Subject: Buchanan on Russia at National Press Club in Washington Patrick Buchanan became the first U.S. presidential candidate to declare the war in the Balkans the greatest obstacle to better relations with Russia which, he said, would be "priority number one" if he is elected to the White House. During a luncheon presentation at the national Press Club on Tuesday June 1, Buchanan criticised the four other Republican presidential candidates, George W. Bush, Elisabeth Dole, Steve Forbes and Sen. John McCain for failing to distance themselves from "Clinton's war." Buchanan disputed McCain's suggestion that "we must do whatever is necessary to win lest we be perceived by our enemies as an uncertain foe and by our friends as an unreliable ally." "If a war is unwise, unjust, or unwinnable except at exorbitant cost," argued Buchanan, "a statesman's duty is to end it on the best terms attainable, as Eisenhower did in Korea, DeGaulle in Algeria, and Gorbachev in Afghanistan." According to Buchanan, "the only winner thus far has been Milosevic who has earned a niche in Serb mythology for defying 'the most successful alliance in history' rather than surrender Kosovo, the sacred cradle of the Serb nation." Concluded Buchanan: "Let us cut a deal and end this wretched war now." When asked about his vision of the U.S.-Russia relations in the 21st century, Buchanan said that "the greatest achievement of Ronald Reagan was not only ending the Cold War but also turning the millions of ordinary Russians to our friends. Under Clinton, anti-Americanism in Russia became rampant and reached the lowest pointly after the expansion of NATO and the start of the war in Yugoslavia." "If elected, I'd make the reparing of U.S.-Russian relation the number one priority of my foreign policy to keep Russia from moving closer to Red China," promised Buchanan.
[PEN-L:7592] Re: What I would love to see...
Jim: thanks for those two great posts: "What I would love to see" and the "open invitation" frank
[PEN-L:7471] U.S. Jet Bombed North Iraq
Top Stories Headlines Monday May 31 7:18 AM ET U.S. Says Jet Bombed Radar Site In North Iraq ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes attacked Iraqi air defenses near Mosul Monday after being fired on by anti-aircraft guns and targeted by radar in the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, a statement from the jets' base in southern Turkey said. ``All coalition aircraft departed the area safely,'' the statement said. Air strikes on targets in northern Iraq and in a no-fly zone in the south of Iraq have become a regular occurrence since December when Baghdad began actively challenging the patrols. The U.S.-British Operation Northern Watch operates out of Turkey's Incirlik airbase some 340 miles from the Iraqi border. The force is designed to protect the mainly Kurdish population north of the 36th parallel from air attack by Iraqi government forces. Most of the area is under the control of Iraqi Kurdish groups who slipped from Baghdad's control in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, but the Iraqi government retains a triangle of territory around the city of Mosul. Turkey's permission is needed for any planned strikes against Iraq from its territory, but planes flying from Incirlik are allowed to fire in self-defense against any threat, including being tracked by radar.
[PEN-L:7443] PEN-L:5412] Rambouillet Agreement
I just got around to perusing the Rambouillet Agreeement that Michael Eisenscher posted on April 15. It may have been commented on before. If so I missed it. The first sentence of Article 1 of Chapter 4 reads: 1. The economy of Kosovo shall function in accordance with free market principles. Frank
[PEN-L:7398] Milosevic indictment a pretext for invasion
From World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org WSWS : News Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis Milosevic indictment provides pretext for invasion By the editorial board 28 May 1999 The indictment of Slobodan Milosevic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a political measure taken in behalf of the NATO powers that are waging war on the Yugoslav people. Its purpose is, first, to legitimize the present bombing campaign and provide a justification for its escalation, and, second, lay the propaganda and legal foundation for an invasion of Kosovo in the south and Belgrade in the north, the arrest and imprisonment of the Milosevic leadership, and the installation of a puppet regime subservient to the US and its European allies. The ICTY was set up in the Hague in 1993 at the behest of the NATO powers to serve as an instrument for coercing and intimidating political forces in Yugoslavia who were resisting the carve-up of the country. Its essential role is to provide the predatory policies of the imperialist powers with the cover of "international law." The announcement of the indictment was immediately hailed by President Clinton and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as a vindication of the bombing campaign that has already cost thousands of civilian lives and is creating conditions of untold human misery, which will last for years to come. Cook declared that the indictment meant there would be "no compromise" with the present Yugoslav government and NATO would step up its military campaign. He went on to place the onus directly on the Yugoslav people, saying, "Today's indictment is a further compelling reason why the people of Yugoslavia should reject Milosevic and his evil policies." The implication is that the population itself would be considered complicit in Milosevic's alleged war crimes should it fail to rise up and topple the regime in Belgrade. The indictment is the latest propaganda salvo in a war that has depended from the outset on a massive and concerted effort to deceive, confuse and manipulate the public. It is aimed primarily at American and European public opinion, where there are signs of growing concern and opposition to the targeting of civilians and the rudiments of modern civilization in Yugoslaviaoil supplies, electricity, water, roads, bridges, hospitals, etc. NATO's hope is that the branding of Milosevic as a war criminal will quell popular revulsion over the barbarity of its attack. The implicit argument is: "This is a criminal government, comparable to Nazi Germany, which is supported by a criminal peoplethe Serbs." Virtually any measures are therefore justifiable in NATO's "humanitarian" war. On the same day as the tribunal's announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported on a closed-door briefing given by NATO Commander-in-Chief Wesley Clark to the alliance's 19 ambassadors. The US general said NATO governments would have to brace themselves for a sharp escalation of the bombing and a rising toll of civilian casualties. Britain's Times newspaper reported that the US was considering launching a ground war in Kosovo if no peace agreement emerges in the next three weeks. Quoting unidentified NATO sources, the Times said Clinton was considering sending 90,000 US combat troops. The indictment of Milosevic is calculated to sabotage attempts to broker a diplomatic settlement. From the beginning of the conflict, the US and Britain have demanded nothing short of total surrender and sought to block any moves toward a peace deal. The indictment Without any substantiation, the ICTY attributes the entire responsibility for the exodus of 740,000 Kosovo Albanians to the Milosevic regime. There is not even a suggestion that NATO might share responsibility for the refugee crisisthis despite the well-known fact that the mass flight of ethnic Albanians only began after NATO launched its air war on March 24. Nor is there any reference to the activities of the NATO-backed Kosovo Liberation Army, which carried out attacks on Serb targetscivilian as well as militaryin advance of the NATO war, and has continued to wage war within Kosovo since March 24. Thus the supposedly neutral war crimes tribunal ignores the existence of a civil war in Kosovo and accepts entirely and uncritically the premises put forward by the NATO powers to justify their attack. Moreover, the tribunal is only able to come up with the names of "over 340 persons" whom it claims were killed by Serb forces in Kosovo between January 1, 1999 and the present. The death of hundreds of civilians is a tragedy, and criminal acts may well be involved. But these deaths take place within the context of a civil war, exacerbated by foreign military intervention. One further point: NATO bombs in just two months have killed many times the number of civilian deaths attributed to the Serbs. Washington's double standard The hypocrisy that underlies the indictment is summed up by the fact that the United
[PEN-L:7379] Action Against Iraq Escalating
Friday, May 28, 1999 MIDEAST Overshadowed by Kosovo War, Action Against Iraq Escalating By JOHN DANISZEWSKI, Times Staff Writer AIRO--While NATO jets have been slamming targets in Yugoslavia for the past nine weeks, the United States' other--and far less visible--air war has intensified over Iraq. Virtually unnoticed, U.S. and British aircraft have responded to what the coalition partners describe as provocations by Baghdad. The allied jet fighters, flying from Turkey and the Persian Gulf, have been chipping away systematically at Iraqi radar posts, air defenses, and other military and command facilities. Despite the allies' use of laser-guided rockets and other precision munitions, Iraq claims that some of the strikes have gone astray, destroying private property, killing at least 20 civilians and leaving scores injured. Although one might think that the enormous demands for air power in the Balkan conflict would diminish allied activity over Iraq, if anything, the pace of attacks has picked up slightly since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization action in Yugoslavia began. According to an unofficial tally of actions announced by the U.S. Central and European commands, there have been about 19 strikes against Iraq in April and May, roughly equal to the total for all of January, February and March. In other words, airstrikes have been taking place about every third day. In a way, the Yugoslav conflict has worked to the advantage of U.S.-British forces in the Persian Gulf, Mideast analysts say, by distracting the attention of the Arab world away from Iraq--and deferring any action on the basic split in the U.N. Security Council over what to do about Iraq. "The daily attacks are a war of attrition against Saddam [Hussein], and [yet] at the same time, they do not arouse mass anger among Arabs," observed Nabil Abdel Fattaj, a researcher at Cairo's Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "It is not making headlines anymore." And it is not only the Kosovo war that has put Iraq on the back burner. In the Mideast, the top item on the diplomatic agenda for the year is likely to be Israel's new government under Ehud Barak and the peace process. U.S. officials say the bombings have exacted a heavy toll on Hussein's regime. "We have certainly degraded their ability to respond," said Air Force Maj. Joseph LaMarca Jr., spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Gulf. He said Iraqi air defenses have been weakened and noted that the bombings may have fueled dissension in the Iraqi military. Since Iraq announced in January that it would begin resisting the Western-imposed "no-fly" zones in northern and southern Iraq, the U.S. military said there have been about 180 Iraqi threats against allied forces, including 111 violations of the no-fly zones, nine cases of illuminating allied aircraft with radar, 16 firings of surface-to-air missiles and at least 50 engagements with antiaircraft artillery, LaMarca said. U.S. officials deny that the coalition airstrikes are anything but defensive and say they are an appropriate response to the Iraqi actions. Among ordinary Iraqis, the mood is bleak, said journalist Subhy Haddad, speaking from Baghdad. "It seems that
[PEN-L:6866] U.S. Says Jets Strike North Iraq
Sat. May 15, 15 9:53 AM ET U.S. Says Jets Strike Air Defenses In North Iraq ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes bombed a range of Iraqi air defense sites Saturday after being tracked by radar in the no-fly zone above northern Iraq, said a statement from the jets' base in southern Turkey. U.S. Air Force F-16s and F-15s, ``responding in self defense,'' dropped precision-guided bombs and fired anti-radiation missiles on anti-aircraft artillery sites north of the city of Mosul, the statement said. ``All coalition aircraft departed the area safely,'' it said. Air strikes on targets in northern Iraq and in a no-fly zone in the south of Iraq have become routine since December, when Baghdad began actively challenging the patrols. The U.S.-British Operation Northern Watch force operates out of Turkey's Incirlik airbase some 550 km (340 miles) from the Iraqi border. NATO member Turkey said last week that it had ordered its military authorities to allow the alliance to use its air bases in the west of the country for operations against Yugoslavia. Operation Northern Watch, in the east, is designed to protect the largely Kurdish population there from air attack by Iraqi government forces. Turkey's permission is needed for any planned strikes against Iraq from its territory, but planes flying from Incirlik are allowed to fire in self-defense against any threat, which includes being tracked by radar.
[PEN-L:6787] Fw: Re: Re: EPR, prison, interest rates
What would it be if we counted the homeless? Unemployment count, like the poverty count I think, is a household count. They are not counted in the poverty count. There are millions of them Frank -- From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:6783] Re: Re: EPR, prison, interest rates Date: Thursday, May 13, 1999 4:19 PM Doug wrote: If you counted all U.S. prisoners as unemployed, it would push up the U rate from around 4.3% to 5.6%. Details also forthcoming in LBO. If most of these are structurally unemployed (i.e., having the wrong skills or living in the wrong location, like the inner city, for the jobs available), then this would lower the structural unemployment rate and thus the NAIRU, the threshold unemployment rate beneath which inflation gets worse and worse. Prison labor also competes with free labor, undermining its bargaining power and keeping wage demands down. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html Bombing DESTROYS human rights. US/NATO out of Serbia!
