-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Lesson From History of the Thirteen by Honore de Balzac In Paris under the Empire thirteen men came together. They were all struck with the same idea and all endowed with sufficient energy to remain faithful to a single purpose. They were all honest enough to be loyal to one another even when their interests were opposed, and sufficiently versed in guile to conceal the inviolable bonds which united them. They were strong enough to put themselves above all law, bold enough to flinch at no undertaking; lucky enough to have almost always succeeded in their designs, having run the greatest hazards, but remaining silent about their defeats; impervious to fear; and never having trembled before public authority, the public hangman or even innocence itself. They had all accepted one another, such as they were, without regard to social prejudice: they were undoubtedly criminals, but undeniably remarkable for certain qualities which go to the making of great men, and they recruited their members only from among men of outstanding quality. Lastly--we must leave out no element of the sombre and mysterious poetry of the story--the names of these thirteen men were never divulged, although they were the very incarnations of ideas suggested to the imagination by the fantastic powers attributed in fiction to the Manfreds, Fausts and Melmoths of literature. ===== Barbecued Children Federal Prosecutor Warns Reno of DOJ Coverup on Waco by Lee Hancock A Waco federal prosecutor wrote Attorney General Janet Reno on Monday to warn that ``individuals or components within the Department of Justice'' may have long withheld evidence from her and the public about the FBI's use of pyrotechnic grenades on the day the Branch Davidian compound burned. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston said he felt compelled to warn Reno after he was given a 5-year-old document that discusses the use of ``military gas'' by the FBI on April 19, 1993. He said he was concerned because the document, a three-page set of notes detailing an interview with members of the FBI's hostage rescue team, included handwritten notations suggesting that it be kept from anyone outside the department's legal staff. ``There are handwritten notes on the documents discussing whether or not they should be disclosed, and, obviously, they have not been,'' said Johnston, the federal prosecutor involved longest in the entire Branch Davidian investigation. ``There was discussion about whether they should be turned over,'' he said. ``Obviously, the decision was made somewhere in Washington that they were not to be.'' Asked about the matter late Monday, Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin said, ``I wouldn't comment except to say that the attorney general has received assurances that pyrotechnic tear-gas devices would not be used and were not used. And she has pledged to get to the bottom of this.'' Johnston said he was presented with a copy of the document last week after officials divulged that the FBI had, in fact, used pyrotechnic tear gas on April 19. A former senior FBI official told The Dallas Morning News that he had learned that two M651 CS tear-gas grenades had been fired at an area adjacent to the compound by members of the FBI's hostage rescue team. The official has maintained that use of the grenades had nothing to do with the fire that consumed the compound. The issue has sparked a House committee investigation and also prompted angry congressional demands for an independent investigation of the FBI because Reno and other senior FBI and Justice Department officials have long maintained that nothing capable of sparking a fire was used by the government on April 19. The compound burned that day with Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and more than 80 followers inside. The fire erupted about six hours after the FBI began using tanks and tear gas to try to force an end to a 51-day standoff. On Monday, the House Government Reform Committee issued subpoenas for Johnston and the Texas Rangers ordering them to present all their records relating the use of pyrotechnic tear gas by the FBI. The subpoenas ordered the prosecutor and the rangers to appear on Sept. 7 in Washington. Johnston has been assisting the rangers since late June in an ongoing inquiry to identify questioned evidence that has been in the possession of the Texas Department of Public Safety since the Davidian standoff. The use of pyrotechnic devices on April 19 is a key issue involved in a pending wrongful-death lawsuit filed by surviving Branch Davidians and families of those who died. The lawsuit contends that the government's negligence or deliberate actions caused the 1993 tragedy. ``One of the key issues in this case is who started the fire,'' said Joe Phillips of Houston, who is one of the lead lawyers in the lawsuit. ``Here the government is sitting on a piece of evidence that would guarantee that we could get the issue heard by a jury. ``If the lawyers in this case knew about that information and, in the face of our evidence showing pyrotechnics were used, just sat on this and continued to insist to the judge that no pyrotechnics were used, that's fraud on the court,'' he said. Johnston said he has been ordered not to discuss the specific wording of the document or the handwritten notes; the notes apparently were added after the document was prepared. The document was written by a paralegal working for the U.S. attorney's office in preparation for the 1994 federal prosecution of surviving Branch Davidians. The paralegal was interviewing members of the FBI's