ISSUE
# 67. Jan. 6, 2003
THIS WEEK:
IS THERE A
DRAFT
IN YOUR FUTURE?
BASRA GETS BOMBED
FOR NEW YEAR'S!
IRAQI KURDISTAN:
THE NEXT BOSNIA?
ALSO:
*DOES ANYONE REMEMBER AFGHANISTAN?
HALF A MILLION
FREEZING REFUGEES
DON'T THINK SO!
*INS TO
SEIZED JOURNALIST:
"GREEN CARD? WHO CARES!?"
*MORE
NUCLEAR PARANOIA!!!
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: YELLOW
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Special Correspondent
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Tel Aviv Blasts Kill 23
2. West Bank Violence Continues
3. Gaza Strip: Teen Militants Tortured?
4. Palestinian Youth Beaten to Death by Border Police?
5. US Criticizes Housing Demolitions
6. US to Restrict Israeli Aid?
7. Bush Encouraging Settlements?
8. UK Arms Restrictions May Ground Israeli Air Force Jets
9. Iran, Israel in Secret Oil Deal?
10. Kahanist Militants Recruit for "Jewish Legion"
11. National Union: Strip Dissidents, Refuseniks of Citizenship
12. Holocaust Survivors Urge End to Occupation
13. Israel Has Over 1,000 "Administrative Detainees"
14. Palestinian Prisoners Win In Hunger Strike
15. Palestinians and Internationals Clear IDF Blockade
16. New Israeli Political Party: Forget the War, Let's Get High!
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Bombs Fall on New Years Day
2. Green Berets on the Ground in Iraq
3. Weapons Inspectors: Trail is Cold
4. Saddam: Inspectors are Spies
5. Civil Defense Exercises in Kuwait
6. Pentagon Trains Iraqi Exiles
7. Baath Militia Prepares Resistance
8. Saddam's Troops Defecting to Kurdish Rebels?
9. PUK vs. PIK in Iraqi Kurdistan
10. Turkey Threatens Intervention in Iraqi Kurdistan--Again
11. Yazidi Sect Rituals Recall Turkish Massacres
12. Pressure Builds on Saddam to Step Down
13. Anti-War Protests in Bahrain...
14. ...And Turkey
15. ...And Pakistan
16. Iran Radio: U.S. Must Pay For Saddam's Gas Attacks
17. Iraqi Exile: Investigate the Disappeared
18. What Was the Real Toll of Desert Storm?
19. Bush: War is Peace
ELSEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
1. Three U.S. Missionaries Killed in Yemen
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. Half Million Refugees Face Grim Winter
2. US Bombs Pakistan?
3. Russian Troops in Afghan Border Operations
4. Drug Seizures Up in Russia
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. Nine U.S. Troops Wounded in Mindanao Gun Battle
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. North Korea: U.S. "Stepping Up Preparations for War"
2. Al-Azhar Issues Nuclear Fatwa?
3. Israel Plans New Nuke Plant
4. Missing Equipment at Los Alamos
5. Dangerous Corrosion at Ohio Nuke
THE WAR AT HOME
1. Is There a Draft in Your Future?
2. NYPD Chases Terrorists
3. Indian Man Held After 9-11 Charges Abuse
4. INS to Collect Data on All International Travelers
5. INS Holds Nicaraguan Journalist--Despite Green Card!
6. Surprised Pakistani Recognizes Self on FBI Terror List!
7. Secret Service Questions High School Student!
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. Homeland Security Loses a Round
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. TEL AVIV BLASTS KILL 23
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up about a hundred yards apart, on
parallel streets near the old central bus station in Tel Aviv on Jan. 5.
Twenty-three were killed, the toll expected to rise, and over 100 were
injured. Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and al-Aksa's Martyrs' Brigades all took
responsibility, with al-Aksa identifying the bombers as coming from Nablus.
Many of the injured were foreign workers who are in Israel illegally, and
under the constant threat of deportation. As a result, many avoided going
to Israeli hospitals, despite assurances from Israeli officials. "If you or
any of your loved ones are hurt in this bomb blast, please don't be afraid
to go to one of the Israeli hospitals in Tel Aviv, even if you are working
illegally in Israel," an Israel channel two newscaster announced. "Don't
worry, no one will arrest you, no one will try to harm you. Please, just go
to the hospital and get treatment." (AP, Haartez, Jan 6)
(see also WW3 REPORT #43
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) helicopter gunships struck at targets in Gaza
in response. Amos Harel in Ha'aretz notes that "the IDF, given its current
level of forces, finds it difficult to do more than it is doing now, with
troops in every Palestinian city. Despite two years of constant fighting
and despite the obliteration of the Palestinian Authority, the fact remains
that despair is the most fruitful hothouse for terror. "(Ha'aretz, Jan. 6)
[top]
2. WEST BANK VIOLENCE CONTINUES
As of Jan. 6, 69 Palestinians were killed in the occupied territories since
Dec. 1. Eleven of the dead were children, and one was a 95-year-old woman
whose death earned an Israeli soldier a whopping 65 days in jail. (UK Guardian, Jan. 6:
Among last week's casualties on both sides:
Israel Radio reported Jan. 1 that Israeli soldiers shot and killed a
Palestinian near Nablus on his way to perform a suicide bombing attack.
Israeli gunfire set off the explosives on his body. (Xinhua, Jan. 1)
A Palestinian militant died in a village outside of Ramallah in Jan. 3
premature explosion of a bomb, a "work accident," according to Palestinian
officials speaking on condition of anonymity. (LA Times, Jan. 3)
Five Israeli soldiers were hit by shrapnel from Palestinian gunfire as they
tried to detain several Palestinians in Jenin Jan. 4. One Palestinian was
wounded as well. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Jan. 4)
On Jan. 2, Israeli forces occupying Ramallah shot and wounded a 41-year-old
Palestinian woman. (Xinhua, Jan. 2)
On Jan. 2, a Palestinian gunman infiltrated the village of Maor, a few
miles from the West Bank border, entered the home of Roland Mori and opened
fire on him. After the gunman's rifle jammed, Mori fought back with
bric-a-brac. "When I heard that the terrorist had a problem with his gun, I
took all that I had on the table and threw it at him," Mori said. "I
shouted to my wife, in French, to flee." Mori then fought the attacker off
with a pillow. Mori and his wife escaped out the window, and after a
standoff, Israeli forces killed the infiltrator. (NY Daily News, Jan. 3)
The Voice of Palestine reported Jan. 4 that Israeli soldiers who came to
demolish the home of Wafa Idris, the first female suicide bomber, severely
beat members of her family with rifle butts and clubs (BBC Monitoring:
Voice of Palestine, Jan. 3). The IDF gave up the idea of demolishing the
Idris family home because of the damage it would have done to neighboring
houses in Nablus' al-Amari refugee camp. (AFP, Jan. 3)
On Jan. 3, A 70-year-old Israeli man was found burned to death in his car
in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades took
responsibility. (UK Telegraph, Jan. 3)
On Jan. 4, Muhamad Haji, 18, was critically injured by Israeli troops who
opened fire on stone throwers in Burqa village, just north of Nablus. (AFP,
Jan. 4)
In Jenin, 17-year-old Muhammad Bassam Nassar was wounded when Israeli
troops occupying Nablus opened indiscriminate fire on Palestinian homes,
after storming the eastern neighborhood of the city. (BBC Monitoring: Voice
of Palestine, Jan. 4)
Israeli bulldozers demolished 10 houses on Jan. 4: six in Al-Salam
neighborhood in Rafah, three in the area of Al-Ubayyat in Bethlehem, and
one in Bayt Kahil in Hebron. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Jan. 4)
The Palestinian news agency Wafa claimed on Jan. 5 that a Jewish settler
"deliberately" ran over a Palestinian woman with his car in the village of
Bayt Anun, east of Hebron. The woman sustained severe wounds. (BBC
Monitoring: Palestinian news agency Wafa: Jan. 5)
On Jan. 5, the Voice of Palestine reported: "In Nablus, Muhammad Hasan
Hijjah, 18, was wounded when Israeli occupation soldiers opened fire at
random on a group of youths in the village of Burqa in the governorate last
night." (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Jan. 5)
[top]
