April 2002

Africa: Internet Users Ripped Off By Western Companies
Posted: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

By Katy Salmon

NAIROBI - African Internet users are being forced by Western companies to pay the full cost of connecting to the World Wide Web, while European and American users pay nothing. This is one of the main hurdles blamed for the slow spread of the Internet in the world's poorest continent. MORE

Who's Anti-Semitic?
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

By Richard Cohen

If I weren't a Jew, I might be called an anti-Semite. I have occasionally been critical of Israel. I have occasionally taken the Palestinians' side. I have always maintained that the occupation of the West Bank is wrong and while I am, to my marrow, a supporter of Israel, I insist that the Palestinian cause -- although sullied by terrorism -- is a worthy one. MORE

World News
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

• Annan Considers Disbanding Mission
• Jordanian Minister Blasts Israeli Protectionism
• Iraq Link to 9/11 Attacks Proves Bogus
• The Red Sea catch: A Palestinian perspective
• Pope Sends Envoy to Mideast to Try to End Church Siege
• Israel blitzes Hebron
• No Signs of Movement on Promised Arafat Deal
• UN Jenin Mission Ready to Call it Quits
• Israel remains in force despite Arafat deal
• Palestinians 'quit talks' as militant is shot dead at Bethlehem church
• UN struggles to save face over Jenin
• Ten more dead after Israeli onslaught
• Spain threatens Gibraltar deal
• Britons in talks on jail transfer to end Arafat siege
• The terrifying naivety of Blair the great intervener
• Iraq ready to let weapons inspectors back in
• United States regained its place on the UN Rights Commission
• African woman going home after 200 years
The remains of an African woman who had been taken to
Europe and exhibited as a circus freak was finally handed back
to South African officials at a ceremony in Paris.
• Bush struggles with 'foreign policy stuff'
• Madagascar court reverses poll result
• Zimbabwe: The Non-Aligned Movement yesterday endorsed elections
• UN should now deploy peacekeepers in DRC - Mugabe
• EarthLink Financier Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges
• Bin Laden escaped with Afghan commander's help: rival warlord
• Website Pulls Mideast Poll, Blames Arabs

American navy 'helped Venezuelan coup'
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Guardian UK

The United States had been considering a coup to overthrow the elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, since last June, a former US intelligence officer claimed yesterday.

It is also alleged that the US navy aided the abortive coup which took place in Venezuela on April 11 with intelligence from its vessels in the Caribbean. Evidence is also emerging of US financial backing for key participants in the coup.

Both sides in Venezuela have blamed the other for the violence surrounding the coup.

Wayne Madsen, a former intelligence officer with the US navy, told the Guardian yesterday that American military attaches had been in touch with members of the Venezuelan military to examine the possibility of a coup.

"I first heard of Lieutenant Colonel James Rogers [the assistant military attache now based at the US embassy in Caracas] going down there last June to set the ground," Mr Madsen, an intelligence analyst, said yesterday. "Some of our counter-narcotics agents were also involved."

He said that the navy was in the area for operations unconnected to the coup, but that he understood they had assisted with signals intelligence as the coup was played out.

Mr Madsen also said that the navy helped with communications jamming support to the Venezuelan military, focusing on communications to and from the diplomatic missions in Caracas belonging to Cuba, Libya, Iran and Iraq - the four countries which had expressed support for Mr Chavez.

Navy vessels on a training exercise in the area were supposedly put on stand-by in case evacuation of US citizens in Venezuela was required.

In Caracas, a congressman has accused the US ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro, and two US embassy military attaches of involvement in the coup.

Roger Rondon claimed that the military officers, whom he named as (James) Rogers and (Ronald) MacCammon, had been at the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters with the coup leaders during the night of April 11-12.

And referring to Mr Shapiro, Mr Rondon said: "We saw him leaving Miraflores palace, all smiles and embraces, with the dictator Pedro Carmona Estanga [who was installed by the military for a day] ... [His] satisfaction was obvious. Shapiro's participation in the coup d'état in Venezuela is evident."

The US embassy dismissed the allegations as "ridiculous". Mr Shapiro admitted meeting Mr Carmona the day after the coup, but said he urged him to restore the national assembly, which had been dissolved.

Mr Carmona told the Guardian that no such advice was given, although he agreed that a meeting took place.

A US embassy spokesman said there were no US military personnel from the embassy at Fuerte Tiuna during the crucial periods from April 11 to 13, al though two members of the embassy's defence attache's office, one of them Lt Col Rogers, drove around the base on the afternoon of April 11 to check reports that it was closed.

Mr Rondon has also claimed that two foreign gunmen, one American and the other Salvadorean, were detained by security police during the anti-Chavez protest on April 11 in which around 19 people were killed, many by unidentified snipers firing from rooftops.

"They haven't appeared anywhere. We presume these two gentlemen were given some kind of safe-conduct and could have left the country," he said.

The members of the military who coordinated the coup have claimed that they did so because they feared that Mr Chavez was intending to attack the civilian protesters who opposed him.

Mr Chavez's opponents claim pro-Chavez gunmen shot protesters while his supporters say the shots were fired by agents provocateurs .

In the past year, the United States has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to US and Venezuelan groups opposed to Mr Chavez, including the labour group whose protests sparked off the coup. The funds were provided by the National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit agency created and financed by the US Congress.

The state department's human rights bureau is now examining whether one or more recipients of the money may have actively plotted against Mr Chavez.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Anti-Semitism, Real and Imagined
Posted: Monday, April 29, 2002

by Tim Wise

Watching former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak to Congress a few weeks ago, I must admit, I was almost sucked in. No, not by his distorted version of reality in the Occupied Territories, nor by his opportunistic and transparently disingenuous comparisons between Yasir Arafat and Osama bin Laden. Nor by his insistence that there is no political solution to terrorism, but only a military one: a claim, the absurdity of which is evidenced by the fact that after decades of trying to bring peace by way of tanks and guns, most Israelis feel less secure than ever. (It is also disproved by the fact that such military actions have themselves amounted to terrorism, but that's another story for another column).

However, after only a few minutes of his sales pitch -- a plea for the U.S. to give the green light to whatever slaughter is deemed necessary by Israel in the West Bank -- I did find myself overcome by an emotion that was both unhealthy and deeply disturbing. And that feeling was a profound shame and revulsion at the fact that this man and I share a faith tradition; a common religious heritage; a kinship of sorts. And as he spoke -- not only for Israel, but to hear most American Jewish leaders tell it, for Jews everywhere -- I felt the pangs of collective guilt rising up in me in a way I had never felt before.

And that of course was tragic. Who, after all, was this meshugganah to speak for me? Who appointed him, or for that matter any Israeli leader, the "spokesperson of the Jews?" Who deemed Zionism to be synonymous with Judaism, and decided that to be Jewish means to support the evisceration of Palestinian rights, the slaughter of innocent children under the rubric of stamping out terrorism, or the IDF's firing on ambulances to ensure that those wounded by their actions will die slowly, rather than receive the emergency assistance to which they are entitled under international law and all notions of basic human decency? Who was Netanyahu to make me feel guilty as a Jew?

The answer, unfortunately, to all of these questions, is that an ironic combination of overt Jew-haters and pro-Israeli Jews are the ones who have inculcated the above-mentioned beliefs in so many. Neo-Nazis, for example, insist that all Jews are Zionists and support the actions of Israel: a claim that allows them to weave their hateful narratives of Judeo-inspired evil, undisturbed by critical thought. But on the other hand, the blurring of the lines between Judaism (a religious and cultural tradition stretching back over five-and-a-half-millennia) and Zionism (a political and ideological movement less than a century-and-a-quarter old) has also been perpetrated by much of the organized Jewish community itself.

