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June 2002Crisis in the Credibility of US CapitalismPosted: Sunday, June 30, 2002 Crime in the Suites Enabled by Political Corruption Causes a Crisis in the Credibility of US Capitalism by Tom Turnipseed The continuing revelations of corrupt corporate governance enabled by political campaign contributions is deepening daunting doubts about the credibility of U.S. equity markets and political leadership. The corruption is creating a widening crisis of confidence and is the sort of pernicious pathogen that can inflict a debilitating blow to the United States' leadership in economic globalization. Guido Rossi, a former Italian telecom chairman said, 'What is lacking in the U.S. is a culture of shame. No C.E.O. in the U.S. is considered a thief if he does something wrong. It is a kind of moral cancer." The loss of global confidence in the United States is causing foreign investors to pull back from U.S. corporations and turn to European and Japanese equity markets. Wolfram Gerdes, a German investment banker said, "There is unanimous agreement that the U.S. is not the place to invest anymore," and, "This is the most pessimistic sentiment against the U.S. I have ever experienced in my career." This sentiment is also undermining the value of the dollar that drives up the price of imports to the U.S. The very latest breaking scandal is Xerox Corporation, the world's largest copier maker, which admitted inflating revenues by $1.9 million the past five years by misreporting the timing and makeup of equipment sales. With no end in sight, the crumbling credibility of corporate America further accelerated this week with the death spiral of WorldCom. The telecom giant is apparently heading toward the largest bankruptcy in United States history after an auditing committee discovered that $3.6 billion in expenses were improperly booked as capital expenditures. WorldCom executives, like other corporate crooks, paid politicians to position themselves to be able to steal. According to The Center for Responsive Politics, WorldCom gave about $7.5 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions since 1989 to Federal candidates and the two major parties with Republicans and Democrats sharing almost equally in the bounty. WorldCom has also spent about $11 million in lobbying expenses since 1987. One of the biggest beneficiaries of WorldCom's political largess is South Carolina's U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings, the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. In the past ten years, Hollings has received over $32 thousand in contributions from WorldCom and it is anybody's guess how much the South Carolina Democratic Party has received from WorldCom in soft money due to Holling's influence. On July 27, 2002, the Chicago Tribune described Hollings as, "One of the companies most important friends....who shares WorldCom's antipathy to regional phone companies." Hollings is considered to be the political go-to-man in the tremendously competitive telecom industry which is a risky business as many regular phone services are being supplanted by inter-net services. Worldcom is the latest example of corporate corruption and chicanery in a lengthening list of high profile U.S. corporate executives who have, in one way or another, deliberately deceived business associates, shareholders, employees and regulatory agencies for their own personal enrichment. Top executives of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Global Crossing, Dynergy, Tyco, Qwest, Imclone, and even Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia are either being investigated for improprieties or have been charged with wrongdoing. Ms. Stewart has been the empress of etiquette and the icon of good living in our era of affluence, and hopefully, her ethical demise will dim her luster as the desirable denizen of "the good life". Many of Ms. Stewart's devotees seem to be overly enamored of living lives that look good rather than living lives that do good. As sequels to the many productions that have emphasized celebrity and the lives of the rich and famous, the media should now describe the humiliating details of the descent into criminal activity of these wealthy and powerful people. We will make a mockery of our vaunted system of justice if such rich celebrities do not go to jail for stealing millions of dollars when poor, everyday people go to jail for stealing hundreds of dollars. With the reeking revelations about WorldCom this week, the talking heads on television are predicting the disclosure of more "cooked books" and scandals to come in major U.S. corporations. As the U.S. equity markets become more erratic and plummet downward, it is interesting to note that the price of stock is 23 times over earnings, which is an overpriced ratio that makes the market vulnerable to further declines. Meanwhile, President Bush is worried about the political fallout from the rash of corporate scandals as evidenced by polls like the Gallup survey in January that found that 63% of the respondents said big business had too much influence over his administration. Bush responded to the latest corporate scandal by saying, "I am deeply concerned about some of the accounting practices. Those entrusted with shareholder's money must-must-strive for the highest of high standards." Bush appears to be playing the war card to get through the economic difficulty. As business historian, John Steele Gordon put it on Brian Williams Show on CNBC, "War, as long as it is fought on someone else's territory is good for the economy." In a highly controversial statement that many observers believe will help to prolong and foment even more strife in the Middle East, Bush said that he was for a Palestinian State but the peace process could not work as long as Arafat was the Palestinian leader and until the Palestinian people had a "market economy". That is just what the Palestinians' need, a U.S.-modeled market economy with companies like - Enron, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, Global Crossing, Dynergy, Tyco, Qwest, Imclone, WorldCom, Xerox, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia - and more crooked corporations to come. Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and civil rights activist in Columbia, South Carolina. www.turnipseed.net White Lies Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2002 June 25, 2002, By George Monbiot African leaders will be forced to humble themselves at the G8 summit, by taking the blame for what has happened to their continent By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 25th June 2002 In the Canadian fastness of Kananaskis this week, the messianic cult of empire will solemnly worship itself. The leaders of the G8 nations will declare that they have come to deliver the world from evil. They will announce that they are sacrificing themselves for the good of lesser nations. They will propose solutions from on high, without acknowledging any responsibility for the problems. It is traditional, when empire celebrates, that its vassal states come to pay tribute and beg for deliverance. This time, the African leaders who will be admitted to the summit on Thursday are prepared to suffer the final humiliation, by blaming themselves for the disasters visited upon them by the G8. "Africa", according to the Canadian government, "will remain a central focus of the Kananaskis Summit." The discussions will revolve around a plan called the New Partnership For Africa's Development, or Nepad, drafted by the African leaders and enthusiastically endorsed by the G8. The enthusiasm is not entirely surprising, as Nepad places nearly all the blame for Africa's problems and nearly all the responsibility for sorting them out on Africa itself. In the hope that it might win them a few crumbs of aid and extra debt relief, the continent's leaders appear to have told the rich world everything it wants to hear. Nepad accepts that colonialism, the Cold War, and "the workings of the international economic system" have contributed to Africa's problems, but the primary responsibility rests with "corruption and economic mismanagement" at home. Few would deny that these have played a significant role, but nowhere in the document on which the plan is based is there any mention of the far more consequential corruption and mismanagement by the nations to whom they are appealing. Africa's underlying problem, as the continent's leaders acknowledge, is debt. Nepad implicitly accepts the rich world's explanation for this debt: that previous African leaders have frittered away their economic independence through poor planning and personal graft. Nowhere is any context given: that Africa's deficit is merely one component of a vast and growing global debt, affecting consumers and nations in the rich world as well as nations in the poor world. Nowhere is any mention made of the "fractional reserve banking" system which causes it, and which arose as a consequence of corruption and mismanagement in western nations. The system ensures that the only way debts can be discharged is through the issue of more debt. This problem, as poor nations know but dare not acknowledge, is compounded by the policing system developed by the rich world in 1944. Rather than the self-correcting mechanism proposed by John Maynard Keynes, which forced creditors as well as debtors to discharge the debt, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were introduced as a means of persuading only the debtor nations to act, in the certain knowledge that this couldn't possibly work. This system granted the rich world complete economic control over the poor world. The power nations swing within the IMF is a function of their gross domestic product: the richer they are, the more votes they can cast. The World Bank is run entirely by "donor" states. These two bodies, in other words, respond only