She Says She Said: Judith Miller's Masters

No one risks their own career and their paper’s credibility for short-term gratification or fleeting notoriety. The breadth and detail of Miller’s lies implies that other factors were involved. Miller clearly had an agenda that far exceeded her own ambitions. What was it? Who does Judy Miller serve?

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Escorting Judy to the Gallows
Mike Whitney

www.dissidentvoice.org

October 22, 2005

For the last 85 days the New York Times has been heaping praise on Judy Miller for going to jail rather than divulging the name of her source in the Valerie Plame case. The paper composed 15 editorials lauding her courage and comparing her to everyone from Rosa Parks to Joan of Arc.

So, why did Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger suddenly fire her after she was out of prison for less than a week?

Did heroism suddenly go out-of-style at the paper of record? Or were Miller’s shenanigans too hot to handle for the right-leaning Times?

A week earlier the Times had Saint Judy up on a pedestal, elevating her to near-mythic status and celebrating her eagerness to accept jail time rather than flinch on a matter of principle. They tried to turn her case into a national referendum on free speech and make it look like she was the victim of a justice system run amok. Miller was presented as the femme fatale enduring the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” rather than compromise her steadfast convictions.

What rubbish.

Miller broke the law by obstructing an investigation into the outing of a CIA agent. She deserved to be penalized. This isn’t Watergate, where reporters’ Woodward and Bernstein withheld the names of sources that knew the details of the government break-in at Democratic headquarters. Miller committed a felony when she took Plame’s name from Libby and passed it on to others, putting other CIA agents in the field directly at risk. The First Amendment does not protect reporters actively participate in the commission of a crime.

Sorry, Judy.

Fortunately, the case has attracted widespread attention and the public seems to know that Miller is just protecting the creeps in the White House. The whole mess is nothing more than a personal vendetta carried out by the dirty tricks branch of the Bush administration. And, no one is buying the Times’ pompous rhetoric about journalistic integrity and the freedom of the press. Everyone knows that Miller was simply hiding the facts to shield her powerful friends.

Since Miller’s testimony, the focus of the investigation has shifted to Libby, Rove, and VP Dick Cheney. But what about Miller? Is she off the hook or can she be prosecuted for her involvement in a crime?

And, what about her role in building the case for war with fraudulent information from fly-by-night sources? Isn’t there a statute that covers that?

Miller’s earlier articles laid the foundation for going to war. Week after week she conjured up the lurid details of mobile weapons labs, aluminum tubes designed for nukes, and biological weapons plants hidden in the basement of Saddam’s castles, all completely bogus. Most of the fake claims that appeared on America’s front pages came from Miller’s pen.

Is it really possible that someone who contributed so greatly to the violent deaths of over 100,000 people will get off Scot-free?

Miller now says that she may have “got it wrong” about Saddam’s WMD, but that hardly seems likely. She wrote at least five blockbuster articles that convincingly challenged the findings of the UN Weapons inspectors and whipped the country into war hysteria. The Times never once disputed her uncorroborated allegations or her skewed perspective. Instead, they took a laissez faire approach; giving her headline space for every specious claim made by dubious defectors or Pentagon spokesmen. As she later admitted, “I can do whatever I want.”

Yes, she could.

But, WHY did she? No one risks their own career and their paper’s credibility for short-term gratification or fleeting notoriety. The breadth and detail of Miller’s lies implies that other factors were involved. Miller clearly had an agenda that far exceeded her own ambitions. What was it? Who does Judy Miller serve?

What exactly is her relationship to the White House? Did she really have a direct line of communication to Donald Rumsfeld? Was she the main channel for disseminating the lies that mobilized public support for administration policies? If so, we need to find out whether she received any compensation for her work or if she was acting as an agent for a foreign country. If Miller accepted as much as one thin dime for her efforts, then she is not protected under the 1st amendment and can be charged with a crime.

Let’s investigate the lead up to the war and see if Miller and Sulzberger colluded with the White House to create the deceptive news that duped the Congress into supporting the war. Let’s see if the “facts were fixed to fit the policy” in the newsroom as well as in the Oval Office. Perhaps, there’s a connection between Miller and her Washington benefactors that goes beyond mere ideological compatibility.

The First Amendment does not prohibit rigorous, independent investigations nor does it preclude assigning blame where it belongs. If Miller and Sulzberger were part of a larger conspiracy to initiate hostilities against a defenseless nation, we need to know. The Iraq war is the greatest crime of the new century. We need to find out who is responsible and hold them accountable.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state, and can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com.

The New Told Lie: Syria in the Sights

Neocons and U.N. Draw a Bead on Syria
Kurt Nimmo

Another Day in the Empire

Friday October 21st 2005

Once again, we must assume the Syrians are dunderheads so murderous and impulsive as to be unable to control themselves, going right ahead and killing Rafiq Hariri, irrespective of the consequences. In fact, if we are to believe the United Nations—a disgusting lickspittle for neocon interests on several different occasions—the pernicious conspiracy to murder Hariri runs right up the Syrian totem pole of power to none other than the family of Bashar Assad, the Syrian president. According to the Independent, the politically motivated UN “report says senior Syrian and Lebanese security officials were directly involved in the killing of Hariri in February and planned it over many weeks. The missing names are of Asef Shawkat, President Bashar Assad’s brother-in-law who is Syria’s intelligence chief, and his brother, Maher Assad.”

Naturally, Bush wants a special UN session so he can rattle the bones of war. It’s of course no secret the neocons want to take out Assad and render Syria into a smaller version of Iraq—a smoldering ruin of misery and chaos—or short of that (the UN gets squeamish about such things and prefers inflicting misery from a distance) impose a medieval siege on the country as the UN and the United States teamed up to do more than a decade ago against the people of Iraq. Imposing sanctions and a “no-fly zone” over Syria will also provide U.S. pilots with the same opportunity they enjoyed in Iraq—to blithely fly around and shoot up Iraqis like fish in a barrel. All told, the Bush-Clinton-Bush sanctions were a smashing success, killing around a million hapless Iraqis. It was worth it, as the Iron Maiden, Madeline Albright, attested.

Few people doubt there is a treacherous dictatorship in Syria and the Assad family is capable of wholesale butchery (consider the elder Assad killing around 40,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982—and the well-documented fact the Brotherhood is a CIA penetrated organization). Even so, it is a stretch to believe the Syrians, especially the Assad family—having clung to power all these past decades—would be stupid enough to kill a high-profile Lebanese politician and expect to get away with it, especially when it should be obvious to a ten year old killing Hariri plays right into the hands of the United States and especially Israel.

It is common knowledge in Bushzarro world on the Potomac that Syria is “low-hanging fruit,” an easy target for neocon bullies determined to reduce Muslim society and culture to smoldering wreckage, a front and center plan for hoodlum Likudites for some time now. As Bill Van Auken writes, Hariri’s assassination is fishy:

The timing of the assassination, barely a week after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced their truce in Egypt, is noteworthy. It is quite possible that any limited concessions the Israeli regime may agree to make as part of the “peace process” with the Palestinians will be repaid by Washington giving the green light for Israeli provocations and military actions against Syria.