It is this community that has sought to silence Jewish criticism of Israel and the Zionist enterprise with cries of "anti-Semitism" or "self-hate." It was the head of the New Orleans Jewish Federation who, in the early 1990's, suggested I be removed from my position in the main anti-David Duke organization because I had written a column criticizing Israel for its support of South Africa's apartheid governments. To the person in question, a criticism of Israel made me little better than Duke himself: a man who has said Jews should "go into the ashbin of history," held birthday parties for Hitler in his home, and called the Holocaust "bullnuts."

To Zionists and Nazis alike, it is one for all and all for one so far as the Jewish community is concerned. To attempt to decouple the concepts of Zionism and Judaism, or anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, are seen as lost or ignoble causes by both groups. As one writer in Commentary recently explained: "To defame Israel is to defame the Jews."

But it is indeed necessary to decouple these concepts: to demonstrate that one can oppose Zionism without prejudice towards Jews as Jews, and also to show that one's support for Israel doesn't necessarily insulate oneself from the charge of anti-Semitism. Indeed, such support often goes hand in hand with a deep antipathy for Jewish people. Consider the words of Billy Graham, who has been exposed in a taped conversation with Richard Nixon exclaiming his love for Israel while simultaneously ranting about the "Jewish-controlled media" and their pernicious behind-the-scenes political machinations.

Indeed, most fundamentalist Christians profess their love for Israel, all the while propagating the belief that Jews are destined for a lake of fire unless they accept Jesus as their personal savior: in other words, unless they cease to be Jews. Their Zionism is opportunistic at best: based solely on the hope that once the Jews return to Israel, the Messiah will soon follow, damning the Jews to hell in the process. Their goal of conversion is itself intrinsically hostile to Judaism, irrespective of their "love" for the Holy Land: after all, to convert the Jews to Christianity would be to complete an act of spiritual genocide; to end Judaism altogether. The fact that these fine folks might plant trees in Israel or say prayers for her survival hardly compensates for their desire to eradicate Judaism just as surely as Hitler sought to do so. And yet, few in the organized Jewish community have condemned Billy Graham, nor do they speak much at all of the anti-Semitism so embedded in evangelical Christianity, as mentioned above. Perhaps they're too busy trying to garner acceptance from the majority, or being grateful for their support of Israel to notice.

At the just completed conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the same persons who criticize anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism gave a rousing ovation to right-wing Congressman, Tom Delay. And why? Because he said that Israel was entitled to the West Bank, which he called by the Biblical names of Judea and Samaria. That he also said earlier this month that Christianity is the "only viable, reasonable, definitive answer" to life's key questions -- a statement dripping with contempt for the very Jews about which he claims to care so much -- apparently matters less to some than his messianic support for "Eretz Yisrael."

Of course, this all has a certain logic to it. After all, the early Zionists cared only about acquiring land, and had no problem with anti-Semitism, per se--and in the case of Theodore Herzl and Chaim Weizmann actually claimed to understand and even sympathize with it. As I have noted previously, it was Herzl (the father of Zionism) who issued the ultimate in self-hating, anti-Semitic pabulum when he noted that anti-Semitism was "an understandable reaction to Jewish defects."

The continued blurring of the lines between Zionism and Judaism is of course actually dangerous for the Jewish community. So long as Zionists insist on the inherent linkage between the two, it will only become more and more likely that some critics of Israel will also blur the lines, transforming a righteous condemnation of colonialism, racism, and imperialism, into a condemnation that includes anti-Jewish bigotry as well.

In recent weeks there have been desecrations of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, apparently carried out in protest of Israel's latest incursions and depredations, and these have occurred in places as far flung as Tunisia, France, and Berkeley, California. Anti-Semitic propaganda, like the Czarist hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion -- which professes to "prove" a Jewish plot for world domination -- is popping up throughout the Arab world, with snippets of its poison even finding space on otherwise left-progressive websites like Indymedia. In the understandable rush to condemn Israeli actions, at least one pro-Palestinian listserv operated by ostensible left/progressive radicals, has distributed one of David Duke's commentaries on the conflict: a column filled with anti-Jewish invective, which of course undermines the credibility of the sender and the righteousness of their insights on the struggle for Palestine.

To be sure, we who criticize Israel must unequivocally condemn all such anti-Jewish actions: not only because they are hateful on their own terms, but because they help perpetuate the lie told by the government of Israel and its supporters: that they are the Jews and the Jews are they. And this is an idea that both weakens the struggle against the Occupation -- by making all criticisms of it suspected of anti-Jewish bias -- and puts the Jewish community at greater risk, as they (we) become increasingly seen as Israel Firsters, instead of people committed to principles of peace, justice, and fairness: those concepts that I learned in Hebrew School were paramount to my people.

What's more, tolerating anti-Semitism within the movement for justice in the Middle East is especially risky for the very Palestinian people we seek to defend. The more that anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery animates the struggle against Israeli occupation and brutality, the more that Ariel Sharon can transform his maniacal drive for power and land into a fight for survival of the Jewish people. And the more successful he is in casting the debate in these terms, the more Israeli Jews and their U.S. supporters will accede to ever-intensified levels of violence, ever more death and destruction wrought upon the victims of Israeli colonialism.

Let it be made clear that Zionism's problem is not that it is Jewish nationalism, per se, but rather a form of ethnic supremacy in thought and action. And more than that: a form of European supremacy to boot. After all, there were Jews who had remained in and around Palestine continuously for millennia, without substantial conflict with their Arab and Muslim neighbors. Likewise, many Jews lived under Muslim rule in the Ottoman Empire, where they received a generally warm reception--far better indeed than the treatment received from Christian Europe, which expelled them from one place after another.

These Jews, unlike the European Jews who sought to displace said Arabs from their land, lived there peacefully and sought no grand designs for "Greater Israel." They did not create Zionism, nor lead the charge for the development of a Jewish state. For that, it took a decidedly Western, European and frankly white Jewish community. The Jews who were most indigenous to the land of Israel, or those of Africa, or the rest of Asia Minor -- in short those who were most directly Semitic peoples -- were never the problem. Nor indeed was their faith. A decidedly colonial mentality, itself an outgrowth of European thought and culture from the late 1800's forward, was the fuel for the Zionist fire. Zionism's problem is that it is a form of white supremacy and Western domination.

And like all derivations of white supremacy, it neglects one of the most obvious ironies of all: namely, the close genetic relationship between the dominant and the dominated; the reality that the oppressor is oppressing family. As recent research has demonstrated, there is no significant biological difference between Palestinians and Jews in the Middle East. Any Jew with Semitic roots is, in effect, Arab--for whatever that's worth. All of which is to say that Zionism and its effects, by virtue of its immiseration of the Palestinians, is perhaps the most profound and institutionalized form of anti-Semitism on the planet today.

Tim Wise is an antiracist essayist, lecturer and activist. He can be reached at tjwise@mindspring.com

World News
Posted: Sunday, April 28, 2002

• Sharon gives succour to Saddam
> Israel's obstruction of the UN inspection team mirrors Iraq's
> treatment of weapons inspectors
• China bolsters missiles opposite Taiwan
• British media in 'dismal' state
• Five killed, 11 injured in Kashmir violence
• US warns Europe on steel sanctions threat
• The good dictators
> America cares whether the world's leaders support its interests
• Israeli Troops Kill Nine in Hebron Raid
• Israeli Troops Move Into Hebron
• Plan to Free Arafat Underway
• In on the tide, the guns and rockets that fuel this fight
• 'For us, the preferred way of ending our lives would be martyrdom'
• US Ditches Iraq Coup and Opts for Invasion Next Year
• Osama's Escape Haunts US
• UN Struggles as Israel Vows to Block Jenin Probe
• US Military Chief Vows To Crush al-Qaeda In Asia
• Palestinian Authority 'Throttled' By Israel
• Arafat to Go Free in US-Brokered Deal
• Powerful Russian Politico Killed in Helicopter Crash
• Israel Won't Allow UN Jenin Probe
• White House Cancels $200 Million Extra Aid to Israel
• Serbia To Keep State Secrets From UN
• UN call for talks as Israel rejects investigation
• Desmond Tutu: Apartheid in the Holy Land
> Israeli's bullets and bombs ensured Palestine is holy
• IMF sheds no tears for Argentina
• Musharraf risks credibility in drive for election win
• German police piecing together the secret life killer teenager
• New IRA link to Colombia
• Blair's message is lost in the modern media scrummage

Democracy Takes a Hit
Posted: Sunday, April 28, 2002

By Mary McGrory
Sunday, April 28, 2002; Page B07
www.washingtonpost.com

It is easy to understand why it all happened in Venezuela, although the how is not entirely clear.