hostage rescue team, which was involved in the final assault on the Branch Davidian compound. Johnston said the document indicates that he may have been present during the interviews. He said he did not recall the interviews and said the term ``military gas'' did not register with him. Federal officials in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed Monday that the 1993 notes surfaced last week along with a 1996 FBI legal memo. The officials said the memo was written by the FBI's general counsel's office after civil Justice Department lawyers notified them about the 1993 notes and also asked about allegations being raised by the Branch Davidians' lawyers about the use of pyrotechnic devices by the FBI. FBI officials questioned members of the hostage rescue team and then prepared a memo stating that two military gas grenades had been launched about 6 a.m. on April 19, six hours before the compound burned, one federal official said. The officials said that no one involved in preparing the memo realized that the term ``military gas'' appeared to be shorthand for pyrotechnic tear-gas grenades. Ordnance experts say all CS tear-gas grenades used by the U.S. military are pyrotechnic devices. Johnston said he felt compelled to contact Reno about that problem and other potential problems with evidence in the civil case. ``Most important, there's been significance given to these documents in the last few years because of the civil suit. Whether or not these documents have been or should have been given to plaintiffs and criminal defense attorneys is an issue that the department is going to have to answer,'' he said. ``I am very concerned,''Johnston said. ``I would rather not discuss the details of my letter to the AG, but I can certainly tell you that I'm very concerned that information which should've been made known to her and to the public has not been.'' The Dallas Morning News, August 31, 1999 Land of Mochtar Riady East Timor Votes Independence from Indonesia Big turnout leaves the question in no doubt THE people of East Timor turned out en masse yesterday to vote in a United Nations-supervised referendum which seems certain to register massive popular support for an end to 23 years of Indonesian rule. Defying death threats and widespread intimidation from pro-Indonesian militias, more than 95 per cent of 430,000 registered voters went to the polls. Polling stations were besieged from dawn by East Timorese who were offered the choice between independence and autonomous rule within Indonesia. The high turnout was regarded as a clear sign that voters will opt for full independence. But the success of the ballot was marred by the murder of a local UN volunteer, who was set upon by members of one of the militias that have terrorised the population in the run-up to the poll. He was stabbed after leaving work at a polling centre in Atsabe village in Ermera district, where pro-autonomy militias had accused UN staff of encouraging votes for independence. The death will exacerbate fears that the almost certain result in favour of independence will lead to widespread reprisals or even civil war. More than 100 people have been killed in recent months and 40,000 were forced to take to the hills after intimidation. Only an 11th-hour detente reached by rival armed factions and a significant increase in Indonesian police co-operation with unarmed UN staff, kept militia activity to a minimum yesterday. The size of the vote indicates that the Timorese are determined to free themselves from Indonesia, which invaded in 1975 when Portugal hurriedly withdrew as a colonial power. At Maliana, a western town subjected to some of the worst campaign violence, a 58-year-old villager waiting to vote, said: "The militia came again last night and told us how to vote, but I have voted with my heart. They cannot kill all of us." Thousands of voters were already queuing at dawn yesterday before the dilapidated churches, schools and government offices that serve as polling centres opened at 6.30am. Some had trekked three or four hours through the night across the hills. Shoeless men with scarred feet, emaciated, betel-nut-chewing old women wearing their finest sarongs for the occasion and mothers with babies in slings waited for up to two hours to vote. A polio victim, walking with the aid of two sticks, was among the first in line. An illiterate, like 90 per cent of rural voters, he had to choose between two maps of East Timor, one bearing the red and white Indonesian flag, the other the pro-independence emblem. Four thousand local volunteers at 200 polling centres aided the diverse array of UN electoral officers, which included a political scientist from Brussels, an installer of hospital patient hoists from Herefordshire and Jean Feilmoser, a travel agent from San Francisco. She said: "I am not surprised, but I am ecstatic at the turn-out. We visited every village more than once to educate voters and I believed we convinced them their vote would be secret." In Dili, the capital, the scene of street battles last week, a 46-year-old university lecturer who lost a cousin and a niece in the violence said: "We could vote in Indonesian elections, but they meant nothing to us. This is for us and I believe we are ready for democracy." * Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, yesterday predicted that East Timor was heading for independence. He said: "I'm delighted that there's been such a large turn out and that it appears to have passed by without major episodes of violence to mar the validity of the result." The London Telegraph, August 31, 1999 Money Laundering Yeltsin Crowd Will