to the nations in which they do not operate. The consequences for national democracy are devastating. African voters can demand a change of government, but they cannot demand a change of policy. All the important decisions affecting the continent are made in Washington, and they always boil down to the neoliberal demolition of the state's capacity to care for its people. So when the African leaders announce that "Africa undertakes to respect the global standards of democracy", they are accepting a burden they cannot lift. Democracy in Africa is meaningless until its leaders are prepared to challenge the external control of their economies. But far from denouncing the authors of their misfortunes, they appear only to embrace them. "Structural adjustment", the IMF policy which has forced countries to repay their debts instead of investing in healthcare and education, is now almost universally acknowledged as the nemesis of development in Africa. Nepad's fiercest criticism is that it "provided only a partial solution" to poverty. Africa's leaders have pledged to support not only its successor policies (such as the IMF's demand that Malawi privatise its food reserves, with the result that millions of its inhabitants are now at risk of starvation), but also the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act passed by the US Congress. This act seeks to complete the job which structural adjustment began: forcing African countries to dismantle state support and privatise their economies in return for minimal concessions on trade and aid. Without addressing any of these obstacles, Nepad blithely promises to eliminate poverty, enrol all children in primary school, reduce child mortality by two-thirds and supply the continent with clean water and effective infrastructure. It will achieve these worthy aims, it claims, largely by means of "public private partnership": the mechanism which is now failing so spectacularly in the rich world, while being forced on Africa by the G8. Agricultural development depends, Nepad tells us, "on the removal of a number of structural constraints affecting the sector." One might have expected this to mean the dumping of subsidised produce onto the African market by Europe and North America, which is widely acknowledged as a crippling impediment to effective farming on the continent. But this is never mentioned. Instead, the plan insists, the "key constraint is climatic uncertainty". Quite how the African leaders intend to "remove" this constraint is not explained, but that objective is arguably just as realistic as any of the others they propose. Apart from a few timid requests for an increase in aid and a little more debt relief, the continent's leaders absolve the G8 nations of all responsibility. Instead, they proudly proclaim that "we will determine our own destiny" and call on the people of Africa "to mobilise themselves in order to put an end to further marginalisation of the continent". Self-determination is an admirable goal, but without control over economic policy it's bombast. Some might argue that this self-flagellation is a realistic means of engaging with the imperial powers in Kananaskis: the G8 nations, after all, do not take kindly to being lectured about their responsibilities. Nepad could be viewed as a white lie: the lies of the whites, repeated, with the best intentions, by the leaders of Africa. But development cannot be built upon a lie, for development is a matter of reality. So while their plan has admitted them to the imperial court, it merely reinforces the dispensation which ensures that Africa stays poor while the G8 stays rich. The continent's leaders will be forced to kneel on the stony ground of Kananaskis. But at least they've brought a Nepad. Reproduced from: http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=523 World News Posted: Sunday, June 30, 2002 • Brazil crowned world champions: Germany 0-2 Brazil ¥ This one is for Bush: Yes Bush, there are Blacks in Brazil • North Korea Accuses U.S. of War Plot • Crisis in the Credibility of US Capitalism • Hiroshima, The First Fireball • World War Crimes Court to Open Monday Despite US • If He Runs Again, Gore Says, 'To Hell With the Polls' • Bush vows to stop fraud wrecking economy • Blair's aides denounce US 'blundering' in Afghan war • A tale of two World Cups • Greek Explosion Injures Man • Thousands Attend Rally To Back Chavez • What a tricky business this capitalism is • Bye bye American pie • Bush vows to jail crooked execs • It couldn't happen here? Don't bank on it • World Con • Waiting for a miracle? • The blame the victim summit • Bitter reality of peace • Riots erupt after Belfast march • Blair rebuffed as rift with Bush deepens • Fate of 15 militants in PA's demolished Hebron HQ unknown • Arab states refuse U.S. request to name Arafat replacement • Israel to deny entry to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan • A world is born in a wink Why we should be worried about George W Bush Posted: Saturday, June 29, 2002 THE world outside the US is now getting used to the fact Americans have a fraudulently elected nitwit as their president, but George W. Bush excelled himself this week with a "long-awaited" definitive speech on Middle East policies that stretched even the weirdest imaginations. Bruce Wilson in London reports: MORE World News Posted: Saturday, June 29, 2002 • Pope Will Not Retire • Israeli Army Destroys Palestinian Hq • Embarrassed US blocks case against peace fighter • The first fireball • ANC angered by plan to build 'apartheid wall' • Gujarat's Muslim heritage smashed in riots • New F.B.I. Alert Warns of Threat Tied to July 4th • Rebels Push Colombia Toward Anarchy • Iraq Rebels Oppose U.S Strike to Topple Govt -Paper • Cheney Warns of Pre-Emptive Strikes • Pakistani Government Will Attempt to Rein In Militant Religious Schools • Bush's War becomes con game • US Judges make capital punishment easier to swallow • The Mideast doesn't have time for bad speeches • World Cup: South Korea 2-3 Turkey • The trouble with George W • Powell says determined to freeze out Arafat, seek new leaders • The way backwards • A lexicon learned • S.Korea Says 4 Killed, 18 Hurt in Clash with North • Xerox in $2bn scandal • Cheney to take charge while Bush goes under • Israel Destroys Hebron Compound • Catholic Priest Killed In Colombia • Police held for killing protesters • Before 9-11, Terror Was Low Priority • 'Baby Bomber' in family album leads to propaganda war • Bush warning for US companies • Bush's vision is already irrelevant in the Middle East • Happiness is a teaspoon of discoloured liquid • Once again, the West reveals its brutal contempt for the poorest continent • The real winners of the World Cup • Severe earthquake jolts northeast China, no report of casualty • Iraq's fat cats beat the sanctions • Al-Qaeda rocket attack kills 19 in east Afghanistan • Minister denies resigning over US troops • Musharraf fires spy chief after rigged vote World News Posted: Friday, June 28, 2002 • Bolivian candidates blast US "interference" • Xerox hit by fresh scandal, inflated profits by $6bn (£3.9bn). • EU gives more aid to Arafat in defiance of Bush • Congress Oks $450b Debt Limit Hike • Russia gets G8 cash, Arafat gets tough words • Israel worried as Hezbollah steps up espionage efforts • Mossad chief warns of Iran missile threat • Pakistani troops' deaths raise the stakes on all sides • Musharraf sacks general to bolster power • U.S. Threatens To Veto Bosnia Mission • 34 Asylum-seekers Break Out Of Camp • Europeans resist US call for UN immunity • Turkish collapse feared as leader hints he'll quit • Israeli forces keep 700,000 Palestinians under curfew • Musharraf moves to tighten grip on power • Please sir, can we have the summit security papers back? • Flawed peace plan reflects U.S. illusions World News Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2002 • Arafat Says US Needs New Leadership; Calls for Fair Elections • A fine mess you helped get Israel into, George • G-8 allies step away from Bush's Arafat stance • Disgraced WorldCom faces fraud charge • G-8 Leaders Challenge Bush's Stance • Israel scorns Palestinian election plan • Gulf widens over US threat to Arafat • Blair joins Canada and refuses to demand that Arafat quits • Court rules Sharon cannot be indicted for slaughter • Another year, another G8 summit. But do they achieve anything? • The key topics for Calgary • Arafat in poll challenge to Bush • Bush meets Blair, ups pressure for Arafat ouster • America's pledge of allegiance in schools ruled out • Bush learns first steps of a diplomatic dance • Still the man for Palestine • The bloody folly of George in Blunderland • Another step toward nowhere • G-8 Africa Relief Plan Hits Bumps • Powell sounds out Arab allies on Bush's plan for the Middle East • British plans to lock up mentally ill 'fundamentally flawed' • Zimbabwean White farmer finds resistance futile • Two Argentines shot dead in anti-government riots • Worldwide web of debt unravelling • Tennis Great Navratilova Attacks U.S. Values We've missed the point of Bush's Middle East policy Posted: Thursday, June 27, 2002  (Guardian UK) It's usually a mistake to assume that a world leader is off his head. Even Boris Yeltsin, though drunk in charge of Russia, had a sense of strategy. Another chump, Ronald Reagan, seemed barely to know in detail what he was doing at any given time, and once, talking to Gorbachev in Reykjavik, came close to handing over America's nuclear store. But Reagan wasn't mad. He clung to a big idea about how to make the world a better place. George Bush is no exception to this rule. His first solemn shot at bringing peace to the Middle East is so one-sided, so absurdly unreal, that it's tempting to dismiss it as the casual folly of a president who can't be serious. But presidents need the benefit of the doubt about their seriousness. We owe them, and ourselves, nothing less. Hugo Young reports