3. GAZA STRIP: TEEN MILITANTS TORTURED?
Last week in the Gaza Strip, three slimly-armed teens died in controversial
circumstances while attempting to infiltrate Jewish colonies, and activists
attempted to stop housing demolitions in Rafah. Here is the week's
chronology of Gaza violence:
On Dec. 31, two IDF civilian employees were lightly wounded and a soldier
moderately injured by a rocket-propelled grenade near the Termit outpost
near the Egyptian border. The two were constructing a wall along the
Israeli-Egyptian border. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Dec. 31)
A child was moderately wounded Jan. 1 in Rafah after Israeli tanks opened
fire on houses in al-Jinaynah, south of Rafah. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Palestine, Jan. 1)
The Voice of Israel reported Jan. 2 that IDF forces backed by fighter
aircraft were attacking in three places in southern and central Gaza Strip.
Two soldiers and eight Palestinians were reported injured. (Xinhua, Jan. 2)
Two 15-year-old Palestinian cousins and their 16- year-old friend were shot
and killed by Israeli troops as they tried to infiltrate the Israeli
settlements of Dugit and Elei Sinai in Gaza on Jan. 2. The boys were
poorly armed, with only a single knife and a pair of wire-cutters. The IDF
defended its actions, saying it was permissible under the rules of
engagement for soldiers to fire at anyone who enters into exclusionary
zones around the settlements. "Thank God, he got what he always
wanted--martyrdom," Atteyeh Dawais, the father of Mohammed Dawais, one of
the dead youths, told journalists in the Jabaliya refugee camp. (LA Times,
Jan. 3) The Voice of Palestine radio reported: "Dr Mu'awiyah Hasanayn,
director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, confirmed that there were signs of
torture on the bodies of the three children after they were martyred. He
told our radio a short while ago that the occupation soldiers used knives
and stones to tear the bodies of the children and that they had fired
scores of bullets on them at close range. This indicates that they were
most probably arrested before they were shot." (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Palestine radio, Jan. 2)
The IDF demolished five houses in al-Salam, southeast of Rafah, on Jan. 3.
(BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Jan. 3) AFP reported that "as the
bulldozers began demolishing the houses, a group of 10 activists from the
International Grassroots Protection for the Palestinian People (GIPP)
attempted to stop them by lying on the ground in front of them. Troops
attempted to disperse the activists by firing tear gas canisters and smoke
bombs towards them, firing in the air, and trying to cover them with sand."
(AFP, Jan. 4)
On Jan. 4, I'tisam Ashur Abdin, 23, was wounded by Israeli shelling of
houses in al-Namsawi, east of Khan Younis. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Palestine, Jan. 4)
[top]
4. PALESTINIAN YOUTH BEATEN TO DEATH BY BORDER POLICE?
Amran Abu Hamediye, an 18-year-old Palestinian high school student who had
just finished evening prayers in a Hebron mosque was detained by Israeli
Border Police and taken away in their jeep on Dec. 30. Twenty minutes
later, his friends found him beaten to death in the street, with gashes on
his head. Hamediye's friends said they knew where to find him because they
Border Police like to take their victims there for beatings. Aleh Omar Abu
Turky, whose twin sons attended class wih Hamediye, said at a memorial
service, "Imran was honest and beautiful, all the best things. He didn't
throw stones, nothing like that. He was a gentle boy."
"Beatings by the Border Police are not new," said Abdel Salam Abu Khalaf, a
spokesman at al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron. "All the time since my childhood
we looked at them as if they enjoyed beating us. " Countered a spokesperson
for the Border Police: "It has to be said that there is no proof that this
is Israeli Border Police." A Justice Ministry spokesman said, "We are
checking the story. It hasn't been decided to investigate yet." But Israeli
forces are rarely punished for brutality. According to the Israeli human
rights organization B'Tselem, of 49 cases reported since the beginning of
the current intifada in Sept. 2000, only one has resulted in a conviction.
As a result of the lack of punishment and investigation of abuses, such
cases are on the rise, says B'Tselem lawyer Yael Stein. "The army does not
come out with a clear message that says, 'You are not allowed to assault a
civilian Palestinian.' The message is vague and ambiguous," she said.
"There is a general atmosphere that enables these things to happen, and the
soldiers are checking the limits all the time." (Washington Post, Dec. 31,
NYT, Jan. 2)
[top]
5. U.S. CRITICIZES HOUSING DEMOLITIONS
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Jan. 3 that the US is
increasingly concerned about ongoing housing demolitions in the occupied
territories.
"We recognize Israel's need to take legitimate anti-terrorist action and
we've been very clear about the need for Palestinian action against
violence and terror," he told reporters. However, steps such as the
displacement of people through the demolition of homes and property
exacerbate the humanitarian situation and undermine trust and confidence,"
he said, delivering a rare rebuke to Washington's chief Mideast ally. "We
are further disturbed by reports that the demolition of homes in recent
weeks has resulted in the deaths of two civilian occupants inside. We urge
Israel to consider the consequences of actions such as these and take all
appropriate measures to ensure that civilian casualties do not result from
Israeli anti-terrorist actions," he said. Several hours after Boucher's
critique, the IDF destroyed two more houses in Rafah.
110 homes have been destroyed in the West Bank since August, and many more
in the Gaza Strip, where the IDF is clearing a wide swath between Rafah and
the border with Egypt. Human rights groups condemn the demolitions as
collective punishment. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Israeli
cabinet that housing demolitions were having a demonstrable deterrent
effect, boasting that 28 terrorists have turned themselves in since the
policy was initiated in August. However, Voice of Israel failed to explain
how that fact was influenced by the demolition policy. (BBC Monitoring:
Voice of Israel, Jan. 5; AFP, Jan. 3; Ha'aretz, Jan. 5)
[top]
6. US TO RESTRICT ISRAELI AID?
On Jan. 4, an Israeli delegation left for Washington to present a report on
"the macro-economic damages accrued to Israel as a result of the intifadah
and the preparations for confronting the Iraqi threat." The Israelis are
asking for a $4 billion "special military grant" and $8 billion in loan
guarantees. The Israeli financial paper Globes reports that "The talks,
which are beginning [Jan. 6] in Washington, will be conducted out of the
limelight, without press conferences. The reason for keeping the talks in
the background is the Bush administration's desire to avoid angering the
Arab world on the eve of the war with Iraq, which would harm efforts to
recruit support for the war. " (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Jan. 3;
Globes, Jan. 5)
The administration is considering placing stipulations in the aid package
forbidding funds from being spent on Israeli settlements, fearing that the
aid package will meet opposition in Congress. Israel is said to favor the
restrictions placed on the loan guarantees imposed by the first President
Bush, which required that funds spent on the settlements be deducted from
the loan money. (Reuters, Dec. 31) Akiva Eldar in Ha'aretz notes that "the
doubling of the number of settlers, from 100,000 to 200,000, shows that
deducting shekels from the guarantees is no guarantee of cutbacks in the
settlements. Secondly, government officials...know that there are creative
ways to obstruct the monitoring of how the American money is used."