Moreover, the assassination and the impending sanctions (or direct military action) are manna from heaven for the likes of neocons such as David Wurmser, Cheney’s adviser on the Middle East. “Wurmser has long called for the United States and Israel to work together to roll back the Ba’ath-led government in Syria,” notes SourceWatch. “For the latter part of the 1990s, he wrote frequently to support a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to undermine then-President Hafez el-Assad in hopes of destroying Ba’athist rule and hastening the creation of a new order in the Levant to be dominated by ‘tribal, familial and clan unions under limited governments,” a long-held Israeli dream. It should also be noted that Wurmser, a rabid Zionist, would do all of us well if he were wasting away in federal prison (making sure not to drop the soap) for his role in passing classified information to Ahmad Chalabi and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—an act of treason once punished by firing squad, now apparently no big shakes, especially for Zionists who more or less are allowed to roam around, organizing “art student” spies and micromanaging nine eleven terrorists.

In fact, Wurmser co-authored (along with the weasel Douglas Feith and the Prince of Darkness Richard Perle) a report drafted for incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (the infamous A Clean Break: a New Strategy for Securing the Realm document). “It called for a repudiation of the ‘land for peace’ formula that had served as the basis for Middle East peace negotiations, in favor of a plan to ‘roll back’ regional adversaries. It advocated the overthrow of the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and recommended Israeli strikes against ‘Syrian targets in Lebanon’ and within Syria itself,” explains Van Auken. A couple years later, Wurmser “helped draft a document entitled ‘Ending Syria’s Occupation of Lebanon: the US Role?’ It called for a confrontation with the regime in Damascus, which it accused of developing ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ Among those signing the document were Feith and Perle, as well as Elliott Abrams, Bush’s chief advisor on the Middle East, who was recently appointed deputy national security advisor.”

Considering all of this—well documented and not hidden under a rock—and also Israel’s long and sordid history of using assassination (especially car bombings) as an instrument of state policy, you’d think the United Nations would have arrived at a different conclusion. Instead, we are expected to believe the Assad family is not only stupid but also unable to cover its own tracks and self-destructively begging to be bombed or stand by while their people starve to death under brutal sanctions, a favorite tactic of milquetoast bureaucrats at the United Nations. In fact, according to the Independent, Shawkat and Maher Assad were so stupid they “talked about killing Hariri in talks begun in September last year in Damascus,” conversations apparently so casual the United Nations had no problem tracking down alleged documentation.

Once again, we are expected to believe whatever our rulers tell us—even if it makes absolutely no sense and it is obvious only the neocons and Israelis stand to benefit from such carnage. Syria only stands to lose—and lose big time as the U.S. will eventually use military action against the Syrian people, as they did—predicated on similar lies—against the people of Iraq.

It’s about time more of us wake up and call the Bushites on these transparent crimes. But of course this will not happen because Americans generally do not care what their government does—apparently not even to their own Constitution and Bill of Rights—and most Americans are hard-pressed to even find Syria on a map, let alone understand the magnitude of the neocon war against Islam and the horror that portends: millions of people ultimately slaughtered, entire countries reduced to uninhabitable rubble, and poisonous depleted uranium and who knows what other deadly and noxious chemicals spread over large areas, killing and making people sick for generations to come.

Indeed, we are verging on Nazi-like crimes here. Only the magnitude is missing—but given enough time, the neocons will give Hitler and Stalin and run for the money.

Shutting Down Chavez, Shutting Down CITGO

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez has again charged the United States with a conspiracy to remove him from power. Chavez said, in an address to the solidarity group, 'Friends of a Democratic Venezuela' in Paris, and broadcast live in Venezuela Wednesday, "intelligence reports" had revealed evidence of a planned attempt against the nation.

www.pej.org

Shutting Down Chavez,
Shutting Down CITGO

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 21, 2005

Discounting the possibility of the success of a supposed "planned invasion" of Venezuela, Chavez said he felt compelled to issue a warning as to the consequences, saying:

"If it occurs to them [United States] to invade Venezuela to try to halt the process in Venezuela, that would start a 100-year war. We would defend against it with our teeth, with our nails."

But, Chavez has more than hands and teeth in his arsenal.

Venezuela currently supplies more than 1.5 million barrels of crude to the U.S. per day, or roughly fifteen percent of America's imports. Only Canada and Saudi Arabia supply more. But the president, who warned the Bush administration last March, following another intelligence bulletin, vital oil supplies would be cut-off entirely should he be killed, added a new wrinkle to the scope of his country's retaliatory power should something untoward befall either he, or Venezuela.

In addition to the significance of Venezuelan oil, Chavez reminded, CITGO, Venezuela's nationalized oil company, operates eight refineries and more than 14,000 gas stations within the U.S.

"We are sure that it will be very difficult for the United States to attack Venezuela, he said. "If the United States tried to attack Venezuela by a direct invasion, forget the oil."

In an allusion to televangelist, and one-time Republican presidential hopeful, Pat Robertson's now infamous call for his head, Chavez said:

"The barrel price of crude oil could hit $150 following a U.S. attack. That's why Pat Robertson, the spiritual adviser of Mr. Bush, is calling for my assassination - that would be much cheaper than an invasion."

Excoriating U.S. media propagandizing against he and the "people's revolution" he represents, President Chavez concluded, saying he wouldn't be surprised if the USA says Osama bin Laden is living in the Presidential Palace in Caracas.

The Bush administration denies there are now, or have been in the past, any plots against either Chavez, or Venezuela.



Chris Cook serves as a contribution editor to PEJ News. He also hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

Disaster: A Silver Lining for Kashmir

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Cautious optimism is being whispered in the wake of what's been deemed the worst natural disaster for the Near East region smashed nearly two weeks ago by a massive earthquake.

www.pej.org

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Disaster: A Silver Lining for Kashmir
C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 19, 2005

The Kashmir, a hotly contested confluence of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan has seen nuclear powers India and Pakistan nose to nose for years, neither swearing off the possibility of a "nuclear option" to end the hostilities. Already, the two young nations have fought three wars over control of the area, and terrorist activities conducted by both sides and Kashmiri independence factions is a constant in the decades-old conflict. Now, overwhelmed by the scope of relief efforts in the rugged, mountainous reaches where thousands have been left homeless and hungry, the two main protagonists are talking.

While champaign corks are not exactly popping over the prospect of an amicable resolution to India and Pakistan's long-standing emnity over Kashmir, the two parties are working out details to allow travel between their respective "lines of control" by relatives of the afflicted. The division of the territorities was largely manufactured by the British in the waning days of the Raj, creating the new nations of Pakistan and India and effectively seperating families and friends by the new border. In the early days of independence that followed the end of the Second World War, horrific ethnic cleansing bloodied the ground on both sides, setting the scene for the decades of war and mistrust leading to the current stand-off.

Pakistan's "President" Pervez Musharraf made the first move. Following a visit to the quake stricken capital city of Pakistani-controlled Muzaffarabad, Musharraf addressed India's leadership, saying:

"We will allow every Kashmiri to come across the Line of Control and assist in the reconstruction effort."

India responded immediately, if not definitively, saying:

"We welcome the offer. This is in line with India's advocacy of greater movement across the LOC (Line of Control) for relief work and closer people-to-people contacts."

India has sent relief flights into Pakistan and suspended it's "no-fly zone" rule for Pakistani helicopters. So far, fatalities from the October 8th quake are estimated to have been over 42,000, with a further 60,000 believed at risk of dying of exposure and hunger in its aftermath.

Powerful aftershocks have continued throughout the region, further complicating relief efforts.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News. He also hosts the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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No Further Delay: Bush Lieutenant Booked Today

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - One of the most influential members of George W. Bush's political apparatus submitted himself for fingerprints and pictures today at Houston's Harris County Sheriff's Department. Republican Leader of the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay stands accused of conspiracy and money-laundering.

www.pej.org

(Photo/Harris County Sheriff Department)


No Further Delay:
Bush Lieutenant Booked Today
C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 20, 2005

Delay's troubles began with allegations he funnelled corporate donations into Texas state elections, something prohibited under Texas law. The Texas Republicans carried that election, held prior to the presidential election campaign, and subsequently redrew voting districts to favour George W. Bush's presidential bid.

DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin told reporters the charges are politically motivated, accusing the Travis County District Attorney's office of bias against his client and charging District Attorney Ronnie Earle of headline seeking. Referring to Earle, DeGuerin told reporters:

"Now Ronnie Earle has the mugshot he wanted."

But, the defense didn't limit accusations of bias to the Travis County District Attorney's office; DeGuerin also demanded presiding Judge Bob Perkins be removed from the case. In a motion for a change of venue citing Perkin's past contributions to "DeLay opponents," DeGuerin presented records of 34 instances of the judge's past political donations, including to Bush '04 opponent, John Kerry, and MoveOn.org, a "liberal" advocacy organization.

District Attorney Earle denounced the defence's assertions, saying:

"The logic behind the defendant's motion to recuse Judge Perkins would mean that no criminal defendant could be tried in a court presided over by a judge who did not belong to the defendant's political party."

DeLay, nicknamed "The Hammer" for his reputation of ruthless political tactics employed against both Democrat opponents and dissident Republicans, is a long-time Bush associate and confidant.

DeLay's first court appearance is set for tomorrow in Austin, Texas.



Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News. He also hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

Stay informed. Subscribe and get the best of PEJ News by email. Free.

Anglo-American Axis Powers Charge Iran in Iraq Bombing Campaign

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Rolling the contentious issue of Iranian nuclear development into the mix, British P.M., Tony Blair has accused Tehran of involvement in the recently escalated rate of bombings throughout the south of Iraq. The Iranians deny their participation, instead claiming Blair and his American partner are simply practicing "psychological warfare" against them.

www.pej.org

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Anglo-American Axis Powers
Charge Iran in Iraq Bombing Campaign
C.L. Cook

PEJ News
October 16, 2005

At the crux of Blair's charge is, what he claims, a heightened level of sophistication in the bombings and, he says, evidence that the materiel used could only be coming from the Iranian military. Charges again denied in Tehran. One thing is certain though; attacks have been on the increase, and have been increasingly deadly.

But the bombings are not limited to Iraq.

Just yesterday, two bomb attacks in the Iranian city Ahvez killed four and injured more than 80 bystanders. The bombs, described as "homemade" and placed in garbage cans, were detonated a few minutes apart, and while Britain condemned the attack, they provided no clue as to why the Iranians would be blowing up their own people.

Iranian state media has openly blamed yesterday's blasts on Britain.

There is a strong suspicion in Iran, and throughout the Middle-East, British and American "black-ops," covert agents provocateurs have been, and continue to be, responsible for many of the puzzling terrorist attacks against primarily civilian and religious targets.

In a statement, Britain acknowledged and rejected Iranian suspicions, saying:

"There has been speculation in the past about alleged British involvement in Khuzestan... We reject these allegations. Any linkage between the British Government and these terrorist outrages is certainly without foundation."

Last month, two British SAS agents were captured in Iraq by "police." When their car was stopped, the two men opened fire, killing one officer. Their vehicle was later found to be full of weapons and bomb-making materiel. British forces later mounted a raid on the jail where the men where being held, freeing them and killing at least five Iraqis in the process.

For their part, the Iranian government, when asked about possible British involvement in the string of bombings in Iran's Khuzestan province said, through spokesperson, Hamid Reza:

"Unlike the British we are not going to express our views without the necessary investigations," adding: "The (U.N. Security) Council cannot be used as a Sword of Damocles against Iran, we cannot be threatened by referral."

Khuzestan province is the heart of Iran's oil industry.

Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News. He also hosts the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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"We Don't Need No Stinking Scientists"

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Science gets shut out of rainforest negotiations

Reed Noss, Paul Paquet and Faisal Moola

Special to the Sun
October 15, 2005

Environmental groups recently ran a full-page ad in the New York Times urging Victoria to save a vast swatch of the province's central coast wilderness nicknamed the Great Bear Rainforest.

All the B.C. government has to do, the ad claims, is rubber-stamp an agreement reached by environmentalists, logging companies and first nations after years of negotiations.

You would think the province would be scrambling to legislate an agreement made between such historic adversaries as environmentalists and logging companies. After all, the ad asks, "Who could be against protecting a rainforest when even logging companies are for it?"

For ecologists like ourselves, however, the more pertinent question is,
"What, exactly, is being protected?"

In 2001, the province appointed a panel of scientists working under the auspices of the Coast Information Team. For two years, these researchers sat with rolled sleeves and sharpened pencils to determine what areas needed to be protected to save the biological integrity of this global treasure -- which represents a quarter of the world's remaining temperate rainforests.

By 2003 the CIT had developed a set of recommendations to the negotiators, including the recommended level of protection necessary to meet a range of conservation goals: 40 to 70 per cent.

Just as important, they carefully defined areas of "high conservation" value, the most ecologically rich, old-growth forests, with the most productive salmon streams, supporting the greatest number of species, including many threatened and endangered plants and animals, like grizzly bears.

Those of us who worked on the CIT project were dismayed to learn that the current agreement proposes a mere 28 per cent of the rainforest be partially protected -- which includes the nine per cent of the region already protected by previous governments. Thus the negotiations have really only added protection to an additional 19 per cent of the rainforest -- a far cry from what the scientific panel proposed.

In fact, the deal leaves the vast majority of Canada's last remaining temperate rainforest open to development. According to a recent report by the Raincoast Conservation Society, the proposed agreement would leave 83 per cent of critical grizzly habitat open to logging. The David Suzuki Foundation's 2005 Status Report on Canada's Rainforests found the deal does
not protect 80 per cent of kermode bear habitat, 75 per cent of remaining old-growth forests, or 65 per cent of the most productive salmon streams.

Clearly, this is not good enough. And it's indicative of a problem facing conservation planners. Effective conservation is not just about how much is partially protected, it's about what is protected and where. A recent National Geographic article, for example, calls for an urgent review of global conservation strategies, claiming that protected areas will not prevent wide-scale extinctions in coming decades if they aren't created in the right places.

The central coast rainforest suffers from this exact problem. The proposed protected area may seem enormous, but it's not one big protected area -- it's a collection of politically negotiated areas that are poorly connected and too small to provide enough habitat for wide-ranging carnivores like wolves and grizzlies.

Indeed, a high percentage of patially protected areas in the region are "rock and ice," habitats of little value to logging companies. Conversely, the most productive, species-rich, valley-bottom, old-growth forests, where the biggest and most valuable trees are found, have been left unprotected and thus remain vulnerable to logging, mining or other development.

The current deal also ignores a CIT recommendation to shift from clearcutting to ecologically responsible forestry called "ecosystem-based management." EBM is still there, but in name only.

Environmental and first nations groups have worked hard to get the best deal they could for the region and they deserve credit for hanging in there year after year. But the deal simply isn't good enough to provide even the slimmest chance of maintaining the biological integrity of one of the most ecologically valuable areas on the planet.

Premier Gordon Campbell should sign the agreement as promised, but he should do so with the full knowledge that it is just the beginning of conservation planning in this rainforest, not the end.

Reed Noss is professor of conservation biology at the University of Central Florida; Paul Paquet is professor of environmental design at the University of Calgary; Faisal Moola is a PhD candidate in biology at Dalhousie University.