MOREEuropean papers on Bush's speech Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 Le Monde (France) President George Bush proposed a strange deal with the Palestinians on Monday: the United States will help you to build a state if you get rid of your leader ... Under what name does the US assume the right to say who should be the head of a national liberation movement? ... What it requires of the Palestinians under occupation - democracy, transparency, effectiveness - it does not require of the number of dictatorships in the region with which it maintains good relations. But that is perhaps not the essence ... by demanding Mr Arafat's departure, one of the principal objectives of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, it ratifies an Israeli obsession: the elimination, at least political, of the man who symbolises the Palestinian national movement. Read the article Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) One cannot argue with Mr Bush's making an end to terrorism a condition of negotiations. He wanted to make it clear that there can be no political "rewards" for the kind of bloody attacks on civilians that Palestinian extremists have been carrying out for months. Yet this is where the problem starts. What is terrorism? Might it also include some of the actions of the Israeli army ... what about Israel's "extra-judicial killings"? Terrorism is not something one can simply turn off. Radical elements, particularly the Islamic group Hamas, have long determined the course of action in the Middle East. Mr Arafat and Mr Sharon are each in their own way hostages to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' founder and leader. With his attacks, he constantly forces Mr. Sharon to act as he does, which then deepens the hostility between the two warring parties. Read the article El Mundo (Spain) In Afghanistan and the Middle East George Bush is today forced - in spite of all the isolationist instincts of North American conservatives - into the most dangerous exercises of nation building. If the United States is committed once and for all in the creation of a Palestinian state it is possible perhaps to fulfill that objective within three years ... But when making it conditional on Yasser Arafat's disappearance from Palestinian politics, Mr Bush goes too far in accepting Ariel Sharon's aims to the last letter. Read the article Researcher says spanking a bad disciplinary tool Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 The Associated Press (yahoo) NEW YORK - After analyzing six decades of expert research on corporal punishment, a psychologist says parents who spank their children risk causing long-term harm that outweighs the short-term benefit of instant obedience. The psychologist, Elizabeth Gershoff, found links between spanking and 10 negative behaviors or experiences, including aggression, anti-social behavior and mental health problems. The one positive result of spanking that she identified was quick compliance with parental demands. Her analysis was accompanied in the Psychological Bulletin by a critique from three other psychologists. They defend mild to moderate spanking as a viable disciplinary option, especially for children 2 to 6, but advise parents with abusive tendencies to avoid spanking. Gershoff, a researcher at Columbia University's National Center for Children in Poverty, spent five years on her project, analyzing 88 studies of corporal punishment conducted since 1938. The studies tracked both the short- and long-term effects of spanking on children. Gershoff stopped short of endorsing a legal ban on parental corporal punishment, saying the United States was unlikely to emulate a group of European countries in taking that step. However, she urged parents who spank to reconsider their options. "When they're in a situation where they're considering spanking, think of something else to do — leave the room, count to 10, and come back again," Gershoff said in an interview Tuesday. "The risk is just too great." Several major national organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have taken an official stand against corporal punishment by parents. The psychological association has not taken a stance, though it is on record opposing corporal punishment at schools and other institutions. Robert Larzelere, a psychology professor at the Nebraska Medical Center, was one of the three experts critiquing Gershoff's findings. He noted that while she found links between spanking and negative behaviors, she did not assert categorically that spanking caused those behaviors. Larzelere, in an interview, said he remains convinced that mild, non-abusive spanking can be an effective reinforcement of nonphysical disciplinary methods, particularly in dealing with defiant 2- to 6-year-olds. He shared concerns about spanking that is too severe or too frequent. Gershoff cautioned that her findings do not imply that all children who are spanked turn out to be aggressive or delinquent. But she contended that corporal punishment, on its own, does not teach children right from wrong and may not deter them from misbehaving when their parents are absent. "Until researchers, clinicians, and parents can definitively demonstrate the presence of positive effects of corporal punishment, including effectiveness in halting future misbehavior, not just the absence of negative effects, we as psychologists can not responsibly recommend its use," Gershoff wrote. American Psychological Assn.: http://www.apa.org THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Reproduced from: http://story.news.yahoo.com/ World News Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 • U.S. Businesses Dim as Models for Foreigners • Musharraf seeks powers to sack elected govt • Wife of ex-Afghan king dies in Rome • Lawmakers Move to End US Travel Ban to Cuba • War State No Republic • Palestinian boy killed in Jenin, dozens arrested • Regulators move against WorldCom • Court Rejects 'Under God' Phrase in School Pledge • 10 Pakistan Soldiers Killed In Al-Qa'ida Battle • Belgian Court Throws Out Case Against Sharon • Massive fraud reported at WorldCom > WorldCom inflated earnings by nearly $4 billion • Corporate Scandals Taking Toll On Markets • Martha Stewart facing wider probe in stock sale • World Cup: Brazil 1 - 0 Turkey > Brazil faces Germany in final. • Somalia minister kidnapped • 10 Pakistani soldiers killed • Arafat Rejects Bush Demands • UK rift with Bush over Middle East • China Crash May Be Metal Fatigue • Arafat approved reforms just as tanks rolled in • I wonder why Bush doesn't let Sharon run his press office • Arafat's mask slips, but he still has a trick up his sleeve • Mr Bush may be half-right, but he has broken the first rule of statesmanship • 'Go on bleeding for now, then eventually we'll have two states' • War, what is it good for? • Get rid of Arafat and Palestine is yours, says Bush • US may find ousting Arafat is easier said than done • Powell comes round to Bush's way of thinking • Corporate America hit by biggest scandal in history • The Empire is dead. Long live the Empire • Bush's benchmarks • Why the president stopped listening to Powell • Kuwaitis Sue U.S. Over 12 Held at Guantánamo • Pentagon watching China naval modernisation • Israel storms Palestinian HQ in Hebron • Bush's plan 'too vague' to achieve final peace Lessons From The Central Park Jogger Case Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 In the Context of Current History by Elombe Brath For over a week the media has mesmerized their crime fascinated American clientele with the sordid saga of the recently deceased Mafia Don John Gotti with highly romanticized stories on his life and the glamorous lifestyle of someone they claimed to be one of the most callous and vicious gangsters in the history of New York City. Meanwhile, little attention was being paid to a small news story regarding the 13 year old Central Park Jogger Case that should have been regarded as one of the biggest revelatory news bombshells in regards to the U.S. criminal justice system and American journalism at large. After a month of investigation, it was reported on Tuesday, June 11,on Fox TV and in the New York Times that a convicted rapist and murderer, Matias Reyes, serving 33 1/2 years years to life for the rape and murder of one woman and the rape of several others, has confessed that he was also the person who raped the jogger in the infamous Central Park case that nearly tore this city apart 13 years ago. This startling revelation, which seemingly - and hopefully - should lead to the expeditious resolution of pending appeals processes, demands for “pardons”, and expunging from the criminal justice records the convictions of six young African-American and Latino men who were falsely accused, charged, convicted and sent to prison for allegedy committing a heinous crime: the April 19,1989 beating and rape in Central Park of a white female jogger - then a 28-year old wall street investment banker, working for Salomon Brothers, no less. Moreover, while five of the defendants have been released after ostensibly serving “their” time, one young man, Kharey Wise, was never able to make bail and has remained incarcerated in the New York prison system for the last 13 years. Since Wise’s incarceration has continued much longer after the release of his other codefendants, it stands to reason that he should be released immediately into the custody of his mother, family and community. Given the importance of the highly sensationalized Central Park jogger case which had New York polarized along the racial fault-lines that have riven the nation since time immemorial, you would think that this story would have been the lead story on television newscasts and radio broadcasts and frontpage headlines in the major newspapers and the tabloids when the first story broke. With the exception of WBAI’S “Wake Up Call”, this was not the case. Fox TV did a