[PEN-L:6706] No comment
USIA 10 May 1999 U.S. ENVOYS TO CASPIAN BASIN TOUT INVESTMENT PROSPECTS (Say financial payoff requires long-term commitment) (900) By Phillip Kurata USIA Staff Writer Washington -- U.S. ambassadors assigned to energy-rich countries surrounding the Caspian Sea are offering "gold key" service to U.S. businesses considering investing in Central Asia. "We offer gold key service We will help you get started. We'll help you make appointments. We'll rent you a car. We'll rent you an interpreter. We'll make hotel reservations -- all kinds of things like this," U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Stanley Escudero said at a May 7 business forum in Washington. The U.S. embassies in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan offer similar services to help U.S. companies capitalize on potentially enormous opportunities in the Caspian Basin, which has huge oil and gas reserves. The U.S. government has opened a business center in Ankara, Turkey, staffed by trade promotion officials to help U.S. business people to establish contacts in Turkey and points east. The U.S. Caspian diplomacy is pegged to two proposed pipelines. One would carry crude oil from Baku, Azerbaijan, through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port at Ceyhan. The second would pump natural gas from Turkmenistan, under the Caspian Sea, through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey. The United States and its NATO partner Turkey have embarked on a policy to bring democracy, stability and prosperity to the Caucasus and Central Asia by encouraging foreign investment in the region's fledgling free market economies. Ambassador Escudero said business, not aid, fosters development. "What develops a nation is business activity. What develops a nation is the new wealth which is created and the new knowledge that is created and the multiplier effect of successful activities Azerbaijan is ready for that. It's ripe for it," Escudero said. Speaking at the same forum with Escudero were U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Michael Lemmon, U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Kenneth Yalowitz, U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard Jones, U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan Steve Mann, U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Joseph Presel, and U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris. With the exception of Parris, the ambassadors also spoke to business conferences in New Orleans and New York to publicize the investment opportunities in the Caucasus Basin. The three main U.S. trade agencies -- the Trade and Development Agency, the Export-Import Bank, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation -- are offering incentives and guarantees to U.S. companies willing to risk investment in the former Soviet republics. Jones, the U.S. envoy to Kazakhstan, voiced a theme common to all the ambassadors. "Kazakhstan is not a market for the faint hearted. It's a high-maintenance business environment that will require financial strength and a significant amount of executive time and energy to make your business profitable," he said. Costly customs delays, bureaucratic red tape to obtain work permits, inconsistent application of the tax code and lack of respect for contracts are a partial list of pitfalls facing U.S. businesses in Kazakhstan, Jones said. Nevertheless, more than 100 U.S. companies have opened offices in Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan, in sectors such as oil and gas, consumer goods, power generation and telecommunications, Jones said. The ambassador has a doctorate in business and said he was chosen for the Kazakhstan assignment because he could be instrumental in helping the country's conversion to a Western-style economy. "I met with President (Nursultan) Nazarbayev just prior to my departure from Kazakhstan for this tour to stress our concerns in commercial issues. In this meeting, he reiterated his strong desire for more U.S. direct investment in Kazakhstan. He also reiterated his wish to diversify Kazakhstan's economy, create more jobs and spur economic growth," Jones said. Turkmenistan, possessing the world's fourth largest proven reserves of natural gas and large oil deposits, is hampered by a lingering addiction to central planning, Ambassador Mann said. President Saparmurat Niyazov personally supervises political affairs, even at the local level, Mann said. "With Turkmenistan, the question is, When is this energy potential going to be exploited? Will it be? I think the answer is, yes, it will be. I think the time is now," Mann said. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are progressing toward a resolution of their territorial dispute over the delineation of the Caspian Sea. The ambassador said he is encouraged by the competence of Niyazov's advisers and ministers in the energy sector who have convinced the Turkmen leader to approve the construction of a trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline. Turkmen gas is a crucial element in Turkey's development plans. Within a decade, natural gas is projected to account for a quarter of Turkey's energy needs. At present, the clean-burning fuel satisfies
[PEN-L:6570] U.S. Jets Attack North Iraq
Yahoo! News Top Stories Headlines Monday May 10 6:21 AM ET U.S. Says Jets Attack North Iraqi Air Defenses ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes based in southern Turkey hit Iraqi artillery and command sites in the northern no-fly zone Monday after they were tracked by Iraqi radar, a statement from the base said. The planes returned safely, it added. Air strikes on Iraqi targets in northern Iraq and in a second no-fly zone in the south have become routine since December, when Baghdad began actively challenging the patrols. ``Responding in self-defense, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16C Falcons dropped GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery and command and control sites northwest of (the Iraqi city of) Mosul,'' the statement said. The U.S.-British Northern Watch force operating out of the Incirlik airbase some 550 km (340 miles) from the Iraqi border has enforced a no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel in Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. The operation is designed to protect the largely Kurdish population there from air attack by Iraqi government forces. Turkish permission is needed for any strikes to be launched against Iraq from its territory, but planes flying from Incirlik are allowed to fire in self-defense.
[PEN-L:6500] Best posting of the week
Following is my nomination for the Best Post of the week. It was posted on Johnson's Russian List #3273 of May 7, 199 From: Wayne Merry [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: 3271-Cohen/Yugoslavia, Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 Stephen F. Cohen has performed a great service in his brief opinion piece in "The Nation" by drawing attention to the profound moral failures of United States policy in Yugoslavia. Mr. Cohen is right on the mark in condemning the use of bombardment of Serbian civil society as an instrument of American policy, an instrument we condemn as barbaric when employed by others. Mr. Cohen is also correct when he states that our military actions have greatly increased the scale of suffering of the Kosovar Albanians without preparation to assist them. I will add only that the logical, and moral, consequence of our complicity in this humanitarian disaster is to accept national responsibility for the displaced victims on a large scale, either in this country or in the Balkans (recognizing that the likelihood of their return to Kosovo anytime soon is near zero). We cannot undo our mistakes, but this country certainly can recognize failure, change course, and undertake to compensate the innocent human "collateral damage" from our misuse of our great power. Again, thanks to Mr. Cohen for his perception and courage of expression. Wayne Merry, Director Program on European Societies in Transition The Atlantic Council of the United States Washington, DC
[PEN-L:5753] Iraq reports air attacks in northern zone
Iraq reports air attacks in northern zone Baghdad cites deaths from jet debris By Reuters, 04/22/99 AGHDAD - Iraq said Western warplanes attacked Iraqi civilian and military sites in the north of the country yesterday. A military spokesman said Iraqi air defenses engaged the attacking planes and forced them to flee. There was no mention of casualties or damage. ''Crows of evil and aggression returned to violate our national airspace targeting the service establishments and our weapon sites,'' the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency. ''Our ground resistance units intercepted them and forced them to flee,'' the spokesman added. ''At 12:50 p.m on April 21, 10 hostile formations of the kind F-14s, F15s, F-16s, violated our airspace coming from Turkish skies,'' the spokesman said. He said the planes supported by an early warning, command and control plane flew over the northern regions of Amadiya, Zakho, Duhok, Arbil, Aqra, Mosul and Talafar. The spokesman said Western planes had also flown over southern Iraq and were also ''challenged'' by Iraqi ground batteries. ''At 13:45 p.m, 11 hostile formations violated our airspace coming from Kuwaiti and Saudi skies. They implemented 18 sorties from Saudi and six sorties from Kuwaiti skies,'' the spokesman said. He said the planes left Iraqi airspace for their bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait at 3:40 p.m. Earlier, a spokesman at an airbase in southern Turkey said US warplanes bombed Iraqi air defenses in the northern no-fly zone yesterday after being tracked by radar. He said all the aircraft had left the no-fly zone safely. Iraq also said a fuel tank discarded by a Western warplane had killed civilians when it hit the ground. INA quoted a letter from Iraq's Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahaf to the Arab League as saying the tank had been dropped on an agricultural area in the Afak district of southern Iraq. This story ran on page A26 of the Boston Globe on 04/22/99. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. [ Send this story to a friend | Easy-print version | Add to Daily User ]
[PEN-L:5595] U.S. Jets Hit Iraqi Targets
AP Headlines Monday April 19 12:48 PM ET U.S. Jets Hit Iraqi Targets ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - U.S. fighter planes attacked Iraqi defense sites in northern Iraq today after being targeted by Iraqi radar, U.S. officials said. It was the second confrontation in the northern no-fly zone in about a month. U.S. Air Force F-15Es dropped laser-guided bombs on radar sites in the vicinity of Mosul, according to a statement from the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey where American jets are based. The statement said damage was being assessed. All coalition aircraft left the area safely. On Saturday, the Iraqi armed forces said four civilians died and another was injured when U.S. jets struck Iraqi military sites in the area. British and U.S. planes have targeted Iraqi defense sites in northern and southern Iraq since Iraq started challenging allied planes enforcing the no-fly zones in mid-December. The northern and southern zones were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to prevent Iraqi warplanes from threatening rebel groups in the north and south. Earlier Stories U.S. Planes Strike Iraqi Targets (April 17) Search News Stories Search News Photos Apr 19 | Apr 18 | Apr 17 | Apr 16 | Apr 15 | Apr 14 | Apr 13 | Apr 12 | Apr 11 | Apr 10
[PEN-L:5478] Russian press on yugoslovia
From Russia Today http://www.russiatoday.com Updated Mon., Apr. 19, 1999 at: NY 9:17 a.m. Lon 2:17 p.m. Pra 3:17 p.m. Mos 5:17 p.m. Review of Russian Press Apr. 19, 1999 Lead Story Izvestiya Slavic Bazaar Summary The daily commented on the Duma decision to support Yugoslav entry into the Russian-Belarussian union. "No one is really thinking about unification of the three countries into a union state," the daily wrote. "Integration is not an objective here, but only a means to achieve goals, which are less lofty and less utopian. However, the consequences of this process, however inoffensive it may seem, may be absolutely unpredictable." The Duma on Friday supported the idea of unification as proposed by their Yugoslavian counterparts, and recommended that the president and the government start considering international, political, economic and legal issues, relative to the said Yugoslavian Parliament resolution." Six of the seven Duma factions and groups spoke in favor of union, and the vote was 293 to 54. Most of the speakers' arguments could be reduced to one reason: that it would end the war in Yugoslavia. The only opponent of the document - the Yabloko faction - circulated a statement which said: "The proposal to accept Yugoslavia into the union between Russia and Belarus not only pushes Russia to war, but also opens the possibility of real military confrontation between the leading nuclear powers." about I Z V E S T I Y A (circulation 600,000) The former official paper of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Izvestiya managed to become financially independent in the early 1990s. Now owned by the UNEXIM Group, it has a definite pro-government orientation. This national daily is a popular paper among the Russian intelligentsia. Lead Story Segodnya The State Duma is Territory of Yugoslavia THE LEFTISTS VOTED FOR WAR, ISOLATION AND COLLAPSE OF RUSSIA Summary The daily wrote that Friday's State Duma decision to support admission of Yugoslavia into the Russian-Belarussian union has put the country under threat of international isolation, war and collapse. Apparently, supporters of the union with Yugoslavia did not think about the possible consequences of this move, said the daily. First, this could result in religious unrest in Russia, because the Moslem peoples of Russia (Tatars, Ingushis and many others) would not think see the Serbs as brothers, while the Kosovo Albanians are. This difference in attitudes could result in the complete collapse of the Russian Federation. Moreover, defense policies as outlined in the Russian-Belarussian agreement, as confirmed by the presidents of both countries, says that the states participating in the union should create a regional military body to resist aggression against any member of the union." In the case of Milosevic's Yugoslavia, this provision would mean war with NATO. So far, said the paper, the leftist "integrators" sit in the Duma, but not in the Kremlin. It has become clear now, that if the Communists gain full power in the country it would result in national catastrophe. The daily quoted recent polls, according to which 86 percent of Russians think that Russia should not be involved in the Yugoslavian conflict. about S E G O D N Y A (circulation 100,000) Owned by the Most Group headed by Vladimir Gusinsky, the paper was set up in 1993 and now targets a business-minded audience. It has managed to pool some good journalists who report on a wide range of issues and opinions, although some have since defected to the new daily, Russkie Telegraf. === N E Z A V I S I M A Y A G A Z E T V.S.Chernomyrdin" HOW SUCCESS IN THE BALKANS COULD TRANSFORM INTO SUCCESS IN MOSCOW Summary The daily commented on the recent appointment of former Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdinthe leader of the NDR party and a presidential candidate - as the President's representative for the settlement of the Yugoslavian conflict. According to the paper, Chernomyrdin's new mission has provoked a negative reaction among both his political competitors from other parties, and diplomats. Their apprehensions with regard to Chernomyrdin are obvious: that he is not a diplomat, and that the West will force him to bend to its will. The paper said that the best Yugoslavian scenario for Moscow would be to allow the West to sink deeper into the conflict, because, the deeper the West sinks, the further it would have to retreat. However, said the paper, Chernomyrdin will probably take a milder stand a tough and clear position, which is at the same time flexible with respect to the West. Should Chernomyrdin's mission be a success, Yeltsin will appoint him acting prime minister to replace Primakov, the daily concluded. about N E