© The Vancouver Sun 2005

"We'll All Be Dead" - Finding Love in a Nihilistic Time

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - When asked what he thought his legacy might be, George W. Bush awkwardly replied: "The future...well...we'll all be dead." Or, so says Bush biographer, Bob Woodward. It's true. All our toil, yours and mine, will come to an end. We will, like the billions before us, come to dust; our efforts, for good or ill, largely forgotten and, in the final analysis, deemed to have made as much impact on the greater world as the proverbial pebble's wake in a pond. So, why bother? www.pej.org "We'll All Be Dead" Finding Love in a Nihilistic Time C. L. Cook PEJ News.org October 15, 2005 George's unintentional insight cuts to the core of the dilemma "human earth" now faces. We homo sapiens have evolved to the point where our continuance depends on the diminishment of our home. With every purchase we make, the planet is a little less able to survive in the form we know it. And, while we may indeed be dead down the road, the legacy we leave will, necessarily, be carried by those that follow. Love Is All You Need! It is miraculous, given the state of affairs on our sad and beautiful orb, humans yet get together and love each other. Through the ultimate expression of optimism, the human heart still yearns for the fulfilment only available to those willing to open their hearts. But, there you go: Life is irrepressible. Today, talking to a dear friend, we mutually mourned the world and its apparent destiny. Stalwarts both, we confessed of suicidal thoughts. Whether for that "great world's" sad estate, or the more trivial concerns that vex, haunting us individually, we spoke of denying irrepressible existence and having an end to it. As is our Prerogative. Hope is, as a friend once said, a razor sharp implement whose cut can both cure and kill. Today, the sun is breaking the cloud, and an improbable October day is hitting the 80 Fahrenheit mark. Moving into the future's murk we will remember the meaning of humanity. With a smile, a friend admitted to a blossoming love affair. Life Is irrepressible! Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. He also serves as a contributing editor to PEJ Newsw. You can check out the GR Blog here. Stay informed. Subscribe and get the best of PEJ News by email. Free.

Reflecting Empire

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The routine assault and looting of Iraqi civilians caught up in searches and random detentions in Iraq are not anomalous as we are told solemnly by imperial apologists but the export of racist home-grown brutality endemic in our law enforcement. Abu Ghraib is the return of this repressed, this violent underbelly of America's "liberal" state.



The Public Torture of Robert Davis

LILA RAJIVA
October 11, 2005

Less than two weeks ago, on September 29, US District Judge, Judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered the government to release fresh evidence 87 photos and 4 video tapes of detainee torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib, which the ACLU had sought in a lawsuit brought against General Myers in 2003.

But for anyone looking for confirmation that brutality and abuse is not a war-time aberration but a home-grown reality in American law enforcement., no need to wait. An Associated Press Television News tape from New Orleans provides a sneak preview.

64 year old Robert Davis was hit at least 4 times in the head last Saturday night as he stood outside a New Orleans bar near Bourbon Street. As he seemed to resist, flailing at his attackers, 4 officers 3 white and 1 light skinned dragged him to the ground and then kneed and punched him twice, leaving him with blood flowing from his arm into the gutter. Another white officer, Stuart Smith, an 8 yr veteran of the department, then ordered the APTN producer, Rich Matthews, and the cameraman to stop shooting. When Matthews held up his press credentials, the officer grabbed him, pushed him backward over the car, and punched him in the stomach while letting loose a stream of profane invective. A mug shot shows Davis, who was booked for public intoxication and resisting arrest, with his right eye swollen shut, an abrasion on the left side of the neck, and a cut on his right temple.

None of the officers were newbies and though it was claimed that they were severely stressed by conditions in New Orleans, the truth is the department has had more than ten years of repeated charges of racism, brutality and corruption. During the hurricane, police were apparently involved in looting as well apparently making off with nearly 200 cars from a dealership. Davis is the latest proof that drinking while black or even just watching others drink - is an offense punishable by severe beating and even death in America.

Remember the dreadful torture in August 1997 of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant? Louima was simply unlucky enough to be standing outside the Rendez Vous Club in Flatbrush, Brooklyn, NY, when the police came to break up a fight. He was repeatedly beaten and tortured in the anus with a plunger. Six officers were involved and many others witnessed the barbarity but not one of them or the many witnesses intervened or decried it. Louima was delivered to emergency care at Coney Island Hospital where the officers fabricated a flimsy cover story that blamed his intestinal injuries on consensual homosexual sex. When Magali Laurent, a nurse at the hospital, blew the whistle, there was an uproar of outrage. This was supposed to be business as usual. That,s the same business that showed up on our newspapers last year when the imperial military and the court press proclaimed itself shocked, shocked at the sexual torture of Iraq civilians in prison.

Only two years ago, in November 2003, another black man, 41 year old Nathaniel West who had passed out drunk outside a fast food restaurant in Cincinnati, was beaten to death by 5 white and 1 black policemen wielding metal night-sticks. Tapes showed that the unarmed West resisted. But who wouldn,t if they were being clubbed in the head by six men? Jones was beaten at least a dozen times for several minutes even after he had fallen to the ground and been subdued. Only when he ceased breathing did the assault stop. He died minutes after he was taken to emergency care.

The routine assault and looting of Iraqi civilians caught up in searches and random detentions in Iraq are not anomalous as we are told solemnly by imperial apologists but the export of racist home-grown brutality endemic in our law enforcement. Abu Ghraib is the return of this repressed, this violent underbelly of America's "liberal" state.

Lila Rajiva is a free-lance journalist and author of "The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American media," (Monthly Review Press). She can be reached at: lrajiva@hotmail.com

Beaten New Orleans Man Revisits Scene
By RACHEL LA CORTE,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 11, 5:58 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Robert Davis stood at the corner of Bourbon and Conti streets in the French Quarter and stared in disbelief at the brown stain on the sidewalk.


"Is that my blood? It must be," said the 64-year-old retired elementary schoolteacher, who was arrested and repeatedly punched by police over the weekend. "I didn't know I was bleeding that bad."

The confrontation, captured on videotape and broadcast across the country, has put another unwanted spotlight on the beleaguered, exhausted police force in this storm-struck city.

Three officers pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the incident and the U.S. Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation.

Davis disputed contentions by police that he had been drinking.

"I haven't had a drink in 25 years," Davis said Monday. "I didn't do anything. I was going to get a pack of cigarettes and taking my evening constitutional."

The two city police officers accused in the beating, and a third accused of grabbing and shoving an Associated Press Television News producer who helped capture the encounter on tape, pleaded not guilty to battery charges and were released Monday.

After a hearing, at which trial was set for Jan. 11, officers Lance Schilling, Robert Evangelist and S.M. Smith were released on bond. They left without commenting. They were suspended without pay Sunday.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley said any misconduct found in an investigation would be dealt with swiftly. He noted the video showed "a portion of that incident."

"The actions that were observed on this video are certainly unacceptable by this department," Riley said.

Davis is black; the three city police officers seen on the tape are white. But Davis and police officials have said they don't believe race was a factor.

Two other officials in the video appeared to be federal officers, according to police. Numerous agencies have sent officers to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and police spokesman Marlon Defillo said it would be up to their commanders to decide if they would face charges.

Davis had stitches under his swollen left eye, a bandage around a finger and complained of aches in his left shoulder and soreness in his back. His lawyer said he suffered fractures to his cheek and eye socket.

The confrontation came as the New Orleans Police Department — long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption — struggles with the aftermath of Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.