piece on the story that was practically smothered by other regular features of lesser significance but were allowed to share equal time and space. While I did not see anything on News 1 myself, I was told that one did air on the channel but was appeared and was gone so fleetingly that it amounted to practically nothing. News 1 is supposedly New York City’s major cable television channel to cover events primarily of interest to New Yorkers. It is also the station where Dominic Carter has been ensconced for some time. An historical note of both paradox and parody is the fact that I personally intervened to stop Dominic from getting knocked out when a melee broke out after guilty verdicts in the Central Park jogger case were announced against two of the defendents. Maybe Dominic forgot about the case or just blocked it out of his memory. The New York Times, said to be the U.S. “paper of record”, which boasts that it prints all the news fit to print (or as Professor Rayfus Williams correctly pointed out, “All the news printed to fit), apparently felt that the story was not front-page material and only ran it in the B section, page two - not even page one, the section’s front page. And even then, the story tended to spread be confusion, leaving the impression that the relevance of Reyes confession was either that all of the defendants and Reyes were guilty or Reyes was just “off the wall.” I’ll get back to that in a moment. Reviews of the coverage of the two major daily tabloids which reap their profits by feeding sensationalized anti-crime stories when race is a key agitating ingredient, represent a scandal. I don’t think they mentioned the Reyes confession at all. Instead, the New York Daily News published a front and back page, 16 page wrap-around special edition glorifying the life of Mafia Don John Gotti while its rival, the New York Post, published a 13-page romanticization of the lifestyle of the man accused of being one of the most brutal crime bosses in the history of New York City. Did you notice how much fantasy, Sopranos-like press the “dapper don” mobster John Gotti received in his obituaries as opposed to that of the late former police commissioner Ben Ward? Gotti, the fifth born of 13 children born to a poor Italian family in the South Bronx, ascended to his notoriety and personal enrichment by engaging in murder and mayhem, racketeering and only God knows what, ending up in the federal penitentiary with a life sentence which he finally finished. On the other hand, Ward- the 10th child of 11 children born to an African-American family in Brooklyn; his father a laborer and mother a domestic, a poor family where six of his siblings died of childhood illnesses, sought to better his meager conditions and upgrade his social status through, as he was taught, honest, hard work. As it has been pointed out, Ward shined shoes, delivered groceries, developed his mental capacity in schools, graduated and joined the segregated U.S. Army military during World War II and was sent off to fight against nazism in Germany, fascism in Italy, and “make Europe safe for democracy”, etc. He subsequently joined the NYPD in 1951 and achieved the third highest score out of 78,000 applicates who took the examination. Yet, in the NYPD he was treated with as much racist hostility and contempt that many of white officers in the department usually mete out any Black or Latino citizen or denizen that they have sworn to serve and protect. Nevertheless, Ward - and this is not as much a promotion of either him or his career but a candid observation and honest appraisal of his work ethics - went on to return to school and earn a law degree from Brooklyn Law School, become the first Black person to be director of New York’s Department of Corrections and commissioner of the largest force in the country, two of the highest positions in the criminal justice civil service in this city’s history. Check the coverage of the obituaries between Gotti and Ward. Interesting contrast, aren’t they? Notice how the mainstream media treated the eulogies of a white man who led a life of organized crime and a Black man whose life was organized to fight against crime. It should be very instructive. And if you think that comparative analyses of the lives of Gotti and Ward and the hypocritical moral values that this society teaches have nothing to do with the coverage of the plight of the Black and Latino teenagers who were victimized in the Central Park case, you are definitely mistaken. How the mainstream media treated the confession of Matias Reyes is equally shocking. Reyes’s admission is as important a news story as that of Arnold Beverly, the self-professed mob hitman who admitted how he - not Mumia Abu-Jamal - killed Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in Philadelphia during December 1981! In my view, and that of many others that I have talked to , the news of Beverly’s confession should have allowed Mumia, who has been imprisoned on deathrow for over two decades, to at least be able to apply for bail if not outright demand immediate release. However, Reyes’s admission of guilt was treated in the same cavalier manner as was Beverly’s. Very little publicity; ignore the story and hope that it will fade away. It makes you wonder if someone in similar circumstances of either Reyes or Beverly would now come forth and announce that he (or even she) was the one really responsible for the actual killing of Nicole Simpson, how such an addmission as shocking as that be treated? Most likely, in order to save their racist faces and/or asses, the criminal justice system might actually do away with the bearer of the new unwanted news rather than face the consequences of the truth. The criminal justice system claims that everyone charged with a crime is to be assumed innocent until proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. Presumably, the system is willing to face the truth when confronted with it. But paraphrasing the immortal words of Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”, They want the truth? They can’t handle the truth! And it seems that they really can’t - or won’t - deal with the truth. Take the case of Matias Reyes. The 31-year old inmate pleaded guilty in October 1991 to raping and murdering a 24-year old pregnant white woman on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and raping several others, certainly didn’t need another case - especially one with the magnitude of the brutal rape that took place in Central Park on April 19,1989. Like Beverly, Reyes doesn’t need to add any more to his already overloaded plate or rap sheet. But after much soul searching, and perhaps having undergone an epiphany and a sense of remorse, along with an understandable jailhouse religious conversion, Reyes admitted that he had also been responsible for the rape of *Patricia Meili, the jogger attacked in Central Park in 1989. Of particular interest is the fact that Reyes’s rape and murder of the Upper East Side woman took place two years after that of the Central Park case, during a time that many of us were claiming that the six teenage defendants were innocent and that the prosecution should be trying to find the real assailant before they strike again. But our demands went to no avail. Now 31-years old, Reyes would have been 20 years old when he raped the woman for whom he was arrested for murdering and 18 at the time of the Central Park incident. The oldest defendant in the Central Park case was 16 and the youngest 14,hardly the running buddies of Reyes. In fact, although several of the defendants lived in the same housing development, Schomburg Plaza, the didn’t all hang out together or associate prior to the case. For the most part, they learned more about each other after being co-defendants in the case. Now back to the Times story by William K. Rashbaum. I find Mr. Rashbaum’s story somewhat disengenuous. Most irritating - and infuriating - is his conclusion when he quoted defense attorney Jesse Berman, who got a plea bargain for his client Steve Lopez to receive a lesser sentence. Rashbaum suggested that Berman stated while “he had always been skeptical of the confessions”, there were two options to understand Reye’s confession. According to Rashbaum, Berman said, “One possibility is that they’re guilty and this guy is guilty too, ”, and “One possibility is [Reyes] is off the wall and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, ” which is how the Times article ended. However, many who know Berman were suspicious that he would have offered only those two options to explain away Reye’s important confession. And lo and behold, when Herb Boyd contacted Berman, the lawyer not only clarified the misunderstanding but we learned how assignment editors and reporters connive to manufacture a bogus consensus on critical issues that have been devastating to the African-American and Latino community, especially the youth. According to Boyd, writing in the AmNews last week, Berman said, “I told them that one possibility is that they’re [the five convicted] all guilty, as well as Reyes; that Reyes is off the wall; or that he was solely responsible.” The fact that the Rashbaum and the Times edited out the one option that cited Reyes’s sole culpability in the crime is very important to understand the foul role that the major media plays in these cases which have are infested with racial dynamics. This omission cannot be dismissed as simply just the reporter and/or the Times simply just being mischievous or careless. It is a calculated attempt at deception, to plant into the minds of the general public that Reyes’s claim does not rule out the impression that the six teenagers had been involved with him, or that he is simply a nut. The contention is disengenuously beyond measure, and must be confronted and the authors must not be allowed to get away with impunity. The same can be said of the interpretation of DNA tests. According to