(Ha'aretz, Jan. 6)
The International Monetary Fund has said Israel can survive its current
recession without additional aid. (See WW3 REPORT# 64:
[top]
7. BUSH ENCOURAGING SETTLEMENTS?
Akiva Eldar in Ha'aretz notes a worrying shift in US attitudes towards the
peace process, warning of a White House tilt towards Sharon and away from
the principles officially embraced by the diplomatic "Quartet" of the UN,
US, EU and Russia:
"The most dangerous innovation in the American attitude to the settlements
shouldn't be sought in their relationship to the guarantees or the
problematic timing of the negotiations over the aid. There's a much more
profound change in policy here: in the latest discussions of the road map,
President Bush rejected the Quartet's position that terror should be fought
as if there were no new settlements and the settlements should be frozen as
if there were no terror. He set a new precedent, that settlements are not
an absolute danger to peace... The American decision that a settlement
freeze is conditional on Sharon's satisfaction with a cease-fire is, in
effect, a legitimization of the deepening of the occupation, perpetuating
the war and perhaps a guarantee for continued right-wing rule." (Ha'aretz,
Jan. 6)
[top]
8. UK ARMS RESTRICTIONS MAY GROUND ISRAELI AIR FORCE JETS
Officials said Israel's fleet of 140 F-4 Phantom jets may have to be
grounded for lack of spare parts, due to UK restrictions. The planes are
US-made, but rely on parts manufactured by UK's Martin-Baker Aircraft Co.
Ltd., that are used in pilots' ejection seats. Denying there was an
embargo, A British government official said the Foreign Office last year
approved 128 export licenses to Israel on military-related items, and
turned down 77. "There is no official or unofficial embargo on arms exports
to Israel [but] we adhere to our own and European Union criteria which says
exports should not be used for internal repression or external aggression,"
said the official. "We have to take into account what's happening in the
occupied territories." An Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said she
didn't know how long the planes might be grounded. "We are desperately
searching for other sources but haven't located any yet," said Rachel
Niedak-Ashkenazi. (AP, Jan. 3)
[top]
9. IRAN, ISRAEL IN SECRET OIL DEAL?
A report in the London-based newspaper al-Zaman claims an advisor to
Iranian president Mohammed Khatami visted Tel Aviv in December to make a
deal on resuming the pumping of Iranian oil to the Israeli port of Eilat,
both for Israeli consumption and re-export to European markets. "There is
nothing new about the relations between Tehran and Tel Aviv," an Iranian
opposition source in Paris told the paper, "but the important thing in the
timing of such a consolidation in bilateral relations is concern over the
outcome of the [possible] war on Iraq. Tehran is trying to pre-empt events
to arrange for a more beneficial alliance." The same source noted that "the
impossibility of striking a direct deal with Washington because of the
opposition of the radicals had left Khatami's government with no option but
to find an acceptable alternative, which is Israel..." (BBC Monitoring:
Al-Zaman, Dec. 24)
[top]
10. KAHANIST MILITANTS RECRUIT FOR "JEWISH LEGION"
A shadowy Brooklyn-based group linked to the extreme-right Kach
organization is recruiting US citizens to guard Jewish settlements in the
West Bank from Palestinian attacks. "Help Jewish Legion prevent massacres
in Jewish towns," the organization says on its website
http://www.jewishlegion.net/).
The group claims to be working "in
conjunction with the IDF and the Civil Guard," but the IDF denies any link
to the group. The organizations main contact is Michael Guzofsky, currently
under federal investigation for membership in the outlawed Israeli-based
Kahane Chai [Kahane lives] movement, which is on the US State Department
list of terrorist groups. A dozen people have reportedly been recruited in
the US and Australia, and trained to use bomb-sniffing dogs. Israel's
Central Electoral Commission last week approved former Kach head Baruch
Marzel to run on the far-right Herut list, despite the fact that papers
proving he still leads the group were found in his office. The original
Jewish Legion was formed by the British in Palestine to fight the Ottoman
Turks during World War I. (NY Daily News, Ha'aretz, Dec. 30)
See also WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
11. NATIONAL UNION: STRIP DISSIDENTS, REFUSENIKS OF CITIZENSHIP
Former Knesset member, journalist and human rights campaigner Uri
Avnery--who also fought in the right-wing Irgun faction in Israel's war of
independence--has been named, along with the refuseniks (military
resisters), to be targeted for loss of citizenship in the election platform
of the far-right National Union. Under the heading "Legislation and strict
supervision of organizations and activists of the extreme left," the
program says: "We shall anchor in legislation more severe measures,
including the cancellation of citizenship, against people like Uri Avnery,
Leah Tsemel and refuseniks of all kinds, who are defaming the country
abroad." Tsemel is an Israeli lawyer that defends Palestinian prisoners.
Avnery notes that National Union party leader Avigdor Lieberman was raised
under totalitarian Soviet rule in Moldova, and that he has absorbed "the
racist and power-hungry attitudes of the red tyrant." National Union also
calls for the "transfer" of the Palestinian population of "Greater Israel"
in its platform.
Avnery says on his web site: "In Israel, we don't like to make comparisons
with the dark regimes. The memories are too fresh, and nobody in Israel
advocates genocide. But undoubtedly, parties and leaders who openly
advocate 'transfer', would have been called anywhere else in the world
Neo-Fascists (even if the term 'Neo-Bolsheviks' would be more appropriate,
since it was Stalin who used to transfer whole peoples in the Soviet
Union.)" Avnery concludes by saying of Lieberman, "if somebody is 'defaming
our country abroad,' it is surely this person."
(http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/)
[top]
12. HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS URGE END TO OCCUPATION
A new group calling itself "Forum of Holocaust survivors and descendants
to halt the deterioration of Israeli humanism" is circulating a petition
declaring "we cannot clear our conscience in light of the mass, arbitrary
destruction of civilians' homes, uprooted olive trees, and orchards shaved
to the ground. We cannot accept the extensive disruptions of daily life and
abuse, for its own sake or not, at the checkpoints." Zvi Gil, the forum
coordinator, says that "based on the ruthless lessons of life we have
experienced," the group calls for Israel to "liberate itself" from the
occupation immediately. The forum says the conflict resulting from the
occupation not only endangers Israeli Jews but Jewish communities
worldwide. The group asked to meet with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to
explain its views. They never received a response. (Ha'aretz, Dec.31)
[top]
13. ISRAEL HAS OVER 1,000 "ADMINISTRATIVE DETAINEES"
For the first time since the first Intifada in 1987, more than 1,000
Palestinians are held in "administration detention" in Israel, according to
B'Tselem. Administrative detention, permitted under international law,
allows a state to hold detainees without trial or charge, authorized by a
major general's order. However, there are strict guidelines on
administrative detention, that B'Tselem says Israel blatantly ignores.
B'Tselem urges the Israeli government to immediately release all
administrative detainees, and cease widespread use of this measure.
(B'Tselem press release, Jan. 5)
[top]
14. PALESTINIAN PRISONERS WIN IN HUNGER STRIKE
Palestinian detainees in Ofra military prison suspended their hunger strike
and boycott of the Israeli court system after the prison's administration
promised to meet their demands for a guarantee of their security and
dignity, and medical treatment for the ill. Prisoner Abu-Raja told Voice of
Palestine the prison's administration was forced to accede to the demands
due to its inability to break the prisoners' high morale, and determination
to continue the strike. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Jan. 5) Around
700 prisoners are held at the camp. Violence erupted on Jan. 2 when the
detainees set fire to their shelters to protest their mistreatment,
according to the BBC. The army used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.