Davis said the confrontation began after he had approached a mounted police officer Saturday to ask about curfews in the city when another officer interrupted.

"This other guy interfered and I said he shouldn't," Davis said. "I started to cross the street and — bam — I got it. ... All I know is this guy attacked me and said, 'I will kick your ass,' and they proceeded to do it."

The APTN tape shows an officer hitting Davis at least four times in the head. Davis appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Davis' lawyer, Joseph Bruno, said his client did not resist police.

Another officer also kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was pushed to the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter. The officers accused of striking Davis were identified as Schilling and Evangelist.

During the arrest, another officer, identified as Smith, ordered an APTN producer and cameraman to stop recording. When producer Rich Matthews held up his credentials, the officer grabbed him, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.

Davis had returned to New Orleans over the weekend from Atlanta to inspect six properties owned by members of his family, intending to clean them up or figure out how to rebuild them. He's no longer sure he'll return permanently to the city he's called home for 28 years.

"That's up in the air. The chaos that's here — I don't know," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Rachel LaCorte contributed to this report.

Striking B.C. Teachers Found 'In Contempt'

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Striking B.C. teachers vowed to continue their "wildcat" strike Tuesday, despite a B.C. Supreme Court decision ruling the walk-out illegal and holding the B.C. Teachers Federation in contempt of court.

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Striking B.C. Teachers Found 'In Contempt'
C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 11, 2005


Citing "anarchy" and the end of society as we know it, B.C. Justice Nancy Brown Sunday ruled in favour of a B.C. Public School Employers Association application to the court to rule the teacher's walkout illegal under the terms of a B.C. Labour Relations Board finding.

"No citizen or group of citizens may choose which orders they may obey," said Justice Brown. The Justice continued, expressing concern for the foundation of the law and western society, saying if the teacher strike was allowed to go unchallenged, "anarchy cannot be far behind."

BCTF predisent, Jinny Sims is so far unbowed by the bench order, saying: "The actions we're taking do not signal any disrespect for the law. Rather, we are engaging in a political protest against the provincial government and its unjust legislation." Sims says she's tried to set up a meeting with Labour Minister, Mike De Jong to continue serious talks, but promises without resolution of issues on the table, the strike will continue.

"It is going to take a resolution to our three issues for the schools to be open on Tuesday," Sims says.

Justice Brown has ordered BCTF representatives appear in court Thursday when she will decide penalties. This could mean fines levied against the union, and possibly jail time for its executive members.

Friday's walkout came following provincial legislation rammed through the legislature over the protestations of the opposition New Democrats. The NDP staged an all-night filibuster against enactment of the Bill that freezes teacher's wages until mid-2006.

The BCTF is seeking smaller class sizes, wage increases, and recognition of their right to collective bargaining.

B.C. teachers have suffered imposed contracts four times since 1993. The Liberal government passed legislation in 2001 making education an essential service and banning strikes.

The union represents approximately 42,000 members. Friday's walkout was endorsed by more than 90% of the membership.

The dispute effects about 600,000 students in B.C. and their families.

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Gorilla Radio for Monday, October 10, 2005

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PEJ News - C. L. Cook - This week on GR: Chris Genovali of the Raincoast Conservation Society and taking the bears out of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Angelika Hanko and a European perspective on British Columbia wilderness heritage.

Janine Bandcroft bringing us up to speed with all that's good to do in and around Victoria this week.


Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca He also serves as a contributing editor at the progressive web news site: http://www.pej.org.

You can check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com

Gorilla Radio for Monday, October 10th, 2005
C.L. Cook
PEJ News


Some of British Columbia’s highest profile Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGO’s) have spent thousands of hours in tripartite negotiations with the provincial government and major timber interests here in efforts to create protected zones within the Great Bear Rainforest. Last week, Premier Gordon Campbell refused to endorse the deal, effectively nullifying the initiative.

But, that may not be as bad a development for environmentalists as it at first appears.

Chris Genovali is Executive Director for the Raincoast Conservation Society, a long-time environmental campaigner, and founding member of both the Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition, and the Taiga Rescue Network. His past work with the Western Canada Wilderness Committee helped establish the Sooke Hills Wilderness Park and earned him Monday Magazine’s “Person who made a Difference Award” in 1998.

A recent study by Raincoast is highly critical of the unendorsed deal for its failure to adequately protect species’ habitat in the Great Bear. Chris Genovali and taking the bear out of the Great Bear Rainforest in the first half.

And; we who daily live amidst the awesome natural beauty of B.C. can be forgiven for sometimes taking that splendour for granted, but for millions around the world who have studied the vast and unique biological and cultural diversity encompassing our neighbourhood, British Columbia represents a rare opportunity to experience a natural world long extinct in their home countries.

Angelika Hanko is a German schoolteacher who’s connection to Canada’s west coast began with a visit to her school by Bella Coola Nuxalk Chief Qwatsinas. On that occasion, Angelika and her students were stunned to learn of First Nation’s struggles to stand up to Big Timber and their ally, the B.C. provincial government.

Angelika Hanko in the second half.

And, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with all that’s good to do in and around Victoria this week. But first, Chris Genovali and seeing a forest for the bears.



G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the mainstream media.

Some past guests include: M. Junaid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, David Barsamian, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, Vincent Bugliosi, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Michel Chossudovsky, Diane Christian, Juan Cole, David Cromwell, Jon Elmer, Reese Erlich, Jim Fetzer, Laura Flanders, Chris Floyd, Susan George, Stan Goff, Robert Greenwald, Denis Halliday, Chris Hedges, Sander Hicks, Julia Butterfly Hill, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Diana Johnstone, Kathy Kelly, Naomi Klein, Anthony Lappe, Frances Moore Lappe, Dave Lindorff, Jim Lobe, Jennifer Loewenstein, Wayne Madsen, Stephen Marshall, Linda McQuaig, George Monbiot, Loretta Napoleoni, John Nichols, Kurt Nimmo, Greg Palast, Michael Parenti, William Rivers Pitt, Sheldon Rampton, Paul Craig Roberts, Paul de Rooij, John Ross, Danny Schechter, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, Starhawk, Grant Wakefield, Paul Watson, Bernard Weiner, Mickey Z., Dave Zirin, and many others.

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Germany's "Margaret Thatcher" to be Named Chancellor

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Germany selected it's first woman Chancellor today following weeks of coalition government deal-making and sometime bitter denunciations between Germany's two largest parties. The selection of conservative, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader, Angela Merkel is seen as a move away from outgoing Chancellor Gehardt Shroeder's attempts to revitalize Germany's economy and social safety net.

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Germany's "Margaret Thatcher"
to be Named Chancellor

C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 10, 2005

Though yet to be officially announced, it seems Germany's "Chancellor Wars" have reached a cease-fire today with Germany's ruling Social Democrats' declaration of an agreement to share power with the Christian Democratic Union and the naming of CDU leader, Angela Merkel as Chancellor. Gehardt Shroeder left doubt he will remain a part of the new coalition government, saying: "I have a different plan for my life."

Merkel, as well as becoming the first woman to hold the post, will be the first German born in the former communist to do so. The former physicist says: "We have set our aim to create a coalition that stands for new policies," adding, "We want to work together for the people of this country."

Part of that work is believed to be a strengthening of relations with the United States of America, damaged over the Iraq war and occupation. Though refusing to go into foreign policy specifics, Merkel cited Iraq, saying "That doesn't mean we [Germany and the U.S.]have to agree on every issue, but there needs to be a good trustful relationship."

Germany has been in political flux since September's general election that failed to grant a majority mandate to either of the country's two largest political parties.