the Times Reyes’s DNA tests showed that his “genetic material” was “consistent with some of the evidence” found in the jogger case. But, we are then told that, “the tests do not show a conclusive match”, alluding this opinion to some unnamed person who is supposedly familiar with the investigation. This slight-of-hand attempt to obfuscate the importance of the consistency of the genetic match with Reyes, which substantiates his confession, is similar to the time 13 years ago when the FBI brought back their results of DNA testing of the six defendants. The media had convinced almost everyone to expect a match that would guarantee a conviction of all of the defendants. But the results proved just the opposite, excluding matches of any of the defendants to the jogger. In fact, the only definitive match was with the jogger’s boy friend. Finding no match with the defendants who had been practically found guilty before the trial even began, an embarrassed prosecution reported that the results were “inconclusive.” Thus, at a time when DNA tests were freeing inmates all across the country who had been imprisoned for years, the Central Park defendents found themsleves in a most unusual paradoxical predicament at the end of their trial: they were railroaded to prison although DNA had cleared them of culpability in the actual committing of the crime. A few weeks ago two detectives went to the home of one of the defendants under the guise that they were just on a courtesy visit to see how the young man was getting along with his life after being released from incarceration. Shortly after, the detectives asked the young man to look at about a dozen photographs that they just happened to have with them. When they asked if he could identify any of the people in the photos he said yes, pointing out two of his codefendants. They then asked if he knew any of the others in the mugshots and he told them he couldn’t reconize anyone other than two he named (and he didn’t), the detectives left dissapointed. But when you reflect upon what this scenario indicates, it clearly looks like it was an attempt to entrap the former defendant, just as he and his codefendants had been entrapped in 1989. How so? Well, if you think that the detectives simply visited the young man to check on his wellbeing, than you don’t have to read further. On the other hand, if you know how detectives usually work, the chances are that they had shuffled photos of Reyes among the mix with hopes that the defendant would pick one out of him, allowing for them to develop a case that there was some sort of a link between the imprisoned convicted serial rapist and murderer to those who had been earlier convicted, sentenced and served prison terms for the crime. Reyes’s confession could then be accepted contextually, without directly indicating whether that the Central Park defendants were actually innocent or not, but imply that they were somehow accomplices. In this scenario, Reyes would then just be projected as another member of the so-called “wilding”, “urban terrorists”, “super predators”, “wolf pack” that the police and the media concocted - but one that they had somehow missed in the sweep during 13 years ago. In effect, Reyes then could be presented as a missing rapist, similar to how Zacarias Maoussaoui, the alleged 20th terrorist that is believed was scheduled to participate in the tragic events of September 11,2001 if he hadn’t been in jail during the time that the tragedy occurred. With the prospects of facing one of the biggest lawsuits in the history of wrongful imprisonment grievances, New York City in general and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in particular are not very happy with the recent turn of events. Detectives have already made an additional attempt to harass the parent of another one of the young men convicted in the Central Park case but was brusquely shown the door. Don’t be surprised at anything that the police and the press try to do to avoid having to answer to the devastation they have done to the families of those “convicted” 13 years ago and await justice for the injustice accorded them at that time and the restoration of their good names and having their records cleared. Another slight-of-hand maneuver in the media concerning the case was the treatment of alleged confessions used against them. Without any doubt, if it had not been for the six young men being intimidated and inveigled by members of the NYPD and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office into making self-incriminating videotaped statements that were used as “confessions” against them, they never would have been convicted. These “confessions” concocted by the police were what prejudiced the public against not only the youth but the attorneys that defended them and activists who supported them. But I feel more confident today than at any time before that finally the Central Park Six will be totally vindicated. They have spent unnecessary years of their youth behind bars in a case that more and more people are starting to agree that if it had been their child or children instead of those who were victimized, then they would also be demanding immediate release and restitution. The other tragedy of the case is the collateral damage that wreaked havoc on the families. Some parents were so shamed about the case and frustrated about how they handled the situation that they fell victim to internal conflicts. Some even eventually separated, and at least two good fathers became so stressed out that their health was overlooked and deteriorated. Eventually fate took its course and their toll: both succuming to untimely deaths. Although the defendants had not been in any serious problems with the criminal justice system prior to April 19,1989,which usually is helpful as a mitigating circumstance for the court to be lenient, the horror of the crime weighed against the six young men benefitting by any previous good behavior. They were branded as sex offenders and demanded to make statements of remorse for a crime they had not done. And based on that, while the young defendants themselves denounced the barbarity of the crime, they could not, nor would not - or felt that they should have to - make such statements which would allow people to interpret as indicating that they were guilty. At the time the young men were being urged to show remorse as the only way to convince people that believed they were guilty that, instead, they were really innocent. It was demanded that they also should subject themselves to encounter groups to make sex offenders purge themselves of their assumed lustful impulses. And after that, upon release from prison, they were catalogued by Megan’s Law, that forces convicted sex offenders to be identified as such, allowing for potential employers or neighbors to further discriminate against having such an individual in either their employ or within their midst. And living near so-called “decent people” was entirely out of the question. While you are pondering how adequate you may think that it is for the guilty, compute how horrible it is for the innocent. Thirteen years ago Cardinal O’Connor drew some criticism when during the time that the hysteria around the case was initially at its highest, he went to visit the defendents at Rikers Island. We seized the opportunity then to raise a question of a deeper inquiry than if the Cardinal should or shouldn’t have made the visit. Some thought he was just trying to seek further “confessions.” Instead, we wanted to know how the media could be so gung ho to punish six Black and Hispanic teenagers and label them as sex offenders when their cases at least reflected reasonable doubts in regards to their alleged guilt? Meanwhile, both the system and the media neglected the coverup of the then-emerging cases of pedophile priests operating freely within the Catholic Church (as well as other religious denominations.) Why were priests who operated as serial rapists allowed to be transferred from diocese to diocese without an iota of repentance or arrest for statutory rape? How could they be allowed to leave such a trail of broken lives of innocent children and adolescents who were entrusted to a hypocritical religious hierarchy quoting scriptures and posturing as God’s representatives on earth? These callous individuals, whom Carlos Cooks was once jailed for referring to as “ecclesiastical pimps” and “bible quoting hypocrites”, have the audacity to demand confessions from others but cannot admit that their own guilt regarding their troubled lives are ruining the lives of their young charges. But are subjected to arrest for violating the criminal code? Were they shamed in public at the time, unlike today? All one has to do to figure out how long this unchecked licentious behavior has been going on is to see the amount of people who were victimized in their childhood now coming forth to testify are grown men. Have any of these holier-than-thou violaters ever been asked to submit to Megan’s Law so that when they are transfered to another parish at least the parishoners would have a chance to safeguard their children? No, they receive protection of confidentiality from their superiors in a blatant conspiracy of evil that denies everything they claim to believe in. And even now, after months of negotiations about how to stop the pampering of those who would reduce the church down to being viewed as an undecisive quarreling group of whether to continuing to sympathize with the delights of privileged class of pontifical pedophiliacs or defend the rights of the masses of naive and gullible people by taking the proper means to stamp out the pandemic sexual abuse of children, they cannot agree that zero tolerance of such psychologically damaging behavior has to be adhered to. And like the prosecution, the biggest factor in them even considering these crimes against the youngest of humanity is the fear that the