[PEN-L:5284] News from Serbia
someone may have already posted this but just in case they have not the following to sites give news in English from the Serbian point of view http://www.borba.co.yu/daily.html http://www.tanjug.co.yu/
[PEN-L:5203] Yougoslavia bid to Join Russia
These are some items from the April 13 Russia Today's (http://www.russiatoday.com/) review of the Russian press for April 12, 1999. IZVESTIYA Lead Story Yugoslavia Wants to Join Russia to Itself THIS IS BE THE PAY FOR DECLINE OF IMPEACHMENT Summary President Boris Yeltsin's recent statements on Yugoslavia have caused confusion among Russia's political circles, the daily wrote. On Friday, Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov told the chamber that Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic had requested that his country be admitted into the union of Russia and Belarus. Seleznyov said he had passed this statement on to Yeltsin, and that the Russian President supported the proposal. However, on the same day, Yeltsin made a number of conflicting statements about Yugoslavia. First, he said that Russia should not be involved in an armed conflict in Yugoslavia, but added only unless "the Americans do not push us to this by starting ground operations." At a meeting with heads of Russia's republics, Yeltsin said that "adventurers from the party of war" should not be allowed to have their way. He also commented on the future of Yevgeny Primakov's government, saying "at this point Primakov is useful for us, but then we will see." Earlier, Seleznyov had said that Yeltsin was not interested in dissolving Primakov's Cabinet of the Communist party. Yeltsin statements have already caused a split among the opposition. Some Communists say that the Duma should go on with the impeachment proceedings, regardless of the process of unification with Yugoslavia, while others say that the idea of impeachment is worthless, considering the new political situation. The daily concluded that the worst point, however, is that Yeltsin will have to explain his own position to the Western countries. Some embassies have already requested information about the new union of three countries and the "re-targeting of Russian missiles to NATO countries," which Yeltsin allegedly promised. about I Z V E S T I Y A (circulation 600,000) The former official paper of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Izvestiya managed to become financially independent in the early 1990s. Now owned by the UNEXIM Group, it has a definite pro-government orientation. This national daily is a popular paper among the Russian intelligentsia. == S E G O D N Y A Lead Story Russia Was Accepted by Yugoslavia PROBABLY BECAUSE BORIS YELTSIN AIMED MISSILES AT MILOSEVIC'S ENEMIES Summary Russians had only just heaved a sigh of relief after hearing President Boris Yeltsin's promise "not to get involved in the war in Balkans," when a new danger appeared: Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began seeking admission to the Russia-Belarus union. According to Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov, Yeltsin liked the idea very much. Seleznyov went on to tell Duma deputies that the president had informed him that Russia would retarget its missiles at the countries which are now attacking Yugoslavia. It seemed like the president and the Duma had reached a consensus. However, later officials in the Kremlin and in the Defense Ministry began to interpret the president's words in different ways. Senior military commanders said they had not received any orders to re-target the missiles. Then NATO hastened to reject Seleznyov's information as unofficial. However, Seleznyov insisted that he had quoted the president correctly, and that the statements had been made in front of television cameras. The daily concluded that, with all of Yeltsin's well-known controversial statements, the process of integration between Russia and Yugoslavia is well underway. And this means that Russia is getting involved in the Balkan war. about S E G O D N Y A (circulation 100,000) Owned by the Most Group headed by Vladimir Gusinsky, the paper was set up in 1993 and now targets a business-minded audience. It has managed to pool some good journalists who report on a wide range of issues and opinions, although some have since defected to the new daily, Russkie Telegraf. N O V Y E I Z V E S T I Y A This Is How World Wars Start Summary The daily commented on the statements that President Boris Yeltsin made on Thursday and Friday. Yeltsin first said that Yugoslavia cannot join Russia or the Russian-Belarussian union, unless a referendum is held in Yugoslavia on this issue. What about a referendum in Russia?, the daily asked. Yugoslavia is now in a state of war, even if it is an undeclared one. If Russia gets involved in a union with it, an attack against Yugoslavia would mean aggression towards Russia. Yeltsin reportedly discussed the issue of a Russian-Yugoslav union with Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov. But the daily asked: How could the Communist Duma leader discuss anything with the president, when the Communists are preparing to impeach Yeltsin in a
[PEN-L:5101] Cossacks Vow To Help Serbs Defeat The West
Saturday April 10 8:08 PM ET Cossacks Vow To Help Serbs Defeat The West By Philippa Fletcher BELGRADE (Reuters) - Russian Cossacks joined groups of Serbs trying to shield Yugoslavia's bridges from NATO bombing Saturday and promised to help them defeat the West. ``Russian love and Russian power are with you,'' said one, part of a colorful array of men in Tsarist uniforms and traditional sheep skin hats, some sporting impressive waxed mustaches. ``Here on the bridge are Russian Cossacks, Russian officers, Russian generals, said another Cossack. They said they had come to Yugoslavia to help defend the country against NATO. ``We'll put (U.S. President Bill) Clinton in the electric chair,'' he added to a cheer from the crowd on Belgrade's Brankov bridge who are hoping their presence will deter NATO from bombing it. Last month, Cossack leaders said they planned to mobilize up to 5,000 volunteers to defend their fellow Slavs, the Serbs. NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia has fuelled strong anti-Western sentiments in Russia and prompted the government to freeze relations with the Western alliance. ``You are a great people worthy of a leader like (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic,'' another Russian said. ``Russia, Russia,'' chanted the crowd. One demonstrator carried a placard promising support in return: ``Russia do not fear, Serbia is with you. Many Russian members of parliament have voiced their anger about the NATO bombing and urged President Boris Yeltsin to take steps to support Yugoslavia. Suggestions have ranged from military cooperation to Yugoslavia joining a Russia-Belarus union. Several Russian ships left their base in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol Wednesday for a ``planned exercise.'' The move followed warnings by Moscow that it may send eight warships to the Adriatic, where NATO warships bombarding Yugoslavia are deployed, to show its solidarity with Belgrade. The reconnaissance ship Liman is already in the Mediterranean. As Belgrade residents formed a human shield for the fifth consecutive night on the Brankov bridge, thousands of other Serbs staged similar demonstrations on bridges across the country. The Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug said a large group of people were gathering on the Beska bridge, near the northern city of Novi Sad. ``The people are determined to protect the bridge, which NATO aggressors have twice attempted to destroy, by staying the whole night,'' Tanjug said. Last week, NATO missiles destroyed two bridges across the Danube in Novi Sad. Tanjug also reported that residents of Sremska Mitrovica, west of Belgrade, had been asked to protect a local bridge over the river Sava from NATO attacks. NATO's 17 day-old bombing campaign -- mostly conducted by night -- has so far targeted half a dozen bridges in Serbia. |
[PEN-L:5116] Fw: random thoughts on the slaughter
Michael Perelman wrote "I am very appreciative of all the intelligent analysis I am reading on this list, although I am a loss to see how anyone in their right mind could credit Clinton and company with some humanitarian concerns." I too am very appreciative,. Were it not for the the discussions on this list, I would not have a clue as to what the origins and realities of the Kosovo situation were and are. Sincerely Frank
[PEN-L:5103] 500 KLA recruits leave London
ISSUE 1416 Sunday 11 April 1999 KLA recruits leave London By Rajeev Syal Invincible sails in as UK doubles war effort MORE than 500 Albanians have left Britain after volunteering to become guerrilla fighters in the war against Serbia, according to Kosovo Liberation Army representatives in London. Men and women from Britain's 8,000-strong Albanian community have gone to Tirana, the Albanian capital, to be trained as soldiers. They are responding to a general order issued by the KLA last month asking all Albanian people from 18 to 50 to report to join the war to free Kosovo. Pleurat Sejdiu, the KLA's official representative in London, said yesterday that they had been inundated with new recruits. "We have received many requests to join the KLA from people who have heard that their friends and relatives have been killed or hurt in the conflict," he said. More than 340 volunteers have signed up to the KLA in the past three weeks. Once they have pledged themselves to the army, they are interviewed by a number of KLA representatives at a secret north London address. One volunteer, Ekrem, 34, last week pledged to fight for Kosovo - even though he has never been there - and has lived a settled, trouble-free life in Britain for four years after leaving Albania. He said that he was ready to leave his job as a mini-cab driver, his British girlfriend of two years and his home in Cricklewood, north London, for the war because his cousin, Burim, died fighting for the KLA. "I do not want to die - but if I do not go and defend my brothers, and fight for my family members who have died in battle, I cannot expect a single Nato soldier to die for Kosovo," Ekrem said. He will be sent to Tirana via Italy because the airport in the Albanian capital has been closed. Once in Italy, he will cross the Adriatic Sea by ferry and take a coach to Tirana. The volunteers are allocated to military training in camps around the Albanian capital. Ex-servicemen from the Albanian or Yugoslavian armies receive just 15 days of training. If they are without military experience they are sent away for a month's training. New soldiers are then assigned to the infantry, artillery or anti-tank units. Some are sent straight to the front to fight. The KLA claims that it has turned away hundreds of other volunteers because it is sticking to its strict policy of only allowing Albanians to join the army. More than 300 non-Albanians, many of whom are British-based Muslims or former British servicemen, have asked if they can fight in Kosovo. They have been turned away because the KLA does not want to be accused by Serb propogandists of running an Islamic movement or an army of foreigners. More than 30,000 members of the KLA have died since it was formed in 1996. Yesterday,
[PEN-L:5102] 80 SAS men in Kosovo to target
Electronic Telegraph ISSUE 1416 Sunday 11 April 1999 80 SAS men in Kosovo to target death squads By Alastair Mcqueen Special Air Service - Secret Kingdom Invincible sails in as UK doubles war effort A SQUADRON of SAS soldiers has been sent deep into Kosovo after moves to deploy US special forces were put on hold until Congress approves the committal of US ground forces. Eighty SAS men were ordered into action after an appeal by Nato commanders to Tony Blair. The Prime Minister is being advised by the new Director of Special Forces, an expert in Balkans undercover operations. The SAS role is to target for the RAF the Serb Special Police and army units responsible for the eviction and massacre of thousands of ethnic Albanians. They have also been ordered to find and mark massacre sites, to locate the hideouts of the death squad leaders and to find the secret arsenals where the Serbs have hidden many of their heavy weapons. The SAS is also on hand to rescue Kosovars who are trapped or awaiting execution. A Parachute Regiment battalion has been put on standby to move to the Balkans if required. The paras are the only infantry unit trained in large-scale hostage rescue. Ministers have overturned their original decision that no ground troops - including Special Forces - were to set foot in Kosovo until agreement for an international force had been thrashed out. They also feared that if SAS soldiers were captured they would be paraded in show trials or tortured and executed. However, Nato commanders were anxious to make their airstrikes more precise. An SAS member said: "Technology is brilliant, but all the technology in the world cannot replace the Mark One Eyeball. Having men on the ground reporting back accurately and guiding aircraft and other troops to locations is the ideal. We can check out targets before the RAF even lift off the ground or we can change them at the last moment if the guys on the ground spot something more important." The soldiers are understood to be wearing their normal camouflaged lightweight windproof suits for moving across country, but once they find lying-up points or observation posts they will change into fleeces to avoid exposure and hypothermia. As allied aircraft approach they move closer to the target, pointing laser beams at the location and quietly talking the pilots into position. They will carry the latest US weapons including an Armalite rifle with a grenade launcher, MiniMi machine-guns, long-range "super rifles" plus mortars, claymore mines and pistols.