At a press conference today, Merkel said: "We have achieved something big," Through lengthy negotiations, in addition to the chancellery, her party has secured six ministries, including justice, labour and social affairs, and the foreign office. This could be bad news for the 11+% of unemployed Germans who, after seeing a reduction in social benefits under Shroeder, are expecting worse to come from the conservative Merkel's government.

Among the CDU's ambitions for economic reform is a flat-tax, and a greater embracing of international trade.

Commenting on her new responsibilities, Merkel said: "This new start and new coalition offers us new opportunities. We are obligated to achieve success. We must succeed."

Angela Merkel assumed the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union in 2000.

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Santiago Under the Volcano

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - For the fortunate, there are moments in life that utterly destroy the comfortable precepts of reality we cling to, revealing the naked injustice of life on this planet and laying bare one's heart and soul to the immense tragedy that is the existence many of our fellow humans endure. My moment of aweful clarity came as I watched two dogs locked in comical coitus, unable to extricate themselves from their passion.

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Santiago Under the Volcano
C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 9, 2005

Last week, Hurricane Stan made landfall in Central America. Not a large hurricane by recent standards, Stan arrived in Guatemala as a measly Category 1, nothing like the Cat. 4 behemoth Katrina, but the devastating effects on life, limb and property in Guatemala is by magnitudes larger than even the terrible destruction wrought by that monster.

Deep in the interior, far from the coast, entire villages have been erased, buried by massive mudslides triggered by Stan's heavy rains. Homes that survived the wind and rain, and the people living in them, had no chance when the volcano shrugged sending down its rocks and mud. Authorities in the small nation are today reporting more than 1400 villagers, Mayan peasants, killed in just one of the many stricken towns. The storm has displaced as many as 100,000 throughout the country.

Santiago Atitlan sits on the shore of Lake Atitlan, one of the planet's most beautiful locations. The deep, blue lake is actually a volcano crater, surrounded by several live volcanoes. Tourists have endured long "Segundo" bus journeys through Guatemala's western mountains to visit the highland lake for decades.

The indigenous Maya live there today much as they have for centuries. Though coffee has replaced corn as the mainstay crop, peasants still eke a hard-scrabbled living from milpas (small gardens), and farms, while the women and children spend most of their time in their small villages weaving intricately designed, beautifully coloured fabrics for sale to tourists in the biggest town on the lake, Panajachel (Gringotanango in local parlance).

Panajachel is a curious place, populated by a cosmopolitan mix of Sixties era hippies, European ex-patriots, and a surprisingly vibrant Hare Krishna community. The streets are clean and contain dozens of restaurants and boutiques, businesses in most cases built by the northern immigrants. It was, in late 1986, a prosperous, if nervous place. (During those years, a particularly ruthless administration, at the bequest of the United States, was conducting a massive murder and disappearing campaign against the majority Maya, in the name of fighting communism. Military check points and soldiers, armed and equipped with the latest American gear, were a common and menacing sight throughout Guatemala, but it was in the western highlands along Mexico's border, where a small resistance operated, that the atmosphere was most tense). Tourists, wanting to get a taste of the "real" life of the Mayan peasants, would take day trips from tony Panajachel across the impossibly blue Lake, to the little villages that provided the town's food, goods, and labour.

And so it was your reporter, a largely clueless kid at the time, chanced to shore up in the village of Santiago. 'Santiago Under the Volcano,' as Brian Eno once sang, There among the crudely constructed shacks and corrugated shelters, clinging improbably to the unpromising earth, the diminutive Maya went about the difficult business of survival on the fringes of a society seemingly intent on their destruction. We white travellers, towered over them, wandering through their home asking for food and drink.

Sitting on a miserable patio, drinking beer and eating tough chicken sandwiches, we represented a world these people could barely conceive; a world of leisure, where one just snaps a finger to receive whatever desired; no toiling in the fields, climbing steep slopes to tend meagre corn fields; no endless hours straining eyes and fingers over a loom for the pittance it promises; no fear of soldiers in the night, spiriting away fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons to be never again seen. We contented sat watching and being watched, a surreal illustration of social dissonance; we whose expectations and life experience was as entirely alien to them as theirs was to our own.

An ancient woman approached. She held a small basket, filled with little clay whistles, formed to resemble the Quetzal, the rarely seen long-tailed bird figuring so large in Mayan myth and magic. While the dogs, comically inextricably entwined struggled, we laughed and drank. The old woman neither laughed, nor drank, but stood dignified holding forth her little basket of birds. And there, in the little town of Santiago, while the dogs fucked my heart cracked open. Raw to their despair, unguarded against the hopeless future, naked to the pain of life and the misery it exacts, I took from the basket the least of her treasures, a circular clay talisman, hollowed and adorned with little scratched rings around the edges.

Adios Santiago, under the volcano.

Chris Cook is Senior Editor for PEJ News. He also host the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.

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Down in the Bush Bunker

Torture's Final Stand

Bunker Days with George
By MIKE WHITNEY


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CounterPunch.org
Weekend Edition
October 8 / 9, 2005

Bush's speech to the National Endowment for Democracy was a long and tedious journey through the shadowy world of terrorism. It was loaded with the same wearisome phantoms and dreary evil-doers that have appeared in every Bush speech since September 2001. Bush is beginning to sound like the three wheeled ox-cart trundling down the road emitting the same shrill screech with every rotation. The man needs some new material.

His dismal performance on Thursday further demonstrated his inability to grasp reality or to deal with the mess he's created. He dredged up the lackluster imagery of 9-11 to cobble together a 40 minute monologue that excluded every topic of national interest except terrorism. Even his audience, which was chock-full of flag-waving jingoes and "democracy-spreading" zealots, appeared dumbstruck.

"Recently our country observed the fourth anniversary of a great evil, and looked back on a great turning point in our history," Bush said. "We will confront this mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire, or rest, until the war on terror is won."

9-11; 9-11; 9-11, ad infinitum ...

Bush's penchant for repetition would leave Joseph Geobbels wincing. It's simply impossible to reiterate the same mantra for 4 years without producing a jaw-dropping silence among one's audience. That's especially true given the latest polls that show that only 7% of Americans think that terrorism is the most important topic on the national docket. For Bush, however, terrorism is the last flimsy bit of straw that holds his presidency together.

"Our nation stood guard on tense borders; we spoke for the rights of dissidents and the hopes of exile; we aided the rise of new democracies on the ruins of tyranny," Bush boomed ... "In this new century, freedom is once again assaulted by enemies determined to roll back generations of democratic progress."

Bush's delusional ravings are increasingly reminiscent of his German forebears in the waning "bunker-days" of the Reich.

Is there someone in the crowd who hasn't heard of Bush's threat to veto a Defense Dept spending bill to preserve his inalienable right to torture prisoners? And yet, even while the bombs are falling on far off Tal Afar, or thousands of America's poor and huddled masses have been shunted off to relocation centers, or hundreds of skeletal prisoners in Guantanamo waste away under Bush's approving glare; the imposter-in-chief still rattles on about "freedom and democracy".

It's extraordinary.

Bush's soliloquy contained all the shrill invective and empty-headed rhetoric we've heard a thousand times before; the same bedraggled metaphors the same fusty platitudes, the same scripted delivery.

"While the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane. Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism ... .This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom."

Bush has joined fellow-travelers Hitchens, Friedman, and Blair in pushing the errant theory that terrorism arises from an "evil ideology". The assumption has been discredited by experts like Robert Pape, who have proved beyond a doubt that more than 90% of all terrorist attacks are a response to occupation not ideology. They hate our soldiers garrisoned in their countries not "our freedoms".