You can understand, for instance, how tempted the Bush administration was to give the old heave-ho to Hugo Chavez, a motor-mouth "revolutionary" Latin American president who bragged about his friendships with Fidel, Saddam and other U.S. nemeses.

You can understand, too, the appeal of his short-term replacement, one Pedro Carmona, friend of oligarchs and captains of an oil industry that is the third-largest supplier to the United States.

But the coup didn't work in Venezuela. Democracy prevailed. The man the White House sees as a pluperfect pain in the neck, Chavez, got his job back in 48 hours. The coup collapsed after the two-day president, Carmona, declared he would cancel Congress and fire the Supreme Court. The most conspicuous casualty? America's reputation for promoting democracy, one of the stated goals of our currently confused foreign policy. MORE

World News
Posted: Saturday, April 27, 2002

• Language of the Middle East
• Activists strike again at GM trial crop
• Zimbabwe: Karoi murder story a Daily News, MDC LIE
> Story as carried in the Independent UK
> Mother beheaded in front of daughters by Mugabe militants
• Israel Bans U.N. Mission to Jenin
• 14 Christians Killed in Indonesia
• Mowlam: legalise all drugs
Mo Mowlam has called for all recreational drugs
including cocaine, ecstasy and heroin to be legalised and taxed.
• The teenager who became a cold mass murderer
• African crisis: The starving turn to murder in Malawi
Aid donors and government engage in a war of words
while famine and brutality stalk a once-bountiful nation
¥ While leading nations fight proxy wars,
> the victims of their excesses starve.
• Slaughter of elephants starts again
The war against poachers is stepping up as illegal ivory
floods on to the market once more
• Palestinians Thwart 20 Child Bombers
• Russian President Vladimir Putin Made One Mistake
• Darkness Descends On India, Pakistan
• UN probe: Soldiers to have immunity
• Top CIA official warns next terror attack unavoidable
• U.S. Blueprint to Topple Hussein

World News
Posted: Friday, April 26, 2002

• Motorcycle Gangs Clash in Nevada Casino, Four Dead
• Vatican Cardinal Accused in Sex Abuse Cover-Up
• All high and mighty over holier than thou
• Impatient Bush tells Israel to withdraw "now"
> Here we go again......
• Jeffrey Tucker - Bush Swells the State
• Gujarat victims were 'stripped, burned and hacked'
• Four Israelis die in West Bank raid
• Marriage of Convenience on the Rocks
• US, Allies Ready to Act Against Saddam
• White House and GOP Whip at Odds Over Israel
• Bush Tells Israel to Withdraw 'Now'
• Powell's Lonely Struggle
• Gaza Braces for Invasion
• Israelis Prepare 'Military Solution' to Bethlehem Siege
• Gujarat Victims Were 'Stripped, Burned, and Hacked'
• Ex-CIA Chief: Use Drugs on Detainees
• Annan Delays UN Jenin Mission Until Sunday
• Israel Still Won't Recognize Jerusalem's Orthodox Patriarch
• Big bang? Must be Bin Laden
> Since 9/11, every loud noise or low plane makes us panic
• Woman breaks colour barrier as Rio governor
This could only be a news item for 1, 2, or 3 reasons.
Black people are not smart enough,
Brazil has a race relations problem, or both.

World News
Posted: Friday, April 26, 2002

• Canada Rejects New Charges It Is Terrorist Haven
• Lebanon asks the UN to stop Israel's violations
• Israel Warns Attack on Nativity Church Not Ruled Out
• Israelis Destroyed Schools, Banks, and a Puppet Theater
• Cold War-Era UK Nuke Report Released
• 'Greater Albania' Idea Being Revived
• U.S. Commander: 200,000 Troops Needed For War With Iraq
• Jittery New York On Nuclear Alert After Blast...
• TLC Singer Killed in Car Crash
• 18 shot dead at German school
• Sharon's best weapon
> Anti-semitism sustains Israel's brutal leader
• Appeasing racists won't see them off
• US cavalry fails to bring peace to Philippines
• Just get out!
• Teenagers 'used for sex by UN in Bosnia'
• Israeli Forces Raid West Bank City of Qalqilya
• Revulsion Grows Toward India's Ruling Party
• US Financed Anti-Chavez Groups in Venezuela
• Palestinian Teenagers Leave Bethlehem Church
• New York on Nuke Alert After Building Explosion
• Indonesia To Cooperate With US War on Terror
• Middle East crisis blamed for surge in anti-Semitic attacks
• Saudis threaten 'oil weapon' in talks to pressure Bush
• Arafat stages trial of four wanted for Ze'evi assassination
• Saudis tell the U.S. oil is not 'weapon'
• Teenagers shot by Israelis, then run over with a tank
• Israeli military trades thunder for lightning
> Suspected militant seized in Hebron in pre-dawn raid
• Choice between fascist and crook, protesters say
> Le Pen opponents support Chirac, reluctantly
• India - More brickbats from West on Gujarat riots
• India - Godhra killing was Pak sponsored: Probe panel

Le Pen and 'racist' Europe
Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2002

By GWYNNE DYER

"A TERRIFYING cataclysm," said the French Finance Minister, Laurent Fabius. "A thunderbolt," said Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, announcing that he was retiring from politics. "Ashamed to be French," read the banner unfurled by one disgusted voter as the results of the first-round vote for the French presidency became clear on Sunday evening. But what was it, exactly, that prompted this hysterical response?

It was the fact that Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right, anti-Semitic, racist candidate peddling a toxic brew of anti-immigrant invective and nostalgia for an authoritarian past, came second in the vote. The Socialist presidential candidate and incumbent prime minister, Lionel Jospin, was knocked out of the race, and it will be Le Pen against President Jaques Chirac in the run-off on 5 May—"SuperFascist against SuperLiar," as the Paris daily 'Liberation' put it.

But so what? Instant telephone surveys suggest that Chirac will beat Le Pen by the greatest landslide ever, as much as 80 percent to 20 per cent, in the second round of voting. In the first round, where not one of the sixteen candidates polled even 20 percent of the vote, Le Pen slipped past the uninspiring Jospin by less than one percentage point to cop second place, but the extreme right-wing vote has not actually grown.

Le Pen got 4.8 million votes, almost exactly the same as in 1995, though a lower turnout swelled his share of votes cast from 15 to 17 per cent. The extreme left-wing vote was boosted by the same phenomenon: the voters' dislike for both the mainstream candidates, Chirac and Jospin, and a decision by many to 'send them a message' by voting for candidates of the romantic left or the hard right, or just abstaining in the first round, before returning to serious politics and voting responsibly in the run-off.

The voters got it wrong, but it was a very small cataclysm: the French are not going fascist. But just how racist is France if around one-fifth of the voters can bring themselves to vote for Le Pen? Indeed, how racist is Europe, where the past few years have seen far-right candidates winning places in coalition governments from Norway to Italy?

In a continent that only half a century ago was over 99 percent white, 'race' and immigration are essentially the same issue. The proportion of relatively recent non-European immigrants and their children is now running between 5 and 10 percent of the population in most European countries, so immigration has become a hot-button issue for those who share Le Pen's apocalyptic view that "we risk being submerged."