price they will have to pay is financial reparations: irate victims and their families have started to penalize the Church by withholding the payment of their tithes to such a hypocritical and callous institution. In the final analysis, it’s bad enough if an individual priest is sick and needs help. It’s another thing - and even worse-when his sickness is allowed to go unchecked and subsequently spreads like a cancer among one of the largest religious congregations in the world. In the latter case, the priest, whether he is a deacon, bishop, cardinal or whatever and they abdicate their assumed moral authority to protect their flock, then they too are sick and even more dangerous than the wayward priests that they are covering up for. So are those who are now fearful of a major civil law suit to bring some sort of restitution to the young men, who have suffered irreparable harm by being made to pay for a crime that they did not do. The system seems hell-bent to do anything to render Reyes’s confession irrelevant and thus avoid a lawsuit that many people are now realizing that if justice is ever to be rendered in the Central Park jogger case it is due to the victims who, for the most part, were represented by incompetent counsel. Linda Fairstein and Elizabeth Lederer, the two district attorneys that gained fame and fortune in prosecuting the Central Park jogger case, have gone on with their lives and careers without ever having to look back. Patricia Meili, the jogger, is now willing to tell her story for big money with her aforementioned book due in the spring of 2003,although she testified that she could not remember what happened on that fateful day in April 1989 or since. Matias Reyes, however, does know what actually happened on that fateful night thirteen years ago. He has vividly described what occurred to the prison officials, state and federal authorities and the prosecution, which is what initiated him having to submit himself to genetic testing. And his DNA has supported his version of the event. Therefore, what are we to do about the six young men whose names and potential for higher education and decent employment were destroyed or deeply damaged because of a combination of all of the above factors? What are they to do to for themselves if they don’t get the justice that has eluded them for the last 13 years? It’s time that they finally get their day in court and freedom from the past which never should have been their misfortune in the first place. The time is now to finally clear this tragic mess up and bring closure to one of the most infamous cases of travesty of justice in a society that for Africans or people of African descent, or the indigenous population, was founded on injustice from its inception. Whether we rectify these wrongs or fail to do so is entirely in ovr hands. [*Don’t get upset that I mentioned her name like the media did 13 years ago when Amsterdam News publisher and editor-in-chief Wilbert A. Tatum made an earlier identification. As AmNews reporter Herb Boyd pointed out in the Amsterdam News last week (June 13-19,2002), Ms. Meili will be identifying herself in a book on the case which she has authored for the Scribner imprint of Simon & Schuster and will be published in the spring of 2003. And remember, although Ms. Meili testified that she did not know - nor was she able to identify - who assaulted and raped her at the time, when the trial(s) were all over, she thanked the police and the prosecution for solving the case.] Visit Elombe at http://www.afrikaleidoscope.net Reproduced from: http://www.theMarcusGarveyBBS.com World News Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 • Bush's Speech - A Vision of Permanent War • Hope for 800 on death row in US • Arizona blaze rages as threatened town waits • Israeli troops storm Palestinian HQ • One-sided offer that will change nothing • World Cup: Germany 1 - 0 South Korea • Bush says Arafat must go • US dismisses al-Qaida claim that network is '98% intact' • U.S. Aid Agency Back In Pakistan • Arafat gambles with crackdown on Hamas • South Korea guilty of unfair play? • US hawks deliver victory to Sharon in battle over Arafat • Hamas waits defiantly as Israel plots its revenge • I confess: I have had some racist thoughts • Sharon launches massive Gaza onslaught • Bush plots path to Palestinian state as tanks surround Arafat • Gaza 'war' likely to escalate bloodshed • Afghanistan loses female minister in row over sharia law • Restrictions make life a struggle on West Bank • Politically, Arafat is a dead man walking • Israel halts aid to territories from Iran and Iraq • The cost of the first intifada still mounts • Chinese plan big Russian arms deal • Israeli helicopters seek and destroy with missiles • Bombs and fences Turmoil fuels plunder of African 'Garden of Eden' Posted: Monday, June 24, 2002 By John Kamau, herald.co.zw Anthropologist Jacque Dimarosimana watched as women cradling bundles of firewood emerged from southern Madagascar’s Toliara forest. Some few yards down the once-paved road, a large section of the forest had been cleared by charcoal dealers who were now packing the content into gunny sacks, ready for the 450-kilometre journey north-east to Antananarivo, the capital of this Indian Ocean island nation. Charcoal made of hardwood from Madagascar’s famed forests has become the only source of energy for millions of people in a nation whose only oil refinery remains closed and where fuel paraffin has run dry — driving the fuel business underground. To make matters worse, a power struggle between newly elected President Marc Ravalomanana and former president Didier Ratsiraka has engulfed the island in a political crisis since January. The rivalry has split the nation. "If this crisis continues," Dimarosimana warns, "the spiny forests (of south Madagascar) will be lost for good." Attempts to unite the political rivals and form a government of national unity have yet to bear fruit, although Ravalomanana made a gesture of reconciliation by dissolving the government on 16 June, with talk of being more inclusive with the opposition. Ratsiraka, meanwhile, fled to France in early June as sporadic fighting flared across the island’s northern peninsula. With fear of political violence running high in Antananarivo, those who can are packing their bags. Jean Habrokurouhou left his job as a clerical officer at the defence ministry and travelled south to his home village of Andranamaitso, some 12 km east of Toliara town. "I have to be near my family," he said. Every morning, the father of four boys enters Toliara forest to check his kilns, where hardwood from Madagascan forests is burned until it becomes charcoal. The wood is arranged in these kilns and covered with leaves and soil. A fire is lit through a tiny opening at the bottom. Smoke escapes from another opening on top. These openings allow the right amount of airflow — if there’s a leak, the wood could burn too fast or unevenly. These charcoal kilns have now become a source of livelihood for Habrokurouhou’s family — one gunny sack fetches US$3 in his village, or as much as US$12 in the capital. When asked about the long-term implications of forest destruction, he replies: "We have to eat; the next generation will take care of itself." With every gunny sack that is filled, south Madagascar’s forests are slowly giving in to wanton destruction by both charcoal dealers and farmers who practice the traditional slash-and-burn farming methods. "Madagascar will slowly bleed to its death," warns Racas Funtalorinana, a 25-year-old activist with a local environmental group. Southern Madagascar is famous for impenetrable thickets of weirdly adapted succulents, cactus plants and bloated giant baobabs. Its rich collection of plants and animals is one of the many tourist attractions on this island. Far from netting profits from tourism, it is the poverty that sticks amid the surrounding beauty — like the hundreds of tombs that dot Madagascar’s hilltops. Although Madagascar has one of the most unique ecosystems in the world, poverty and political uncertainty remain the new threats as thousands of villagers invade the forests in search of ever more fuel wood and agricultural land. "Politicians are pushing this country into an abyss," Dimarosimana says. With as many as 90 per cent of the people on the island subsisting directly on income from the land, and a per capita annual income of US$300, environmentalists here say that the country’s rulers will find it increasingly difficult in coming years to maintain such unsustainable livelihoods. "The fate of the people and the forest are inextricably linked but the people do not know this," says Racas Funtalorinana of the Madagascar Environment Trust. "The people want to be able to support themselves and better their lives. But at the moment there is growing temptation to cut down the forests in this lawlessness." Scientists estimate that in the southern Madagascar province of Fianarantosoa alone there are 200 000 plus species of plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth. "Madagascar is an ecological Garden of Eden," says Adan Erow, a Canadian researcher. "But all these cannot last a lifetime with all the poverty in this nation and if the current crisis continues." Erow has been studying the adaptation of the white Sifaka lemur, a primate found only in Madagascar — in one of the poorest and most environmentally challenged parts of the country. If the crisis gets out of hand, he says, Madagascar could go the Congo way — where too environmental poachers targetted forests and other natural resources. He thumbs through a local Catholic newspaper La Kroan’i Madagasikara. The editorial was catchy. It said: "Time to be pessimistic." Everybody in Madagascar is these days. Madagascar may be a geological and ecological wonderland (it snapped from mainland Africa some 180 million years ago), but as the crisis continues there is only one option before