(BBC, Jan. 1
However, the Voice of Palestine, in telephone contacts with prisoners, said
that "fire broke out at some tents when the occupation troops, backed by
tanks, fired incendiaries at the tents and besieged all sections." Voice of
Palestine said stun grenades were used on the prisoners as well. Some of
those wounded in the assault were elderly or boys, the report said. (BBC
Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Jan. 2)
[top]
15. PALESTINIANS AND INTERNATIONALS CLEAR IDF BLOCKADE
On Jan. 5, over 200 residents of Nablus, assisted by 30 members of the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) cleared a path through a large
dirt-and-rubble roadblock the Israeli army had constructed on a Jerusalem
road. The blockade, known to local residents as al-Moqata, was erected by
the Israeli army to impede movement from the Balata and Askar refugee camps
into the Nablus city center. Men, women, and children, using shovels,
picks, their hands and a bulldozer, cleared the a path through the mounds,
as onlookers sang and chanted. The IDF watched the action from the high
ground they occupy over Nablus, but did not interfere. Nablus ISM member
Saif Salem said, "This action is helping to bring the city to life."
Traffic began to flow again through the path. Nablus remains under a
dusk-to-dawn curfew. (ISM,
[top]
16. NEW ISRAELI POLITICAL PARTY: FORGET THE WAR, LET'S GET HIGH!
Israel's pro-marijuana Green Leaf Party failed to get the 1.5% of the vote
needed to enter the Knesset in 1999, but polls predict it might get two
seats in this year's upcoming elections. Said Shmuel Sandler, political
science professor at Tel Aviv University: "People are very disappointed by
the peace process, and it's sort of an escape. They are frustrated with the
Left, but they're not going to vote for the Right, so this is a nice way of
getting out of this dilemma." Biking through Jerusalem, Green Leaf
activists hand out stickers to cheering motorists. Party chairman Boaz
Wachtel is no typical hippie. He was the assistant military attache at the
embassy in Washington in the 1980s and served on a team of representatives
to President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" program. (Jerusalem Post, Jan. 2)
[top]
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. BOMBS FALL ON NEW YEARS DAY
Iraq's official INA news agency reported Jan. 1 that US and British
aircraft "attacked our civilian and services installations in Basra
governorate today, martyring a citizen and wounding two others." The report
said 14 sorties were flown over southern Iraq that day from bases in
Kuwait. (BBC Monitoring, Jan. 3)
[top]
2. GREEN BERETS ON THE GROUND IN IRAQ
About 100 US Special Forces troops and over 50 CIA officers have been
operating in small groups within Iraq for at least four months, seeking out
Scud missile launchers, monitoring oil fields, identifying minefields, and
using lasers to help US pilots bomb Iraqi air-defense systems, according to
intelligence officials and military analysts who have spoken with members
of the teams. The operations, which have also included British, Australian
and Jordanian commandos, are considered by many analysts to be part of the
opening phase of a war against Iraq, even though the Bush administration
has agreed to a schedule of UN weapons inspections. ''We're bombing
practically every day as we patrol the no-fly zones, taking out air defense
batteries, and there are all kinds of CIA and Special Forces operations
going on. So I would call it the beginning of a war,'' said Timur J. Eads,
a 20-year veteran US special operations officer who took part in missions
inside Iraq in the 1990s. (Boston Globe, Jan. 5)
[top]
3. WEAPONS INSPECTORS: TRAIL IS COLD
UN weapons inspectors in Iraq admit that the trail is cold five weeks into
their mission to uncover evidence that Saddam Hussein regime's is preparing
weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The inspection teams have found two
technical violations of UN resolutions on Iraq, but both concerned
procurement of conventional missile parts, not WMD. One team of 100 is
searching for evidence of chemical and biological programs; another of ten
is searching for nuclear materials. Admitted one inspector on condition of
anonymity: "If our goal is to catch them with their pants down, we are
definitely losing. We haven't found one iota of concealed material yet."
(LAT, Jan. 2)
[top]
4. SADDAM: INSPECTORS ARE SPIES
In a televised speech to mark Army Day, Saddam Hussien charged that the UN
weapons inspectors are once again engaged in espionage: "Instead of
searching for so-called weapons of mass destruction to reveal the lies of
liars...the inspection teams compile lists of Iraqi scientists, ask workers
questions that are not what they seem and gather information about army
camps and legitimate military production... These things...are pure
intelligence work." He described threats by President Bush to disarm Iraq
by force as the "hiss of snakes and bark of dogs," and voiced defiance to
Washington's military threats: "There is no doubt that the righteous will
be victorious in their homeland while their enemy face certain defeat."
(BBC, Jan. 6)
[top]
5. CIVIL DEFENSE EXERCISES IN KUWAIT
Sirens blared, smoke swept across the palm trees and emergency vehicles
descended on a luxury beachside hotel in Kuwait days before New Years Eve
in what turned out to be a civil defense exercise testing government
responses to a potential Iraqi missile or chemical warfare attack. But
instead of being taken to the decontamination tent erected outside the
hotel, the "survivors" were escorted to a dining room for a dessert of
walnut-ginger cookies and coffee. (NYT, Jan. 4)
[top]
6. PENTAGON TRAINS IRAQI EXILES
The US military is training a 5000-strong force of Iraqi opposition
fighters at Taszar airbase in Hungary. The recruits, Iraqi dissidents and
other Arab nationals, are receiving arms and guerrilla warfare training,
and being trained to serve as scouts and interpreters for US troops. The
Iraqi government calls the recruits "mercenaries," and says the training
program violates international guarantees on the sovereignty of nations.
(Glasgow Sunday Herald, Jan. 5)
[top]
7. BAATH MILITIA PREPARES RESISTANCE
In central Iraq, where Saddam Hussein has the most support, a citizen
militia organized by Saddam's ruling Baath Party is mobilizing to defend
Baghdad in the event of a US invasion. The official daily al-Iraq said the
militia carried out an exercise Jan. 4 in Babil province, just south of the
capital. Militiamen practiced fighting in urban and rural areas, the paper
said. Baath party official Fadhil Mahmoud al-Mishiykhi praised the
fighters' efficiency and morale in preparing to resist a campaign against
Iraq launched by the US and "its Zionist ally"--meaning Israel. Late last
month, Iraq's official press reported a similar exercise in Babil province.
(AP, Jan. 5)
[top]