[PEN-L:4968] $100bn Bill Gates richer than most countries
From Electronic Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk: April 7, 1999 $100bn Bill Gates richer than most countries By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent BILL GATES, already the world's richest person by a considerable margin, was confirmed as the world's first $100 billion man after the surge in American shares made his 21 per cent holding in Microsoft worth more than 12 figures. With each of the 1,031,555,600 shares in the software company he co-founded in 1975 worth $98.5 (about £62), Mr Gates's personal fortune now exceeds the economic output of all but the 18 wealthiest nations. Last week he increased his wealth by more than $1 billion (£650 million) when the Dow Jones industrial average breached 10,000 points for the first time, but his achievement is unlikely to be the final chapter in the rise of William Henry Gates III. His wealth from his Microsoft shares alone (he also owns several other companies and is the major shareholder in a $9 billion satellite venture) is so enormous that it fluctuates by tremendous amounts. For every hour of the past year Mr Gates made about $4,566,000 and if his wealth continues to grow at the 61 per cent compound annual rate it has enjoyed so far, he will become the world's first trillionaire, worth $1,000,000,000,000 in 2004. The statistics of such affluence are baffling. His personal fortune is more than twice as much as all the $1 bills in circulation. On Jan 20, the 43-year-old's riches - at the time already worth more than the gross domestic products of Singapore and Israel - grew by $3.5 billion in just three minutes when Microsoft announced its quarterly profits. The software giant based in Seattle had made $2 billion profit in three months (up 75 per cent on same period in the previous year); by the end of the day, its founder was more than $5 billion richer. If the Harvard drop-out was to stash his cash in dollar bills under the mattress in the $56 million "smart" home on Lake Washington, near Seattle, where he lives with his wife Melinda and daughter, he would have to parachute 16 miles down to his bedroom floor every morning. The United Kingdom's gross national product in 1997 was $1,220 billion, according to preliminary figures from the World Bank. If Mr Gates's wealth continues its relentless rise, it will overtake Britain's output in 2005. His $101,608,226,600 share holding in Microsoft is worth the same as the annual output of 4.9 million Britons. Even an anti-trust fight with the American government has not stopped Microsoft's soaring share price. With the company's products installed on more than 90 per cent of the two
[PEN-L:4971] Review of Russian Press
Here are two items from Russia Today"s (http://www.russiatoday.com/)review of the Russian press for April 7 Russia Pressing Issues on Apr. 07, 1999 From IZVESTIYA Russia Does Not Owe Anything to Serbia Summary A deputy prime minister in the Serbian government has demanded that Russia offer "weapons and not advice" and has accused Moscow of betrayal, the daily wrote. Izvestiya commented that such is the gratitude of the small Balkan state. Russia has given it almost unlimited diplomatic support and has sacrificed its own relations with the entire world because of this, but the Serbs are apparently not satisfied. They are demanding arms, knowing perfectly well that their country is under a blockade and that any attempt to break the U.N. arms embargo would put Moscow on the verge of a confrontation with NATO - a confrontation which could potentially grow into a nuclear conflict. According to the daily, Russia has nothing to be ashamed of in its relations with Yugoslavia. On the contrary, Serbia owes a great debt to Russia, one that it will never be able to pay back. This debt has accumulated since the 1870's, when Russia fought a bloody two-year war with Turkey for Serbia's independence. But Moscow will not fight with the U.S. now so that Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic can finish his ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, the daily concluded. about I Z V E S T I Y A (circulation 600,000) The former official paper of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Izvestiya managed to become financially independent in the early 1990s. Now owned by the UNEXIM Group, it has a definite pro-government orientation. This national daily is a popular paper among the Russian intelligentsia. From N E Z A V I S I M A Y A G A Z E T A Lead Story A Humanitarian Catastrophe of European Scale Summary The refugees from Kosovo over the two weeks of NATO air strikes (400,000 people, according to U.N. estimates) is double the number of refugees from Yugoslavia during the preceding 14 months of conflict, the daily wrote. This humanitarian catastrophe became a fact only after NATO started "to prevent" it, the daily commented. Apparently, NATO strikes provoked Serb repression against ethnic Albanians and caused a rise in Serbian nationalism, but it is not clear yet if genocide is taking place in Kosovo, the daily wrote. There is no reliable information that civilians are being killed there. Serbs are expelling Albanian people from their homes, but this is justifiedwhen one ethnic group calls for NATO military strikes against the other, anger at the bombing will always be vented at the ones who prompted the bombing, the daily wrote. The daily also commented that Yugoslav forces are acting more humanely in Kosovo than Russian did in Chechnya. The Serbs always allow civilians to leave an area before they begin to contest with the Kosovo Liberation Army for control of the territory. The European Union has agreed to take 20,000 refugees. According to the daily, many of them will end up joining the Albanian mafia, which is one of the strongest in the world, and after the war they are not likely to be willing to leave wealthy Europe and return to ruined Yugoslavia. about N E Z A V I S I M A Y A G A Z E T A (circulation 52,000) This daily is controlled by financial magnate Boris Berezovsky. It is respected for its thoughtful and well-written articles and often includes unique comments or reports the other papers miss. However, critics sometimes complain it serves Berezovsky's interests.
[PEN-L:4797] A first group of Russian volunteers
BELGRADE, Apr. 05, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) A first group of Russian volunteers arrived Sunday in the northern Serbian town of Novi Sad to defend Yugoslavia, the official Tanjug news agency said. P "The Russian volunteers are waiting to be posted to defend Yugoslavia against the shameless attacks by the bloody NATO aggressors," said Vlado Micunovic, chairman of the Yugoslav branch of the Russian-Yugoslav Fraternity Fund. P It is not known how many Russians arrived in Novi Sad. P Russian nationalists and former servicemen were reported to have started recruiting volunteers to fight in Yugoslavia a few days after the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia began on March 24. P Russia has bitterly opposed the NATO campaign, aimed at forcing Milosevic to halt an offensive against ethnic Albanians that has triggered a refugee exodus from Kosovo. P But Kremlin deputy chief of staff Sergei Prikhodko was quoted Sunday as saying Moscow was opposed both to sending volunteers and to lifting the arms embargo on Yugoslavia. P Prikhodko said: "We have on several occasions repeated our opposition to the intentions of certain politicians to launch a recruitment campaign for volunteers and to send arms." I(nbsp;(c)nbsp;1999 Agence France Presse)/I BR Clear=all
[PEN-L:4783] Re: Re: Assistance to the Refugees
Carol, Thanks for the response. I guess there are some people out there screaming. This is from the electronic telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Despair over Kosovo's fate By Philip Smucker in Blace, Macedonia, and Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent Hungry, cold and exhausted, they scrambled for survival in the mud Serbs 'seeking to repopulate the province' Feedback: Bombing the baby with the bathwater TENS of thousands of ethnic Albanians trapped in Kosovo are facing slaughter and starvation, Western intelligence sources in Macedonia said yesterday. "People at Nato headquarters are pulling their hair out wondering how to save these people," a Western diplomat said. Nato sources said that some refugees were dropping dead from exhaustion and dehydration in an eight-mile queue which has built up on the border with Macedonia. Those being allowed into Macedonia, which has been overwhelmed by the crisis, still face privation. With few supplies available, they have to spend freezing nights in the open without shelter, food, or drinking water. Serb security forces were intent on worsening the food crisis, some of the refugees said. "I saw mothers risking their lives under the sights of snipers to try to stand in line and buy milk," said one, called Bukaria, who arrived in the border town of Blace yesterday. "When the women came back with the milk, the Serb police would grab them, throw the milk cartons down and stamp on them with their big black boots." A German doctors group said that Serb soldiers were raping and torturing ethnic Albanians in their push to drive them from Kosovo's towns and villages. Monika Hauser, the founder of the group, Medical Mondiale, said she had received reports of the mass rape of women fleeing the city of Pec in the south-west of the province. In Albania, which has also received a flood of refugees, the government said the situation was "out of control". The United Nations High Commission for Refugees described it as "a major humanitarian emergency". By last night 42,000 refugees had reached Macedonia, aid sources said. The total in Albania was believed to be 130,000 and the number of displaced Albanians still in Kosovo was thought to be much greater. Nato said that so-called ethnic cleansing had forced more than 634,000 Albanians from Kosovo in the past year, a third of the province's original population. British defence sources suggested that President Milosevic of Yugoslavia was planning to eject more than 1.5 million ethnic Albanians to leave the Serbs as the dominant group. Nato has given permission for its force of 12,000 mainly British troops in Macedonia to help provide aid to the
[PEN-L:4782] Russian Press on Kosovo
Following is Russia Today's http://www.russiatoday.com/ review of the Russian Press for April 2. I have deleted reviews of articles not dealing with Kosovo Updated Fri., Apr. 02, 1999 Russia Pressing Issues on Apr. 02, 1999 Izvesitya april 2, 1999 Lead Story The West Would Like to Buy Our Armed Forces Summary The world order that has existed since the end of World War II was violated with the bombing of Yugoslavia, Izvestiya wrote. But this new situation was forecast, the daily notedthe West seems to have been preparing in advance for the "weakening of Russia's territorial integrity and the loss of centralized control of Russian nuclear weapons." The daily commented on recent Western studies, including research by the conservative American Heritage Foundation, on the condition of Russia's armed forces and the possibility of dividing their ranks. Western analysts have predicted that, in a possible decentralized Russia, regional unionsfor example a Moslem bloc or a North Caucasus groupwould want to reinforce their military power, and might even want their own portion of nuclear weapons. Considering this scenario, the daily wrote, it is no wonder that the West would like to put Russia's nuclear weapons under the control of NATO or the United Nations, which would be much cheaper than creating a balanced system of constraints. Developed countries would also want to establish a coalition of inspectors to monitor Russia's nuclear forces. Or researchers said it may be possible to buy up a major part of the Russian armed forces, because Russia itself will not be able to provide for them. about I Z V E S T I Y A (circulation 600,000) The former official paper of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Izvestiya managed to become financially independent in the early 1990s. Now owned by the UNEXIM Group, it has a definite pro-government orientation. This national daily is a popular paper among the Russian intelligentsia. K O M S O M O L S K A Y A P R A V D A The Kosovo Funnel May Suck in All of Europe Summary NATO has expanded its targets in Yugoslavia in order to "weaken the military potential of [Yugoslav leader Slobodan] Milosevic," according to Secretary-General Javier Solana. In reality, it is mostly civilians who are killed by the bombing, the daily wrote. The population of Kosovo is fleeing the province - the humanitarian catastrophe which NATO reportedly wanted to prevent with its air strikes. Solana also said the bombing will not be suspended during the Easter holiday, because it would give Milosevic a break. In NATO's headquarters in Brussels, they ignored an appeal from Pope and the Russian Orthodox Church to halt the bombing for the religious celebration. Russia, meanwhile, is sending a reconnaissance ship from Sevastopol to the Mediterranean Sea, where it will gather information in the Balkan zone of conflict. Other Russian ships will be sent to the Adriatic Sea. NATO's ships may want to prevent the Russian cruisers from entering Adriatic waters, and this could lead to an exchange of fire or torpedo strikes, which would mean start of a war between Russia and NATO. The appearance of Russian ships may interfere with NATO's plans, because they could provide full information for Russia and also because NATO would have to divert part of its forces simply to guard the Russian group. Russia could share its intelligence information with Yugoslavia, and radar surveillance by the battleships could make NATO's strikes less effective, Komsomolka wrote. about K O M S O M O L S K A Y A P R A V D A (circulation 1.6 million). A former Soviet youth newspaper, it is now a national daily owned by the UNEXIM Group with the largest circulation of any Russian newspaper. It has a good network of correspondents throughout the country but provides little analysis. === N O V Y E I Z V E S T I Y A Lead Story Ten Days of Someone Else's War That Shook Our Country Summary According to the daily, Russia views the war in Yugoslavia as "collective political madness, which has seized all the branches of power, the media and a wide section of the population." Russia's righteous anger and sympathy for the brother Slavs has made the country put its own reality behind - including the problems of debt, corruption and poverty. The daily commented that this "collective madness" was not an epidemic but was organized by Russian officials in order to support the country's dying statehood. The daily compared the move to giving the nation a dose of hormones. Various political forces are now rushing to play the Yugoslavia card. President Boris Yeltsin thinks this is his only chance to defer
[PEN-L:4777] Assistance to the Refugees
Why is no one out there screaming to Clinton and and his NATO lackies, "Get tents, blankets ,food, and medical assistance to the refugees, and fast"? I can not believe the horror which is unfolding there. Frank
[PEN-L:4774] Moscow Times
