headers
Macdonald Stainsby | 1 Feb 2003 01:30
Picon

US is misquoting my Iraq report, says Blix

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/31/1043804520548.html

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
February 1, 2003 

US is misquoting my Iraq report, says Blix
By Judith Miller and Julia Preston in New York

Days after delivering a broadly negative report on
Iraq's cooperation with international inspectors, Hans
Blix challenged several of the Bush Administration's
assertions about Iraqi cheating and the notion that
time was running out for disarming Iraq through
peaceful means. 

In an interview on Wednesday, Dr Blix, the United
Nations chief weapons inspector, seemed determined to
dispel any impression that his report was intended to
support the United States' campaign to build world
support for a war to disarm Saddam Hussein.

"Whatever we say will be used by some," Dr Blix said,
adding that he had strived to be "as factual and
conscientious" as possible. "I did not tailor my
report to the political wishes or hopes in Baghdad or
Washington or any other place."

Dr Blix took issue with what he said were US Secretary
of State Colin Powell's claims that the inspectors had
found that Iraqi officials were hiding and moving
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
DavidMcR | 1 Feb 2003 04:28
Picon
Favicon

US is misquoting my Iraq report, says Blix

In a message dated 1/31/03 7:49:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, 

<< =======
  http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/31/1043804520548.html
 US is misquoting my Iraq report, says Blix
 By Judith Miller and Julia Preston in New York
 February 1 2003

 Days after delivering a broadly negative report on Iraq's cooperation with
 international inspectors, Hans Blix challenged several of the Bush
 Administration's assertions about Iraqi cheating and the notion that time
 was running out for disarming Iraq through peaceful means.

 In an interview on Wednesday, Dr Blix, the United Nations chief weapons
 inspector, seemed determined to dispel any impression that his report was
 intended to support the United States' campaign to build world support for a
 war to disarm Saddam Hussein.

 "Whatever we say will be used by some," Dr Blix said, adding that he had
 strived to be "as factual and conscientious" as possible. "I did not tailor
 my report to the political wishes or hopes in Baghdad or Washington or any
 other place."

 Dr Blix took issue with what he said were US Secretary of State Colin
 Powell's claims that the inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were
 hiding and moving illicit materials within and outside of Iraq to prevent
 their discovery. He said that the inspectors had reported no such incidents.

 Similarly, he said, he had not seen convincing evidence that Iraq was
 sending weapons scientists to other countries to prevent them from being
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
DavidMcR | 1 Feb 2003 05:19
Picon
Favicon

Rice for Peace


   (pass on to others)

   My first response to this idea was not to pass it on - I get a great many 
 "brilliant ideas" in the email. But this one seems to have caught on. I've 
 already gotten it from at least three of you to whom this goes (just so 
 you'll know I paid attention).

   It is a small idea, the sort of thing that can be done by the weak, the 
 elderly, as well as by the young. I think it's worth doing - and I will. I 
 hope you do and pass this post on. I'm going through by address book, ten 
and 
 twenty at a time, and passing it on.

   David

   << 
    From: Katha Pollitt
    Subject: Rice for peace

    This is such a sweet, simple idea! Even my daughter, who
    never misses a chance to tell me she isn't interested in
    politics, seized on it right away. You can leave out the
    biblical citation, of course. But I like the idea of
    quoting the New Testament against war to our born-again
    Pres. My cousin in Boone, North Carolina, tells me
    people are actually sending the rice.

    Katha
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 1 comment |
headers
Edward Craig | 1 Feb 2003 14:45
Favicon

Re: Rice for Peace

	If you do this, label the envelope with a big "RICE FOR PEACE"
notice.

	Even if you're not sending it to a Democrat, you can't blame the
Postal Service and government staffers for being a bit jumpy about odd
inclusions in letters. Anthrax.