There used to be an unwritten understanding among mainstream parties in Europe to exclude the fascists and racists from their coalitions, but in the last few years that understanding has broken down in a number of countries. It fractured most spectacularly in Italy, where Silvio Berlinguer's right-wing Forza Italia party swept to power last June in coalition with the anti-foreigner Northern League and the 'post-fascist' National Alliance.

But despite what is certainly an anti-immigrant backlash in some countries at the moment, the larger picture is not discouraging. The further east you go in Europe, the more overt the racism gets, but that's because under the Communists people had virtually no experience of immigrants until a dozen years ago. In some small, very homogeneous countries like Austria and Norway, even the slightest shift in perceptions of who 'we' are causes a major collective psychological crisis. But in the bigger countries like Britain, France and Germany, the situation is generally not bad at all.

There are ugly exceptions like the northern English mill-towns where uneducated Pakistani immigrants and the old white working class were left to rot together when the mills closed down. In France, disgruntled whites in declining industrial towns, and in depressed rural areas where jobless North African ex-farm workers live in misery, have been the main source of Le Pen's vote for decades. Former East Germans blame 'foreigners' and 'immigrants' for all their post-unification hardships.

But the more important truth is that in the big cities where most Europeans live, race relations, especially among the young, are actually pretty good. The neighbourhoods aren't segregated, young people intermarry without a second thought–and even if you get mugged by a kid gang in the dreadful wasteland of HLM's (low-rent tower blocks) that ring most French cities, at least the gang will be multi-racial.

Four out of five French citizens will vote against Le Pen in the run-off next month, even though half of them will have to hold their noses in order to vote for Chirac instead. What Sunday's vote showed was that the French are mightily fed up with being ruled by the same smug and mediocre set of aging politicians.

No Crean Todo Lo Que Lean En Los Periodicos Sobre Venezuela
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

Por Greg Palast

Al contrario de lo que dicen los informes de una prensa occidental que ha sido embutida, Hugo Chávez no era impopular ni renunció, dice Greg Palast

He aquí lo que leímos esta semana: El viernes Hugo Chávez, el impopular y dictatorial potentado de Venezuela, renunció. Al confrontársele con sus órdenes de disparar a los manifestantes antigubernamentales, entregó la presidencia a fuerzas progresistas y democráticas, a saber, los militares y el jefe del consejo empresarial de Venezuela

Dos cosas me llamaron la atención en la noticia. Primero, cada uno de estos aparentes hechos son totalmente falsos. Y segundo, los periódicos de todo el hemisferio dominante, desde el New York Times hasta el Independent y (¡vaya!) El Guardian usaron casi palabras idénticas --"dictatorial", "impopular", "renuncia"-- en sus reportes.

Comencemos por la falsa "renuncia" que permitió a los gobiernos de Bush y Blair empujarse el uno al otro para ser el primero en reconocer a los líderes del golpe. Yo no vi ninguna declaración de esta supuesta renuncia, ni la escuché ni recibí informe de testigo confiable alguno. Yo estaba fascinado. En enero dije en la radio de EE.UU. que Chávez se enfrentaría a un golpe a fines de abril. ¿Pero renunciar? Ese no era el estilo de Chávez. MÁS

How The Associated Press (AP) Gutted Its Own Scoop On The Venezuelan Coup D'etat
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

By Jared Israel
www.emperors-clothes.com

Does the Western media deliberately distort the news to serve the interests of the foreign policy establishments of the NATO countries, especially the US?

Based on much research, Emperor's Clothes says: yes, but not entirely.

Journalists sometimes - perhaps often - write accurate pieces. However, when the issues are important, foreign policy stories get edited or replaced, with the end result supporting a slant which is so consistently in tune with the long-term goals of the US foreign policy elite that it is possible, by analyzing news stories, to predict positions which will be adopted by the US government. MORE

Chávez’s Overthrow Was Clearly Predictable
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

By Stephen Kangal
Caroni Trinidad & Tobago

The illegal overthrow of democratically-elected President Chávez of neighbouring Venezuela albeit via a failed 48 hour coup on April 12 was clearly predictable. While his overthrow was being slowly but inevitably incubated since his assumption of the Presidency in 1998 in his leftist radical domestic and foreign policy posturings the events of September 11 and its aftermath, most notably the fortress America foreign policy and the homeland security agenda provided the trigger mechanisms that escalated the failed coup. MORE

World News
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

• Israel's tactics become clearer
• 12 killed in fresh Mideast violence
• 12 Die in Pakistan Bomb Explosion
• Explosion in New York
• CIA Warns China Planning Cyber-Attacks On America And Taiwan...
• Governor calls for 'justice' on reparations
> State probes slaveholder policies, alleged overcharging of minorities
• 3 Palestinians killed by Israel in West Bank
• Israeli tanks roll into Hebron
• Israel must not be allowed to upset the Jenin investigation
• Children are the new martyrs
• Hopeless in Buenos Aires
> Turned Buenos Aires into a shadow of its former self.
• Berlusconi's Northern League allies are racist, says report
• IRA 'sent men to Colombia'
> Terrorists trained rebels, says congressional report
• Nurse and man in wheelchair among Jenin dead
• We should fight to defeat the racists in our midst

April 11 coupsters wanted to take Venezuela out of (OPEC)
Posted: Wednesday, April 24, 2002

President Chavez Frias claims that April 11 coupsters wanted to take Venezuela out of the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC).

Speaking to Qatar’s El Jazeera 24-hours news outlet, President Hugo Chavez Frias has accused “other countries” (?) of involvement in the failed coup d'etat.

Taking Venezuela out of OPEC, he says, would have lowered oil prices (just as the United States has been pressuring!) and broken the OPEC "fair prices" agreement to keep a barrel of oil between $22-28. MORE

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

• Israeli troops detain Reuters and AFP journalists
• UN Won't Halt Jenin Investigation
• Powell: No Evidence of Jenin Massacre
• US to Hike Military Aid to Israel, by $200M a year
• George W. Bush's insurance policy
• Sharon Hints at New Offensive in Gaza
• Brutalised by War, a Savage Mob Turns on its Own
• Israel Rejects Palestinian Offer on Bethlehem Standoff
• Bethlehem Standoff Becomes Death Watch
• Iraq Calls for Oil War
• Venezuela Coup Leaders Flee to Miami
• Chirac Refuses to Debate Le Pen
• Bush goes to the dogs
• Sharon Suspends Pact, Blocks Jenin UN Probe
• Peres Plays Anti-Semitism Card to Defend Aggression

French presidential candidate accused of racism, xenophobia
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

In a career that spans more than 30 years, Mr. Le Pen has attacked everything from immigration to the Holocaust. On several occasions he has called the Nazi death chambers "a detail of history," and has said that France is being overrun with Third World immigrants who are taking jobs away from French citizens, living off welfare and undermining French culture.

He has advocated expelling some two million immigrants who do not have French identity papers. (For his current campaign he has slightly softened his position, saying he no longer wants African and Arab immigrants sent back to their home countries, and would be happy to receive "declarations of their loyalty to France.") MORE

US ousts director of chemical arms body
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

The head of the world's chemical weapons regulatory body, Jose Bustani, was dismissed yesterday by a United States-led vote. MORE

The Reason

Diplomacy US style
The removal of Jose Bustani demonstrates George Bush's contempt for cooperation