"Figures show that Al Qaida today is less a product of Islamic fundamentalism than of a simple strategic goal: to compel the US and Western allies to withdraw combat forces from the Arabian Peninsula and other Muslim counties." (Robert Pape; NY Times 7-9-05)

Still, we can't expect Bush or his dissembling cadres to abandon their last frail shred of legitimacy.

No way.

If Bush was serious about "evil ideologies" he'd direct his attention to the neocon dogma that has already killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, with millions more entering the imperial crosshairs every day.

Who are the real terrorists?

"We know the vision of the radicals because they've openly stated it," Bush averred. "The militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country ... ..The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror."

Blah, blah, blah. There's nothing here but pure, unalloyed fear-mongering; 5 years of blather neatly wrapped in one fatuous paragraph.

What a pathetic creature Bush is; a tattered coat-on-a-stick waving his finger in the air in false bravado with head bobbing like it's on a spring. What a poseur, a flimsy, cardboard cut-out of a man, slapped on a TV screen in a blue suit, or with sleeves rolled up for a Crawford photo-op. If you could get close enough you could pass your hand through this pasty-gray hologram; this vacuous political light-show that appears like an apparition and then vanishes into thin air; its 100% fakery from stem to stern.

How apropos that Bush would proffer his terror-fantasies to the NED, that amalgam of global warriors who are under contract to spread the neoliberal message to the four corners of the earth; the modern-day Trostkyites who siphon money from the public till to topple regimes and bring in the corporate parasites from Halliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater. How convenient to have the forces of empire assembled under one blood-stained banner to reaffirm their lifelong commitment to pilfering the world's oil and grinding the great mass of humanity into endless, crushing poverty.

Bush's terror-speech will do nothing to boost his popularity. The latest polls all show Bush and Co. headed for the bottom of the political fish-tank. Don't expect a change in tactics though, Bush will ride bin Laden's coattails to the bitter end. Terrorism is the grand deception; the "Big Lie" that animates the war machine and breathes life into the crusade of wanton destruction.

"The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century ... .. It's like the ideology of communism ... and explains their cold-blooded contempt for human life.

Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy is dismissive of free peoples, claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and decadent ... .. Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation, decline, and collapse. Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future".

Yup; 4 years later and they still "hate our freedoms". They're not seeking relief from the American soldier who has a boot on their neck, or who shoots them at check-points, or who humiliates them in their own home in front of their children, or who tortures them in Saddam's prisons, or who bombs their wedding parties, or who poisons their land, or who steals their resources, or who savagely kills over 100,000 of their brothers and sisters.

Nope; it's "our freedoms" they hate.

The people who tuned in to Bush's speech thinking they'd hear something different, some willingness to change direction and put the ship-of-state aright, must have been sorely disappointed. The Bush loyalists are radicals to the core, unable to accept responsibility for their actions and incapable of reason. The speech was the culmination of 5 years of unrelenting deception and demagoguery. Nothing has changed. It's futile to hope that fanaticism can be tempered or mitigated. It's either rooted out or it spreads.



Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com

Bush's Supreme Folly

Courting Disaster: Bush's Supreme Folly

Empire Burlesque - Chris Floyd - Last week, George W. Bush filled the final vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court – and right on cue, all the knee-jerk Bush-bashers were up in arms, sputtering the usual objections: Unqualified crony! Right-wing apparatchik! Fawning, groveling Bush Family factotum! Wheel-greasing goon in high-priced threads!

www.chris-floyd.com



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Supreme Court Justice Roberts

Moot Court: Harriet,
Jughead and Judicial Jokery
Chris Floyd

Empire Burlesque
Friday, 07 October 2005


This is an expanded version of the column published in the Oct. 7 edition of The Moscow Times. For annotations and sources, see the Times version here.

Poor little dissident lambkins. They must be the only people left in the United States who still take the country's governance seriously. For it's obvious that the nation's political elite – whatever party label they happen to wear – do not. No ruling class that was actually serious about governing would ever countenance the pair of jokers whom Bush has foisted on what is supposed to be the ultimate guarantor of law in the land. Yet the first bad joke sailed through with bipartisan support and the second is bound to follow. Clearly this is an Establishment in the throes of nervous breakdown, collapsing in a fit of hysteria-induced giggles while a pack of ruthless thugs loot the store and burn down the house.

For its sheer brazen mockery of the judicial system, Bush's nomination of his personal lawyer Harriet Miers to the high court outdoes the installation of hard-right knee-capper John "Jughead" Roberts as Chief Justice. Jughead spent most of his early career trying to screw the poor and the dark-skinned out of whatever meagre rights and protections they had won after hundreds of years of slavery, exclusion and savage repression. He really made his bones, however, with his stalwart service in the Busha Nostra's shutdown of the Florida recount in 2000. For this, Jug was elevated to the federal appeals court, where – while he was negotiating for the Supreme slot – he upheld Bush's imperial right to "disappear" anyone on earth into his own rigged system of military tribunals.

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Nominated Bush Personal Council, Miers



Miers, who has zero judicial experience, is cut from the same cloth. Bush first hired Miers to dig into his own past and bury the skeletons she found there as he limbered up for his presidential run in the 1990s, AP reports. Miers delivered the goods, brokering a convoluted $23 million payoff to former Texas lieutenant governor Ben Barnes and his business partner. Barnes said he'd used political pull to get young war-coward Georgie into the National Guard back in the Vietnam day, the Washington Post reports. With payoff in hand, the whistleblower's memory suddenly became all fuzzy. Miers was also instrumental in wangling Bush out of a jury duty assignment: the standard jury questionnaire would have revealed the drunk driving conviction that Bush had hidden for more than 20 years, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. (Yes, Bush is the first convicted criminal ever elected – or in this case, selected – as president.)

Miers – an ex-Catholic turned hardcore Protestant evangelical – has broader experience, of course. She was the managing partner of a high-powered Texas law firm that, under her gentle Christian guidance, paid out more than $30 million in two separate cases of helping corporate clients defraud their investors, The Huffington Post reports. At the firm, Miers also walked in Our Saviour's footsteps by specializing in union-busting and gutting worker safety protections. As the firm's prospectus proudly noted: "We defend [safety and injury] claims of any type, including multiple death cases." If you accidentally fed a few of your coolies into the company wood-chipper, no worries: Holy Harriet and her crew would have your back.

After defrauding investors and backing corporate killers, Miers moved to the White House, where, as the Los Angeles Times reports, she became Bush's chief gatekeeper for his most important briefings, including the August 6, 2001 number entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." – you know, the explicit, hair-raising report that somehow lulled the entire Bush team into a warm, comfy sleep until September 11. According to Republican Party chairman Ken Mehlman, Miers then became "heavily involved in the War on Terror" that followed those fortuitous attacks. ("Through my tears, I see opportunity," as Bush declared repeatedly in those palmy days of 90 percent approval ratings).

This week Mehlman has been on the horn to Bush's hard-right "base" (although we prefer the more eloquent Arabic term for this loyal band: "al Qaeda"), assuring them that Miers "will not interfere with the administration's management of the War on Terrorism," The Hill reports. He said Miers believes that neither the courts nor Congress should "micromanage" the Terror War, i.e., put fetters on the unrestrained powers of the Commander-in-Chief to kill, incarcerate and torture whom he sees fit. This is particularly important now, as the revelations of blood-soaked atrocity in Bush's prisons have grown so mountainous and foul that even the rubber-stamps in the Senate were forced this week to approve a cosmetic and meaningless measure to set guidelines for interrogating captives. (The bill leaves a gaping black hole for unregulated CIA interrogations, however, and will in any case be killed or watered down to even thinner gruel by the more zealous Bushist cadres in the House.)