On Fri, 31 Jan 2003 DavidMcR <at> aol.com wrote:

>   
>    (pass on to others)
>    
>    My first response to this idea was not to pass it on - I get a great many 
>  "brilliant ideas" in the email. But this one seems to have caught on. I've 
>  already gotten it from at least three of you to whom this goes (just so 
>  you'll know I paid attention).
>    
>    It is a small idea, the sort of thing that can be done by the weak, the 
>  elderly, as well as by the young. I think it's worth doing - and I will. I 
>  hope you do and pass this post on. I'm going through by address book, ten 
> and 
>  twenty at a time, and passing it on.
>    
>    David
>    
>    << 
>     From: Katha Pollitt
>     Subject: Rice for peace
>     
>     This is such a sweet, simple idea! Even my daughter, who
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Hunter Gray | 1 Feb 2003 15:55
Picon
Favicon

VIEWS AND VISTAS ON THE REPARATIONS TRAIL

VIEWS AND VISTAS ON THE REPARATIONS TRAIL

Published in the January/February 2003 issue of the excellent socialist
journal, Against the Current

[An earlier post of mine, giving the full listing of this ATC issue's
contributions on Reparations, follows my article.]

By Hunter Gray [Hunterbear]

These are my Native American thoughts on reparations.  Some
involve our generally deplorable Native socio-economic situation --
as well as that faced by others.  I'm also tendering some procedural
suggestions for handling funds such as reparations -- based on roughly
analogous experiences some Indian tribes have had in land claims cases.

I'm writing this on a yellow tablet from a high-up point, flanked by pines
and junipers and sage, and looking over at snow covered-mountain ranges.
But this essentially idyllic setting -- Audubon's "perfection of
primitiveness" -- could never block the cruel realities of which I and
many, many others of all ethnicities are so vividly and brutally aware.

I strongly support reparations -- and would like to see these flow
effectively to the broadest possible coverage of contemporary
victims within those groups which have been historically struck by
the devastating  and tragically enduring impact of racism, genocide,
slavery and consequent economic exploitation and deprivation.

I was born of a full-blooded Native father [Micmac, St. Francis Abenaki, and
St. Regis Mohawk] and an Anglo mother from an old Western family -- and
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
Hunter Gray | 1 Feb 2003 18:01
Picon
Favicon

Blood, birthplace or beliefs? Indians struggle over Indian blood

Note by Hunterbear:

The Shoshone-Bannock Res adjoins Pocatello -- near here.  From the Idaho
State Journal, Feb 1, 2003:

"Shoshone-Bannock tribal members voted Friday not to require new tribal
members to prove they have at least one quarter Native American blood . .
.[Of those who voted], 542 voted against the change and 326 voted for it."

Blood, birthplace or beliefs? Indians struggle over Indian blood

AP Photo staffing

By REBECCA BOONE
http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=84260
Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Viola Rodriguez's fellow Shoshone-Bannock tribal members
were voting Friday to see if her great-grandchild is Indian enough to be
counted as a member.

The child is one-eighth Shoshone-Bannock, and the proposed change would
require one-quarter Shoshone-Bannock blood to qualify for tribal membership.
The boy is just one of many tribal descendants who will be in or out
depending on the outcome.

It's a question that is more complicated than it may seem - raising issues
of race, culture and a system some believe was developed to breed Indians
out of existence.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
paul illich | 1 Feb 2003 20:36
Picon
Favicon

Ecosolidarity Andes: PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS REQUEST FOR INTERVIEWS


PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS REQUEST FOR INTERVIEWS

Ecosolidarity Andes and "Voces en Poder" ( A Magazine)
ecosolidarity <at> yahoo.com - 520-557-0807 (USA)

Dear social change organizations and young leaders (or almost young),

We seek like-minded people in South America who want to assist in organizing
and presenting workshops on economics, community organizing and multi-media
during March and April, 2003.

Interviews are sought with economists, political scientists, organizers and
representatives of community organizations.

We also hope to interview young, emerging leaders from popular movements.
Articles will be published in major magazines so that we can share the 
struggles
and insights of these groups and their leaders with the world.