World News
Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

• Bush's job performance rating continues to decline
> Ok CIA; "Wag the dog" again...
• Sources: Israel Rejects U.N. Jenin Probe
> They want to ensure they get a team to say exactly what they want..
• Afghans Fight Against Locusts...
> They will have much problems
as people overlook the 4000+ persons the U.S. killed
• World Jews call on Europe to fight anti-Semitism
• Berlin police: we did not advise Jews not to wear Jewish attire
• Tunisia Admits Synagogue Blast Was Deliberate...
• Hostages Taken on Nigeria Oil Rig
• Flooding Reported in Afghanistan...
• Bush not ready to judge Israel on Jenin
• Hostages Taken on Nigeria Oil Rig...
• Explosion inside Arafat's compound; nobody injured...
• Bin Laden said to be hiding in Pakistan
• US ousts director of chemical arms body
• Diplomacy US style
The removal of Jose Bustani demonstrates
George Bush's contempt for cooperation
• Cities Left Under Blockade in the Line of Israeli Fire
• US Doubles Apache Force as Marines Prepare for Afghan Battle
• US Made Arms Deals With Balkan Jihad Forces
• Sharon Won't Discuss Removing Settlements
• Gunfire at Besieged Church as Army Steps up Pressure
• Evidence of US Hand in Venezuela Coup Mounts
• 2,700 US Troops Begin War Games In Philippines
• Israel Upset at UN Jenin Team Makeup
• Hawks Up Pressure on Bush to Support Sharon
• Sharon's Goal Was to Destroy Palestinian Rule
• US Forces Out UN Arms Director
• Fierce protests after Israeli helicopter strike
• U.S. Children Getting Majority Of Antibiotics From McDonald's Meat
• Shock waves spread across Europe, while Austria gloats
> Jean-Marie Le Pen's electoral success
• Israel accused over Jenin assault
> Red Cross and Amnesty say attack violated Geneva accords
• Argentina's cash crisis deepens
• Neanderthals 'used violence'
¥ I guess Neanderthals are still around today..
• UK Politics: Germ warfare fiasco revealed - 1999 news

U.S. Probes Arabs on Venezuelan Isle
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 22, 2002; Page A14

PORLAMAR, Venezuela -- For almost three decades, the Arabs of Margarita Island have tended their fabric shops, gathered in the breezy evenings around tables set in tiled courtyards and prayed at a makeshift mosque.

The children of illiterate farmers from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, they learned to be doctors and lawyers in the schools of their adoptive country, which a century and a half ago emerged as a refuge for Arab immigrants escaping the hardships of Ottoman rule. They became respected citizens and prospered by grafting their merchant ways onto a lazy Caribbean life. MORE

The U.S. will not give up...

Hugo's Close Call: Now Bush...
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

Chavez survived. Now the Bush administration faces tough questions about its maneuvers in Venezuela

By Joseph Contreras and Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL

April 29 issue: People power it wasn't. Although more than 200,000 antigovernment protesters marched through the streets of Caracas some to their deaths the short-lived April 11-12 coup against President Hugo Chavez was secretly hatched by two small but powerful groups: senior military officers and several of the country's richest businessmen. The leaders of the putsch had extensive ties to the U.S. political and economic establishment. At the vortex of the whole mess was the billionaire television magnate Gustavo Cisneros, a fishing buddy of former president George H. W. Bush and king of a business empire stretching from the United States to the Southern Cone. MORE

Army Coups are out of Fashion in Latin America
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

By Edwin Koopman
Radio Netherlands

Military coups are no longer fashionable in Latin America. The region's fledgling democracies have found other ways to get rid of their leaders. The recent attempt by Venezuelan army officers to oust President Hugo Chaves therefore triggered widespread condemnation on the continent. Only the United States was prepared to turn a blind eye.

Latin America has had a long history of military coup d'états. The continent has seen a rapid succession of military regimes, notably in the 1970s and 80s. As democracy was taking root, political turbulence subsided. Until just over a week ago, when a number of Venezuelan army generals ousted President Hugo Chavez. More

The coup
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

The Guardian

Just over a week ago, Pedro Carmona was the president of Venezuela, installed following a military coup, and amid scenes of street violence that have left an estimated 90 people dead. His term lasted barely a day before counter-demonstrations led to the return of President Hugo Chavez, whose revolutionary rhetoric and espousal of Fidel Castro since his election in 1998 has so enraged the United States. Now Carmona, the 60-year-old head of the Venezuelan chamber of commerce, is under house arrest in his apartment in the gated complex of La Arbolada in a wealthy suburb of Caracas.

While relatives and friends enjoy a late meal on the balcony, Carmona reflects on the events since April 11 - or 11A, as it is now known - which brought him so briefly to power, and which have polarised this country of 23 million people. So had the coup been planned and - the most-frequently asked question - did the United States play a key role in the overthrow of a democratically elected president? More

America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

The Srebrenica report reveals the Pentagon's role in a dirty war

Richard J Aldrich
Monday April 22, 2002
The Guardian

The official Dutch inquiry into the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, released last week, contains one of the most sensational reports on western intelligence ever published. Officials have been staggered by its findings and the Dutch government has resigned. One of its many volumes is devoted to clandestine activities during the Bosnian war of the early 1990s. For five years, Professor Cees Wiebes of Amsterdam University has had unrestricted access to Dutch intelligence files and has stalked the corridors of secret service headquarters in western capitals, as well as in Bosnia, asking questions.

His findings are set out in "Intelligence and the war in Bosnia, 1992-1995". It includes remarkable material on covert operations, signals interception, human agents and double-crossing by dozens of agencies in one of dirtiest wars of the new world disorder. Now we have the full story of the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamist groups from the Middle East designed to assist the Bosnian Muslims - some of the same groups that the Pentagon is now fighting in "the war against terrorism". Pentagon operations in Bosnia have delivered their own "blowback".

Full Article : guardian.co.uk

World News
Posted: Monday, April 22, 2002

• U.S. Probes Arabs on Venezuelan Isle
• Hugo's Close Call: Now Bush...
• Last Bushmen lose fight for right to be nomads
• US accused of weapons deals with jihad forces
• Powell Declines Assistance From Clinton And Carter
• Shots fired as MSP attempts to enter Arafat HQ
• America is suffering collateral damage from the conflict in the Middle East
• Sharon angered by UN envoy's camp account
• Israel Keeps Arafat HQ, Bethlehem Church Besieged
• India Violence Leads to More Deaths
• Crisis Declared From Philippine Bomb
• Jiang Zemin Chinese President, deplors expansion of US war on terror
• Furious Palestinians Tell How Israelis Abused, Intimidated, Murdered
• Powell steps up US pressure on Sharon
• Jordan refugees express their rage over Jenin
• Israel has made 'a sea of blood', says Arafat aide
• America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims
• Our long-term enemy
In Pakistan, the west is going to have to choose
between democracy and its pet dictator

French caused genocide - Short
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

By Kamal Ahmed, political editor
The Observer

Clare Short was caught up in a diplomatic row last night after she accused the French of being directly implicated in the massacre of millions of Tutsis in Rwanda in the Nineties.
The outspoken International Development Secretary said France had 'created genocides in Africa' after allegations that the French government backed Hutu interests in the country.

Her comments come a month after she was quoted as saying that France was involved in a conspiracy to keep Africa in poverty. At the time she denied saying the words attributed to her. MORE

World News
Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2002

•
Jiang Zemin Meets Iranian Leader in Tehran
• Taiwan's scientists clone pigs which carry human DNA
• Crises Strain Bush Policies
> Friends, Foes Find Lack of Coherence in Foreign Affairs
• For Bush, Reverses Come After Steady Going
> Mideast Crisis, Oil-Drilling Defeat
> Among Mounting Woes at Home and Abroad
• Bombs Kill at Least 14 in Philippines or BBC
• Kashmir fighting kills 15
• Crises Strain Bush Policies
• For Bush, Reverses Come After Steady Going
• Thousands to gather in Washington for new protests
• Japanese supercomputer takes world's fastest title from US
• Milan pilot may have staged crash to uncover £1m fraudsters' sting
• Venezuela coup linked to Bush team
• Venezuelan Air Force head, top officers die in helicopter crash
• Israel Balks at Makeup of UN Team for Jenin
• Afghan Warlords Put High Price on British Heads
• Russians Tell Brits: IRA Secretly Rearming
• Israel Considers Raiding Arafat Compound
• 100,000 March in DC
• Report: Colombians Trained IRA Since 1980s
• Sharon Plans to Annex Half of West Bank

Venezuela's Media: Free or Footloose?
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

by Juan Pérez Cabral

APRIL 21, 2002. Imagine the owners of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN meeting at the home of Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. with the head of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and assorted military top brass to plot to bring down U.S. President John Doe, a blowhard populist who has been elected by a landslide.