8. SADDAM'S TROOPS DEFECTING TO KURDISH REBELS?
The press in northern Iraq's Kurdish-controlled autonomous zone reports a
wave of defections among Saddam's troops. The independent Iraqi Kurdish
newspaper Hawlati reported Dec. 30 that "As the time for a strike on Iraq
gets closer, desertion is gradually on the increase among the ranks of the
Iraqi army." On two separate occasions the previous week, an Iraqi army
officer and four soldiers surrendered to the forces of the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan (PUK) in the region of Chamchamal. (BBC Monitoring, Dec. 30)
[top]
9. PUK VS. PIK IN IRAQI KURDISTAN
The Iraqi Kurdish newspaper Hawlati reported Dec. 30 that skirmishes
continue between militia forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
and guerilla forces of the Partisans of Islam of Kurdistan (PIK), Kurdish
wing of Ansar al-Islam, an Iraqi fundamentalist group allegedly linked to
al-Qaeda. Both sides are exchanging artillery fire as PUK battles to
re-take the PIK-held Churl-Biyarah Road. Residents of several villages have
been displaced by the fighting. (BBC Monitoring, Dec. 30)
See also WW3 REPORT #63
[top]
10. TURKEY THREATENS INTERVENTION IN IRAQI KURDISTAN--AGAIN
Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis announced that Turkey may send troops
into northern Iraq to protect ethnic Turkmen. He said in a TV interview
that if order collapses in Iraq after a US military attack, Turkey is
prepared act to protect what he called "our Turkmen brothers." Yakis also
said he opposes allowing US troops to use Turkish bases for an attack on
Iraq, but does support the US military build-up in the Persian Gulf to
pressure Iraq. (RFE/RL, Jan 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #48
[top]
11. YAZIDI SECT RITUALS RECALL TURKISH MASSACRES
Northern Iraq is an intricate patchwork of ancient ethnic and religious
groups little known to the outside world--Kurds, Turkmen, Mandeans,
Assyrians, Chaldeans. On Jan. 3, the New York Times reported on another
obscure element in this mix--the Kurdish Yazidi sect, whose center of
Bashiqa lies between the city of Mosul and the borders of the Kurdish
autonomous zone. Incorporating elements of Islam, Christianity and
Zoroastrianism, the Yazidis venerate Sheik Adi bin Musafir, a 12th-century
Lebanese-born Arab mystic whose tomb at Lalish in northern Iraq is their
point of pilgrimage. The sect is led by an hereditary prince and has no
written text, but keeps its historical memories alive through elaborate
rituals interwoven into daily life. These rituals especially recall
centuries of bloody campaigns to exterminate the sect by the Ottoman
Turkish authorities that ruled Iraq from the 16th century until after World
War I. The Yazidis eat no lettuce in remembrance of massacres carried out
by Turkish troops in the lettuce fields that covered much of northern Iraq
in the 19th century, and the wearing of blue is taboo during religious
festivals in remembrance of the uniforms of Ottoman military units.
See also WW3 REPORT #45
[top]
12. PRESSURE BUILDS ON SADDAM TO STEP DOWN
About a dozen Arab writers and lawyers have published an appeal to the Arab
world to put pressure on Saddam Hussein to step down in order to avert a
war. ''We call upon public opinion in the Arab world to exercise pressure
for the dismissal from power of Saddam Hussein and his close aides in order
to stop a war that threatens catastrophe for the people of the region,''
reads the appeal. ''The immediate resignation of Saddam, whose rule over
three decades has been a nightmare for Iraq and the Arab world, is the only
way around further violence.'' Signatories inclue Lebanese lawyer Chibli
Mallat, Egyptian writer Yussri Nasrallah, and Elias al-Khoury, an editor of
Beirut's influential an-Naha daily. But Abdulwahab Badrakhan, deputy editor
of the leading pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, said Hussein would not relinquish
power. ''Saddam will keep gambling,'' Badrakhan said. ''He might respond to
pressure at the last moment by letting one of his sons take his place, in
the hope that the Americans would accept. But this would not change the
nature of the regime." (Reuters, Jan. 3)
Hisham Yusuf, spokesman for the Arab League, denied reports that Arab
League Secretary General Amr Musa and Arab foreign ministers are mediating
to convince Saddam to step down. Yusuf added that changing the Iraqi regime
must be decided by the Iraqi people themselves. (MENA news agency, Cairo,
via BBC Monitoring, Dec. 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
13. ANTI-WAR PROTESTS IN BAHRAIN...
Following noon prayers on Jan. 3, a massive demonstration was staged in
Bahrain to protest pending US military strikes against Iraq. Protesters
raised the Bahraini, Iraqi and Palestinian flags and urged Arab leaders and
the UN to intervene to halt any possible attack on Iraq. (MENA news agency,
Cairo, Jan. 3, via BBC Monitoring)
The rally came just two days after hundreds of New Year's Eve revelers in
Bahrain smashed cars, attacked tourists, smashed hotel windows and
ransacked a KFC outlet. The government blamed drunken teen-agers, but
investigators suggested "Islamic radicals" instigated the riot to exploit
popular anger over US plans to attack Iraq. Forty-one youths were arrested.
(Daily Star, Beirut, Jan. 4)
[top]
14. ...AND TURKEY
Demonstrations were held Dec. 30 in Istanbul and Ankara to protest pending
military strikes against Iraq. The Istanbul protest was led by a No to War
Coordination, and supported by Greenpeace, whose ship Esperanza was in
port. The Ankara protest was led by a women's association, whose leader
Senal Sarihan said "this war should be definitely prevented." (Anatolia
news agency, Dec. 30, via BBC Monitoring)
[top]
15. ...AND PAKISTAN
In Pakistan, thousands protested against pending military attacks on Iraq
in six cities Jan. 3, at rallies organized by a coalition of hard-line
religious parties. Protests in Peshawar, Karachi, Quetta, Lahore and Multan
drew crowds of several thousand each, according to Pakistani news reports.
A smaller march in Islamabad, the capital, also drew a few hundred people.
(Daily Star, Beirut, Jan. 4)
[top]
16. IRAN RADIO: U.S. MUST PAY FOR SADDAM'S GAS ATTACKS
Following recent revelations in the Washington Post that the US provided
the Saddam Hussein regime with "dual use" chemical weapons technology at a
time when Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iranian troops, a
commentator on Iran's state radio network called for Washington to pay
restitution to Iran: "America stands alongside the Ba'thist Iraqi
government as an accomplice to these war crimes and must pay blood money
for the hundreds of thousands of combatants who were martyred by American
chemical weapons and compensate the millions of family members of these
victims for their psychological and moral suffering." (Voice of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Jan. 1, via BBC Monitoring)
See also WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
17. IRAQI EXILE: INVESTIGATE THE DISAPPEARED
An Iraqi Kurd human rights activist now based in Scotland challenged UN
teams searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction to investigate the
fate of Kurdish and other detainees he says were used as human guinea pigs
in chemical and biological weapons experiments. Dr Kamal Ketuly, head of
the Committee for the Release of Hostages and Detainees in Iraq, has spent
20 years drawing attention to the fate of civilians arbitrarily arrested in
Iraq, including his own brother. Said Ketuly: "We would ask [chief weapons
inspector] Mr. Hans Blix to arrange a special team to search for those
hostages on which tests were conducted." (Glasgow Sunday Herald, Jan. 4)
See also WW3 REPORT #64
[top]
18. WHAT WAS THE REAL TOLL OF DESERT STORM?
As a new air campaign against Iraq looms, California's Dissident Voice News
Service compiled a number of sources to try to arrive at an accurate death
count from 1991's Operation Desert Storm.
* In the aftermath of the US slaughter in Iraq of 1991, then UN
Under-Secretary General Martii Ahtisaari led a fact-finding team to Iraq
and reported: "[N]othing we had seen or read had quite prepared us for the
particular form of devastation that has now befallen the country. The
recent conflict has wrought near-apocalyptic results upon the economic
infrastructure of what had been...a rather highly urbanized and mechanized
society... Iraq has, for some time to come, been relegated to a
pre-industrial age... " As could be expected following Secretary of State
James Baker's promise to Iraq that, "We will return you to the
pre-industrial age" (January 9, 1991), or General Schwarzkopf's warning
that "The United States might obliterate Iraq." (November 1, 1990).
* The UK Guardian reported a quote from an anonymous military intelligence
official giving an estimate of 100,000 killed, 300,000 wounded. (September
19, 1991). Paul Flynn, then a British Member of Parliament, estimated
100,000 to 200,000 Iraqis killed, 300,000 to 700,000 wounded (Guardian,
June 21, 1991), while a French military specialist estimated 150,000 killed
(Guardian, March 1, 1991).(Dissident Voice, Santa Rosa, CA, Jan 5)
* And on Jan. 5, 2003, the Philadelphia Inquirer recalled the story of Beth
Osborne Daponte, senior researcher at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon
University, who as a Census Bureau demographer determined in 1991 that
158,000 Iraqi men, women and children died during and shortly after Desert
Storm--and more civilians than soldiers. In return, she was reprimanded by
the government, and saw her report re-written and her career sidetracked.