In fact, as White House counsel, Miers "provided the president with guidance on the legal parameters" for the Terror War, Mehlman told the faithful. In other words, Miers helped draw up the "justifications" for torture, rendition and aggressive war which she will now be ruling upon at the Supreme Court. Oh, there'll be a hot time in the old gulag when Harriet joins Jughead on the bench!

But who cares? Most of the wiggly, giggly Democratic "opposition" – which sent Jughead over the top with a big bipartisan cushion – is already rolling over and playing dead for Miers; in fact, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid actually recommended that Bush appoint this torture-enabling, worker-whipping political fixer to the nation's highest court. The whole American leadership class has given up democratic government for the brutal absurdities of junta rule: cronyism, conquest, corruption and moral collapse.

Annotations

New Supreme Court nominee's
ties to Bush's National Guard scandal
Philadelphia Daily News, Oct. 3, 2005

Miers-Led Law Firm Repeatedly Forced
to Pay Damages for Defrauding Investors
The Huffington Post, Oct. 3, 2005

Texas Speaker Reportedly Helped Bush
Get Into Guard
Washington Post, Sept. 21, 1999

Harriet Miers, Pro and Anti
WorldViews, Oct. 3, 2005

Miers Briefed Bush on Famous Bin Laden
Memo
Editor & Publisher, Oct. 4, 2005

Harriet Miers "Worships the President
WorldViews, Oct. 3, 2005

Miers Backs Wide Executive Role;
Helped Develop Patriot Act
Boston Globe, Oct. 5, 2005

Harriet Miers Headed Law Firm
Engaged in Union Busting
Confined Space, Oct. 3, 2005

Soothing the Seething Right Wing
The Hill, Oct. 4, 2005

Threading the Needle: Republican
Talking Points on Miers
National Journal Hotline, Oct. 3, 2005

The President's Pit Bull
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 4, 2005

In Mid-Career, A Turn to Faith to
Fill a Void
New York Times, Oct. 4, 2005

The Unification of Church and State
Molly Ivins/Creators Syndicate, Oct. 4, 2005

High Court Nominee Has Never
Been a Judge
Associated Press, Oct. 3, 2005

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Planet Disaster

Planet Disaster: Your Daily Cataclysm Chronicle

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, and war: Just another day on Planet Disaster!

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Planet Disaster:
Your Daily Cataclysm Chronicle
C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 8, 2005

Killer Quake Hits Pakistan

World-wide news is reporting today thousands dead following a massive earthquake in the Near East. The 7.6 Richter Scale temblor struck early this morning local time near the confluence of Pakistan, Aghanistan and India. Hundreds of children were reported killed in Pakistan when their school was buried in a mudslide triggered by the quake. The region has been experiencing heavy rainfall for weeks.

Northern Pakistan was most seriously effected, with government sources there saying the earthquake is the worst seen in living memory. Witness, Mansehra village shopkeeper, Haji Fazal Ilahi describes the disaster that took the lives of his wife, two daughters and his brother:

"I could see rocks and homes tumbling down the mountains," said Ilahi, who was driving to his village of Garlat when the quake struck. "When I reached my village, there was nothing left of my home."


Heavy Rains Triggers Volcano Mudslide

Hurricane Stan is lashing Central America, bringing with it heavy rains. The worst hit was the small town of Santiago Attitlan, located in central Guatamala. Santiago, sitting on the world renown tourist mecca, Lake Attitlan was buried in mud sent down the side of one of the three volcanoes ringing the lake, burying an undetermined number of villagers. So far, more than 200 bodies have been recovered. Another 300 in Guatamala have perished in storm.

Terror Bombings in Bali

Indonesian authorities, after initially blaming members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group believed behind a nightclub bombing on the island of Bali in 2002, are now saying a new group may be responsible for this week's attack against another nightspot. Twenty-three patrons and staff were killed in the bombings in Kuta Beach, the same site of the previous blast that killed more than two humdred, mostly Australian tourists.

American Fatalities in Afghanistan

Today, the U.S. military counted it's 200th military death in Afghanistan. A soldier was killed when he trod on a landmine during a patrol. Authorities there say they are unsure whether the landmine was freshly planted, or is one of thousands remaining throughout the decades-long, war torn country. This has been the deadliest year for American soldiers in Afghanistan, which has seen a dramatic upsurge in resistance attacks against the multi-national occupation. NATO is currently preparing to expand its role there.


Gotham Commuters Warily Board the Underground

After seeing the New York City subway system all but shut down after warnings of a "credible" terror attack similar to that that struck London in July, commuters are again taking to the rails. The warnings were publicized this week, triggering a massive security operation that saw hundreds of heavily armed police converge on the city's mass transit system. No evidence of a terrorist attack were produced, though police have made a number of arrests. The warnings were issued by New York City mayor, Michael Bloomsberg hours before U.S. President George W. Bush was to deliver an address to the nation defending the ongoing "War on Terror." The alleged plot was revealed by Iraqi prisoners after interrogation.

Officials Warn Against Global Flu Pandemic

The U.S. president has slated meetings with health officials and has issued warnings to the population of a possible outbreak of "Bird Flu." For weeks there have been dire warnings of the disease, said eminating from Asian poultry farms, is spreading fast and has already claimed scores of lives.

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Plague Plane Down?

Plague Plane Down? FedEx Cargo Included Lab Viruses

PEJ News - C. L. Cook - While the world press rings dire warnings against the next Big One, a pandemic potentially as deadly as the infamous 'Spanish Flu' outbreak almost a century ago, the circumstances of the fatal crash of a FedEx plane today in Winnipeg raises disturbing questions about the transport of deadly pathogens and the threat it represents.

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Plague Plane Down?
FedEx Cargo Included Lab Viruses
C. L. Cook

PEJ News
October 6, 2005


Getting Winnipeg's Level 4 bio-containment laboratory wasn't easy. Locals were concerned at the prospect of sharing the neighbourhood with the world's deadliest germs. Experts assured the labs were impenetrable; no virus would escape their custody. But accidents happen.

Of course, it doesn't matter how safe the laboratories are when viruses are sent out the door. The Winnipeg facility was embarassed earlier this year when a FedEx courier truck involved in a downtown accident was later revealed to be carrying ebola, tuberculosis, and hepatitis bacilli from their facility. Now, a second incident involving the transport through population centres is again raising questions.

Local Federal Member of Parliament, Pat Martin expressed concern with current procedures, saying: "There are weak links here, and we won't tolerate it in our community." Adding, "We want an inquiry and we want better security measures." Viruses and other hazardous materials are routinely transported this way in Canada.

In a lightning fast threat assessment of the crash site, Transportation Safety Board investigator Ross Peden declared the public safe: "There is no threat to the public, or workers." Peden claims the frozen vials containing a variety of viruses, including Herpes and Flu strains, were destroyed in the fire following the crash.

The Cessna came down, while attempting to land at Winnipeg's airport when it experienced trouble shortly after take-off. The pilot, Nancy Chase-Allen was killed in the crash, but managed to put the plane down on traintracks, avoiding buildings and the morning rush hour traffic. The cause is still unknown, but weather may be a factor, as Winnipeg has suffered heavy rains and snow squalls this week.

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