its 16 million people. As one villager said, "It is survival." — Gemini News. JOHN KAMAU is the editor of Nairobi-based Rights Features Service. Reproduced from: http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=11545&pubdate=2002-06-24 Court: Juries must impose death Posted: Monday, June 24, 2002 (AP) The US Supreme Court overturned the death sentence laws of five states today, affecting more than 160 death row inmates, by ruling that juries and not judges must make life-or-death determinations about the fate of convicted killers. The 7-2 ruling means that executions ordered for 168 people will be reconsidered, although it is not clear how the affected states will respond. MORE World News Posted: Monday, June 24, 2002 • Over 100 Die in Tanzania Rail Crash • Africa: permanent midnight • Five killed in church bus smash • Yugoslav President Fires Army Chief • US Supreme Court: Juries not Judges must impose death • Israeli tanks and APCs surround Yasir Arafat's compound • Non-university graduates banned from standing in elections • Bush Readies Mideast Peace Proposal • 6 Killed In Brooklyn Apartment Fire • PA says it arrests Hamas, Islamic Jihad members in Gaza Strip • CNN blinks first in battle with Israeli officials • Israelis Target Car in Gaza • British are institutionally racist, says public prosecutor • Israel to expel bomb families, smash houses • More than 200 feared dead in Russian floods • Mahathir delivers double shock to his people • Demand for an independent commission to investigate 9/11 • Is the World Cup a fix? • The west is walking away from Afghanistan - again • Arms deals hinder war on terror, says Amnesty • Mammoth Arizona Wildfires Merge • Osama Bin Laden and "98%" of the al-Qaida leadership are still alive • Iran quake victims claim survivors were left in rubble • For President Bush, fat is a federalist issue • India and Pakistan cannot silence Kashmiris • Palestinians put Hamas spiritual leader under house arrest • 'Weak' Karzai hands power to warlords • SPS plans to remove Milosevic as party leader • Six killed as rains lash Peshawar World News Posted: Sunday, June 23, 2002 • Major Crimes In U.S. Increase • Running on empty: time to give brain a workout • Iran Quake Victims Reduced to 220 • Heated refereeing row dogs finals • Fatal vision: how Bush has given up on peace • Al-qaida: Bin Laden Still Alive • Al-qaida Spokesman: Bin Laden Is Alive • Can the Afghan peace hold? • Mayors Of Colombian State Resign • Bush urged to join calls for peace summit • At least 500 killed in devastating Iran quake, more feared dead • Malaysian PM Mahathir resigned then changed his mind • Israel sends home Gaza’s doctor of mercy • Five Separatist Bombs Rattle Spain • Referee row boils over as World Cup shocks go on • Bombs wreck hopes of Gibraltar deal • Spain reassures tourists after ETA bombings • 23 killed in Orakzai wedding explosion • Bush bid for peace slammed before it begins • Las Vegas terror threat dismissed by FBI • Israelis tighten grip on West Bank cities • Israel hints at long-term West Bank re-occupation • They come here to live... and, if God wills it, to die • Starvation looms in flood-stranded Assam, India • RAF abandons missile system after near miss • Afghan leader powerless as rabble of warlords vie for cabinet control • Blair suffers a double defeat on asylum seekers at Seville summit • Bush at bay • Short attacks Blair over EU asylum 'sabotage' • The World Bank's next white elephant • Iranian villages razed as quake kills 400 World News Posted: Saturday, June 22, 2002 • Bush Welcomes Muslim Rebel's Death • At least 500 killed in devastating Iran quake, more feared dead • Car bomb explodes as EU summit ends • Settler arrested on suspicion of shooting dead Palestinian • Italy investigates widespread Internet child pornography • Internet delays feared in Europe as network shuts down • World Cup: Senegal 0-1 Turkey (golden goal) • World Cup: South Korea wins 5-3 on penalties • Video to show bin Laden still alive and dangerous • Ten Palestinians killed as Israel steps up reoccupation of West Bank • Why U.S. media black out documentary on war crimes? • FBI warns of a possible plot to use fuel trucks as a weapon • Israeli settlers rampage after blood-soaked week • Where there's no hope, must there be no life? • Philippine rebel chief 'shot dead' • British banker latest bomb victim • British Anger at Saudi bomb claims • Serb TV boss jailed over staff killed in Nato raid • European Intelligence: The US Betrayed Us In Macedonia • Blair backs away from linking aid to immigration • EU leaders to call for Palestinian state based on 1967 borders • Gaddafi and son preach message of peace • ETA rattles Spain's EU summit with three car bombs • RJ Reynolds to pay $US15 million to smoker • Perfection has its limits, even for Martha Stewart African Predator 'Rediscovered' in Tanzania Posted: Friday, June 21, 2002 Wildlife Conservation Society A WCS scientist working in southeastern Tanzania has rediscovered a carnivore that has remained undetected for the last 70 years. Photographed by a camera trap on the eastern side of Udzungwa Mountain National Park, the Lowe's servaline genet - a three-foot-long relative of the mongoose family - was previously known only from a single skin collected in 1932. "This is the first ever photograph of Lowe's servaline genet and confirms the animal's existence after seventy years," said WCS researcher Daniela De Luca, who was conducting a carnivore survey in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park using remote camera traps. "We now hope to find out more about the animal and thus help ensure its survival." Lowe's servaline genet was first described by, and subsequently name after, British explorer and naturalist Willoughby Lowe. Lowe's description of the skin noted that the animal differed from other servaline genets both in its range and coloration, specifically the presence of orange in the animal's white facial spots and lighter feet and legs. Ironically, another of Lowe's discoveries - the Miss Waldron's red colobus monkey - was declared extinct in 2000 after an extensive survey in the monkey's former Central African habitat failed to find any evidence of its persistence. Apart from the assumption that the Lowe's servaline genet is - like other servaline genets - nocturnal and tree-dwelling - De Luca points out that nothing is known about the genet's ecology, distribution and abundance. De Luca's camera trap survey was the first to focus on carnivores in the Udzungwa Mountains, noted for its levels of biodiversity and unique wildlife. "Compared to larger carnivores, the smaller species such as genets and mongooses are very poorly understood," added De Luca, "so one of our aims is to shed more light on this important and secretive group of animals." De Luca plans to conduct more research on the area's carnivore species through a combination of ecological studies and interviews with members of nearby communities. Findings on carnivore diversity and habitat requirements will be used to formulate recommendations on how to minimize the impact of human activities and settlements to wildlife. COPYRIGHT ©2002.Wildlife Conservation Society The Sickening Glorification of Criminals Posted: Friday, June 21, 2002 by Gene Callahan lewrockwell.com So how might we categorize political freedom? As Hayek famously put it, we are free when we live under the rule of law. "This, however, is true only if by 'law' we mean general rules that apply equally to everybody.... a true law... should especially not single out any specific persons or groups of persons" (Constitution of Liberty). In that, I think he was correct. But he failed to realize, or perhaps only realized quite late in life, that the institution of the state is incompatible with his dictum. That is because a state, at the very least, collects taxes, and tax laws inevitably divide the citizens into tax payers and tax recipients, to whom the laws apply differently. Employees of the state, for one, are always tax recipients, and the idea that they pay taxes is an accounting illusion fostered by having the government note a certain extra amount of income for state employees (their withholding), which it merely never pays them. MORE World News Posted: Friday, June 21, 2002 • Were Israeli Spies Detained on Sept. 11? • 10 Kashmiri rebels killed • 3,000 terrorists in Kashmir: Fernandes • Suspect in shoe-bomb case not coerced, judge rules • Eleven sentenced to death for roles in Burundi massacres • Rite Aid executive, former chiefs indicted • Panamanian Suspect Escapes Jail, Is Eaten by Crocodile • US Pursuing Al Qaeda Members Online • Fear Hangs Over Fourth Fireworks • Kashmir clashes kill 16 • Asteroid Close Shave • The anti-intelligence movement • US not be Able to Sell Submarines to Taiwan • World Cup: Germany 1 - 0 USA • World Cup: England 1 - 2 Brazil • Cheers turned to tears across England on Friday • Six injured in Spanish bomb blast • Bush meets Colombia president-elect Uribe • Chavez fought back with a speech • Blast cuts power to Madagascar's capital • Fears of al-Qaeda attack after car bomb kills Briton • Six settlers shot dead in West Bank • Arafat pleads for the bombings to stop • US received 'zero hour' warning on September 10 • Israelis threaten to drop CNN after Turner comment ¥ Great! Now they should take Al Jazeera! • Martha Stewart is being investigated for alleged insider trading • Blair gets down to nitty gritty of saying nothing • Fighter jets ‘too late to protect the White House’ • Britain hands peacekeeping control to Turks • Bush wants "action" from Arafat • Terror suspect's arrest may spur attack, FBI fear • Israeli leaders split on taking back land • Bangladesh gives India list of 20 terrorists • Blair defends arms sales to India, raps Pak • Bush, Powell work phones for Mideast plan • US confronts allies over global court • China Coal Mine Blast Toll Rises to 111 World News Posted: Thursday, June 