Daponte was assigned to estimate Iraq's population as part of a
country-by-country world overview. She found that 86,194 men, 39,612 women,
and 32,195 children died in one year as a direct or indirect result of
Desert Storm and the ensuing Kurdish and Shi'ite revolts. Only 40,000 were
Iraqi soldiers killed in combat. The rest were civilians, including 13,000
directly killed by bullets or bombs. About 70,000 civilians died after the
war due to the destruction of water and power plants. A Greenpeace activist
made Daponte's tally public, just after the White House and Pentagon had
said no Iraqi casualty estimate was possible. Within days, the Census
Bureau notified Daponte that she was going to be fired, saying she had
falsified data and skirted peer review. Her report was rewritten to suggest
fewer civilian deaths, although it eventually survived as one of the few
expert casualty estimates. Daponte challenged her dismissal and eventually
refuted the charges. But she found herself without any assignments and
forbidden to speak or write about Iraq. This time around, Daponte says she
has no intention of trying to estimate Iraqi deaths. "On some level, is it
going to matter if it's 10,000 dead versus 80,000 dead?" Daponte said.
(Dissident Voice, Santa Rosa, CA, Jan 5)
[top]
19. BUSH: WAR IS PEACE
In his first public statement since Christmas, President George Bush's told
reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Texas: "This government will continue
to lead the world toward more peace. And we hope to resolve all the
situations in which we find ourselves in a peaceful way. That's my
commitment." (UK Guardian, Jan. 2)
[top]
ELSEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
1. THREE U.S. MISSIONARIES KILLED IN YEMEN
A suspected Islamist militant killed three US missionaries and wounded a
fourth at a Baptist charity hospital in Yemen Dec. 30. The assailant, Abed
Abdul-Razzaq al-Kamil, surrendered to hospital authorities after his gun
apparently jammed after the shooting. He reportedly leveled his gun at a
Filipino nurse after shooting the US nationals, but the gun did not fire.
Investigators are trying to determine if the attack is connected to the
al-Qaeda network. The killings are the latest in a string of anti-western
attacks in Yemen, where a CIA "Predator" drone assassinated six al-Qaeda
operative with a missile from an unmanned predator drone on Nov. 3. The
attack follows the Dec. 28 assassination of the Yemeni Socialist Party's
deputy leader, who is pro-secular. Arrested for questioning in the wake of
the attack was Ali al-Jarallah, suspected member of the militant group
al-Jarallah. (Washington Post, Dec. 31) (David Bloom)
See also WW3 REPORT #59
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. HALF MILLION REFUGEES FACE GRIM WINTER
The New York Times reported Jan. 1 that half a million returning Afghan
refugees have "fallen through the aid net over the last year" and face the
freezing winter in inadequate shelter in urban shanty-towns and makeshift
rural camps. For all the much-touted reconstruction efforts, not one
hospital has been rebuilt in Kabul, the devastated capital where over
78,000 buildings have been destroyed in years of war.
See also WW3 REPORT # 66
[top]
2. U.S. BOMBS PAKISTAN?
Following a skirmish between US and Pakistani troops near the Afghan
border, Washington and Islamabad agreed to step up coordination to avoid a
replay of the ugly incident. On Dec. 29, a US soldier was shot and wounded
by a Pakistani guard along the border. A US warplane responded by bombing a
building the attacker ran into for cover, and the guard was taken into
custody. US officials said the incident took place within Afghanistan, but
Pakistani officials said they are still investigating witness reports that
at least one of the bombs landed inside Pakistan. The Pakistani government
also denied that the US military has been given permission to chase
Taliban/al-Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan into Pakistan. "Absolutely not.
The Americans cannot cross the Pakistani border from Afghanistan to chase
what they say are vestiges of Taliban and al-Qaeda," Information Minister
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said. (AP, Jan. 5)
[top]
3. RUSSIAN TROOPS IN AFGHAN BORDER OPERATIONS
Russian troops destroyed over 840 kg of drugs seized by border guards in
the Shuroobod zone of the Tajik-Afghan border. Lt-Gen Aleksandr Markin,
commander of the Russian Border Group, which assists the Tajik authorities,
said "the result was achieved in the course of a nine-day operation, which
had begun after obtaining operational information about the prepared
transfer simultaneously of several batches of narcotics from Afghanistan to
Tajikistan." Up to 300 soldiers and several armored vehicles were involved
in the operation, with helicopters sent in to inaccessible gorges. The
operation was carried out in heavy snowfall. Authorities said the
traffickers were heavily armed. Seizures included over 250 kg of opium, 212
kg of marijuana and 380 kg of heroin, said the be the "largest haul" ever
in Tajikistan. (ITAR-TASS, via BBC Monitoring, Dec. 6)
See also WW3 REPORT # 58
[top]
4. DRUG SEIZURES UP IN RUSSIA
Russian police seized over 77 tons of drugs in 2002, up 30% from the
previous year. Oleg Kharichkin of the Interior Ministry anti-narcotics
department said the seized drugs included 55 tons of marijuana, 13 tons of
opium and 600 kg heroin. He also announced an arrest total of 102,000 [a
figure that falls far short of recent annual US drug arrests.-BW].
(ITAR-TASS, via BBC Monitoring, Dec. 6)
[top]
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. NINE U.S. TROOPS WOUNDED IN MINDANAO GUN BATTLE
At least nine US soldiers were wounded in a gun battle with suspected
Islamic guerrillas on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, Mindanao, Jan
4. The troops were sent to a village outside Maimbung town on Jolo to check
on the reported presence of Abu Sayyaf rebels when they encountered some 50
guerrillas. The gun battle lasted over an hour before the rebels escaped in
small groups. Military sources claimed the guerrillas suffered a number of
casualties. The wounded were flown to a hospital in Jolo town. Abu Sayyaf
is currently holding four female Jehovah's Witnesses and three Indonesian
sailors kidnapped last year. It has also been blamed for a series of
bombings in Zamboanga late last year that killed 12, including a US Green
Beret. Philippine authorities credit a six-month joint US-Philippine
operation last year with weakening Abu Sayyaf and hunting down its key
leaders. Officials claim the group is linked to al-Qaeda. (AP, Jan. 4)
See also WW3 REPORT # 56
[top]
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. NORTH KOREA: U.S. "STEPPING UP PREPARATIONS FOR WAR"
On Dec. 31, North Korea accused the US of planning an invasion and vowed to
annihilate any invader. The declaration came just hours after North Korea
expelled UN monitors who had been assigned to watch the country's nuclear
program. "The US is stepping up preparations for a war against [North
Korea], persistently turning aside the latter's constructive proposal for
concluding a non-aggression treaty," said the official newspaper, Rodong
Sinmun. "If the enemy invades even an inch of the inviolable territory of
[North Korea], the people's army and people of [North Korea] will wipe out
the aggressors to the last man."
And in a signal of a significant crack in the 50-year-old US-South Korean
alliance, a top aide to South Korea's president-elect Roh Moo-hyun echoed
demands from North Korea that the US should sign a formal non-aggression
treaty. "We are working on a mediation proposal that asks for a concession
from both US President George Bush and the North Korean leader," he said.