The plan is wickedly simple. Organize a massive march to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of Omnicom, the behemoth conglomerate that generates most of the country's riches, ostensibly to show support for their valiant struggle against the meddlesome, regulation-crazy Doe. Then, suddenly, turn the march around and head to the White House, which, your military co-conspirators tell you, will be left unguarded, to demand that Doe resign, or else ... More

Venezuela coup linked to Bush team
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday April 21, 2002
The Observer

The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.
Washington's involvement in the turbulent events that briefly removed left-wing leader Hugo Chavez from power last weekend resurrects fears about US ambitions in the hemisphere.

It also also deepens doubts about policy in the region being made by appointees to the Bush administration, all of whom owe their careers to serving in the dirty wars under President Reagan.

One of them, Elliot Abrams, who gave a nod to the attempted Venezuelan coup, has a conviction for misleading Congress over the infamous Iran-Contra affair.

The Bush administration has tried to distance itself from the coup. It immediately endorsed the new government under businessman Pedro Carmona. But the coup was sent dramatically into reverse after 48 hours. More

Peru cancels army training with US
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

BBC - Peru has called off a joint training exercise with the United States military in the Amazon region saying that it did not want a foreign military base in the country.

Critics of United States policy say Washington would like troops in Peru in case its operations in neighbouring Colombia run into trouble.

Lima's decision comes days after Washington withdrew non-essential diplomats from Venezuela after acknowledging it had discussed with President Hugo Chavez's opponents steps to remove him from office.

The United States says it did not encourage the failed military coup in Venezuela. From BBC

U.S. Is the Primary Loser in Failed Venezuelan Coup
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

By Larry Birns and Alex Volberding
Newsday

THE RECENT FAILED coup against President Hugo Chavez launched at the behest of Venezuela's powerful business and labor groups - and with the knowledge, if not eager acquiescence, of U.S. officials - tested the political will of that nation, as it should ours.

In an amazing turn, Chavez was restored to power as a result of the resolve of his diehard supporters to maintain constitutional rule and prevent the return of the country's discredited elite. Chavez's election in 1998 had been directly due to the angry repudiation of the venality fathered by the country's two dominant political parties, Democratic Action and the Christian Democrats, which had permeated its other public and private institutions. More

Venezuela general killed in helicopter crash
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (April 20, 2002 10:54 a.m. EDT) - The man named just a few days ago to head Venezuela's air force in the wake of a failed coup died in a helicopter crash along with three other generals, the military said Saturday. The sudden deaths created added turmoil in Venezuela's armed forces, some of whom supported the coup.

Gen. Luis Alfonso Acevedo and the generals died when their helicopter crashed in forests 10 miles north of the capital, likely due to bad weather, the military said. MORE

What Israel has done
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

By Edward Said
www.ahram.org.eg

Despite Israel's effort to restrict coverage of its extraordinarily destructive invasion of the West Bank's Palestinian towns and refugee camps, information and images have nevertheless seeped through. The Internet has provided hundreds of verbal as well as pictorial eyewitness reports, as has Arab and European TV coverage, most of it unavailable or blocked or spun out of existence from the mainstream US media. That evidence provides stunning proof of what Israel's campaign has actually (has always) been about: the irreversible conquest of Palestinian land and society. The official line (which the US, along with nearly every American media commentator has basically supported) is that Israel has been defending itself by retaliating for the suicide bombings that have undermined its security and even threatened its existence. That claim has gained the status of an absolute truth moderated neither by what Israel has done nor by what in fact has been done to it. MORE

World News
Posted: Saturday, April 20, 2002

• Argentina orders banks to close
• D.C. Marchers Oppose Globalization
• Europe plans $300m sanctions retaliation on US
• Venezuela general killed in helicopter crash
• Bush Tells Mideast to Choose Peace
• Sharon's brutal philosophy
• Bush: Jenin Must Be Investigated
• From the Ruins of Jenin, the Truth About an Atrocity
• Break with the US
• When a planet goes to war
• Red Cross Steps In To Feed Taliban Prisoners In Afghanistan
• US Plans Evidenceless Tribunals For Gitmo Prisoners
• Boycott America? What a joke!
• UN to send fact-finding mission to Jenin
• Amid the rubble of Jenin, Palestinians bury their dead
• Bush says Israeli invasion of Jenin must be investigated
> Investigate Arab states, Europe and the U.S. for lip-service
• Sex abuse scandals tarnish work of aid agencies in Africa
• Bush energy policy critic ousted as head of climate change panel
• US and oil lobby oust climate change scientist
• Argentina orders banks to close
> Government fears economic collapse as cash outflow rises
• U.S. Troops Land in Philippines
• Afghan Gunmen Fire on Peacekeepers

Coup plotters wanted to pull Venezuela out of OPEC
Posted: Friday, April 19, 2002

TEHRAN, April 20 (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has told President Mohammad Khatami that a recent coup attempt was also a bid to pull Caracas out of OPEC, Iranian radio reported Saturday.

Khatami congratulated Chavez on his return to power after the failed coup attempt: "We were confident that the Venezuelan people would triumph and we hope that your government will be able to carry out its objectives with the help of your people," Khatami told Chavez in a phone call, the radio here quoted the Iranian leader as saying

The Iranian government expressed its happiness at the "victory of democracy", it added. MORE

World News
Posted: Friday, April 19, 2002

• Bush Warns Venezuela's Chavez to 'Embrace Democracy'
• Canada Fears US Threatens Sovereignty
• Bombing accident in Afghanistan under investigation
• Afghans Fight Against Locusts
• US Planes Bomb Northern Iraq
• Senate Votes to Ban US Imports of Iraqi Oil
• Pilot Who Bombed Troops Was Ordered Not to Fire
• Colombian Rebels in US Sights
• 'What Kind of War is This?'
• Perfume bottles for the diggers to sweeten the acrid air
• Feds Received Threats Against Banks
> Very suspicious, what is the U.S up to now?
• US to spend £90m on air base in Oman
• Military command whose sole mission is to defend American territory
• Israel spreads Mid-East violence to Gaza
• U.S. wants to make Okinawa their permanent base in the Pacific
• Hatred for Israel 'hits a new peak'
• Milan plane crash pilot wanted to commit suicide...
• Pilot's Son: Crash May Be Suicide...
• Report: U.S. has completed 'basics' of plan to attack Iraq...
• US official: Pilot bombed Canadians thinking he was under fire
• A PR nightmare in Canada
• Defence chief says 'friendly fire' accident a 'mystery'
but many blame U.S. indifference to foreign troops
• Peace talks near collapse in the Congo
• U.S. Senate's rejection of Alaskan oil plan a heavy blow to Bush
• Bush Heaps Pressure on Arafat
• Bush Reaffirms Strong Support for Sharon
• There should be a UN inquiry into the deaths at Jenin
• The war that never was
• Israel leaves Jenin, but maintains blockade
• Israelis try to pin blame for Jenin on suicide bombers
• Amtrak Train Derails in Florida
• Britain Slams Israel's Actions in Jenin
• Canada Opts Out of US Plan to Defend Continent
• Are the Israelis Guilty of Mass Murder?
• Families Dig Through the Dust to Find Their Dead
• Macedonia on War Footing

Did Bush Administration Dust Off CIA Destabilization Template for Venezuela?
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

by Dennis Hans

How can it be that an administration top heavy with such pro-democracy stalwarts as Otto Reich, Elliott Abrams and John Negroponte would welcome a military coup that toppled a democratically elected Latin American president? Amazingly, that is what happened April 13, when the administration of George W. Bush hailed the ouster of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

By April 15 Chavez had regained the presidency, thanks in large part to strong condemnation of the coup from Latin American leaders, many of whom don’t particularly care for Chavez’s brand of populism or his authoritarian streak. Their outcry stood in sharp contrast to Uncle Sam’s embrace of the coup makers. MORE

Are we on the road to war?
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

By Conn Hallinan
www.examiner.com

SOMETIME THIS FALL, probably before the mid-term elections, the United States will likely be at war with Iraq. Not because Iraq is a threat to our security or engaged in terrorism. It will happen because more than a decade ago a small cabal of political heavyweights in the administration of George Bush the First sat down and drew up a blueprint to rule the world. X-File fantasies? Not unless the New Yorker has decided to join the "I was abducted by aliens" crowd.