Stop Money Laundering Probe No cooperation from the Russia side Yuri Skuratov, Russia's former prosecutor general, warned yesterday that President Boris Yeltsin's closest entourage was likely to obstruct any serious investigation into the money laundering scandal surrounding the Bank of New York. Without Russian co-operation, Mr Skuratov said, the US authorities would never be able to find out how much of the $10bn of the Russian money - alleged to have passed through the Bank of New York accounts - was dirty. "The first source of information about whether this money is criminal or not cannot be answered without the involvement of the Russian law enforcement agencies," he said. "But the closest entourage of the president does not want an objective investigation. And our security organs fulfil political orders 100 per cent," he said, in an interview with the Financial Times. Mr Skuratov, who was the country's top law official until he was suspended earlier this year following a sex scandal, remains a controversial figure. His supporters suggest he was the first law official brave enough to take on corrupt officials close to the Kremlin; his critics claim he is an irresponsible conspiracy theorist who has been exploited by the left-wing opposition. Mr Skuratov alleged the prosecutor general's office had already succumbed to political pressure by backing off from other high-profile corruption cases. He claimed law officials had slowed down an investigation into 800 state employees, including senior ministers and central bank officials, who had speculated in the government's domestic debt (GKO) market, which crashed in August 1998. "This investigation was looking very promising," he said. On Friday, the prosecutor general's office also removed three senior detectives, including Georgy Chuglasov, who were investigating other corruption cases. Mr Chuglasov was in charge of an investigation into Mabetex, the Swiss-based construction group, which is alleged to have paid bribes to senior Kremlin officials in exchange for lucrative contracts for renovating government buildings. Additional allegations surfaced last week that Mabetex had indirectly paid off credit card bills for Mr Yeltsin and his two daughters. Mr Skuratov said this was not new information for him but warned against leaping to premature conclusions. Mabetex - and the Kremlin - have vehemently denied all corruption charges. The Financial Times, August 31, 1999 Futures Markets Pollution Futures Set to Trade in Sydney Carbon sequestration credits The Sydney Futures Exchange will establish the first market in the world to trade carbon sequestration credits next year. The actual commodity to be traded is the perpetual storage of one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent. The storage will come in the form of forests, as trees remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, the exchange announced yesterday. "The design we're setting up here . . . is securitising air," said Les Hosking, chief executive of the Sydney Futures Exchange. The SFE expects that industry will buy carbon sequestration credits, sourced especially from forest investments, and use these to offset the carbon dioxide emitted from the production of high polluting industries such as electricity, aluminium and steel. The exchange said that trading would be consistent with article 3.3 of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. "There is growing interest from many companies around the world in finding ways to manage their potential emission risk," said Mr Hosking. The SFE is working with the New South Wales State Government to establish a "transparent and verifiable" system of carbon trading. It yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Forests of NSW to develop the market. The exchange's aim is to create a carbon trading market that is "truly global", said Mr Hosking. Kim Yeadon, State Minister for Forestry, said the NSW Government wanted Sydney to become the Asia-Pacific centre for the trade. Already, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, is planning an investment in up to 40,000 hectares of state forests in order to get access to clean air credits, said Mr Yeadon. However, the SFE's proposed market is still in its early planning stage. It has yet to be underpinned by any government environmental carbon sequestration-type laws, and on an international level the situation with polluting emissions remains fluid. The Kyoto Protocol, which sets limits on the amounts of greenhouse gases developed countries will be allowed to emit over 2008-2012, will only come into effect if ratified by the US government. The US Senate is refusing to ratify this agreement unless developing countries also agree to limit their greenhouse emissions. Nevertheless, the carbon sequestration credits market is seen by the SFE as providing an early opportunity for polluting industries to hedge against Kyoto and allow market discovery for the price of carbon. If the protocol is ratified, the SFE plans to also introduce an emissions market. Emissions, initially sulphur dioxide, are currently traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. Clean air, or at least the concept of carbon dioxide absorbing forests has also been traded. A few years ago, Costa Rica, by agreeing to protect a portion of its rainforest from logging, issued certificates that bestow the right to pollute. The buyer of these certificates can pour one tonne of carbon dioxide into the air per certificate. The Financial Times, August 31, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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