(AP, Jan 1)
Despite months of pledges not to use food as a weapon against North Korea,
the Bush administration is currently withholding approval of grain
shipments sought by humanitarian groups to avert starvation on the Korean
peninsula. The UN World Food Program, an arm of the United Nations, says
that food aid suspensions by the US and Japan, and severe cutbacks by South
Korea, mean that for the first time in many years, it will miss its
food-distribution targets in North Korea this winter "by a wide margin."
(NYT, Jan. 6)
Days into the new year, North Korean generals ordered their forces to a
heightened alert, with state media saying the crisis has entered a "very
serious and unpredictable" stage. The announcement came as South Korean
diplomats prepared to present a compromise plan to the White House, under
which the US would resume aid in exchange for closing of the re-activated
reactor at Yongbyon. (UK Guardian, Jan. 6)
See also WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
2. AL-AZHAR ISSUES NUCLEAR FATWA?
The web site AllahuAkbar.com reported Jan. 4 that religious scholars at the
prestigious al-Azhar University in Egypt have issued a fatwa stating that
it is a religious obligation for Islamic nations to possess nuclear
weapons. "Allah Almighty urges the Muslim Ummah to have the necessary means
of power and logistics that are capable of securing its interests, and
preserving its sanctity against any violation," reads the fatwa. "With
these necessary measures in effect, the whole Ummah [Islamic community]
will stand erect and will undoubtedly put fear in the hearts of its
enemies, who leave no stone unturned in encroaching on the whole Ummah and
backing all Muslims into a corner." The fatwa recalls that the Koran "urges
the Ummah to be fully aware of its enemies in order to enable Muslims to
prepare and to have at least equal means of deterrence, if not greater
means." Sheikh Alaa el-Shanawihi, member of al-Azhar House of Fatwa,
asserted that "when Islam orders Muslims to equip themselves with modern
means of deterrence, its aim is not to tell Muslims to make mischief on the
earth" but to "dismay the enemy of Allah."
Cairo's al-Azhar University is the most respected doctrinal authority in
Sunni Islam. At press time, it had still not responded to a query from WW3
REPORT seeking confirmation of the fatwa's authenticity.
[top]
3. ISRAEL PLANS NEW NUKE PLANT
Israeli ecology groups are vowing to fight Infrastructure Minister Effi
Eitam's newly revealed plan to build a nuclear power plant in the Negev
Desert. The group Life and Environment said "Eitam is turning his brief
term in the ministry into a production line for national disasters."
According to Eitam's plan, a nuclear reactor would be operational at the
Shifta site by 2020. Life and Environment attorney Or Karson said "the
decision to build the plant would endanger our lives here," and he called
the ministry's claims that it would provide the cheapest, cleanest form of
energy "a terrible deception." (Ha'artez, Nov. 28)
[top]
4. MISSING EQUIPMENT AT LOS ALAMOS
Amid investigations of corruption and missing equipment, John C. Browne,
director of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the nation's
pre-eminent nuclear weapons lab, submitted his resignation on Dec. 23.
Joseph Salgado, the lab's principal deputy director, also resigned. "These
changes reflect the university's deep concern about the allegations that
have been made about Los Alamos business practices and our absolute and
steadfast commitment to addressing them in a timely manner," said Richard
C. Atkinson, president of the University of California, which manages the
lab for the Energy Department. In a sharply-worded Dec. 24 letter to
Atkinson, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said he was "deeply concerned"
about the situation at Los Alamos. Noting that in November the laboratory
fired two investigators probing the accusations, Abraham wrote that the
reported abuses "reflect a systematic management failure, one for which
laboratory management must be held accountable." George P. Nanos, a retired
Navy admiral and deputy associate director at Los Alamos, was appointed
interim director. In March, Glenn Walp, former chief of the Arizona Capitol
police hired by the lab, wrote a memo to Los Alamos administrators
outlining over $3 million worth of equipment than had been reported lost
between 1998 and 2001. An investigation also found credit card abuses,
including an attempt by one employee to buy a $30,000 Ford Mustang. Another
investigator, Steven Doran, former police chief of Idaho City, said lab
employees (primarily support staff rather than scientists) had bought
expensive lawn furniture, barbecue grills, gift certificates for massages,
jewelry and even $9,000 worth of military knives. "We found just an
extensive abuse and misuse of taxpayer dollars, in the millions," he said.
"It's part of the culture. Even now, they truly cannot see the error of
their ways." Doran said that when he was fired he was told only that he
"did not fit in with lab culture." A lab spokesperson denied his
accusations. (NYT, Jan 3)
[top]
5. DANGEROUS CORROSION AT OHIO NUKE
A Dec. 30 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report, leaked to the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, reveals that an order drafted by NRC staff a year
earlier to close Ohio's Davis-Bisse reactor for inspection was never
issued. Three months after the order was drafted, the reactor was halted
for refueling, and workers discovered that its lid had rusted nearly all
the way through--the most extensive corrosion ever found at a US nuclear
power plant. The report faulted an NRC policy adopted in the mid-1990s to
take costs into account when setting regulatory requirements. It was under
this policy that the decision was made not to issue the order. Shutdown
orders were far more common in the 1970s and '80s before the "risk-informed
regulation" policy was imposed. (NYT, Jan. 4)
[top]
THE WAR AT HOME
1. IS THERE A DRAFT IN YOUR FUTURE?
Two prominent members of the Congressional Black Caucus spoke out in
support of a nationwide military draft, saying the children of the rich
should serve alongside economic conscripts in the War on Terrorism. Reps.
Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) and John Conyers Jr. (D-MI.), both military
veterans, said they would ask the House to consider legislation to
re-institute the draft at the start of the 108th Congress. The draft last
ended in 1973. "If indeed the president believes war is necessary in terms
of our national welfare, then he has to believe that sacrifices need to be
made, and those sacrifices need to be shared," Rangel said. "We have to
kick up a notch the sense of patriotism and the sense of obligation."
Conyers said in a statement that "once the conscription process for service
in the military becomes universal and mandatory for all those who meet the
criteria...it removes the long-held stigma that people of color and persons
from low-income backgrounds are disproportionately killed and injured while
serving as ground troops on the front line."
Pentagon officials maintain that between active duty soldiers, National
Guard and reserves, they have more than enough troops to fight a war
against Iraq. University of Maryland political science professor Ron
Walters said the call for a draft by two senior black Congressmen "was a
way of bringing home...a sensitivity to the stakes that are involved in
war... I look at it as a political move to call attention to whose ox is
gored in a war." In the Vietnam War, black soldiers represented more than
12% of the dead, according to a study by Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley
Butler, authors of "All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial
Integration the Army Way." Blacks only reached 12% of the US population in
the 1990 Census. Pentagon statistics say minorities represent about 37% of
the military's 1.3 million troops.
Retired Army colonel Larry Wortzel, defense analyst at the right-wing
Heritage Foundation, said military combat roles for African Americans have
decreased dramatically since the Vietnam War. "If you take a look at the
distribution of minorities by military specialty, you will find that it's
not blacks who are going to die in combat, it's whites and Hispanics,"
Wortzel said. "That's who's in infantry and armor. Blacks are
underrepresented in infantry and armor. They're clustered in support
services...where you're not in direct combat." But Wortzel said he supported
a draft--apparently agreeing with Rangel and Conyers for different reasons.
(Washington Post, Jan. 3)
[top]
2. NYPD CHASES TERRORISTS
David Cohen, a 35-year CIA veteran who is now the New York Police
Department's deputy commissioner for intelligence, says in court papers
that a $100 million Fifth Avenue charitable organization is a front for the
government of Iran, and "funds a variety of anti-American causes."
Cohen--the CIA's deputy director for operations from 1995 to 1997 and the
deputy director for intelligence from 1991 to 1995--made his declaration in
a federal court case to determine how much power the NYPD should have to
investigate individuals or groups without specific information about
criminal activity.