In the magazine's April 1 edition, writer Nicholas Lemann records one of the downright scariest set of interviews to appear in print since Richard Nixon's Oval Office ravings about nuclear war. In them, the key movers and shakers in the present Bush administration lay out the plan they have been following since Sept. 11, a plan that will launch this country into a series of regional wars aimed at insuring that the United States will remain the supreme power in the world. MORE

Latin America's Dilemma
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

Latin America's Dilemma: Otto Reich's Propaganda is Reminiscent of the Third Reich

by Tom Turnipseed

The Bush administration is engaging in damage control for their questionable involvement in the failed 2 day coup against the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Alarmingly, the ominous Otto Reich is emerging as a key player in the administration's role in the failed coup attempt to replace Chavez with an oligarchy of business, military and wealthy elites. Scrambling to distance themselves from the botched overthrow of the democratically elected Chavez government, the Bush administration admitted that Mr. Reich called the coup leader, Mr. Carmona, and asked him not to dissolve the National Assembly because it would be a "stupid thing to do". The next day the administration revised their story and said Reich only asked our ambassador to relay that message to Carmona. MORE

Back off Mr. Bush!
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

VHeadline.com Venezuela is forced to ask:
Who the heck are to give lessons in democracy when we have the example of how you manipulated the Florida vote? Get off your high horse and understand that Venezuela has totally rejected your attempts to install your puppet dictator-for-a-day! Venezuelans have chosen to be governed by a Constitution formulated by an elected Constitutional Assembly, approved by a majority of the people in National Referendum and to accept a President who was elected by a greater majority than you could ever have mustered even with your family's political pull. MORE

Did White House Push Venezuelan Coup?
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

OUR COMMENT:

This article starts out true to form, repeating much of what has already been uncovered and understood but in the fifth paragraph the editor injects his own prejudices and basic ignorance of what Mr Chávez is trying to achieve.

NEWSDAY EDITORIAL:

The bizarre melodrama surrounding the two-day ouster and reinstatement of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has left skeptics wondering whether the Bush administration had a direct hand in the aborted coup.

"True, he was a lousy president, a confrontational rabble-rouser who never fulfilled his grandiose promises to his nation's poor, who insisted on restricting oil production and raising prices as the head of the OPEC cartel, and who opposed the U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan while supporting despots in Cuba, Iraq, Libya and Iran. He also supported narco-terrorists in Colombia's civil war and offered them safe haven. That's why the administration in Washington would wish him gone." MORE

Bush Officials Defend Their Actions on Venezuela
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

By Karen DeYoung
washingtonpost.com

Bush administration officials forcefully defended themselves yesterday against criticism that they had interfered with the democratic process in Venezuela, saying they had done their best to respond to fast-moving events about which they knew little more than what they were seeing on television. Rather than supporting the self-declared government that temporarily seized power last week from President Hugo Chavez, officials said, they acted quickly to stem its excesses. MORE

Alice's New Adventures In Medialand
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

By Norman Solomon Media Beat

Alice climbed out of the news hole. She seemed badly shaken. "I thought Wonderland was curious indeed," she said, "but Medialand is even more peculiar."

Responding to my quizzical look, she quickly added: "Don't worry, I stayed away from the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the 'Drink Me' bottle and the 'Eat Me' cake. I did not converse with a single playing card, dormouse or mock turtle. I was simply observant."

Alice's sudden appearance in the sunlit meadow gave me an idea. No longer a girl, she was clearly an intelligent woman. "Here," I said, pulling a laptop from my briefcase, "please write about your latest adventures." And before she could decline, I ran off.

Returning hours later, I found these words:

Oh dear, how to begin? The Hatter and the March Hare could never match the lunacy I've just seen in Medialand. I'd heard of people subsisting on treacle, but the current media diet is rather more grim. I've got half a mind to write a poem: "The Walrus and the Journalist wondered where they'd been. / They wept like anything to see such quantities of spin..."

It was a Friday (April 12) when the military in Venezuela pushed out the president. On Saturday, a New York Times front-page headline said "Venezuela's Chief Forced to Resign," and the first of more than 30 paragraphs referred to "a sudden end to the turbulent three-year reign of a mercurial strongman." The entire article used the word "coup" only once -- reporting that "Cuba called the change-over a coup."

Meanwhile, also declining to call the coup a coup, the Times lead editorial used upbeat euphemisms to hail it: "With yesterday's resignation of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator. Mr. Chavez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader." But many Venezuelans were less pleased to see the ditching of their constitution. In less than 48 hours, Chavez returned to office.

The Saturday editorial by the New York Times had asserted that the move against Venezuela's twice-elected president was strictly an internal matter: "Rightly, his removal was a purely Venezuelan affair." But on Tuesday, the newspaper reported: "Senior members of the Bush administration met several times in recent months with leaders of a coalition that ousted the Venezuelan president ... and agreed with them that he should be removed from office."

In a Tuesday editorial, the Times indicated that three days earlier it had suffered from temporary amnesia, forgetting the transcendent virtues of democracy. Now, in the wake of the coup's failure, the new editorial was a bit contrite: "Mr. Chavez has been such a divisive and demagogic leader that his forced departure last week drew applause at home and in Washington. That reaction, which we shared, overlooked the undemocratic manner in which he was removed. Forcibly unseating a democratically elected leader, no matter how badly he has performed, is never something to cheer."

But in Medialand, how does a democratically elected president become a "strongman"? And when is a coup not a coup but a "change-over"?

Well, through the looking-glass, Humpty Dumpty provided an explanation. "When I use a word," he said, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." When I objected that "the question is whether you can make words mean so many different things," his retort was brusque. "The question is," he replied, "which is to be master -- that's all."

That perverse outlook seems to be axiomatic in Medialand's biggest recent story. Amid all the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I wonder about remarkable inconsistencies of media interest and moral indignation.

For instance, in contrast to the highly publicized case of John Walker Lindh, what about other Americans who also have been moved by religious fervor to go abroad and take up arms for a foreign government? Relocating from homes in such areas as Brooklyn, N.Y., quite a few Americans went to Israel and now serve that country's military.

This spring, no doubt, some of them have been part of the Israeli offensive in the West Bank. It is curious indeed that the same U.S. news outlets fascinated with the "American Taliban" are so uninterested in scrutinizing those Americans, who strengthen the ranks of the Israeli armed forces as they participate in the killing of Palestinian men and women and children.

The similarities are glaring enough to make the media avoidance notable. Apparently certain of a supreme being's approval, Lindh chose to enlist in holy warfare that included the frequent taking of civilian lives. The same is true of the numerous Americans who now carry machine guns for Israel in the occupied territories.

Sitting in a beautiful meadow, I wish these events were all a fantasy, from which I might awake, with my sister gently brushing dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon my face. But this is no dream.

-----------------------------------------------------
Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."
http://www.fair.org/media-beat/020418.html

Irish Filmmaker's Eyewitness Account Of Venezuelan Coup D'état
Posted: Thursday, April 18, 2002

Michael McCaughan speaks to Kim Bartley, who witnessed last weekend's coup attempt in Venezuela
Reprinted from Irish Times 16 April 2002

Ms Kim Bartley and Mr Donnacha O'Brien have spent the past three months filming a documentary on Venezuelan President Mr Hugo Chavez for Power Productions, an independent film company based in Galway.