Jim Mosow times is published by Independent Media. http://www.moscowtimes.ru/im/indmed.htm They also publish the St Petersburg Times. http://www.times.spb.ru/about/index.htm Here is what they say about themselves, Take a peek sometime at the Global Eye column of the St Petersburg Times for some highly insightful looks at US politics. INDEPENDENT MEDIA: AN OVERVIEW Independent Media, a privately owned limited liability Dutch company, is one of the strongest publishing houses on the Russian mass media scene today. IM dominates the Russian women's magazine market with Russian-language editions of Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Domashnii Ochag (Good Housekeeping) and Marie Claire and is the leader in the English-language newspaper market with its flagship, The Moscow Times. With a total of 18 publications that include women's and men's glossy magazines, trade magazines, exclusive financial data newsletters and diverse Russian- and English-language newspapers, IM has an excellent record for providing attractive and informative publications in the Russian marketplace. A BRIEF HISTORY Independent Media grew out of Independent Press BV, founded in March 1992 by Derk Sauer (CEO), Annemarie van Gaal (COO) and their partners. In that year, IP launched its first publication, The Moscow Times, an English-language daily, and has since become a fully owned subsidiary of Independent Media. Since 1992, the portfolio of publications has increased from 1 to 18 and the staff has grown from 10 to almost 500. As the company has grown, so has IM's dedication to quality and journalistic integrity in all of its publications. Our publications, by date of appearance, include: The Moscow Times -- October 1992. Cosmopolitan -- April 1994. Vitrina Food Manager -- 1994. Kapital -- May 1995. Domashnii Ochag (Good Housekeeping) -- May 1995. Playboy -- June 1995. Russia Review -- 1995. Harper's Bazaar -- March 1996. The St Petersburg Times -- April 1996. Marie Claire -- March 1997. Vitrina Restaurant Business -- 1997. Men's Health -- December 1997. Other services of IM include ITC Training House. The Moscow Times, Independent Press' flagship edition, was launched in March 1992 as a twice-weekly, and relaunched in October 1992 as a daily. The foreign community and Russian business people depend a great deal on the newspaper for up-to-the-minute news on Moscow, Russia and the world. The paper is an objective, reliable source for English-language news on business, politics and culture. It remains an unrivaled advertising medium for reaching local business people and decision makers. Editorial offices: Ulitsa Pravdy, Dom 24, 125865 Moscow, Russia tel: (7-095) 937-3399 fax: (7-095) 937-3393 Commercial offices: Ulitsa Vyborgskaya 16, Floor 5, 125212 Moscow, Russia tel: (7-095) 232-3200/1750 fax: (7-095) 232-1761 Publisher: Derk Sauer Editor: Geoff Winestock Managing Editor: Matt Bivens News Editor:
[PEN-L:4759] Moscow Times Article
I got this off of Johnson's Russia List. Moscow Times April 1, 1999 DEFENSE DOSSIER: NATO Joins Balkan Sinners By Pavel Felgenhauer After a week of war in the Balkans, with thousands of people killed, wounded or displaced, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Yugoslav military have reached a bloody military stalemate. NATO bombs Yugoslavia at will, while the Serbs are equally free to hit and molest the Kosovo Albanians in any way they choose. NATO has easily achieved full air supremacy. French Army Chief of Staff Jean-Pierre Kelche nicely summed up the situation: "NATO controls the airspace and the Serbian air force no longer has any coordinated or sophisticated capacity to oppose the alliance." Of course, that was an easy shot. The Yugoslav air force had no more than 10 battle-ready MiG-29s to repulse more than 400 modern NATO warplanes. The Yugoslavs also had an antiquated air defense system made up of obsolete 1970s-vintage Soviet-made SAM missiles. It was obvious from the very beginning that the Serbs did not have the slightest chance of standing up to NATO in the air and would be lucky to down a single enemy warplane. NATO military planners, of course, knew that in advance. Nevertheless, the Western military chiefs deliberately puffed up the Yugoslav military capabilities during the run up to the war so that Kelche and other high brass could issue glorious victory communiques afterward. NATO military spokesmen also say that their bombs have severely maimed the Yugoslav military's lines of communication. But these announcements sound hollow, especially when the same NATO spokesmen say that the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo is "well planned and organized." If that is really so, what "lines of communication" did the NATO bombers really cut, if any? Or perhaps NATO is providing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic with an easy explanation for the Kosovo cleansing: local commanders went berserk and could not be stopped from Belgrade because NATO bombs cut the lines of command and control? The inconsistency of NATO's communiques is most likely a sign of growing panic. Politically and strategically NATO is losing its first real war. Apparently Western military and political leaders actually believed the Serbs would cave in after several cruise missile volleys. Sources in Washington say that Western prewar intelligence reports from Yugoslavia indicated that Milosevic was losing control, that the Yugoslav military did not like Milosevic because he was spending money to beef up his special police force and not the army and that if Milosevic dragged Serbia into a war with NATO, the Yugoslav military would disobey orders or possibly even rebel. Western diplomats in Moscow also told me that they expected the tiny republic of Montenegro - which, together with Serbia, comprises rump Yugoslavia - would use NATO bombing to rebel and secede. If such a secession took place, Milosevic would simply forget about Kosovo. Of course, nothing of the sort happened. But Western diplomats were so sure Milosevic would either cave in or be overthrown that, during the Rambouillet peace talks, they threatened to use force against the Serbs if they rejected a peace plan that would in effect lead to Kosovo's total independence after a three-year interim autonomy period under NATO military protection. Western arrogance made the Serbs rally behind their president even before the bombings began. Serbia turned out to be not a "failed state," but a nation ready to fight the strongest military alliance in the world to defend its land and its freedom from foreign occupation. NATO's military aggression has triggered an ethnic cleansing in Kosovo that the West does not seem to be able to stop. The only counteraction NATO is now planning is an escalation of bombing. The NATO supreme commander, General Wesley Clark, has sought political authorization to hit "military" targets in downtown Belgrade. A senior U.S. official said Clark's request has "100 percent support" from U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration. The U.S. military has certainly recovered from the post-Vietnam syndrome. There they go again - planning to bomb a sovereign nation back to the Stone Age if it does not accept a U.S.-imposed partition of its territory. There are millions of innocent war victims in the Balkans, but not a single innocent warring party. NATO has now joined the club. The Serbs are committing atrocities in Kosovo, while NATO bombers are committing other atrocities all over Yugoslavia. At any future peace conference, senior U.S. officials and Milosevic will truly be able to shake hands as equals.
[PEN-L:4750] bombing of Iraq continues
Friday April 2 6:07 AM ET Iraq Says Two Injured In Western Air Strike BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq said two people were injured Friday when Western warplanes bombed targets in the Western-imposed no-fly zone in southern Iraq. ``The hostile formations... bombed residential quarters in regions of Afak of Qadissiya Province and the hostile bombing led to destruction of two houses and injured two citizens,'' the official Iraqi news agency (INA) quoted a military spokesman as saying. Iraq last reported Western bombing on March 19. ``American and British warplanes violated our national airspace, targeting some service installations and weapons sites,'' the spokesman said. ``Thirteen hostile formations of such planes as F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18 and the Tornado violated Iraqi airspace at 9 a.m. local time (midnight EST) Friday.'' The spokesman said the planes carried out ``13 sorties from Kuwaiti airspace and 33 from Saudi airspace, supported by early warning AWACs and A2C from Saudi airspace. ``Our intercepting planes and missile units intercepted these hostile formations and compelled them to flee to the bases they came from in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia at 10.35 a.m. (0635 GMT).'' There was no immediate confirmation of the incident from Washington or London. Air strikes against Iraqi military targets became commonplace after Baghdad decided in December to attack U.S. and British jets patrolling the no-fly zones in the north and south of Iraq, but a 12-day lull preceded Friday's reported bombing. Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones, set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurds in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south from possible attack by Baghdad's forces. Earlier Stories Iraq Says Two People Hurt By Western Bombing (April 2)
[PEN-L:4725] A question
It is agonizing for all of us here to watch the Kosovians flow into Albania. If the object of creating the inferno was the well being of the people of Kosova, why isn't NATO dropping tents, field kitchens, blankets, stocks of food , medical units etc. into the refugee holding areas rather than bombing and killing thousands of people in many miles away in Yugoslavia? Frank
[PEN-L:4657] prepare public opinion for ground war
World Socialist Web Site US, NATO prepare public opinion for ground war against Serbia By the Editorial Board 30 March 1999 Less than one week ago, according to no less an authority than President Bill Clinton, most Americans had never heard of Kosovo and would not know where to find it on a world map. Now, after several days of massive bombing, the escalating media campaign over the fate of the Kosovan Albanians is setting the stage for the commitment of US troops in the war against Serbia and the long-term military occupation of Kosovo. In an article that is typical of what has been appearing in American newspapers and television over the last three days, Charles A. Kupchan, who served on the staff of the National Security Council during Clinton's first term, wrote in the Los Angeles Times: "Now that the air campaign is underway, the president has no choice but to prepare the country and America's armed forces for a major ground war in the Balkans ... "Air attacks will no doubt weaken Yugoslav defenses and soften up the units operating in and around Kosovo. But it may take ground forces to expel them from Kosovo and stop the killing of Albanians." In interviews conducted on national television, two leading senators--Shelby of Alabama and McCain of Arizona--stated that the Clinton administration must be prepared to place troops on the ground in Kosovo. "I don't know myself of any war," Shelby said, "that's been totally won by air power." Warning that the desire to avoid casualties should not determine US strategic aims, McCain declared, "We're in it, and we have to win it. This means we have to exercise every option." While the Clinton administration continues to state that it does not "intend" to order ground forces into battle, it has signaled an impending change in policy by claiming that the violence of Serb army attacks on Kosovan Albanians has come as a surprise. If this were true, it would mean that the policy pursued by the Clinton administration in launching the bombing was not merely reckless, but also extraordinarily stupid. It is, however, impossible to believe that the tragic events that have been the first fruits of this war were not foreseen by the US government. The very nature of the US-NATO demands--that Serbia cede control of Kosovo, acquiesce in the expulsion of the Serb minority from the province, submit to foreign occupation and the destruction of its national sovereignty, and accept the revision of its international borders--could not but lead to an eruption of violence against the Kosovan Albanians once full-scale war broke out. It is the height of cynicism for the United States to feign horrified surprise over the fate of the Kosovan Albanians when similar methods were employed by Croatia, with US political support and military assistance, during the Croatian offensive against Serbs in Krajina province in 1995. As even the New York Times admits, "the West looked the other way" as 200,000 Serbs were "ethnically cleansed" from Krajina and tens of thousands more were driven from their homes in Bosnia because the actions of Croatia served the strategic interests of the United States. It would not be difficult to prove that the Clinton administration's invocation of "human rights" and "self-determination" as a justification for its onslaught against Serbia is shot through with duplicity and hypocrisy. (We invite our readers to review an earlier article, " Whom will the United States bomb next?") But what concerns us here are the implications of the accelerating pace and escalating scale of US military violence. Serbia is the fourth country to have been
[PEN-L:4634] Mass graves hold the secrets of
From Eectronic Telegraph Mass graves hold the secrets of American race massacre By James Langton in New York 1921 Tulsa race riot - Homestead Press Black Wallstreet - Davey D INVESTIGATORS are searching for the graves of up to 400 black Americans in an attempt to end the 78-year cover-up of one of the worst acts of mass slaughter in the country's history. Dr Clyde Snow, the world's leading authority in forensic anthropology, is preparing to spend the coming months in his home state of Oklahoma, identifying the remains of hundreds of men, women and children believed buried in communal graves. The dead are the long-missing casualties of the Tulsa race riot in 1921, a little-known chapter in American history which, if substantiated, would eclipse even the 1995 Oklahoma bombing as the country's worst civilian atrocity. Using accounts from newly discovered witnesses and sophisticated ground-penetrating radar, a team of historians and scientists believes that the death toll from the massacre could have been as high as 400. Dr Snow, 71, has uncovered the bones of Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz "Angel of Death", in Brazil and the victims of atrocities in every continent from Argentina to Ethiopia and Bosnia. "I was used to seeing such things in Bosnia or Africa," he said. "But this is so close to home. It is important to remember these things can happen in your own backyard." The Tulsa riot has been largely forgotten for more than seven decades, not least because of a campaign by the local authorities to cover up the full extent of the killing in its immediate aftermath. Dozens of official documents are missing, believed destroyed in the cover-up. Most controversially, a headline and editorial from the Tulsa Tribune that called for whites to "lynch a negro tonight", which is widely believed to have sparked the slaughter, have been removed from every surviving archive edition. A reward is now being offered for a copy of the original newspaper. New evidence uncovered in the past months backs long-held views among black survivors of the riot that the number of victims was far higher than the official report of between 36 and 100. One 88-year-old man, Clyde Eddy, has come forward to say that he saw boxes of dead blacks being buried secretly in crates in unmarked graves at a city cemetery. Four other possible sites of mass graves are also to be investigated. The violence followed the arrest of Dick Rowland, a black shoeshine boy on May 31, 1921. Newspaper reports wrongly claimed that he had sexually assaulted a 17-year-old white girl in the lift of the office block where they both worked. Later, gangs of blacks and whites
[PEN-L:4597] Fw: Ground war next?