NYPD snooping is limited by a 1985 consent decree that Cohen argues
"dangerously limits the ability of the NYPD to protect the people it is
sworn to serve." The rules set by that decree are known as the Handschu
Guidelines, after Barbara Handschu, a plaintiff in a 1971 case against
NYPD. Wrote Cohen: "As was made apparent by the success of the attacks on
September 11th, terrorists engage in a prolonged period of often lawful
activity in preparation for their criminal acts. They escape detection by
blending into American society. They may own homes, live in communities
with families, belong to religious or social organizations and attend
educational institutions. They typically display enormous patience, often
waiting years until the components of their plans are perfectly aligned... It
is apparent to me that the Handschu guidelines place daunting obstacles in
our way. The continued applicability of the Guidelines places this city,
our nation and its people at heightened and unjustifiable risk." In another
brief, Cohen said that without changes to the guidelines, "the
counter-terrorism efforts of the NYPD will be severely compromised."
In a Sept. 12 document, signed under penalty of perjury, Cohen wrote: "The
Alavi Foundation is a non-profit charitable organization ostensibly run by
an independent board of directors but totally controlled by the government
of Iran. The foundation has assets of about $100,000,000 in the U.S. and an
annual income of between $10-15 million. The foundation funds a variety of
anti-American causes, including the four Islamic education centers it owns
in New York, Maryland, Texas and California The Maryland center is headed
by Mohammad Al Asi, an American convert to Islam who, during the Kuwait
crisis, called on Muslims to strike against American interests in the
Middle East. Mosques funded by Alavi have organizations which support
Hezbollah and Hamas."
Alavi Foundation attorney John Winter said he was "angry" over the
accusations. "That guy's affidavit is bogus," he said of Cohen's
declaration. "I don't know where that guy is coming from, but it's wrong."
In at least two federal court cases, US citizens suing Iran failed in their
efforts to show that the foundation was an "agency or instrumentality of a
foreign state." In both a 2000 case by a man whose daughter was killed by
purportedly Iran-backed terrorists and a 1998 case by a businessman whose
carpet factory was seized by the Iranian government, litigants failed to
win a judgement against the Alavi Foundation. (New York Sun, Dec. 5)
Cohen was appointed to the newly-created NYPD counter-terrorism post last
January by Mayor Mike Bloomberg. (Mayor's press release, Jan. 24, 2002)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 53 and 59
[top]
3. INDIAN MAN HELD AFTER 9-11 CHARGES ABUSE
Syed Gul Mohammed Shah, 36, one of two Muslim men from Hyderabad, India,
detained on Sept. 12, 2001 for carrying box-cutters, lots of cash and
having been on a flight that was grounded after the 9-11 attacks, is now
charging US authorities with intentional sleep-deprivation, unhealthy food
and solitary confinement during his 15 months of confinement at Brooklyn's
Metropolitan Detention Center. "Every ten minutes a guard would come and
bang on the steel door of my cell with his baton to ensure that I did not
sleep," he told reporters. "The light bulb was on 24 hours." Eventually
deported upon conviction on credit card fraud, his stateside lawyer has
filed suit in federal court charging psychological torture. "Nothing could
be more painful and punishing than having to spend such a long time without
any company or anything to do," Shah said. "The only thing which enabled me
to come out with my senses intact was my faith in Allah." (AP, Jan. 3)
[top]
4. INS TO COLLECT DATA ON ALL INTERNATIONAL TRAVELERS
US citizens traveling abroad would have to give the government detailed
personal information before leaving or reentering the country under a new
rule proposed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Airlines
and shipping companies would also have to give the government the name,
date of birth, gender, passport number, country of residence and address of
every passenger and crew member. "It's another way to enhance security for
travelers," INS spokeswoman Kimberly Weismann said. The rule would apply to
passengers and crew members aboard commercial airlines, cargo flights,
cruise ships and other vessels carrying crew or passengers, with the
exception of most ferry boats, buses or trains. The changes are part of a
border security bill passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law
by President Bush in May. (AP, Jan. 4)
[top]
5. INS HOLDS NICARAGUAN JOURNALIST--DESPITE GREEN CARD!
On Dec. 3, Roger Calero, associate editor of
Perspectiva Mundial, a
left-wing New York Spanish-language news magazine, was returning home to
the US from a one-week reporting assignment in Havana, Cuba, and
Guadalajara, Mexico. At Houston International Airport, Calero was seized by
the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and taken to a local
immigration jail run by the private Corrections Corporation of America.
Calero has lived in the US for 17 years, and held permanent residence since
1990. In addition to being an editor of Perspectiva Mundial, Calero works
as a staff writer for the Militant, weekly newspaper of the Socialist
Workers Party (SWP). The Newark SWP said in a statement: "This attempt by
the INS to exclude Calero from the United States and deport him to
Nicaragua is an attack on his rights as a permanent resident, on his right
to exercise his work as a journalist, and on the rights of all." Calero's
assignment for Perspectiva Mundial brought him to an international
conference in Havana on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, attended by
trade unionists and activists from throughout the hemisphere. He then spent
several days covering an international student conference in Guadalajara.
The INS is seeking to "exclude" Calero--denying him re-entry into the
US--and deport him to Nicaragua based on a minor marijuana sale conviction
from 1988, when he was a high school student in Los Angeles. Calero copped
a plea and received a suspended 60-day sentence with three years probation.
When Calero applied for permanent residency in 1989 he specifically
included full disclosure of his conviction. The INS granted him a green
card, giving him the right to live and work in the US, based on that
application, and renewed the card in 2000. Calero is today married to a US
citizen, and lives in Newark, NJ.
Calero's supporters are asking for polite but firm letters of protest to be
sent to:
Hipolito Acosta, District Director, Immigration and Naturalization Service,
126 Northpoint Drive, Houston, TX, 77060. Please send copies to Perspectiva
Mundial, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014.
Please make tax-deductible contributions payable to the Political Rights
Defense Fund, POB 761, Church St. Station, New York, NY 10007.
[top]
6. SURPRISED PAKISTANI RECOGNIZES SELF ON FBI TERROR LIST!
Mohammed Asghar, a jeweler in Lahore, Pakistan, protested that his photo is
among those just released by the FBI, purportedly showing five men who
illegally entered the US just before the holidays, possibly to carry out
terror attacks. Asghar admitted that he did travel to the United Arab
Emirates on forged documents last year, and suspects the forgers he
patronized could have saved a copy of his photo to create false documents
for another man. He claims he has never set foot in the United States. The
FBI identified the man in the photo as Mustafa Khan Owasi. (AP, Jan. 2)
[top]
7. SECRET SERVICE QUESTIONS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT!
Secret Service Agents were called in to question a student at Ohio's
Bellbrook High School who was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of President
Bush and the words "not my president." School authorities said the student
had worn the shirt before, and they only called the Secret Service after
cross-hairs appeared on the president's head. The student's name was not
released to the press. (WHIO-TV, Dec. 9)
[top]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. HOMELAND SECURITY LOSES A ROUND
The Office of Homeland Security lost the first round in a legal battle to
keep its activities secret as US District Court Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly ruled it will have to answer questions about its power over
other federal agencies. Kollar-Kotelly ordered the office to prove it has
no authority other than advising President Bush if it wants to dismiss a
lawsuit seeking access to its records. The ruling favors the DC-based
Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is trying to get Homeland
Security records on proposals for a national driver's license and a
"trusted flyer" program that relies on bio-metric information to identify
airline passengers. (AP, Jan. 1)
[top]
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