"I arrived in the centre of town just as the shooting started," says Kim. "I filmed a while then took cover in a doorway. Whoever was firing aimed directly at the crowd, which was pro-Chavez. I filmed two dead bodies, both of them beside the podium set up to rally Chavistas to defend the presidential palace.

"A woman working in the vice-president's office identified the bodies as a legal secretary and an archivist, both working inside the building. A 10-year-old girl was then taken away, fatally injured.

"More shots. We ran for cover like everyone else. We made it to the palace through back streets as the firing continued and as soon as we got in the gate another sniper started aiming at the crowd. We were all thrown to the ground behind a wall and later ran for cover into the building. Three of the snipers were arrested . . . "Chavez was about to explain what was happening in a live television broadcast but the state channel's signal was cut just as he began to speak.

"The army generals arrived and went off for a meeting with Chavez. The evening passed in a flash as we waited for news inside the presidential palace. A tearful Environmental Minister, Ms Analisa Osorio, emerged in the early hours of Friday, announcing the end of an era. 'He's under arrest,' she said. Chavez emerged, barely visible with all the bodyguards and junta soldiers jostling both to protect and arrest him.

"The atmosphere turned ugly. Radio and television immediately announced the resignation of Chavez and began broadcasting upbeat messages: 'Venezuela is finally free' was the banner across all private TV channels.

"The government went into hiding. Everyone fled for their lives. The witch-hunt began. We decided not to go home, checking into a hotel instead, for safety . . .

"The media kept repeating footage of the swearing-in ceremony of the interim president [Pedro Carmona] which was followed by images of empty streets, everything in perfect tranquillity. We were about to book a ticket to Panama when a well-dressed passer-by told us to get off the streets. 'The Chavistas are coming' he said. It was Saturday afternoon.

"We took a taxi to the centre, where huge crowds had surrounded the palace, demanding the return of Chavez. We managed to get inside and found several Chavez deputies calling round the country to find out what was going on. A dozen people who were working for the interim government had been taken to a room in the basement for their own safety.

"Reports came in from around the country, barracks by barracks, like a Eurovision song contest jury, that the military was rebelling against the coup. Then came the rumours that a commando had been sent to kill Chavez at the army base where he was being kept.

"The television continued to broadcast a steady diet of soap operas, saying nothing about the huge mobilisation, which was now making a deafening racket outside. Then came the news that Chavez had been freed and was taking a helicopter to Miraflores. The crowds went wild. The presidential guard made a tunnel from the palace gates to a helicopter pad across the street. The sound of choppers buzzing overhead.

"Then he was there, striding toward the palace, mobbed by supporters. It was like a dream, it's still hard to believe it really happened."

© The Irish Times * Reprinted for Fair Use Only

World News
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

• Bush Asks Venezuela's Chavez to Heed 'Lessons'
• Israeli Actions "Morally Repugnant"
• Guatemalan peasants seize plantations in protest
• Chief of Israeli army demands Arafat removal
• Palestinians, Arab Nations Seek UN Vote On Israel
• Muslim detainees file complaint against US attorney
• Three killed in latest Israeli raids
• Colombian President Appeals for US Flexibility on Anti-Drug Aid
• Americans misled by the language of Middle East reports
• Three Killed in Fla. Amtrak Crash
• Small Plane Slams Into Milan Skyscraper
• Madagascar rivals sign accord to end political crisis
• Transatlantic rift grows wider over 'axis of evil,'
• US Official: Chavez foe was asked to keep Assembly
• Fresh evidence of Jenin atrocities
• Bethlehem monks make defiant stand in Nativity siege
• Nothing to celebrate on Israel's Independence Day
• Powell trip ends in humiliation
• U.S.: No Lawyers for War Captives...
• US blunder 'let Bin Laden escape'
• Arab States Demand Israel Pullout Before Peace Talks Can Begin
• Guns Are Silent But Cries for Help Go Unheard
• $10 Billion Later: al-Qaeda Still Exists
• Marines Find Booby-Trapped Bodies In Afghanistan
• Bin Laden Gloats Over $1 Trillion In Damage
• 40% of Russians Think Gov't, Not Chechens, Responsible For Terror Bombings
• Del Ponte Refuses To Rest Until Mladic, Karadzic Brought In
• Berlusconi tightens stranglehold on Italian networks
• Israeli Offensive Shakes Jordan
• Macedonian Tortured in Tetovo Village, As Gang War Rages
• UN Inspector Says US Undermining Diplomacy On Iraq Issue
• Bush Wants Marshall Plan For Afghanistan
• Cambodian Police Stand By As UN Camp Burned Down
• Kissinger faces questioning over dictators
• EU 'does not want to privatise Third World'
• British marines storm al-Qaeda enclave
• India buys US radar in landmark deal

Media accused in failed coup
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

CARACAS, Venezuela -- As Venezuela's coup began to collapse last weekend, a handful of the country's media barons were summoned to the presidential palace.

A day after Friday's ouster of President Hugo Chavez, the self-declared "transitional government" was losing its grip. The media were its last hope.

What happened next is disputed. Chavez loyalists say coup leaders, in a desperate bid to hang onto power, persuaded the media executives to suppress coverage of the unraveling coup. MORE

Amoral logic of 'collateral damage'
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

By Robert Higgs
www.examiner.com

TIMOTHY McVEIGH, it is fair to say, will go down in history as a terrorist. He set off a bomb that killed innocent men, women and children along with the government agents against whom he had decided to retaliate for their assaults on Americans at Waco and elsewhere. In a letter sent to Gore Vidal, dated April 4, 2001, McVeigh described the reasons for his action:

"When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy. Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option.

"From this perspective what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and, subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment." MORE

Embassy official: U.S. personnel not involved in coup
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

CNN: We rarely link to this news service but check this news:

The official said that last Thursday evening, shortly after the coup attempt began, reports were heard "that Fort Tiuna might be closing down or that there was unusual movement." Fort Tiuna is Caracas' main military base.

"Two of our people [military attaches] drove around the fort to see what was going on, but they never left the car and there was no contact whatsoever," the official said.

The embassy official said a U.S. military attache also attended a news conference at the base held by Gen. Efrain Vasquez Velasco, one of the coup leaders.

The conference was held Saturday, the day the coup began to fizzle, but attending such conferences is usual U.S. policy, the official said.

The attache was at the armed forces inspector general's office at Fort Tiuna "during the preparation for and up until the coup," the source told Agence France-Presse. MORE

US 'gave the nod' to Venezuelan coup
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Julian Borger in Washington and Alex Bellos, South America correspondent

The Guardian

The Bush administration was under intense scrutiny yesterday for its role in last weekend's abortive coup in Venezuela, after admitting that US officials had held a series of meetings in recent months with Venezuelan military officers and opposition activists.

The White House yesterday confirmed that a few weeks before the coup attempt, administration officials met Pedro Carmona, the business leader who took over the interim government after President Hugo Chavez was arrested on Friday. But the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, denied that the US had offered any support for a putsch.

The US defence department also confirmed that the Venezuelan army's chief of staff, General Lucas Romero Rincon, visited the Pentagon in December and met the assistant secretary of defence for western hemispheric affairs, Roger Pardo-Maurer.

The Pentagon said: "We made it very, very clear that the United States' intent was to support democracy and human rights, and that we would in no way support any coups or unconstitutional activity."

However, it was not made clear why the talks broached the subject of a coup, four months before the event. MORE

Media's Role in Crisis Becomes the Big Story in Venezuela
Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Networks Defend Coverage After Chavez Says They Backed Ouster

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service

Media owners acknowledged today that they intensely covered Chavez's fall but largely failed to give enough attention to the protests that helped restore him to power two days later. But the gap, they contended, was rooted in fear of hostile crowds and in journalistic judgment, not in partisanship.

"We're going to reflect," said Alberto Federico Ravell, owner of the news channel Globovision. "We are not going to let this stain our reputation."

The