20, 2002 • Large Asteroid Narrowly Misses Earth • Former priest Shanley indicted on charges of child rape • US planes strike command center in Iraq • US SC bars executions of mentally retarded • US Stocks Tumble to New Lows for the Year • South Korea is a hotbed of football and passion • Angry South Koreans demand trial for U.S. soldiers > Two South Korean girls struck and killed by U.S. armored vehicle • Flood death toll 500 and rising in China • Activists Slam Bush AIDS Initiative • Americans Think They're Envy of the World • Unusual Courage from 31 Members of Congress • The War on Terror Is Not a Suicide Pact • US High Court: Executing Mentally Retarded Unconstitutional • US President Still Plans to Reveal Peace Framework Soon • Italian club sack Ahn as payback for knocking out Azzurri • New bomb hits Bush peace plan • UK selling arms to India • US demands immunity for its peacekeepers • The curse of the infidel • 7 Die In Jerusalem Suicide Bombing • New order of battle • Afghanistan too 'precarious' for returning refugees: UNHCR • Palestinians tell Israel: it's open season • British Foreign Secretary's 'compassion' for bombers • Israel hits Gaza after suicide strike • Marines pulling out of Kabul • New alert on mobile phones • Karzai Sworn In As President • US heard 'tomorrow is zero hour' on eve of attacks • About 20,000 Trapped by Floods as More Rains Loom • Mysticism of the terrorist act • Israel builds up navy to face missile threat from neighbors • Anger as Karzai selects Afghan cabinet Archerd: Stone to Israel -- leave the West Bank Posted: Thursday, June 20, 2002 Israel is concerned about Stone's documentary, says an article in the Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon, which noted, "If (the) documentary on Yasser Arafat is as close to reality as were his movies on John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Israel has real reason for concern." He quickly added, "The (Jewish) settlements (on the West Bank) -- they are something else. The Israelis have no business in the West Bank. The settlements have to be gotten out of the West Bank." MORE World News Posted: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 • Aid donors 'raise risk of disasters' • U.S. atrocities in Afghanistan • The only gaffe the Prime Minister's wife made was to apologise • Israeli occupation to continue • Bus bomb leaves 20 dead as Israel asks: what next? • Palestinian Martyr Left Note Saying He Hated Death • Israeli PM pledges retaliation after Bus bomb kills 19 • Bosnia may try 50 war criminals • Bush's Palestinian plan leaked to Arab paper • Kurdish leader shuns US move to oust Saddam • Saudis hold al-Qaida suspects • US congressmen told of Gulf war veterans' plight • Saudi Arabia says it has al Qaeda terror suspects • Ministers decide on expanded Israeli operation, no exile of Arafat • Israeli army returns to Jenin, witnesses say • IDF: Women should be allowed to serve as combat soldiers • Israeli tanks in Jenin after 19 killed in Jerusalem bombing • UN-Iraq oil plan collapsing, says Russia • Pakistan slashes duty on 600 trade items from India • Britain hints at breakdown in talks over Gibraltar • US troops kill Abu Sayyaf rebels in southern Philippines • Goodbye to where America was • U.S. Supports New Colombia Leader • Staff Let Bush Sleep After Bus Bomb • Moussaoui Says Judge Is Mentally Ill • US troops kill rebels in Basilan • Rein in Bush's pre-emptive attack idea • The Rehabilitation Of Joan Peters • Hands off Palestine - and Hands off Israel • Behind 'Plot' on Hussein, a Secret Agenda • Do we have a license to kill? • Is America the New Roman Empire? Ethnic cleansing and the establishment of Israel Posted: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 by John Pilger, The New Statesman June 19, 2002 Behind the turbulent news from Israel, a struggle for historical truth has passed almost unnoticed outside academic circles; yet its wider significance is epic. In May 1948, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by the advancing Jewish militia in the coastal village of Tantura, south of Haifa. According to the recorded testimony of 40 witnesses, both Arab and Jewish, half the civilians were shot in a "rampage". The rest were marched to the beach, where the men were separated from the women and children. They were taken to a wall near the mosque where they were shot in the back of the head. The "cleansing" of Tantura (a term used at the time) was a well-kept secret. When they were interviewed four years ago, several Palestinian witnesses said they feared for their lives if they spoke out. One survivor, who as a child witnessed the murder of his entire family in Tantura, said to the interviewer: "But believe me, one should not mention these things. I do not want them to take revenge against us. You are going to cause us trouble . . ." Trouble indeed. The researcher, a student called Teddy Katz, has had his masters degree annulled by Haifa University, even though he was awarded a top grade by the Middle Eastern department. When his research was revealed in the Israeli press, Jewish veterans of the attack on Tantura sued him for libel, and several Jewish witnesses recanted. Katz had breached the taboo of the ethnic cleansing that gave birth to Israel and which the Palestinians mourn as Nakba - the catastrophe. Without waiting for the case to come to court, the university struck Katz's name from its honour roll. Whispered to be a traitor, and under pressure from his family and friends, Katz, a devout Zionist who lived on a kibbutz, apologised. Twelve hours later, he retracted his apology. Professor Ilan Pappe is one of the few to have read all the transcripts of more than 60 hours of Katz's taping of eyewitness evidence. "They include," he wrote, "horrific descriptions of executions, of the killing of fathers in front of children, of rape and torture." He describes Katz's thesis "as a solid and convincing piece of work whose essential validity is in no way marred by its shortcomings". The shortcomings, he says, come down to four minor mistakes. But the importance of the Katz research is its illumination of Israel's history in terms of "the expulsion, direct and indirect, of some 750,000 Palestinians, the systematic destruction of more than 400 villages and scores of urban neighbourhoods, as well as the perpetration of some 40 massacres of unarmed Palestinians." Although other prominent scholars supported Katz, a silence and hostility familiar to those who break academic and political ranks in Israel descended on the case. Since the election of Ariel Sharon last year, this hostility is such that not even national heroes are forgiven. Last month, Yaffa Yarkoni, "Israel's Vera Lynn", whose emotional, wistful songs have celebrated Zionist triumphalism from 1948 to the present day, lost her huge popularity overnight when she remarked that Israeli soldiers ought not to be writing numbers on the arms of Palestinians. "Isn't that what the Germans did?" she asked. One newspaper headline called her an "enemy of the people"; an editor said she "has joined the new anti-Semites in Europe". In challenging the Zionist version of Israel's past, Ilan Pappe is one of Israel's "new historians", a distinguished and courageous critic. He has likened the Israeli state to apartheid South Africa, with its Palestinian "bantustans" and plethora of humiliating controls which now restrict the movement of people within their own communities. He says that Sharon's goal is to begin the mass expulsion of Palestinians across the Jordan; only a pretext is required. According to one poll, 44 per cent of Israelis support this latest "cleansing", known as "transfer", another euphemism from the past. In 1948, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister, wrote, "We have accomplished our settlement by transfer of the [Palestinian] population." Not quite. The notion of a "final transfer" is supported by a number of cabinet members in the ruling Likud government, by leading Labour Party members and professors and media commentators. "Very few now dare to condemn it," says Pappe. "A circle has been closed. When Israel took over almost 80 per cent of Palestine in 1948, it did so through settlement and ethnic cleansing. The country has a prime minister who enjoys wide public support and who wants to determine by force the future of the remaining 20 per cent." Now it might be Professor Pappe's turn to be expelled from Haifa University. In an open letter circulated two weeks ago, he writes that the dean of the humanities department has demanded his expulsion for criticising the university over the Katz case. This runs deeper; Pappe has been a consistent opponent of Israel's illegal military occupation of Palestine. He describes the university "court" that threatens to punish him as a "McCarthyite charade". He has called upon "universities worldwide to debate a boycott of Israeli institutions, given their contempt for basic principles of academic freedom and dispassionate research". He says that only international shaming, free of the intimidation that equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, will break the silence about "horrific deeds in 1948, and so prevent their repetition". Others in Israel, as courageous as Ilan Pappe, are also under pressure, both crude and insidious. In Ha'eretz, Israel's equivalent of the Guardian, two outstanding journalists, Amira Hass and Gideon Levy, have consistently reported the unpopular truth about Israel's occupation of the remaining 22 per cent of the Palestine it conquered in 1967. They live daily with threats and hate mail. Upholding the bravest traditions of Jewish humanity, they need international solidarity. John Pilger Website: www.johnpilger.com World News Posted: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 • Bus blast kills 19 • Damned if you do, dead if you don't • Missing Teen Coverage: A Question of Race? • Bush may send Powell to region • |