We are looking for the personal side of each social movement and their 
leaders -
and their accomplishments too. Maybe they are simple local organizers or 
maybe
they are the kind of people who will become the next Lula or Chavez - both 
are
important, needed and news-worthy.

Video and audio materials will also be produced from the workshops and the
interviews.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
DavidMcR | 1 Feb 2003 21:27
Picon
Favicon

Did Saddam poison gas the Kurds?


<< >From the Editorial / Op Ed page

 New York Times     January 31,2003
 A War Crime or an Act of War?
 By STEPHEN C. PELLETIERE

 
 &#65532;
 ECHANICSBURG, Pa. — It was no surprise that President Bush, lacking smoking-
 gun evidence of Iraq's weapons programs, used his State of the Union address
 to re-emphasize the moral case for an invasion: "The dictator who is
 assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole
 villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured."
 The accusation that Iraq has used chemical weapons against its citizens is a
 familiar part of the debate. The piece of hard evidence most frequently
 brought up concerns the gassing of Iraqi Kurds at the town of Halabja in 
March
 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. President Bush himself 
has
 cited Iraq's "gassing its own people," specifically at Halabja, as a reason 
to
 topple Saddam Hussein.
 But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with
 poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi
 chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the
 Halabja story.
 I am in a position to know because, as the Central Intelligence Agency's
 senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and as a professor
 at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, I was privy to much of the
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
shniad | 2 Feb 2003 00:57
Picon
Picon
Favicon

I'm losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,882459,00.html

The Observer   January 26, 2003

I'm losing patience with my neighbours, Mr Bush

Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame)

I'm really excited by George Bush's latest reason for bombing Iraq: he's
running out of patience. And so am I!

For some time now I've been really pissed off with Mr Johnson, who lives a
couple of doors down the street. Well, him and Mr Patel, who runs the health
food shop. They both give me queer looks, and I'm sure Mr Johnson is
planning something nasty for me, but so far I haven't been able to discover
what. I've been round to his place a few times to see what he's up to, but
he's got everything well hidden. That's how devious he is.

As for Mr Patel, don't ask me how I know, I just know - from very good
sources - that he is, in reality, a Mass Murderer. I have leafleted the
street telling them that if we don't act first, he'll pick us off one by
one.

Some of my neighbours say, if I've got proof, why don't I go to the police?

But that's simply ridiculous. The police will say that they need evidence of
a crime with which to charge my neighbours.

They'll come up with endless red tape and quibbling about the rights and
wrongs of a pre-emptive strike and all the while Mr Johnson will be
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |
headers
shniad | 2 Feb 2003 00:59
Picon
Picon
Favicon

Harold Pinter's acceptance speech, University of Turin

House up....curtain down......	Here is Harold Pinter's recent acceptance
speech for an honorary doctorate from the University of Turin.

"I am deeply honoured to receive this degree from such a great university.

Earlier this year I had a major operation for cancer. The operation and its
after-effects were something of a nightmare. I felt I was a man unable to
swim bobbing about under water in a deep dark endless ocean. But I did not
drown and I am very glad to be alive. However, I found that to emerge from a
personal nightmare was to enter an infinitely more pervasive public
nightmare - the nightmare of American hysteria, ignorance, arrogance,
stupidity and belligerence; the most powerful nation the world has ever
known effectively waging war against the rest of the world. 

"If you are not with us you are against us" President Bush has said. He has
also said "We will not allow the world's worst weapons to remain in the
hands of the world's worst leaders". Quite right. Look in the mirror chum.
That's you.

The US is at this moment developing advanced systems of "weapons of mass
destruction" and is prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of
them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from
international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to
allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public
declarations and its own actions is almost a joke.

The United States believes that the three thousand deaths in New York are
the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American
deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence.
(Continue reading)

Permalink | Reply | 0 comments |

Gmane