It would, seem based on the multiplication of the number of news reporrts comming over the line about Serb "atrocities" in Kosovo. that the ground war is not far off. Attached is the type of report I have been seeing quite a few of. Frank = Saturday March 27 1:52 PM ET NATO Fears 'Dark Things' Happening In Kosovo By Giles Elgood BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) - NATO Saturday expressed grave concern at growing reports that Yugoslav forces were killing, harassing and intimidating ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Political representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) welcomed NATO air attacks on Yugoslav targets but called for the swift intervention of NATO ground forces. ``We welcome the strikes, but we demand that NATO ground troops come into Kosovo as quickly as possible,'' a spokesman said at a news conference near NATO headquarters in Brussels. NATO has said it currently has no plans to introduce ground forces into Kosovo, but is extremely concerned by reports of killings and ethnic cleansing. NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said the reports from a variety of sources indicated that ``dark things are happening'' in Kosovo, although their extent was not yet completely clear. Albanian sources in Kosovo have described an alarming rise in reprisals against ethnic Albanians by Yugoslav paramilitary gangs since NATO began air raids Wednesday. KLA political representative Bardhyl Mahmuti said that in two houses in the southern city of Djakovica, 70 people had been killed. Accusing the Yugoslav government of ``ethnic cleansing'' said there were dozens of cases of men having been killed in front of their own children. One ethnic Albanian woman in the Kosovo capital Pristina, contacted by telephone, appealed to a relative abroad: ``Do something for us now or forget about us forever.'' NATO says the atrocities were long planned by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and were not caused by the alliance's air raids, which it says are intended to end the violence. Shea said there was no evidence yet but ``the concordance of different reports is enough to alarm us.'' He said those found to be responsible for atrocities would be treated as war criminals and brought before the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. The army was mounting sweep operations in northern and central Kosovo, Shea said, and a large part of the town of Podujevo was in flames. ``Armed Serb civilians are blocking all access to Pristina and within that city there have been door-to-door operations in which men have been separated from their families and taken away to undisclosed destinations,'' Shea told a news conference. In one village alone, Shea said, 20 ethnic Albanians had been killed, while many other Kosovo Albanian refugees had been pushed across the border into Albania itself. These groups comprised women and children only -- there were no men. Earlier, British Defense Secretary George Robertson said some Kosovo villages had been wiped out. ``And I ask you to reflect on these chilling words -- These villages do not exist,'' Robertson told a London news conference. At alliance headquarters in Brussels, NATO said its aircraft attacked 10 targets overnight in the area of the Yugoslav capital Belgrade, the second city Nis and in Kosovo itself. In the first two nights, 50 targets were hit. Some warplanes had to return without dropping their bombs because of bad weather in Friday night's wave of attacks. Seventeen Yugoslav surface to air missiles had attempted unsuccessfully to engage NATO aircraft. It was the first reported significant attempt by Yugoslav missiles to shoot down NATO aircraft since the raids began. The alliance had lost no planes to date while five Yugoslav warplanes had been shot down, a NATO spokesman said. Earlier Stories Bombs Can't Stop Kosovo Village Attacks-NATO (March 26) -- From: Louis Proyect [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:4593] Ground war next? Date: Saturday, March 27, 1999 12:11 PM The Washington Post March 27, 1999, Saturday, Final Edition U.S., Allies Weigh Use of Ground Forces; Commanders Fear Bombing Won't Stop Serb Offensive Dana Priest, Washington Post Staff Writer The deteriorating situation in Kosovo has prompted discussions among senior NATO and U.S. officials about the possibility of introducing U.S. and allied ground forces into the three-day-old air campaign against the Yugoslav military. Senior officials said a decision on a deployment was still unlikely and that the subject has not yet been broached with President Clinton, who said this week he did not intend to send U.S. troops to Kosovo to fight. But officials said
[PEN-L:4591] US military uses Yugoslavia as testing ground for high-tech
WSWS : News Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis US military uses Yugoslavia as testing ground for high-tech weaponry By Jerry White 27 March 1999 The US military has welcomed the confrontation with Serbia as an opportunity to test its arsenal of high-tech weaponry and to train American military personnel in a new theater of war. Military commanders were elated the night the bombing began, according to the New York Times. "For some diplomats and officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where [Supreme Commander US General Wesley] Clark has made no secret of his judgment that an air campaign against Milosevic was justified long ago, the mood this evening was almost jubilant," the newspaper wrote. "'It's accelerating and exhilarating,' said one." Each branch of the armed forces is jockeying for the chance to display its weapon systems, regardless of whether any specific military purpose is fulfilled, simply to justify their multibillion-dollar budgets. Since the bombing began US Navy warships and submarines in the Adriatic Sea, and bombers flown from Italy, have launched scores of cruise missiles at Serbian targets. These include a new generation of Tomahawk missiles, which the Pentagon says have "proven effective" during recent raids against Iraq, hitting 80 percent of their targets. Military planners prefer the unmanned missiles--which cost $750,000 each--in the initial stages of an attack rather than risking more expensive manned aircraft. The cruise missiles, built by Raytheon Corporation, are launched with the click of a computer mouse from ships floating well out of reach of any enemy threat. Traveling at the speed of sound, the missiles are guided to their targets by 24 global positioning satellites orbiting the earth. Wednesday was also the debut of the US Air Force's most expensive warplane, the B-2 "Spirit" stealth bomber. Two of the $2.2 billion planes flew from air bases in Missouri to Yugoslavia, where they dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs each, and then returned nonstop to the US. First introduced in 1988 for long-range nuclear strikes deep into the former Soviet Union, the plane had been plagued by technical problems, including a radar system which had difficulty distinguishing mountain ranges from clouds and radar-absorbent paint that wore off too quickly. The fear of losing the aircraft, two of which cost as much as an aircraft carrier, led the military to pass over the B-2 for combat missions at a time when every other strike aircraft was being deployed in the Persian Gulf. The Air Force had been "champing at the bit" to test its B-2 squadron on real missions since its deployment in 1993, said Chris Hillman, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information in Washington, DC. Although the military has simulated using the B-2s, Hillman said simulations are like video games when compared to real battle. The only true test of the B-2 "is to have somebody who really hates us trying to shoot us down," he said. After the mission General Leroy Barnidge, commander of the B-2 Bomb Wing in Missouri, said, "I got to tell you, the crews in these jets performed magnificently. It says to the critics that this plane did everything it advertised, and then some." The US currently has a fleet of 21 B-2 bombers, which costs $44 billion. The warplane's "success" over the skies of Yugoslavia will surely mean billions more in future procurements for manufacturer Northrop Grumman. Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other US defense contractors have made no secret of the fact that they see the conflict in Yugoslavia as an opportunity to market their weapons and secure new contracts. On Friday
[PEN-L:4540] World War II and Recovery
Wojtek Sokolowski (PEN-l 4537 wrote on Martch 25th If I recall correctly, Baran Sweezy (_Monopoly Capital_) counter that argument by saying that all measures to revive the US economy through peaceful demand stimulation (cf. auto industry + infrastructure) had failed - it was the 2nd world war that reversed that trend. Wojtek: In my opinion iIt was simply a question of the magnitudes of spending. There is no comparison between the amounts spent to revive the economy and the amounts spent on WW II. Spending the same amout of dollars on housing, hospitals, roads, dams, planting trees etc etc would have had the same effect. Frank
[PEN-L:4526] Fw: Account of McCarthy period slanders socialist opponents ofStalinism
Louis: Yesterday Pen-1 4499 you wrote the folloing description of people behind the WSWS: A word or two about the people behind this web site. They were founded and led by an Englishman Gerry Healy, who was thrown out of the organization for forcing himself sexually on young women in the group. Vanessa Redgrave was a member. Over the past ten years it has imploded because the paranoiac sectarianism directed against other groups on the left--as evidenced in their hatred for the CP--turned inward. Louis Proyect I found your commentary highly informative and I thank you for. Below, I have posted today's WSWS's editorial.I would very much apprecaite reading your evaluation of it. Sincerely Frank WSWS : News Analysis : Europe : The Balkan Crisis US-NATO bombs fall on Serbia: the "New World Order" takes shape By the editorial board 25 March 1999 The editorial board of the World Socialist Web Site emphatically opposes the US-led NATO attack on Serbia. The massive air assault against a small country of less than ten million people is an act of naked imperialist aggression. It represents a qualitatively new stage in the eruption of American and European militarism. As the British Financial Times pointed out: "The enormity of NATO launching its first attack against a sovereign state is not to be underestimated. Unlike Iraq, Belgrade has not invaded another country. Nor is the situation akin to Bosnia, where the legitimate government invited outside intervention. Nor, finally, has the United Nations Security Council specifically authorized NATO to bomb." It is a telling commentary on the state of American democracy that the US government feels free to go to war without even bothering to offer a coherent explanation for its actions to its own people. Without even a trace of embarrassment President Clinton acknowledged, only hours before the bombing commenced, that most Americans probably would not be able to locate Kosovo on a world map. Without a declaration of war--indeed, without anything that can even be remotely described as a public debate--the United States has commenced the bombing of another country which has not harmed, or even threatened, a single American citizen. What is the logic of this policy? The United States assumes the right to compel countries to change their policies in accordance with American demands, i.e., to relinquish sovereignty within their own borders. Even as ruthless a practitioner of imperialist realpolitik as Henry Kissinger has warned that the war against Serbia represents an extraordinary and unprecedented redefinition of the "national interest"--which now, it would appear, includes the domestic policies of other countries. Though it has not been explicitly stated, the implication of this new "Clinton Doctrine" is that the United States may bomb and even invade countries whose domestic policies are not to its liking. This doctrine implies that any country in the world is a potential target for US bombing. It would not be difficult--based on the present state of world affairs--to draw up a list of 10 to 20 countries that could be considered likely candidates for military attack by the United States. And, were a deterioration of world economic conditions to lead to an exacerbation of trade tensions, the size of that list could quickly double. The aim of these assaults is to establish the role of the major imperialist powers--above all, the United States--as the unchallengeable arbiters of world affairs. The "New World Order" is precisely this: an international regime of unrelenting pressure and intimidation by the most powerful capitalist states against the weakest. The attack on Serbia follows a definite pattern. In recent years, military interventions by the US have occurred with
[PEN-L:4496] Account of McCarthy period slanderssocialist opponents of Stalinism
From World Socialist Web Site WSWS : History Account of McCarthy period slanders socialist opponents of Stalinism Review of Ellen Schrecker's Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America By Shannon Jones 24 March 1999 Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America by Ellen Schrecker, Little, Brown and Company, 1998, 573 pages Much has been written about the terrible impact of the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the late 1940s and 1950s on American cultural and political life--the blacklisting of actors and writers, the purging of militants from the unions, the stifling of critical thought. It was a period of unrelenting reaction, hundreds were jailed, thousands more deprived of their jobs and livelihoods because of their political beliefs. No area of creative endeavor escaped its impact. The scars of McCarthyism are still everywhere evident--the notoriously docile and subservient American trade union movement; the banal and commercialized Hollywood television and movie industry; the stultified and conformist state of academia. In no major industrial country in the world is intellectual and cultural life so constricted. Given the advanced decay of American liberalism, as manifested in the crisis of the Clinton administration and the growing influence at the highest levels of extreme right-wing and outright fascistic forces in the United States, a historical review of the origins and impact of McCarthyism is of the utmost timeliness. Any serious assessment of McCarthyism must consider fore and center the criminal role played by the Stalinist Communist Party, which, by associating socialism with terrible crimes against the working class, helped create the political climate in which red-baiting could flourish. Long before Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy arrived on the scene, the American Communist Party had earned well-deserved hostility throughout the working class for its treacherous and deceitful politics and its ready use of physical violence against opponents. Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America, published last year by historian Ellen Schrecker, attempts a new examination of the McCarthy period. While there is important material detailing the impact of McCarthyism on the American left, Schrecker's book distinguishes itself principally by its apologetic attitude toward Stalinism. Schrecker, a professor of history at Yeshiva University, spent more than 20 years studying the McCarthy period. Her previous works on the subject include No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities and The Age of McCarthyism. Schrecker's latest book gives a detailed account of the impact of McCarthyism on a wide range of American life. It follows the lives of several McCarthyite victims to illustrate the utter viciousness of the red-baiting campaign. Parts of the book are informative. Many are the Crimes documents the sinister role of the FBI in subverting civil liberties. It follows the attempt by the government, backed by the AFL-CIO, to destroy left-wing unions such as the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and the Maritime Cooks and Stewards Union. Schrecker gives an account of the attempts to stop the production and distribution of the film, Salt of the Earth, an account of a strike by members of the Mine Mill union against Empire Zinc in New Mexico. The project, an effort by blacklisted Hollywood screenwriters, actors and technicians, encountered ferocious resistance, including attacks by a vigilante mob and the refusal of technicians to process and edit the film. Sympathy for Stalinism However, the work's
[PEN-L:4471] Fw: Holocaust against Iraq
Charles: Thank you for the excellent posting on Iraq. I would be interested in knowing the Economist's source of the statement that "Just prior to the Gulf War, Iraq's GDP was more than ten times higher--around $60 billion." US Statistical Abstract states that in 1990 it was $23 billion in 1990 dollars and $26 Billion in 1995 dollars.Their scource is the U.S. Arms control and disarmament Agency; the IBRD and CIA.. Frank -- From: Charles Brown [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:4470] Holocaust against Iraq Date: Monday, March 22, 1999 10:13 AM Subj: Iraq's chilling economic statistics (fwd) Date: 3/19/99 7:15:30 PM Eastern Standard Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric A Schuster) To:[EMAIL PROTECTED] - Begin forwarded message -- March 18, 1999 IRAQ'S CHILLING ECONOMIC STATISTICS Iraq's total GDP has fallen to just $5.7 billion, or $247 per capita, according to estimates by the well-respected Economist Intelligence Unit in The Economist's newly published annual supplement "The World in 1999." Just prior to the Gulf War, Iraq's GDP was more than ten times higher--around $60 billion. Last year the Economist Intelligence Unit estimated Iraqi GDP at $30.4 billion, or $1,300 per capita. This year's figure represents both a further precipitous decline, and more accurate estimates. To put this in perspective, Jordan, Iraq's tiny neighbor has a GDP of $8.6 billion. With an estimated per capita GDP of only $247, Iraq, once one of the most developed countries in the Middle East, is now poorer than many countries in sub-saharan Africa. Just this evening I had the opportunity to attend a talk by former UN humanitarian relief coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday. Halliday noted that Iraq's recurring annual budget needs for health, food and essential services, is $12-15 billion. With the Oil-for-Food program, which Halliday ran for thirteen months, Iraq gets barely $4 billion. With a total GDP of $5.7 billion Iraq's economy is worth about the same as four B-1 bombers. It is worth about half of Bill Gates. The entire Iraqi economy amounts to just 2% (two percent) of the annual United States DEFENSE budget of $265 billion. The increase in the US defense budget proposed for next year by the Clinton Administration ($12 billion) is more than twice the entire GDP of Iraq. Just exactly what kind of threat can Iraq present? You do the math. Ali Abunimah [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.abunimah.org --- Note: The destruction of Iraq's economy by the sanctions has distinctively changed the life in Iraq: children are dying in greater numbers; families are breaking apart; educational systems are crumbling ... For more information, please refer to the articles by Denis Halliday http://iraqaction.org/denis.html Iraq Action Coalition http://iraqaction.org
[PEN-L:4417] Fw: Lynn Turgeon
Barkley: Thank you very much for that real life portrait of Lynn you painted. I've printed it out and am sending it to two of his very good friends who do not have E-mail access. Sincerely Frank -- From: J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:4389] Lynn Turgeon Date: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 3:10 PM It was a privilege for me to have been a friend of Lynn Turgeon's. He was responsible for my meeting my wife, Marina, who was a researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) in Moscow in the early 1980s. She had been his translator when he served on his Fulbright in Moscow (in 1976, not 1975 as his obituary states) for his lectures at Moscow State University. Those lectures would later be issued as his book, _The Advanced Capitalist System_ published by M.E. Sharpe. He gave her away at our wedding and we shall both miss him very much. Over the more recent years Lynn participated in several panels at professional meetings on transitional economy issues, often ones that either Marina or I would chair or organize. Lynn had been scheduled to be a discussant in a session that I organized for the meetings in New York in early January. He had had prostate cancer for several years that he knew was incurable and had warned me that he might not make the meetings, which I said I understood. However, during the middle of last year he seemed to be doing better and I was hopeful that he would be participating as he lived in Hempstead, New York, not far from the meeting site in New York City. It was only when he pulled out in early December that I realized that the end was near. He had fallen and his cancer had relapsed and he had gone to stay with his daughter who is a physician in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was clear that he was not going to be going anywhere else again while alive, although he did continue to be active on the pkt list into January. Lynn always enjoyed challenging people with ideas that went against the grain, and I sometimes had trouble figuring out to what extent he actually believed some of the things he was putting forward (I certainly did not agree with all of them). Louis Proyect has commented on how he used to appear to argue that fascism was good for the working class, a position that I do not think he really held. However, he certainly did think that Hitler was a practitioner of a form of Keynesianism, perhaps the first "military Keynesian," and he always enjoyed confounding people with his apparently contradictory views on military spending (good for the US, bad for the USSR, etc.). In more recent years, besides his promulgation of his own idiosyncratic version of a Post Keynesian vision as expressed in his last book, _Bastard Keynesianism_, he also wrote and spoke much about the problems of economic transition. He had originally been inspired to study Russian back in World War II out of a desire for world peace and a feeling that the US and USSR should remain allied and be friends. In the early 50s he was apparently the only person at the Rand Corporation not to have a security clearance. In later years he would point out some of the virtues of the Stalinist system even as he criticized its irrationality and oppressiveness. His _Economics of Discrimination_ (not the exact title) made the point that Gypsies and women were more equal and less discriminated against in Eastern and Central Europe during the Stalinist period than at any other, an uncomfortable fact for many of us. In more recent years his appearances at ASSA meetings often involved analyzing how the position of women was changing in different transitional economies and he initially had high praise for the Hungarians for maintaining a very supportive system for women, although that has since been cut back under IMF pressure. He argued that how women are treated is perhaps the real bottom line measure of a society. He also had unconventional views on agriculture, documenting the higher productivity of collectivized agriculture in Hungary (thanks to economies of scale) compared to the privatized system in Poland with its small private plots. He accurately foresaw problems for these agricultural systems that would accompany the breakup of their collectives (although China, whose transition he often praised, improved agricultural productivity with privatization under Deng). I always wanted to pin Lynn down on some of his views, but he had an amazing ability to wriggle out of apparent contradictions and difficulties and to stand grinning at one like a Cheshire cat with his wit and agility and ability to provoke. However, I think that in the end he was a fan of Gorbachev and regretted the failure of his experiment. Here was the figure who would "put a
[PEN-L:4355] U.S. Jets Bomb ``in self defense''
Top Stories Headlines Tuesday March 16 6:27 AM ET U.S. Jets Bomb North Iraqi Artillery Sites ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi artillery sites in the northern no-fly zone Tuesday after being tracked by Iraqi radar, officials at the jets' base in southern Turkey said. A spokeswoman told Reuters that U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle warplanes dropped GBU-12 laser-guided bombs ``in self defense'' on several anti-aircraft artillery sites northwest of Mosul. Earlier Stories U.S. Jets Bomb Targets In Iraq No-Fly Zones (March 15) U.S. Jets Bomb North Iraqi Anti-Aircraft Artillery (March 15) U.S. Jets Fire At North Iraqi Air Defenses (March 15) U.S. Jets Bomb Iraqi Artillery (March 14) U.S. Jets Bomb Iraqi Artillery In North (March 14)
[PEN-L:4366] Fw: Re: NYT Obit for Lynn Turgeon
I am utterly baffled by William Lear's posting. Bill, just what do you mean by "hand-picked" and "unwashed"? You are touching a raw nerve here. I am very fortunate in having been able to consider Lynn a friend. He was one hell of a nice guy, highly energetic, highly personable, great sense of humor, a great conversationalist and a great fun guy to have around. He sent me copies of just about every thing he wrote, and on occasion asked me to critique articles and or chapters he was working on. I was amazed at how widely read he was. Although we were roughly the same age, I always considered him "my professor" and some times would mockingly address him that way. .Every time I had an opportunity to be with him he would always ask "have you read this' or "have you seen this" "What, you have not read this?"You just got to see this etc etc. What I found missing from Lynn's obituaries was the fact that he was one of the nation's leading Sovietologists back in the late 50's and middle sixties. He was right up there with other giants such as, Berliner and Bergson etc at Harvard and the group at Rand. He testified several times at congressional hearings on the Soviet Economy. What amazed me also was the fact that he could shift from the ranks of the Sovietolgist greats to the raanks of the Post Keynesian Greats. He also presented many papers on the treatment of Gypsies. He also had an unerring eye as to who the rising stars were. On quite a few occasions he would say hey, keep an eye on this guy. He was j one hell of a nice guy. Kathy and I will both miss him. Frank From: William S. Lear [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:4354] Re: NYT Obit for Lynn Turgeon Date: Tuesday, March 16, 1999 1:43 AM On Monday, March 15, 1999 at 22:27:58 (-0800) Michael Perelman writes: ... He served in the Navy during World War II and joined the Hofstra faculty in 1957. There was a wave of former military personnel into academia thanks to the GI bill. Many of them turned progressive, or didn't turn reactionary, since they hadn't been hand-picked. Was Lynn one of the unwashed, perhaps? Bill
[PEN-L:4316] U.S. Jets Fire At North Iraqi
Monday March 15 5:48 AM ET U.S. Jets Fire At North Iraqi Air Defenses ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes attacked Iraqi sites in the no-fly zone over northern Iraq Monday, a statement from the jets' home base in southern Turkey said. It said the warplanes ``responded in self-defense to Iraqi threats'' but gave no further details. Sunday the jets from the Incirlik airbase bombed anti-aircraft artillery sites near Mosul after being fired upon and detecting Iraq radar tracking the aircraft. Such strikes have become regular since Iraq decided in December to actively oppose U.S. and British jets patrolling the no-fly zones in the north and south of the country. The jets flying out of Incirlik patrol a mountainous Kurdish-held enclave and a swathe of Baghdad-controlled territory around the city of Mosul. Iraq does not recognize the Western-enforced zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect the Kurdish area in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south. NATO-member Turkey hosts the force, known as ``Operation Northern Watch,'' but has expressed concern in recent months over the policy of the United States, a close ally, toward Turkey's southern neighbor Iraq.
[PEN-L:4305] U.S. Jets Bomb again and again and again
Sunday March 14 8:05 AM ET U.S. Jets Bomb Iraqi Artillery In North ANKARA, Turkey (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes bombed Iraqi air defenses in the no-fly zone over northern Iraq Sunday, said a spokesman at the base in southern Turkey from which the jets operate. He told Reuters the planes dropped an unspecified number of bombs after ``aircraft observed Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fire and detected Iraqi radar posing a threat to coalition aircraft.'' Such strikes have been common since Iraq decided in December actively to oppose U.S. and British jets patrolling the no-fly zones in the north and south of the country. The jets flying out of the Incirlik airbase patrol a mountainous Kurdish-held enclave and a swath of Baghdad-controlled territory around the city of Mosul. ``F-15E Strike Eagles dropped GBU-12 laser-guided bombs on several anti-aircraft artillery sites northwest and west of Mosul,'' the spokesman said. Friday jets from Incirlik also bombed anti-aircraft artillery sites after detecting Iraq radar tracking the aircraft. Iraq does not recognize the Western-enforced zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect the Kurdish area in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south. NATO-member Turkey hosts the force, known as ``Operation Northern Watch,'' but has expressed concern in recent months over the policy of close ally the United States toward Turkey's southern neighbor Iraq. Earlier Stories U.S. Jets Strike Iraqi Sites In North No-Fly Zone (March 14) U.S. Jets Bomb Iraqi Targets In North No-Fly Zone (March 12) U.S. Jets Fire At Iraqi Target In North No-Fly Zone (March 12) Qatar Opposes Strikes On Iraq, Hits Go On (March 9) U.S. Jets Bomb North Iraqi Artillery Sites (March 9)
[PEN-L:4275] Air strikes at Iraq go on and on and on
Friday March 12 7:11 AM ET U.S. Jets Fire At Iraqi Target In North No-Fly Zone ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. air force jets patrolling Iraq's northern no-fly zone bombed at least one target Friday, a U.S. air force official at the jets' home base in Incirlik in southern Turkey said. ``At approximately 1.30 p.m. Iraqi time (1030 GMT) U.S. planes responded to Iraqi threats in the northern no-fly zone,'' Captain Manning Brown told Reuters. He said it was not yet clear how many sites had been hit in the incident. Such strikes have become a regular event since Baghdad announced in December it would actively oppose the no-fly zones in the north and south of Iraq, imposed by the United States and Britain after the 1991 Gulf War. Planes from the Incirlik air base patrol Iraqi skies north of the 36th parallel to protect the area's Kurdish population from attack by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces. A similar zone in the south is aimed at protecting the Shi'ites there. Most of northern Iraq is under the control of two Iraqi Kurdish parties which broke away from Baghdad at the end of the Gulf War, but a patch of territory around the city of Mosul remains in the hands of the Iraqi government. The U.S. government says two months of air strikes in the no-fly zones have done more damage to Iraqi air defenses than the four days of full-scale attacks on the country in December's Operation Desert Fox.
[PEN-L:4242] U.S. Jets Bomb Targets In Northern, Southern Iraq
Yahoo! News Top Stories Headlines Tuesday March 9 12:11 AM ET U.S. Jets Bomb Targets In Northern, Southern Iraq WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. fighter jets dropped laser-guided bombs on Iraqi anti-aircraft sites in the northern no-fly zone Monday and American and British planes hit three targets in the south, Defense Department spokesmen said. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Campbell said U.S. forces did not suffer any injuries and there was no damage to their planes. An Iraqi military spokesman said one person had been injured in the northern area when Western warplanes attacked civilian and military targets in both the south and north of the country. Campbell said he had no reports of any Iraqi injuries and that damage was still being assessed. He had no further details on the number of bombs dropped, how many Iraqi targets were hit or how many U.S. planes were involved. The latest bombing in the northern zone took place between 12:35 p.m. and 1:35 p.m. Iraqi time (4:35 a.m. EST/0935 GMT and 5:35 a.m. EST/1035 GMT) near Saddam Lake in the northern no-fly zone. ``Responding in self-defense, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles dropped GBU laser-guided bombs on several anti-aircraft artillery sites,'' Campbell said in a telephone interview. Later in the southern no-fly zone, U.S. Air Force F-16CGs, U.S. Navy F/A-1s and British Royal Air Force GR-1 Tornados hit two sites at approximately 6:30 p.m. Iraqi time (10:30 a.m. EST/1530 GMT). According to a release from the U.S. Central Command, the jets struck an Iraqi airborne warning site near As Samawah, a surface-to-air missile site 50 miles (80 km) northwest of As Samawa near Abu Sukhayr and a radio relay station 75 miles (120 km) northeast of As Samawah. Monday's attacks followed similar incidents Saturday when U.S. jets struck three sites in Iraq's southern no-fly zone and five Iraqi anti-aircraft sites in the northern no-fly zone. U.S. and British jets based either in neighboring Gulf countries or at sea have conducted dozens of raids on military targets in the Iraqi exclusion zones since Baghdad announced in December it would begin actively resisting the patrols. Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones that were set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect rebel Kurds in the north and Shi'ite Muslims in the south. The northern zone covers much of a Kurdish-held enclave that broke away from Baghdad after the Gulf War and also a swathe of government-controlled territory around the city of Mosul. Earlier Stories Iraq Says One Wounded In U.S. Air Attacks (March 8) U.S. Fighter Jets Bomb Targets In Northern Iraq (March 8) U.S. Fighter Jets Bomb Iraqi Anti-Artillery Sites (March 8)
[PEN-L:4200] the U.S. has been bombing Iraq for the past 10 weeks
WHY THE SILENCE? The New York Times March 7, 1999 Weeks of Bombing Leave Iraq's Power Structure Unshaken By STEVEN LEE MYERS and TIM WEINER ASHINGTON -- This week, an American diplomat named Frank Ricciardone will take on a new job. His mission is as simple as it is difficult: unify the fractured Iraqi opposition, topple Saddam Hussein and build a democratic nation from the ruins. The Clinton administration has been pursuing the same goal on three tracks: bombing Iraq in a slow-motion war, succoring the opposition with words and ideas, plotting to subvert the pyramid of soldiers and spies that supports the Iraqi leader. Toward that end, the United States has been striking Iraq from the air for 10 weeks now, and last week American planes loosed the biggest barrage of bombs since December. At last count, American and British jets have bombed Iraq on 30 separate days -- roughly every other day -- since Dec. 28. The jets have struck at least 104 targets, 4 more than they hit during the major American and British barrage over four days last year, damaging or destroying surface-to-air missile sites, anti-aircraft artillery, radar towers and communications centers. In a report to Congress on Wednesday, President Clinton said Iraq's air defenses had been "degraded substantially." "What we are working to do is to help create the political and military conditions that will permit a successful change of the regime," said Walter B. Slocombe, under secretary of defense for policy. But Pentagon officials are among the first to acknowledge that bombs alone cannot topple Saddam. The American military commander in the Persian Gulf region has said repeatedly that the task of creating a legitimate alternative to Saddam appears hopeless for now, given the disunity of the opposition. For now, the hope for a coup rests on the impact of the tons of bombs falling on Iraqi military sites. But allies of the United States in the region, especially Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are increasingly impatient with the American program of bombs and bombast. There has been no clear evidence so far that the bombings have eroded Saddam's power structure, best envisioned as a pyramid of perhaps 100 trusted men, sitting atop half a million soldiers, spies and political operatives. Despite this, Ricciardone, the State Department official named to the newly created position of policy coordinator, has said he envisions a sudden demise for the regime in Iraq, a country he does know. In the mid-1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, he helped try to normalize relations between the United States and Iraq. He was second-in-command of the shuttered American Embassy after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, working out of Amman, Jordan and London. He is one among many in the administration who sees political thunderclouds gathering over Saddam, though no one will predict when a storm might occur. "Most likely, there will be a military coup," he said last week in an interview with a newspaper in Ankara, Turkey, where he is ending a stint as deputy chief of the American Embassy. "It will be very sudden and without warning." The State Department, which confirmed the content of his remarks, said Ricciardone could not be reached for comment. The president's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, said that Saddam's repeated efforts to shoot down American or British jets over Iraq showed his weakness, not his strength. "His ineffectiveness in stopping us has undercut him to some degree," Berger said in an interview. The challenges are meant "to demonstrate his power," he added. "Instead he looks ineffectual." One senior administration official said that Saddam is "nervous and off-balance." Another official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: "We think we see Saddam flailing. We are working toward a slow whittling-down of his power, his authority and his nerves. There are reports of military guys perhaps not following orders." The Clinton administration has not spent a penny of a $97 million fund created by Congress to finance Iraqi opposition, one indication of its thinking about the likelihood of its success. There is understandably some revulsion in the Arab world about superpowers plotting insurrections in the region. Few in the
[PEN-L:4124] Impeach for the right reasons
-- From: John P. Lacny [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Students in Solidarity Left List [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:3806] End Iraq Sanctions NYT Signature Ad (fwd) Date: Wednesday, February 24, 1999 11:08 AM There's already an "editorial submission" for nationwide student newspapers; now there's this New York Times ad campaign. Read on; naturally there's no "enclosed envelope" with this e-mail, so if you sign, you'll have to send it in a real envelope, or I suppose you could just contact these people at the e-mail listed below. John Lacny -- Forwarded message -- Please sign on, distribute, post, announce: Available at http://www.endiraqsanctions.com Advisory Board Noam Chomsky MIT Howard Zinn Boston University Edward W. Said Columbia University Robert Jensen University of Texas at Austin William Keach Brown University Ad Coordinator: Sharon Smith February 3, 1999 Dear Friend, A growing chorus of people, in this country and around the world, are demanding an end to the murderous sanctions against Iraq, which are a direct result of U.S. government policy. The sanctions have taken a staggering toll among Iraqi civilians-especially the sick, the elderly and, above all, children under the age of 5. Here in the U.S., the mainstream media is finally giving some attention to the deadly effects of the sanctions. But much more is needed. Most people in this country have little or no knowledge of the human suffering that is being inflicted by our government, in our name. We have initiated a campaign to place a full-page signature ad in the New York Times. We believe that such an ad can play an important part in giving voice to the growing opposition to the sanctions against the Iraqi people. The purpose of this letter is to ask you to sign on to the signature ad, which will appear in the New York Times within the next six weeks. We also ask that, if at all possible, you enclose a contibution to help finance it. As you may imagine, the ad will cost a great deal of money-$34,000. But it will allow us to reach the widest possible audience with the facts about the sanctions. We have enclosed the text of the ad as it will appear. Please fill out the form below and return it to us in the enclosed envelope at your earliest convenience. We are certain that you share our sense of urgency to place this ad as quickly as possible. If you add your name, we will contact you to let you know when to look for the signature ad. _ Yes, add my name to the New York Times signature ad: Name/Title ___ Organization* _ Mailing Address Telephone _ E-Mail _ _ I want to help finance the ad. Enclosed is a check for: $50 $100 $500 $1,000 Other_ Please make checks payable to the New York Times and mail to: End the Sanctions Against Iraq Signature Ad Campaign P.O. Box 16085 Chicago IL 60616 v 773-665-8695 f 773-665-9651 e [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Organizations are listed for identification purposes only. Sanctions ARE Weapons of Mass Destruction We the undersigned call upon the United States government to end all sanctions against the people of Iraq. At the end of 1998, the United States once again rained bombs on the people of Iraq. But even when the bombs stop falling, the U.S. war against the people of Iraq continues-through the United Nations harsh sanctions on Iraq, which are the direct result of U.S. policy. This month, U.S. policy will kill 4,500 Iraqi children under the age of 5, according to United Nations studies, just as it did last month and the month before that all the way back to 1991. Since the end of the Gulf War, more than a million Iraqis have died as a direct result of the UN sanctions on Iraq. To oppose the sanctions is not equivalent to supporting the regime of Saddam Hussein. To oppose the sanctions is to support the Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein is a murderous dictator, who promotes those who are loyal to him and kills all those who voice opposition to his regime. But throughout the 1980s, when it suited U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East, the U.S. government was more than willing to ignore Saddam Hussein's brutality. In fact, U.S. and European companies provided Iraq with materials used to produce Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction." Moreover, the sanctions have not affected the lifestyle of Saddam Hussein or his inner circle. Food and
[PEN-L:4125] U.S. Condemned For Sex Abuse Of Women Prisoners
Yahoo! News Thursday March 4 1:57 AM ET U.S. Condemned For Sex Abuse Of Women Prisoners By Astrid Zweynert LONDON (Reuters) - Women prisoners in the United States are subjected to serious sexual abuse, including rape and being sold as ``sex slaves'' to male inmates, Amnesty International said Thursday. In a wide-ranging report the human rights organization said male guards often supervised naked women prisoners and searched them in ways involving contact with their breasts and genitalia. The authorities' response to complaints was inadequate, leaving the victims with ``no voice,'' and often the perpetrators were not brought to justice, the report said. ``Women in prison have been sentenced to be deprived of their liberty, not to be subjected to sexual abuse,'' Fiona Weir, Amnesty's UK Campaigns director, said at a news conference. ``The U.S. is a country that prides itself on its constitution and often draws attention to human rights abuses in other countries. What we want to achieve is a change in policy.'' The underlying cause of the problem is the large number of male guards in American women's prisons and their unrestricted access to women's cells, Amnesty said. While many Western nations follow United Nations standards that female prisoners should only be closely supervised by women, male guards in U.S. prisons may watch over a woman even when she is dressing, showering or using the toilet. A survey of 40 U.S. prisons found in 1997 that 41 percent of guards in women's prisons were male, with larger proportions in Kansas, California and Idaho. ``The U.S. must get in step with international standards and stop men guarding women prisoners,'' Weir said. Many of the violations described in the report are illegal under U.S. law. But practices such body searches by male guards are legitimate and leave women open to sexual abuse, like touching their breasts and genital areas. Often female prisoners find it difficult to stop unlawful conduct by guards or to have a perpetrator brought to justice, Amnesty said, citing the case of a prisoner named Robin Lucas. Lucas filed a lawsuit against U.S. authorities in 1996, saying she was raped, sodomized and made into a sex slave by guards who ``sold'' access to her cell to male inmates in a federal prison in Dublin, California. The case, filed with two fellow female prisoners, was settled out of court and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons agreed to institute significant reforms. It paid the women $500,000 to partially compensate them for their ordeal. ``The case showed a typical pattern -- that no one gets prosecuted,'' said Silvia Casale, an independent prisons expert.
